The Higher Self and transcendent experience, including OBEs

[onevoice]

Posted by TraineeHuman (here)
In the previous post we saw how mindfulness involves both an "out" direction, into greater expansion, and an "inwards" direction, into something smaller and possibly even microscopic or even beyond that. It seems clear to me that in Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson) was referring to something like the "out" and "in" arrows. Obviously, of the potions that are available for Alice to drink, one does make her smaller and the other makes her larger. I consider that this is one issue Dodgson does implicitly explore a little in both Alice in Wonderland and in Through the Looking Glass [a mirror or magnifying glass being what we use to see reality more clearly). I believe that in his choice of symbolism, Dodgson was implicitly considering certain issues regarding how to integrate or combine the two views.

Alice, by being mindful, was bigger than the individuals or figures in her environment. In the practice of mindfulness, you hold your attention both out and inwards simultaneously. Because you're holding your attention in these two ways simultaneously, your attention becomes rather like a fork handle, let's say. The handle is holding two prongs inseparably together, and as if they were solidly glued together. That is interesting because it it shows clearly that 'you" are not just that fork handle but instead, during this experience at least, you're as big (or your attention is as big) as the whole kaboodle. And that what is part of "you" and at least temporarily "yours" actually extends well beyond the boundaries of your skin. I guess we've heard this before, but my point is that the mere practice of mindfulness reconfirms it, in an active way. "You" are actually gigantic, and bigger than the sum total of everything you experience. And if you throw in the proposition that "the kingdom of heaven (or God) is entirely within you, then you and your soul must be very vast indeed.

We also see then that no problem of daily living, being something that's finite and limited, can ever be as "big" in impact as you actually are. Really, it should be no match for you as long as you remain true to the brilliant who/what you actually are. Easier said than done, of course, but true nevertheless.

Thank you for this excellent way of practicing mindfulness. In the Mahayana Buddhist style of meditation, we do practice mindfulness in certain style of meditation similar to what you describe. In most of the rudimentary Buddhist meditation techniques, one focuses one's mind on one simple action of our bodily activity. In a very advanced meditation technique my late Buddhist master calls "Silent Illumination", one first relax and still one's mind so that one has no wandering thoughts. Even when we experience that there are no wandering thoughts, there maybe subtle mental disturbances that one is not aware of. This is similar to when the winds dies down over a lake and the lakes becomes still and tranquil and its still water can reflect the surrounding environment like a mirror. Also an example is often used where our mind is often like a muddy water, and if left alone without outside influences, the muddy water can become clear and the bottom of a pond can be seen. After the mind has calmed sufficiently, then we "illuminate" our mind by slowly expanding the scope of our awareness from let's say regions of the body, to whole body, and then beyond the body to the immediate locality, etc and beyond to include entire reality. There is no focus applied, simply pure expanding awareness that can be similar to ever expanding intensity of illumination that slowly reveal more and more of a locality that was initially dark. It takes long time to slowly train our egoic consciousness to let go of our tendency to operate in constant self-referentiality mode to be more mindful.

Many years ago, I attended a 21-day Theravada Buddhism meditation retreat where the primary method of meditation was mindfulness of all the activities we do, both during meditation as well as every other activities. The Theravada Buddhism is the oldest branch that most closely follows the original teachings of the historical Buddha and is typically practiced in the Far Eastern countries such as Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, etc. The temple Abbot instructed us to be mindful of all ordinary daily activities and see how each activities such as walking, doing chores, breathing, chewing food, etc. interacts with our consciousness. Being mindful of body and one's ordinary activities really helped to calm our mind and facilitated going to deeper meditative states during meditation sessions. During the meditative periods, everyone alternated between 1 hour of sitting meditation and 1 hour of walking meditation so both active and passive activities are balanced.

[TraineeHuman]

Thank you, onevoice. I very much enjoyed your explanation of how the "muddy water" can still itself completely by the soul making itself very still, in imitation of a very still physical environment. The outer and the inner reflecting each other and following the lead of each other. Very nice.

[Johnnycomelately]

Hi Trainee, and hi onevoice. I want to advise caution about leaning too heavily toward the older disciplines such as Buddhism. In my understanding (opinion), they are, in whole, no longer valid as effective plans/algorithms for getting back to ‘perfection’/‘Heaven’. The tell is in the hierarchy.

I think we are past the times when those ways made sense. Now we can each make our way ‘back home’ on our own in each of our own series of days, if we take what our days show us about ourselves earnestly. ... One cool trick is to notice the words/expressions that pop up in response to problems, in our own personal language, and to work with whatever symbolism that evokes regarding soul imperatives. Clear your heart, hope for meaning, and trust your growing self.

Posted by TraineeHuman (here)
Thank you, onevoice. I very much enjoyed your explanation of how the "muddy water" can still itself completely by the soul making itself very still, in imitation of a very still physical environment. The outer and the inner reflecting each other and following the lead of each other. Very nice.

