There is considerable skepticism about the question of rebirth. There are also questions about what exactly is reborn, and what happens to the existing current life experience and capabilities developed in a lifetime before death. There remains then, also, the mechanisms involved. There is a ... Views: 15
We identify ourselves with the constructed ego-personality that we have assumed. We have certain ideas, feelings, relationships, preferences, desires, ambitions, fears and motivations of various sorts. We treat this ego-personality as a unified whole and do not usually investigate the varying ... Views: 14
The question of transforming life on earth into something higher, deeper and more meaningful, aligned with the divine intention in the manifestation, is one that has occupied seers, religious leaders, theologians, scientists, thinkers and philosophers since time immemorial. Plato in his Republic ... Views: 13
Individuals who take up spiritual practice are generally advised that they have to overcome the ego and free themselves from its desires, ambitions, wants or needs. As the practice advances, the seeker begins to recognise that he is not that ego-personality, either as the specific person or in ... Views: 13
People who are born into different cultures and religions may have a similar experience, but they interpret the experience through the lens of their specific background. Thus, people who have a specific spiritual opening may see Jesus or the Virgin Mary if they come from a Christian background, ... Views: 12
We tend to judge circumstances and events based on how they impacted our external personality, the individual ego. We call things ‘good’ or ‘bad’ based on our perception of whether they satisfy our needs, wants and desires or not. What we fail to recognise, more often than not, is that the ... Views: 11
Consecration is a movement of the psychic being, based in the individual being, consciously focusing and tuning the consciousness to the divine consciousness and acting under its impulsion. The standpoint remains with the individual and while consecration is being perfected in the being, it ... Views: 10
There is a vast difference between mental speculation and actual life-experience. We can speculate about what it means to swim in the ocean, but this does not prepare us for the actual experience when it occurs. It is similar for those focused on spiritual sadhana. Generally those individuals ... Views: 10
The process of nature, the development of the physical form, the vital force and its expression, the advent of mind and development of its powers, and the formation of the ego-consciousness and the self-awareness that comes with that, is a long, slow, steady progression that can takes tens of ... Views: 10
As long as we are established in the consciousness of the external being and personality, the body-life-mind complex aggregated around the ego-personality, we interpret and decide things based on the external relationships each of those elements has developed in their dealing with the external ... Views: 10
The ego is allured and enamoured of spiritual experiences and the development of unique powers that may arise with various openings of the being to other ranges of mental, vital or physical activity than we normally live in. Certain spiritual disciplines actually advise the seeker to avoid ... Views: 10
As long as we remain within a specific framework of vision and understanding, we remain locked in that frame and our actions are formed from the capacities held by that framework. In order to escape the limitations of that level, an individual needs must find a way to move his awareness outside ... Views: 9
The nature of the psychic being’s action is founded in aspiration, devotion and self-consecration to the Divine. The role of Agni in the Rig Veda illustrates the power and role of the psychic being. Agni is the mystic fire that leads and brings forth the gods, the divine powers, into the being. ... Views: 9
Major developments or milestones in the expression of consciousness in the being do not tend to appear suddenly on their own for most people. As the individual grows and matures, there sometimes occur glimpses, transient experiences, occasions where some capacity shows itself. It is then up to ... Views: 9
The poet, John Keats, in his famous poem Ode on a Grecian Urn, concluded with “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
We receive intimations of the soul and the spiritual reality through our minds, our emotions, our feelings and our physical ... Views: 9
Those who are involved in developing a business or other organised activity quickly learn that there are different methods that can be implemented, and which, when applied in the right time, place and circumstance, can bring about vastly different, and in some cases, much greater ... Views: 9
It is a general axiom that one cannot fully see and understand the framework within which one is embedded. We treat the actions, reactions, responses, perceptions etc. as a given fact and thus, do not fully recognise all the implications and facets of life that are taking place. These become ... Views: 9
People have opinions and argue about what the best way to carry out religious or spiritual practices happens to be. Some believe in various forms of austerities, some concentration, some meditation, some prayer, some devotional service, some selfless work. Some take vows of poverty. Others ... Views: 9
Sri Aurobindo describes a triple tranformation of consciousness. The first transformation is what he calls the psychic transformation, the conscious contact with and bringing forward of the soul element in the nature. The second transformation is what he calls the spiritual transformation. This ... Views: 9
There is a paradigm noted in the yogic literature about the different types of seekers and the way they advance in their spiritual development. The baby monkey actively works to hold on to the mother, having to exercise its own capacities to move forward while the baby cat surrenders to the ... Views: 8
If we look at the lives and the focus of the vast majority of people in the world, we find that they are primarily fixated on external measurements of survival, sustenance and success in some form or another. It may be having access to food and water at a basic subsstence level, or it may be the ... Views: 8
Most people are trapped in the paradigm enunciated by Rene Descartes, i.e. ‘I think, therefore I am.’ They equate the thought with the reality. If we think we are sincere, then we are sincere. If we think we can swim, then we can swim. We see this frequently in religions where people believe ... Views: 8
In Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol, Book I, Canto 4 The Secret Knowledge, Sri Aurobindo describes a spiritual experience: “It is the origin and the master-clue, A silence overhead, an inner voice, A living image seated in the heart, An unwalled wideness and a fathomless point, The truth of all ... Views: 8
The initial steps of the discipline involve a concentration, either in the heart centre or in the mental centre, as entrance pathways to reach the psychic being or the higher mental and spiritual regions above the mind. These represent a movement away from the demands, desires and motives of the ... Views: 8
Since the central position of the soul to direct and guide life is the optimum result, we wonder, generally, why this is not the case from the outset and why we have to then experience the struggles and efforts needed to achieve that result. The question is pertinent both for the individual and ... Views: 8
We draw to us and interact with whatever draws our attention. The external being is motivated by the forces of desire and fear. Each of these creates a link to objects that we desire or that we fear. We thus live in a world of constant distraction from the inner truth of our being.
