Jñāna Yoga: Refining the Intellect
I will be offering a monthly satsang starting Sunday. (Check my schedule for dates and locations. More on that below.) For those who don’t know, a satsang is a sort of wisdom talk, a simple gathering of yogis engaging in spiritual discourse. If you love talking about yoga, satsang is for you! But, before we dive into the value of satsang and the purpose of satsang, let’s talk about the intellect from the yogic perspective, and a form of yoga called jñāna yoga (pronounced sort of like “gyana”).
In Sanskrit, jñāna means ”knowledge” or “cognition.” It’s the branch of yoga that is concerned with refining the intellect, accessing wisdom, and using spiritual knowledge in order to enter the state of yoga, of unity with Totality. In writing this post I’ve come to realize that jñāna yoga is quite possibly the most difficult aspect or form of yoga to write and talk about. But it’s also crucial that we explore it. It’s one of my favorite yoga practices.
We can refine the intellect in a number of ways. We can study sacred yogic texts (or any spiritual texts), like the Yoga Sutras or the Bhagavad Gita. We can spend time in sangha (spiritual community) and attend satsangs (wisdom talks) with spiritual teachers. Meditation is especially powerful as a jñāna practice.
Of course it sounds easier than it is. You can’t become free by reading a bunch of books, as attractive as that option sounded to me when I was a young, self-styled intellectual. As I talk about below, you also need a teacher, a spiritual community, meditation, and the energetic practices of yoga.
In this aspect of yoga we refine the intellect in order to expand our mental model of reality and experience increasingly greater values of truth. We need to do this because, over the course of our lives, we have developed a mental model or map of the world based on the models of others, societal and familial conditioning, our own interpretation of our experiences, and our karma. We only ever experience the world through that model, except perhaps in states of non-ordinary reality. Because this model is incomplete and often distorted, it limits us. We are unable to see the world as it really is. We see a distorted version of reality through our own projection and mental modifications. You can only experience the world from your current state of consciousness. This is a powerful realization.
To counteract this self-limiting reality, we apply various yogic practices in order to correct the intellect, to clear mental obstructions, old beliefs, misunderstandings about the nature of reality. We begin to study the self, what Patanjali calls svādhyāya in the Yoga Sutras.
The Nature of Mind
When we say that we are refining or correcting the intellect, we are referring to specific aspect of the heart-mind within the larger ethos of yoga. Although an exploration of the nature of mind is outside the scope of this post, briefly, the ancient yogis identified four aspects of mind:
Manas: The part that takes in sensory perceptions, experiences, and information.
Buddhi: The discriminating part of the mind that processes and categorizes the information coming in.
Ahamkara: The sense of a separate self; the ego.
Citta / Atman: The part of the mind that connects to your higher Self and your pure bliss consciousness. This is the part that you start to identify more with as you practice yoga.
So, in these jñāna yoga practices, we are primarily working with the buddhi, the discriminating aspect of the mind. Of course another side effect of these practices is that the ego is also refined and one increasingly resides in the citta or higher self.
Svadhyaya, Scriptures, Meditation
Svādhyāya is the study or observation of the self without judgment, one of the five niyamas in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, and a crucial aspect of jñāna yoga.
Svādhyāya is a good example of how, in yoga, it is difficult to talk about one aspect of yoga without talking about the entirety of yoga. Each practice bleeds over into the others. So we just pick the one(s) that resonate most with us in the beginning and follow that path where it leads.
In terms of studying the self, because the “self” is ultimately a finite expression of the infinite it can be hard to get a handle on initially. So studying the self is something that one often approaches indirectly, at least at first. We start by studying things that are more concrete. Like yogic writing, sacred scriptures and how they reflect aspects of ourselves back to us: The Yoga Sutras, The Bhagavad Gita, The Ramayana, The Recognition Sutras. Or we observe ourselves as we practice yoga in its other forms: how am I feeling and reacting to this challenging asana or kriya?
Most importantly, we meditate consistently. In fact, one could say that meditation is the most direct means of studying the self. Except it’s not a doing like ‘studying’ usually is. It’s more of an observation. In meditation we really confront ourselves, as we are. We radically accept who we are in the moment (ideally), and we start to cultivate the ability to just be with ourselves (eventually).
By encountering ourselves in an honest, naked fashion like this, we start to see more clearly, and our map of the world starts to expand. This is the root of wisdom.
I’ve touched on meditation in a recent post about the elemental space practices in Elemental Yoga. But it’s a big topic ripe for further exploration, perhaps in a later post. I’ve also started to offer regular meditation workshops so check my teaching schedule for those.
On the spiritual path we do three things in order to test the veracity of spiritual truths: consult spiritual texts written by those who have engaged in a similar process, solicit the perspective of a trusted guru or spiritual teacher, and consult our own heart, our own inner knowing. Studying the self is crucial to having contact with this inner knowing.
And this brings us to the guru.
My teacher Anand Mehrotra giving a satsang (wisdom talk).
Guru
The word ’guru’ carries a lot of baggage, especially in the West. There have been too many self-styled gurus and spiritual teachers who didn’t truly refine their own intellects and turned into megalomaniacal, egotistical psychopaths. The recent Bikram documentary on Netflix shows us just one example among many. But we can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. The role of a true guru — a satguru — is essential for spiritual growth.
As any yoga teacher will tell you, the word ‘guru’ simply means “remover of darkness.” It’s someone who can show you the way, customized to your own unique predicament. A trusted teacher is absolutely essential to help you see your own shortcomings and egoic defense mechanisms. A healthy degree of surrender to a spiritual teacher with deep integrity, who is truly a master of him or herself, is an essential component to progress on the spiritual path. To find a teacher like this is an enormous act of grace. I am grateful to have found one of these teachers two years ago after setting the intention to find one and then following my intuition to the Himalayas. Of course not everyone has to go halfway around the world.
