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How Life Works
by
Roy Posner
and
MSS
Knowledge Base
WHAT IS LIFE?
(main)
The Nature, Purpose of Life
|
Life for the
Individual Human
|
The Purpose of Death
|
Other
The Nature, Purpose of
Life
(main)
What Life Is
Life
Life is an ocean
of energy and contains the universe in it.
(MSS, paraphrased)
Energy, Forms and the Emergence
of Man
-There is an ocean of energy,
a plane of Force enveloping the earth.
This is Life.
-Forms, matter, us emerge from this energy,
this plane of Life
-The
Divine
has created Man in the plane of life, through the force of life.
-Man is one formation of life, and the animal is another formation of life. Matter itself is a hard formation dense to our touch. (MSS, paraphrased)
Life
Life is the final result of a process by
which a Conscious-Force emerged from an original omnipresent
Reality, taking shape first as energy and from it a universe of
forms.
Life
Life is a universal field of energy whose
origins is Conscious-Force from which all forms take shape.
Life as Current/Energy of
Conscious Force that is Source of Forms in Creation
Life is a form
of, a dynamic of, a current of,
an energy of a universal operation of the
cosmic Conscious Force. Life creates, maintains, destroys, and
recreates forms or bodies. Life builds up forms, energizes the forms
through stimulation, and maintains the forces through disintegration
and renewal of substance.
Life is a Universal Plane
-The law of oneness is valid on all planes of existence. What differs is only our perception, not the fact.
-Life is a universal plane of energy much like the oceans of the world form a single, undivided body of water.
-Mind too is a continuous, undivided universal plane in which energies flow back and forth like waves on its surface.
-We may think and sense that we are separate, but that is only mind’s perception of an undivided reality.
-The mind and ego create the sense of separate centers of consciousness and separate centers of life, but in reality these are only concentrations of consciousness and force in a continuous plane – concentrations of a single, undivided substance of mind and life.
-The free communication of consciousness between life forms is similar to the diffusion of heat within a body of water. There is no real inner-outer barrier that must be pierced for the vibration to move from one place or person to another.
Life is a Plane of Energy
-Physicists now know that the material plane really consists only of energy in motion. Some of that energy takes on fixed repetitive patterns of movement that are perceived by us as unchanging physical forms. Some energy behaves in varied patterns that are perceived by our senses as light or heat or other forms of energy.
-Life is also a universal plane of energy, but the energy of life is too subtle to be perceived by the physical senses, though it can be perceived by more subtle senses in us. Life energy too assumes fixed and variable forms which we perceive variously as attitudes, desires, impulses, emotions, fear, etc. Here the distinction between form and energy is less clear since the forms are fluid and changing.
-The transmission of life energy through the life plane is similar to the movement of a compression wave on the surface of the ocean or a sound vibration through the air. There are no barriers of inner and outer to prevent the transmission.
-Objects undergo physical movement in space from one ‘place’ to another. There is no corresponding ‘place’ in life. Each type or quality of vibration is equivalent to a ‘place’, regardless of the location of the physical object that emits it. Therefore, objects emitting similar vibrations of life energy are in the same ‘place’ regardless of their physical proximity.
What Life Is For Us
For us, life is a living conscious field of
experience and action. We are an inseparable part of the field,
linked in our consciousness to everything and everyone else in the
universe. (MSS, modified)
Life
Life is a field of infinite possibilities.
(Deepak Chopra)
Life Is ...
Life is a field of energy expressing through multiplicity of forms.
Life Originates as Energy
Life begins as energy, reflecting an
original conscious Force of the Infinite. That energy coagulates and
becomes the forms of that force in the universe -- i.e. matter,
animated life forms, including human, mentality, etc.
What is Life?
Life is a universal field of energy/force.
Life and Energy
The dominant characteristic of life is energy. (MSS)
Life as
Energy
Life is energy and all the
forms of its expression.
Life Without a Universe
Even if there were no universe, there would still be life -- i.e.
the invisible universal field of energy.
Additional MSS Thoughts Relating Life and Energy
What is Life?
I would like to offer my thoughts to this mystery: Life is, in essence, a universal field of energy out of which forms take shape. Life not only ushers in those forms out of itself, but maintains, sustains, and, when necessary, discards them.
It should also be pointed out that Life itself is the final operation of an original movement that is Divine in nature. There is an fundamental immutable, ineffable Omnipresent Reality behind all existence. We can say that this spiritual Reality became "aware of itself", at which point it can be said to have developed Consciousness. As a result of being conscious of itself, it generated a Force. That Force is the source of energy that is the universal field of Life from which all forms take shape.
Then how do those forms of force/energy manifest? At various points, the energy of Life that was at rest begins to move; and consequently reformulate into seen and unseen patterns of existence. Certain forms that emerge are visible and material in nature -- like the plasma, rock, and earth we know in the known universe. Other forms are unseen, including the subtle realms of material reality, such as electromagnetic and sound waves. In addition, there are forces, powers, and currents that are not related to material reality at all. These contain original vital powers and life forces that permeate the universe. These currents and formulations of energy can be said to represent good and evil, positive and negative, and all manner of possibilities in between. There are also currents of mental and spiritual force/energy. We ourselves are evolved forms of these various visible and invisible energies -- e.g. our body is visible; our emotions and thoughts are invisible.The building up, maintaining, and dissolution of energy-based material and non-material forms can be viewed as a great play -- a Play of Life, if you will -- as they intersect and interact to create a symphony of unfolding. Just as an athletic event consists of a field, the players, and the play, so too Life consists of a field of energy of seen and unseen forms that interact to produce a multiplicity of results. The intricacies of that cosmic Play formulates into patterns, which can be observed by the human mind as principles of Life. All of the principles together give life a distinct Character, which is not unlike the character of a human being. Life is then a Play of energies in which created forms of that force carry out their conscious or unconscious intention, intersect with one another, revealing patterns and principles that together give it a character.
If Life's character consists of principles our minds can perceive, what is an example of one? Perhaps the central principle of Life is that of Oneness. In essence, it means that all forms of force/energy are interrelated to one another in an inherent harmony and unity of being. In other words, everything seen and unseen in the universe and beyond are interconnected and One. We humans however fail to see that Oneness since we live on the surface of things. However, when we move to a deeper consciousness within, we begin to perceive the integral unity of all. I.e. when we plunge within, and discover silence, peace, and equanimity of being within ourselves, and go further still and discover our True Spiritual Selves, we withdraw from our ego and seperative consciousness, which makes us much more receptive to the unfoldings of life -- to the full spectrum of truths, seen and unseen -- in the environment. At that point, we begin to perceive that every entity and current of force serves a purpose; that each and all forms are crucial to the Cosmic Play; and therefore that everything is interconnected and One.
One way that Oneness expresses is through a related principle that I call "Inner-Outer Correspondence". This principle indicates that everything that happens outside ourselves is a reflection of our consciousness within. Therefore, if we change the inner, the outer instantly responds in kind. E.g., when I change a wanting attitude about a matter, the conditions outside myself instantly become more positive, even though I have not taken any obvious material action. The outer instantly responding to an inner psychological adjustment is the phenomenon that I call "Life Response." I.e., when we shift our behavior to the positive, energies are released, which ripple through space-time, and align with corresponding objects, elements, and circumstances that suddenly appear before us as instances of sudden good fortune.
There are many principles that indicate the Character and Play of Life. One grouping has to do with the nature of "acts" -- the fundamental unit of life. One extraordinary principle is the notion that everything that happens to us is indicated by a prior act or event. For example, if I had a problem with a client I was flying down to see, it is foreshadowed by a difficulty I had in boarding the plane. If this is so, then we can offer the current negative situation to the Spirit -- in this case the difficulty in boarding -- and avoid the problem that would have occurred later on! In this way, we are able to change the course of the future in the present.
Through an inner life of discovery,
not only do we see that these understated, yet profound principles
of life in action, but we are also able to affect those very
conditions by making certain adjustments in our own consciousness --
such as changing an attitude, or taking to inner silence, or by
opening to the spiritual Force, to name a few. In this way, we not
only become witness to Life's infinite Play, but we can actively
participate in it -- enabling its further progress, evolution, and
transformation.
Life's Spiritual Source
Life
Life is the final result of a process by which a
Conscious-Force emerged from an original omnipresent Reality, taking
shape first as energy and from it a universe of forms.
Life/Energy has its Spiritual
Source as Conscious Force
Life is a form of, a
dynamic of, a current of,
an energy of
a universal operation of the cosmic Conscious
Force.
Life is the energy that originates in Chit (Conscious Force) of Satchitananda (Existence, Conscious Force, Delight)
The Infinite in order to extends its Delight into a created universe becomes self-aware of its existence that generates both consciousness and Force. When that force is devoid of most if it consciousness, it takes shape as energy, which is the original substance of creation. Out of energy all things take shape in the universe.
Conscious-Force
The supreme's first poise is that of Existence, i.e.
it exists. It then becomes self-aware of its existence, which creates
its Consciousness. In becoming conscious of its existence, a Force is
generated. Conscious-Fore is thus the second aspect (after Existence) of
the Supreme. Out
of Conscious-Force will come life, matter, and the known and unseen
universe.
Life's Conscious Force Source
Life is a form of, a dynamic of, a current of, a
universal operation of the cosmic Conscious Force.
(Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)
Life
Life is really a universal operation of
Conscious-Force acting subconsciously on and in Matter.
(Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)
Definition of Life
Life is the
operation of the Conscious
Force
[Chit of Sat-Chit-Ananda; Conscious
Force of Existence - Conscious Force- Delight]
in the universe that enables forms to take shape, change, dissolve, and
reconstitute.
Source of the Plane of Life
Life is a plane below that of Mind, but above
Matter. Mind, or rather Supermind, with Mind as its instrument, divided
the Conscious Force, enabling energy to emerge, which is the plane of
Life through which all forms take shape.
Forms and Cosmic Force
Forms feed upon the breath and energy of the Cosmic Force through
an interchange with other forms or by absorbing it from the outside.
(Paraphrase of
Sri Aurobindo)
Life is Infinite, Creative Force
In
Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo describes life as a universal force
that expresses as the individual force maintaining each individual form
or object in manifestation. It is the force that creates and preserves
the form, defends its survival and energizes its growth. Although we
view life in terms of many separate and individual lives, it is only one
single, universal existence that we perceive as many. In its origin,
life is the infinite, creative force that builds the worlds and inhabits
them with forms of its own self-conception and creation. It is the
conscious force of Sat, the Self-Conscious Being, the Pure Existence,
the Divine Consciousness, the omnipresent reality. (MSS)
Man Created in Plane
of Life
God has created Man in the plane of
life, through the force of life. (MSS)
Additional Thoughts on the Nature of Energy and the Plane of Life
Life and Time
Life and Time
Life
is not confined to Time or the unmanifest Timeless.
Its wide
richness is an infinite abundance where Time and Timelessness
coexist, to express Supermind where no
separative egoism can survive.
(MSS)
The Play of Life
The Life Play
The life play of the Force, manifests as an interchange and
stimulation between the forms. Thorough this interchange Life seeks to
awaken conscious sensation in those bodies.
(Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)
What Life Is For Us
For us, life is a living conscious field of experience and action.
We are an inseparable part of the field, linked in our consciousness to
everything and everyone else in the universe. (MSS, modified)
Life and Consciousness
Life Reflects Consciousness
Life is a universal field of energy/force that
expresses the intention of the consciousness from which the force
originates. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)
Life and Nature
Life is of Nature that expresses the force of consciousness. (MSS)
Poises of Life
Poises, Statuses
of Life 1
Life is at first dumb subconscient will, apparent
as dumb urge of physical energy; inconscient, subject to
the mechanical forces. The middle term of Life is death and mutual
devouring, hunger and conscious desire, the sense of a limited room and
capacity and struggle to increase, expand, to conquer and possess. But a
new set of terms intervenes and Life begins to evolve toward conscious
Mind. [We can express these three as the Physical Vital, the Vital
Vital, and the Mental Vital. Also corresponds to the physical, vital,
and mental stages of social historical development] [In "The Double Soul
of Man" (Book 1, Chapter XXIII Sri Aurobindo explains how we have moved
through these 3 states to enable Delight of Being.]
Poises, Statuses
of Life 2
The statuses of
life are (1) dumb inconscient drive; (2) desire, eagerness to possess
and give; (3) love, which seeks to possess, be possessed, to receive and
give; (4) satisfaction. These statuses of life are actually the stages
of the soul's seeking for delight in things. The ascent of life (of
drive, desire, love, and satisfaction) is really the ascent of the
Divine Delight in things. "Since Life is an energy of His
conscious-force, the secret of all its movements must be hidden delight
inherent in all things which is at once cause, motive, and object of its
activities..."
(Paraphrase
of Sri
Aurobindo)
Life Reveals God at Each step
To perceptive, sensitive souls, Life tries to
reveal God at each step. (MSS)
Also see Thoughts from Sri Aurobindo's The Life Divine on this Subject. Click here and here.
Life for the Individual Human
(main)
Energy, Forms and the Emergence of
Man
-There is an ocean of energy, a plane of Force
enveloping the earth. This is Life.
-Forms, matter, us emerge from this energy, this
plane of Life
-The
Divine
has created Man in the plane of life, through the force of life.
-Man is one formation of life, and the animal is another formation of life. Matter itself is a hard formation dense to our touch. (MSS, paraphrased)
Two Principles of Life for the Individual
Human
There are two aspects of the vital, i.e. two principles of Life; the
necessity or will of the separative ego to survive in
its distinctness
and guard its identity, and the compulsion of Nature to fuse itself with
others. [The two principles of life are the separative individual and
the social individual.]
(Paraphrase
of Sri
Aurobindo)
Life
that Expresses
our
Human
Consciousness
Everything we experience in life is
an expression of consciousness. All that occurs, from the very grand to
the totally insignificant, is a reflection and result of consciousness.
All that occurs around us and to us is an expression of our own
consciousness, individual and collective. This knowledge enables one to
not only understand that life is a manifestation of consciousness but
compels us to want to discover the consciousness/spirit in life. The
more conscious we are, the more we are able to be in tune with and
master life.
Furthermore consciousness is really an energy and force. Life itself is a universal field of this energy/force that expresses the intentions of the consciousness from which the energy/force originates.
Furthermore the consciousness (i.e. energy/force) is the same as the Consciousness of the Spiritual Reality, the Absolute, Divine from which the universe emanated from. That Divine Consciousness is the optimal consciousness that we in life can rise to and have. The more conscious we are, the more we are one with the Divine and its infinite powers. The greater the consciousness, the greater the Divine attributes we experience in our lives -- including its the power, truth, unity, harmony, perfection, peace, beauty, and love.
The Ascent of Life through the
Individual
-(1) Life is first dumb inconscient will rooted in the physical energy;
inconscient, and subject to mechanical forces. This is reflected in the
necessity of the separative ego, and to survive. (2) Then there is a
movement to break the bounds of one's self toward interaction with
others. This reflects the compulsion of Nature to fuse our individual
selves with others. At this second poise of life there is death, mutual
devouring, desire, and the need to expand, conquer, and possess. This is
a movement to the vital proper, away from the physical. (3) The third
poise of life is a movement towards conscious mind in life. In this
stage there is the conscious movement towards commonality, mutuality,
harmony, etc. In its higher aspects it is vitally reflected as the
ability to be self giving towards others, and to feel love.
-Survival of the fittest that enables evolution comes from love, commonality, unity, harmony, etc.; not because of selfishness, self protection, self-assertion, and aggressive living of the individual. [This is the movement from the physical and vital in the vital and life to the conscious mind emerging in life, and beyond to spiritualized mind to supermind to Satchitananda]
-As life ascends to mind, it grows toward the rule of conscious unity. (One sees there the unity in the in the differentiation and diversity of life.) This reflects the divine law of the Satchitananda in the manifestation.
