The Mother provides simple, yet powerful guidance about the connection between one’s attitude and his digestive system. If we consider for a moment the times when we are ‘out of sorts’, feeling angry, or bitter, or somewhat sharp and biting in our reactions to others, we can see that in many ... Views: 11
In order for any force or action to affect an individual, there must be something that links them together, attracting the energy that is external to the receiving station nexus of the individual body-life-mind complex. For purely material forces,, obviously, this connection is existence in the ... Views: 492
There is an ‘innocence’ of the instinctive vital nature. It acts according to its impulses, habits, instincts, without interference of any mental considerations, whether termed self-dealing, planning, calculation, conscience or ethical and moral constraints. The famous example is that the tiger ... Views: 217
Each successive plane of consciousness has a native action in its own domain and then, as it enters the material plane, it has to modify its action to conform to the limitations of the other principles. Thus, the native action of the vital plane is freer and more fluid and powerful than when the ... Views: 160
When we look at existence from the individual standpoint, we see a number of solid forms interacting with one another. We do not see how they came into existence (other than the physical, material, practical methodology we can observe, which fails to give us the causative factors or ... Views: 197
Humanity, for the most part, continues to believe that the material world occupies a primary place in the creation of the universe, and that somehow, Matter is able to create the encoding and the complex systems that come along with that encoding out of some random mixture of elements.
If we ... Views: 202
The Maturation of the Soul Across Lifetimes in Fulfillment of Its Evolutionary Role
Posted on May 2, 2023
There is a considerable amount of time, amounting to innumerable lifetimes, when the spark of the soul, the psychic being, is subordinated, hidden, virtually unseen and unheard in the ... Views: 308
When most people think about ‘sincerity’, they focus on the truth of the speech aligning with the actions of the individual. They expect this alignment to manifest itself in actuality. Expressions of good will or condolence, for instance, are sincere if they align with the true feelings of the ... Views: 219
The mind is not an instrument of knowledge. It is an analytical and organising tool, but is unable, on its own, to establish truth or certainty. It also maintains a certain arrogance in its own powers, and thus, when confronted with something beyond its own capabilities, it doubts the veracity ... Views: 445
Just about every individual, including those practicing a spiritual discipline of some sort, creates an image of himself that he then projects out into the world. This image is something of a stylized and idealized version of himself that attempts to present the highest and best of his ... Views: 366
There is another aspect of mind that holds the habits, instincts and trained responses in place. This is what Sri Aurobindo and the Mother call the ‘mechanical mind’. There are uses and benefits to this mind, but it is one of the most rudimentary actions of mind, which arose to provide a ... Views: 276
When we respond to a vibration, either at the physical level, the vital level or the mental level, we open a pathway for that vibration to impact us in some way, and, having once been accepted for admittance, it creates a propensity for us to admit it the next time it comes our way. In this way, ... Views: 224
The human being is actually composed of a number of “sheaths” as described in the Taittiriya Upanishad. The outer form is the physical sheath. Informing the physical sheath with energy and responsiveness is the vital sheath. More subtle than the vital sheath is the mental sheath that provides ... Views: 417
There are phenomena that are inexplicable under our normal understanding of life and death. The body dissolves, certainly, and the vital being and mental disperse soon thereafter and return into their native planes. Yet we find that occasionally it seems like a particular understanding or ... Views: 337
We may believe that we create our own thoughts and ideas, but a close examination makes it clear that streams of thoughts, ideas, mental energies are constantly bombarding us, both overtly through what we read, what we hear, what we see and what we experience, and covertly through the subtle ... Views: 245
By now most people have heard of the ‘placebo effect’. Yet, they have not gone into the significance of what this implies. Studies have shown that as much as 30% of a group given an ‘inert’ treatment have similar healing outcomes to those given an actual targeted treatment. The individual given ... Views: 111
If we view the vast array of methods recommended by spiritual paths of the world, we find that many of them utilize various forms of mental focus or concentration in order to achieve specific results along the way. Tibetan yoga, for instance, has intensive visualisation techniques along with ... Views: 344
