-
Yoga Philosophy
You hear a lot about Yoga philosophy in this day and age. It has become quite fashionable; let go, have faith in the divine, seek peace. It’s what I refer to as the blue sky doctrine. Put your body in impossible positions? Oh, asanas are not the main element of Yoga. They are an aid,…
-
Gnani Path
I do get very emotional about knowledge, does Gnani preclude bliss? No, in fact it acknowledges that some people most naturally arrive at bliss by intellectual contemplations. That they are moved to awe by inspiring ideas, and religious observance may not speak to them. It’s not considered to be profane to be unmoved by ceremonial…
-
Questioning Path
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…
-
Karmic Burden
Today we are talking about karma yoga. Yoga roughly translates as union. It’s like self-discipline in a way, but focused more on personal development than goal striving. In fact, the absence of goal striving is the key element behind karma yoga. The word karma draws its origin from the Sanskrit word kri, meaning action. Karma…
-
Understand Actions
In Karma yoga, you don’t swear off all action, and in fact, there is a reason normally undertaken action has the burdensome effect it does. When you take an action you see yourself as personally involved, no? Anything you feel personally involved in you overlay personal meaning onto. This is the only way you can…
-
Element of Choice
How often have you taken an action that you failed to see turn out the way you like, but would have accepted a working solution instead of the outcome you got? A compromise? How often does refusal to compromise pan out the way we want it to? Again, the issue at hand is not judgemental…
-
Gnani, Bhakti and Karma Yoga
That trio I mentioned earlier, thought, belief, and action, these three form the core of any system of yoga, and ultimately anyone will manifest a leaning toward one of these over the others in yoga practice. The three correspond to Gnani, Bhakti, and Karma yoga respectively. In Gnani yoga, you seek to cultivate true understanding…
-
Reflection on Actions
Karma yoga isn’t just constant action. There is a practice of reflection to gain insight from ones actions. You don’t subscribe to self-recrimination in this reflection. Self is a non-factor in Karma yoga. Insight meditation. You reflect on the course of the events you were involved in, how everything happened, your own actions included, and…
-
Worth Ship
Whereas karma yoga is the yoga of action, bhakti yoga is the yoga of love, but not necessarily the love we think of most readily. The practices behind bhakti yoga resemble what we might at the surface call worship, but just so that we are all clear; What is worship? Devoting ourselves to something? To…
-
Devotion to the Divine
Shall I start with personal gods or go into the complicated one first? Personal. Ok. The different traditional paths of bhakti have their root in traditions leading way back into the history of India. They refer to them as lineages. The divinity being shown devotion represents principles that are seen as both essential and transcendental…
-
State of Being in Love
How do we know what love is? Do we know it just by saying it? A feeling? Can you describe the feeling clearly? I think we know the feeling before we can really understand it and not be afraid of it. I can’t and I think that’s why poetry gets so elaborate. People struggle with…
-
Paths of Yoga Suit Individual Temperament
The paths of yoga each suit an individual’s temper- ament differently, and everyone experiences some element of each of the aspects no matter what their personal nature makes them lean toward. For some, using the channel of love and devotion that our social circuits use just doesn’t engage them fully and leaves them uneasy. One…
-
Object of Devotion
Any questions about bhakti yoga/the devotional path”? There was an earlier question about whether anything can be the object of devotion. The answer was complicated so I put it off until now, but the answer is yes. Everything that exists has it’s existence in the divine, in the universal spirit that gives rise to all…
-
Mind Merged with Matter
We have discussed the karma of action without attachment to outcomes. We have discussed the yoga of devotion that absorbs the self and thus liberates it. Gnani yoga is a bit more like the scientific ideal without the materialistic bias. In Gnani, through contemplation of ancient wisdom, meditation and speculative exploration of our experiences of…
-
Growth in Understanding
Gnani yoga doesn’t of necessity preclude reverence for a deity though many traditions do not incorporate such reverence in their core teachings. This is one of the elements that all schools of yoga have in common. The gods they traditionally venerate are not seen as especially invested in anyone’s specific affairs. The wheel of karma…
-
First Confront the Self
The reason one attempts to identify their path in yoga, is not because they need to classify themselves. That motive itself would be a serious stumbling block. To not move with knowledge is to lack real understanding. I like the idea of taking a stand with the knowing that you can move on from it.…
-
Gnani Exercise
I have asked this repeatedly. It was actually in preparation for this point. Though the question still has no wrong answer, I can clearly explain the exercise. Shall we do a Gnani exercise? No one’s answers are wrong, but everyone who is willing should participate, and then I will explain. If you will, which paths…
-
Natural Starting Path
Everyone tends to understand things best if they start in a particular way. They can take on any other point of view sure, but they will not understand it as well as they could if it had started on the right foot, started with the right path. My own reason for sudden shifts of mood…
Category: Yoga
Traditional Yoga has nothing to do with emptying your head or sublimating your sense of self. A Bhakti Yogi tends to favour ritual, a Gnani Yogi favors inquiry, a Karma Yogi is sort of a performance artist or sociologist. They focus on cause and effect. In the total philosophy of Yoga they acknowledge multiple valid paths, and each is suited according to the individuals temperament.
Read more on: Karma Yoga | Bhakti Yoga | Gnani Yoga.
“The meaning of our self is not to be found in its separateness from God and others, but in the ceaseless realization of yoga, of union.” Rabindranath Tagore (Indian Poet, Playwright and Essayist, Won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, 1861-1941)
“This yoga is not possible, for the one who eats too much, or who does not eat at all; who sleeps too much, or who keeps awake.” Bhagavad Gita
“The state of severance of union with sorrow is known by the name of yoga.” Bhagavad Gita