[As there is an ascension in life, as we ascend to higher levels in life, we move from physical selfishness, to vital interchange with others, including desire, et al to mental and spiritual mind-based commonality and unity, reflecting those higher aspects that are there in Satchitananda.
-This suggest that life can reflect every aspect, attribute of every plane of mind to supermind in the vital. E.g. the highest aspect of Truth, Love, Oneness, Power, Bliss/Delight, Knowledge can be experienced in all aspects of life, and in all aspects of our vital being.] (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo + Additional growth Online Comments)
The Ascent of Life:
The Four Successive Statuses that the Forms of Life Undergo
Unconscious Will
to Survive
-- The first is of force, of dumb inconscient
[unconscious] will. It is mere physical energy, subject to mechanical
forces. This is reflected in the necessity of the seperative ego, and to
survive.
Ego-Oriented Interchange -- The second status is to break the bounds of one's self toward interaction with others; a compulsion of Nature to begin to fuse ourselves with others. There is death, mutual devouring, desire, and the need to expand, conquer, and possess. This is a movement to the vital proper, away from the physical.
Mutual
Interchange and Harmony -- The third status
is the conscious movement towards commonality, mutuality, harmony, etc.
It is a movement toward cooperation and mutual help, the associated
group, conscious joining and interchange. In its higher aspects it is
vitally reflected as the ability to be self giving towards others, and
to feel love.
Sri Aurobindo also indicates than in this third
status, there is an increasing predominance of Mind. Mind is of a higher
consciousness which does not need to devour to grow. to the degree that
Mind is free of the material influence, it will have these positive
influences.
Spiritual Unity with Others, Life
-- Sri Aurobindo says that ultimately there is a need to harmonize two
principles of life: the necessity of the will of the seperative
ego to survive in its distinctness; and the compulsion imposed upon it
by Nature to fuse itself with others.
Sri Aurobindo says that these will be fused when we
reach the fourth status of life, which occurs when the eternal unity of
the many [i.e. of the self and others] is realized through the unity and
freedom of the spirit.
(Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo + Additional growth Online Comments)
The Three
Problems of Life
The first problem of life is that man is aware only of the surface
of life, not his inner being and true Self. The second problem of life
is that he is disconnected from the universal, and therefore from
others. The third problem of life is that the body, the vital, and mind
are not in harmony with each other, nor with its self. When man becomes
conscious he becomes more aware of the discords and creates this
harmony.
(Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)
Social Life, Human Life, Life, Nature, and Spirit
-Human life exceeds social life in dimension. Life is far wider in its
scope than either social life or human life. Nature outstrips life.
Existence on earth is not confined to Nature. It consists of many other
worlds such as the subtle world of spirits ... Beyond lie the causal
worlds proper to the Spirit.
-The Spirit surfacing in personal life expands the scope of Man's existence to the borders of social and human life and goes beyond. (MSS)
Biological vs.
Social vs. Spiritual Evolution
-Life
functions with a wider background that divides into three layers
-- social evolution, biological status, spiritual poise. All of
them can be called evolution.
-[In Pride and Prejudice] Lydia's elopement is a
catastrophe from the point of view of respectable social living.
It is no such thing from social evolution's point of view, even
from the wider point of view of Mr. Bennet's family. It triggers
social evolution.
-Behind it is the biological evolution of the physicality of
Mrs. Bennet trying to raise itself to mentality or at least the
vitality of social acceptability.
-Beyond the biological lies the spiritual evolution. In its own
context, everything is evolving Spirit, evolving in Joy. There
is nothing which is not a MARVEL.
-[In Pride and Prejudice] Elopement is social disgrace.
-Elopement is furthering social evolution.
-Elopement enables biological evolution in utter disregard of
health or life.
-Spiritually you see everyone in the family gay, happy, cheerful
always which denotes the surfacing of the spirit. (MSS)
Out of the
Darkness of Life
Life is a journey in the darkness of the
night.
Wake up to the inner light.
(The Mother)
Life's Sanction
Life sanctions by bringing results, positive,
neutral, and negative based on determining factors -- including
the individual's conscious and subconscious status, the same for
the parties one is interacting with, the atmosphere of those
circumstance, the social intention and atmosphere, the energies
of that time (compared to say today), the evolutionary movement,
and the cosmic.
The Purpose of Death
(in general, and for the individual)
(main)
Death as a Process of Life
Life and Death
The natural opposition we make between death and life is an error of our
mentality. Death has no reality except as a process of life.
Disintegration of substance and renewal of substance, maintenance of
form and change of form are the constant process of life. Even in death
of the body there is no cessation of Life, only the material of one form
of life is broken up to serve as material for other forms of life. This
occurs through some process of metapsychosis or new ensouling of body. (Paraphrase
of Sri
Aurobindo)
Process of Life and Death
-The
processes of life are disintegration and renewal of substance, and
maintenance and change of form.
-The natural opposition we make between death and life is an error of our mentality. Death has no reality except as a process of life. Disintegration of substance and renewal of substance, maintenance of form and change of form are the constant process of life. Even in death of the body there is no cessation of Life, only the material of one form of life is broken up to serve as material for other forms of life. This occurs through some process of metapsychosis or new ensouling of body. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)
Process of Life and Death
-The processes of life are disintegration and
renewal of substance, and maintenance and change of form.
-Thus death is just a process of life.
-Death is not a cessation of life. Also, in death materials of a form break up to serve as materials for other forms.
Birth and Death
Birth and death are not life's beginning and end, but are rather
intermediate stages in an occult processes of life. (Paraphrase of Sri
Aurobindo)
Spirit Revives
Spirit revives dead or dying vehicle into fresh new life.
(Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)
Cause of Death, Desire, and Incapacity
-Death is a process of life.
-Death, desire, and incapacity are due to the exclusivity and separateness, to the nature of divided being, and to the ignorance of the individual, rooted in ego and mind. They prevent the right balance of energies, which cause dissolution.
-Individualized Life is subject to death because it seeks the infinite though in a finite body; desire because it seeks Bliss, and also it has incapacity.
-Death also exists because the individual life seeks the Infinite through a limited individual body. ["... death is only the negative term in which Life hides itself and tempts its own positive being to seek for immortality." [Death compels Life to seek Immortality.] (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo + additional Growth Online comments)
Death as a Process to Enable Immortality
Reason for Death
"... death is only the negative term in which Life
hides itself and tempts its own positive being to seek for immortality."
(Sri
Aurobindo)
[Death compels Life to seek
Immortality.]
Purpose,
Compulsion of Death
Death compels Life to seek Immortality. (Paraphrase
of Sri Aurobindo)
Why Death Exists
Death also exists because the individual life seeks the
Infinite through a limited individual body. ["... death is only the
negative term in which Life hides itself and tempts its own positive
being to seek for immortality." [Death compels Life to seek
Immortality.] If the psychic being, the evolving soul of the
individual, cannot get what it seeks (i.e. if the individual doesn't
develop enough), it withdraws from the being and looks for a new form.
[We have also said that death is a process of life. One thing needs to
die in order to sustain the emerging, following entity.]
(Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo + additional Growth Online comments)
Cause of and Way Out of
Death and Ignorance
-Death, desire, and incapacity are due to
the exclusivity and separateness, to the nature of divided being, and to
the ignorance of the individual, rooted in ego and mind. They prevent
the right balance of energies, which cause dissolution.
-Man can move out of this status by the gradual awakening of self. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)
Procreation
and Immortality
Procreation is an incomplete form of immortality,
where part of our physical essence is passed on to our progeny
to enable continuance. However, through our insistence on a
divine existence, we can secure this immortality in a single
body.
Death is for the Purpose of the Evolving Soul
Purpose of
Death and the Evolving Soul
The purpose of death is to enable the
fulfillment of the soul in its evolving journey.
The Psychic being and
Death
If the psychic being, the evolving soul of the
individual, cannot get what it seeks (i.e. if the individual doesn't
develop enough, it withdraws from the being and looks for a new form.
[We have also said that death is a process of life. One thing needs to
die in order to sustain the emerging, following entity.]
[The soul, the psychic being seeks infinite experience, and withdraws if it cannot get that from the finite being of the individual.] (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)
Death and the Journey of the
Soul
When the soul has nothing new to gain from the
individual it is on, it leaves, bringing bout that person's death. Then
the soul continues on its journey, either resting or entering other
souls, seeking its further evolution.
The Journey of the Evolving
Soul
When the evolving soul leaves the body, the
individual dies. That soul goes to rest in nether realms or enters the
body of another to continue on its journey of its own Evolution.
Overcoming Death for the
Individual
When we connect with our evolving soul, we take an
important step toward overcoming death. The evolving soul is itself in a
deathless state. We thus can bring the "energy" of the deathless state
to life, thus the possibility of unending life, when the power of the
soul is brought to the vital and material surface.
Death & Rebirth
There is life on
other planes after death and before the next rebirth, as a
result of the old and in preparation of the new birth. Other
planes coexist with ours, and constantly act upon the physical
plane.
Why there is an in-between state in other planes between death and rebirth: 1. There is an attraction of other planes for the mental and vital plane in man due to their affinity to these planes; 2. There is a utility, need of an interval for assimilation of the life-experience, including what has to be discarded, and what has to be prepared for the new birth. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)
Overview of Rebirth
-The individual has a soul and an evolving soul; the former the
spark of the Divine, the latter the deputy of the former. It is this
evolving soul (Psychic Being, True Self) that takes its birth in the
individual, and gathers the experience of the individual in its journey
through existence. After death, this evolving soul takes on the body of
other individuals to continue its journey towards ever higher states of
being. It enters a particular individual to absorb those new experiences
that will enable it to grow.
(Rebirth is not however an individual being reborn as another individual. E.g. John Smith dying and the personality of John Smith entering the next person. It is instead the movement of an evolving soul through various individuals.)
'Rebirth is the birth of the individual soul from form to form until it reaches the human level of manifested consciousness which is its instrument for rising to yet higher levels, higher possibilities; to incorporate powers of spiritual mind, Supermind, and beyond.
-Rebirth is as inevitable as birth. It enables an incomplete being in a body its promise of completeness and its spiritual significance.
-If the soul enters this life with a certain development of personality, it must have prepared it in other precedent lives here or elsewhere.
The Psychic Being [i.e. the evolving soul], Death, and Rebirth
-
"... the rebirth of the soul in successive terrestrial bodies is an inevitable consequence of the original significance and process of the manifestation in earth-nature; ..."
-
There is life on other planes after death and before the next rebirth, as a result of the old and in preparation of the new birth. Other planes coexist with ours, and constantly act upon the physical plane.
-
Why there is an in-between state in other planes between death and rebirth: 1. There is an attraction of other planes for the mental and vital plane in man due to their affinity to these planes; 2. There is a utility, need of an interval for assimilation of the life-experience, including what has to be discarded, and what has to be prepared for the new birth.
-
There is the old religious dogma of a life after death in hells and heavens.
-
The reason for the rebirth: The movement of an ascending soul, into higher and higher grades of the earthly existence.
-
The inner soul, the psychic being survives death and carries mind and life on its journey. It is in the subtle body that the psychic being passes out of its material lodging.
-
There must be a sufficiently developed psychic personality; an individuation of the psychic person for this to happen.
-
Other planes of existence and rebirth: There is a relationship between these higher planes and the individual; and the nature of that relationship determines his direction after death, determine the place, period, and character of his self-experience there.
-
There are also true vital worlds, native habitats of the universal Life-principle. He may be held there for awhile as a result of the vital character of the influences that have shaped his life. This can also be true of the physical being and true physical planes. In addition to these outer-life worlds, if developed in life he may be held in subtle physical, vital, and mind worlds.
-
It is the soul, the psychic being, not the mind, that is the traveler between death and life.
-
There must be finally a plane of pure psychic existence in which the soul would await rebirth, assimilating the energies of the past, preparing for the future. There after going through the subtle worlds, there would be a dwelling in a plane of psychic repose.
-
Higher planes influencing our development: Our development take place very much by superior action of the higher planes on the earth-plane. It is contained in the inconscient or the subconscient, only as potentiality. This alliance of action shows principally however through our subliminal being. All the action from the higher plane that enters the individual is stored in the subliminal being from which we derive our active power of consciousness in life.
-
Rebirth is not a constant reiteration but a progression. There is a discarding of past strong vibrations of personality, which is enabled by the exhaustion of the previous physical, vital, and mental motives after death, where what must be discarded is discarded.
-
In the cycle of rebirth the individual soul, the psychic being prepares for itself (or the Divine prepares for it) whatever is needed for the next step in the evolution, for the next development of personality, organized out of the requisite experiences of the past, present, and future energies.
-
Reason for rebirth -- "In this motion takes place the cycle of rebirth, and in that cycle the soul, the psychic being, prepares for itself, -- or of the Divine Wisdom or the cosmic Consciousness-Force prepares for it through its action, -- whatever is needed for the next step in its evolution, the next formation of personality, the coming nexus of necessary experiences constantly provided and organized out of the continuous flux of past, present and future energies for each new birth, for each new step of the Spirit backward or forward or else still in a circle, but always a step in growth of the being towards its destined self-unfolding in Nature.
-
There is no importance to the memory of past lives because karma is not the final principle. .. ""If a constant development of being by a developing cosmic experience and the building of a new personality in a new birth is the method, then any persistent or complete memory of the past life or lives might be a chain and a serious obstacle; it would be a force for prolonging the old temperament, character, preoccupations, and a tremendous burden hampering the free development of the new personality and its formulations of new experienced."
-
"It is not as a machinery for the persistent renewal or prolongation of an unchanging personality that birth exists, but as a means for the evolution of the spirit being in Nature."
-
The psychic being is the inner Person. This inner person survives death.
-
Immortality of the body and immortality of spirit in the individual: "This consummation of a triple immortality, -- immortality of the nature completing the essential immortality [in a birth and life] of the Spirit and the psychic survival of death, -- might be the crown of rebirth and a momentous indication of the conquest of the material Inconscience and Ignorance even in the very foundation of Matter. But the true immortality would still be the eternity of the Spirit; the physical survival could only be relative, terminable at will, a temporal sign of the Spirit's victory here over Death and Matter."
(Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)
The Way Out of Death
Evolution of Man and Overcoming Death
Evolution is the method to overcome Non-Existence through and beyond the
dualities of life and death; Inconscience through
and beyond its dualities of Truth and Falsehood, and Knowledge and Error
; and Insensibility through and beyond its dualities of Pleasure and
Pain.
Overcoming Death, Desire, and Incapacity through Lead of
Supermind
-Man can move out of this status by
the gradual awakening of self.
-If Supermind (Truth Consciousness) leads, replacing the ignorance and dividing mechanism of mind, then the exclusivity and separateness are overcome; ignorance is replaced by divine knowledge; and the right balance of energies (of the balance of life force and the form it inhabits) is restored, preventing dissolution, enabling endless life.
[Knowledge acting on Will releases energy. Since Supermind has the right balance of, a fusion of knowledge and will, it creates or enables the right balance of energies for sustaining life. Supermind thus overcomes death, desire, and incapacity.]
-Only in Supermind can life acquire the necessary charging(?) energies that will enable the body to feel it is experiencing the infinity it seeks, will enable the body not to disintegrate. Supermind takes it out of its exclusivity [of mind, and ego], which is the reason it cannot maintain the balance of energies. With Supermind that is changed. (One can thus control life, its energies, which can lead to endless life.)
-The mind, not separated from Supermind, of divine knowledge, would be free from its ignorance, and would not be subject to its ignorances of death, desire, and incapacity.
-If the individualized force were the energy of mind free from ignorance, no such necessity of desire would intervene.
