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Read Summary of '''[[Unifying One's Being Summary|Unifying One's Being]]'''
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=Planes and Parts of the Being=
 
The Universal Purusha dwells in all these planes in a certain simultaneity and builds upon each of these principles a world of series of worlds with its beings who live in the nature of that principle. Man, the microcosm, has all these planes in his own being, ranging from his subconscient to his superconscient existence. By a developing power of yoga he can become aware of these concealed words words hidden from his physical materialised mind and senses which know only the material world, and then he becomes aware that his material existence is not a thing apart and self -existent, as a material universe in which he lives is also not a thing apart and self- existent, but is in constant relation to the higher planes and acted on by their powers and beings. He can open up and increase the action of these higher planes in himself and enjoy some sort of participation in the life of the other worlds,- which, for the rest, are or can be his dwelling place, that is to say, the station of his awareness… <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-psychology-of-self-perfection#p11</ref>
 
==The Physical==
 
Each plane of our being- mental, vital, physical -has its own consciousness, separate though interconnected and interacting; but you are out of mind and sense, in our waking experience,they are all confused together…
There is the universal physical consciousness of Nature and there is our own which is a part of it, moved by it, and used by the central bank for the support of its expression in the physical world and for a direct dealing with all these external objects and movements and forces. This physical consciousness-plane receives from the other planes their powers and influences and makes formations of them in its own province. Therefore we have a physical mind as well as a vital mind and the mind proper, we have a vital-physical path in us-the nervous being- as well as the vital proper; and both are largely conditioned by the gross material bodily part which is almost entirely the subconscient to our experience. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-physical-consciousness#p5,p6</ref>
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The body... has its own consciousness and acts from it, even without any mental will of its own or even against that will, and our surface mind knows very little about this body-consciousness, feels it only in an imperfect way, sees only its results and has the greatest difficulty in finding out their causes. It is part of yoga to become aware of the separate consciousness of the body, to see and feel its movements and the forces that act upon it from inside or outside and to learn how to control and direct it even in its most hidden and (to us) subconscient processes. But the body-consciousness itself is only part of the individualized physical consciousness in which we gather and build out of the secretly conscious forces of universal physical Nature. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-physical-consciousness#p5</ref>
 
==The Vital==
 
Vital...is a thing of desires,impulses, force-pushes, emotions, sensations, seekings after life- fulfillment, possession and enjoyment; these are its functions and its nature;- it is that part of us which seeks after life and its movements for their own sake and it does not want to leave hold of them if they bring it suffering as well as or more than pleasure; it is capable luxuriating in tears and suffering as part of the drama of life. What then is there a common between the thinking Intelligence and the vital and why should the latter obey the mind not follow its own nature? The disobedience is perfectly normal instead of being, as Augustine suggests, unintelligible.Of course, man can establish a mental control over his vital and in so far as he does it he is a man- because the thinking mind is a nobler and more enlightened entity and consciousness than the vital and ought, therefore, to rule and, the mental wale is strong, can rule. But this rule is precarious, incomplete and held only by much self-discipline. For if the mind Is more enlightened, the vital is nearer to the earth, more intense, vehement, more directly able to touch the body. There is also a vital mind which lives by imagination, thoughts of desire, will to act and enjoy from its own impulse and this is able to seize on the reason itself and make it its auxiliary and its justifying counsel and supplier of pleas and excuses. There is also the sheer force of Desire in man which is the vital’s principal support and strong enough to sweep off the reason, as the Gita says, “like a boat on stormy waters”. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-mind#p29</ref>
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Most people live in the vital. That means they live in their desires, sensations, emotional feelings, vital imaginations and see and experience and judge everything from that point of view. It is the vital that moves them, the mind being at its service, not its master. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/the-nature-of-the-vital#p3</ref>
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In the ordinary life people accept the vital movements, anger, desire, greed, sex, etc. as natural, allowable and legitimate things, part of the human nature. Only so far as society discourages them or insists to keep them within fixed limits or subject to a decent restraint or measure, people try to control them so as to conform to the social standard of morality or rule of conduct. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/morality-and-yoga#p6</ref>
 
==The Mental==
 
The “Mind” in the ordinary use of the word covers indiscriminately the whole consciousness, for man is a mental being and mentalises everything; but in the language of this yoga the words “mind” and “mental” are used to connote specially the part of the nature which has to do with cognition and intelligence, with ideas, with mental or thought perceptions, the reaction of thought to things, with the truly mental movements and formations, mental vision and will, etc., that are a part of his intelligence. The vital has to be carefully distinguished from the mind, even though it has a mind element transfused into it; the vital is the Life-nature made up of desires, sensations, feelings, passions, energies of action, will of desire, reactions of the desire-soul in man and all of that play of possessive and other related instincts, anger, fear, greed, lust etc., that belong to this field of nature. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-mind#p1</ref>
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...the true role of the mind is the formation and organisation of action. The mind has a formative and organising power, and it is that which puts the different elements of inspiration in order, for action, for organizing action. And if it would only confine itself to that role, receiving inspirations-whether from above of from mystic center of the soul- and simply formulating the plan of action- in broad outline or in minute detail, for the smallest things of life or the greatest terrestrial organizations- it would amply fulfil its function.These are the two uses of the mind; it is a controlling force, an instrument of control, and it is a power of organization. That is its true place. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/20-june-1956#p20-p25</ref>
 
==The Subconscient==
 
''Q:What does "subconscient" mean, exactly?''
 
