ACIM and the Four Yogas

          "It is impossible to accept the holy instant without reservation unless, just for an instant, you are willing to see no past or future. You cannot prepare for it without placing it in the future. Release is given you the instant you desire it…You may be attempting to follow a very long road to the goal you have accepted. It is extremely difficult to reach Atonement by fighting against sin. Enormous effort is expended in the attempt to make holy what is hated and despised. Nor is a lifetime of contemplation and long periods of meditation aimed at detachment from the body necessary. All such attempts will ultimately succeed because of their purpose. Yet the means are tedious and very time consuming, for all of them look to the future for release from a state of present unworthiness and inadequacy...” (T-18.VII.4) 

Recently I read The Complete Book of Yoga by Swami Vivekananda. He brought Hindu teachings to the western world in the late nineteenth century. I cannot recommend it as a book of instruction, as it is dripping with guilt. However, it is informative.

What I took away from the book was his categorization of the hundreds of Hindu paths, or yogas, into four primary approaches. (Yoga means to join with reality.) Each of these approaches aim for the same goal, and intersect and contain the others to some degree, but his point was that each person takes a primary approach, which would be one of these four.

Really, you can apply these four primary approaches to anyone on a religious or spiritual path. None of them is right or wrong in themselves, though they may be right or wrong for you. Vivekananda emphasized that you should take the approach that resonates with you and refrain from judging the approach that suits others. Different does not mean wrong.

I have certainly seen these four approaches among students of A Course in Miracles. In fact, it is because of these different primary approaches that we each resonate with different teachers.

The value of looking at these approaches is it helps to “uncross the wires” and sort out contradictions you encounter in your study. Each approach is consistent in itself but may not make sense from another approach.

It also makes you aware that there is no one right way to approach spirituality or religion, diminishing any confusion or guilt you may have over your approach. For example, not long ago someone said something to me about my “great love of Truth.” Uhhh….no. I never have had a great love of Truth. Spiritually, I’ve never been a lover or worshipper. I wanted to know Truth because It is the Truth. My approach was more head than heart. Early in my teaching, I would have felt confusion if someone said this to me. I would wonder if I was supposed to be worshiping Truth. Now I understand better that it was simply not my way.

Of course, diminishing guilt in your mind means diminishing projections of guilt onto others. When you are comfortable with your primary approach, you will not be in conflict with others over theirs.

The first approach Vivekananda wrote about is called Karma Yoga. I would call this the path of perfecting. He refers to this as the work one does, which he says is constantly occurring. On the surface, one could almost think he’s pointing out, as the Course does, that you are constantly teaching yourself and what you teach yourself depends on which teacher you choose, ego or Spirit. But I would say that this approach is represented in the quote above in the reference to “fighting against sin.” This despite this approach recognizing that the material experience does not touch your True Self! It is hard to reconcile the moralizing of this approach with this recognition.

Oh, how harsh this way seems! One is meant to come to hate the temporal world, to have no enjoyment (not even of their path), and ultimately to have not even a single false thought. Of course, this is so manifestly impossible it is expected to take lifetimes.

In the Course community, the students close to the karma approach would be those folks who are constantly at work at “right thinking.” Most Course students would not say that they are aiming at perfection, yet there are those who are constantly correcting themselves (and others through projection), which in the end is the same thing, and has the same fearful motivation of guilt.

Of course, due to the guilt in our minds, most of us start out this way, whether in the end it’s our primary path. But for those who never move on from aiming for purity or perfection, it is their primary path. Spirit will meet you where you are, even if you insist on being harsh with yourself!

Then there is Bhakti Yoga. This could be called the way of love (or worship). This is the way most people want, as it is the most personal and feels more pleasant. However, as I can attest from my own experience, you cannot force the approach that is to be your way. Your primary approach arises naturally and the other approaches often won’t make sense to you.

Vivekananda felt bhakti was Jesus’s way. He also said it is the most natural way for humankind, but I disagree, because obviously whatever way is one’s way is most natural to that one.

The object of love in bhakti is God, Truth, the Absolute—whatever you call Reality. It begins with a personal god but can evolve into the Absolute’s Love for the Absolute at its highest. The goal of this approach is no fear, no desire, and Love for the sake of Love. I suspect this is the approach of most students of the Course.

Next is Raja Yoga, or what I consider the mind-over-matter approach. Vivekananda says this approach is found in the others more than the others are found in each other. He considers it the science of the yogas. It is a path of meditation and inquiry into the mind and in that regard, yes, I can see where the other approaches use these practices. But ultimately, Raja is about controlling the mind to control the body and manipulate matter.

The Course touches on this in some of its discussions about the body and illness. Yet it only states that one can use their mind to overcome matter and never goes into any detail as to how one is to do this. This may be why it is the rarest approach taken by students of the Course. I know of only one Course community that takes this approach and I have never worked with anyone who was genuinely interested in working at mind over matter, although I have referred a couple of people to that community.

Finally, there is Jnana Yoga. I would say this is the path of only God is Real. It is the ultimate path of nonduality, or advaita which is probably the most well-known approach in Hinduism in the Course community today.

In this approach, one is to contemplate Reality and bring their mind back to It again and again. This is the approach referred to in the quote at the top that many take as “…a lifetime of contemplation and long periods of meditation aimed at detachment from the body...”, which is not necessary. This very practice is what the Course calls practicing the holy instant. Truth is here. There is no path.

If you are familiar with my 4 Habits for Inner Peace (here), then you know this is the approach I discovered I was spontaneously taking, without knowing anything about jnana yoga or advaita at the time. Clearly, it is my primary approach, the lens through which I studied and teach the Course.

Vivekananda felt jnana was the highest, yet most difficult approach, and the one least realized, because it means denying appearances as reality. But it is probably the second most common approach, behind bhakti, in the Course community.

Your primary approach is predetermined by the role you are to play in the Atonement. As each approach contains the others, all of them probably resonate with you to some degree. But you probably feel right away which one is your primary approach. Knowing this may help you understand why some teachers or teachings have not worked for you, and may mitigate any confusion you feel over this.

 

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