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happypandaThe following is an exploration in response to Violet's excellent essay titled The Three Gunas and Western Occultism.
You can read it at: https://violetcabra.dreamwidth.org/127956.html
The following are my first-draft musings upon reading it.
**************
My musings spawned from Violet's essay won't be very encompassing at the moment but they've definitely given me some things to think about. The Western and Eastern paths could possibly be compatible if one changes a bit the framework of seeing them imo.
The ultimate aim of every human is that something within seeks to go beyond the current bounds in order to explore and express more potentials. This only opens up as one becomes more subtle in nature - Satva in Dharmic terms. Satvic guna is 'good' only in the sense that it's a more sensible, intelligent and wise expression and development of one's various potentials. In short, it's the most subtle-ized of the 3 gunas. Rajas guna is mid-point. It's just energy itself which expresses however which way. Tamas is 'bad' only in the sense that it's both the least subtle-ized, the most bound and therefore typically most clueless expression of one's potentials. On the upside Tamas is the thing that holds the form. It's directly due to the Tamas guna that every living thing on Earth has a body. So even Tamas is not really 'bad' per se. Just the most dense/gross about whatever is manifesting at the moment.
The apparent difference is this:
There are 4 primary pathways humans' tendencies gravitate to for becoming most fully human - exploring all the untapped potential of being human and eventually beyond that.
Bakti - the path of joy/bliss expressed equally and equanimously toward everything - often as single-minded Devotion. Note: There is a small variant of this that flips the script on its head where disdain/fierceness is used in precisely the same way - even toward the most exalted divine. That's what the Aghoris are famous for.
This is hands down the fastest path for ascent up the Cosmic Doctrine Planes. You relinquish your own tiny Will in exchange for the purified Superconsciousness' Divine Will. Hence all the talk about Devotion to the Divine, to God, to one's Guru, etc by Bakta's. If you do that it becomes super-easy for the Divine to step in and simply take you were your tiny Will wants to go - it knows how to do so faster and better than your Will does - plus it'll throw in tons of fabulous things your Will never dreamed possible. It is the lightening path of Ascension through the Planes. Not to mention it's also probably the most pleasant and blissful way to subtle-ize.
Gnana (alt spelling: Jnana) - the path of Knowledge. This is JMG's path
Here is what Sadhguru had to say about Gnana:
Fundamentally, if you want to pursue gnana, you need a very alert, sharp intellect. Every day and every moment you must slowly sharpen your intellect to a point where it is like razor sharp. It misses nothing. It can go through anything, but nothing sticks to it, it is not influenced by anything that is happening around. This is gnana.
...edited a bit:
talking about the illusory nature of the world, or talking about the Creation and Creator, or believing that the world is like this or that, is not gnana. Gnana yogis cannot afford to believe or identify themselves with anything. The moment they do, the sharpness and effectiveness of the intellect is over.
Karma - the path of Action - (ie Will as Willpower) - following through on some action one would like to take. It's exoteric expression can be as small as ordinary actions like cleaning one's room regularly if one has a habit of not doing so or as large as Gandhi took on behalf of an entire country. It's esoteric expression is that of ceremonial rituals, divination - that is to say, Tantra. JMGs path is also a lot of this.
Kriya - the path of Life Energies
It's expression is that of true Yoga/Nei-Gong. Gaining 100% control of all the body and mind's various life energies. It's a much tougher route than the other 3 as it typically requires one to evolve into a full-fledged ascetic in order to gain 100% control. Sadhguru called it the path of the tight-rope walker vs the people-friendly road of Tantra.
Karma turned inward and intensified becomes Kriya. Which is why some historians/purists don't consider it a separate path, just a sub-specialty of the Karma path. You're using the body's ability to perceive via all 5 senses to directly subtle-ize yourself into the kind of person you aspire to be. Thus action in the world (Karma/Willpower) will still happen but as a more indirect consequence of one's focus on self-evolving. Since you will slowly (or quickly in some cases) be changing your life energies directly the world is going to adapt in response. Qi-gong and beginner-intermediate yoga does not require asceticism. It's only if one wants 100% control of all one's life energies that makes asceticism an eventual requirement.
In truth everybody has all 4 of these available. It's just that their preferences will lean to one getting more of a daily workout than the other 3. But all 4 can be used in varying proportions on the spiritual path and none is better than any other since the Universe is manifesting them all simultaneously.
This might be one way one can go back and examine anew the differences between some Western and some Eastern spiritual traditions and see if they still show contradictions or not.
