We must, however, consider deeply and clearly what we mean by the understanding and by its purification. We use the word as the nearest equivalent we can get in the English tongue to the Sanskrit philosophical term buddhi; therefore we exclude from it the action of the sense mind which merely consists of the recording of perceptions of all kinds without distinction whether they be right or wrong, true or mere illusory phenomena, penetrating or superficial. We exclude that mass of confused conception which is merely a rendering of these perceptions and is equally void of the higher principle of judgment and discrimination. Nor can we include that constant leaping current of habitual thought which does duty for understanding in the mind of the average unthinking man, but is only a constant repetition of habitual associations, desires, prejudices, prejudgments, received or inherited preferences, even though it may constantly enrich itself by a fresh stock of concepts streaming in from the environment and admitted without the challenge of the sovereign discriminating reason. Undoubtedly this is a sort of understanding which has been very useful in the development of man from the animal; but it is only one remove above the animal mind; it is a half-animal reason subservient to habit, to desire and the senses and is of no avail in the search whether for scientific or philosophical or spiritual knowledge. We have to go beyond it; its purification can only be effected either by dismissing or silencing it altogether or by transmuting it into the true understanding. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-purified-understanding#p4</ref>
== Importance of Purification and Other Aspects of Integral Yoga ==
=== Perfection and Purification Beauty ===
As you pursue this labour Pure sense of beauty can be acquired only through a great purification and unification, you must at the same time take great care to perfect the external and instrumental part of your being. When the higher truth manifests, it must find in you a mind that is supple and rich enough to be able to give the idea that seeks to express itself a form of thought which preserves its force and clarity<ref>http://incarnateword. This thought, again, when it seeks to clothe itself in words, must find /cwm/15/beauty#p14</ref> The preoccupation with universal beauty even in you a sufficient its aesthetic forms has an intense power of expression so that the words reveal the thought for refining and do not deform it. And subtilising the formula in which you embody the truth should be manifested in all your feelingsnature, all your acts of will, all your actions, in all the movements of your being. Finally, these movements themselves should, by constant effort, attain their and at its highest perfectionit is a great force for purification. <ref> http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/1223/the-sciencehigher-and-ofthe-lower-livingknowledge#p6 p8</ref>
If there is to be an active perfection of our being, the first necessity is a purification of the working of the instruments which it now uses for a music of discords. The being itself, the spirit, the divine Reality in man stands in no need of purification; it is for ever pure, not affected by the faults of its instrumentation or the stumblings of mind and heart and body in their work, as the sun, says the Upanishad, is not touched or stained by the faults of the eye of vision. Mind, heart, the soul of vital desire, the life in the body are the seats of impurity; it is they that must be set right if the working of the spirit is to be a perfect working and not marked by its present greater or less concession to the devious pleasure of the lower nature. What is ordinarily called purity of the being, is either a negative whiteness, a freedom from sin gained by a constant inhibition of whatever action, feeling, idea or will we think to be wrong, or else, the highest negative or passive purity, the entire God-content, inaction, the complete stilling of the vibrant mind and the soul of desire, which in quietistic disciplines leads to a supreme peace; for then the spirit appears in all the eternal purity of its immaculate essence. That gained, there would be nothing farther to be enjoyed or done. But here we have the more difficult problem of a total, unabated, even an increased and more powerful action founded on perfect bliss of the being, the purity of the soul's instrumental as well as the spirit's essential nature. Mind, heart, life, body are to do the works of the Divine, all the works which they do now and yet more, but to do them divinely, as now they do not do them. This is the first appearance of the problem before him on which the seeker of perfection has to lay hold, that it is not a negative, prohibitory, passive or quietistic, but a positive, affirmative, active purity which is his object. A divine quietism discovers the immaculate eternity of the Spirit, a divine kinetism adds to it the right pure undeviating action of the soul, mind and body. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-instruments-of-the-spirit#p1</ref>=== Calm ===