[TraineeHuman]

So, it would seem to me, Johnnycomelately, that to make such authoritative and sweeping comments you must have truly vast and intensive personal experience and accurately detailed knowledge of what the many varieties of ancient spiritual traditions all have to offer. That alone is very impressive. Because otherwise, of course, you wouldn't be qualified to inform everyone so confidently that the time of any and all of the above is past, so that all the ashrams and monasteries and dojos and temples and so on and so forth should now presumably be informed that they need to close. Because their time is now altogether past, thanks to your wise information. I guess you would also have, for one example among many, a way that the Zen Buddhist monks, who as a matter of fact currently have the longest average life expectancy of any known occupational group, could live even longer.

I have to bow also to the vast depth and extent and flexibility of both philosophical and psychological insight and knowledge, as well as sociological/historical insight you must have -- not to mention the variety and also the depth of the most profound spiritual experiences and encounters and downloads you've had, too -- without which, of course, it would be quite impossible to accurately assess so many traditions. Wow.

But aside from the "traditional" vs "contemporary" labeling, mindfulness is the same thing as "being awake" in a profound sense. And that is a central issue in many discourses both ancient (such as Jesus' parable of The Nightwatchman, among others) and more modern (such as in Gurdjieff's notion of being "awake" and "remembering").

[Johnnycomelately]

Well it does no harm to get up on your hind legs once in a while.

Lemme see.

The tell is in the hierarchy.

I used one of the proper PA disclaimers, “opinion”, and (I) note that my statement has been interpreted as though I think all of your work is useless. Person, I don’t mean that. I am saying what I think the way forward is. Every strength is and remains a strength, but, every binding MUST be broken. And hierarchies are built on bonds.

Buddhism gave me reincarnation — the idea of — way before I found it in Christian teachings. Almost embarrassed to say, ‘Lobsang Rampa’. And a bunch of other good ideas there too.

What you affirm about becoming clear, as a muddy puddle will do in time, I read in Lao Tzu’s book (the Tao te Ching?) several years after the above. The wisdom won and told by the olds is true and will last, but the ‘necessity’ of hierarchy has IMO been negated. That is all I am saying, tho it is a hearty gust of breath upon, seems clear to me, houses of cards. The kicker, for me, was observing some kind of Buddhist teacher/monk going on about revered betters/masters in the near-spirit domain, in a lesson at McLeod Gange in ‘95. A legit Tibetan Buddhist, a few miles from ~Daram Sala, no doubt backed by the top Lama.

OK, are we fine now, we can each go about our ways in peace? I think so.

Peace.

Posted by TraineeHuman (here)
So, it would seem to me, Johnnycomelately, that to make such authoritative and sweeping comments you must have truly vast and intensive personal experience and accurately detailed knowledge of what the many varieties of ancient spiritual traditions all have to offer. That alone is very impressive. Because otherwise, of course, you wouldn't be qualified to inform everyone so confidently that the time of any and all of the above is past, so that all the ashrams and monasteries and dojos and temples and so on and so forth should now presumably be informed that they need to close. Because their time is now altogether past, thanks to your wise information. I guess you would also have, for one example among many, a way that the Zen Buddhist monks, who as a matter of fact currently have the longest average life expectancy of any known occupational group, could live even longer.

I have to bow also to the vast depth and extent and flexibility of both philosophical and psychological insight and knowledge, as well as sociological/historical insight you must have -- not to mention the variety and also the depth of the most profound spiritual experiences and encounters and downloads you've had, too -- without which, of course, it would be quite impossible to accurately assess so many traditions. Wow.

But aside from the "traditional" vs "contemporary" labeling, mindfulness is the same thing as "being awake" in a profound sense. And that is a central issue in many discourses both ancient (such as Jesus' parable of The Nightwatchman, among others) and more modern (such as in Gurdjieff's notion of being "awake" and "remembering").

[TraineeHuman]

Yes, I do believe that where it counts most, you and I are close to ultimately being in agreement after all.

We all have to always follow our own nose. Even when we decide we have to go against what our own nose has been telling us, that change of direction is itself all coming from our own nose.

This fact sometimes leaves us all in a delicate and paradoxical situation. Only the nose knows when to overrule itself -- and also when not to do so.

One example of this dilemma that I have had to live with has been that I somehow knew since childhood that I had a serious undiagnosed disease, but it wasn't diagnosed until I was 65. Moreover, it's quite rare for anyone not to die of this particular type of heart disease in their 30s, 40s or 50s, or earlier, or to ever get diagnosed. But here I am, still going OK at 72. My nose told me. But how did it know it would be OK that I was to be overweight for the first 40 years of my life? How did my nose know not to worry so much about certain issues like that but not certain others? But yes to worry about certain other things, making me a kind of health nut for over half my life?

The dilemma of the nose, or what many call "free will", or also when to trust ourselves versus authorities/ apparent facts etc. Almost never enough facts available to give a definitive answer, yet in every situation we must roll the dice.