-Supermind then is not only a mechanism of perfect knowledge, but is the mechanism for the perfect vital and body. The supramental transformation would enable this. The Mother was absorbing the Force to enable the right balance of energies in doing the physical and final part of the supramental transformation. What then are interim steps that we can take using the supramental force and power to affect death, desire, and incapacity in our lives? We can begin by going within, finding the psychic, open to the universal, call in the Force, and let it descent as it wishes?] (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo + additional Growth Online comments)
Abolition of Death,
Suffering, and Disease
It
is not the Divine intention for the embodied soul to seek release from
the cycle of birth and death; instead the embodied soul should seek
total release from
falsehood and ego in all parts of its being; and, rising into the
higher realms of Spirit, bring down the spiritual force and truth to
life on earth, so that death, suffering and disease can be abolished
forever. It is the difference between liberation into the spirit, and
ascent to the spirit to bring down its properties to enable the
transformation of the being and life around one.
Purpose of Illness In Creation, and The Transformation Of Humans
Another question that arises is why is there illness, suffering, and
death
in the first place? The creation came about as the result of the
Absolute's need to embody the divine force in physical forms. In order
to create the greatest multiplicity of forms the Absolute manifest in
forms positively and negatively in the cosmos. As the cosmos, the earth,
and humanity developed, this diversity in duality can be seen in our
physical bodies, our feelings and emotions, and in our minds. The
duality of the physical body shows up as health and sickness, life and
death. The forces of duality and its
reinforcement through Nature keep these dualities intact.
Gradually, however, through our evolution we will evolve as a species to overcome the negative aspect of creation in our bodies, leading to overcoming of illness, disease, and the eventual possibility of endless life through the power of our will and consciousness.
We will surely see great improvements in medicine that will help us become healthier. However the ultimate determinant of perfect and endless health may be through the bringing into our being the powers and influences of a spiritual Force, which can transform humans from out of their current necessity of illness, suffering and death.
The
Subconscient and Death
The
subconscient is an unconscious and unevolved part of our
inner being; a kind of vestige of our primitive heritage. For example, a
good deal of the fear we experience in life wells up from this realm.
Or, when we sleep and wake up tired and exhausted in the morning as a
result of incessant, draining dreams, we know we have spent time
travelling in this unconscious realm. Also, in the course of our days
when we feel pessimistic, or things seem hopeless, or we sense that
there is no way out of a situation or a difficulty, you know that the
subconscient is sending up its negative impression to our surface
thoughts and feelings. Perhaps most negatively the subconscient is the
part of our being that reinforces our physical illnesses. Have you ever
felt a cold coming on, and suddenly you think to yourself "oh no, not a
cold?" Well that's the subconscient influence of fear and pessimism at
work, reinforcing and solidifying the possibility of the illness. The
subconscient has this overall negative nature because it has built in
memory of millennia of human suffering, disease, and death. It sends up
pessimistic, negative, fear-laden messages intent on overcoming the
positives that occur on the surface. Its message is that anything
positive on the surface is but a temporary distraction and waste of time
because we will all end in disease, death, and destruction.
Procreation
and Immortality
Procreation is an incomplete form of immortality, where
part of our physical essence is passed on to our progeny to enable
continuance. However, through our insistence on a divine existence, we
can secure this immortality in a single body.
Use of the Force to Overcome Death
One
utilizes the
(supramental) Force to overcome the current
limitations of our bodies (i.e. its lack of flexibility, tendency to
inertia, propensity to illness, even the inevitability of
death).
Physical Transmutation is a Later
Stage of Transformation
Overcoming death is a much later stage of
personal evolution and transformation. Before that must come the change
of he mental and vital realms. the physical is later or last.
Mental, Vital, and Physical Transformation
-In addition to this dramatic change to our mental
functioning, to the way we acquire knowledge, and perceive the world,
there are the effects on our vital/emotional and physical parts. For
example, our vital/emotional being begins to be transformed from its
normal lower inclinations of desire, pleasure, sensation, need, and
selfish attachment to correspondingly more subtle, refined behaviors and
capacities. We experience a shift from our negative attitudes and
sentiments to higher attitudes and behaviors, such as vital
patience and calm, and concern and self-giving towards others.
-There are even the beginning of great changes at the physical level, as we are able to overcome our fixed habits, the need for intense stimulation and attachment, and our reflexive reaction to pain. We even learn how to prevent and overcome physical illness, as we understand their subtle nature, their relationship to our psychological state, to a lacking energy, and other factors. At a further point we begin to perceive that it is possible to even control the body's processes of decay and death (though at this point on the path we do not as yet have the power to make that understanding a lived reality).
-Further along on this ultimate leg of the Path our bodies are no longer are subject to death and decay because the very cells of our body have been supramentalized so that they respond to the higher Power, preventing their decay and degeneration, enabling them remain alive as long as we desire. In other words, we are on the road to becoming immortal.
Change in Subconscient to Enable
Physical Transformation
When the subconscient is changed through the
workings of the superconscient Spirit and Force, a great stage has
passed that can enable physical transformation.
The Mother's Experiment
The Mother was making her lifetime experiment in
trying to overcome death by calling in the supramental Force into her
cells. This was her lifetime worked; i.e. the ultimate physical yoga and
transmutation. She made a vast progress in that direction, and we can
follow in her Vast footsteps.
The Mother's Great Attempt
-The
Mother's other great role occurred in the later years of her life. From
about the age of 70 until her death at age 94 in 1974, she made the
difficult attempt at the transformation of her own physical body, to be
the forerunner of a new type of human being, perhaps a new species
beyond man. Whereas most disciples and followers around the world needed
to first overcome the normal, typical weaknesses in their mental and
emotional parts of their being (such as their ego-sense, falsehoods,
ignorance, poor attitudes, habits, limited knowledge and skills, etc.),
the Mother had mostly attained that perfection at birth, and endeavored
to make the more difficult transformation of her physical body her chief
preoccupation. The first goal was to find the secrets to illness,
suffering, and pain. A second goal was to overcome the inevitability of
death itself, to the decay of the cells over time; to find the secret to
unending life based on one's will for continuous existence. The
most important goal however was the transformation of the physical
substance of the body into a new type of human being, a Supramental
being, with powers of consciousness, plasticity, creation, truth, and
unity beyond anything the world has ever known or conceived. By
utilizing the Force, this physical transformation would lead to a new
type of individual, a new species beyond man, leading to a divine
existence and life on earth. She was the pioneer individual for the
ultimate physical transformation to this new existence.
-She often referred to death as a mere state of mind, a state of mind of the cells that the cells accepted. If they could change their perspective, if they did not accept death as an inevitability, this could help the cells maintain their form without their deteriorating.
Transformation of Body Followed By Unlimited Life Based On Will
When the transformation of the body is complete (it will occur after the
transformation of the other parts of the being first, including vital,
psychological, mental), there will be the possibility of the end of
being subjected to death. i.e. people can life as long as they wish.
Romance & Death
Romance cannot die, it has never died. It emerges to give
life to death and dead habits. They smother Romance to death and
triumphantly announce their own death as the death of Romance.
(MSS)
Also see Thoughts from Sri Aurobindo's The Life Divine on this Subject by clicking here.
Other Points
The Ascending Movement Upward through the
Three Poises of Life
Life is first dumb inconscient will rooted in the physical
energy; inconscient, and subject to mechanical forces. This is reflected
in the necessity of the separative ego, and to survive. (2) Then there
is a movement to break the bounds of one's self toward interaction with
others. This reflects the compulsion of Nature to fuse our individual
selves with others. At this second poise of life there is
death, mutual devouring, desire, and the need to expand, conquer,
and possess. This is a movement to the vital proper, away from the
physical. (3) The third poise of life is a movement towards conscious
mind in life. In this stage there is the conscious movement towards
commonality, mutuality, harmony, etc. In its higher aspects it is
vitally reflected as the ability to be self giving towards others, and
to feel love.
(Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)
Unanswered Questions about Life
What follows is a list of fully or partially unanswered questions about life.
What is life?Is truth absolute or subjective?
Can we each experience true love?
Are resources finite?
Is there a God?
Did God create the universe?
What is a rational individual?
Why are we here?
Why is there life?
Why is there death?
Who am I?
Is there good and evil?
Why do bad things happen?
How can I reach my full potential?
Is there a spiritual dimension to life?
Is life real or an illusion?
What is true happiness?
Gain I find true happiness?
Is there an afterlife?
Do we have a soul?
Can I get in touch with my soul?
Does our soul live forever?
Why is there conflict in the world?
Is there a heaven and hell?
Why do we suffer?
Why do we get sick?
How can I be more energized and motivated in life?
How can I gain more energy?
What is energy?
Why is there war?
Why don't people get along?
Does religion serve a purpose?
Is religion helpful or harmful?
Is religion and spirituality the same thing?
Is science better than religion, or vice versa.
Are humans evolving?
Where are we all headed as a society; as a race?
What is my individual purpose in life?
Why is there tragedy in life?
Can we be happy all of the time?
Is there a difference between happiness and true joy?
How can I become wealthy?
Why do some people fail to achieve in life?
Why do others rise to the heights?
Why are there two sexes; why not one or three or more?
Why do people become famous?
Why do some people become the leaders and pioneers in the world?
Is it possible to live forever; i.e. attain immortality?
Why do empires exist?
Why do empires rise and fall?
What is the reasons nations come together in associations?
Are we headed toward world unity?
Is it helpful to have so many different cultures?
Why did we divide into races, cultures, religions, and various customs?
Is all that exists that which is visible?
What is the nature and influence of the invisible realms?
Are there Gods? Do they still have power?
Is psychic phenomenon real, or a figment of our imagination?
Why do people have different characters and natures?
Can I change my nature and character, or is it fixed?
Why do human love relationships fall apart.
Can my relationship hold together forever?
Do I have control of the world around me?
Is all that happens predestined, or do I have a say in the matter?
What is the true nature of the spirit?
Are there inner powers we can gain that we haven't yet acquired?
Why do emotions come and go?
Why does time sometimes move fast; otherwise slow?
Is time really relative?
How are space and time related?
Can we control what is happening around us?
What use is meditation, concentration, and prayer?
Why do we make so many mistakes?
Is Man inherently evil, or good?
Why should we love our neighbors as ourselves?
Should we help the
poor?
Should we give aid to
backward countries?
Won't prosperity solve all the world's problems?
In what ways are we evolving?
Are we always evolving; or sometimes standing still or even devolving?
Is competition
necessary for progress?
Is pain and difficulty necessary for progress?
Why are some individuals just way ahead of the crowd?
Do good manners really matter?
Is technology the
savior of the world?
Why does the Internet exist?
What is the next stage of human evolution?
Are lawyers helpful or leeches on society?
Should I always do what my doctor tells me?
Can I cure myself through spiritual powers, faith instead?
Are God and evolution mutually exclusive realities?
Can materialism and
spirituality mutually exclusive or can they work together?
Is love the reason for living our lives, or happiness and joy?
What can I do to know if there is a God or a Divine Reality?
What good would communing with a Higher Power serve me?
Who created this universe. And how?
Is the creator still creating now?
Can Man become God-like?
Is God like a super person, or something else?
Does an eye for an eye work?
Why are material things alone ultimately unsatisfying?
What are personal
values?
Do I have any? How do I know which ones I have?
Can I apply values in a practical way?
How come I see other's faults, but can't easily see my own?
How come people won't change when their problem is so obvious?
How do I get myself out of my habits, the routine?
What bad attitudes do I have?
What are attitudes, and
what form do they take?
Why am I so attached to my family and friends?
How can I get along better with my spouse; my children, etc?
Should I do what my family asks of me or what I think I should do?
Is education the best
path to achievement in life?
Should I work for myself and be entrepreneurial or for a company and be secure?
Should I listen to what the people around me say or think for myself?
Why do people defend their own point of view so intensely?
Why are there multiple political parties? Can't people just agree with one?
What makes for a great
leader?
Is beauty really in the eyes of the beholder; or is it objective?
Should I be practical
or a risk taker?
Why can't I get ahead in the world?
Does the influence of
my local community hold me back, or can I transcend it?
Are rich people ruthless; and poor good and merely victims?
Is money the root of all evil?
What is money really?
Why do some countries
get rich first, leaving others behind?
Are Americans generous, or do they simply have a lot of money to give others?
Did evil events in the world, like the rise of fascism serve any purpose?
Do we only have to
progress by learning hard lessons through suffering?
Is there good in the bad; and bad in the good?
What are the various ways that spirit can express in life?
Can spirituality become a practical thing to affect life?
Where do I get my
character from; genetics. my parents, society, past lives; or
did I create it?
Why is Man born flawed? Why didn't God create more perfect individuals?
Why did the Divine create this universe in the first place?
Why does science create
so much evil as well as good. (E.g. nuclear bombs.)
What did
the computer, the Internet, and the cell phone suddenly appear
on the scene?
What is the future potential of the Internet
What can we do to improve the method of education?
Are they making things better or worse, or both?
How
can we achieve greater economic, political, and social
collaboration in the world?
What trends are portended by recent global events?
What activities and trends in human development have occurred
since WWII?
How
is the Internet changing the way we live our lives?
What does social networking indicate in society?
Why
hasn't the US addressed the problems of poverty in the country?
What can the US teach the world?
What trends in the US can other nations learn to avoid?
How come great leaders
--
like Gorbachav
--
are often unappreciated in their own
country?
Is
honesty practiced around the world (more or less than we think)?
Why
can't we solve our social problems in the US? [or are we
actually doing a pretty good job]
Why
do people hate to pay taxes, and is that right?
What capacities am I missing
that is preventing me from achieving?
Life, and Good, Evil, & Progress
-Life is neutral. It progresses through good as well as evil,
says Sri Aurobindo.
-Life is bigger than good or evil. Life is a whole. It thus needs good as well as evil for it to be complete.
-We like the good part, not the bad one. Life will not be complete in the absence of evil or falsehood. That is the character of human life.
When it is complete, it ceases to be human life. It becomes higher life. (Paraphrase of MSS)
Basic Units of Existence: Atom of Material,
Acts of the Vital, and Thoughts of the Mind
The basic unit of material substance of the atom. The basic unit
of vital substance is the individual discrete act. The basic
unit of mind is the individual thought. Atoms combine to form
all of the larger units of material substance observable in the
universe. Acts combine to form all of the larger units of
activity observable in life. Thoughts combine to form
larger, more complex structures variously termed concepts,
ideas, theories, etc. (MSS)
Spiritual Evolution is Unmixed Joy
Spiritual evolution in its own plane is an experience of unmixed
joy; in the ignorant life, it is an experience of joy that
alternates with sorrow. Lydia represents biological evolution
which does not care about social mores or marriage or health or
even death. Spiritual evolution goes on by increasing joy. In
increasing the joy, it goes through a trough of sorrow before
reaching the joy. Spiritual evolution is higher joy, through a
trough of sorrow.
Fulfillment at Various
Levels
The individual, family, collectives, and society each seek their own
fulfillment. The Universe and the Transcendent Divine also seek
fulfillment.
The Process of Creation for Individual, business, society, universe, The Absolute
- The individual decides to or is compelled to develop physically through higher skills, vitally through higher attitudes, mentally through higher forms of knowledge, understanding, conception, and perception; spiritually through the connection to the inner self, soul, through higher levels of mind (higher mind, illumined, and intuitive), all the way to connection to the Supramental realms. In all these cases the urge to move to the next level reflects the process.
- The business through its own self-conception or is compelled to move to a higher level of functioning, which is supported by its plan to carry out and execute its aspiration to the next level through the its organization and skills of its people.
- The society decides to consciously or is compelled to move from physical survival to vital interaction, commerce, etc. to mental organization and the emergence of the individual, and on to spiritual unity of life.
- The universe fulfilled at the physical level of inert matter is compelled to animate, to move, to become life, and animated and sensation-based life is compelled to develop Mind, and ultimately to go beyond mind to spirit (Supermind). (Each aspect is involved in the other).