Many people will tell you that the only guru you need is the guru inside. Although this is true in one sense and eventually true in a greater sense, there is no denying that importance of a teacher in the beginning. Not only do you need someone who can call you out on your bullshit, you need an inspiring role model, someone to lead the way by example.
When it comes to understanding the nature of the teacher-student dynamic and avoiding the pitfalls in finding and working with a guru, I highly recommend Marian Caplan’s wonderful book The Guru Question, in which she explores these questions and so much more. She helps you know when a certain guru is right for you. For example, one requirement she suggests is that your guru have a teacher. It’s crucial that yoga teachers remain students of the practice.
Sangha
Sangha is the part of the word ‘satsang’ that means spiritual community. As important as having a teacher who can correct the intellect and put your ego in its place is the importance of having a community of like-minded souls who will both support you in your fluctuations and keep you honest. One of the reasons I moved back to San Francisco to teach yoga was to rejoin the deep spiritual community here, one that is dedicated to true transformation, a community full of love and acceptance.
Setting up for satsang with my teacher Anand at Sattva Yoga Academy last year
Satsang
Now we come to satsang and the role that these wisdom talks can play in refining the intellect. Traditionally, a satsang is a talk by a teacher to a group of people. The teacher might choose a topic. Or the discussion may progress organically through questions and answers. It’s a form of yoga. In the satsang, the drishti and dharana is the wisdom itself.
Satsang has been the most powerful jñāna yoga practice for me, and in some ways the most powerful yoga practice overall. I’ve had satsangs with my teacher Anand in which I could feel my consciousness expanding. These talks have been some of the most transformative experiences of my life, experiences for which the phrase ”mind-blowing” was made.
Having said that, I certainly do not hold myself out as a satguru or self-realized by any means. In the satsangs I am organizing and offering, it will be more of a free-flowing dialog amongst the group. I may guide the discussion and make sure that we’re staying on track with the chosen topic but otherwise it will be void of hierarchy. I just like talking about yoga and I’m looking for others who do as well. My intention is to foster a spiritual community of yoga nerds.
The Yoga Spiral
Again, jñāna yoga is just one aspect of a more holistic yoga practice. Moreover, one could argue that jñāna yoga is a practice that is inseparable from, and arguably as important as, all the rest of yoga (asana, pranayama, kriya, meditation, etc.). Jñāna yoga is woven in throughout the other practices of yoga. Whether we realize it or not, we are always working with our understanding of the practice and ourselves in the practice. As Ram Dass says, “To understand devotional yoga, to understand why we meditate, to understand why we do mantra, we have to develop the kind of discriminating wisdom that can differentiate the real from the unreal, and the path of developing that discrimination is jñāna yoga.”
In a way jñāna is your approach to the whole endeavor of yoga practice. An attitude of curiosity and refinement as we deepen into the self.
This curiosity is so essential, and a part of the beautiful spiral of yoga practice. You might start with asana, which slowly reveals to you that you are not your mind. Then you hear one of your teachers mention The Bhagavad Gita. So you get curious and read a translation. Your intellect starts to refine. This inspires you to start meditating, which gets you comfortable with yourself. You find you start to get more curious about yourself. You identify your impurities and redouble your efforts to remove them. You practice more. You attend satsangs and wisdom talks. You naturally become more discriminating and wise. Your meditation deepens. You read more spiritual texts. You surrender. Your heart opens. And on and on, ever deeper into the spiral of the self.
All of the practices are designed to lead you deeper inward. You only have to follow your bliss and stay open, stay curious.
From Knowledge to Intuition
The more we refine the intellect, the more we start to tap into our intuition, to the small, quiet voice deep inside.
Again, Ram Dass: “In shifting our focus that way, in turning from knowledge to intuition, we actually make a shift in our whole relationship with the universe. Knowledge is objective; we know about something. An intuitive relationship with the universe isn’t objective — anything but! It’s a subjective relationship: We’re all in it together. And that’s getting very close to the concept of ‘Oneness,’ the description of the atman.”
Now that we understand the various jñāna yoga practices and the means to refine the intellect through yoga, we need to remind ourselves that all of this is simply a set of tools for giving you the experience of Unity. True wisdom is a state of being, not a collection of knowledge. We study yoga texts, we study with teachers, we meditate. But we don’t get stuck in the knowledge or the wisdom — we don’t mistake the path for the destination. We’re using our intellect to acquire the knowledge so that we can move toward a state in which we can let go of all that knowledge and just be love.
Conclusion
The intellect (buddhi) is what creates meaning. That’s why it’s so important to correct and refine it.
We go through the intellect in order to arrive at the understanding that we don’t know anything, that knowledge is far inferior to the simple state of being. We use the intellect as a way of undercutting the intellect. It’s like Gödel’s theorem in which he proved the incompleteness and inconsistency of mathematics using mathematics. We move beyond mind through the mind.
We use knowledge as the rocket fuel to help us achieve lift off and enter spiritual orbit.
The great sage Ramana Maharshi’s simple jñāna practice was to continually ask himself, “Who am I?” He wrote, “If the mind uninterruptedly investigates its own true nature, it discovers that there is no such thing as mind. Such constant practice is the shortest path for attaining true wisdom.”
We’re moving from mere intellectual knowledge to profound wisdom. Knowledge without wisdom is despair. With wisdom, bliss is possible. It all starts with the self, and a radical willingness to be with the self. The self is the doorway through which we access infinity.
There are many roads back to the self. Start where you are.