''A:''Subconscient? It is what is half conscious, you see. And we say "sub", because that means "below" the consciousness. It is something more obscure than consciousness, but which, at the same time, is like a lower substratum supporting the consciousness. It is like those stores from which one would draw out something quite unformed, a formless substance which could be translated into forms or translated into actions or translated into impulses or even into feelings. Then the movement is not rectilinear, but a movement which goes like this... you see (gesture of spiral movement). One seems at times to be going back, but that's in order to go farther and farther forward. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/15-september-1954#p17-p21</ref>
 
==The Inconscient==
 
... in its actual cosmic manifestation the Supreme, being the Infinite and not bound by any limitation, can manifest in Itself, in its consciousness of innumerable possibilities something that seems to be the opposite of itself, something in which there can be Darkness, Inconscience, Inertia, Insensibility, Disharmony and Disintegration. It is this that we see at the basis of the material world and speak of nowadays as the Inconscient - the Inconscient Ocean of the Rigveda in which the One was hidden and arose in the form of this universe- or, as it is sometimes called, the non-being, Asat. The Ignorance which is the characteristic of our mind and life is the result of this origin in the Inconscience. That is why it is said that the world is called to express the Divine.
<ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/spiritual-evolution-and-the-supramental#p28</ref>
 
==The Subliminal - The Inner Being==
 
There is an inner as well as an outer consciousness all through our being, upon all its levels. The ordinary man is aware only of his surface self and quite unaware of all that is concealed by the surface. And yet what is on the surface, what we know or think we know of ourselves and even believe that that is all we are, is only a small part of our being and by far the larger part of us is below the surface. Or, more accurately, it is behind the frontal consciousness, behind the veil, occult and known only by an occult knowledge. Modern psychology and psychic science have begun to perceive this truth just a little. Materialistic psychology calls this hidden part the Inconscient, although practically admitting that it is far greater, more powerful and profound than the surface conscious self, - very much as the Upanishads called the superconscient in us the Sleep-self, although this Sleep-self is said to be an infinitely greater Intelligence, omniscient, omnipotent, Prajna, the Ishwara. Psychic science calls this hidden consciousness the subliminal self, and here too it is seen that this subliminal self has more powers, more knowledge, a freer field of movement than the smaller self that is on the surface and then only too can we hope to be directly aware of the Divine in us and directly in touch with the Divine Light and the Divine Force. Otherwise we can feel the Divine only through external signs and external results and that is a difficult and uncertain way and very occasional and inconstant, and it leads only to belief and not to knowledge, not to the direct consciousness and awareness of the constant presence. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-physical-consciousness#p11</ref>
 
==The Superconscient==
 
... there is a superconscient (something above our present consciousness) above the head from which the higher consciousness comes down into the body.... <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/the-subconscient-and-the-integral-yoga#p19</ref>
 
The higher consciousness is that above the ordinary mind and different from it in its workings; it ranges from higher mind through illumined mind, intuition and overmind up to the border line of the supramental.
<ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/experiences-on-the-higher-planes#p13</ref>
===Higher Mind===
 
I mean by the Higher Mind a first plane of spiritual consciousness where one becomes constantly and closely aware of the Self, the One everywhere and knows and sees things
habitually with that awareness; but it is still very much on the mind level although highly spiritual in its essential substance; and its instrumentation is through an elevated thought power and comprehensive mental sight - not illumined by any of the intenser upper lights but as if in a large strong and clear daylight. It acts as an intermediate state between the Truth-Light above and the human mind; communicating the higher knowledge in a form that the Mind intensified, broadened, made spiritually supple, can receive without being blinded or dazzled by a Truth beyond it. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/27/higher-mind-and-poetic-intelligence#p1</ref>
 
===Illumined Mind===
 
...greater Force [than that of the Higher Mind] is that of the Illumined Mind, a Mind no longer of higher Thought, but of spiritual light. Here the clarity of the spiritual intelligence, its tranquil daylight, gives place or subordinates itself to an intense lustre, a splendour and illumination of the Spirit: a play of lightnings of spiritual truth and power breaks from above into the consciousness and adds to the calm and wide enlightenment and the vast descent of peace which characterise or accompany the action of the larger conceptual-spiritual principle, a fiery ardour of realisation and a rapturous ecstasy of knowledge. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/22/the-ascent-towards-supermind#p26</ref>
 
