Yoga Beyond Belief: Insights to Awaken and Deepen Your Practice

controlling than a king? Most interpretations of Raja yoga emphasize controlling the mind, the senses, the life force, thought, breath, and most other aspects of life. Control is a seductive concept because it mesmerizes us with the illusion that if we could only completely control ourselves, control our actions, do our practices properly, and follow the rules, we would live in harmony and attain the goal of life and highest wisdom. On the contrary, the more controlling we are, the more hardened, rigid, and out of tune with the flow of lifewe can become. We must learn the importance of control in our lives but also its limits. Control is necessary, but an excess limits us and we can become rigid and mechanical.

Bhakti Yoga
    Bhakti yoga is the yoga of devotion, consisting of prayer, singing, devotional practices, study of scriptures, remembrance of God, service, and rituals. It is the branch of yoga most similar to world religions. Bhakti yoga is based on cultivating faith and devotion and its goal is total surrender to God. It acknowledges that our own mind and understanding are limited, and therefore it behooves us to attune to and serve God, or, for the less theistic person, to serve and endeavor to live in tune with higher intelligence in the universe. Bhakti yoga seeks to lead us toward what is described as the bliss and ecstasy of oneness with God. It points out the limits of personal will, effort, and control, and the necessity of learning to surrender to the higher powers of life, death, and divinity. Bhakti suggests there is a limit to what we can attain by ourselves and purports that divine grace is necessary for spiritual development. Bhakti is the path of the heart, but followed blindly or to extremes can lead to the ignorance of ritualism, emotionalism, and mindlessness.
    A modern approach to Bhakti yoga is directing devotion to the magic, mystery, and beauty of life and the operation of higher levels or orders of intelligence. Devotion can take many forms and is not limited to external prayers, chanting, and rituals. This understanding is not just a matter of belief. It is possible to go beyond the type of faith that is the belief in the promises of doctrines and the assertions of others. This deeper level is devotion to the movement of constant discovery and unveiling of deeper layers of meaning and order that opens the doors to new discoveries and to questioning the realizations of today, so the possibility remains of broadening and deepening awareness each moment. The devotional path instructs us to learn to livefrom our hearts, guided by love, faith, compassion, and the interconnectedness of all things.

Jnana Yoga
    Jnana yoga is the yoga of wisdom, based on the study of oneself and everything in life. This yoga suggests that we cannot merely cultivate the supreme qualities in life, such as divine love, truth, or God consciousness. These
non-things
cannot be brought into being by our limited minds and limited actions. Rather, they come into being when we remove the obstructions of our own ignorance and illusions. In its non-dualist forms, Jnana even denies that we are ever separate from God. It asserts that acts of worship or seeking of God in fact strengthen our separateness and deny the oneness that already exists. The famous saying Tat Twam Asi (Thou Art That) points to the fact that we are already at one with the sacred. As we have shown, this saying not only asserts oneness but carefully uses the word
that
to point to truth instead of naming or defining it. Rather than being based on faith, Jnana yoga encourages inquiry and questioning. In that sense it is very scientific. It is the yoga of seeing and being, asking us to question, look, and discover rather than to follow and believe. Faith is elevated in so many religious perspectives while questioning and doubt are limited or denigrated. Einstein said, “The important thing is never to stop questioning.” Questioning and doubt are important allies that guide us and push and lead us to so many discoveries and insights.
    Questioning does not imply a lack of faith and devotion. It is faith and devotion operating at a different level—the faith that comes into being through direct perception. A Jnana yogi sees the magic, mystery, and beauty of life and the operation of higher levels of intelligence. He or she aims to go beyond the faith that is the belief in the words and promises of doctrines and the assertions of others. A modern approach to