Those who follow the path of God with form nurture a personal relationship with the deity of their choice. They keep an image in their mind of what this deity looks like. They may talk with it as a friend or as a servant. They may also use statues, icons, pictures, rituals, mystic symbols, alters, incense, music, holy water, sacramental food, etc. to immerse their senses into constant remembrance. Usually a mantra, prayer beads, or a simple prayer repeated helps redirect the mind’s regressive tendencies.

The founders of these paths realized that if you want to clean out a dirty jar with a small opening, the easiest way is to keep filling it with clean water. This path works wonderfully for people with a soft heart and a strong mind. Such people see that rites and rituals are not the goal, but a means to transcendent union. Once the goal is reached, or even touched, the rituals become meaningless as the aspirant sees that all deities of all religions are merely different names for the same Nameless, Formless God.

Intellectuals can easily reason this out, so they usually dismiss devotional paths as childish spirituality. If intellectuals take to spirituality, it is usually on a path of “God without form.” Examples are meditation on an idea, ideal, state of consciousness, chakra, Nothingness, etc. They believe that God is like an electric current that we can experience but not see.

Believers in God with form say they do not want to “be sugar” (that is, dissolve into the Absolute), they want to eat it and become all its sweet qualities. Some branches of “God without form” believe that this complete union is impossible. Other sects state that union is possible, and even recognize that everyone must eventually transcend the form into the formless, but believe that the devotional path is much easier for the average person.

I am in agreement with this perspective. The first objective of the spiritual path is to bring the mind’s attention out of the cycle of struggle up to the heart chakra. By ignoring emotional energy and using only your intellect to open your heart, you are using one aspect of the mind—and still from the egoistic perspective of “my” willpower is going to make “me” a loving, conscious person.” Eventually a person can learn through discrimination to love without ego, but this is a slow process in comparison to the person who finds an image of God that sends her into divine ecstasy. The kundalini shoots beyond the heart chakra into a selfless love that makes the intellectual’s “open heart” meditation look superficial.

The challenge of the highly emotional, ecstatic path is that it requires a perceptive, inward looking mind to rise beyond its own success. The devotee must let go of her devotional methods once she realizes they were tools for transcendence, and that she must now learn new tools to keep progressing. The devotee may decide to combine the old and the new by using worship, prayer, devotion, and a personal “conversational” approach during the day, and then take the inward, formless path to keep herself progressing at night—and for years after.

For a sophisticated westerner, the difficulty is finding an outward symbol of God that you are naturally drawn to; a symbol that has the potential and purity to send you into an uplifted state every time you think of It. Perhaps you need to look back to your childhood to find an image of God that stirred your imagination and senses. It does not matter which name or form of God you decide upon. It is more important that the image or name has the power to elevate your mind, redirect your senses inward, and, at least once a day, send you into spiritual ecstasy.

If you can truly accomplish this, then half the exercises in this book will become irrelevant. You will still need to learn and master all the subtle aspects of meditation, however. As for the cerebral types who refuse to practice devotion: perfect. Just do not dismiss devotion as being helpful for others. All paths lead to God. In India, some gurus assign the devotional path to beginners on the spiritual path. In many ways, “God with form” is very sophisticated as it includes all aspects of our mind and senses.

Fortunately, for the cerebral types, this course emphasizes the “God without form” path. “Breathing love” is a way around this dilemma. It opens the heart chakra, then all the remaining chakras, and returns to the Self. I suggest that you find ways to make Love your constant companion and source of devotion. Then you can have constant remembrance with the assistance of the power of your emotional body.