Perception
Coming from a Christian background, my journey as a yoga teacher has been deeply enriched by having a working knowledge of Biblical Scripture. Indeed, it has fascinated me to re-read Scripture having a working knowledge of both The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the Bhagavad Gita.
For example, there is an advanced breathwork technique described in The Yoga Sutras that when mastered allows one to walk on water. Citta vritti, or mind chatter, in The Yoga Sutras keeps us from true knowledge of the divine, the solution for which is a variety of meditative practices. Meanwhile, the Bible repeats like a mantra to meditate on the things of God.
The more correlations I’ve found, the more interested I’ve become in understanding what other sacred texts say about God, humanity, living well, etc. From the tao te ching to the Qur’an to the philosophy of the Stoics to Buddhism to global shamanic teachings, I have found over and over again commonality after commonality stated in different ways but interpreted through cultural lenses that have made the synonymous teachings and sayings seem as if they were vastly different, worlds apart even, when, in fact, they are nearly identical once the lens of cultural interpretation is removed.
For example, Buddha says “what we think we create.” The Bible says “as a man thinks, so he is” (Prov. 23:7) and our lives are shaped by our thoughts (Prov. 4:23). The tao te ching says “the name that can be named is not the eternal Name.” Some modern Jewish traditions forbid calling God by name, instead referring to HaShem (“The Name”). God is referred to as El Shaddai in the Torah and the Bible and al‑‘Azīz in the Qur’an, both meaning The Almighty.
Even more fascinating, current scientific research is finally catching up with and beginning to confirm the basis and benefits for a multitude of practices outlined in sacred texts for living well (“so that it may go well with you”) and in accordance with the divine.
The benefits of a gratitude practice, for example, or giving praise in the Christian tradition, have been shown to release serotonin and dopamine in the brain. These feel-good chemicals are designed to improve our state of happiness and the quality of our lives. Moreover, by focusing on gratitude, the negativity bias of the brain is overridden through the reticular activating system by programming the brain to hone in on even more things for which to be grateful (“what we think we create”), thus multiplying the beneficial effects of practicing gratitude in our lives.
Similarly, the positive effects of breathwork (the basis of life or prana) in balancing the autonomic nervous system are now being demonstrated and quantified. The autonomic nervous system controls heart rate, digestion, cortisol release, among many other functions. Undertaking a regular breathwork practice has been shown to benefit health outcomes through metrics such as increased heart rate variability, better sleep quality, improved endocrine functions, boosted digestion, etc.
What could all the correlations, similarities, commonalities among spiritual disciplines and even science mean? Could we all be seeking the same sense of the divine through different paths? If “being” is the state of samadhi, oneness with the divine, while Yahweh is the great “I Am,” how far apart can we all really be?
When I start talking to people about how much more similar than different we are in our beliefs, I explain it like this: we’re all looking at the same prism and describing it from different angles.
It all comes down to perception, a most basic yogic principle. Perception is one of the five types of citta vritti, mind chatter; one that keeps us from right knowledge. It is a veil of illusion that keeps us stuck in samskaras, patterns of suffering, and separated from the divine and our own true nature, Purusha.
Perhaps it’s time to step around to another side of the prism with the heartfelt intention to find more in common than to reject unfamiliar cultural packaging out of fear, which at its core is the opposite of love (and the divine) no matter which side of the prism we’re standing on.
Renea Breashears (she/her)