[TraineeHuman]

Some might perhaps not like my saying this, but there are such things as higher levels of power and effectiveness and stillness with which one may come to eventually practise or live in mindfulness. Such higher levels of intensity and expansion and power all come at a price, of course. That price is your sincere surrender, i.e. your being fully and more constantly and sincerely open to receiving it and being guided into meeting and mastering that greater intensity and those higher powers (remember "the Force"?), no less -- and also your being more fully open to being deeply aware of just simply being, and of how wonderful that truly is. Plus more ready to accept all the challenges that come "in plain clothes". Surrender and don't be so proud.

In the spiritual life one goes through various stages and tests. Eventually one may pass beyond a certain set of stages and leave all that behind. But there will always be a different set of stages still waiting for you to undergo and pass through. But to see these, you need to continue to be on the lookout for (mindful of) inner realization that is higher than what you have so far attained. Life will always hand you these new challenges, but of course you need to recognize how valuable they are. We all have whole worlds of many different sorts to conquer (inwardly), if only we can recognize their presence. There are many planes of reality, if only we can be aware of them. Just how wide and infinite and omnipresent and open is your consciousness? How much are you willing to give, or bear, "in exchange", and for how long?

Also, problems, or difficulties, arise at every level. First you have to conquer them in yourself, and mindfulness helps here, as you always need to put aside whatever is in the way of your feeling the calm of mindfulness.

[TraineeHuman]

There is the fundamentalist Christian notion that one can become "born again." Such rebirth may indeed involve a greater activation of, and protection and inspiration from, the soul. Unfortunately, however, Christian fundamentalists quite often seem to lack an adequately developed capacity to be ruthlessly critical regarding all ideas and opinions. At this Forum, or if one has had a very good tertiary education, such a ruthlessness of aspiration to find the real truth and not settle for anything less will hopefully be well established. My initial point, though, is that it's absolutely necessary. This is because the soul brings up many wonderful ideals, but it takes tough critical analysis to be able to see to what extent, and how, such ideals can be realized in one's life.

This is also why the soul is so calm and in a sense detached. It has to be, because the mental baggage you have collected as part of your own identity and conditioning will initially get all entangled with what the soul is actually saying. That's one more good reason why it's useful to practise mindfulness, where as far as you can you concentrate on listening only to what the soul is saying.

[Ernie Nemeth]

This is my most recent interchange with those 'higher forces'.

Rest easy, little Ernie, and listen. Hear with your heart, the words we will speak.
Life is a river, and it flows through your reality in a steady stream.
You are an extension of that life. A point of extreme narrow focus.
This locus of awareness that is your center flows along the river.

You ask, 'Where is God And why has He forsaken you?'

How foolish a question, to which you know the answer.

Yet we will play along, since that is what you want.

You have heard it said that God is not of this world, and that is true. But no one claims God is not present. God is the focus and the reality of life. God is the river, the flow, and the extension of life.

Other realities will present themselves to you in due course, for the river of life does not stop at the borders of your world. But amongst them all, it is this world you visit the most. It is this world that holds your rapt attention.

This brief bittersweet life is your favorite. Yet each time you forget that fact and again lament the absence of God. It is for that very experience that you come here over and over again. But I will not ruin it for you. For the best part of this life is yet to come.

Everything you encounter on this plane of existence is a reminder of your magnificence, if only you would accept their reality instead of imposing your own upon them.

God resides within. So deep is the connection that most never delve deep enough to find it within themselves. Instead they seek it in others and call it love.

It is the spark of wonder in the eyes of the other. You've seen it and acknowledged it many times. It is the namaste of life, when recognized.

Little Ernie, your life is a journey that never ends. It is the Creator's joy to confer this to you. It is a sacred pact, an ancient pact that can never be broken, for it defines not only you but your Creator as well.

So rejoice, little Ernie, your life is a gift that keeps on giving without fail, forever and ever more!

The wonder of it is Our everlasting Joy!

One final piece of advice, to put it succinctly:
Keep your head out of your ass...
It always seems ****ty from that perspective.

Remember?"

[TraineeHuman]

Good stuff, Ernie. Delightfully sincere, as you always seem to be.

I'm reminded of how Alan Watts liked to say that what we really are is God playing hide-and-seek with this world. The idea being, partly, that there's something that's more fun and more interesting than knowing everything. And that's the situation where we never fully know everything that's happening to us at any moment. I think that Watts would have said somewhere that that's also the situation God is in -- not being "all-knowing", because many foundational features of reality itself aren't fixed or final. So, then, God would be letting us in on God's own game, but then ultimately in some deep sense we are God anyway.

I've always been fascinated by how not-knowing isn't necessarily a passive activity at all. You can decide you'll temporarily not-know about something or other, and that will then give you direct access to its background, its context. Krishnamurti emphasizes the great importance of not-knowing about thought, about making use of not-knowing (or simply admitting that you truly don't know the answer to some major question about your life or whatever). That takes you beyond the realm of thought, of thinking, and so not-knowing changes into a way of greater or deeper knowing, so to speak. Very, very important, and fruitful in pointing the way to the realms of reality that are beyond the mental.

[TraineeHuman]

To my mind, Ernie's latest post raised issues about what not-knowing really means. You'll notice, though, that saying: "When you wash the dishes, just wash the dishes" is also, on the surface, about not-knowing about anything except the dishes. So, there's clearly a connection here which I'd like to explore.

