Hinduism, Part 2

Fourfold Path

Background

• 4 Paths to Divine Realization/_____________________________________________.

• Yogas help _________________ human spirit (Atman) with the God (Brahman) who lies
concealed in its depths.
• Spiritual Directors (sages, etc.) are ___________ not cookie cutters. Guide individual
personalities on the path(s) best suited to them.
• Step 1: cultivate ________________ such as non-injury, truthfulness, non-stealing, self-
control, cleanliness, contentment, self-discipline, and a compelling desire to _________.

1. Way to God through Knowledge: Jnana Yoga

What Is ‘Knowledge’?
• Not __________________________________________.
• IS _________________________________, Turning the Knower Into What’s Known (29).
• Ideas Have_____________________________, So Mind Animates Life.

• Discrimination—Discernment (Key to this Way): 3 Stages to Cultivating this Power

• Stage 1: Listening to ____________________ & _________________

• Stage 2:_____________________ to Release Oneself from False Identifications/

Masks/Personalities…Goal is to reach __________________________________.

• Stage 3: Shift Self-Identity from a transient ego to an abiding _______________..

• Thinks of Oneself in 3rd Person __________________________.

2. Way of God through Love: Bhakti Yoga

 ___________ more than Reason Powers this (popular & short) Path.
 Healthy Love for God is Not ________________________:
“I want to taste sugar; I don’t want to be sugar.”
 Strives to _______________ God…Loving Union is Friendship w/God.
 Love God dearly, only, for the sake of love itself (no ulterior motives).

Q: How Do We Love God dearly, only, & for the sake of love?
A: Through Use of

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 • Spiritual Practices: Help Remove Distractions to Focus Mind on God
• Japman: Repeating God’s name to Focus on God
• Love other beings in a ________________________ fitting to the relationship (e.g.
Parent-Child; Husband-Wife; Atman-Brahman).
• Worship God in a form (i.e. symbol or pointer) of one’s chosen ideal
• Incarnations such

3. Way to God through Work: Karma Yoga

 Work should be done with our entire being…to transcend finite self.
 You can find God anywhere. Learn to find Him in one’s work:
 By identifying intellectually with the transpersonal Absolute; or
 By shifting one’s affections to experience a personal God…work for God.
 Goal = self-transcendence. Attitude = “Thou art the doer, I the instrument”

Scriptural Expressions about Lovingly Working for God’s Glory.

• “Whatsoever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice, whatever you
give, whatever austerity you practice, O Son Kunti, do this as an offering to Me. Thus
shall you be free from the bondages of actions that bear good and evil results.”—
Bhagavad-Gita
• “Do without attachment the work you have to do. Surrendering all action to Me, freeing
yourself from longing and selfishness, fight—unperturbed by grief.”–Bhagavad Gita

Scriptural Expressions about Reflectively Working for God’s Glory.

 ________________________ “The knower of Truth, being centered in the Self should
think, ‘I do nothing at all.’ While seeing, breathing, speaking, letting go, holding, and
opening and closing the eyes he observes only senses moving among sense objects.”
 __________________________: “He who does the task; Dictated by duty, Caring
nothing; For the fruit of the action, He is yogi.”–Bhagavad Gita

Mature Persons on this Way/Path…

 …Don’t _________________ correction.
 …Experience ___________________ in the midst of intense activity/work.

4. Way to God through Psychophysical Exercises: Raja Yoga

• “Royal (raj) Road to Reintegration”—Seek God in the _________________________.

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 • _______________ of Raja Yoga: lead one to personally experience “the beyond within”
in order “to activate the lost continent of the true self.”
• Suited to Science-Minded Folks—Proving/Disproving hypotheses based on Hindu view
of the Self.
 We’re constituted by ___________: (1) Physically Embodied; (2) Conscious Mind; (3)
Individual Unconscious (psychoanalysis); (4) Private Subconscious

Steps 1 &2: _________________________________—bodily cravings & mental inquietude.

 Step 1: ___________________ from lying, injury, envy, stealing, sensuality, and greed.
 Step 2: ___________________ cleanliness, contentment, self-control, studiousness, and
contemplation of the Divine.

