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jnani practice The essential jnani practice is meditation and the essential bhakti practice is prayer (or worship). (Such a categorical statement of the difference between jnani and bhakti practice may seem inflexible, but, because the concept of jnani is so unknown to the West, the point is being emphasised to help in its understanding.) Meditation is of the mind, prayer is of the heart. But what is the meditation practice at the core of the jnani experience? Krishnamurti, the great jnani Master of the 20th century, often spoke of meditation as a state, but denied that it could be practised. In contrast we see a wide variety of meditative practices taught by other Masters and traditions. Meditation is popularly associated with concentration, or focusing the mind on some suitable object or concept (and in even more populist thinking the 'navel').
Concentration may be a valuable skill to learn in the early stages, and it is true that the fully developed jnani often emphasises stillness of the mind. This is because the job of the discursive mind is to create distinctions, all of which lead to a false sense of separation with the manifest reality. When the mind is still the illusion of separation falls away. For those on the via negativa all that remains is to share this silence with others. For those on the via positiva there remains a more active relationship with mind, though it can never again engage in the fantasy of separate being. In jnani as with bhakti,
one may attempt to practice attributes that one observes in the Master,
or one may be exhorted to do so, including silence of the mind. In the
end it is unclear however whether these are attributes that one can practice
at all, or whether they arise because enlightenment has taken hold of
an individual for quite mysterious reasons (as we shall see with Ramana
Maharshi). This observation should not be taken as an encouragement to
laziness however. If in doubt meditate! (This is the jnani version
of Pascal's Wager).
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