Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal: Venice Yoga Festival and Block Party

Saturday, October 24, 2026

Venice Yoga Festival and Block Party

What is "yoga" anyway?

If poses were yoga, few would benefit

Actually, the best and most useful definition of yoga is "an eightfold path" (ashtanga-marga) to "meditation" (samadhi).

The practice of this path, which should not be confused or conflated with the Buddha's Ennobling Eightfold Path to enlightenment (because they are not the same and do NOT lead to the same result, even if well-meaning people trying to mush and blend them together into a syncretism of traditions).

Yoga's Eightfold Path to "Union"

In fact, the Sage Patanjali copied the Sage of the Shakyas (Shakyamuni) Buddha's very popular eightfold pattern in condensing a rich tradition of yoga into a handy set of steps, which is why they seem the same on the surface.

But what did each sage put inside the paths they were teaching in ancient Proto-India? The Buddha condensed the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment into eight general categories. Patanjali tried to summarize many individual practices (each limb of the path amounting to many discrete practices) into a set of eight unfolding markers.

What is true of both paths -- which are not opposed to one another but, in fact, can be very helpful each to the other -- is that they are not really "steps." A yogi or yogini (a dedicated practitioner) does not complete one step then go on to the next then leave those to and go onto a third. Each "step" mutually supports all the others.

The path for runners is a circular track, barefoot

For example, if a runner wants to run, it is important follow these eight "steps": hydrate, eat well, supplement, warm up, stretch, train, practice, and recover. One never stops doing one just because one starts doing the others. They are all included. Similarly, one may take the Buddha's Ennobling (Noble = Aryan = Enlightening) Eightfold Path take condense it further into a threefold division or virtue, meditation, and wisdom (sila, samadhi, paññā).

Each thunderstick relies on all the others to stand

Virtue does not stop because stillness (samadhi, concentration, coherence) has begun. And the right view that began the path does not stop at wisdom but rather is bolstered by it. One feeds the other, and they end up being like three spears or rifles leaning on each other to stand (like a tripod, three-legged stool, or a stand with eight factors).

In just the same way, the Eightfold Path of Yoga or Ashtanga can be said to begin here or there, but wherever one begins, one does not stop a "step" to begin another. For instance, in the case of pranayama (breath work, breath restraint, breath control, the manipulation of pranic energy in the body by breathing), there are exercises. But all through the asanas (postures, poses, stretches) there is still breathing.

Begin by focusing on the breath, in, out...

In fact, there's more breathing -- more pranayama -- than when simply sitting. Focusing the mind on a bindi, the real meaning of drishti, is arguable more helpful in the poses than in dhyana (meditation). The goal, to the extent that there ever is just one ultimate goal in yoga or Buddhism, is samadhi. In Vedic tradition, Brahmanism (Old Vedic religion), or Hinduism, the ultimate goal may be said to be a special form of samadhi. But the historical Buddha did not stop there.

Samma-samadhi ("right-samadhi") is crucial to getting the mind to a temporarily purified state to then emerge from meditative absorption (jhana, dhyana, zen) and practice meditation in a different sense of the word (perhaps best translated as contemplation or anussati) -- systematic mindfulness (satipatthana) of the body, feelings, mind, and mind-objects for the realization of permanent insight (vipassana-nana or panna, "liberating-wisdom"). The insight is into the true nature of reality, the Three Universal Marks of Existence.

You're not still focusing on the breath, are you?

Does Yoga go there, or does it stop at temporarily exalted states with the possibility of regressing back to ordinary consciousness? Seers (rishis) like Patanjali and other mystics may have been transformed to some extent by self-realization. But it was not what the Buddha was teaching and defining as moksha or final spiritual "liberation." The Buddha called this nirvana and used the term in a whole new way.

How to Know God

Yogis, Brahmins, Hindus may hear the word "nirvana," recognize it as Sanskrit, and think, "Oh, yeah, we know about that. But they do not, for they do not understand the meaning the Buddha was giving to the term -- much as he gave new meaning to many Sanskrit (an exclusively Brahmin liturgical language at the time of the Buddha), Pali (the lingua franca at the time of the Buddha), Prakrit, Magadhi, and Vedic terms.

The stated goal of Yoga as a fully rounded practice is "union." "Union with what?" one may ask. The breath (prana, chi, ki, qi), spirit (pneuma, holy spirit), Brahman (GOD or godhead, the reality behind all illusions or maya), God (Brahma), Self (Atman), the polarities of ha and tha, sun and moon, masculinity and femininity, yin and yang, the bija or seed-mantra "OM" (aum, the humming sound of the living cosmos operating)...all things?