Is it our destiny to create a divine life on earth? When we look around at the world today, we see innumerable problems, crises and contradictions that provoke many to feel utterly hopeless. Everywhere people have experienced the pain, the challenges, the aggressive opposition of ideas, ... Views: 710
We can observe all around us, the steps the mental force is taking to take charge of both physical and vital nature. While much of this takes place through the development of technological tools, it is nevertheless an achievement of the mind that makes these things possible. We may debate the ... Views: 74
We are constantly surrounded by ‘miracles’ in the sense that our lives are filled with activities, events, processes and circumstances that we clearly do not understand, but accept based on some explanation, assuming that someone knows what it is all about. Airplanes flying through the air, ... Views: 191
The Dhammapada provides the spiritual seeker with a deep wisdom that forces us to reflect and gain understanding. The Mother has taken up a particular verse about the harm caused by a mind that is not tightly focused and under control. With some consideration we can understand the deeper ... Views: 138
When one works to develop the consciousness of the witness, Purusha, observing the Nature, Prakriti the progress comes generally over time with repeated persistent and patient effort. Consider for a moment going through one’s own life observing but not reacting internally. If we observe even a ... Views: 464
The Supreme Divine is “One without a second”. Yet we can still make mental distinctions between the Transcendent, the Universal and the Individual aspects of the Divine, as that is the nature of the mental consciousness, and we can focus on one or another of these aspects without forgetting the ... Views: 494
Practitioners of Yoga speak of the opening of the Kundalini and the energy rising up from the base of the spine, through the various chakras and issuing out of the 1000 petalled lotus at the top of the skull. The experience of the rising of the Kundalini is a core development in many yogic ... Views: 461
One of the great reported examples of faith in the spiritual path is the inspiring story of Tibet’s great yogi, Milarepa. Briefly, his family was cheated out of their inheritance when his father died, and put into a condition of extreme suffering. He left to learn Black Magic to take his revenge ... Views: 514
When we generally consider the idea of intuition, we look at some ‘gut feeling’ we may have, or some quick certainty we have about a certain situation and call that ‘intuition’. If we examine the common notions of intuition carefully, we find that in some cases they are embedded responses to ... Views: 284
In the Kena Upanishad, the various gods Agni, Vayu and Indra each are confronted by the Supreme and asked to use their utmost power to destroy what was presented before them. They each failed as their power was insufficient to meet the force of the Supreme. Indra eventually discovered that there ... Views: 310
Individuals who are primarily rooted in the function of the physical mind have a difficulty in accepting the reality of anything that goes outside their ability to sense and perceive. These individuals will frequently deny the existence of the soul because it cannot be seen, measured or ... Views: 279
There are many forms of suggestion, some more subtle than others. Peer pressure is one form that everyone experiences at some point in time. Our friends and acquaintances do something and encourage us to participate and do it also. In some cases, this can lead to life-long consequences, such as ... Views: 188
Confusion about the spiritual being and the psychic being is not the only source of misunderstanding about the source of inspirations, feelings, and thoughts that arise as the individual shifts away from exclusive focus on the surface external being and begins to gain experience of the inner ... Views: 268
Without experience, it is difficult to comprehend the difference between the normal human ego-consciousness and the cosmic consciousness. Those who have had the experience try to disclose the type and quality of their experience, but using human words that relate to our normal body-life-mind way ... Views: 476
How do we distinguish what is an actual spiritual experience? We have an inherent bias towards believing and accepting perceptions and reactions to outer stimuli, the objects of the senses, and the reactions that arise inwardly from those stimuli. When it comes to an inner feeling or experience, ... Views: 432
We usually think about the term ‘equality’ in relation to society or the economy. Sri Aurobindo uses the term to describe an inner psychological state that keeps the practitioner of the yoga focused on the inner being and its spiritual practices, rather than having the attention drawn out to ... Views: 435