When an ... Views: 8
Many people question the value or importance of purification of the nature during the course of sadhana. They express the idea that purification is unnecessary, either because the external world is an illusion and should be disregarded entirely, or because the concept of ‘freedom’ implies that ... Views: 8
As we grow beyond the pure vital enjoyment of the growing child, we begin to recognise that we have demands being made upon us, subtly or overtly, from family, friends, peers, and society at large. There are expectations and pressures that come with living in a societal setting, or even, just ... Views: 8
There seems to be a very common progression in the spiritual development for most individuals. While individual cases can, and will, vary somewhat, and rare exceptional cases may follow a totally different development, the general case is common enough in its occurrence to create what may be ... Views: 8
Can something come into existence out of pure nothingness? There is nothing in our experience in the world that supports the idea that nothingness, a blank void, infinite darkness is the origin of all that we experience, of life and growth and development. Darkness is not the origin of light. ... Views: 8
A young individual recounted a tale of what he considered to be his own experience of a psychic conversion. He had a near death experience and when he awoke he suddenly knew there was a Divine Presence in the world and that he was meant to focus on that rather than the career he had been ... Views: 8
When the external being through any of its constituent parts, the mind, the vital being or the physical body, as well as the ego-personality formed around them are predominant, they focus on needs, desires, ideas, wishes that are relevant to their specific unique characteristics and situations. ... Views: 8
As long as we live in the standpoint of the external personality, the ego-consciousness, we look to external rewards and satisfactions, and the fulfillment of ambitions and desires, as the central objective towards which we orient our actions. It is only when we begin to feel and appreciate the ... Views: 8
Goethe, in his famous poem Faust, recounts a scene where Faust conjures the Earth-Spirit. He is stricken with fear although he felt himself to be a god and a peer to the Spirit he called forth.
“To view me is thine aspiration,
My voice to hear, my countenance to see;
Thy powerful yearning ... Views: 7
Sri Aurobindo provides a detailed overview of the causes and types of suffering we experience and how to transcend the suffering through a shift in standpoint away from the external nature to the Self above or the psychic being within.
Sri Aurobindo writes: “It is not the soul that suffers; the ... Views: 7
If we want to understand the meaning of existence, and the significance of our own lives within that larger framework, we need to appreciate the significance of perspective or standpoint. We can observe that impressionist painters, such as Vincent van Gogh used perspective as one of the defining ... Views: 6
From the viewpoint of the external being, we see a physical process of birth and death. With deeper investigation, we then identify processes and encoded information in the genetic code that tell the physical body how to develop. When we die, we see the departure of the vital force from the body ... Views: 5
The Tibetan Book of the Dead describes the progression from death, through an intermediate realm called the bardo and the eventual liberation, or alternatively, the choosing of a new birth. For those who are awake and conscious or who follow the directions and guidance provided by the text, an ... Views: 5
The Buddhist tradition describes a path that leads to complete liberation from the world, which is called Nirvana. They describe crossing the ocean of Samsara (the illusions of the external life and its enticements, and rewards) to achieve final exit from this world.
This is different than ... Views: 2
The entire process of conscious evolution involves periods of ascent, outreach, growth and development, followed by periods of rest and assimilation when the fruits of the former efforts are allowed to settle in the being and provide a basis for the next stage of development.
All through ... Views: 2
The psychic world is defined as an interlude during which the psychic being, in a timeless status, assimilates the experience of the past life as it prepares for taking a new birth in the world. By definition it is not involved with activity in the world or with any particular human soul. The ... Views: 1