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- The Origin of Joy - by Submitted on Jul 01, 2022 from santosh krinskyThere is a difference between ‘joy’ and ‘enjoyment’. Enjoyment is a more or less passive state, such as when we enjoy some form of entertainment. Joy, on the other hand, is an active status, which rises spontaneously through involvement and action. If we observe children, we see that they ...
Views: 548 - Addressing and Overcoming Boredom - by Submitted on Jun 30, 2022 from santosh krinskyAs long as we remain bound to the ego-personality, we are caught in the play of the three gunas, or qualities of nature. Every individual is subject to all three, and their constant interchange. Thus, there will be times and circumstances where tamas, the quality of indolence and darkness comes ...
Views: 518 - Fear Is Based in the Limitations of Ignorance and Unconsciousness - by Submitted on Jun 29, 2022 from santosh krinskyIn The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo describes the sevenhold ignorance which limits the human being. We live in a world about which we know very little, and we lack a complete understanding of the significance of our lives, the meaning of existence, or the processes of Time. As a result, we act as ...
Views: 648 - Understanding the Nature of Fear and Its Effects on the Being - by Submitted on Jun 27, 2022 from santosh krinskyWherever we focus attention, we create a direct relationship with the object of that attention. It may be through aspiration towards a higher consciousness, devotion to an ideal or through love for a revered guide or teacher; or it may be through the reaction of fear about some person, event or ...
Views: 716 - The Third Step in the Mental Discipline: Control of Thoughts - by Submitted on Jun 19, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe inner control of thoughts is a further development once the poise of the witness consciousness has been attained. As the seeker observes the thoughts, he can also determine their effect in the being, and see if they lead to uplifting, widening, and harmonizing results, or whether they shrink ...
Views: 471 - Discernment of Good and Bad Thoughts - by Submitted on Jun 18, 2022 from santosh krinskyWhen we initially reflect on “what is a good thought” and “what is a bad thought”, the first ideas that arise almost inevitably harken back to whatever cultural, moral or ethical code prevails within the society of the time, whether this is based on religion or developed cultural understandings ...
Views: 581 - The Need and Method for Observing One’s Thoughts - by Submitted on Jun 17, 2022 from santosh krinskyAvoidance of suffering may be considered as a ‘negative’ status. Achievement of happiness is the positive pole of this continuum. Both states are rooted in the mind and the standpoint that the individual takes. When the scriptures speak of “evil thoughts” or “purified thoughts” this is not ...
Views: 510 - Four Steps to Avoid Suffering - by Submitted on Jun 16, 2022 from santosh krinskyMany people suppose that it is impossible to avoid suffering, as it is an inherent aspect of life on earth. Their strategies for dealing with suffering may vary, but they all believe that suffering is inevitable. When we consider, therefore, the idea of avoiding suffering, we are either met ...
Views: 518 - Escaping the Conflict and Battle of Thoughts in the Mind - by Submitted on Jun 15, 2022 from santosh krinskyThrough the process of affinity and filtration of thoughts, when we remain in the plane of the mind, we experience the struggle and resistance of competing thoughts that appear to be in many cases chaotic in nature. Fighting with these thoughts, struggling, suppressing, all turn out to be ...
Views: 522 - Dealing with Mental Resistance to Attempts to Silence the Mind - by Submitted on Jun 14, 2022 from santosh krinskyIt is quite natural for an individual, particularly a seeker attempting to make progress in the yogic process, to internalize the difficulties and blame them on his own weakness, incapacity, or lack of will power. The reality, however, is that this is a continuation of the egocentric viewpoint ...
Views: 523 - The Source and Nature of the Thoughts an Individual Receives - by Submitted on Jun 13, 2022 from santosh krinskyIf we ask almost anyone where thoughts come from, they will say that they are produced in the brain. The brain is some kind of thought-factory. They don’t know how. They don’t know why. They don’t know what causes certain thoughts to develop. They recognise that sense perceptions influence the ...
Views: 518 - Controlling One’s Thoughts - by Submitted on Jun 12, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe mind is always active, jumping from one input source to another, depending on the senses and their objects, the various forms of media we are consuming, including radio, tv, music, reading, social media, etc.; but also on a variety of internal factors including nutritional factors, ...
