Metaphysics and Jnana Yoga

METAPHYSICS AND JNANA YOGA


Coming from the Greek, Metaphysics can be translated as "that which comes after physics, matter, or nature."

Thus Metaphysics is looking for the permanent Reality, the unchanged Beingness, and the stationary Existence as the Base for everything that shows constant change.

The "theorizing" mind gives this being the name God.

The "practical" seeker experiences this being as pure Awareness. The theoretical side of Metaphysics seems to belong now to the academics. And, to be quite fair, they have done an outstanding job and there are now many metaphysical systems and positions.
However, theorizing about pleasure or pain does not give us the actual experience.

That is where Yoga comes in: Yoga is the tool with which we can go all the way if this is our true desire.

With regard to finding balance, our Western approach to healing is still in its nursery stage as we still have a lot more to learn. Often without a chance of healing, pharmaceuticals are the remedies of choice.

Quite a few of these chemicals are known to mask only the symptoms of one disease while producing additional problems with more symptoms that have to be treated by more of these chemicals. This has lead to bizarre pictures of treatment where older people were sometimes digesting up to 50 different prescriptions a day for all kinds of health problems. As a result, some of these people had to be hospitalized while others have died as a result of unwanted side-effects. The constantly growing costs are no more than an observable sign of an imbalance in our health system.

To properly treat a disease it is important to know what is missing or what is out of balance.

Ayurveda, for example, tries to reestablish a balance of the three basic types of the human constitution which are called Kapha, Pitta, and Vata.

Traditional Chinese Medicine seeks to restore the flow of Qi by balancing the Yin and Yang.

Yogis know this supreme energy, called Qi, as Kundalini and Yin and Yang as Ida and Pingala.

Everything in the Universe exists because of the two opposite forces and the universal balancing act. Thus the mixture of positive and negative forces shape everything from the atom to our character and health.

If we desire a warm temperature we have to balance hot and cold. In order to feel healthy we might have to either add or subtract a vitamin, mineral or amino-acid.

Most important is the precise knowledge of what is missing or unbalanced.


In regards to the right vitamin or mineral level, we are now seeing more and more test kits made available which will make it a lot easier in the future to gain this precise knowledge.

In short, all it needs is the genuine interest and a certain amount of courage, even so the fear we encounter on the way is nothing but being afraid to look at our Self. Going back to the origins of the word metaphysics, it is said that it was first used to name untitled manuscripts of Aristotle. It is curious, that most philosophical text books cover an area starting with the Greeks Plato, Aristotle, etc., but leave out earlier philosophies from India.

However, there is enough evidence that the philosophy of the Greek and Iranians was heavily influenced from these earlier philosophies of India. At any rate, at least some of the Greek philosophers had a very clear understanding of Reality-as-such. They agreed with earlier Indian philosophies as well as with Scientists of our time that the world as we perceive it is of an illusionary nature. As Parmenides and Zeno pointed out, only what is Permanent and Unchanging is real. The rest is an illusion either experienced or created by our mind. Paramenides: "Being is, Non-Being is not."

We now know that all matter is energy.

But we also know the we are aware of matter. All we have to do is to find out what Awareness is in its clear state of Being and, believe it or not, all our questions are answered and all our fears are dissolved. To get to this state of Being is the ultimate goal of all genuine spiritual exercise including Yoga. So, intellectual understanding of Beingness, as a result from studying Metaphysics, can lead to intellectual enlightening, while the practice of Yoga can lead to direct knowledge.

A more modern interpretation of Metaphysics includes psychic phenomena in all its variations including parapsychology the scientific investigation of these phenomena.

Beingness, as the nature of God, is expressed when we hear American Natives refer to God as the "Great Spirit". "Jahwe" (JHVH \ Jehovah), the Jewish name for God, translates as "I am who I am".

Beingness, then, is the nature of God, in fact, Beingness is God.

Since God is self-reliant and the world is a manifestation of God's energy, we could call God.

Self-energetic Beingness. From the accounts of the many Saints, Sages, and Self-realized persons, who have encountered this condition of Being, we may add that this condition is a blissful state of Being.

In other words, Jnana Yoga is practical philosophy / metaphysics; it is both theory and practice.