"JNANA YOGA"
     

       Stages of development of the mental

Zélia de Toledo Piza

          The human being, according to the Theosophy, is constituted by 7 bodies, each body in one of the plans of the Universe. From the densest to the subtlest, we have: physical, vital, emotional, mental concrete, mental abstract, budhico and atmico.

        To activate each one of those bodies, the Oriental philosophy Sankya presents 5 types of Yoga:

Physical

                       Hatha Yoga

Vital

 Emotional - Bhakti Yoga

 Mental concrete

                                       Jnana Yoga

Mental abstract

     

Budhico - Karma Yoga, that seeks the union between mind and emotion

     

Átmico - Raja Yoga

        In this approach we will be with Jnana Yoga.

        The matter of the mental plan receives in the philosophy Sankya the denomination of Chitta. It means that, when formulating thoughts, when creating mental images, the man is modeling that mental matter. That modeling results in a form inside of the mental plan, visible to whom has capacity for that.

        To those mental images, the philosophy Sankya gives the name of Writtis. Those images, in other words, thoughts, after having been elaborated, leave a track that never fades and that receives the name of Samskara. If I repeat a lot of times the same images, in other words, the same thoughts, I end up establishing a habit that can be positive or negative. If positive, it receives the name of Skanda. If negative, it receives the name of Nidhana. To this group of positive and negative characteristics, which goes on incorporating our personality, the science gives the name character.

Those tendencies that go stabilizing inside of our fundamental structure will determine the Karma of each one.

        There exist several Cosmic Laws that govern the structuring of the Universe, and one of them is the one of the polarity. That Law is reflected in everything, inclusive in our rational mental one, which is polar. He always plays with two poles. The man only gets to have perception of the things by the comparison. He only gets to think in some thing in terms of other. It is only possible to form a concept of which we can conceive the opposite. The philosophy, in his chapter of the dialectics, affirms that each thing brings in itself his own contradiction - day, night - life, death.

        Because of playing with opposed poles, the rational mind always leaves from a doubt state to enter in the land of the investigation, of the inquiry, for later to finish in a situation that answers their questions, giving place to a faith, to a theory, to the establishment of a law.

        Aristotle, the precursor of the logic, affirmed that the rational thought only begins when they associate at least two ideas, affirming or denying a the other. Otherwise, we will just be emitting ideas free, scattered.

        Two basic processes of reasoning exist - the deductive and the inductive. These two reasoning modalities are in full detail explained in the book of my authorship - "The Man and the Universe."

        Measuring the man's progress through the times, we see that the concepts are going changing - the sun for the Greek was the igneous car in that Hélio walked for on the earth. Then it started to be the eye of God. Galileu identified as fire sphere. Today, when it is spoken in sun, they are electrons, rays range, prótons, nuclei of Hélio etc. Somebody said that the science is a dynasty of concepts that you/they are happened as the kings in the Monarchy.

        Joseph Macdhan, in the introduction of the book The Creator Spirit, says: "The scientific method, dependent of the logical induction, of the use of statistical processes and of the inevitable intellectual analysis of the subject, it cannot be the only middle to discover what the man brings of transcendent."

      The esoterism affirms that, through certain practices, the man should necessarily transcend the strip of the mental rational, that is intimately linked to the limitations of our senses, and it should put the focus of his/her conscience in a subtler plan, that it is Budhico, the one of the intuition fullness, that abstracts of that complex mechanism of the logic.

        To cross that apprenticeship, it should firm the mind through the study of the concentration and of the meditation. The evolution degree is measured by the capacity of relationship of a knowledge with other, he/she wants to say, as larger the number of premises that you/they are interconnected, larger the evolutionary degree.

        The mental rational it just includes a strip of the all universal, in the same way as the vision only includes a range of the vibration of the light, the audition just a range of the vibration of the sound. That limit should be crossed through the evolutionary process and the man should reach the strip understood by Budhi that is the call capacity of the direct vision - it is the supramental of Aurobindo. The man simply knows that is right.

        To reach that state, the man he/she needs to pass for the 7 states of conscience, states that are related with the opening of the linked perception channels to the chakras, then the importance of the practice of Yoga.