Moreover, it is a total purification of all the complex instrumentality in all the parts of each instrument that is demanded of us by the integral perfection. It is not, ultimately, the narrower moral purification of the ethical nature. Ethics deals only with the desire-soul Purification and calm are the active outward dynamical part of our being; its field is confined to character and action. It prohibits and inhibits certain actions, certain desires, impulses, propensities,—it inculcates certain qualities first needs in the act, such as truthfulness, love, charity, compassion, chastityYoga. When it has got this done and assured One may have a base great wealth of virtue, the possession of a purified will and blameless habit of action, its work is finished. But the Siddha experiences of the integral perfection has to dwell in a larger plane of the Spirit's eternal purity beyond good and evil… it is meant that the Siddha of the active integral perfection will live dynamically in the working of the transcendent power of the divine Spirit as a universal will through the supermind individualised in him for action. His works will therefore be the works of an eternal Knowledgekind (worlds, an eternal Truthvisions, an eternal Might, an eternal Love, an eternal Ananda; but the truth, knowledge, force, love, delight will be the whole essential spirit of whatever work he will do and will not depend on its form; they will determine his action from the spirit within and the action will not determine the spirit or subject it to a fixed standard or rigid mould of working. He will have no dominant mere habit of character, but only a spiritual being and will with at the most a free and flexible temperamental mould for the actionvoices etc. His life will be a direct stream from the eternal fountains, not a form cut to some temporary human pattern. His perfection will not be a sattwic purity) without them, but a thing uplifted beyond the gunas of Nature, a perfection of spiritual knowledge, spiritual power, spiritual delight, unity and harmony of unity; the outward perfection of his works will be freely shaped as the self-expression of this inner spiritual transcendence these experiences occurring in an unpurified and universality. For this change he must make conscient in him that power troubled consciousness are usually full of spirit disorder and supermind which is now superconscient to our mentality. But that cannot work in him so long as his present mental, vital, physical being is not liberated from its actual inferior working. This purification is the first necessitymixture. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2430/the-instrumentsdanger-of-the-spiritego-and-the-need-of-purification#p2p50</ref>
=== Love In your nature there are many obstacles, chiefly a great activity of the outward-going mind and a thick crust of the impure lower Prakriti that covers the heart and the vital being. Quieting of the mind and Power purification of Purification ===the nature are what you must have before you can fulfil your aim. Aspire for these two things first; ask for them constantly from above. You will not be able to achieve them by your own unaided effort. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/purity#p9</ref>
In this way it is not necessary to introduce the principle of love into the explanation. But if you want to know or understand the nature of the Force or the Power that enables or brings about this transformation—particularly where evil is concerned, but also with ugliness to a certain extent—you see that love is obviously the most potent and integral of all powers—integral in the sense that it applies in all cases. It is even more powerful than the power of purification which dissolves all bad will and which is, as it were, the master of the adverse forces, but which has not the direct power of transformation. The power of purification first dissolves in order to allow the transformation afterwards. It destroys one form in order to be able to create a better one, whereas love need not dissolve in order to transform; it possesses the direct power of transformation. Love is like a flame that changes what is hard into something malleable and even sublimates this malleable thing into a kind of purified vapour—it does not destroy, it transforms. <ref> http://incarnateword.in/cwm/10/aphorism-49#p12 </ref>=== Transformation ===
The love that one contains in silence acts within oneself for Purification of the nature by the "influence" of the Spirit is not what I mean by transformation; purification is only part of a psychic change or a psycho-spiritual change—the word besides has many senses and is very often given a moral or ethical meaning which is foreign to my purpose. What I mean by the spiritual transformationis something dynamic (not merely liberation of the self, or realisation of the One which can very well be attained without any descent). The love that one turns outwards—if one does it It is a putting on of the spiritual consciousness dynamic as well as static in a pure and disinterested way—may occasionally help othersevery part of the being down to the subconscient. But most often they receive That cannot be done by the influence of the Self leaving the consciousness fundamentally as it wronglyis with only purification, enlightenment of the mind and heart and quiescence of the vital... So you must do as your instinct guides youIt means a bringing down of Divine Consciousness static and dynamic into all these parts and the entire replacement of the present consciousness by that. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/1729/24transformation-in-the-julyintegral-1934yoga#p3p13</ref>
=== Purification by Surrender Perfection ===