- The Absolute, Divine through a process of self-conception and for the purpose of Delight creates the ensuing level, the Many, the universe and cosmos.
Overview; Nature and Soul | Nature's Difficult Ways | Nature Evolves through Contradictions, and Resolutions to Higher Harmonies
Nature's Efficiency | Nature Enables Greater Complexity | Nature's Slowness | Nature and the March of Civilization
Nature Purges Our Lower Nature, Our "Physicality" | Overcoming Nature's Way through Our Higher Consciousness Key!
Nature and the (Supramental) Force | Nature, and Being in the Becoming | Other
Overview; Nature and Soul
(main)
Introduction
Nature and Soul
Life divides into Nature and Soul (Spirit).
Nature, Consciousness and Force
When the being became aware of its existence,
Consciousness was born. By being conscious that Being emanated a Force.
the Consciousness and Force were one. In the process of creation, the
Consciousness and Force were divided, and eventually the former
disappeared in the forms of creation. Nature, the way of normal life,
expresses that force of consciousness without the consciousness itself.
Involved in it is that consciousness. When we move from Nature to Soul,
we overcome division and duality, and bring out the consciousness in the
force.
Nature and Soul's
Methods of Progress
Nature's (Prakriti) method of
progress is slow and difficult (through resolution of
contradictory opposites), while Soul (Purusha) progresses
through truth and consciousness, leaving no dark side behind.
Nature and Evolving Soul
Nature has an involved soul immanent in it which evolves
as Nature works. (Paraphrase of MSS) [For us we each have a
corresponding personal evolving soul which uses the essence of our
progress for its evolution.]
The Soul of Nature in
the Psychic Being
Nature too has a soul. It slowly evolves. Psychic is that evolving
soul. It is in the fourth dimension. It is the Being of the Becoming.
(MSS)
Nature's Soul and the Psychic Being
Nature has a Soul. It is the evolving soul emerging
in the Psychic Being of Man.
Nature and Spirit
When Nature moves, the Spirit in it evolves.
Nature, Soul, and Human Progress
When the Manifest emerged from the Unmanifest
through the willful action of the latter, Life divided into two aspects
-- Nature and Soul.
(In Indian parlance Prakriti and Purusha).
Nature is Life's slow and difficult way, and is the
normal way humans experience the world. Soul (or spirit) is
Life's method of progress through
higher consciousness -- producing only positive effects without
any negative. (I.e. it is Self-existent.)
Man is dominated by Nature. He evolves along with it slowly and painfully through division and duality; and pleasure and pain. He can however evolve through Soul/Spirit instead, rapidly, with no negative outcomes.
Nature's difficult method was sanctioned by the Divine to allow for the greatest multiplicity of possibility of forms, of forces, of aspects in creation that would allow for the greatest variety of Delight.
When we humans move from Nature to Soul by discovering our highest nature, we experience the Delight for which this life was created. I.e. the Divine willed to extend its static Delight into the dynamic Delight through self-discovery of forms of creation -- i.e. we -- fulfilling the intent of the Infinite.
Nature and Soul
In the theory of creation of Sri
Aurobindo, out of the Omnipresent Reality came the triune of Existence,
Consciousness-force, Delight (Sat-Chit-Ananda) on the road to creation.
The universe would emerge from the energy that came out of the division
of Consciousness-force. Thus here Nature is the force of creation
without its consciousness. It is the difficult method of progress. Soul
is the better approach, though the universe has not yet emerged fully in
that form; only very partially, including only very partially in man.
When Man raises his own consciousness, the force and the consciousness
that emerged from the Omnipresent Reality (the unknowable Infinite) are
reunited (which the individual and the universe experiences again as
Consciousness-Force. "Prakriti" is the Indian term for Nature. 'Purusha'
is the term for Soul/Spirit.]
Progress through Resolution of Contradiction
Life evolves through the contradiction of dual pairs, and their resolution. There are infinite forms in which these dualities take shape. For example, we see contradictions between family members; between spouse; between yourself and the boss; between your desires and the realities of your life; between two nations; between two races; between two parties, political, social, or otherwise; between creeds, ideals, and values; and so forth ad infinitum in all aspects, fields, and domains of life. Life/Nature thus establishes and urges the further progress of each side of the contradiction. Without the conflict between the parties and the ensuing attempt at resolution, life would remain static, or even fall back.
When we are immersed in one of these contradictions, our goal should be to find the higher harmony that resolves it, which will enable our further progress. That normally requires us (or our party or collective) to rise in consciousness; i.e. to discover a higher center of being. That can come about by shedding a corresponding negative attitude, by withdrawing a wanting emotion, by giving up a stale habit, by developing a new understanding, by shifting out of ego, by reaching beyond the chasm that divides, by moving out of selfishness, by taking a new approaches to life, by changing a value or belief, and so forth.
In each situation and circumstance, we need to understand the contradiction (e.g. we are irritated with the behavior of our spouse), as well as what is required to resolve it (e.g. we need to shift our attitude from complaining to accepting). Both sides of the contradiction need to take that approach for optimal result and collective progress. As a result of making that inner and outer effort toward resolution, life quickly cooperates from unexpected quarters. (E.g. as a result of the spouse taking to non-complaining, he attracts a wonderful new development for his wife.) In essence, through our inner and outer efforts to engage a higher center of being, we resolve the conflict, bringing about a higher harmony, which enables a new level of progress.
There is another approach to progress other than Nature's slow and difficult way of contradiction and its resolution. It is the method Soul and Spirit. With this approach, one does not wait on Life, but one self-consciously aspires to improve and take one's self to a higher level; to raise one's consciousness at a particular level. E.g. perceiving though introspection that I can make my attitudes more positive, I make a conscious effort to raise them. Or subscribing to the deep value of respect for others, I turn my company in that direction.
At its highest, this self-conscious, self-directed, self-improving approach of Soul involves the adoption of spiritual qualities such as silence, peace, calm, equality of being, oneness, wisdom, creativity, love, and self-givingness, to name a few. It can also include opening to the spiritual Force to enable the very best conditions to take shape in our lives.
The method of Soul precludes the intervention of Nature and her difficult dualistic, conflicting, strife-worn, hot and cold ways. This is the path of Conscious Evolution (known as "yoga" in the East), and has so far been the domain of a very few. However, with the increasing emergence of individuality, including true spiritual individuality in the 21st century, this will become far more common. This initiative to progress through inner development of our consciousness will increasingly be the hallmark of the emerging New Age.
Nature is God in Physical Form
Nature is God in Physical Form. We are all a part of Nature.
Being part of Nature means we ourselves are part of God. (MSS)
Nature as Power of Being
Prakriti (Nature)
is the power of Being
(Spirit).
(MSS)
On Nature
Nature is an attempt at a progressive revelation
of the concealed Truth, a more and more successful reproduction
of the Divine image. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)
Prakriti
(Nature) and Soul (Purusha)
-Prakriti is
Nature, Purusha is Soul.
-Nature is called Prakriti, Maya or Shakti. The scientist may call her Matter and expressions of Matter. For our present purposes, it is all Nature. Soul has other names. Spirit is the most common name. Being is another. (MSS)
Nature vs. Divine Nature
Human life belongs to Nature. Higher life belongs to
higher Divine Nature. (MSS)
Nature
and Divine Acts
The human act perpetuates Prakriti
(Nature). The divine act allows Prakriti
(Nature) to blossom into the Divine.
(MSS)
Nature,
Evolution, and Brahman
Nature is the
surface unfolding of life; the method of conflicted evolution of
the manifest Brahman.
Meaning of Nature
By "Nature" we don't mean "Mother
Nature," i.e. the physical outer
environment, but the movement, unfolding, intention and purposefulness
of life in the past, present, and future
through Her means.
Nature and Lacking Consciousness
Life and Nature
Life is of Nature that expresses the force of consciousness. (MSS)
Various Aspects of Nature
Nature (Prakriti) is
energy apart from consciousness; matter in its primal basis of action;
inert mechanical consciousness. It is inconscient energy in the material
world.
(MSS)
Nature is Force, not Being
The world is Prakriti, i.e.
Force. It is Not of Being
[i.e. Spirit/Soul].
(MSS)
Soul is Force +
Consciousness
Soul is energy, force united with consciousness, a
reflection of the Divine reality. Nature is Force absent in degrees of
of cosnciousness.
Nature's Way is Sanctioned by the Divine
Nature has the Consent of the Being
Nature (Prakriti)
has the consent of the (Spiritual) Being.
(MSS)
The Divine Sanctions Progress through Darkness or Light
Perhaps the main philosophical conundrum facing man is the question of why the Divine allows evil in the world. If He is the ultimate Good, how can He sanction such darkness? It is Man's anguished cry in the dark.
At the end of WWII, the world was left in shambles.
The war seemed so futile, without much purpose. Yet there was a purpose,
other than defeating an evil enemy. From the highest perspective, the
reason for WWII was to enable the further evolution of life on earth. It
was the quickest means by which we could take a further step towards
human unity. The United Nations, the EU, the Euro, the global economy,
the WTO, the World Wide Web (WWW), and the untold other economic,
political, and social agreements amongst nations and continents are all
the bi-product of WWII. Without the horror of the war and the need to
compensate for all that was wrong or missing in the world, it might have
taken centuries, if ever to have brought about these harmonic
institutions and developments.
From a metaphysical standpoint, we can say that the Divine sanctions
those methods that bring the greatest progress in the shortest period of
time. Whether that progress comes through Ignorance, Falsehood, or Evil,
the Divine endorses that method. It is same in our own individual lives.
What brings the greatest change for us, the Higher Power supports --
whether it comes about through suffering, illness, or tragedy. The
Divine knows that in their wake will come the greatest progress, and
hence the quickest and most formidable movement towards the Good.
Does this mean that all progress has to be through suffering? Not at
all. The Divine also sanctions evolution through higher consciousness.
Europe and the world did not have the higher consciousness to evolve
collectively before WWII. So she did so through conflict and suffering.
As individuals, we progress through torment because we do not have the
consciousness to evolve through more positive, harmonic means. Yet if we
developed our higher nature, we can progress without the dark,
conflicting element. If we continually improve our character, overcome
our limitations, find a deeper center, and open to the spirit we will
foster constant progress without the need for the negative side.
This then is the challenge before us: to progress and evolve through
higher consciousness, or through the suffering and conflict. For the
Divine, both are acceptable means of moving forward. The choice is ours.
Nature's slow and difficult way sanctioned by the Divine
Will. It perceives that through this dualistic unfolding, the greatest
possibility of outcomes is possible in life, enabling the greatest
diversity of Delight in discovery.
(main)
Nature Difficult
Mode of Progress
Nature's progress takes place through division,
duality, contradiction, suffering, and pain. It is Nature's difficult
mode of progress.
Nature and Soul's
Methods of Progress
Nature's (Prakriti) method of
progress is slow and difficult (through resolution of
contradictory opposites), while Soul (Purusha) progresses
through truth and consciousness, leaving no dark side behind.
Natures
Slow Methods & the Obstacles She Puts Before US
Nature is enjoying the leisure of infinity before
it and therefore is not in a hurry. She intentionally puts obstacles in
the way of speedy partial progress because all - Unity, Truth, Goodness,
Knowledge, Power and Love - must mature simultaneously.
(MSS)
Why There is Ignorance Falsehood, and Evil in Creation
Why is their ignorance, falsehood, evil, etc. in the
world is a subject that has bee discussed through the ages. No one has
come up with an adequate answer, except modern sages like Sri Aurobindo
who have the advantage of understanding evolution in combination with
the spirit. He explains that out of a Divine Source emerged forms of an
original force/energy that make up the universe, including us. We are
divided, ignorant, false, beings, even as there are many negative
aspects of the cosmos to go along with the positive. So why was there
positive and negative in creation?
The Divine Reality extended itself into a universe of forms so that it could extend its status of immutable, unchanging, infinite Joy and Delight into the forms of creation. E.g. an individual rises in consciousness or otherwise become more aware, he has the joy of discovery, which is the very reason we are here, the reason forms emerged from a Divine Source -- i.e. to experience the Delight of the creator.
Then why the negative in creation? In order for the Delight of the Spiritual Source to extend into the greatest quantity/multiplicity of the forms, it had to enable a universe of unlimited possibilities, including the possibilities of the negative. The Divine though its deputy of Nature (as opposed to Soul) sanctioned difficulty, pain, division, duality, ignorance, falsehoods, and evil so that the greatest Delight of the immutable Divine can enter the greatest multiplicity of forms in the most varied way, i.e. through the greatest possibilities in the universe. This is the secret of ignorance, falsehoods, and evil in life.
As we evolve to our highest nature, we will then overcome our ignorance, falsehood, and evil, which will create an even greater richness to life in the future, as all possibilities (including the movement from the current good to the greater good), are now included, create an even more joyful, blissful, yes Divine life on earth.
The Supreme Sanction of the Ignorance
-The reason for creation was so the forms -- including us -- could
experience the same bliss, the Delight that the Supreme already had. It
may even be a greater Delight.
-In order to create the greatest possibility of that bliss, the greatest
variety and multiplicity of those forms and qualities needed to be
created.
-Greater variety and multiplicity includes everything and its opposite. Night and day, time and timelessness, ignorance and knowledge, good and evil, etc. etc.
-Now infinite variations can experience the bliss in infinite variety.
-Though the Supreme intended a Divine life on earth without contradictions, including the experience of spiritual qualities like Delight, Love, Beauty, Truth, et al , which are generally qualities without their opposite, It sanctioned all the aspects that we consider the negative side, as necessary steps on the way to the Divine Perfection.
-In several chapters in The Life Divine Sri Aurobindo describes the necessity of the Ignorance as a way to the Knowledge. Thus, Ignorance is sanctioned by the Supreme as something to be passed through along the way. He also speaks of the Supreme's sanction of Nature (Prakriti; of contradiction and conflict in life's evolution) in the course of Man's existence, even though it is a lesser power than the method of Purusha, i.e. progress by Soul.
-Interestingly Sri Aurobindo says that when we reach the highest consciousness, we see that there is no division, no pain, no contradictions -- even perhaps, I might assume, at this point in the creation! This is the vision of Brahman that sees the Oneness of the Creator and the Creation. And yet at the lower plane of ego sees life not in its inherent perfection that someone who has risen to Supermind can see.
-This seems to be a conundrum in of itself for how can everything be perfect and not be so at the same time (as perceived by two different planes - Supermind and ego). My answer is that the more we move to the Supreme consciousness, to the Supramental, Truth Awareness, the more such conundrums are resolved through a higher understanding and cosmic perception.
The financial crisis the world is going
through is also an indication that greater human coordination,
cooperation, and unity amongst the nations is under way. Each
major crisis humanity goes through, such as WWII, is followed by
a level of greater harmony that wasn't there before. E.g., NATO,
UN, WTC, IMF, ASEAN, etc. are all harmony-creating social
institutions that came about as a result of the calamity of
World War II. Without such crises, it may have taken hundreds of
years for such organizations of human cooperation to have
emerged -- if ever.
As we now see in 2009, the Europeans are once more going through this dynamic via the current world financial debacle. Sixty years ago after WWII, the European Union began to emerge as an economic and quasi-political unifying organization. However, current circumstance is forcing that institution of greater harmony to forge even closer ties and bonds. As the pundits have pointed out, currently there is no real coordinating system within the EU framework to cope with and resolve the financial crisis, as each county pulls in its own direction (an echo of what those nations did previous to WWII, enabling the rise of the fascist juggernaut). But current events are forcing the EU to forge closer ties to resolve the issues, which will further solidify EU economic, political, social, and cultural bonds longer term.