To begin with, though, I believe we need to consider the question of what is consciousness. (There are also connexions with mindfulness, from the fact that mindfulness in itself is really one major way of pursuing freedom from unhappiness. But I'll leave that aside for now.)

The Western conception of consciousness goes something like this. Our consciousness is something that merely happens inside ourselves, and not outside of us. We develop a consciousness about someone or something through our memories of experiences of encountering it or them, until we reach a point where we're confident we have a kind of draft "picture" of who or what they may be like. That picture is then the foundation of our consciousness regarding them of it.

That's the Western approach. But the ancient Eastern understanding of consciousness goes something like this. Consciousness -- as distinct from the inert, dead matter that Western thought emphasizes -- is latently everywhere, and is the "stuff" out of which all reality is made, ultimately. Consciousness is already all fired up and ready for powerful action, and full of wisdom and power and understanding and so on. And through stillness, through not-knowing about anything, we start to tap into something that is quietly very dynamic and the source of all life and existence. Instead of drawing a blank through the supposed "nothing" of stillness, we start to tap into everythingness -- into the intensity of the breath of God, if you like. So, then, concentrating on just washing the dishes makes space for the everythingness to come in and quietly fill -- well, "your" consciousness, or, rather, to at least begin to merge your consciousness with the universal consciousness.

Both the West and the East traditionally see (their version of) consciousness as, among other things, a way, even *the* primary way, to gain knowledge about the things that matter. And I'm not denying that knowledge is important too. But the Eastern view also appreciates the importance and usefulness of the judicious use of not-knowing when that is fruitful. Notice also that the Western notion of consciousness is of something much more limited than the ancient Eastern. Hence there must be many things which the Western consciousness doesn't know but the Eastern may claim to know.

Remember how in a recent post I explained how in mindfulness there are two directions or "arrows" of knowing or seeing. And how,at least according to me, the two directions are experienced simultaneously. This doesn't jibe at all with the Western outlook, though. Although Western psychologists use mindfulness as the best general cure for depression, they would insist that you can't have a coherent view from a telescope at the same time as, and combined with, one from a microscope. What can I say? The human consciousness can do wonderful things, some of which evidently defy the rules of science and logic as we know them (in the West). Some phenomena, i would say, are too huge and integrated to be able to be fully unravelled and chopped up and remain intact. Kind of reminds me of the title of an obscure American musical from some decades ago: "Yo' hands too short to box with God".

[TraineeHuman]

I feel a need to talk in (at least) slightly greater depth about one or two of the ingredients that can actually go into mindfulness when it's practised at an advanced level. Let's start with silence. In the West, silence has always been considered to be something passive. But there are somewhat (at least) meditative-style states where it becomes undeniably clear that through silence one is tapping into something that's a whole other, higher realm of reality, and very dynamic and "full". You need to go there, somehow. If you like, you could think of it as almost rather like an alternative universe/world rather like some world that Captain Kirk wanders into in a Star Trek episode. The amazing thing about it is that such a world can be and is a world of everythingness (as distinct from "nothingness", as we would think). And all in extraordinarily perfect balance and cohesion and greatness of power and of perspective, rather than a world that's just a vacuum (not that such a thing as a vacuum "world" even exists.) In that world, everything seems timeless, making all the concerns of our world of transient forms seem petty and feeble and insignificant. That world is also what I would consider the world of, or the entrance to, true "enlightenment".

One simple way you can begin to feel that world of the great silence is through mastering the art of grounding yourself and just taking it further and further. Let me explain. At some point in your practice of grounding yourself, e.g. by hooking the thumb of your flat hand over your belly button, you'll begin to feel electromagnetism of some kind flowing in and out of your belly button and solar plexus generally. Such grounding should enable you, after much practice, eventually to palpably feel yourself actually standing back energetically from your own thinking. Continuing along the same path, you can eventually learn to also stand back from feeling and sensing altogether, and watch your own inner movements from the viewpoint of an entirely pure, uninvolved, impartial consciousness. At this point you go a step (a leap) further and simply withdraw your consciousness from "your" involvement in thoughts, feelings and sensations. You'll notice that your consciousness doesn't diminish in the process, but actually increases in clarity, intensity, sharpness, happiness, and even power. In other words, you can find that from that completely detached, silent and inherently safe inner position, you can study your own inner movements with far higher levels of precision and detail than is possible through ordinary introspection, and that you can learn to modify the workings of your mind and heart in ways that are completely inconceivable from the ordinary waking states of consciousness.

There's a whole world, a universe, brimful with unexplored inner knowledge there just waiting for you to explore it, some day, somehow, in some form of soul existence. But it takes huge amounts of "inner work", and of psychotherapy in some sense of that word, before you can access the treasure house of inner knowledge. But haven't you had enough of the confusion -- of the "fog" or boredom of your meditation -- which is really just the clutter in your subconscious mind that just hasn't been cleaned up yet.

You need to seriously master stillness, I'm afraid. Because otherwise, how can you master, or accurately know that you have, true "self-knowledge"? What would that even mean? (Against what background could you hold or mirror it?)

