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Shabby
08-02-2012, 01:59 PM
This morning I was thinking about all the mystical and esoteric stuff I experienced in the past and thought of it as path a bridge that leads to the other side.

As long as we have our mind in the physical we have two possibilities (good or bad) but when spirit touches our soul a question opens a door and we are led to a bridge. Once we take the first step on this bridge things start to happen...we step into the realm of all possibilities a realm that is different from the physical one that can be sensed only through our senses.

In that realm of all possibilities...we experience and there are no limits to the things we can experience.

As we grow in experience and continue to seek not only that which touched us, but now the complete oneness with that.....we arrive on the other side and there are no longer all possibilities but one.

silent whisper
08-02-2012, 02:21 PM
the bridge of light, anything is possible...one......two or three. :)

Jyotir
08-02-2012, 05:03 PM
Hi Shabby,

Nicely said.
What you have described is 'yoga' (union) which is that 'bridge' -
a conscious deliberate practice that takes the inherent possibilities of human potential and renders them inevitable.


~ J

Shabby
08-02-2012, 05:13 PM
Hi Shabby,

Nicely said.
What you have described is 'yoga' (union) which is that 'bridge' -
a conscious deliberate practice that takes the inherent possibilities of human potential and renders them inevitable.


~ J

Hey Jyotir, I don't know much about yoga...is yoga a tool such as meditation?

Humm
08-02-2012, 05:36 PM
Hey Jyotir, I don't know much about yoga...is yoga a tool such as meditation?
Yoga is the ancient Eastern (primarily Hinduist) science of mystical union. You might say meditation is the foundation of yoga, and yoga is the foundation of meditation.

Yoga is a Sanskrit word meaning 'union'.

Shabby
08-02-2012, 05:39 PM
Yoga is the ancient Eastern (primarily Hinduist) science of mystical union. You might say meditation is the foundation of yoga, and yoga is the foundation of meditation.

Yoga is a Sanskrit word meaning 'union'.

So yoga and meditation go together? Is that the union?

Jyotir
08-02-2012, 06:25 PM
Hey Jyotir, I don't know much about yoga...is yoga a tool such as meditation?

Hi Shabby,

Yoga means 'union', and is any conscious deliberate practice (or process*) which unites one's consciousness with God, their own Highest Self - God-realization, etc.

It is a common misconception that Hatha Yoga is exclusively synonymous with 'yoga', but it is not, being only one kind of many.
The major forms of yoga are considered to be:

Karma Yoga - work/service
Jnana Yoga - wisdom/discrimination
Bhakti Yoga - love/devotion

Meditation and/or prayer is a key part of many yogas, so you could say that meditation is a tool or component of yoga or is a form of yoga itself if it constitutes the entire practice.


* Technically, in the broadest possible sense, Sri Aurobindo's statement that "All life is Yoga", holds a profound truth if one considers that the entire physical existence is an evolutionary process whereby the One Self may realize Itself in and through each individual being within the multiplicity of life.


~ J

Humm
08-02-2012, 06:28 PM
Hi Shabby,

Yoga means 'union', and is any conscious deliberate practice which unites one's consciousness with God, their own Highest Self - God-realization, etc.

It is a common misconception that Hatha Yoga is exclusively synonymous with 'yoga', but it is not, being only one kind of many. The major forms of yoga are considered to be:

Karma Yoga - work/service
Jnana Yoga - wisdom/discrimination
Bhakti Yoga - love/devotion

Meditation and/or prayer is a key part of many yogas, so you could say that meditation is a tool or component of yoga or is a form of yoga itself if it constitutes the entire practice.

~ J
Said much better than I could J, as always. :smile:

Shabby
08-02-2012, 07:10 PM
Hi Shabby,

Yoga means 'union', and is any conscious deliberate practice (or process*) which unites one's consciousness with God, their own Highest Self - God-realization, etc.

It is a common misconception that Hatha Yoga is exclusively synonymous with 'yoga', but it is not, being only one kind of many.
The major forms of yoga are considered to be:

Karma Yoga - work/service
Jnana Yoga - wisdom/discrimination
Bhakti Yoga - love/devotion

Meditation and/or prayer is a key part of many yogas, so you could say that meditation is a tool or component of yoga or is a form of yoga itself if it constitutes the entire practice.


* Technically, in the broadest possible sense, Sri Aurobindo's statement that "All life is Yoga", holds a profound truth if one considers that the entire physical existence is an evolutionary process whereby the One Self may realize Itself in and through each individual being within the multiplicity of life.


~ J

I see and if I understand it right then all forms of yoga are ways of life and that is not limited to Hinduism as a belief? With other words praying to God and love/worship as in Christianity is a form of yoga in hindu terms? And one more question if you don't mind : ) Is yoga a path or the goal?

Jyotir
09-02-2012, 01:58 AM
if I understand it right then all forms of yoga are ways of life and that is not limited to Hinduism as a belief? With other words praying to God and love/worship as in Christianity is a form of yoga in hindu terms? And one more question if you don't mind : ) Is yoga a path or the goal?

Hi Shabby,

I don't think it comes from Hinduism per se - more like the sages of India have provided a good construct for understanding these tendencies which seem to be applicable universally to most paths in some way.

"All life is Yoga", means that Life in the most general sense is a vast evolution of consciousness through Nature - the multiplicity of One Being. What yoga does in the specific sense is to take those general evolutionary tendencies of Nature, and deliberately accelerates and concentrates them as a 'personal revolution', allowing human beings individually to self-discover/realize their own Divinity. Yoga is that path, practice, disipline - in the specific human sense, as a focused endeavor within life which makes those possibilities inevitable - that which life is already doing only in the most general way and much more gradually.

Getting back to your OP: When people awaken to that possibility to undertake 'the path', ie spirituality/yoga (in whatever form) - it is like that 'bridge' you spoke of, when they recognize (they now see the potential within), "I could do this - transform myself, transcend the mundane, not be caught in desire-life and its consequences. I see that now, I can do that now, etc." It is part of the 'awakening' which sees the bridge and the possibility of the goal which the bridge connects. So in that sense when one consecrates one's life fully to that pursuit, yoga does become 'a way of life'.

It has also been said that some Masters like Jesus Christ are themselves that bridge - both real and symbolic - as representatives of both the Highest, and the Yoga which reaches it as well. So this may reveal the importance of devotion for instance, in Christianity, which in general and for the most part, is most often considered to be predominantly a 'Bhakti' path/orientation - love and devotion.

At the same time, these categories may not always be so distinct, and may overlap and interpenetrate. For instance, there was a high degree of 'Karma yoga' in Mother Theresa's path - much work and service, as is true for the thread of service that runs within the church, etc.. The Jesuits are famous for being intellectuals and philosophers, which would be leaning towards 'Jnana Yoga'. But underlying it all is Bhakti - love and devotion.

In any seeker's personal path, one may move in and out of predominant phases of one or another of the yogas over the years as often one leads into another, and usually it is some 'blend' anyway.

If Sri Aurobindo's writings on this topic* seem unapproachable for whatever reason, another excellent resource would be Swami Vivekananda, who wrote very well known and highly regarded essays on the different yogas (you can even get a book for each of the different ones), so if you are interested in exploring an 'Eastern' description of Bhakti with a view towards Christianity that could be very edifying and beneficial to a deeper understanding, even inspirational, imo.

~ J


*chapters in "Synthesis of Yoga" on the different 'Yogas". If you are interesed, there is a thread in the book section of the forum that I recently posted. Bhakti yoga would be: Part 3 The Yoga Of Divine Love.