Thus, we see how life, i.e. Nature, works. She creates difficult situations, such as a great war or a great financial crisis, to enable greater cooperation, coordination, and integration among the members. It is through this process that ever-greater harmony and unity is established in the world -- whether amongst the nations of the EU, the states of the USA, the countries of Asia, or the total collective of the world. It is this slow and difficult method of Nature -- 'Prakriti' in Indian parlance -- that we arrive at ever-greater levels of human collaboration and harmony. It is through this process that we arrive at our ultimate collective destiny -- human unity.
Thus, we see that the negatives we perceive -- such as the current financial crisis -- can actually be seen as a positive in disguise: a difficulty that is in reality a vast opportunity for human progress, evolution, and transformation.
Nature Evolves through Contradictions, and Resolutions to Higher
Harmonies
(main)
Nature Evolves through Contradictions
Nature evolves through the contradictions of life that are resolved into higher harmonies. This is Nature's slow and difficult way.
Progress through Resolution of Contradiction
Life evolves through the contradiction of dual pairs, and their resolution. There are infinite forms in which these dualities take shape. For example, we see contradictions between family members; between spouse; between yourself and the boss; between your desires and the realities of your life; between two nations; between two races; between two parties, political, social, or otherwise; between creeds, ideals, and values; and so forth ad infinitum in all aspects, fields, and domains of life. Life/Nature thus establishes and urges the further progress of each side of the contradiction. Without the conflict between the parties and the ensuing attempt at resolution, life would remain static, or even fall back.
When we are immersed in one of these contradictions, our goal should be to find the higher harmony that resolves it, which will enable our further progress. That normally requires us (or our party or collective) to rise in consciousness; i.e. to discover a higher center of being. That can come about by shedding a corresponding negative attitude, by withdrawing a wanting emotion, by giving up a stale habit, by developing a new understanding, by shifting out of ego, by reaching beyond the chasm that divides, by moving out of selfishness, by taking a new approaches to life, by changing a value or belief, and so forth.
In each situation and circumstance, we need to understand the contradiction (e.g. we are irritated with the behavior of our spouse), as well as what is required to resolve it (e.g. we need to shift our attitude from complaining to accepting). Both sides of the contradiction need to take that approach for optimal result and collective progress. As a result of making that inner and outer effort toward resolution, life quickly cooperates from unexpected quarters. (E.g. as a result of the spouse taking to non-complaining, he attracts a wonderful new development for his wife.) In essence, through our inner and outer efforts to engage a higher center of being, we resolve the conflict, bringing about a higher harmony, which enables a new level of progress.
There is another approach to progress other than Nature's slow and difficult way of contradiction and its resolution. It is the method Soul and Spirit. With this approach, one does not wait on Life, but one self-consciously aspires to improve and take one's self to a higher level; to raise one's consciousness at a particular level. E.g. perceiving though introspection that I can make my attitudes more positive, I make a conscious effort to raise them. Or subscribing to the deep value of respect for others, I turn my company in that direction.
At its highest, this self-conscious, self-directed, self-improving approach of Soul involves the adoption of spiritual qualities such as silence, peace, calm, equality of being, oneness, wisdom, creativity, love, and self-givingness, to name a few. It can also include opening to the spiritual Force to enable the very best conditions to take shape in our lives.
The method of Soul precludes the intervention of Nature and her difficult dualistic, conflicting, strife-worn, hot and cold ways. This is the path of Conscious Evolution (known as "yoga" in the East), and has so far been the domain of a very few. However, with the increasing emergence of individuality, including true spiritual individuality in the 21st century, this will become far more common. This initiative to progress through inner development of our consciousness will increasingly be the hallmark of the emerging New Age.
Contradictions Between Dual Pairs Enables Further Progress
Life evolves or can evolve through the contradictions of two parties, whether spouse or family members, associates, organizations, nations, etc.
E.g. a man has the quality of feeling that he is not being listened to by others. His wife tends not to listen when she is absorbed in some small pursuit. When the man asks his wife to do something, she does not listen, as she is absorbed elsewhere, causing irritation in the man. He must evolve out of his insecurity; she out of her unresponsiveness. This can only occur through their interaction. Life has put them together to serve this evolutionary purpose.
All life thus evolves or has the potential to evolve through the contradictions of two parties, through these conflicting pairs. Our goal should be to perceive it and then go beyond that contradiction, which we do by overcoming a corresponding limitation in our nature. When we do, we progress and grow. We also evoke sudden good fortune.
From a higher perspective then, the contradiction is really not so, but a complement in that it is an opportunity to develop our higher consciousness. I.e., the thing with which we are in conflict is the vehicle by which will overcome a personal limitation, and thereby progress.
Contradictions are Complements
One of the central principles in THE LIFE
DIVINE is CONTRADICITONS
ARE COMPLEMENTS. Our life is filled with contradictions, things
opposing us, people disagreeing with us, our emotions coming
into conflict with those around us. We want to go to a fine
university but our marks are too low. We want to marry our
daughter well, but our social status prevents it. Constantly we
are faced with contradictions.
Sri Aurobindo says all of those contradictions in life can be seen from a higher point of view as complements to what we are, as opportunities to make us more than what we are today, as the exact conditions needed to help us discover and bring forth hidden potentials within ourselves. What we call opposition is the method, the process by which the Divine creates the world. In human life, we are capable of converting that opposition into a complimentarity in which conflict is no longer necessary. When we understand the purpose for which any force comes and impacts on us, then we know what progress we have to make. In this manner, Mother says, we can convert difficulties into opportunities. We convert the force that presses against us into a force for progress. (MSS slight modification)
Contradictions
and Creation
When the Brahman wanted to manifest himself
in the world, the first opposition he created was a world of
unconscious, unthinking, inanimate, unsensing matter.
So the great opposition that the Divine started with was
creating a world of inanimate matter in which it wanted to
manifest animate life. The creation of apparently contradictory
opposing forces that interact with each other to evolve into
complements is one of the fundamental principles of creation.
Apparent Contradiction of Dual Pairs are Really Complements
Life evolves through both sides of dual pairs; the
positive as well as the negative; pleasure and pain; good and evil. Thus
what we perceive as contradictions of the dual pair -- i.e. we prefer
the positive over the negative, and so the negative is in contradiction
with the positive, is not so. They are actually complements. Thus,
contradictions seen at the surface view are really complements when
looked at from the view of truth and life.
Contradiction
are Complements, the Whole, and True Romance
It is Nature's intention for people,
things, life to progress through contradictory pairs. In fact,
it is the intention of the Infinite. Contradiction is the
outcome of the hiding, involutionary process, and overcoming it
(and seen as complement) is the method of the evolutionary
process.
We can also see that
the dual, contradictory pair evolve together and move from being
parts to becoming one whole. This is also what has
occurred for Eliza and Darcy. They are parts alone, but a whole
after the overcome their limited nature, and find true romance
in one another.
We can say that the
highest form of harmony in relationships is that of admiring,
even adoring opposite qualities in the other. The contradiction
is seen as true complement. Thus, True Romance is that of
the whole, beyond
the disparate part. It also is the method that enables one to
become better, to progress, evolve, become creative, etc.
Contradictions are Complementaries
-Contradiction and conflict with another indicates
a potential in one's self that can emerge through that
relationship to enable greater consciousness in one's self.
-Recognizing the truth potential behind the contradiction is a great step towards its resolution. Otherwise, it resolves slowly and painfully through through Nature's method.
The Infinite and Contradictions in
the World
-The Infinite consciousness created
infinite diversity and as a result allowed for infinite conflict
to enable greater richness of consciousness in the created
universe than even exists above.
-The way that the Infinite consciousness -- which has hidden itself in matter, life, and mind in creation -- emerges in the evolution below is through dual terms/sides; i.e. through both the positive and the negative.
-What we perceive as positive and negative is false, as both serve the force of progress and evolution. Thus they are not contradictory to one another, but complementary. Both enables progress and evolution.
The Negative is
Critical to Progress, Evolution
Life evolves through the utilization of both the positive and the
negative, the good and the bad, pleasure and pain, and all such
dualities. To see how life requires the negative side for
its progress and evolution is to see the Marvel of existence.
E.g. Thenardier who is evil reveals the great truth of Valjean saving Marius at the end of Les Miserables, resolving the story to a happy ending. Or without Lydia's foolish elopement with the evil Wickham in Pride and Prejudice, Darcy and Eliza would not have been married, bringing great prosperity to the Bennet family.
Life for us is the same. Ordinarily greatest spurs for our improvement have been negative circumstance. Thus, the darker side serves a great purpose in our progress and evolution. It is actually Nature's way of progress -- using both sides of duality and contradiction.
Life/Nature Evolves through Contradictory Complements
-
Life/Nature moves forward through the relation of contradictory pairs -- positive and negative, good and evil, pleasure and pain.
-
Both sides of the dual pair serve in the progress and evolution of forms. E.g. the negative is often a greater spur to progress than the positive side.
-
Our lower consciousness does not see the utility of both sides of the pair. It wants only one side -- e.g. pleasure, avoiding the other (i.e. pain). At a deeper level we see that both sides are necessary for progress. Thus the contradiction we see at the surface is really a complement seen in the depths.
The Power Behind Our
Adversarial Relations
When
you have a difficult relationship with another individual, you can be
sure of one thing: you are working out some psychological limitation of
your own through that person. That individual is also doing the same,
relative to yourself.
Each side knows something that the
other needs to know, and through their difficult interaction are given
the opportunity to learn about and then overcome some limiting
propensity. It is indicative of the principle of "contradictions
are complementaries" at work. Or to put it another way, what appears as
an adversary at the surface is really guru and teacher in the depths.
This is Nature's way of progress.
Thus, these situations afford one the opportunity to discover a particular element of our being that is wanting. Then if you clearly identify it, and make an effort in life to overcome it, life will reward us with instances of good fortune.
Nature's Way through Contradictions in Individuals
Nature's way is to create opposite pair, such as opposing and conflicting individuals, so that they can emerge into higher harmonies. This is accomplished because each side knows what the other needs to know, and it is in their interlocking relation can these truths of higher nature emerge. We see this between the pairs of lovers, who have perhaps married. They come together in one sense to overcome their own limitations through the knowledge that the other secretly or not so secretly has. The tragedy is that this long-lived and quite obvious golden opportunity for progress is generally ignored by both sides.
Nature and Soul's Methods of
Progress
Seeing the Marvel of Existence
In the first of 56 chapters of his metaphysical opus The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo suggests something profound. He indicates that everything we encounter in life -- positive and negative, pleasurable and painful, good and evil -- serves the greater Good that is unfolding. He indicates that such dual pairs, which on the surface seem to be in contradiction, are really complements to one another -- necessary for the upward, progressive movement of each. In that way, every difficulty and problem that comes our way serves us just as well as positives circumstance -- perhaps more so. Moreover, that vision of things, that ability to perceive meaning and utility in everything we encounter, from the macro to the micro, from the positive to the negative is to see the Marvel of Existence.
Let me illustrate this principle with several examples from literature. In Victor Hugo's masterpiece Les Miserable, a fundamentally good man Jean Valjean has escaped prison and is being pursued by an extremely dedicated, almost fanatical police officer named Javert. Along the way, Valjean raises a beautiful adopted daughter Cossette who falls in love with a young man named Marius, who eventually joins a people's fighting force barricading themselves against the reactionary government. At one point, the older, magnanimous Valjean gets involved in the battle himself, and in a startling, ironic moment saves Marius' life. Interestingly, Valjean never tells him what he had done. In addition, Valjean and Marius over time are at odds with one another because the elder does not want to relinquish his beloved daughter to the young man. In fact, now that Valjean senses that he is losing Cosette to Marius, life begins to all lose meaning, and so he begins to wither away.
But then one day near the end of Valjean's life, the evil Innkeeper Thenardier -- who once raised Cosette in squalor and did many appalling things along the way -- reveals to Marius that Valjean was in fact the one who saved his life. Stunned by Thenardier revelations, Marius and Cosette rush to Valjean's deathbed and console him, thanking him for a lifetime of self-givingness. In essence, a very bad person has come forward and unwittingly helped resolve a knot between two good people, -- enabling reconciliation between Marius and Valjean, and the return of Cosette's deep love and affection for Valjean, something he so desperately longed for. And so after a lifetime of kindness and generosity, Jean Valjean dies a very happy man.
It is said that great literature revels the deepest truth of life. The principle that not just the good, but the negative and evil too serve the greater Good is also evident in Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice. For example, at one critical point in the story, one of the five Bennet sisters, the wild, rambunctious Lydia, has eloped with the scoundrel Wickham, threatening the Bennet family with scandal and social ostracism. The elopement also threatens to ruin the relationship between the very wealthy Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet.
Now soon after the elopement ends with the marriage of Lydia and Wickham, Lydia foolishly blurts out that Darcy was the one who settled the accounts of her husband, resolving the situation. Lydia was instructed not to reveal this information. When Eliza hears this, she is thunderstruck because she now realizes how wrong she has been about Darcy. She saw him and arrogant and prideful, but instead, she now sees his very noble character. As a result, she falls in love with him, he proposes (again), and they marry. Without the verbal blunder from the negative Lydia, the marvelous outcome would never have occurred. I.e. Darcy and Eliza may not have fallen in love, married, found deep happiness, and thereby bring great wealth and social prestige to the Bennet family. That is the power the negative and false serve in manifesting the greater Good.
There is one other example of this principle in the novel. Late in the story, the aristocratic, wealthy, yet reactionary Lady Catherine tries to meddle in the relationship between Darcy and Eliza. When she does, it backfires on her, paving the way for the marriage of Darcy and Eliza. What happened was that when Lady Catherine got wind of the budding relationship, she stormed in the Bennet home, met with Eliza, and insisted that the relationship cease. Eliza of course refused. Most importantly however, when Lady Catherine returned home, Darcy learned of the meeting between his aunt and Eliza and realized from the discussion that Eliza had not ruled out a romance and marriage between him. Startled that this was the case, Darcy then went ahead and met Eliza, who then accepted his second proposal of marriage. In other words, without Lady Catherine's negative intervention, the entire resolution of the story would not have come about! Her harmful attempt to block their relationship had the opposite effect of spurring them to come together.
Once again, we see how falsehood and evil play critical roles in movements of progress and greater accomplishment. It is to perceive that every thing -- good or bad, positive or negative, pleasurable or painful, -- serves a purpose in the great unfolding. It is an ultimate perspective and vision of life. It is to see the Marvel of Existence.
Contradictions are Complements
Sri Aurobindo indicates that in the lower
consciousness, we see division and conflict everywhere. It is
life seen as contradictions. Pleasure and pain, good and bad;
positive and negative; my right vs. yours; spirit and matter;
and so on forever. In the higher consciousness, theses dual
pairs are seen not as contradictions, but complements. For
example, a man's conflict with his neighbor is a means of
evolving both sides. The "conflict" is not only Nature's way of
lifting the consciousness of both sides, but enables a more
general progress for the world. In that light, evil can be
seen as just a great, if not greater a spur as the normal "good"
to enable the true Good to increase. Good and evil thus work
together to spur progress and evolution. They are thus
complements to one another; not contradictions as seen through
our lower, surface consciousness.
A good example of this can be seen in the Middle
East in the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The
radical Palestinian groups resort to terrorism and launching rockets at
civilian targets, which strike us as abhorrent. And the Israelis live in
self-indulgent psychological fear and are mostly insincere in their
desire for a Palestinian state. So on they go in never ending rounds of
strife, pain, and conflict -- not unlike the Hatfields and McCoys of the
Old West.
From a deeper consciousness, we are watching the
painful evolution of both sides through the conflict. It is Nature's way
to spur progress by the interaction of two opposing sides. On the
surface, all we see is contradiction, but from a deeper poise, we see
progress; that the two parties are complementary aspects that are each
evolving through their interactions. Thus, contradictions are truly
complements.
