'Yoga' Articles
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.
“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
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, but not the path. The lotus position is to help in meditation. If you fall asleep in lotus position while meditating you won’t fall over, but that requires a proper lotus position which most people don’t get into. Yoga comes from their word for yoke,… Seek More
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 dancing for example. There is the “eureka wave” when you connect two previously unconnected ideas that is totally blissful. Yes, the Brahmins, as the Indian sages tend to be called even if they didn’t ascribe to Brahminical philosophy, had a saying; “All paths lead to… Seek More
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 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… Seek More
