Spinoza, Krishnamurti as "Jnana" Yoga, etc.

> S: Do you have a GOOD book to recommend on the subject of Jnana
> Yoga? I not too sure about the couple of things I currently have.

The Awakening of Intelligence by J. Krishnamurti

This isn't on the subject of Jnana Yoga, but it consists in 
transcriptions of dialogs between K. and, for example, Jacob 
Needleman, a philosophy professor at S.F. State who is affiliated 
with the Gurdjieff Foundation. There are many other dialogs with 
interesting individuals. Mr. Krishnamurti would not necessarily like 
to be called a Jnana Yogi, or a philosopher, teacher, etc., however, 
I think it's an apt enough description that he came to mind as the 
greatest Jnana Yogi I can think of. He never "set down" his 
philosophy in any systematic way. DVD's are available of some of his 
conversations with, for example, David Bohm. Bohm was a noted 
quantum theorist who became very interested in K.'s ideas.

Re: Plato/Socrates

I've read most, if not all, of the Republic at one time or another, 
most recently chapters 6-7 (and about that many years ago.) My 
recollections right now about it are vague. I suppose it did not make 
a great impression on me.

Bertrand Russell still held that Plato was probably right about 
"Universals," which sufficed as a proof of for him of one sort of a 
priori knowledge. I may have mentioned that I first made a 
rudimentary "survey" of the history of philosophy (by reading the 
works suggested by Russell at the end of "Problems of Philosophy") 
after my teacher died, and I began to have contact with others 
outside of that situation, regarding Spinoza. Naturally, the ideas 
of other philosophers came up as they are now, and I wanted to be 
conversant with them to an extent, and I am interested in some of 
their ideas. My knowledge of the history of philosophy is definitely 
a work in progress.

You mentioned David Hume. His "Treatise on the Human Understanding" 
was among the works I read, and it was notable both for its beautiful 
style and for the incisive critical thinking with which he showed the 
scope of the induction principle in our knowledge.