        Naturally, this division of the development of the mental in stages is of didactic character, it is a rational presentation of the problem, because actually, that passage for the 7 states of conscience is a complex process, with states of being difficult of be identified. In spite of that, if each one meditates on the apprenticeships that they will be described, it will perfectly be able to locate in one of them.

        We will focus the man firstly in his/her state previous to the classification of Jnana. It is the called state of Shiptwasta.

        It is characterized by the intimate existent correlation among mind and emotion that it results in a confusion state and mental dispersion, state in that he/she is the man in the apprenticeship of current development. The man is stunned always and perplexed because the emotion surpassing, it harms the capacity to face the facts entirely calmly and discernment. He/she lives in the base of the satisfaction of their primary needs. He/she lives in search of something that satisfies the emotion; he/she has wealth need, success, domain, prestige and all their actions are impelled by these reasons. The man in general search the ends, without measuring the means. The man acts in that way because it thinks those are the elements capable to open the doors of the terrestrial happiness. If for an instant he glimpsed that it is exactly using the keys that close the door of the true happiness, he would already count with a factor that could take him his/her liberation.

        While the man struggles in this state of chaotic confusion between emotion and reason nor it can be classified inside of Jnana.

        When it appears in the man a quick despertamento for the problems of spiritual order, a longing that no more it is satisfied with the obtaining of immediate pleasures, with a frivolous life, then we say that the man entered for the state of Subhaisha.

        It is the apprenticeship that is characterized by the search of the Truth foreseen in the being's heart; the search of something that satisfies the interior reclamos and the man begins by trying all of the religions, all of the philosophical schools that you/they come as bearers of the Truth. Him if it turns a free thinker. It is a time of great instability, because the disciple notices that for the whole part there is some truth but it doesn't get to isolate her, it doesn't get to take off her/it of the countless garments imposed by the religions and philosophies. He acquires, though, a mental one that it is willing to investigate, to analyze and it is exactly this disposition that is important in this apprenticeship.

        Although the doubt is completes still, when the man hears to speak of the subject feels that is true but he doesn't know how well to explain why. The emotion is the first that accepts. When reason and emotion reach an agreement, then it begins the accomplishment.

One of the great dangers in this apprenticeship of Subhaisha is the disciple to take one of the partial truths as definitive, dogmatizar, to accept one of the religions or philosophies, acomodar¬-if and to interrupt the search.

        The dogmatização is dangerous for two reasons:

l. It takes the man to the accommodation. The law of the minimum effort is inherent to the human nature.

2. That accommodation impedes the man of proceeding to the necessary changes.

        The mental invigoration will take him/it to notice that should abandon certain aspects of the emotional life - he/she should make distinction between the right and the wrong and it should use the Will to act, in agreement with the right. He/she happens, however, that, in an unconscious way, the person refuses to that.

        At the same time in that his/her mental one is going acquiring this capacity of investigation of the truth, he needs to acquire a parallel development in the moral land. Conscious, or unconsciously, he should be dominating ethics beginnings because, in this stage, the man begins to distinguish that his/her nature is constituted by two antagonistic beginnings. A positive part that impels us upward and other negative that impels us down.

        When the mental is disposed to face everything to find the truth, this can be inside of a school iniciático or out of him, then it is said that the man passed for the second apprenticeship that is it of Visharana, that corresponds her/it an adaptation of the mental.

        This apprenticeship of adaptation of the mental represents a terrible fight for the disciple. He needs to abandon all of the previous prejudices, all of the acquired notions through his/her education, of the environment in that he/she lived, to see the Truth fairly. It is Helena Petrovna Blavatsky second commandment: free mind and without prejudices.

        Budha advised their disciples: Don't "accept anything that to the first view they seem unreasonable, irrelevant. But, at the same time, never despise anything as unreasonable, without first to have examined well."

        In this apprenticeship they still remain a lot of doubts. When the disciple acquires that mental impartiality, that capacity of seeing opposite points of a same thing without exalting, without her to let to confuse for the doubt and he becomes capable to discern among those opposed points, the right of the wrong; when to equal with his/her impartiality emotion it begins vibrating in syntony with the subtlest plans, when the man begins being good, he passes stop the third apprenticeship, the one of Tano-Manassa.

        This apprenticeship can be synthesized as the one of the reduction of the mental. Reduction this current one exactly of his/her previous development, accomplished through the investigations of the second apprenticeship, of that beginning of process of the meditation.

