posted August 10, 2009 01:21 PM         

Methods practiced by Jnana Yogis include specific mental acts of depersonalization, or disidentification with the world of transitory phenomena, including the personal self. Inquiry into the nature of cause and effect (determinism) is one such method. Another method is that of refering to oneself in the third person (i.e. "Stephen is typing out a post on Lindaland", or "Stephen is a lazy s.o.b.", as opposed to "I am typing..." or "I am a lazy s.o.b."). Still another method would be to imagine, in the midst of our daily activities, seeing oneself from a distance, as one sees others. And yet another means would be to reflect upon possessions; for instance, we say "my house", and, while we identify the house as a possession belonging to ourselves, we are under no delusion that the house is identified directly with ourselves. Following this line of reasoning to its necessary and logical conclusion, we may reflect that even the body and mind are possessions, for we say "my body" or "my mind", without essentially identifying ourselves with either the body or the mind. This leads to a meditation on who or what exactly we are, once all these possessions are ultimately recognized as anterior to the Self. But reflecting upon the nature of change is perhaps the most common form of Jnana Yogic practice. All things, including those which we habitually identify with, or merely think of as belonging to ourselves, come and go, and are never exactly the same.

Most everyone has heard the words of Heraclitus, "We cannot step into the same river twice," but few are familiar with the second part of his statement: "We cannot even step into it once." The river is not changing -- the river IS change. But the one who steps, or cannot step, into the river is changeless. He/She/It is the same at all times, in all places; when you are young and when you are old; when you are unborn and when you are dead; when you exist and when you, as you, have ceased to be. We say that the infant, when he becomes the old man, is yet the same person, though different. From here, it is only a short leap of logic to imagine the same continuity extending before birth and after death. If the child and the man are one, so, then, are the fetus and the corpse; the zygote and the decomposed body; the fetilized egg and the fertilized earth.

But, wait! Common sense seems to assure us that this is not the case. The fetus is not the corpse, and the child is not the man. What, then, has changed, and, more to the point, what has gone unchanged? Only the space of infinite potentiality out of which all things take and lose their shape. You are not the child you once were, any more than you are the zygote or the fetus, or the decomposing corpse. What's more, you are not who or what you appear to be even now. All this is form, and you are not form. Clay may be molded, now into a soldier, now into a horse, now into a ball, or bowl, or pipe, but it remains clay. What, then, is the primary clay; the substance of all that is, beyond form or notions of form? One might say "energy", and this is a perfectly acceptable response, but are you energy? Are you the clay, any more than you are the forms taken and disgarded by the clay? With the same lump, one may build a house, or a basin, or a monument... But if you are not your possessions, neither are you the substance of which possessions are made.

So, what are you? Not the fetus, nor the corpse, nor the primal substance from which both fetus and corpse are composed; for substance is not truly distinct from its forms. What are you? Not the energy, nor the vibratory rate. What are you? Are you the witness, as has been said by countless sages? But sages themselves warn us to be wary of their words. And what is a witness, without the witnessed? What is consciousness, without an object; without something to be conscious of? It may as well be unconsciousness. What is space, without the stars? Only space. Nothingness. Void. Abyss. The Father, without the Son. Can there be such a thing? Such a no-thing? Or is it, perhaps, the nature of the Father to give life to the Son? The nature of space to surround; the nature of the witness to witness; the nature of consciousness to be conscious (of something); the nature of being to be (something)? Are you the creative spark? The flint and the stone? Are you All That Is, Was, or Ever Will Be? Or are you only you? Only here, now? Not the river, not the change, but the changing river? The one reading and being read? Are you the answer, or the question? The problem, or solution? Are you the infinite mystery of being?

posted August 10, 2009 01:47 PM         

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...depersonalization, or disidentification with the world of transitory phenomena, including the personal self...

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Sounds very Piscean.

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This has been called the shortest and the steepest path to liberation, requiring of its adherents a considerable ability in the field of rational inquiry.

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Sign me up!

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Another method is that of referring to oneself in the third person...

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Yin does this all the time.

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But reflecting upon the nature of change is perhaps the most common form of Jnana Yogic practice. All things, including those which we habitually identify with, or merely think of as belonging to ourselves, come and go, and are never exactly the same.

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YES!

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So, what are you?

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Hmm, why do we need an answer to this question? Is it really that important? Are we really that important? I certainly am not. tra-la-la-la-la

posted August 10, 2009 02:30 PM         

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Jnāna yoga teaches that there are four means to salvation:

* Viveka - Discrimination: The ability to differentiate between what is real/eternal (Brahman) and what is unreal/temporal (everything else in the universe.) This was an important concept in texts older even than the Bhagavad Gita, and often invoked the image of a Swan, which was said to be able to separate milk (or Soma) from water, whilst drinking.
* Vairagya - Dispassion: After practice one should be able to "detach" her/himself from everything that is "temporary."
* Shad-sampat - The 6 Virtues: Tranquility (control of the mind), Dama (control of the senses), Uparati (renunciation of activities that are not duties), Titiksha (endurance), Shraddha (faith), Samadhana (perfect concentration).
* Mumukshutva - Intense longing for liberation from temporal limitations.

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posted August 10, 2009 04:52 PM         

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One thing that caught my attention was the use of the possessive pronoun "my". I have noticed that people in this country refer to things as "my things", i.e. "my house", "my car", "my" whatever. Where I come from, we say "our house", "our car" and it has nothing to do with who holds the lease or mortgage. It's just how people talk there. It takes the ownership pride away.

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posted August 10, 2009 04:58 PM         

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Are we really that important? I certainly am not.

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No, Yin, you are not that important.

Neither am I.

Neither are the children starving in Africa.