Every time we are in conflict with others, we can
see that it is life compelling us to grow and evolve. From our surface
view, we tend to express our ego in the situation and guard our own
side. Nature however is telling you that your enemy or conflicting
partner is your complement. That he represents something negative inside
you. That he has come because of something wanting within that has
attracted him. If, however, you rise in consciousness, which is also
Nature's intent, then you will understand, change, and move to the next
highest state. So will your contradictory, yet truly complementary
partner. It is Nature's way of progress.
Who then are you in contradiction with? And how can you see them as a complement aiding in your progress. What do they represent in you, and how can you change that wanting element inside for the better? Nature awaits you progress, evolution, and transformation. But you have to take the first decisive step. It is to recognize the contradiction for what it really is -- a beneficial complement that is key to your personal growth.
The True Nature of and
Resolution of Love and Hate and All Contradictions
Love and Hate are at bottom the same thing. At the
centre there is the same substance in both, it is the obverse and
reverse of the same stuff. It is a vibration; it is a unique vibration,
a vibration of extreme intensity, of extreme intimacy. At the centre,
there is this one single movement although at the periphery it becomes
different, even contradictory. As the movement starts from the centre,
and proceeds outward it differentiates itself, becomes more and more
different, contrary, even contradictory to what it was at its origin.
Human love and human hatred are
both perversions, falsified expressions of another truth behind. It is
human ignorance and prejudice that appreciates one and deprecates the
other. Yet both have the same root, the flowering of the same seed or it
is somewhat like the two opposite kinds of electricity
--
positive and negative. The two charges have opposite signs but they
attract each other and although in the expression and action they are
contradictory, they are both charges of electrical energy and therefore
substantially they are one and the same.
We may extend this viewpoint and find the
resolution of all contrariness and contradictoriness. Paradoxically one
may say then all contradictions are an apparent illusion, all
contradictions naturally and inevitably mean an inmost unity and
identity. Even so the Brahman and the world or the Purusha and the
Prakriti are apparent negations to each other, the duality is in the
ordinary ignorant consciousness, but the two are one in the supreme
indivisible consciousness. (The Mother)
Turning Contradiction into Complement
We can simply say that we have to turn the
contradiction we are immersed in into its complement. From a higher
view, it is already a complement. From our view, however, we have to see
the opposition as an opportunity for something greater to emerge. When
we do, then the perceived contradiction turns into a complement.
We do this by being more self-giving, more open to possibilities, more interested in another's point of view, by shedding wanting attitudes, by remaining calm and equal, etc. etc. It depends on the situation; though as a general movement, we can also certainly always raise these qualities in our lives to avoid the contradiction in the first place.
Evolution through Contradictory Complements
Life evolves through the conflicts between two parties,
who are trying to work out a higher harmony. This is the secret method
and way of Nature. E.g. the Mexican-US immigrant problem on their border
is indicative of Mexico's inability to overcome its poverty, which then
necessitates a crossing over of illegal immigrants the border to the US
to its riches, as well as the US intolerance, including its traditional
distain and insensitivity of nations near its borders to the south.
Nature pits these two forces at odds, so that each can grow into a
higher order and consciousness. Furthermore, it is only through
this conflicting pairing that each side can grow. It is the method of
Nature to higher levels of harmony through contradictory opposites,
which are from the deeper view of life really positive complementaries.
All around the world we see these contradictory complement pairs trying
to move from its current state of falsehood and limitation to a higher
status. It is Nature's Way of progress. (There is also a higher way
through the power of Spirit and Soul.)
Nature's Way
through Resolution of Disharmonies
Nature's profound method of progress is via the
duality of that which is now and that which can be better in the future.
In particular Nature progresses toward a higher order through the
resolution of disharmonies between opposites. The greater the
disharmonies of opposites, the greater the spur toward a higher order.
This is the method of Nature.
There is also an upward movement toward higher opposites; meaning the contradictions are of a less base quality, but of a higher quality; yet still there is contradiction.
The evolved human can find the Divine, and thus aid Nature in finding Her true God nature. Thus the evolved human can impact positively and greatly the movement of Nature to ever higher opposites [or perhaps no opposites at all; i.e. from truths to higher truths.]
Moving Beyond Our Contradictions with Others
At each point that you are upset with or
vehemently disagree with or otherwise are in conflict with
someone, you create a contradiction with that other individual
that blocks positive energy, and thus prevents positive
circumstance from taking shape. That contradiction and gap may
even be accompanied my fatigue, headache, poor sleep, and
serious illness. Conversely, at each point that you try to
bridge the gap and contradiction -- e.g. by giving up hostility
or dislike, overcome assertion and righteousness, and embrace
the other person's position -- you move to a higher plane, which
opens the doors to sudden good fortune.
For example, one man was having trouble with his computer printer, and therefore contacted technical support. He had been passed around on the call and now was in the hands of someone who he thought was too slow and deliberate, and ill informed. Though he was initially disturbed by the situation, he gave in and put his faith in the woman. As a result, she not only quickly resolved his problem, but several hours later the man was shocked to discover that a $400 referral fee he had earned had suddenly ballooned to an unexpected $4000! Because he bridged the gap by rising to a higher consciousness, the contradiction between he and the support person was resolved, and sudden good fortune quickly followed.
Then there was the case of a woman who had harsh feelings towards several of her co-workers. It turns out that she had been working at the company as a temp and was desperately looking for a full time job. At the very peak of the effort to improve her relationship with her co-workers, she received a most unexpected call from her manager informing her that due to her exemplary work, she had now been promoted from a temporary to a full-time employee, her first such position in ten years!
In life we often come in conflict with others -- whether a fellow worker, a boss, a spouse, or a friend. Nature has placed us in that position so that we can grow thorough the experience; so we can progress as individuals by overcoming the contradiction. We resolve it by raising our consciousness relative to that relationship and condition. At each point we move from assertion and irritation to openness, compliance, and calm, we generate positive energies that align with positive conditions that we experience as sudden good fortune. In essence, we move from the ego plane, which is a realm of limited possibilities, to the universal plane, where all our aspirations in life are fulfilled.
Example of How Contradiction Enables Further Refinement & Progress
In reference to the notion of the method of
contradiction; and how slavery brought out the further refinements of
progress in society:
In the US they are debating the issue of patents. One side favors legislation that will support large corporations and give them great patent power; the other supports the entrepreneur more. The first side argues that powerhouse companies like a Microsoft and Intel have greatly helped the society. The other side points to how entrepreneurs like a Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, and the young founders of Google have changed society. There is contradiction between 2 approaches to legislation. Can we say that the legislative process, or rather the debate over these two approaches in a democratic system, in which there is rational discussion, enables the further details and issues not seen in the first round to come out -- allowing further progress?
The choice is between the slow resolution through Nature (Prakriti) vs. the quicker, more integral and further revealing resolution through higher consciousness (i.e. Soul, Spirit, Purusha).
Perhaps the democratic process here is somewhat in between. I.e. an indicator of a powerful, but limited breaking out of Nature to Soul.
The Positive Value of the
Negative Person
As long as you avoid a bad person, your inner knowledge keeps the inner
ignorance at arm's length. Avoidance is austerity; acceptance is
prosperity. Ignorance does not transform into knowledge as long as we
avoid it or avoid the person in our life who represents that ignorance.
He is there for us to make a progress. When we make that progress,
mysteriously he vanishes. He tells us by his jealousy that there is
jealousy in us. We are not aware of it, or we are unwilling to concede
it. That is the positive value of a negative person. The moment we
recognise it and exhibit a willingness to give up the bad trait, that
man disappears. (MSS)
An example: Yes, a friend of mine had that precise experience.
She had an abusive boss, who for several years made life intolerable for her (and several others). She made the brave effort to look at it from the point of view of her own attitudes. She decided not be mad at him. In that sense, she was giving up her own limited sensitivities. Sometime later, he not only was nice to her, but after Christmas that year had left the company.
Nature's Way through Contradictions in Individuals
Nature's way is to create opposite pairs, such
as opposing and conflicting individuals, so that they can emerge into
higher harmonies. This is accomplished because each side knows what the
other needs to know, and it is in their interlocking relation can these
truths of higher nature emerge. We see this between the pairs of lovers,
who have perhaps married. They come together in one sense to overcome
their own limitations through the knowledge that the other secretly or
not so secretly has. The tragedy is that this long-lived and quite
obvious golden opportunity for progress is generally ignored by both
sides.
Consciousness, Contradiction, and Progress
When we evolve our consciousness, we enable conflict to turn into
progress.
Article: Seeing Beyond the Contradictions
Contradictions
are Complements
That is, that all things that seem to be in
conflict, opposition, depend on one another for the other's progress and
evolution. In fact, the progress of each side is buried in the
makeup, aspect, needs, destiny, and evolution of the other side. The
things that seem to conflict or contradict are really complements to
each other's progress. Thus contradictions are complements. This
principle applies between individuals, to an individual in a social
context, between social entities like businesses, between nations, and
so forth upwards to the earth and the cosmos itself.
Each party then is only able to change as a result of their conflicting or contradicting interaction with the other. The knowledge of what needed to be changed in each person could only be found in the interaction with the other person, in the knowledge of the other person, or in the truth of life that the other person has. So what on the surface we perceive as a negative contradiction and conflict between the two parties, is actually a complement unfolding and necessity to bring out their each of their own growth and development.
Overcoming the Knots of Contradiction - Example 1
We see the contradictions in the world that are secretly complements to
their growth. It is like two snakes tightly coiled around one another.
If one moves in the wrong direction, i.e. expresses its lower
consciousness, the other reacts by further tightening. They must learn
to change their ways, which will loosen the knot between them, even as
they foolishly believe that an aggressive action for their falsehood
will free them; but which really further tightens the noose. It is the
knot of their complementary contradiction.
We see this clearly between the Palestinians and the Israelis, when they each reinforce their falsehood, which tightens the knot between them. Each snake is strangle as the other one tightens, which strangles the original. When they move away from hate, the knot loosens.
This phenomenon can be seen in any aspect of life where there is contradiction and conflict between the two parties, which are secretly Nature's Way of complementary pairs so constituted to enable one another's growth that the other side (ironically) has insight into that the first side does not. One must awaken to the higher consciousness, which relives the tension between the opposing party, thereby enabling the knot to slip, which we can call the emergence of the higher harmonies out of their earlier contradiction.
Contradictions into Complements
We must make every situation that looks contradictory, and make it
complimentary.
Overcoming the Unique Contradiction of Who We Are
Every person is a contradiction waiting to become whole.
And each person is a unique contradiction,
whose greater success, progress, and happiness on life depends on
overcoming a unique set of wanting characteristics. In can even be said
that is the very reason we are individually here on earth: to overcome
the unique differential between who we are and what we can become; to
bridge the gap between our inner light and the darkness, in order to
create a higher Light. If we seek to overcome the dark elements inside,
we grow and evolve. If we don't, we fall back and regress. To the degree
we take to that inner adventure, we are alive and live dynamic lives. To
the degree we don't, we wither and die.
Consider the fact that the Soul has taken birth within us with its Own
aspiration to acquire something more on its own journey through space
and time. It aspires to learn that Something New through that the
individual it inhabits movement out of its particular contradiction
towards one's Higher Nature. When that person discovers what those
lacking elements are, the evolving Soul gains some unfathomable
sustenance it did not have before in its cosmic journey through space,
time, birth, death, and rebirth.
It is actually a two-way collaboration between the individual, who can
move out of his or her contradiction, and the evolving Soul, which seeks
subtle sustenance in its voyage in and out of creation. When we move
away from the surface of life to a deeper poise, we become more
conscious, mindful, and aware. When we go to the deepest place, to the
evolving Soul behind the heart, our consciousness develops the most. We
perceive our purpose; we discover becomes our Inner Guide, and we feel
connected to others, to the universe, and the transcendent Divine. The
Soul is then the ultimate touchstone of our growth, progress, and
evolution. And yet as we grow, we give the soul what it yearns for in
choosing this life, our life. It us a two-way collaboration and
fulfillment.
Holding Opposites in Our Mind to Know the
Whole Truth
It has been said recently that blacks in America
have substantial opportunities to rise, but have become complacent and
self-satisfied. If one is honest, one must see that this is true in the
current environment (2005). It is said by others that blacks in America
are being ignored by the society, indicating a virulent contempt and
callousness of the government and the people.
If one is honest, one must accept that this too is true. Then which is
it: one or the other? They appear to be contradictory beliefs.
Is it not possible that both are true, but that the human mind cannot hold these contradictory opposites together at once. The human mind, supported by a irrepressible negative vital/emotional being takes a side -- holding its one truth in opposition to all others, despite the wider understanding of the whole that includes all truths. This is unfortunately the way the mind of man functions. It is exclusive to all other possibilities other than its own. It takes one side out of a myriad of truths, and takes delight in REINFORCING its opinion whenever possible.
On the other hand, the person of higher consciousness moves out of the exclusivity of mind and embraces the full truth, whatever that might be; even, as in the example above, where the truths appear virtually opposite one another. The higher spiritualized mind embraces all truths because it seeks them; even what appears as contradictory opposites. In the lower consciousness, however, one is adamant about one's own position. In this world, all is divided existence, opposites opposing one another; me vs. you. In the higher consciousness, opposites, contradictions are complementaries, i.e. they work together to make a fuller, more whole, more integral truth. As man evolves, he will move to the spirit in mind that that can hold all truths, including contradictory ones. Then he will take a big leap on the road to his further evolution and transformation.
We can begin that process by moving to our deeper consciousness within, away from the surface bubblings, to silence; and then deeper still to the evolving soul. There one sees beyond the contradictions, embracing all sides, seeing to the True Truth that lie beyond the surface view. From there, all decisions made will be great ones, that inevitably benefits all.
Untitled
The greater the disharmonies of opposites in nature, the greater the
spur toward a higher more evolved order.
Movement Towards Higher Opposites
There is an upward movement from lower opposites toward "higher"
opposites.
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The course of events, which we can call Nature, when they want to
precipitate a result, elude all other initiatives, e.g. by individuals,
and follow its own course.
Untitled
Bad men confront other bad men so Nature
can turn them into good men. It is the same for each of us, when that
part of us which is limited and negative confronts another individual
with his own dark spots. Limitation serves here the role of badness
there.
Conflict Magnifies Issue
It is quite striking how conflict
between two sides or entities in life magnifies, clarifies, solidifies
issues that would ordinarily remain hidden from view. It moves the
issue, problems, new emergences from our unconsciousness to our
conscious awareness; from our sleep state to an awake state. One only
needs to observer the emerging national or international news to
perceive this phenomenon.
Truth Clarified Through Arrogant Stupidity
Life will periodically need a person of arrogant stupidity to say the
wrong things in order to be rebutted by individuals expressing a fuller,
shining truth that is clarified and amplified for a greater listening
audience to comprehend. It is Nature's peculiar and ironic way.
Contradiction Energizes, Brings an Issue into
Focus
You are an observer of two sides debating an issue. You accurately
perceive that one side is obviously far closer to the truth than the
other. And yet you remain calm and detached from your emotion to take a
side, as you realize that the very fact of this debate raises the issue
to a greater level of intensity and focus for public scrutiny. Without
the conflict and contradiction, the issue might remain buried in
society's subconscious.
Contradictions Become Complements; Through a Conscious
Individual Can Resolve in Higher Harmonies
When there are contradictions between two forces, entities, situation,
people, etc. the opposing entity knows the truth that the other side
lacks. It is thus only in their interaction in conflict and
contradiction that the other side discovers its missing truth. Also, it
is through this process that Nature evolves into higher harmonies.
Ultimately as we become more fully conscious beings, we perceive the
higher harmonies breaking out of the contradictions; we perceive the
resolutions of the contradictions in higher harmonies that are at the
next round of progress.