What exactly is the meaning of ‘sincerity’ in the context of the integral yoga, and what makes it so essential to the successful practice of this yoga? For most people, sincerity is a quality defined by adherence to a specific idea or belief and a direct translation of that belief into the ... Views: 368
For spiritual practices that seek a solution outside the life in the world, it is possible to try to “cut the knot” and simply abandon, or at least minimize, the active engagement of mind, life and body in the world. For a spiritual practice such as the integral yoga, however, which aims at a ... Views: 442
We frequently hear about the practice of ‘karma yoga’ in connection with feeding people, or providing medical care and support. These and other ‘good works’ are clearly beneficial to the social body and to the numerous individuals who receive real and substantial benefits from them. These ... Views: 491
The development of the ego-consciousness is part of the evolutionary cycle of increasing manifestation of conscious awareness in Nature. As consciousness develops it moves from a generalized sense of existence to a more specific recognition of one’s own life and awareness. In animals we see this ... Views: 415
Much of the confusion about the nature and action of the soul, the psychic being in man, is due to the loose and varied way the terms are thrown around in everyday parlance. We have ‘soul food’ and ‘soul mates’. We treat the soul as the seat of morality. At the same time, soul is used to ... Views: 308
The heart of devotion opens spontaneously with a deep sense of reverence, aspiration and love. It is based on soul-contact with the Divine. External signs of worship, prayers, songs, rituals, repeating words of devotion are not indicators of the soul status necessarily and they cannot replace ... Views: 354
The path of devotion relies on the heart, not the mind. The seeker who is rooted in his mental process undergoes substantial efforts to achieve spiritual realisation, but may find that the ego-consciousness asserts itself as an arrogant pride of accomplishment, knowledge or understanding. As ... Views: 474
There is an apocryphal tale in the Mahabharata which illustrates the nature of Divine Love and the devotion of the seeker. Narad, the divine sage, came across a yogi who was practicing austerities. The yogi took the opportunity to ask how long before he would achieve liberation. When Narada told ... Views: 450
The term ‘equality’ in general use relates to inter-personal relationships within the society, but that is not how the term is utilized in yogic psychology. Equality in that sense means the ability to accept all touches from the universe, perceptions, feelings, thoughts, emotions, powers and ... Views: 405
What is faith? Faith has generally been associated with belief in a religion and its specific tenets, or ‘articles of faith’. We are educated within our religion of choice about the basic beliefs that underlie that religion and we are asked to accept them ‘on faith’. In some cases, these ... Views: 412
Most of us, when we reflect on the quality of “peace” think about finding an external situation that is quiet and isolated from the activities of the social body, whether it be politics, the economy, or inter-personal relationships. Peace for us is something that exists through the absence of ... Views: 596
It is a common conception, and a tempting one, to expect that by taking up a certain type of charitable work, or even service to support a particular religion or spiritual path, one is practicing a form of karma yoga. All of these things may have enormous benefit in the outer world, and may ... Views: 522
The aspiring yogic practitioner starts from the basis of the normal human egoistic standpoint of the mind-life-body complex. The process and method of perception, thought, logic, analysis, classification and labeling, reasoning, understanding and implementation in action is quite well-defined ... Views: 247
It is often said that animals do not suffer in the same way that humans do. They experience pain and can suffer from it, but they seem to not be tortured by all of the mental suffering that we go through in our lives. The major differences are first, the ability of the mind to observe itself and ... Views: 420
Each aspect of the human instrumentality provides its own characteristic forms of resistance when a new, higher evolutionary force tries to engage them and redirect them along the lines it proposes. The underlying issues relate to the action of Tamas in the physical level, Rajas in the vital ... Views: 443
We tend to accept issues we are having in our lives as something personal to ourselves and thus, we struggle and either consider ourselves to be weak, or sinful, or otherwise unfit. This happens both generally and for those who practice yoga, and the result is, in many cases, some form of ... Views: 384
If we reflect for a moment that a being who does not have a highly developed abstract mental capacity, perhaps a fish or a honeybee, or even a cat or dog, is unable to truly appreciate and understand the functioning of the higher reasoning and logical capabilities that human beings consider to ... Views: 310