Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:11] Hello and welcome to Deep in your yoga practice. I am Lauren Leduc, the owner and founder of True Love Yoga in Kansas City, Missouri. And today's topic is called do we believe in Separation or Unity? A Yogic Exploration.
[00:00:28] Have you ever heard yoga described as union? Have you also heard that yoga is about witnessing the mind? Have you noticed some teachers say we are all one, while others talk about detaching from nature. A core question would be, is yoga teaching that we are separate from the world or that we are one with it? So in today's episode, we'll be talking about dualism and non dualism. Dualism means that reality consists of two fundamentally distinct principles, and non dualism means that reality is ultimately one, not two. So if that sounds exciting to you, keep listening and if not, keep listening anyway, because you might learn something today. So we'll be talking about and exploring today what dualism and non dualism actually mean, where these ideas originate historically, how they show up in yoga philosophy, how modern yoga often blends or confuses these things and, and whether they matter for everyday practitioners like us.
[00:01:29] So buckle up, let's dive in to some yogic philosophy. So we'll first talk about the historical roots of these philosophical concepts and these ways of seeing the universe. So the first is dualism, and this comes from Samkhya philosophy. This is one of the foundational systems that informs the Yoga Sutras. And the Yoga Sutras are one of the most studied yogic texts in the modern age. They are from somewhere between 2 and 400 CE, but they are very popular texts for modern practitioners to study. They're often included in yoga teacher trainings, and we tend to glean a lot of wisdom from them, but do know it comes from this dualist Samkhya philosophy. So within this Samkhya philosophy, there are two eternal realities. The first is called Purusha, and this is pure consciousness, maybe what we would consider the soul. And there is Prakriti as well. And this is everything that is material. So in this Samkhya philosophy, there is dualism. There is this separation between Purusha and Prakriti, between spirit and matter. And then within this philosophy, they believe suffering arises when Purusha is, or the spirit identifies with Prakriti, meaning we might mistake material nature, anything that changes for who we truly are. So we can liberate ourselves from this by realizing that we are the witness to all that changes. We are not the changing world itself. So again, the Yoga Sutras sit very squarely within this dualist framework. If we took them quite literally. We would essentially divorce our spirit or our awareness from our minds, from our bodies, from experience, from nature, and simply just be in this seat of the soul at all times. So in classical yoga, in the Yoga Sutras, in Samkhya philosophy, freedom comes from this discernment between the seer and the seen, opposed to that is non dualism.
[00:03:45] We can also call this Advaita Vedanta. And this initially emerged from the Upanishadic period, which is a little bit older than the Sutras, somewhere around 3000 years old or so. And then it was later developed even more post the sutras period. And we see Advaita Vedanta emerge by a teacher called Adi Shankara in about the early 8th century. So in this philosophy of non dualism, the core claim is that Atman or the self is the same thing as Brahman or God or the ultimate reality, that there is absolutely no separation and that the appearance of duality is just our ignorance to the truth of the universe or the truth of the spirit. So liberation is really this realization that there was never any separation. In non dual philosophy, there are not two realities, only one that's appearing as many. So, so it's as though God is everywhere, just in different disguises. Whereas in dualist philosophy, anything that is not the soul which is connected to the divine would not be considered divine, if that makes sense. So is everything divine or is just God divine? That's really the question. So in modern yoga, we often fail to see these two separate systems and get them confused. So, so we often blend Patanjali's dualism with Tantra which has a lot of varied views, and Vedanta, which is non dualism, and then different New Age interpretations as well. We often say, for instance, that yoga means union. But classical yoga of Patanjali is more about discernment between spirit and matter and not this merging of the two. One of the reasons this kind of muddled in modern yoga was actually very much intentionally done. One of the first very famous yogis in the west who came from India was named Vivekananda. He gave speeches at the Parliament of World Religions and was a charismatic orator and very clear. And he wanted to bring a yoga to the west that would appeal to Westerners. And the Yoga Sutras is considered a more scientific text than a lot of other yogic philosophy. It's, it's very much like a how to guide for yoga. So to appeal to the Western sort of logical audience, Vivekananda used the Yoga Sutras as a practical scientific methodology for achieving the experiential realization that is demanded or taught in Advaita Vedanta. So he's actually a non dualist, but teaching the yoga sutras again to appeal to Western audiences. He knew that the practical psychological tools of yoga, like meditation, concentration and ethical discipline would be accessible for Western audiences and a science of the mind. And he also typically interpreted the sutras through this more non dualist lens, actually suggesting that the separation achieved through this classical yoga or through Samkhya is ultimately a step toward realizing the absolute unity of Brahman. So it's almost like we take things apart to put them back together. So that's how yoga philosophy was really introduced to the United States and to much of the Western world. So it makes a lot of sense, you know, mere 130 years later, why we see things the way we do and why certain wisdom has been passed down. So which is actually yoga? Is it non dualism? Is it dualism really? It just depends. They're both yoga, they're just different ways of seeing things. Classical yoga or yoga sutras is dualist. Advaita Vedanta is non dualistic. Tantra, which developed around the same time as Vedanta, is often non dual, but it's also a lot more complex than that. Bhakti Yoga, which is the yoga of devotion, is sometimes dual and sometimes non dual. Hatha Yoga is typically non dualist. The point of this is yoga is not one unified philosophical system. It's a family of traditions developed in response to human suffering. And if you want to learn more about the history of yoga, I have an episode on that that goes further into this idea that it's this family of traditions and how we respond to different types of suffering in different eras. If you're interested in going back and listening to that. So knowing this, are these ideas important to us today as modern yoga practitioners? Well, it depends. If you lean dualist, maybe you practice detachment. You might emphasize witnessing consciousness, you might have a deep value for discernment and you can reduce your identification with your roles. And all of these things can be really helpful for anxiety, for over identification, for emotional reactivity as well. If you lean non dual, maybe you emphasize practicing integration, maybe you love to feel a sense of interconnectedness. Maybe there's a softening of boundaries between self and other. And maybe your very compassionate because of this. And this can be really helpful for loneliness, which is a huge problem in this modern age, for existential fear, for disconnection, for moral injury. So if you identify with all of these things which I do as, as I'm listing them off, know that modern life often requires both. Dualist practices might look like observing your thoughts and being able to say things to yourself like I am not my anxiety or I'm not the amount of money I make, I am not my roles. And that can be extremely helpful.