Beyond Division and Contradiction to Higher
Resolutions in Life
On the surface of life there is endless conflict,
strife, and suffering. This is the way our normal consciousness sees the
world. It sees through division and contradiction. However, when we move
to a deeper consciousness, it reverses. Division becomes Oneness; i.e.
those forces that are divided from one another actually share a deeper
purpose that binds them in oneness. From that deeper consciousness, we
also see that contradictions become complements. I.e. forces that appear
in opposition are at a deeper level complementary to one another; even
necessary to one another's progress.
This might sound like mere philosophy, but from a deeper perspective, it is the most profound and practical of truths. For example, we see two nations at war, or two families quarrelling, or two individuals at loggerheads. At their soul level, where their true selves lie, they are bound in unity. Only their egos, operating at the surface, bind them in division and strife. If they were to instead go deeper within, they would find a common interest -- a means of resolving the surface problem through an overriding higher possibility and solution. If we choose to go into the depths, away from ego that separates us, we will find that higher harmony and resolution overcomes our division and conflicts.
Likewise, when we move to a deeper consciousness, we see that the conflict we thought we were having with another is really indicating that we share a hidden complementary relationship with them. That it is only through that relationship with them that we can each can grow and progress to the next emerging level. Since it is only through the interaction with my adversary that my own faults show themselves, that other party is then a complement and agent for my own personal growth! Or, to put it another way; it is only in our mutual conflict that we can bring a wider possibility that will benefit both parties.
Why then do we perceive the division and contradiction, not the oneness and complementary nature of our relationships? It is because of the limitations of our minds --which cannot see the whole truth of any subject, inquiry, or matter, but only the part. And the part Mind sees is often only the part that the ego reinforces. When I am in conflict with another, my Mind only perceives the conflict, which is only a part of a much wider truth, and wholeness of possibilities. Also, the part Mind sees is that part that satisfies the ego. The ego looks out for its own interest, at the expense of the interests of others, the environment -- i.e. of the whole truth of things.
This might still sound like philosophy. However, as one moves out of the part-view into the whole truth of any situation -- conflicting or not -- then one begins to perceive the full integral knowledge of the conditions of life in any moment. It will strike us as a Marvel. Also when we come out of our ego, move from selfishness to selflessness and self-givingness, we will break the impasses we have with another party. Division and contradiction will begin to turn into harmony of purpose, even as we perceive our complementary association. Then new solutions will reveal themselves from all quarters. The limited, finite world steeped in conflict will burst forth with infinite possibilities coming from this new harmonic perspective. We will then together with our once-adversarial partner stand before entirely new possibilities for progress and accomplishment. That discovery will in turn itself release a deep abiding joy within.
America: Embracing the Other Side of the Coin
Life appears as opposites; hot and cold, night and day; truth and falsehood good and evil, to name a few. Mind normally prefers one side over the other -- e.g. beauty over ugliness. But life is not so simple, as these opposites are in truth complementary pairs; i.e. they need one another. We however prefer the side that meets our preference, opinions, and beliefs.
One of the great dualities, which are really complementary pairs
is freedom and cooperation. In America, we enjoy our freedom;
cooperation is secondary. And yet we cannot have true freedom
unless we learn to live together. In Asia, cooperation is
paramount; and yet how can one collaborate if one is not free to
express one's true individual position in life.
To be successful in life, we must understand and embrace all
sides of an issue, including the pairs of opposites, as well as
the shadings between the two. The South Korean flag's Yin-Yang
symbol indicates the unity and integration between the two. It
is a deep value worth embracing.
After great economic expansion during the Gilded Age of the 19th
century, America experienced the great depression. After decades
of unbridled material-based individuality, the reality of lack
of cooperation reared its ugly head. Unfettered speculation and
greed ushered in an era of unprecedented poverty in America.
Material-oriented Individuality had gone too far, as all efforts
too create rules and regulations -- a direct implementation of
the value of cooperation and harmony -- was ignored. The US
pulled itself out of its misery through WWII, itself caused by a
lack of cohesiveness amongst the nations of Europe before that
conflagration.
Sixty years later America forgot all of those events and lessons
to be learned and embarked on unfettered material-oriented
individuality again. After the Cold War, it saw no need to
cooperate with other nations, hence the disastrous Iraq war, and
saw no need to put in place regulation for economic control and
development. Hence the current financial crisis that threatens
the very makeup of the free-market system. In America, a
reactionary conservative philosophy that sees government as
evil, rather than the complementary force she is has led the
country once again down the road of excess individuality at the
expense of the harmony and well-being of its people. In the
absence of self-control and limited values, life has moved
forward and pressed upon the nation the importance of
cooperation. If Man won't move in the direction of truth, Nature
will. And that means suffering and pain.
America was founded on the premise of individuality and freedom. Instead of true individuality, it has embarked on unfettered economic liberty. That translates that in the field of economics we do not want any chains on us; no watchdog organizations to observe us; no government regulation. We want to do as we please. But life cannot succeed unless the other side of the coin -- cooperation -- is adopted. Though at first perceived as opposites, Freedom and Cooperation are in the end complements of one another; that depend on one another for overall success in life.
Outgrowing Group Negativity
When friends and associates gather and mock those
who are weak, infirm, or vulnerable, it is an indicator of their own
common insensibility. It is part of why Nature has brought them
together; to outgrow it.
Negative Compels Positive
It is interesting to observe how a negative force will coerce and compel
a more positive force to further evolve.
Positive in Negative, Negative in Positive in
History, Events
What if the native people for all their awareness DID have a
level of savagery which was overcome by conquerors from more cultured
lands, who themselves were intolerant of their wisdom and unique
aspiring culture as they oppressed, and were thus more evil than their
victims and subjects. From our normal perspective we tend to choose one
side or the other in judging history or current events. Instead we
can see that such conflicts and contradictions are the meeting of two
forces brought together by Nature to overcome their own unique negative
propensities over time. In this way we can be aware of the positive in
the negative, and the negative in the positive, which enables us to see
the deeper truths emerging.
Seeing Negative as Cause of Positive
People are slowly beginning to see how the negatives
society encounters enable it to progress. This is Nature's Way, the
somewhat drunken-like instrument of the Force. E.g. food prices go down
for consumers as a result of accounting scandals involving the food
packagers, who were forced to change their ways that benefit the
consumer. This is not the optimal method for development, which would be
through decision makers' positive conscious choice, but it is
Nature's slow, circumlocutious way, which still achieves in the end.
What is now refreshing is the awareness of individuals, such as pundits
and columnists, of this relationship of the negative to the positive.
Interestingly, the recognition of Nature's difficult route can be the
steppingstone that compels us to adopt the more positive, conscious
methods towards very rapid, abundant development in society.
ARTICLE: Organization Of Life
The deepest insights into how Nature, Life is truly
organized.
How is
Life Organized?
What are
the subtle ways that life functions. A vast insight into the hidden
forces and powers of life is revealed here.
Untitled
The British unified the US and then
India by their exploitation. Looking for resources and markets, she
unconsciously instigated freedom. Likewise Nature shapes our own
individual lives, evolves our being slowly or quickly over time in ways
we are unconscious of.
Also See Seeing Beyond the Positive and Negative
Nature's Efficiency
(She Works on Many
Fronts at Once)
(main)
Nature Works on Many Fronts Simultaneously
Nature works on many fronts simultaneously. E.g.
through one incident there can be changes and progress for a number of
individuals, each in their own way. The same in events and participants
in events in the world.
Nature's
Conscious Efficiency
Nature is conscious. She has no waste. She attempts simultaneously many
things and completes all of them at the same time. Therefore the
efficiency of Nature is maximal. (MSS)
Nature's Good and Fortune Comes in Bunches
Whatever happens - good or bad - does not happen singly. It comes in
bunches, in quick succession as if Fortune in determined to make one
lucky. Sri Aurobindo explains this phenomenon as absence of waste in
Nature. Nature, He says works on several things at once, which appear
as waste to us. But the work of Nature is occult to our naked eyes.
When the time comes, we see one item is completed. That is followed by
all the other items of work Nature was working on. He who invokes the
Spirit can witness that phenomenon in his life. A lady celebrated two
weddings for two of her daughters, raised her income fivefold, and sent
both the daughters to USA, all in about a year. (MSS)
Nature Works on Many Fronts Simultaneously
Nature works on many fronts simultaneously. I.e. it
seeks to accomplish several things -- even matters that seem to
contradict one another -- through one central circumstance. Take the
Tibet situation. Most of us are aware of China's tyranny that began in
1958 when she drove out the Dalai Lama and killed perhaps millions. Yet
for all of China's heavy-handedness, Tibetan culture and its Buddhism in
particular there had become crusted over and outdated. By being pushed
into India the young Dalai Lama initiated revolutionary change in its
teachings, embracing the modern way, which has very much changed the
nature of that culture. Had China not oppressed the Tibetans, it might
have taken centuries if ever for this progressive change to take place.
And, of course, China too is being taken to task for its continued
oppression of the Tibetans at a time it is economically and culturally
emerging in the world. It too is being forced to change in the
bright light of public opinion.
Nature Works on Many Fronts Simultaneously
During and after the recent world famous "balloon boy" episode where a helium filled, flying saucer-shaped inflatable traversed 90 miles over the flats in front of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, USA, there were many and very diverse reactions. Some felt outraged that a father would allow his very young sons to participate in these sorts of experiments. Others felt bamboozled the child was not aboard after the media was stirred into a frenzy about the possibility. Others still were disturbed by the intense amount of coverage it was given during and after the incident.
Like all events in life, it indicates that multiple change -- and progress -- is occurring at multiple levels at the very same time though common circumstance. The father was seen crying after as he realized that his child had been missing. He understood that his mentoring of his children needed improvements, and he had put them at risk here and in the past. The media realized that it had been made to look like fools as its members acted like a herd following the story when the child was never in the balloon to begin with. Viewers were bothered when they realized that they had been preoccupied by a bunch of nothing. Family viewers see the obsession a family's obsession with science and thrill seeking. Other families see an invigorated family that work together to do something unique, unlike their own family. And so forth, ad infinitum.
Nature Embraces All
Nature seeks the spiritual progress of man, but does so
slowly; is willing to go to and embrace the low, the false, the
negative; meandering here and there, to call all to join the crusade in
her march toward higher harmony and truth in life.
(MSS)
Nature's Efficiency: Strategy of Nature that
Brings Multiple Good Events
-In life, there does exist a phenomenon when one good event triggers all
good happenings. Sri Aurobindo calls this the strategy of Nature in
whose process there is no waste at all.
-Nature has a wider view aiming at a wider fulfillment. Nature deals with forces not individually, but at the point where all the strands meet. It is like a government inaugurating a multi-pronged project through several departments. Apparently, the work of one department stands out and others are not seen. The other departments have to hold their projects in suspense in favour of one. But all the time, work goes on in all the projects unseen. On the appointed day one department announces its completion. It is followed by every other department's project, just like a fairy tale. (MSS)
[It is Nature's remarkable efficiency, which we can observe in literature and in life.]
Efficiency of Nature
The yoga of the earth is done by the work of Nature -- with no
waste. (MSS)
[No waste means that she can enable many
things relate to one another all to progress at the same time.
It is the ultimate efficiency of Nature. It is still a slow and
painful way compared to progress through Soul/Spirit.]
There are many principles that describe the subtle, profound workings of life, though we are aware of very few. Perhaps the law of karma or 'what you sow is what you reap' is the closest we come to perceiving a law of life in effect. Even there it is vague for the overwhelming majority of people.
However, over the years, several colleagues and I have tried to organize a set of life principles based on the teachings of Indian seer and sage Sri Aurobindo. Beginning with the highest level of Reality, he revealed a series of universal laws that explain the process by which the universe emerged from a Divine source, and how life in the cosmos, including the life of man, intersects with and is affected by those laws. Most of these cosmic principles are captured in his great work The Life Divine. It has been up to individuals like ourselves to take those First principles and interpret them in terms that are identifiable in the life of the collective (i.e. society, business, etc.) and the individual. It takes a subtle eye and the right contextual knowledge to perceive these profound principles at work. However, with the Master's original insights and the pioneering work of Mother's Service Society (MSS), that task has been considerable eased.
Perhaps the widest universal principle is the notion that life itself has a character -- just as you and I have one. There are then in turn dozens if not hundreds of sub principles -- both material and subtle -- that describe the many dimensions of life's character.
The argument could be made that we already have principles in place that describe the unfoldings of life in the universe. True enough, but those are mostly at the material level -- i.e. they are laws of life based on empirically quantifiable physical properties; which in essence leaves out all other planes of existence -- including the vital/emotional, social, psychological, mental, occult, metaphysical, spiritual, etc. It is like trying to understand the motives of an individual by watching his gait as he walks. It is merely a superficial view of things. While science has provided an understanding of the material process and principles, the non-material ones -- which is 90% or more of the processes in life -- remain unknown to the general public; even to the experts in their respective fields of sociology, psychology, history, social development, etc. It is a revelation of knowledge that awaits us in the 21st century. From that perspective, existing 20th century knowledge of what truly determines in life and brings about outcomes that unfold before us will seem stilted and shallow.
If life unfolds in these subtle ways that defy our normal perceptions, what is an example of a principle? The one I would like to suggest here relates to the functioning of 'Nature.' Nature is in essence the way life unfolds in the universe. The principle then is this: that 'Nature works on many fronts simultaneously.' This means that when a life event unfolds, many parties are affected in different ways, enabling progress for each through a singularity. Furthermore, Nature is somehow 'aware' that it can enable progress on multiple fronts through a common event -- such as a major great development, catharsis, or upheaval. The reason Nature can elicit progress on multiple fronts simultaneously is that it is 'conscious' at some level of its being. It is conscious of its workings because behind its own internal 'knowledge' there is the determination, influence, sanction, and support of an underlying Divine Intention. Nature is in that sense is an instrument of the Divine Will, which unfolds and progress on multiple fronts simultaneously through these shared singularities.
An example will illustrate. A teacher arrives at a 2-day class to teach several students features of a software application. In the course of the classes, he recognizes that all is going awry. He sees many causes that have led to the current situation. He even notes his own irritability and weakened nerves in the unfolding of this difficult singularity. Eventually the situation comes to a head, and the instructor cancels the class because he believes it has gotten completely out of hand. Many people are upset, including the trainer, the students, the people in the company who arranged the class at the company, the agent of the trainer, and so forth. Each, in fact, managed to foul up in ways that contributed to the disaster. Each misstep is in turn related to a limitation in character or capacity of that person or related system.
Now each major individual involved in the episode is forced or even shocked into confronting his own responsibility in bringing about the unfortunate event. Each is compelled to examine his or her own self to discover where they had failed in the process. It is usually indicative not only of a small problem in the procedures of that event, but of a significant limitation of character of that individual. The defect ranges from a limited skill, or missing knowledge, all the way to a profound psychological weakness and limitation, such as a negative attitude, a false belief, an inscrutable motive, etc. From there each person decides to make the necessary inner and outer change to the degree he is compelled to do so. Those who take to change, invariably bring about their own progress. Those who let it slide will normally have to go through a similar-type episode again in their lives. In other words, each person will progress to the degree he is open to do so. The collective effect is the awesome power that Nature brings to enable multi-faceted change around a shared singularity.
For example, the teacher realizes that he has been too stressed during recent classes, and takes actions thereafter to rectify the source of that problem. The person in charge of the group of students in attendance realizes that she was too disorganized to establish the right agenda beforehand. The members of the training department at the facility realize that their procedures for such a one-time training event, as was the case here, is faulty. And the agent of the instructor realizes that the procedures to handle such situations need improvement.
In each case, an individual learns something about himself or the procedures of his job through the singularity that Nature has issued forth as an event. That generates a pressure to make a certain level of change. That change is essence what we know as 'progress.' Thus, due to the difficult situation, each is forced by life -- i.e. Nature -- to make the necessary corresponding change. It is interesting to note that there was in essence only one event that caused many to change -- each in their own unique way. Thus, Nature, through a single event works on many fronts simultaneously to bring about creative, integral, many-faceted change for the parts as well as for a wider whole.
