Beginning Practical Spirituality

The word practical means "applied, not merely theoretical." Thus, practical spirituality is something experienced and lived. This new course will describe how to live an essentially practical approach to religion: how to experience what is described in the scriptures of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Christianity. Structurally, we will utilize the simple and effective approach of Yoga as taught by Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita, and Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras. This is not a course of theory, belief, supposition, guesswork, or fantasy. Instead, the student will learn how to awaken their own perception of reality, and transform their experience of living, by setting aside harmful and useless behviors, and adopting behaviors that benefit themselves and others. In the first lecture, we learn about practical point of view of the course, and how to begin utilizing it in our daily lives: through using consciousness, attention, awareness. We also begin learning about how Krishna, the great teacher of Yoga, explained the three brains and how to use them spiritually: Karma Yoga: the path of work Bhakti Yoga: the path of devotion Jnana Yoga: the path of self-analysis and knowledge Raja Yoga: the path of psychic control Finally, we also study the eight steps of Raja Yoga (Ashtanga), as taught by Patanjali. The eight steps are: Yama: self-restraint Niyama: precepts Asana: posture; relaxation Pranayama: harnessing of life force Pratyahara: suspension of senses Dharana: concentration Dhyana: meditation Samadhi: super-conscious state, blissfulness, ecstasy