Sandhinirmochana Sutra: Introduction to Buddhist Yoga
Those who go by names, who go by concepts,Making their abode in names and concepts,
Failing to discern the naming-process,These are subject to the reign of death, He who has
discerned the naming-process does not suppose that one who names exists.No such case exists for him in truth, Whereby one could say: "He's this or that"
Samiddhi Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 1.20)
Buddhist Yoga
Many people new
to Buddhism or just non-academic in their approach to Buddhism often err on the
side of assuming Buddhism to be one way or another. Persons with a strong
Theravada view will approach Dhamma one way while others with a very strong
Mahayanist view will often reject anything not within their view of Buddhism. Yogācara,
called “Buddhist Yogā” by the translator Thomas Cleary, is one of those issues
that Theravadins tend to reject out of hand simply because it is a “Mahayanist”
school of thought. Many Mahayanists reject Yogācara because it is so difficult
to fully understand and has roots in the Suttas and Abhidhamma. The connection
is so close that the school is actually called the Yogācara Abhidhamma, meaning “the higher dhamma” or “special
dhamma.” And dhamma is another word for phenomena. Asanga, one of the schools
co-founders wrote a commentary on the Yogācara School called Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra (Treatise on the Stages of Yogā Practice), is a
comprehensive encyclopedia of Buddhist terms and models, which draws heavily on
the Āgamas - the Sanskrit counterpart of the Pāli Nikāyas, mapped out according
to his Yogācārin view of how one progresses along the stages of the path to
enlightenment. Vasubandhu's pre-Yogācārin magnum opus, the Abhidharmakośa (Treasury of Abhidharma) also provides a comprehensive,
detailed overview of the Buddhist path with meticulous attention to nuances and
differences of opinion on a broad range of exacting topics.
There is the original Pali Abhidhamma and
also the Sarvāstivādan
abhidharma tradition. The Pali legend goes that the Buddha taught the
Abhidhamma when he transported himself to heaven to teach his mother and the
gods that inhabited that world. Nice story but probably not true to the facts.
It appears that the Abhidhamma was actually like a chat board or chat room
where a scholar would make a notation and another would add to it or refine it.
The Sarvāstivādan Abhidharma was written in Sanskrit and very close to the Pali
version. Where it differed was in its insistence that things exist in a very
real way in the past, present and future. In this case it seems to have
developed an almost Platonic ideal of “Thingness” that was eternal. For
example, a dog is a dog because there is “dogdom” where the perfect dog exists
and all dogs participate in this archetype. This is something the Pali version
would have to deny.
The Yogācarin Abhidharma, also in Sanskrit was written not so
much as a response to the Pali version, they are almost identical in concept,
but as an explanation of how the Sandhinirmochana
Sutra teachings worked. The Sandhinirmochana Sutra was written about 100
years before the founding of the Yogācarin School. It was written in the style
of the Mahāyāna writers. Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakośa was
actually written in the style of Pali sastra. Both Vasubandhu and his half brother Asanga, the co-founders of the Yogācara
School, began their monastic careers in the Thera School, what we call
Theravada today. At this time there was very little difference between Mahāyāna
and Theravada except in approach to the Buddha’s teaching. So close were these
two schools that it was common to find monks of both schools together in the
same monastery without boundaries between them.
Sandhinirmochana Sutra, also called The ‘Elucidation of the Intention’ or “Scripture Unlocking
the Mysteries” depending on the translator, is an important Mahāyāna sūtra in ten chapters which contains the earliest presentation of the
essentials of Yogācāra Buddhism. Dating from around
the late 2nd century, it is a highly philosophical work that may be viewed as a
corrective to certain misguided interpretations of the earlier Prajnā-pāramitā Sūtra corpus. The sūtra is evidently
a composite of three separate sections placed together during the course of the
2nd century CE, and reaching its final form early in the 3rd century. The work
introduces the key concepts of the ‘storehouse consciousness’ (ālaya-vijñāna),
the ‘three natures’ (tri-svabhāva) and the ‘Three Turnings of the Wheel’ (the last notion originating in the
Buddha’s first sermon). Although no Sanskrit version survives, there are five Chinese translations and one in the
Tibetan language. Like
many early Mahāyāna sūtras,
precise dating for the Sandhinirmochana
Sūtra is difficult. Some scholars maintain that the text was
assimilated from earlier, independent fragments. Other
scholars believe that the apparently fragmentary nature of the early versions
of the scripture may represent attempts at translation done over time, rather
than a composite origin for the text itself. The
earliest forms of the text may date from as early as the 1st or 2nd Century CE. The
final form of the text was probably assembled no earlier than the 3rd Century
CE, and by the 4th Century significant commentaries on the text began to be
composed by Buddhist scholars, most notably Asaṅga
The Mahāyāna Buddhist “scripture” offers a nearly complete source book
of classical Buddhist Yogā. It is probably the major text of the trend of
Buddhist thought technically called Vijnanavada,
“The Doctrine of Consciousness” and called Yogācāra today. The sutra presents a
very detailed course in both the philosophical and the practical approach to
Buddhist Yogā. Designed to be read and reread often it is an essential
preparation for anyone wishing to engage in the practice of meditation within
the context of Yogācāra. It is the classical way to approach Mahāyāna forms of
meditation and many, if not all, of the shortcomings and strange anomalies of
contemporary Western Mahāyāna meditation practices can be seen as the direct
effect of discarding this essential tradition.