Looking over Violet's essay - not mulling it yet via Discursive Meditation - I would say perhaps some Western Alchemy paths seem to show a preference for the Karma path.
The Dharma traditions take a very long rang and esoteric view because the result of all the paths is ascent back through the Planes. Subtle-ization all the way to Superconsciousness and beyond.
Many people know they want to bring about change to increase pleasantness within and without and to explore untapped potentials of being human. They just don't know how to do it effectively since that's an application of true-mastered Will.
I have yet to see any of the Western traditions (Druid, Neopagan, Wiccan, Hermetic, etc) evolving toward a Kriya path though all it would take is for a small group so inclined to head in that direction. It's certainly possible there are such groups already coalescing and I haven't heard of it yet. Western societies default to a "Celebrate-Your-Genitalia" attitude for fulfilling one's human potentials because the only thing they know of is its direct opposite which is "Persecution-For-Your-Genitalia" and nobody wants the misery that comes with that. It seldom enters into most people's minds that there is a subset of the world's population that actually don't mind full-fledged asceticism because the joy of that 100% life energies control more than makes up for the loss of sex. In short, ascetics don't experience lack of sex as lack.
*****************
It's easy to see from the 4 pathways that JMG is a Gnana Tantric. To the extent he keeps his conclusions at bay during Discursive Meditation sessions he strengthens the Gnana capacity of his Intellect each day. Only once he's finished with his Discursive session does he finally allow things to organize coherently. His writing is always exceptionally clear because nothing sticks to his deliberately-cultivated intellect during his Discursive sessions. That potential has subtle-ized to a high degree. You're seeing what a more-satvic Intellect is capable of vs. a more-tamasic one (most of humanity and definitely Mainstream and even a lot of Alt-Media). Although I doubt he would ever characterize himself as a Gnana Tantric other eastern-tradition yogis/yoginis and tantrics would acknowledge him as one. As someone once said, "By their fruits shall ye know them."
Notice also how he teaches how to develop the Will. A great example of how people can access all 4 pathways at various times to explore and develop their full potential.
His is a people-friendly DIY-Western-Tantric path as his methods don't require asceticism as a lifestyle in order to work. He's set himself the not-inconsiderable herculean task of building and rebuilding a legitimate and complete Western-Tantric-Lineage that can aid people who have zero affinity for any of the various eastern spiritual traditions.
You can read it at: https://violetcabra.dreamwidth.org/127956.html
The following are my first-draft musings upon reading it.
**************
My musings spawned from Violet's essay won't be very encompassing at the moment but they've definitely given me some things to think about. The Western and Eastern paths could possibly be compatible if one changes a bit the framework of seeing them imo.
The ultimate aim of every human is that something within seeks to go beyond the current bounds in order to explore and express more potentials. This only opens up as one becomes more subtle in nature - Satva in Dharmic terms. Satvic guna is 'good' only in the sense that it's a more sensible, intelligent and wise expression and development of one's various potentials. In short, it's the most subtle-ized of the 3 gunas. Rajas guna is mid-point. It's just energy itself which expresses however which way. Tamas is 'bad' only in the sense that it's both the least subtle-ized, the most bound and therefore typically most clueless expression of one's potentials. On the upside Tamas is the thing that holds the form. It's directly due to the Tamas guna that every living thing on Earth has a body. So even Tamas is not really 'bad' per se. Just the most dense/gross about whatever is manifesting at the moment.
The apparent difference is this:
There are 4 primary pathways humans' tendencies gravitate to for becoming most fully human - exploring all the untapped potential of being human and eventually beyond that.
Bakti - the path of joy/bliss expressed equally and equanimously toward everything - often as single-minded Devotion. Note: There is a small variant of this that flips the script on its head where disdain/fierceness is used in precisely the same way - even toward the most exalted divine. That's what the Aghoris are famous for.
This is hands down the fastest path for ascent up the Cosmic Doctrine Planes. You relinquish your own tiny Will in exchange for the purified Superconsciousness' Divine Will. Hence all the talk about Devotion to the Divine, to God, to one's Guru, etc by Bakta's. If you do that it becomes super-easy for the Divine to step in and simply take you were your tiny Will wants to go - it knows how to do so faster and better than your Will does - plus it'll throw in tons of fabulous things your Will never dreamed possible. It is the lightening path of Ascension through the Planes. Not to mention it's also probably the most pleasant and blissful way to subtle-ize.
