jnani metaphors

Because it is so hard to speak about jnani, particularly in English, it is also hard to recognise the many jnani paths and individuals from the different metaphors they use. Once an aspirant or community accepts a metaphor or terminology its continual use generally pushes the meaning away from that which the Master intended : the 'kingdom of heaven' and 'nirvana' are good examples. One of the purposes of this site is to help people from different jnani traditions recognise their common ground, and so a list of some of the main metaphors is presented below. Great jnani teachers may use completely new and appropriate metaphors which gain little widespread acceptance however, for example Douglas Hardings's 'headlessness'. These will be discussed in the section on Selected Masters.

• Freedom, liberation, moksha: the traditional metaphor in Hinduism. It appeals, because the desire for freedom is a deeply-held instinct, but is vulnerable to the question: 'freedom from what'?
• Enlightenment: this metaphor resonates with the intuition that religious experience is something to do with an inner 'light'. Problematic, because the 'Enlightenment' in 17/18th century Europe had little to do with spiritual enlightenment, and was largely instrumental in the development of a secular, even atheistic world-view.
• Divine Darkness: this metaphor is rare (it originates from the pseudo-Dyonisius), but is valuable because there are times in the life of a jnani when complete withdrawal from the senses is important. It is also a good metaphor to meditate on, because it helps us let go of the literality of 'Enlightenment'.
• nirvana: this was the Buddha's central metaphor, and meant, in the Pali language, 'to extinguish'. This is a good example of a metaphor that has taken on a life of its own, as most people now consider the word to be roughly synonymous with 'heaven'.
• the Non-Dual: this is the traditional metaphor of the Advaita or non-devotional branch of Hinduism. It might be considered to be the most descriptive of all the jnani metaphors because it goes to the heart of the experience. For the same reason it may also be the least accessible.
• The Unitive state: this metaphor is found in Christian mysticism, and in that context it implies union with God. Otherwise it has basically the same intention as 'non-dual'.
• The Kingdom of Heaven: this was Jesus' central metaphor (also 'Kingdom of God'). The image of a kingdom resonated strongly with the Jewish people of the time, because they were under Roman occupation. Unfortunately many people both then and through history have read a political agenda into Jesus' teachings because of the word 'kingdom'. Despite that the metaphor is good for the realised jnani because it reflects the grandeur of the experience.
  

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