Views: 541 - Understanding the Limitations of the Mechanical Mind - by Submitted on Jun 11, 2022 from santosh krinskyAt a very basic, rudimentary level, less developed in the evolutionary scale than the physical mind, lies what is termed the ‘mechanical mind’. This level relies heavily on programmed repetition. It is programmed to have a simple instruction set, to repeat continuously whatever ‘sets off’ its ...
Views: 539 - Understanding the Limitations of the Physical Mind - by Submitted on Jun 10, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe are used to superimposing our higher intellectual control on the physical mind and its operations. The physical mind still acts, but we generally limit its application through this process. At the same time, however, we do not consciously pay attention to its action or the impact of that ...
Views: 542 - Dealing with Obtrusive, Repetitive Thoughts - by Submitted on Jun 09, 2022 from santosh krinskyBefore we can deal with thoughts, we need to have at least a basic understanding of what they are and where they come from, what they consist of, and what the purpose of thought is. Yet, we rarely if ever examine these questions and simply take thought for granted as something necessary and ...
Views: 554 - Transitioning to the Silent Mind - by Submitted on Jun 08, 2022 from santosh krinskyAssume that we succeed, through various methods of meditation or concentration, to bring the mind into a status of relative quiet. At that moment we begin to notice that there is this other running commentary going on in the background, reacting to every sense impression, bodily sensation, ...
Views: 528 - The Silence of the Mind - by Submitted on Jun 07, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe are so used to the constant internal dialogue that we have no conception of what it means to have ‘silence of the mind’. We strive to fill up any silence with sound, whether through conversation, consumption of media, music or even treating television or radio as ‘background noise’ for our ...
Views: 534 - How to Quiet the Mind - by Submitted on Jun 06, 2022 from santosh krinskyIt is a virtually universal experience. One sits for meditation, trying to quiet the mind, and the thoughts keep surging and seem to have more intensity than before! Every sensation seems to provoke some activity in the mind, pent up issues or concerns take that time to come to the fore, ...
Views: 535 - Free Video - A PRIDEFUL LOOK Has Become the Norm for Many Ministers - by Submitted on Jun 06, 2022 from James LowranceIn the Teaching I present from the Word of God (Holy Bible), I talk about a look of sinful pride (condescension). It is important to understand that a look of intensity or one of assuredness regarding what a minister is saying, is not the same thing. A "prideful look"; one of seven things God ...
Views: 671 - Understanding and Dealing with the Physical Mind - by Submitted on Jun 05, 2022 from santosh krinskySri Aurobindo recognises that in order to effectively address the actions of the mind, the various underlying sources and the energies they raise up in their action must be clearly seen and understood. There is a difference in the way one needs to deal with a persistent emotional reaction, for ...
Views: 477 - Developing the Proper Attitude of Yogic Equality in Relation to Present Reality and Future Development - by Submitted on Jun 04, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe tend to view everything from our individual ego-standpoint, and as a result, we take difficulties as being our own, as well as any obstacles, setbacks or delays being directly tied to ourselves. We tend to believe that we are either bound by some karmic destiny, or by the astrological pattern ...
Views: 915 - Yogic Equality Does Not Imply Fatalistic Acceptance - by Submitted on Jun 03, 2022 from santosh krinskyAttaining the proper poise of equality is an essential step for the yogic practitioner. It is quite easy to fall into a fatalistic view that basically says “what happened was what had to happen”, without further consideration about the process through time and the direction, momentum and ...
Views: 558 - The Test of Yogic Equality - by Submitted on Jun 02, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe setting of Sri Krishna’s teaching to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, symbolizing the ‘battle of life’ is an essential message to all who seek to progress in their spiritual growth and development. We do not normally associate a battlefield as the place to learn about our spiritual ...
Views: 574 - The Nature of Equality in Yogic Psychology - by Submitted on Jun 01, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe 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: 493 - The Most Effective Method for Achieving Detachment - by Submitted on May 30, 2022 from santosh krinskyWhen 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: 568 - Absorption in Our Outer Life, Living in the ‘Now’, Mindfulness and Detachment - by Submitted on May 29, 2022 from santosh krinskyMost people live a life without inward reflectoin, reacting to circumstances, conditioned by habits developed through millennia, trained responses and built up expectations. Their lives are fixated on whatever is presented to them at the moment, and they lose any sense of self-awareness in this ...