Step 3: Keep Body from ________________________ Mind.

 Ideal Bodily State: midway between discomfort and relaxation.
 Assume Postures that balance body & ease mind that enhance meditation—

Step 4: Yogic postures ________________ meditator from irregularities in breathing which

________________________________________.
 Slow breathing, gently across goose down feathers touching one’s nostrils to obscure
inhaling and exhaling.
 16 counts of inhaling, 64 holding, and 32 exhaling. Stretching during this induces a
“disembodied” feeling.

Step 5: Body at ease…Absorbed in _______________________________!

 Life’s secret mystery found in our ________________________ not distracted by
sensory perception. A different kind of _____________________________!
 Hypothesis: the _____________________ is opened only to those who turn inward and
eschew the physical senses.
 Example:
Step 6: Alone with your mind at last—_________________________
 Battle w/oneself rages on: _______________________________, anticipations distract.

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  Metaphor: mind is like a ________________________ just stung by a wasp (48).
 Average mind can focus on 1 think for roughly 3.5 seconds.
 Goal = teach restless mind to focus on 1 thing—e.g.

“When the senses are stilled, when the mind is at rest, when the intellect wavers not—
that, say the wise, is the highest state.”
Step 7: Concentration deepens into meditation. Duality between knower & known vanishes into
____________________________.

Step 8: __________________________ (Samadhi, meaning ‘together with the Lord’)

 Mind thinks of no thing; sees the invisible Lord & is __________________.

“The perceiving self merges in the self-perceived. At that moment we annihilate time and the
duration of time; we are no longer in time, but time, or rather eternity itself, is in us.”—Schelling

Life’s Four (4) Stages

1. Student/Apprentice (8-12 yrs.) à Learn Responsibility.
2. Family, Vocation, Community à Pleasure, Success, Duty
3. Retirement à Ponder Life’s Meaning w/out Interruption.
4. Sannyasin à Detachment from finite self and goods.
“Taking no thought of the future & looking with indifference upon the present, live
identified with the eternal Self and beholds nothing else.”

Life’s Stations (‘Caste System’)

1. Seers (Brahmins): Intellectual & Spiritual Leaders
2. Administrators (Kshatriyas): Make Most of Human Talent
3. Producers (Vaishyas): Skilled Creators of Materials to Sustain Life.
4. Followers/Servants (Shudras):Unskilled Laborers
5. Untouchables (Outcasts):

 Justice not egalitarianism but privileges proportioned to responsibilities (p. 58)

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What’s Most Real?
God—Brahmin—the “Great Breath”

 God is (Infinite) _____________, Awareness/Consciousness, & Bliss

 God is Parent, Lovingly Merciful, Omniscient, Almighty, ______________________
 ____________ merely point to God; Can’t capture his _____________________.
 _________________ God via mystical-presence NOT rational argument. God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob not God of the Philosophers!
 God is both personal and __________________________…Does this violate logic?

What’s God’s Relation To The World?

• God is Creator, Preserver, & Destroyer of Universe…A ________________________
whose energy gives life to a cosmos in endless, ____________________________.
• Universe has many galaxies with souls are _____________...purified between stops.
• Earth is between Heaven/Hell...Can’t create “heaven on earth”.

What Are Human Beings?

Souls, Bodies, Reincarnation

• Individual Souls/Selves (Jivas) haven’t been created ___________________________.

• Journey of human life = liberation.
• Bodily _____________ isn’t the end…Body is the cloak of the soul.
• Process of life, death, rebirth (samsara/______________________________)...souls
grow and receive body upgrades.

How do We Become Good (Liberated)?

Souls, Choices, & Karma

• ___________ = law of cause & effect … “Reap what you sow.” Get what you deserve.
• Present thoughts & actions determine future experiences.
• ________________________ for actions…no blame-shifting, chance, accident or luck.
• “Karma delivers consequences of what the soul reaches out for.” (66)
• Pilgrimage is w/God. His radiating warmth _________________________________
turning it into a pure capacity for God.