        Here, the reasoning power reached such expansion degree that is going acquiring the capacity of the direct vision automatically. For us to see the Universal Truth, we needed to abandon the crutch of our mental one rational and to acquire the call state of Budhi that makes possible to see the causes in their sources, just as them they are truly.

        The mental rational he/she cannot see except the effects of the causes, because the mental only understands arguing, comparing opposite possibilities. While there are two points to be analyzed, that that one study is effect and it doesn't cause. The cause is simply in herself, not admitting consideration, therefore it can only be understood by Budhi, state that sees and he/she knows that the one that sees is right, without argument. The soul becomes androgynous.

        In this apprenticeship, while the disciple begins if freeing of his/her mental one rational, he begins seeing the problems of the daily life in way objective, clear and the solutions come in way easy, simple. This is one of the clear indications of the disciple's progress. Acquisition of the personal balance.

        In the previous apprenticeships the man's energy was absorbed in the fight in that he struggled with Writtis and with his/her emotional past. Here the energy begins being free.

        In the previous apprenticeship, all the time that the disciple was disposed to an application difficult of the mental, the images intervened. The mind escaped. The income was null. If the individual had not struggled, practicing the concentration, it would have stayed in the applications easy of the mental, as it happens with a great majority - they are in the comic books, light romances, stories policemen, soap operas etc. No that there is any type of dogmatic condemnation in relation to those goods of application of the mental. In everything there is of everything. But the problem is that are applications easy of the mental.

        Here in the apprenticeship of Tano-Manassa, already the mind is strong, the disciple is freed entirely of the images and the income is total. It already dominates without their great effort thoughts and it applies them as well he/she understands. He/she wants to say that he stops being slave to be gentleman of their thoughts.

        In this apprenticeship the mental rational it is that goes if turning slave of Budhi that it begins dominating. The mental rational it serves then to help the man to bring that that sees up there, in a direct way, for the land of the human understanding.

        When the man reaches the call of Dharana, that state of mental peacefulness, passes for the fourth apprenticeship, the one of Sattwapati, also known as degree of Arati.

        It is the maximum degree to be reached in this evolution cycle. The mental is totally reduced and the perception of the reality to the direct, that is, the disciple reaches the perfect state of Budhi that is it of the static knowledge, because he doesn't need the game of the reasoning more. The disciple acquires the perfect domain of the thought, of the emotion and of the physicist. But, to arrive to this apprenticeship, they are necessary exercises of concentration of the previous apprenticeships.

 

        Here he thinks without images and he/she doesn't sit down more with the senses that it is already going being a little more difficult of being understood by the mental rational. He acquires the first of the three powers, that is, acquires the omniscience, and raisin for the fifth apprenticeship, the one of Assamshakti.

        Here the conscience is focused in Atmã that is trill - Sat - Chit - Ananda or Power, Wisdom and Universal Love.

        Music helps a lot, it refines the astral.

        In this apprenticeship, the physical form doesn't have more sense, reason of being, because the disciple already dominates the Universal Laws. He/she acquires the second to can, the one of the omnipresence.

        The sixth apprenticeship of Jnana is it of Padhartha. Bhawani.

        Here the disciple found the lost word, that that turns him/it same to God, because he discovers the vibrations that created the elaboration of the Universe. He/she acquires the third to can, the one of the omnipotence.

        The seventh apprenticeship is it of Turyiaga-Bhumi.

        The disciple is totally out of the opposites. They are words of a hierophant: "That that transcended the opposites, reaches the Plan of the Real, from where contemplates her/it disciplined concatenation of the successes the one that called Human Life, as cheerful experiences, considered as indispensable for the improvement of the soul."

        There is integration in God. It is the supreme to can, the supreme knowledge and the supreme beatitude.

        Thereafter, the Being can melt with the Infinite, or he can give up that, continuing reincarnations to aid the humanity as compassion Budhas and they stay as gentlemen of the creation. But it happens that conserve the seed of Writtis and they can fall and to suffer, they can enter again in it schemes him/it psychic, so that these beings' sacrifice is something incalculable.

        Jnana is one of the aspects of the 7 states of conscience that the man has to acquire to reach his/her divinity. Parallel, it is necessary to take care from the moral and ethical aspect linked to Bhakti Yoga process, that is the doctrine of the heart.