===Intuition===
 
The thought of the intuitive mind proceeds wholly by four powers that shape the form of the truth, an intuition that suggests its idea, an intuition that discriminates, an inspiration that brings in its word and something of its greater substance and a revelation that shapes to the sight its very face and body of reality. These things are not the same as certain movements of the ordinary mental intelligence that look analogous and are easily mistaken for the true intuition in our first inexperience. The suggestive intuition is not the same thing as the intellectual insight of a quick intelligence or the intuitive discrimination as the rapid judgment of the reasoning intellect; the intuitive inspiration is not the same as the inspired action of the imaginative intelligence, nor the intuitive revelation as the strong light of a purely mental close seizing and experience. It would perhaps be accurate to say that these latter activities are mental representations of the higher movements, attempts of the ordinary mind to do the same things or the best possible imitations the intellect can offer of the functionings of the higher nature. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-gradations-of-the-supermind#p5-p6</ref>
 
===Overmind===
 
Above the mind there are several levels of consciousness being, among which the really divine world is what is called the Supermind, the world of the Truth but in between is what he has distinguished as the Overmind, the world of the cosmic Gods. Now it is this Overmind that has up to the present governed our world: it is the highest that man has been able to attain in illumined consciousness. It has been taken for the Supreme Divine and all those who have reached it have never for a moment doubted that they have touched the true Spirit. For, its splendours are so great to the ordinary human consciousness that it is absolutely dazzled into believing that here at last is the crowning reality. And yet the fact is that the Overmind is far below the true Divine. The Overmind, therefore, does not and cannot possess the power to transform humanity into divine nature. For that, the Supramental is the sole effective agent. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/supermind-and-overmind#p3-p4</ref>
 
===Supermind===
 
''Q. Here it is written: “It is very unwise for anyone to claim prematurely to have possession of the supermind or even to have a taste of it.” [Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga] What is a foretaste of the supermind? ''
 
''A:''It is still more unwise to imagine that one has it. That's it.
... Before reaching the extreme limit of the mind, there are so many regions and mental activities which are not at all accessible to most human beings. And even for those who can reach them, they are not regions where they constantly live. They must make an effort of concentration to get there and they don't always arrive. There are regions which Sri Aurobindo has described which only very rare individuals can reach, and still he speaks of them as mental regions. He does not use the word supramental. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/24-november-1954#p27-p37</ref>
 
==Atman - Self-Spirit==
 
There is no distinction between the Self and the spirit. The psychic is the soul that develops in evolution - the spirit is the Self that is not affected by evolution, it is above it - only it is covered or concealed by the activity of mind, vitality and the body. The removal of this covering is the release of the spirit - and it is removed when there is a full and wide spiritual silence. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-psychic-being#p18</ref>
 
==Jivatman - Central Being==
 
The self, Atman is in its nature either transcendent or universal (Paramatma, Atma). When it individualises and becomes a central being, it is then the Jivatman. The Jivatman feels his oneness with the universal but at the same time his central separateness as a portion of the Divine. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-jivatman-in-the-integral-yoga#p2</ref>
 
==Soul and Psychic Being==
 
The Jivatman, spark-soul and psychic being are three different forms of the same reality and they must not be mixed up together, as that confuses the clearness of the inner experience.
The Jivatman or spirit, as it is usually called in English, is self-existent above the manifested or instrumental being-it is superior to birth and death, always the same, the individual Self or Atman. It is the eternal true being of the individual.The soul is a spark of the Divine which is not seated above the manifested being, but comes down into the manifestation to support its evolution in the material world. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/35/jivatman-spark-soul-and-psychic-being#p1-p5</ref>
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The psychic being is organised around the divine spark. The divine spark is one, universal, the same everywhere and in everything, one and infinite, of the same kind in all. You cannot say that it is a being - it is ''the being'', if you like, but not a ''being''. Naturally, if you go back to the origin, you may say that there is only one soul, for the origin of all souls is the same, as the origin of the whole universe is the same, as the origin of the entire creation is the same. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/24-february-1951#p8</ref>
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The soul or psyche is immutable only in the sense that it contains all the possibilities of the Divine within it, but it has to evolve them and in its evolution it assumes the form of a developing psychic individual evolving in the manifestation of the individual Prakriti and taking part in the evolution. It is the spark of the Divine Fire that grows behind the mind, vital and physical by means of the psychic being until it is able to transform the Prakriti of Ignorance into a Prakriti of knowledge. The inner being — inner mind, inner vital, inner or subtle physical — knows much that is unknown to the outer mind, the outer vital, the outer physical, for it is in a more direct contact with the secret forces of Nature. The psychic is the inmost being of all; a perception of truth which is inherent in the deepest substance of the consciousness, a sense of the good, true, beautiful, the Divine, is its privilege. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/the-jivatman-in-the-integral-yoga#p19-p20</ref>
=Becoming an Individual=