Views: 571 - The Sources of Disturbance and the Process of Detachment - by Submitted on May 28, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe tend to internalize and “own” our weaknesses or internal struggles. This is the ego-consciousness at work. We also fail to recognise that there are multiple different sources of pressures on us, some of which are ingrained habits we have accepted into our surface being, others are seeds we ...
Views: 519 - Detachment from and Mastery of the Surface Nature - by Submitted on May 27, 2022 from santosh krinskyWhen we are first confronted with the concept of detachment from our external nature, we tend to approach it from a mental standpoint and thus, try to shut down our emotions and mental reactions with various types of response such as forms of stoicism, renunciation, or a show of non-caring, or ...
Views: 506 - Gaining the Standpoint of the Observer of the Nature - by Submitted on May 26, 2022 from santosh krinskyAn important step in the practice of yoga is to attain true detachment from the surface nature through the shifting of the standpoint from the surface to the ‘witness consciousness’, the Purusha. The separation of Purusha from Prakriti, the active nature, is needed in order to effectuate change ...
Views: 467 - Wise Words of Socrates - by Submitted on May 25, 2022 from Scott & Stephen PetulloSocrates (469-399 B.C.) was a Greek philosopher and one of the originators of Western philosophy. He is most known for the Socratic method, which involves repeatedly asking questions instead of relaying information. Due to his unconventional style and outspoken pursuit of the truth, he was ...
Views: 520 - Accessing the True Source of Vital Energy - by Submitted on May 25, 2022 from santosh krinskyAccess to the universal vital force and the renewal of one’s energy follows basic principles that can be seen in the action of another universal force that allows the creation of results in the external world, symbolised by what we know as ‘money’. In his book The Mother, Sri Aurobindo states ...
Views: 544 - Contacting and Connecting With the Universal Vital Force, Part II - by Submitted on May 24, 2022 from santosh krinskyWhen we fixate on the fulfillment of the body-life-mind complex in our external being, the exclusive concentration involved helps us to temporarily lose sight of the larger Oneness of which all are a part. We then put ourselves in opposition to other aspects of the one Reality and treat each ...
Views: 518 - Contacting and Connecting With the Universal Vital Force, Part I - by Submitted on May 23, 2022 from santosh krinskyChildren naturally have direct contact with the universal vital energy but this tends to fade into the background and be ‘lost’ as the mind ‘learns’ the ‘laws of nature’ which do not recognise the energy or its relationship to us. This is a circumstance of the artificially limiting action of the ...
Views: 555 - Recuperating Energy Through Contact with Nature - by Submitted on May 22, 2022 from santosh krinskyMuch of modern-day life is centered around urban living. Most urban dwellers have little, if any, exposure to Nature on a consistent basis. They also tend to feel stressed, drained and exhausted by the lives they lead. When they head out to a natural area, they frequently feel a release of ...
Views: 504 - Tapping Into the Universal Forces Rather than Interchange with Other People - by Submitted on May 21, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe are very much creatures of habit, and thus, when it comes to our intake of energy, we tend to habitually turn to a preferred method of reception. For most people, the primary source is food. Most people engage in vital interchange with others, and there is a subtle interaction that can both ...
Views: 465 - Energies Sources: Energies of the Physical Body and the Universal Vital Energies - by Submitted on May 20, 2022 from santosh krinskyThere are a number of different ways that physically alive beings draw and obtain energy. Human beings tend to rely heavily on eating food, and converting the food into other forms of energy to carry out work in the body. Plants, on the other hand, rely primarily on direct conversion of sunlight ...
Views: 504 - An Integral Repose — the Ideal State of Sleep - by Submitted on May 17, 2022 from santosh krinskyUsually when most people go to sleep, they simply ‘let it happen’. This carries with it all of the mental, emotional, vital-nervous, and physical energy pent up in the being at the time, into the sleep state. Add to this mix the state of fatigue that prevails, and it can lead to restless, or ...
Views: 517 - The External Being’s Need For Sleep - by Submitted on May 16, 2022 from santosh krinskyThere are several different orders of activity that take place during sleep. Confusion about these separate things leads to mistaken attempts to simply limit sleep in order to ‘become conscious during sleep’. First, there is the activity that takes place with the external, surface being ...