Gnana (alt spelling: Jnana) - the path of Knowledge. This is JMG's path
Here is what Sadhguru had to say about Gnana:
Fundamentally, if you want to pursue gnana, you need a very alert, sharp intellect. Every day and every moment you must slowly sharpen your intellect to a point where it is like razor sharp. It misses nothing. It can go through anything, but nothing sticks to it, it is not influenced by anything that is happening around. This is gnana.
...edited a bit:
talking about the illusory nature of the world, or talking about the Creation and Creator, or believing that the world is like this or that, is not gnana. Gnana yogis cannot afford to believe or identify themselves with anything. The moment they do, the sharpness and effectiveness of the intellect is over.
Karma - the path of Action - (ie Will as Willpower) - following through on some action one would like to take. It's exoteric expression can be as small as ordinary actions like cleaning one's room regularly if one has a habit of not doing so or as large as Gandhi took on behalf of an entire country. It's esoteric expression is that of ceremonial rituals, divination - that is to say, Tantra. JMGs path is also a lot of this.
Kriya - the path of Life Energies
It's expression is that of true Yoga/Nei-Gong. Gaining 100% control of all the body and mind's various life energies. It's a much tougher route than the other 3 as it typically requires one to evolve into a full-fledged ascetic in order to gain 100% control. Sadhguru called it the path of the tight-rope walker vs the people-friendly road of Tantra.
Karma turned inward and intensified becomes Kriya. Which is why some historians/purists don't consider it a separate path, just a sub-specialty of the Karma path. You're using the body's ability to perceive via all 5 senses to directly subtle-ize yourself into the kind of person you aspire to be. Thus action in the world (Karma/Willpower) will still happen but as a more indirect consequence of one's focus on self-evolving. Since you will slowly (or quickly in some cases) be changing your life energies directly the world is going to adapt in response. Qi-gong and beginner-intermediate yoga does not require asceticism. It's only if one wants 100% control of all one's life energies that makes asceticism an eventual requirement.
In truth everybody has all 4 of these available. It's just that their preferences will lean to one getting more of a daily workout than the other 3. But all 4 can be used in varying proportions on the spiritual path and none is better than any other since the Universe is manifesting them all simultaneously.
This might be one way one can go back and examine anew the differences between some Western and some Eastern spiritual traditions and see if they still show contradictions or not.
Looking over Violet's essay - not mulling it yet via Discursive Meditation - I would say perhaps some Western Alchemy paths seem to show a preference for the Karma path.
The Dharma traditions take a very long rang and esoteric view because the result of all the paths is ascent back through the Planes. Subtle-ization all the way to Superconsciousness and beyond.
Many people know they want to bring about change to increase pleasantness within and without and to explore untapped potentials of being human. They just don't know how to do it effectively since that's an application of true-mastered Will.
I have yet to see any of the Western traditions (Druid, Neopagan, Wiccan, Hermetic, etc) evolving toward a Kriya path though all it would take is for a small group so inclined to head in that direction. It's certainly possible there are such groups already coalescing and I haven't heard of it yet. Western societies default to a "Celebrate-Your-Genitalia" attitude for fulfilling one's human potentials because the only thing they know of is its direct opposite which is "Persecution-For-Your-Genitalia" and nobody wants the misery that comes with that. It seldom enters into most people's minds that there is a subset of the world's population that actually don't mind full-fledged asceticism because the joy of that 100% life energies control more than makes up for the loss of sex. In short, ascetics don't experience lack of sex as lack.
*****************
It's easy to see from the 4 pathways that JMG is a Gnana Tantric. To the extent he keeps his conclusions at bay during Discursive Meditation sessions he strengthens the Gnana capacity of his Intellect each day. Only once he's finished with his Discursive session does he finally allow things to organize coherently. His writing is always exceptionally clear because nothing sticks to his deliberately-cultivated intellect during his Discursive sessions. That potential has subtle-ized to a high degree. You're seeing what a more-satvic Intellect is capable of vs. a more-tamasic one (most of humanity and definitely Mainstream and even a lot of Alt-Media). Although I doubt he would ever characterize himself as a Gnana Tantric other eastern-tradition yogis/yoginis and tantrics would acknowledge him as one. As someone once said, "By their fruits shall ye know them."
Notice also how he teaches how to develop the Will. A great example of how people can access all 4 pathways at various times to explore and develop their full potential.
His is a people-friendly DIY-Western-Tantric path as his methods don't require asceticism as a lifestyle in order to work. He's set himself the not-inconsiderable herculean task of building and rebuilding a legitimate and complete Western-Tantric-Lineage that can aid people who have zero affinity for any of the various eastern spiritual traditions.
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