KINDU  YOGA

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   Kindu yoga was founded on two basic concepts. We hold these concepts to be both esoterically and actually true. First, we are beings of pure energy not just the physical body. Second, the world as we see it is total illusion. There is also a third point, really a theological disagreement. It was best stated by our founded, our Gopa. Although it has lost some of its poetry in 2500 years and many translations, he told us. “Do not let someone tell you how to live your life who is too incompetent to practice a profession or too lazy to work”.

 

   Our Gopa or (Teu Gopa) is said was “a maker of temples” in Northern Burma in and around the bay of Bengal in about 500 BCE. What “Gopa” meant we do not know, it might have been a name, his profession, the town he was from, it has been lost to time, but every leader of our sect has been called “Gopa” ever since. We do know that he was “a maker of temples” but whether this meant he was an architect, a stone carver or someone who paid for the temple we do not know.  What we do know is that he embarked on a spiritual or personnel quest that lead him to become an early follower of the Buddha. At the time that the bamboo grove was given to the Buddha and the first monastery was formed there arose a dispute between a few of the Buddha's followers, including our Gopa  and the main body of the Buddha’s followers over the establishment of the monastery. Our Gopa held that one should live in the world not seclude oneself from the world. One needs to practice a profession and serve others, not take your support from others. One is to serve not be served.  At this time our Gopa and a few others left to return to Burma and Thailand to found Kindu Yoga.

 

   In Kindu Yoga view ourselves as energy more than just our physical bodies. So we focus on the last four limbs of the eight limbs of yoga rather than the first four. Although we still work with the asanas and pranayama, our Gopa taught that any physical movement or body posture can be a asana. We are Burmese not Indian, Buddhist not Hindu, and none theists not theist.  We work with the energy within our bodies so in most ways we practice a white tantric yoga. Kindu focuses on activating the Kundalini, Meridian and Chakra energy centers and then using the breath and gentle asanas to flow that energy throughout the body. We consider the energy body to be the greater and true self.

 

   The second pillar of Kindu Yoga is that the world is all illusion. My Gopa was fond of saying, the world is like a movie, like a shadow puppet show, all light and motion but no substance. We try and see the outside as the construct of the mind. The world is like a Balinese puppet show; the shadow on the screen is not real, the paper puppet is not real, only the light from the lamp is the reality.

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                                                MEETING MY GOPA

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   In the early '70s I worked as a contractor for the US embassy in Bangkok. It was an easy job, half day Monday, then we worked Tues. Weds. Thurs. We had every Friday off for a three day weekend. We shuttled paperwork for the  embassy and enjoyed ourselves in the bars and on the beaches of Thailand.

I often spent my time just south of Bangkok in a little town near the Burmese boarder. It was great.

   One trip have a bit of stomach upset I went to a little pharmacy. The chemist was an old man, he'd must have been in his mid 90's.

He was a spry, jovial little who busied about asking me in his heavy accented English about what I needed, where I was from, what I was doing in his little town and everything about me. As he talked he would move into Thai and Burmese with great hand gestures and back to English as if everything was one flowing language. He was so charming that talked to him for close to half an hour before getting the medicine he assured me would set me right.

   As I was leaving I asked him if there might be a bookstore in town with any English books on Buddhism. His eyes lit up and he smiled asking if I was a Buddhist, I said "no but that now living and working in Thailand I had become interested". He said that there was at one time a bookstore that sold English language books on the other side of town but he had not been there for man-years and didn't know if it still was in business. He told to take the narrow ally on the side of his store and that many blocks on I would see it if it was there. He told me that this little street was full of small shops and food stands and was a great place to see the real local people. He said many Burmese in this part of town, most fled the 1948 revolution. "First the British, then the Japanese, then the Military, very sad". I thank him and headed on down the small street.

   The narrow lane was dotted with small shops and stands and every few doorways you could see an inner courtyard full of small apartments full of children and hanging laundry. A little way before the next street crossing I came across what looked like a Buddhist temple. The sweet smell of incense was flowing out what had to be the smallest  temple in Thailand, barely 10 feet across and three or so stories tall. Build in the usual style of Thai temples, over the doorway was the temple name and it had a small image of the Buddha on one side of the doorway and on the other a hand painted sign. The sign simply said "WELCOME - COME IN TO PRAY - COME IN AND LEARN TO MEDITATE". The sign, if my memory serves me, was in English, Thai and a third script I didn't recognize.

    I remember thinking what a charming little temple and why walk to the bookstore when this was here. I slipped off my shoes and placed them in the  pile with the others and walked through the doorway. 

                                                 TBC

     

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