[[File:EandW 1.png{|center|1000px]] [[File:EandW 2.png|center|1000px]] [[File:EandW 3.png|center|1000px]] [[File:EandW 4.png|center|1000px]] [[File:EandW 5.png|center|1000px]] [[File:EandW 6.png|center|1000px]] [[File:EandW 7.png|center|1000px]] [[File:MEandW 8.png|center|1000px]] [[File:EandW 9.png|center|1000px]] [[File:EandW 10.png|center|1000px]] [[File:EandW 11.png|center|1000px]] [[File:EandW 12.png|center|1000px]] [[File:EandW 13.png|center|1000px]] [[File:EandW 14.png|center|1000px]] [[File:EandW 15.png|center|1000px]] [[File:EandW 16.png|center|1000px]] [[File:EandW 17.png|center|1000px]] <div class="wikitable" style="textbackground-aligncolor:center#efefff;colorwidth:#3d85c6100%;">|Read more about '''[[Expansion and Widening</div> <div style="color:#000000;">Compilation|Expansion and Widening]]'''Widen your consciousness to from the dimension works of the earth Mother and you will have a place for everythingSri Aurobindo.''</div>|}<div style="color:#000000;">(The Mother, 20 September 1971) </div>__NOTOC__
= What is Expansion and Wideness? =
<div style="color:#000000;">Expansion and widening is becoming more and more a universal being who is not limited by the the narrow mental, vital and physical walls of existence. It Man is there to affirm himself in the universe, that is rising out his first business, but also to evolve and finally to exceed himself: he has to enlarge his partial being into a complete being, his partial consciousness into an integral consciousness; he has to achieve mastery of this trapped his environment but also world-union and egocentric world-harmony; he has to realise his individuality but also to enlarge it into a cosmic self and a universal and spiritual delight of existence. <ref>Sri Aurobindo. (2005). The progress to the connect with our inner being which is inherent with larger potentialitiesknowledge -god,man and nature. In The life divine II. Thus when we expandhttp:/widen our consciousness we have a place for everything/incarnateword. in/cwsa/22/the-progress-to-knowledge-god-man-and-nature#p2</divref>
Expansion and Widening can be viewed from two angles - a growth into a full mental being by expanding the capacities of the mind and universalisation of consciousness.
That growth into the full mental being is the first transitional movement towards human perfection and freedom; it does not actually perfect, it does not liberate the soul, but it lifts us one step out of the material and vital absorption and prepares the loosening of the hold of the Ignorance. <ref>Sri Aurobindo. (2005). Out of the sevenfold ignorance towards the sevenfold knowledge. In The life divine II. http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/22/out-of-the-sevenfold-ignorance-towards-the-sevenfold-knowledge#p4</ref>
== Signs As the individual has a consciousness of Wideness ==his own, so too there is a universal consciousness, a cosmic Being, a universal Mind, a universal Life, a universal physical conscious Nature. We are unaware of it because we are shut up in our outer physical selves. By the inner awakening and the opening above we become aware of this cosmic consciousness, cosmic Nature and cosmic Self and its movements; our consciousness can widen and become one with it. The forces of universal Nature are always working on us without our knowing how they act or being able to get any general control over their action on us. By becoming conscious of the universal we are able to detect this working and control it. <ref>Sri Aurobindo. (2012). Sachchidananda:existence,consciousness-force and bliss. In Letters on yoga I. http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/sachchidananda-existence-consciousness-force-and-bliss#p23</ref>
<div style="color:#000000;">There are some signs which indicate that our consciousness Why is getting wider. Picturing the sun and sea also indicates wideness. Climbing a mountain or trying to reach a summit are symbolic of wideness. The feeling of the disappearance of the head and that all is open is a sign of the wideness of the mental consciousness .</div>it Important? =
= Why Expand The reasons for developing oneself into a full mental being is for enriching the faculties. This growth of the conscious being, an expansion, an increasing self-expression, a more and Widen? =more harmonised development of his constituent members is the whole meaning and all the pith of human existence. It is for this meaningful development of consciousness by thought, will, emotion, desire, action and experience, leading in the end to a supreme divine self-discovery, that Man, the mental being, has entered into the material body. <ref>Sri Aurobindo. (1999). Self-surrender in works - the way of the gita. In synthesis of yoga I. http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/self-surrender-in-works-the-way-of-the-gita#p2</ref>
