Sunday, August 21, 2016
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August is a month for study of Jnana Yoga (Advaita Vedanta). Jnana Yoga is an approach to self-realization through discrimination and reason. The goal is freedom from all limitation. Wisdom tells us our miseries in life are caused by seeing inaccurately. As a jnana yogi, you may finally break through this delusion and see only the Divine Presence everywhere and in everyone.
Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
(Ch. 32, Oct 19, 1884)
Master: “… In the mirror of his ‘I-consciousness’ the devotee sees the form of the Primal Energy, Brahman with attributes … he has no means of seeing the real (Brahman) except through Its reflection … As long as the ‘I’ is real, so long is the (reflection) real — one hundred per cent real …”
Through a spiritual practice called “neti, neti (not this, not that),” the jnana yogi methodically excludes every aspect of that reflection — both waking and dreaming experiences — from his or her definition of Absolute Reality (Brahman). Finally, I-consciousness itself (the mirror of the heart or mind) is set aside, and the yogi abides in the knowledge of Brahman. In this talk these ideas, and other methods taught by masters of the jnana path, are explored and discussed.