Gnani is more about the questions then the answers? Yes. They don’t deny that answers can be arrived at, but getting an answer and clinging to it is not the Gnani way. It’s the dynamic of inquiry itself that is their path.
It’s almost like the question is a mind asana? Exactly.
Knowing the path can change and so can the answers and accepting that? Accepting yet always looking. Some other beliefs accept and stop, and that isn’t Gnani Yoga. Things that may be literal fact today may be irrelevant down the road.
Looking for new answers is what life in general should be about, not just settling for the common way. Conquering duality by agreeing and inquiring. Hence the “maybe so” isn’t a “no”. The realm of “no” is the realm of the Mayin, which isn’t the Gnani path.
I wondered if it would serve science better if scientists were gnani-er? I would say it would. In Japanese, “nani” is the word for “what“. If you are confused about what someone said in Japanese, you respond “nani?” Asking “what” isn’t feeding ignorance. People often don’t ask because it would reveal they didn’t know and they are embarrassed of that. That is actually the only error, the refusal to engage in inquiry. Inquiry doesn’t feed the ego, because it must include the ego. In Gnani Yoga, if you say “I am this way”, you also have to ask yourself why.
Can I keep inquiring or must I find a truth and stick with it? Obsessiveness is attachment, and in their teachings it is to be avoided. I would say if you find one truth that isn’t self knowledge, then it won’t serve. This is why they have the different paths in Yoga. You don’t choose a path, a path has already chosen you. It’s your nature.
I have permission then.
The trick of all the paths is to find the middle, even the middle of extreme. The middle is the heart, and a path with heart is worthy. Your heart just needs to be in it, and for some of us our heart is with our mind and not our body. That is ok. If you are in balance nothing will lack. They say in Taoism, which has its own form of Yoga, that for the Sage no great thing is done, but nothing is left undone. If on the Gnani path and in balance, you will find that the body comes up, but how you deal with it won’t necessarily be the same as Bhakti.
I like excursions into Bhakti, but they are the exception. It’s not forbidden. Sort of like the Chinese view on religion, as a culture they don’t see that they must subscribe to only one practice.
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~