[TraineeHuman]

In mindfulness, the "arrow" going out is all about integrating the individual with universal (and transcendent) existence in oneness and in boundless things such as bliss.

Notice also that there are things which the two arrows (both "out" and "in") seek to exclude. For instance, they exclude all (automatic) behaviour, of the conditioned mind, including all its attitudes and beliefs and reflex emotions and memories, and (going "in") all the products of these. This is the "freshness" side of mindfulness, its seeing of everything as fresh and untouched, an awareness as if everything is being seen for the first time ever. Consciousness is in itself always fresh, but we don't always realize how much this is so until we practise mindfulness or some other form of meditation or active awareness.

Everything excluded by the two arrows, though, is, effectively, expansively and slowly, being transformed in the process of mindfulness.

The ancient Eastern teachings claim that mindfulness, and meditation generally, allows us to experience awareness and energy generally, rising out of our subconscious and also out of the superconscious (which is the soul). Hence we have ever fresh insights into the mechanisms and structures lying behind, or for now controlling, our thoughts and emotions and behaviours.

[TraineeHuman]

Following on from post #2892, here's more on the profound importance of mastering silence (which of course is not "nothing" in the mundane Western sense):

According to Sri Aurobindo: "It is not possible to make a foundation in Yoga [i.e., spiritual practise] if the mind is restless." Again in the words of Sri Aurobindo, "A mind that has achieved [true] calmness can begin to act, even intensely and powerfully, but it will keep its fundamental stillness [at all times]."

Furthermore, someone else writes: "In Vedic culture so-called “Mindfulness” occupies the central place as a holistic approach towards accomplishing oneness of the Atman with the Brahman. As per Buddhism, Mindfulness (i.e. Sati) is not present in every state of mind, but needs to be brought into being instead. As soon as Sati is brought into an individual’s being [fully and totally], through various methods, (s}he becomes Bodhisatva and reaches Nirvana, thus achieving the goal of absolute enlightenment."

Just thought I'd pass that on. Raises the question of how well do you truly know and have masterful understanding and knowledge of the world of true silence, and of how deeply it's actually entangled with all of reality everywhere?

[TraineeHuman]

It seems to me that one major reason why the nature and importance of the world of silence is misunderstood and underestimated
is because people are ignorant about how vast and real and omnipresent and varied consciousness is. Hopefully the following video can fill in many of these gaps.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=FUB6NybGDWw

[Johnnycomelately]

My internet is too slow right now to watch vids, will look later.

To your intro, I humbly add that the Mineral Kingdom, from the stones and earth within my sight to the whole of our Earth home including the Sun and all the workings of this solar system, are to me conscious.

Daily, before I turn in, I give it/them (most strongly to the Sun) my appreciation and best wishes, for the sake of (planetary-scale) ‘physical’ peace. This after talking to the Plant and the Animal kingdoms, and before hoping for peace for our kingdom of the Children on Earth and on far world-homes.

Posted by TraineeHuman (here)
It seems to me that one major reason why the nature and importance of the world of silence is misunderstood and underestimated
is because people are ignorant about how vast and real and omnipresent and varied consciousness is. Hopefully the following video can fill in many of these gaps.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=FUB6NybGDWw

[TraineeHuman]

For anyone who can't access the video, here are a few quotes to get started.

Sri Aurobindo on Consciousness

Consciousness is a fundamental thing, the fundamental thing in existence � it is the energy, the motion, the movement of consciousness that creates the universe and all that is in it � not only the macrocosm but the microcosm is nothing but consciousness arranging itself. For instance, when consciousness in its movement or rather a certain stress of movement forgets itself in the action it becomes an apparently �unconscious” energy; when it forgets itself in the form it becomes the electron, the atom, the material object. In reality it is still consciousness that works in the energy and determines the form and the evolution of form. When it wants to liberate itself, slowly, evolutionarily, out of Matter, but still in the form, it emerges as life, as animal, as man and it can go on evolving itself still farther out of its involution and become something more than mere man.

-- Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, pp. 236-7.

Consciousness is usually identified with mind, but mental consciousness is only the human range which no more exhausts all the possible ranges of consciousness than human sight exhausts all the gradations of colour or human hearing all the gradations of sound — for there is much above or below that is to man invisible and inaudible. So there are ranges of consciousness above and below the human range, with which the normal human [consciousness] has no contact and they seem to it unconscious....

-- Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, p.233.


Our physical organism no more causes or explains thought and consciousness than the construction of an engine causes or explains the motive-power of steam or electricity. The force is anterior, not the physical instrument.

-- Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, p. 86.


Consciousness is not only power of awareness of self and things, it is or has also a dynamic and creative energy. It can determine its own reactions or abstain from reactions; it can not only answer to forces, but create or put out from itself forces. Consciousness is Chit but also Chit Shakti, awareness but also conscious force.

-- Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, p. 234


We mean [by planes of consciousness, planes of existence] a general settled poise or world of relations between Purusha and Prakriti, between the Soul and Nature. For anything that we can call world is and can be nothing else than the working out of a general relation which a universal existence has created or established between itself, or let us say its eternal fact or potentiality and the powers of its becoming. That existence in its relations with and its experience of the becoming is what we call soul or Purusha, individual soul in the individual, universal soul in the cosmos; the principle and the powers of the becoming are what we call Nature or Prakriti.

--Sri Aurobindo The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 429


... the knowledge we have to arrive at is not truth of the intellect; it is not right belief, right opinions, right information about oneself and things, that is only the surface mind's idea of knowledge. To arrive at some mental conception about God and ourselves and the world is an object good for the intellect but not large enough for the Spirit; it will not make us the conscious sons of Infinity. Ancient Indian thought meant by knowledge a consciousness which possesses the highest Truth in a direct perception and in self-experience; to become, to be the Highest that we know is the sign that we really have the knowledge..... For the individual to arrive at the divine universality and supreme infinity, live in it, possess it, to be, know, feel and express that one in all his being, consciousness, energy, delight of being is what the ancient seers of the Veda meant by the Knowledge.

-- Sri Aurobindo The Life Divine, pp. 685-6 .

[TraineeHuman]

“Consciousness is a fundamental thing, the fundamental thing in existence–it is the energy, the motion, the movement of consciousness that creates the universe and all that is in it–not only the macrocosm but the microcosm is nothing but consciousness arranging itself.” (Sri Aurobindo, 1970, pp.236-237).

"Generally, the word consciousness is used to denote just the mental consciousness but for Sri Aurobindo it denotes all possible levels and layers of consciousness- material, subconscient, subliminal, emotional, sensory, aesthetic, mental and the supramental. He viewed human consciousness as a laboratory where an individual through the intense power of aspiration can deepen, widen and heighten the consciousness. Deepening helps in releasing the intensity of love within the heart -imbuing each atom of creation with deep peace and dance with joy or Ananda. Widening of the consciousness is a movement in which a person aspires to be inclusive by appreciating the multiplicity and diversity of thought patterns and ways of being. Heightening the consciousness takes an individual towards the higher, illumined, intuitive and overmind where macro-cosmic rhythms can be felt within the micro-cosmic-personality in intimate interconnectedness –each flower, tree, cloud, stardust, the vile and the saint becomes one’s own essence. In the highest supramental realm, chit-shakti (Consciousness-Power) can be directly expressed- our true aspiration is effectuated directly in Reality."


"I hoped to build a rainbow bridge

Marrying the Earth to the Sky

And sow in this dancing planet midge

The moods of infinity. "

Sri Aurobindo (1972,p.99) in A God’s Labour

"It is my endeavor in this article to introduce to you the vision of Psychology as a discipline of knowledge as seen by the Indian Seer and Yogi Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950). Sri Aurobindo writing towards the beginning of the 20th century was well aware of the psychological thought as it developed in the West in the 19th century. He was also well versed in the psychological thought contained within many of the psycho-spiritual texts like the Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad-Gita etc. Sri Aurobindo’s aim was to create a scope for psychological enquiry and practice, that deepened beneath the visible midge surface nature of humanity and could capture the vast moods of infinity.

"Can psychological enquiry and practice go beyond the visible midge surface nature of humanity and capture the vast moods of infinity?

"The Intellectual crucible at the beginning of 20th within which Sri Aurobindo’s evolutionary through was born was yet dynamised by thoughts of Kant, Hegel, Freud, Darwin, Nietzsche and Karl Marx. It was an age that attempted to look at the humanity anew, divested of cultural repressions, organised religion, entrenched social habits and order. This age attempted to give back to the human being, its natural-ness and freedom to find without dogma the origins of its nature. Sri Aurobindo recognised that humanity was impelled to seek maximum freedom for itself and created a theory that would help humanity consciously take the next step in evolution. However, according to Sri Aurobindo a release of repression from vital desires controlled through agency of ego or surface morality was not capable of yielding to humanity the freedom and progress that it desired. He sought to create a ‘rainbow bridge’ between human urge to be free from repression and the need for human vitality to be rooted strong in the purifying streams of the ‘Superconscient’ as mentioned in the Vedic and Upanishadic literature. According to him, to find healing and progress, it is important to create receptivity in the being for higher light rather than directly confront the darkness that is rising from the Subconscient. He remarks:

“The significance of the lotus is not to be found by analysing the secrets of the mud from which it grows here; its secret is to be found in the heavenly archetype of the lotus that blooms forever in the Light…You must know the whole before you can know the part and the highest before you can truly understand the lowest. That is the promise of the greater psychology awaiting its….” (Sri Aurobindo, 1970, p. 1608, emphasis added).

"A Greater Psychology
Can Psychology become the ‘Science of Consciousness’?

