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"Man and the Evolution"
(Book 2 Chapter XXIII)
[SUMMARY]
-The evolutionary process and urge, and man's role of higher consciousness in that process is discussed in this chapter. He can evolve to a higher consciousness, culminating in a supramental being to enable that evolutionary process.
-The movement among the planes (from matter to life to mind and beyond) is due to a upward movement of consciousness that ends in something new. [There is a creative outcome.] Its drive is Consciousness-Force and the power of the Real Idea. It mostly happens on its own in Nature. Now man, the self-conscious being, can find the sprit within himself, by discovering the psychic being, and by turning Ignorance to Knowledge, enabling him to embody the spirit, which will aid in manifesting further movements of evolution upward into new and higher planes of existence. However, to do this fully, he will need to transcend his limiting Mind and open to Supermind to enable the greatest power of reversal and new emerging existence.]
[DETAILS]
The spirit, the Divine Reality is involved in a dense material Inconscience.
To reveal the indwelling Spirit in matter is the central significant motive of the terrestrial existence.
Man, the thinking animal, is developing the mental reasoning being.
If each thing is a form of the manifest Divine Existence, each is divine in itself. In each form the Delight takes delight of existence.
Via the involved Consciousness-Force, by the power of the Real Idea, Matter, Life, and Matter manifest.
The great variations that emerge each within the physical, vital, and mental manifestation is the sign of a conscious Force playing with its own Idea and developing by it all kinds of possibilities of creation.
Evolution occurs not only by physical forces, but by subtler forces; life, psychological forces, and others.
If the supramental being is to appear then it must be a new and independent manifestation. The Conscious-Energy must create the necessary patterns for this new grade of potencies.
The Absolute manifest for delight, for the unfolding, the progressive execution, and object-seried self revelation.
"A manifestation of the greater powers of Existence till the whole being itself is manifest in the material world in terms of a higher, a spiritual creation, ... "
There needs to be a theory of spiritual evolution; an understanding of a developing evolutionary process. The scientific theory is only concerned with the outer, the visible machinery and process.
The appearance of the human mind and body marks a decisive change in the course and process of evolution.
Man has become awake and aware of himself; through Mind there is a will to develop, to grow in knowledge, to deepen the inner and widen the outer knowledge; to deepen the inner existence, to increase one's capacities; there is the aspiration to exceed himself; he has become conscious of his soul, and the spirit.
In man change (reversal) of consciousness is inevitable.
"In the inner reality of thing a change of consciousness was always the major fact, the evolution has always had a spiritual significance and the physical change was only instrumental; ..."
In man the inner being the psychic, the personal soul is able to grow much faster than lesser creations. Through him the indwelling soul emerges, which is what enables the evolution.
As man moves from Ignorance to Knowledge he becomes the instrument of the higher consciousness and evolution. He does this by connecting to his psychic being.
"Man's urge towards spirituality is the inner driving of the spirit within him towards emergence, the insistence of the Consciousness-Force of the being towards the next step of its manifestation." [This is key.]
If evolutionary, higher consciousness is the movement in Nature, and man is imperfect due to the limitations of Mind, then the mental being can only be a transitional being. Supermind must lead the evolution instead. He can evolve his mind (and vital and body) to arrive at that Supermind and suprermanhood.