I haven't posted in a few days, but no worries, I'm still here...
I'm reading the Bhagavad Gita right now... its a book I learned about when I took a class at the School of Practical Philosophy last year. I just started, but even the introduction is thought provoking. The gita is one of the central texts in Hindu literature, and without going into lots of detail, which I'm sure to follow up with during the course of my reading, it offers up a unique insight into the religion and its teachings about philosophy.
Anyway, the introduction answers the question "What kind of yoga (teachings) does the Gita teach?" with the following:
jnana yoga - the yoga of knowledge An aspirant uses his will and discrimination to disidentify himself from his body, mind, and senses until he knows he is nothing but the Self.
bhakti yoga - the yoga of devotion The follower achieves the same goal by identifying himself completely with the Lord in love. By and large, this is the path taken by most of the mystics of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
karma yoga - the yoga of selfless action The aspirant dissolves his identification with body and mind by identifying with the whole of life, forgetting his finite self in the service of others.
raja yoga - the yoga of meditation The follower of raga yoga disciplines his mind and senses until the mind-process is suspended in a healing stillness and he merges in the Self.
So the question is, what kind of spiritual aspirant am I? Do I seek the Self, which is really a conception of a higher power, through knowledge, devotion, service, or discipline?
hmm... I'll have to think about that. The tough part is, its not necessarily as easy as "What kind of person are you?" Its more like "When do you feel you are your truest inner self?"