Views: 522 - Becoming Conscious In Sleep - by Submitted on May 15, 2022 from santosh krinskyWhen the idea of becoming conscious in sleep is raised, many people try simply to find ways to remain awake somehow in sleep. This process generally leads to exhaustion, and imbalances in the physical, vital and mental complex of the outer nature. Sleep is restorative to their processes, and any ...
Views: 549 - Preparing the Body, Vital and Mind for Restful, Conscious Sleep - by Submitted on May 14, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe spend as much as one third of our lifetime asleep. Many questions arise when one reflects on this fact. What happens during sleep? Where does the consciousness go? What does it do? Can we become conscious, or at least more conscious, of that part of our lives? Are there ways to prepare for ...
Views: 509 - How to Sleep Well - by Submitted on May 13, 2022 from santosh krinskyOne of the most frequent concerns raised by people generally is their inability to get a good night’s sleep. Insomnia, as well as restless sleep, seems to be a widespread concern. Among practitioners of yoga, the concern goes even farther, in that they desire to convert sleep into a luminous, ...
Views: 595 - The Need for Persistent Energy and Focus to Live the Spiritual Life - by Submitted on May 12, 2022 from santosh krinskySpiritual progress is an ongoing process that requires patience, persistence, endurance and strength of purpose, along with the focus of energy needed to achieve any substantial realisations. Some people believe that spirituality is something weak and ineffective, that leads people to abandon ...
Views: 491 - Relaxation: Dissipation or True Rest? - by Submitted on May 11, 2022 from santosh krinskyIf we examine our attitude towards relaxation, we find, generally, that people look at relaxation as a type of reward for efforts made. They work hard all day, or all week, or they finish a major project they are focused on, and then it is time to “relax”. In the West, there is an institution ...
Views: 530 - The True Nature of Rest - by Submitted on May 10, 2022 from santosh krinskyFor most people, rest is a state of lowered consciousness in which we recuperate from the fatigue generated through our various activities. If we reflect on how we respond to fatigue, we find that we have different modes depending on whether it is mental fatigue, vital exhaustion or physical ...
Views: 544 - Wise Reminders From Aristotle - by Submitted on May 09, 2022 from Scott & Stephen PetulloAristotle (384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher taught by Plato. He wrote about many subjects and his philosophy continues to heavily influence almost every form of knowledge in the West. Below are words of wisdom from Aristotle. "Be a free thinker and don't accept everything you hear ...
Views: 558 - Exercise of Will as Part of the Process of Yogic Transformation - by Submitted on May 09, 2022 from santosh krinskyThere remains considerable confusion about the role of will-power in the development of the spiritual life of the individual. On the one side, the seeker is asked to not give in to the force of vital desire, and the will is often confused with desire. Thus, the idea of acting without desire is ...
Views: 489 - Psychoanalysis and Yoga Don’t Mix - by Submitted on May 08, 2022 from santosh krinskyWithout the power to control and purify, an individual faces great risk in dredging up all kinds of subconscious energies, fears, experiences, dreams and desires. Psychoanalysis focuses on tapping into this subconscious level, but it does not start with any process to arm the individual with the ...
Views: 517 - Development of the Witness Consciousness Separate from the Analytical Mind Is Needed to Truly Understand the Springs of Action in Mind, Life and Body - by Submitted on May 07, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe ability to perceive, understand and modify the actions of the body, life and mind requires the development of a new standpoint outside of the body-life-mind complex. For this reason, the attempt to undertake this process with the analytical power of the mind is bound to fail. Not only can ...
Views: 506 - The Experience and Difficulty of Drawing Inwards in the Consciousness - by Submitted on May 06, 2022 from santosh krinskyUntil an individual has an actual experience of what the Mother calls ‘interiorisation’, there is no real way to understand what it is about. Many people believe that if they sit quietly in meditation, or follow an internal train of thought, that they have an inner experience, but this is not ...
Views: 520 - The Need and Method to Become Conscious and Change the Nature - by Submitted on May 05, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe identify something about ourselves that we would like to change — it could be a physical transformation we seek, or a way to address an imbalance in our feelings or emotions, or it could be a change to our mind-set to overcome ideas of weakness, failure, incapacity, etc. We then try to find a ...
Views: 505