"What is this greater Psychology that Sri Aurobindo talks about? According to Sri Aurobindo (1997) Psychology rather than being a ‘Science of Behavior’ needs to a ‘Science of Consciousness’. He iterates that the psychologists of the 19th century in a bid to make Psychology into an objective, independently verifiable science fell into three major errors while conceiving the disciplinary knowledge which have limited the study of psychological possibilities of humanity. These are:

…the materialistic error which bases the study of mind upon the study of the body; the sceptical error which prevents any bold and clear-eyed investigation of the hidden profundities of our subjective existence; the error of conservative distrust and recoil which regards any subjective state or experience that departs from the ordinary operations of our mental and psychical nature as a morbidity or a hallucination,—just as the Middle Ages regarded all new science as magic and a diabolical departure from the sane and right limits of human capacity; finally, the error of objectivity which leads the psychologist to study others from outside instead of seeing his true field of knowledge and laboratory of experiment in himself. (Sri Aurobindo, 1998, p.177, emphasis added)

"Sri Aurobindo (1997) conceives of Psychology as a subjective science. Sri Aurobindo (1998) writes that “Psychology is necessarily a subjective science and one must proceed in it from the knowledge of oneself to the knowledge of others” (p.177). This has a significant import also for the way in which our knowledge transactions are structured. Most disciplines of knowledge, for instance, have as their focus the study of the ‘other’ rather than the self. The educators are interested in knowing about and teaching the students, the psychologists learn about their clients, doctors and nurses about their patients etc. In Sri Aurobindo’s view the psyche of the teacher, the healer, and the worker is the critical instrument which when developed to fineness can become capable of facilitating transformative change through its stillness, calm, radiance and intensity. In educational curricula and in healing arts there need to be space for the personal curriculum of each individual. It was fundamental to Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy that ‘Nothing can be taught’ and the knowledge that an individual seeks lays within the deep precincts of their own subjectivity. This existential knowledge critical for the growth of psychological being needs to be self-discovered, honed and creatively expressed to nurture the self and society. The role of the educator, healer or mentor is to create an environment within which this self-exploration can take place. "

A Deep Relational Knowledge

"The co-creation of knowledge is a deeply relational process. It can be seen through Sri Aurobindo’s (2005) lens through fourfold order of knowledge- Knowledge through separative indirect contact; knowledge through separative direct contact; Knowledge through intimate direct contact; and Knowledge through identity. Wherever, there are likely to be a rigid role division between an educator/student or healer/healed in terms of entrenched hierarchies and one way communicative pattern that choke individual voice and expression, a separative consciousness with indirect touch is likely to become dominant mode of communication. In Sri Aurobindo (2005), “there is no direct touch between our consciousness and their consciousness, our substance and their substance, our self of being and their self-being” (p.547). This psychological distance becomes even more pronounced through ‘othering’ of individuals and communities based on prejudice, stereotype, exploitation and creating dispossession. A conscious challenging of these conditioned habits can bring us in greater touch with the ‘other’ through separative direct touch where we can observe, understand and appreciate the ‘other’ person. The separation yet remains. The third kind of relation i.e., knowledge through direct intimate touch brings two person still closer, no longer separative but linked to each other in intimate thought emotion and rhythm. The deepest relational knowledge is through identity. In such relational knowledge one can feel the being of one person flowing through another -one in identity and love. This state is deeply transformative and capable of healing the existential ‘touch of tears’ that marks our lives and creates incompleteness. This sense of completeness or integrity of experience is the aim of both education and healing.

The Dynamics of Transformation: The Sun Within and Without

"For Sri Aurobindo the human person is a transitional being who is still in the process of evolution. The fact that sorrow and suffering exist on this earth and is part of human experience indicates that we have not as yet gained the inner and outer balance that we yearn for. According to Sri Aurobindo (1999) almost all Problems of existence are problems of harmony. Harmony can be achieved through individual and collective effort and transformation.As individuals our essence is Sachhidananda. We carry a Sun within- our consciousness Swayamprakasha or self- luminous.

The art of discovering the Sun within

“Consciousness is a fundamental thing, the fundamental thing in existence–it is the energy, the motion, the movement of consciousness that creates the universe and all that is in it–not only the macrocosm but the microcosm is nothing but consciousness arranging itself.” (Sri Aurobindo, 1970, pp.236-237).

" Generally, the word consciousness is used to denote just the mental consciousness but for Sri Aurobindo it denotes all possible levels and layers of consciousness- material, subconscient, subliminal, emotional, sensory, aesthetic, mental and the supramental. He viewed human consciousness as a laboratory where an individual through the intense power of aspiration can deepen, widen and heighten the consciousness. Deepening helps in releasing the intensity of love within the heart -imbuing each atom of creation with deep peace and dance with joy or Ananda. Widening of the consciousness is a movement in which a person aspires to be inclusive by appreciating the multiplicity and diversity of thought patterns and ways of being. Heightening the consciousness takes an individual towards the higher, illumined, intuitive and overmind where macro-cosmic rhythms can be felt within the micro-cosmic-personality in intimate interconnectedness –each flower, tree, cloud, stardust, the vile and the saint becomes one’s own essence. In the highest supramental realm, chit-shakti (Consciousness-Power) can be directly expressed- our true aspiration is effectuated directly in Reality.