There are two possibilities, one As you pursue this labour of purification by personal effortand unification, which takes a long you must at the same time, another by a direct intervention take great care to perfect the external and instrumental part of the Divine Grace which is usually rapid in its actionyour being. For When the latter there higher truth manifests, it must be find in you a complete surrender and self-giving and for mind that again usually it is necessary supple and rich enough to be able to have a mind give the idea that can remain quite quiet and allow the Divine Force seeks to act supporting it with express itself a form of thought which preserves its complete adhesion at every step, but otherwise remaining still force and quietclarity. This last condition which resembles the baby cat attitude spoken of by Ramakrishnathought, again, is difficult to have. Those who are accustomed when it seeks to clothe itself in words, must find in you a very active movement sufficient power of their expression so that the words reveal the thought and do not deform it. And the formula in which you embody the truth should be manifested in all your feelings, all your acts of will , all your actions, in all they do, find it difficult to still the activity and adopt the quietude movements of mental self-givingyour being. This does not mean that they cannot do the Yoga or cannot arrive at self-giving—only the purification and the self-giving take a long time to accomplish and one must have the patience and steady perseverance and resolution to go throughFinally, these movements themselves should, by constant effort, attain their highest perfection. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2912/surrenderthe-science-of-living#p78p6 </ref>
=== Beauty If there is to be an active perfection of our being, the first necessity is a purification of the working of the instruments which it now uses for a music of discords. The being itself, the spirit, the divine Reality in man stands in no need of purification; it is for ever pure, not affected by the faults of its instrumentation or the stumblings of mind and Purification ===heart and body in their work, as the sun, says the Upanishad, is not touched or stained by the faults of the eye of vision. Mind, heart, the soul of vital desire, the life in the body are the seats of impurity; it is they that must be set right if the working of the spirit is to be a perfect working and not marked by its present greater or less concession to the devious pleasure of the lower nature. What is ordinarily called purity of the being, is either a negative whiteness, a freedom from sin gained by a constant inhibition of whatever action, feeling, idea or will we think to be wrong, or else, the highest negative or passive purity, the entire God-content, inaction, the complete stilling of the vibrant mind and the soul of desire, which in quietistic disciplines leads to a supreme peace; for then the spirit appears in all the eternal purity of its immaculate essence. That gained, there would be nothing farther to be enjoyed or done. But here we have the more difficult problem of a total, unabated, even an increased and more powerful action founded on perfect bliss of the being, the purity of the soul's instrumental as well as the spirit's essential nature. Mind, heart, life, body are to do the works of the Divine, all the works which they do now and yet more, but to do them divinely, as now they do not do them. This is the first appearance of the problem before him on which the seeker of perfection has to lay hold, that it is not a negative, prohibitory, passive or quietistic, but a positive, affirmative, active purity which is his object. A divine quietism discovers the immaculate eternity of the Spirit, a divine kinetism adds to it the right pure undeviating action of the soul, mind and body. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-instruments-of-the-spirit#p1</ref>
Pure sense Moreover, it is a total purification of all the complex instrumentality in all the parts of each instrument that is demanded of us by the integral perfection. It is not, ultimately, the narrower moral purification of the ethical nature. Ethics deals only with the desire-soul and the active outward dynamical part of our being; its field is confined to character and action. It prohibits and inhibits certain actions, certain desires, impulses, propensities,—it inculcates certain qualities in the act, such as truthfulness, love, charity, compassion, chastity. When it has got this done and assured a base of virtue, the possession of a purified will and blameless habit of action, its work is finished. But the Siddha of the integral perfection has to dwell in a larger plane of the Spirit's eternal purity beyond good and evil… it is meant that the Siddha of the active integral perfection will live dynamically in the working of the transcendent power of beauty can the divine Spirit as a universal will through the supermind individualised in him for action. His works will therefore be acquired the works of an eternal Knowledge, an eternal Truth, an eternal Might, an eternal Love, an eternal Ananda; but the truth, knowledge, force, love, delight will be the whole essential spirit of whatever work he will do and will not depend on its form; they will determine his action from the spirit within and the action will not determine the spirit or subject it to a fixed standard or rigid mould of working. He will have no dominant mere habit of character, but only through a