<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The very nature In the process one experiences a delight of existence which is latent in oneself. It is the pressure of mind, life the supramental and body spiritual worlds which is preparing to evolve. The One Consciousness divides itself into innumerable fragments for develop here the need manifest power of expansion. </span><span style="color:#000000;">Life itself seeks for the perfection which spirit and by it is eternally capable open our being on the physical plane into the freedom and infinity ofthe super conscient Divine </spanref><span style="background-colorSri Aurobindo. (2005). The order of the worlds. In The life divine II. http:transparent;color:#000000;">//incarnateword.<in/cwsa/22/span><span style="backgroundthe-order-of-the-color:transparent;color:worlds#000000;"> p21</spanref><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">The pressure from We are at a decisive hour in the spiritual worlds prepares a field to manifest history of the indwelling spiritearth. There It is a constant labour preparing for the coming of the superman and because of this the old way of nature to ascend into a higher principle life is losing its value. We must strike out boldly on the path of beingthe future despite its new demands. The pettinesses once tolerable, are tolerable no longer. It takes up all that We must widen ourselves to receive what is lower into the higher valuesgoing to come. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/29-december-1971#p1</spanref>
The reasons for universalisation is for developing receptivity, equality and calmness. One can also take a step to be free from ego and ignorance. Absolved in the cosmic wideness, released from ego, his personality reduced to a point of working of the universal Force, himself calm, liberated, deathless in universality, motionless in the Witness Self even while outspread without limit in unending Space and Time, he can enjoy in the world the freedom of the Timeless. <ref>Sri Aurobindo. (1999). The master of the work. In The synthesis of yoga I. http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-master-of-the-work#p24</ref>
A larger psychic and emotional relation with God and the world, more deep and plastic in its essence, more wide and embracing in its movements, more capable of taking up in its sweep the whole of life, is imperative. <div style="color:#000000;"ref>Sri Aurobindo. (1999). The ascent of the sacrifice II. In the growth The synthesis of our being lies our true happinessyoga I. http://incarnateword. It creates a new sense in/cwsa/23/the-ascent-of beauty and a thirst for truth and light. -the-sacrifice-i#p18</divref>
Wideness and calmness are the foundation of the Yogic consciousness and the best condition for inner growth and experience. If a wide calm can be established in the physical consciousness, occupying and filling the very body and all its cells, that can become the basis for its transformation; in fact, without this wideness and calmness the transformation is hardly possible. <ref>Sri Aurobindo. (2013). Peace - the basis of the sadhana. In Letters on yoga II. http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/peace-the-basis-of-the-sadhana#p18</ref>
<div style="color:#000000;">We are at a decisive hour in Widen your consciousness to the history dimension of the earth. It is preparing and you will have a place for the coming of the superman and because of this the old way of life is losing its valueeverything. We must strike out boldly on the path of the future despite its new demands. The pettinesses once tolerable, are tolerable no longer. We must widen ourselves to receive what is going to come<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/13/aims-and-principles#p331</divref>
= How to Expand one’s Consciousnessor Widen? =
For the growth of the mind one can adopt various methods like - identifying oneself with something vast, doing many different things, unfolding oneself etc. The easiest way is to identify yourself with something vast. For instance, when you feel that you are shut up in a completely narrow and limited thought, will, consciousness, when you feel as though you were in a shell, then if you begin thinking about something very vast, as for example, the immensity of the waters of an ocean, and if really you can think of this ocean and how it stretches out far, far, far, far, in all directions, it is so far, so far that one cannot see the other shore, you cannot reach its end anywhere, neither behind nor in front nor to the right or left... it is wide, wide, wide, wide... one thinks of this and then you feel that you are floating on this sea, like that, and that there are no limits.Then you can widen your consciousness a little. <ref>The Mother. (2003). 29 September 1954. In Questions and answers (1954). http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/29-september-1954#p35</ref>
By studying different subjects, learning different languages and traveling can help to expand and widen. It is like the people who cultivate their intelligence, who learn, read, think, compare, study. These people's minds widen and they are much vaster and more understanding than those who live without mental education, with a few petty ideas which sometimes are even contradictory in their consciousness and govern them totally because these are the only ones they have and they think these are unique ideas which should guide their life; these people are altogether narrow and limited whereas those who are trained and have studied—this at least widens their minds and they can see, compare ideas and see that all possible ideas are there in the world and that it is a pettiness, an absurdity to be attached to a limited number of ideas and consider them the exclusive expression of truth. <ref>The Mother. (2003). 23 February 1955. In Questions and answers (1955).