"For Sri Aurobindo – Psychology leads from the study of mind and the soul in living beings to the perception of the one soul and one mind in all things and beings. (Sri Aurobindo, 1999, p.51) The inner and the outer Sun are one in essence, matter and spirit entwined in a deep unity –our infinite possibilities lie curled in the lap of Eternity.

An Integral Compassion

"Sri Aurobindo’s gaze towards evolving humanity was of a deep compassion. He recognized and affirmed the struggles of humanity as part of its existential condition. Ignorance was as much a part of this journey as knowledge as we grow through both. We are Divine-in-the-making. Perfection is not the end-point, rather each moment in our psychological journey was a point of perfection. In his view, the same psychological principle that helped us evolve can become a hindrance in our journey after it has reached its fruition. For instance, human ego helps the personality to take a bounded for and shape against the white background of Infinity and helps us operate in this world through our desire, will, reason and effort. However, this same ego also is the source of ‘othering’ and separativeness. Desire creates but is in essence uncontrolled and knows no final satisfaction. Effort and will are creative but can become frenzied and purposeless. Reason rescues us from superstition and infra-rationality but it cuts at its own arguments. Thus the very psychological principle that allowed us to affirm our humanity also becomes a bar in the same moment. In Sri Aurobindo’s words:

"When we have passed beyond knowings, then we shall have Knowledge. Reason was the helper; Reason is the bar. When we have passed beyond willings, then we shall have Power. Effort was the helper; Effort is the bar. When we have passed beyond enjoyings, then we shall have Bliss. Desire was the helper; Desire is the bar. When we have passed beyond individualising, then we shall be real Persons. Ego was the helper; Ego is the bar. When we have passed beyond humanity, then we shall be the Man. The Animal was the helper; the Animal is the bar” (in The Mother, 2004, p.367).

"For Sri Aurobindo all that we are, all that we shall be, is a divine promise. Each individual is a free determinant their unique journey to the Divine. Cultures, beliefs, climes, language, expression may differ but inward experience of each individual is an addition to the progress of this Cosmos. Each individual aspiration is like a walk in a virgin forest creating a path that no one has walked before. Yoga or intentional development fast forwards this process through a conscious impetus for transformative change. It creates an inwardisation of consciousness which then can transform our outer nature – body, emotions, senses and mind. Sri Aurobindo believed that it was possible to have life Divine on Earth. He believed that human nature can be changed and divinised and that luminous societal structures can be created that would be free of violence, exclusion, oppression and exploitation. He leaned forward to hear the whispers of the footsteps of the future. I leave you with his words-

“I have gathered my dreams in a silver air
Between the gold and the blue
And wrapped them softly and left them there,
My jewelled dreams of you.”

– Sri Aurobindo (1972, p.99) in A God’s Labour

[TraineeHuman]

EXERCISE (Learning about silence) Next time you have a holiday/vacation, keep yourself shut in one room for two days (if possible). As far as you can, do nothing all day except to actively wipe away every single thought (or image) that ever comes to your mind, immediately as it comes up.
Simply "bathe" in the silence. Ah, what freedom!
I'm challenging you all to do it.

[Vangelo]

Posted by TraineeHuman (here)
EXERCISE  (Learning about silence)  Next time you have a holiday/vacation, keep yourself shut in one room for two days (if possible).  As far as you can, do nothing all day except to actively wipe away every single thought (or image) that ever comes to your mind, immediately as it comes up. 
Simply "bathe" in the silence.  Ah, what freedom!
I'm challenging you all to do it.

I would like to share my personal experience with something similar.  The short version is, I agree with TraineeHuman.  In my experience, it can be a time of unfathomable freedom, peace, and connection with oneself.  I gift, for sure.  But, it can also be a time of intense pain as reality sets in.  The more one tries to ignore their reality, the more difficult and painful it becomes.

I have been lucky enough to participate in four, 11 day consciousness and meditation retreats in the Arizona desert where 3.25 days are spent in 'silence and fasting' (I am going to my 5th in March - Topic: opening the heart chakra).  Silence is indeed what you think it is, i.e., silence.  No speaking, laughing, sign language, or anything like that.  Fasting means no food, but you are able to drink water, fruit juice, coffee, or tea.  The retreat is also electronics free for the entire duration.  These are not new age retreats or anything like that. The woman who runs them has been doing it for almost 40 years.  

In any event, the first time I did this I was certain I would not last 1.5 days without food.  Silence, was not a problem for me.  For others in the group, they were terrified of the silence.  Typically, there is a 50/50 split between the participants. 

I now look forward to the silence and fasting part of the retreat more than anything else.  This is because it is a time when I can shut out the world and be with me.  During the 3rd retreat (focus was on shadow), I spent those 3 days in deep mourning.  I had no idea why I needed to mourn but it hit my like a brick.  I also did not initially know the source of my wounds, eventually I figured it all out.  The intensity and pain was like nothing I had ever experienced.  It took vulnerability and courage for me to confront my reality and in the end, I am a much more powerful, and humble person who sees so much more beauty and joy in the world.  I am forever grateful.  

I will state, that not everyone who attends the conference has such a healing experience, but it is safe to say at least 75% do.