The Practical Use of Philosophy
What is jñana yoga, the Path of Knowledge? What it is not is armchair philosophy. It consists of two levels; the preparation, and the real jñana yoga. Both levels have the same information. The difference lies in what we do with the information. The minds of beginners are often disquieted by questions such as, ‘how was the world created?’ ‘who am I?’ and so on, therefore it is necessary to explain these things. Up to now, it is only an intellectual exercise, not a spiritual one. It is useful if it helps to quieten the probings of the intellect and gives us the motivation and faith necessary to do the real jñana yoga. If it does not achieve this, it is useless.
There are various perfectly effective methods when it comes to the real jñana yoga, though here shall be explained the one taught by Shankaracarya, a sage specialising in knowledge who systematised the Vedanta philosophy about 1200 years ago. There are three steps; listening or reading about truth, contemplating it and meditating on it. Our true nature as soul is hidden by the ignorance in the mind. This ignorance is like a wall with 580 bricks in it. The mind contains 580 pieces of ignorance if we go by the number of verses in Shankaracharya’s Vivekachudamani (The Crest-Jewel of Discrimination). If we wish to see the light of the soul, we have to push each brick out of the wall so that the light can shine through. As it comes through each hole left by each brick at a slightly different angle, the realisation of the light on the second wall at the back of the room we are in is a little different. To realise the totality, we have to get all the small realisations; all the bricks must be removed. If we listen to or read about truth, we are looking at a brick. If we just look and do nothing more, we will remain on the intellectual plane, and nothing will happen.
If we contemplate truth, which means that we analyse a philosophical point profoundly from all angles, we have put our instrument against the brick. If we contemplate in meditation, we will find that, either there is a question whose answer we cannot find, and it is therefore necessary to come out of the meditation in order to ask, or there comes a time when everything about the point in question is understood, the mind slowly empties of thoughts, and we automatically enter deep meditation. If we do not interrupt the process, the focus will remain on the same brick, and through meditation we are putting pressure on it. If we exert enough pressure, the brick is pushed completely out of the wall never to return, out shines the light of the soul through the hole, and we have the realisation.
The more we contemplate and meditate on Vedanta, the more success we will have with this method. We may contemplate Vedanta when doing other things. It is not necessary to do it only in meditation. However, we must take care not to develop attachments to intellectual knowledge, sitting around talking about philosophy all day and collecting huge amounts of information. What we learn, we must realise. If we do not realise it, but cram our intellects with huge amounts of information, we will develop attachments to certain ideas, which will pull our focus off-target in meditation. Furthermore, in meditation the mind is meant to be dissolved. If there is a tremendous quantity of stuff in it, there will be more that will have to be dissolved, making our tasks that much harder. Self-realisation is difficult enough to achieve as it is, so it would be well not to make it harder still.