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Our normal human view of things is based in the framing of the mental process which relies on distinguishing differences between one thing and another, between one being and another, between one event and another. This “fragmentation” leads us to focus primarily on the separation we have rather ... Views: 196
Having now referred to the Subliminal Self in our discussion of the creation of dreams, it is necessary to describe this part of our being more thoroughly, and Sri Aurobindo takes up the question. He points out that the subliminal self is not a creation out of the inconscience, but actually it ... Views: 323
It is not through the power of mind that one achieves knowledge of the truth of existence. The frame within which the mind operates, and the methodology that it utilizes, simply cannot appreciate, nor understand, those aspects of existence which fall outside of its direct scope or which exceed ... Views: 582
Mental health in the West is generally understood to be a ‘negative’ state, the absence of various forms of disruptions that affect whether and to what extent an individual can conform or fit into the society and meet its expectations. The integral yoga views mental health in an entirely ... Views: 462
The mental intellect receives impulses through the senses, organises them, and trues to determine what is true based on that. It then builds hypotheses, theories and ideation around its assortment of perceptions, memory, and experience based on various principles of symbolic logic that it has ... Views: 535
Until an individual takes up the issue of inner growth and development, whether this is for spiritual progress, mental development, emotional growth, vital discipline or some kind of physical control, he tends to take very little notice of any inner conflict or struggle. He just acts ‘naturally’ ... Views: 336
We tend to imagine that somehow the mind, the vital energy and the physical body we identify through our ego-complex as ourselves, is separate from those of everyone else. In reality, however, the physical, vital and mental substance is universal in nature and the portion we try to wall off ... Views: 281
The body has its own consciousness and much of its operation takes place without active mental intervention. However, there is also a serious interaction that takes place so that the mental power can influence, guide, train, direct and otherwise gain at least some control over certain aspects of ... Views: 319
We see many examples through time of individuals who began a spiritual quest with good intention and who later came to grief as they got caught up in the snares of what Sri Aurobindo calls the ‘intermediate zone’. When we leave behind the safety and security of the external consciousness and its ... Views: 355
As science begins to recognise the fact that there are ranges of vibration outside of the limited scope that we can normally experience, and that countless reports of perceptions that are inexplicable based on the outermost physical reality that we have heretofore treated as our sole reality, we ... Views: 180
Is there a purpose or significance to life and the evolution of consciousness? Who is responsible for this process, and how does it take place within the complexity of a unified whole that has innumerable constituent elements interacting with one another to create the world we live in and the ... Views: 594
The soul makes choices along the way and in so doing, it builds up the psychic being as it grows, evolves and passes through a series of births and deaths of the physical existence. The Jivatman represents the Divine Consciousness presiding over each individual formation within the manifestation ... Views: 328
We live in the world without fully appreciating or understanding it. This is not something new that we are experiencing, but a statement of what we may call the ‘human condition’. The Rishis of the Rig Veda faced these same issues. In the Hymn of Creation, Mandala X, Sukta 129, Verses 6 and 7 ... Views: 54
When we work in the external world, whether it is to study, to follow up a line of development of some sort, to train the body for athletic endeavours, to strengthen and refine the mind to undertake serious development of the powers of Reason and intuition, etc., we do so with some expectation ... Views: 256
“The simple act of paying attention can take you a long way.”
