To begin, jñana yoga is not information gathering. The cartoon characters we are all familiar with—hopeful seekers struggling up mountainsides to reach a guru’s cave—are not simply looking for a guru who knows a lot.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of even knowledge of scriptures is just a starting point in the search for wisdom. In jñana yoga knowledge is, at best, the bone around which the flesh and blood of wisdom takes shape.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of

A classic western example of wisdom can be found in socrates, the greek mystic and philosopher. Given the choice of escaping from his athenian prison or facing his own death if he remained incarcerated, socrates chose to spend his last days in jail, where he discoursed with friends about the meaning of life.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of he held the conviction that life is meant for sharpening the eye of the soul, a better and more permanent instrument with which to see truth than the eyes of the body, and he believed that an escape would belie the fundamental premise of his teaching.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of

Perhaps because these definitions have so many associations, contemporary yoga teachers often describe the path of jñana yoga as a path for intellectuals—for the scholarly among us—and leave it at that.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of but it is a mistake to limit this path too quickly to those with high iqs or a tendency to inhabit research libraries. We are all searching for wisdom, and at some deep level of ourselves we sense that this is the purpose of yoga.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of

The word jñana is defined more clearly in a dictionary compiled by the great sanskritist M. Monier williams. The definition reads: “knowing, becoming acquainted with, knowledge, (especially) the higher knowledge (derived from meditation on the one universal spirit).” in other words, in a yogic context jñana is the wisdom derived from direct acquaintance with the self.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of

Most people find the consonant combination jñ awkward to pronounce. Even among indian speakers there are differing pronunciations. The sound is derived originally from the combination gn (also found, but no longer vocalized, in the english word gnostic).Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of A satisfactory pronunciation of the word jñana starts with a hard g and combines with yawn to produce gyawna.

The five elements, the ego, the intellect, unmanifest nature, the five cognitive senses, the five active senses, the lower mind which coordinates the senses, the five fields of sense perception; desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, the aggregate of the body/mind, sentience, and courage: this is the field and its modifications. (bhagavad gita 3:6–7)

cognitive learning involves the acquisition of

The five elements are earth, water, fire, air, and ether (or pure space)—constituents of the body that are also reflected in psychological functioning.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of ego is the sense of self-identity. The intellect is the higher mind, the part of the mind that is capable of decision-making and self-observation (the buddhi).Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of unmanifest nature is composed of three gunas, three attributes of energy which are interwoven to form the substrate of all manifest things. The operations of the five cognitive senses (taste, touch, sight, smell, and hearing) and the five active senses (manipulation, locomotion, evacuation, procreation, and speech), coordinated with the activities of the lower mind, form the bulk of everyday conscious experience.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of the fields of sense perception are taste, tangibility, form, smell, and sound. These twenty-four categories are known collectively as prakriti in sankhya philosophy (the branch of philosophy associated with yoga).Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of

Krishna lists seven more dimensions of personality: likes and dislikes, the experiences of pleasure and pain, the sense of oneself as a whole being (an aggregate of elements contained under one roof of personal awareness), the awareness of oneself as a living, feeling organism, and the presence of states of mind, such as courage (just one example among the many krishna might have chosen).Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of

Krishna explains, however, that despite appearances, none of these elements of personality are themselves self-aware. Each of them, including the mind, is an object that is known and experienced by the subject—an unchanging, individual consciousness.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of within the human personality it alone is the “knower of the field,” called purusha in the sankhya system.

But in what sense can any of us attain wisdom in relation to these components of human life?Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of krishna responds that the intrinsic nature of consciousness (purusha) is bliss, but that its relationship with prakriti’s ceaseless activity leads it to habitually turn outward—and in the process, it forgets its true nature.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of this is the fundamental spiritual dilemma. Conditioned by experience, consciousness does not see itself, and therefore it becomes enmeshed in the endless modifications of prakriti.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of spiritual freedom is the liberation of purusha from this self-forgetfulness and from its consequent attachment to worldly joys and sorrows.

Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of

It takes little imagination to see that if personal likes or dislikes are not inherent to our identity, then other ways in which we form identities may be suspect as well.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of for example: am I fat? Or, rather, is my body overweight? As another example: am I overwhelmed by sorrow? Or, rather, have the events of life and my reactions to them overwhelmed my mind with sadness?Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of

The more keenly we perceive the difference between awareness that “I am” and the experience that “I am passing through,” the more wisely will we direct our thoughts and actions.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of we may choose not to waste energy in a dark depression when a little sadness will do. And we may whittle down our frustrations regarding what we don’t have, with contentment for what we do have.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of increasingly, we learn to enjoy life without depending upon it for happiness, for we know that joy is already ours.

The heart of the jñana yoga path carries us even further.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of it evolves out of the relationship between purusha and what is often referred to as the self (with a capital S). In the gita, krishna describes such a relationship when he declares that pure consciousness is the simultaneous knower of every field.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of it is the self dwelling in every self. Krishna frequently speaks about it in the first person:

Writers on jñana yoga often liken ignorance of the self to a factory manager who fails to communicate with the owner of the factory.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of the manager begins to behave as if he, himself, were the owner, and in the process the relationship between the manager and owner is undermined.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of out of ignorance, the manager becomes arrogant, selfish, and blind to the real purpose of the factory’s work.

In the human personality, the ego serves as the manager.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of it is the ego which must ultimately coordinate the functions of the mind and body, and in the process it must expand its own vision of reality.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of when the ego is blinded by attachment and unable to disengage itself from its own sense of self-importance, our perceptions of a higher reality dim.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of

Meditation and contemplation both foster realization of the self. In meditation we create a strong inner center from which we are able to witness the distinctions between consciousness and the field of consciousness.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of in contemplation we reflect on the temporary nature of life and clarify for ourselves the nature of consciousness. Each method reduces the painful enmeshment of self and non-self, and leads to a direct experience of reality.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of

We have just seen the two grand themes of jñana yoga. The first shows us how wisdom develops through discrimination between the field and the inner knower of the field, between the body/mind and individual consciousness.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of the second shows us how the limited sense of I, reflected by the ego, is gradually replaced by a limitless vision of the self.

With these two themes in mind you will be able to follow krishna’s words in the final chapters of the gita.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of but it would be a mistake to imagine that we have exhausted krishna’s teachings. There are many more discoveries to be made, and since this column is devoted to practice, I will leave it to you to make them.Cognitive learning involves the acquisition of I hope you will read chapters 13 through 18 of the gita, and discover the path of wisdom for yourself.