http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/23-february-1955#p6</ref>
<span style="color:#000000;">We start with When one is hurt or faces something unpleasant, just visualising the will to expand from the ignorant consciousness to a boundless finite</span><span style="background-color:transparenttiny person one is in this tiny earth;color:#000000;">all unpleasantness is swept away.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"> </span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">We engage One realises that our little person which is a second in new range of activitieseternity. We work with Then suddenly you see the sense utter ridiculousness of unity with the Divineimportance attached to what happened to you. We feel And in the Divine movingspace of three minutes, if done properly, all unpleasantness is swept away. Even a very deep pain can be swept away. Simply a concentration like this, thinking and feeling to place oneself in usinfinity and eternity. Everything goes away. To feel the body in the wide free self One comes out of it cleansed. It immediately takes you out of your little ego. <ref>The Mother. (2003). 29 September 1954. In Questions and not attached to the limitations of the bodyanswers (1954). http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/29-september-1954#p38</spanref>
<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Make all activities an outpouring Universalisation of </span><span style="color:#000000;">consciousness can be achieved through aspiration, surrender, oneness and love for . But there must be enough aspiration and adhesion in the being to make the expansion of the being, the expansion of consciousness possible. One in All who is so small that it is already quite filled up with all the Highestordinary little human movements. </spanref><span style="background-color27 June 1956. In Questions and answers 1956. http:transparent;color:#000000;">.</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"> </span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Love for all forms and creatures around us, we break free from the shell of egoincarnateword.<in/cwm/span> <span style="color:#000000;">Surrender<08/span><span style="background27-june-color:transparent;color:1956#000000;"> p40</spanref><span style="background-color:transparentTrue surrender enlarges oneself;color:#000000;">of our little selves - our personal ideas, desires and attachments so that the Divine may take up everythingit increases one's capacity. If we insist on our own ideas and reasonings, This new greater Light measure of quality and Knowledge cannot come.</span> <div style="colorquantity is different from anything one could attain before:#000000;">To one enters into another world, into a wideness which one could not have an intense aspiration to expandentered if one did not surrender. We must shift the stress It is as when a drop of consciousness from external being to water falls into the inner being or sea; if it still deeper to the psychic being. Be like kept there its separate identity, it would remain a transmitting little drop of water and receiving stationnothing more, a little drop crushed by all the wider the range immensity around, the more force because it can holdhas not surrendered. </divref> <span style="backgroundThe Mother. (2002). 4 august 1929. In Questions and answers (1929-color1931). http:transparent;color:#000000;">By becoming more </span><span style="color:#000000;">quieter and calmer</span><span style="backgroundincarnateword.in/cwm/03/4-color:transparent;color:#000000;"> </span><span style="backgroundaugust-color:transparent;color:1929#000000;">without getting excited and agitated, we put ourselves in a capacity to receive from the higher forces.p3</spanref> = Outcomes of Expansion of Consciousness =
'''Content curated by Archana'''
<span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">Widening and expansion gives a great joy of being, a clearer sense of truth and things and an inner silence. We see things in a larger light and detect the origin and law of our feelings, emotions and sensations. The thick layer of </span><span style="color:#000000;">ego gets thinned</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;"> </span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">and we see ourselves reduced to a point of working of the universal force. We are not carried away by the shocks and injuries, we deal with it in a </span><span style="color:#000000;">calm equality</span><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;">. </span>
= What Prevents Expansion of Consciousness? =
*<div style="color:#000000;"><span style="background-color:transparent;">The </span><span>submental, subconscient, inconscient influence on nature</span><span style="background-color:transparent;">. Disrupts the mind’s natural tendency to reach beyond the mind by laying down its impulses and instincts.</span></div>
* <div style="color:#000000;">Fear, distrust and skepticism</div>
* <div style="color:#000000;"><span style="background-color:transparent;">Volatile vital with its </span><span>desires, restlessness and unstability.</span></div>
= Methods and Practices to Expand One’s Consciousness =
* <div style="color:#000000;"><span style="background-color:transparent;">Connection with the vastness of nature - </span><span>gazing at the sky/stars/water body and expand into it.</span></div>
* <div style="color:#000000;">Do many different things - music, painting, reading varied subjects, learning languages, explore/travel.</div>
* <div style="color:#000000;"><span style="background-color:transparent;">When bored or troubled - thinking of the </span><span>immensity and eternity of space</span><span style="background-color:transparent;"> and time before us. </span></div>
* <div style="color:#000000;">Participating in some work everyday as an expression of goodwill for all.</div>
'''Content curated by Archana'''
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Read more about '''[[Expansion and Widening Compilation|Expansion and Widening]]''' from the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.
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[[Expansion and Widening Compilation]]==References==