great spiritual being and will with at the most a free and flexible temperamental mould for the action. His life will be a direct stream from the eternal fountains, not a form cut to some temporary human pattern. His perfection will not be a sattwic purity, but a thing uplifted beyond the gunas of Nature, a perfection of spiritual knowledge, spiritual power, spiritual delight, unity and harmony of unity; the outward perfection of his works will be freely shaped as the self-expression of this inner spiritual transcendence and universality. For this change he must make conscient in him that power of spirit and supermind which is now superconscient to our mentality. But that cannot work in him so long as his present mental, vital, physical being is not liberated from its actual inferior working. This purificationis the first necessity. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/1524/beautythe-instruments-of-the-spirit#p14p2</ref>
The preoccupation with universal beauty even in its aesthetic forms has an intense power for refining and subtilising the nature, and at its highest it is a great force for purification. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-higher-and-the-lower-knowledge#p8</ref>== Key to Purification ==
=== Calm and Purification Love ===
Purification and calm are In this way it is not necessary to introduce the first needs in principle of love into the Yogaexplanation. One may have But if you want to know or understand the nature of the Force or the Power that enables or brings about this transformation—particularly where evil is concerned, but also with ugliness to a great wealth certain extent—you see that love is obviously the most potent and integral of experiences all powers—integral in the sense that it applies in all cases. It is even more powerful than the power of that kind (worldspurification which dissolves all bad will and which is, as it were, visionsthe master of the adverse forces, voices etcbut which has not the direct power of transformation. The power of purification first dissolves in order to allow the transformation afterwards.) without themIt destroys one form in order to be able to create a better one, but these experiences occurring whereas love need not dissolve in an unpurified order to transform; it possesses the direct power of transformation. Love is like a flame that changes what is hard into something malleable and troubled consciousness are usually full even sublimates this malleable thing into a kind of disorder and mixturepurified vapour—it does not destroy, it transforms. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/3010/the-danger-of-the-ego-and-the-need-ofaphorism-purification49#p50p12 </ref>
In your nature there are many obstacles, chiefly a great activity of the outward-going mind The love that one contains in silence acts within oneself for purification and transformation. The love that one turns outwards—if one does it in a thick crust of the impure lower Prakriti that covers the heart pure and the vital beingdisinterested way—may occasionally help others. Quieting of the mind and purification of the nature are what But most often they receive it wrongly... So you must have before do as your instinct guides you can fulfil your aim. Aspire for these two things first; ask for them constantly from above. You will not be able to achieve them by your own unaided effort. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsacwm/2917/purity24-july-1934#p9p3</ref>
=== Transformation and Purification Surrender ===
Purification There are two possibilities, one of the nature purification by personal effort, which takes a long time, another by the "influence" a direct intervention of the Spirit Divine Grace which is not what I mean by transformation; purification is only part of usually rapid in its action. For the latter there must be a psychic change or a psychocomplete surrender and self-spiritual change—the word besides has many senses giving and for that again usually it is very often given necessary to have a moral or ethical meaning which is foreign mind that can remain quite quiet and allow the Divine Force to my purposeact supporting it with its complete adhesion at every step, but otherwise remaining still and quiet. What I mean by This last condition which resembles the spiritual transformation is something dynamic (not merely liberation baby cat attitude spoken of the selfby Ramakrishna, or realisation of the One which can very well be attained without any descent)is difficult to have. It is Those who are accustomed to a putting on very active movement of the spiritual consciousness dynamic as well as static their thought and will in every part of all they do, find it difficult to still the being down to activity and adopt the subconscientquietude of mental self-giving. That This does not mean that they cannot be done by do the influence of Yoga or cannot arrive at self-giving—only the Self leaving the consciousness fundamentally as it is with only purification, enlightenment of and the mind and heart self-giving take a long time to accomplish and quiescence of one must have the vital. It means a bringing down of Divine Consciousness static patience and dynamic into all these parts steady perseverance and the entire replacement of the present consciousness by thatresolution to go through. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/transformation-in-the-integral-yogasurrender#p13p78</ref>
== Path of Purity ==