[00:09:51] Non dual practice might look like practicing things like radical acceptance of interconnection of embodied presence. Both of these things can help regulate suffering in different ways with different approaches, but really are equally important. I think as we are looking at this through a modern lens, really finding balance is what's important and maybe finding some ease in this tension between separation versus unity. So if we lean too far into dualism, there can be problems maybe we spiritually bypass, like, oh, nothing's real except the spirit, so I don't have to be responsible for my life. Maybe it's emotional detachment, not caring when others are suffering because it's not quote unquote real. Maybe it's this cold sense of transcendence, of feeling above the dirtiness of the world, so to speak. So that's taking dualism too far. Also, it's an important reason that Patanjali included the Yamas and Niyamas in the yoga sutras, because some sort of ethical backbone is needed to practice in this way. And then the same could be said for non dualism in that it can be taken too far. In fact, there have been a lot of modern yoga teachers who have used non dualism to abuse people, essentially. So if there's no separation between you and me, that means we could have some boundary issues. Maybe there's some spiritual vagueness involved, like, oh, we are all one, so I can take from you, you can take from me, etc. Maybe there is this loss of discernment as well. Maybe it's too easy to give up your power to a teacher or, or to a group. So this balanced spiritual maturity might hold both this dualism and non dualism with a lot of discernment. So we can know that, yes, I'm not my thoughts, I am not my roles, I'm not necessarily that which changes. But also I am deeply interconnected with life, that what is happening around me and in front of my very eyes is important and that we are all deserving of compassion. So how do these philosophies maybe show up in your practice practice? Maybe in meditation? If you're utilizing dualism, you're observing your thoughts. With non dualism, you are awareness of what is inside and around you without A sense of division. Maybe if you practice in relationships dualism, you maintain firm boundaries. And in non dualism you're able to cultivate empathy. In regards to activism, we can use dualism to not over identify with outrage and become consumed in it. And we can also use non dualism to help care deeply for others and see our deep interconnectedness and remember our why. And in asana or a physical practice, maybe dualism is a tool to witness sensation, and non dualism is this merging of breath and movement and all of the koshas and energy all together. So I don't think we have to necessarily choose one or the other. And maybe Vivekananda is right that the dualism is this path to non dualism. I don't think we even have to know or decide. As modern practitioners, it's important to know the history and where these practices stem from. But ultimately they are tools to our own liberation and our collective liberation. And it doesn't have to be an either or, but a both. And so you might ask yourself before we close, do I tend to over identify with life or do I detach too quickly? Do I need more discernment or do I need more connection? Or maybe it's everything, all of it, all at once. Whether reality is ultimately one or two may not change your grocery list or your daily habits or your life, but how you relate to your experience absolutely changes your relationship to suffering. Yoga doesn't ask you to pick a camp of dualism or non dualism. It just asks you to continuously inquire, to continuously study the self. I do have some journaling prompts for you, and I'll add them in the show notes too. So if you'd like to continue this work after the episode, these are for you. First is where do I cling to my identity? Then where do I need stronger boundaries? Then where do I feel deeply interconnected? Next, which philosophy resonates more with my temperament? Dualism or non dualism?
[00:14:27] And finally, can I hold both? Know that dualism offers clarity, non dualism offers unity, and mature practice may integrate both. So thank you so much for joining me for this philosophy deep dive. It was so much fun for me to put this episode together, and I'd love to dive more deeply and do more of this. So let me know what you'd like to learn about and we will continue to deepen our practices together.
[00:14:52] Thank you so much for joining me. Om Shanti, Om Peace.