Interesting is the use of the word “yogā”. For the Westerner the word yogā
has a narrow meaning very much limited to the Hindu practice of elaborate
psychophysical body movements and exercise routines. The word yogā has a whole
population of meanings to the Asian. In India and Asia the word can refer to
ideas of “union”, “method”, “effort”, and “meditation”. In the West the subtle
methods of spiritual development that characterizes Buddhist Yogā are virtually
unknown.
Firmly established the Pali Canon and Abhidhamma the
Sandhinirmochana-sutra is divided into eight sections including the
introduction to the scripture. As with all Buddhist texts written to be used
universally introduction plays an important part giving the preliminaries and outline
of the text itself. It is partly literal and partly symbolic in its
presentation.
The second section is entitled “Characteristics of Ultimate Truth,” paramattha sacca and deals with the
non-duality of all things. This is also an essential teaching of shunyata
(suññata in Pali) or emptiness, found
in on form or another in all Buddhist sects. Very much in keeping with
Nagarjuna’s “Middle Way” teaching and the Abhidhamma, this section details how phenomena
are neither “created” nor “uncreated” (destroyed) – neither sacred nor profane.
The real nature of things is beyond language and therefore, Nagarjuna would
say, beyond conception. Ultimately, the nature of reality goes beyond objects
and forms, representation and philosophy. It is crucial to understand that shunyata
is not a philosophical construct. It is reality itself. Emptiness is the
ultimate truth.
Because of the nature of the Buddha’s teaching there is a direct
relationship between practice and paramattha
sacca. They are neither the same nor completely different. The knowledge of
this insight initiated by Gautoma Buddha in his reform of the practices of
ancient yogā distinguishes Buddhist yogis from all others in Asia. When one
fails to perceive the paramattha sacca that pervades all things one
becomes subject to conceit and error. The truth is that paramattha sacca is everywhere one and has no distinction in itself
even if there appears to be separateness.
The purpose of Buddhist Yogā, Yogācāra, is to understand and actually
experience the underlying reality lying beneath the fragmented façade of
everyday life. The classical Buddhist psychological construct of the eight and
nine minds is found in the third section of the text. These consciousnesses are
used as the basis of point of reference in meditation yogā, much like the
jhanas as a point of reference are used in Theravadin meditation. One can
transcend these consciousnesses because of the knowledge of the ultimate truth.
From this perspective it is easier to see the interdependent origination of all
things, which exist only exist as a universal relativity and not as
individually autonomous phenomenon. The real characteristic of “things” is tathatā, suchness. The only way to fully understand
tathatā is the through direct experience of phenomena without the
superimposition of conceptual narrative. This
is called, “the direct perception of emptiness.” Awakening is not possible
without this experience.
There are four characteristics of the universe according to the text: dukkha,
what we persistently and wrongly tend to call “suffering”; emptiness, which is
dependent origination; and selflessness, anatta;
and impermanence, anicca, a function
of dependent origination. Practical understanding of the “no-soul” or
selflessness of things is necessary for this practice. We generally project our
concepts about a thing onto the thing itself. The thing has no nature of its
own, no meaning, no autonomy until we give it a nature, a meaning and autonomy.
The things we “experience” have no autonomy, they exist only in relationship to
something else, millions of some things else. No thing has an individual point
of origination. This lack of autonomous self-identity is called anicca and is
the ultimate truth itself.
The text stresses the significance of this realization in the process of
spiritual liberation we call enlightenment. Significantly, it also explains in
great detail the misunderstandings that typically arise when this
“selflessness” is not understood and the misunderstandings about Buddhism that arises
with these misconceptions.
The text finishes with an incredibly detailed explanation of the meditation
practice itself. There is an analysis of the pitfalls and hazards of ignorance
and misguided concentration. The ten transcendent ways, which are practices a
yogi can use to transcend the world while still living in the midst of it. The
ten stages of enlightenment are also covered. These are the alphabet of Buddhism.
There is a connection between the letters found in this alphabet and the
teaching of the Buddha. This section of the text might best be read in
conjunction with the section of the Avatamsaka Sutra’s section called “The Ten
Stages.”
The text is meant to describe a total program for individual
transformation, an evolution of the human spirit. It is curative in the sense
that it can heal us of our innate insanity and ignorance, developmental in that
it spurns on the process of spiritual growth, and effective in its presentation
of the core teaching of Yogācāra and the wisdom of the Buddha.
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