Yoga ~ Love and Trust (Prema/Shraddha)

Without love and trust one can get only so far doing yoga. In as much as one has to take help from others, one needs to have love and trust in such persons. The concept that one can go it all alone in yoga; that one need nothing other than oneself, that Buddha and others did it singlehandedly, is questionable when we trudge through the details of practice.

In the first place Buddha took help from several teachers in the first part of his quest to be enlightened about the cause and removal of suffering.

Did you read that attentively?

Suppose I wrote about his objective to be enlightened? Suppose then you did not ask, “Enlightened about what or who?” Then you may run with many assumptions about the meaning of the word enlightened.

Fortunately for us Buddha established clearly and it was recorded by his chief disciples that he was enlightened about the cause and removal of suffering. It has to do with nothing else. This means that each yogi may have unique definitions of enlightenment according to their special self-inquiry. Could you or I or anyone else become enlightened about anything else? Is trauma the only subject of enlightenment?

Buddha exhibited love and trust to his first teachers when he set out on the quest to find the cause and removal of traumatic feelings. Later when he decided to proceed with the inquiry and there was no teacher in the vicinity who pioneered a method into more refined inquiry, he did it all alone. But even then he had dealings with supernatural beings, deities like the Brahma person who convinced him to expound his method to one and all who may have some interest.

After his enlightenment into the cause and removal of traumatic feelings, he extracted love and trust from his disciples. He was specific in demanding trust from each and every one of of the disciples who spoke to him directly.

Yes, love and trust, prema and shraddha are necessary!