January 1, 2011

Complete abandonment to something the ancients tried to describe as "being consciousness" will transform and fulfill our lives. In fact you exist in it and of it this very moment, you are already there, standing atop the mountain.    But you look down at your feet, ignorant of the vistas around you and the great light above.  For me, jnana yoga has slowly raised my chin.  For me, religion is a very roundabout, obscure and too often dangerous path.  Jnana fits me best: direct discrimination of what is real (permanent) and what is not real (transient).  Others are better suited to practice bhakti yoga, the path of devotion, or karma yoga, the path of selfless sacrifice.  Genuine Christianity has much in common with bhakti and karma yogas.  Buddha was a jnana yogi, Jesus perhaps a bhakti yogi, and someone like Gandhi a karmic yogi.  Hatha yoga, all the rage now in its diluted form, is certainly good for health and may even re-attune the body-mind to the silence and stillness of our true nature, but it is as misused and misinterpreted today as any of the major religions.  Zen is another direct path to stopping the mind, puzzling us into awakening.  Life, itself, is constantly nudging and slapping us in the right direction; we're just so caught up in the hubbub of survival that we don't heed the inner promptings.