-Keanu Reeves, actor
My suitcase disappeared on one of my trips recently. It just failed to show up. I stood there in the baggage claim area stupidly watching everybody else’s luggage before I finally admitted it was lost and ... Views: 577
It is difficult, if not impossible, for the mental awareness to understand experiences of consciousness outside of the mind’s normal ranges of operation. Just as we now recognise that our visual perceptions are framed within a range, and that other beings can actually see things we cannot see, ... Views: 597
It is interesting that people are willing to believe the ‘secret’ of the law of attraction, spend time, energy and money trying to learn it, for the purpose of manifesting wealth, enjoyment and the powers available in the world, but they do not tend to apply the principle behind this ‘law of ... Views: 24
In recent years there has been a lot of focus on what is called the ‘law of attraction’. It has been mainly used to act as some kind of a ‘wish-fulfilling action’ that one undertakes by focusing on specific affirmations or visualizing results which then are ‘attracted’ to your focus and create ... Views: 54
As with physical laws and laws of physics, laws of nature, there are laws of occultism which operate when there is vital interchange between people on an occult level. Knowledge of these laws is essential both to protect oneself and to ensure that occult powers are not being misused or ... Views: 214
It is easy to see the failings of others, while overlooking the issues within oneself. Jesus in his famous Sermon on the Mount, recounted in the New Testament of the Bible, exhorted his followers to not judge others but to look within, and noted ‘And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy ... Views: 382
We believe we have free will. We are confronted with choices and make a decision and carry it out and believe that this decision was made freely by the individual we identify as ourself. At the same time, we can recognise the step-wise development which is called ’cause and effect’, or the law ... Views: 261
No matter how highly develop and powerful the intellect is, at some point it reaches the limits of its power and acknowledges that all of its activity is limited within a frame that prevents it from knowing anything with certainty. The intellect builds steps of logic based on various assumptions ... Views: 592
One of the greatest difficulties we face in trying to understand the operation of hidden or occult forces in life is the limitations on our ability to perceive and to know what is actually taking place. Each aspect of our being has its own way of “knowing”. For our lives in the external world we ... Views: 228
The mental knowledge we acquire is mostly a form of ignorance reaching out to try to acquire knowledge. In The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo describes the various forms of knowledge. With one exception, they are set up in the paradigm of subject, object and the process of knowing, and treats the ... Views: 332
The development of the mental consciousness has brought about enormous changes for life on earth, and as the foremost species utilizing the mental consciousness, humanity has taken the mind to limits never before considered as possible. Advances in logic, science, philosophy, psychology, ... Views: 464
During the evolutionary development of the ascending powers of consciousness, the action of the soul is to provide an influence from behind, while the primary attention is fixated on the needed development of the powers of the external being, body, life and mind. This severely limits the direct ... Views: 225
When we reflect on what we mean by prayer, and what expectations we have for it, we can determine both the limits and the uses of prayer in navigating our way through life, and obtaining results aligned with our aspirations. In the USA it is common for people to send “thoughts and prayers” for ... Views: 124
In his epic poem Savitri: a Legend and a Symbol, Sri Aurobindo writes: “Heavy unchanged weighs still the imperfect world; The splendid youth of Time has passed and failed; Heavy and long are the years our labour counts, And still the seals are firm upon man’s soul And weary is the ancient ... Views: 317
We have a physical being, we have a vital energy including nervous energy, moral force and emotional energy, and we have a mental nature which includes thought, reasoning powers, and formulation of thought into word or deed. The vital force acts on its own plane as well as utilizes the physical ... Views: 222
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: 513
“Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.” (Inspirational quote taken with permission from http://tinybuddha.com)
Spencer Johnson
Many years ago, when I was in high school chemistry lab, I was assigned to do a litmus test to determine ... Views: 1818
I remember the first time I realized that the difference between should and could was far greater than a couple of letters. I was newly married, still in college, and it was time for me to choose my major.
I enjoyed math, so I listed some possibilities: I could teach math. I could be an ... Views: 1601
Islam is the most practiced religion in the world. Muslims are present in almost every religion of the world and practicing the teaching of Islam. It is the psychology of every Muslim to know about their religion, its aspect and the events which occurred in Islam.
Today I am here to throw some ... Views: 851
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: 240
The Luminosity of Your “Sparkling Soul”
Perhaps you, like many, have heard the old familiar proverb that “The eyes are the window to the soul” which is really nothing new; however, I am taking it one step further to say that the heart must then be the doorway. Since we are living during ... Views: 3121
Too many people running their businesses forge forward at breakneck speed- getting new clients, running new promotions, changing products – all in an attempt to get more sales, new clients and ideally – more money!
What many people fail to realize is that there are customers out there that ... Views: 1050
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: 188
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: 221
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: 232
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: 328
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: 243
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: 471
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: 387
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: 296
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: 248
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: 435
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: 353
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: 266
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: 132
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: 363