This principles of life can be seen everywhere. It is especially noticeable when such things as scandals or wars or other forms of upheaval take place. It brings out the need for simultaneous change to rectify problems raised by that singularity. Life progressing on many fronts simultaneously through a single, shared event or circumstance is Nature's stupendous, miraculous-like Efficiency. The vast Tsunami that rippled through the Asian pacific is an example, and the fallout in produced and the pressure it brought to bear across a thousand domains -- from economics to politics to social life across a myriad of nations -- is one example. So was World War II. As a result of the vast pressures of the war, not only was Europe organized into a union thereafter (EU), but a tottering British Empire also collapsed. Even the great depression in America finally came to an end as a result of the jobs generated and the production needed to meet the demands of war. In a similar fashion, we can examine recent circumstances after 9/11 to see similar multifaceted change brought about by a single event. It does not only occur at the national or international level, but at the local or group level as we saw in the training episode above. It also happens at the individual level when something very trying, extremely difficult, or even tragic forces that person to change at several levels of his being simultaneously. E.g., an illness can cause a person to strengthen his body, reevaluate his lifestyle, alter his beliefs, and even look at his life overall in an entirely different light. Life itself can thus be thought of as a vast unfolding at all of these levels --- collective and individual -- bringing about change through this startling Efficiency of Nature.
As I suggested earlier, Nature is ultimately an instrument of some Divine intent. If that is so, then one question naturally arises. Does the Divine wish to bring about progress -- even simultaneous efficient progress -- only through difficulty? The answer is that we can also progress though positive means.
The positive means is the way of the Good, i.e. through a self-existent positive unfolding that knows no negative side. Can something unfold that is void of negative elements? Let us take a step back and examine the issue. The sage and seer perceive that Life actually divides into both Nature and Soul -- i.e. they are two methods of the unfolding of life, of progress. In the lower consciousness, life unfolds through the slow and difficult methods of Nature. In the higher consciousness, it evolves through Soul, which is in essence the higher consciousness infused with the higher values and expressions of the Spirit. Developments from the poise of this higher consciousness and Good tend not to release negative consequences. This is another, even higher principle of life -- i.e. of existence in the universe that emerged from a Divine source.
The key then is to take to the methods of higher consciousness in our lives that brings about the Good that is devoid of the negative. Interestingly enough, life can progress simultaneously on multiple positive fronts as well. For example, if I call to the Spirit before engaging in an activity or become self-giving in a critical situation or reverse a negative attitude in a moment of crisis, I generate energies that not only attract better conditions for myself, but can also produce positive results for others as well. In this way life progresses on many fronts -- individual or collective -- through the movements of the Positive. It is an indicator that we have freed ourselves from Nature's difficult course; that we have taken up the way of the Good, of Soul, of an evolving consciousness. It is the way of progress of tomorrow; an indicator that we are on the threshold of a New Way of Living.
Nature Enables Greater
Complexity
(main)
Nature
Nature is a movement towards ever higher, more complex
harmonies. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)
Untitled
Nature solves problems in life by creating greater
complexities.
Nature Embraces All
Nature seeks the spiritual progress of man, but does so
slowly; is willing to go to and embrace the low, the false, the
negative; meandering here and there, to call all to join the crusade in
her march toward higher harmony and truth in life.
(MSS)
Nature and Time
Nature functions in Time and her movements wait
for the right time. (MSS)
Nature and Truth of Things
It is interesting how Nature holds back the Truth of things until the
right time to create the maximum effect.
Nature and the March of Civilization
(main)
Civilization and the Overcoming of Nature
What we call civilisation now is entirely because of human effort
to overcome Nature's movements. (MSS)
Nature Unfolding in Parts Throughout the World
Nature does not work for progress in all fronts at all places
simultaneously. Nature herself is a partial force. Soul and Nature
together make for the whole. Nature is a part. A partial force cannot
work for total progress. Hence Nature has decided to develop emotion in
Asia and mind in Europe. (MSS)
Nature's Purpose through Europe and the US
Nature works at different points at different times guided by her own
Purpose. Towards that end Nature employs the attitudes exhibited by
different faculties. Science was developed in Europe which was proud of
its scientific culture. Pride stands in the way of further development.
So, Nature moved away from the self-sufficient Europe to develop
further. The next step is not so much Science as scientific technology.
Nature chose a humble population of the USA for that purpose. (MSS)
Nature's Development in the Parts of the World
Nature has developed emotions in Asia, spirituality in Asia,
Science in Europe and practical organisation in USA while she left
Africa to develop to full physicality. (MSS)
Civilization and the Overcoming of Nature
What we call civilisation now is entirely because of human effort
to overcome Nature's movements. (MSS) [Then
civilization is then perhaps a manifestation of Soul (Purusha)?]
Nature's Mission Unfolds through the Humble
Luck comes to the humble; who believe they do not deserve it. Luck
expressed in ancient times in India, then as science in Europe, but
moved away because of its pride and then found technology and science in
a more humble America. Now it can move to India to complete it spiritual
mission if there is spiritual humility developed there away from
superstition. (MSS)
Nature Purges Our Lower Nature, Our "Physicality"
(i.e. the low physical consciousness)
(main)
Nature Purges
Man's Physicality
Man's lowest consciousness is expressed in his physical
consciousness, aka his "physicality." That physicality expresses not
only as brutality, but as unconsciousness, inertia, unwillingness to
change, anachronistic tendencies, inflexibility, lack of tolerance and
openness, a material only view of the world, expression of ego,
ritualistic religion, etc. Nature breaks the physicality of nations when
those peoples experience natural disaster, when the nation is attacked
by another, and in other ways. Nature, as an instrument of a Higher
Consciousness (the Spirit), enables that people to progress to a higher
consciousness through such negative means. The same occurs for
individuals, through the difficulties of life. A higher approach to
progress is through conscious self-awareness, through rationality and
spirit. the progress of man through Soul instead of the difficult path
of Nature is the future that awaits man.
Nature Pounds the Physical Consciousness Out
of Peoples
Often when nations suffer great difficulty and
tragedy it is Nature willfully driving out their Physical
consciousness. That consciousness shows itself in that people's
tendency towards any of anachronism, inertia, brutality,
violence, harmful religion, ritual, insularity, indifference,
materiality, etc. Nature uses physical disaster, war, and
disease until the people move out of their physical
consciousness to a higher vital or mental consciousness. In this
sense Nature serves a great purpose. It would be better however
if people can evolve by self-consciously moving out of their
physical consciousness.
Untitled
Allowing Nature to seek her way is physical.
Conscious development of the way is mental, and beyond to the spirit.
Nature, Mother Nature, and Purging of
Physical Consciousness
via Natural Disaster
By Nature's difficult way (Prakriti), I am referring to the nature of
Life, not Mother Nature as in the physical forms of creation including
the movements of the earth as in earthquake. It is important to see the
distinction.
Mother Nature is a subset of Nature. It is it at the material level, not at the level of Life (which is energy, interaction, emotions, associations between people, one's psychological state, the status of society, etc.)
Earthquake usually indicates a conflict in society, as between Tibet and China (now), Pakistan internally (between vying forces) several years back, and in Iran during the rise of sectarianism in late 1970s, etc. etc. The dualistic, dark energies become synchronous with the disturbances in the physical environment. One could see it also in the quake that triggered the Tsunami, even in the countries affected by the Tsunami. It is Nature's way of overcoming the low, limiting, physical consciousness of the vying parties through Mother Nature.
See thoughts on breaking the reigns of the physical consciousness of Man
Overcoming Nature's Way through Our Higher
Consciousness (and Connecting to One's
Soul)
(main)
From Nature to Soul
through Higher Consciousness
When we grow in
consciousness, we move from Nature's (Prakriti) slow and
difficult way of progress (through resolution of contradictory
opposites) to that of Soul (Purusha).
Human Soul Progress
and Movement to Universal Soul
When we come in touch
with our very deepest consciousness that is there in our own
evolving soul we help the universe move from its status of
progress through Nature's slow and difficult way to that of
Soul, which is progress through the positive side alone.
The Personal
Evolving Soul that Takes us Beyond Nature
Soul exists in Life, though it is dominated by
Nature. Man can come to know soul and spirit. It is also
embedded in him, in the very essence of his being. It is
the personal evolving soul, the psychic being. When man comes in
touch with it, he moves to Soul, his own and that of creation,
overcoming the slow, difficult, and painful way of Nature.
From Nature to Soul through Our Higher Consciousness
Q: Is there anything in this
universe in which soul is not present?
A: Sri Aurobindo tells us that life in the universe divides into Nature and Soul (Prakriti and Purusha). Both enable forms of progress; the latter slowly and difficultly, through sanctioned by the Divine; the latter, the better way, through higher consciousness. (There is no dark side when we progress through Soul/Spirit; i.e. it is self-existent.)
When we are in touch with our own evolving Souls, then we move to action in life through (universal) Soul. When we live on the surface, in ego, lower mind, time, we progress through Nature's Slow and Difficult method. We give strength to universal Nature.
Perhaps we can say that Nature/Prakriti is the surface universal, but behind it is Soul/Purusha. Then we can conclude that through us Life in the universe itself is evolving from Nature to Soul, becoming the prime means of cosmic progress. When we touch our own Soul, we enable this universal progress; we strengthen the Soul behind Nature in the universe to come out.
We can conclude that behind everything in all planes -- physical, vital, and mental -- is Soul. Through our elevation of consciousness, we are able to bring it from its involved status to the surface so it can fully express in life. Connecting to our evolving souls within, we open to the higher spheres and in the process bring the Spirit or Soul of anything to the surface.
There is even soul in inanimate objects. We can call to it and bring out the essence of that thing, which will cause it to cooperate with us; moving from its finite to infinite potential. We can take the same approach with every thought we have, every circumstance we encounter, every physical movement by elevating them. I.e. through soul connection and reference to Spirit, we can bring out the highest qualities of those things. The easier approach to do that is to open to the divine Mother before these acts or circumstance, which will bring the Essence and Infinite out of it.
Eventually over time through such consecrated action, we forge an ever-deepening relationship with the evolving soul within. In that process, we move Life from Nature to Soul; Prakriti to Purusha.
Enabling Soul by Withdrawing from Nature
In life Purusha [Soul] becomes free when we draw
back from Nature (Prakriti).
(MSS)
Progress and
Evolution through Nature and Soul/Spirit
-Life normally unfolds through the compulsion of Nature. Nature's method
of unfolding is an expression of the will of the Divine Spirit.
-The Divine also can unfold through Spirit/Soul.
-Nature unfolds slowly, in its own time, therefore painfully through conflict, division, and duality
-Nature is very efficient in that it can accomplish multiple purposes simultaneously.
-The development and progress of civilization has overcome the slow movements of Nature, quickening evolution. It is a reflection of evolution through an ever-increasing consciousness, particularly of the development of mind in society. Thus, Evolution of consciousness through mind, and one day through Spirit, evolves life more quickly than Nature slow and painful methods.
-Progress of life through Nature occurs not only slowly, but painfully through contradictory opposites. E.g. two sides of a conflict, debate, or other contradiction can only progress through the other side in the contradiction. They need one another for their progress, as each side knows what the other is ignorant of. (This is the theory of "contradictions are complements.")
-As we bring in our higher consciousness, life evolves more through Soul/Spirit instead of the slow painful ways of Nature. Time is sped up, abundance increased, pain and suffering eased, as life moves to ever-higher forms of progress and harmony through our higher consciousness, culminating in spirit.
-Soul/spirit can one day replace Nature as the method of evolution on earth. It will be a painless, infinite, joyful, straight movement to ever higher harmonies and ultimate fulfillment.
-As we evolve our consciousness, as we connect to our own inner being, including our personal evolving soul, our True Self, we enable the progress and evolution of life on earth through Soul/Spirit. We overcome Nature's slow and painful method.
Nature's Soul
and the Psychic Being
Nature has a
Soul. It is the evolving soul emerging in the Psychic Being of Man.
(MSS)
Nature Moving and the Evolving
Spirit
Nature does not move by itself. Nature
moves, says the tradition, by the sanction of the Silent Purusha behind.
We hear from Sri Aurobindo a different strain. Sri Aurobindo reminds us
of the Upanishadic formula 'Sarvam Brahman'. Nature too is Brahman, says
He. Also nothing in this universe can exist without the Spirit, the
Purusha or the Being. Therefore, Nature exists by the Spirit inherent in
it. When Nature moves, the Spirit in it evolves. Sri Aurobindo calls it
the evolving spirit [in us], the Psychic Being.
(MSS)
Nature Moving and the Evolving
Spirit
Nature does not move by itself. Nature
moves, says the tradition, by the sanction of the Silent Purusha behind.
We hear from Sri Aurobindo a different strain. Sri Aurobindo reminds us
of the Upanishadic formula 'Sarvam Brahman'. Nature too is Brahman, says
He. Also nothing in this universe can exist without the Spirit, the
Purusha or the Being. Therefore, Nature exists by the Spirit inherent in
it. When Nature moves, the Spirit in it evolves. Sri Aurobindo calls it
the evolving spirit [in us], the Psychic Being.
(MSS)
Nature, Consciousness and Force
When the being became aware of its existence,
Consciousness was born. By being conscious that Being emanated a Force.
the Consciousness and Force were one. In the process of creation, the
Consciousness and Force were divided, and eventually the former
disappeared in the forms of creation. Nature, the way of normal life,
expresses that force of consciousness without the consciousness itself.
Involved in it is that consciousness. When we move from Nature to Soul,
we overcome division and duality, and bring out the consciousness in the
force.
Life Progresses Mainly through
the Dualities of Nature
Life normally progresses through the movement of
Nature. Nature is an unevolved form of the Spirit that accomplishes
through division, duality, and pain. It is the way life normally evolves
on earth. There have been are exceptions, reflecting progress through
higher forms of consciousness. As man rises in consciousness, life will
evolve more and more by the harmony, unity, and oneness of Soul than by
the conflicts of Nature. And despite these limited qualities of Nature,
She has the sanction of the transcendent Divine. The Divine ultimately
"aspires" for evolution through Soul instead of Nature, meaning that the
Spirit ultimately years for the conscious evolution of us as
individuals.
Nature, Soul, and
Evolution
-From a Spiritual Being, energy
at rest emerges. That is the basis of life. (Forms in he
universe take shape in life from this Energy.)
-Life divides into Nature and Soul. (Nature is known as Prakriti in the East. Soul is known as Purusha.)
-Nature expresses the force only if the Spirit/Being; whereas Soul expresses the essence of the Spirit/Being. Nature is Force. Soul is of the Being. Nature is energy, force apart from consciousness.
-Nature is not Being/Soul, though it is a power of Being/Soul.
-Soul is energy, force united with consciousness, a reflection of the Divine reality.
-Life can evolve through Nature or Soul.
-Most of the time life evolves through Nature.
-Life evolves primarily through the division, duality, contradiction, suffering, and pain of Nature slow method.
-Though Nature evolves through division, duality, and suffering, it still has the sanction of the spiritual Being. (The Being perceives that Nature must function and be because life is still unevolved.)
-As man evolves, life will evolve more and more through Soul, through the soul that is in man.
-Nature is conscious. She knows no waste, and thus accomplishes many things at once.
-Nature enables every higher, more complex forms of harmony. Nature solves problems in life by creating greater complexities. Nature resolves the contradictions of life in multiple instances simultaneously, by creating higher harmonies.
-The emergence of civilization for one (Such as the Renaissance), and other evolutionary movements are attempts to overcome the slow, difficult methods of Nature. They are movements of Soul, the fact of which is subconscious to the society.
-Life was created in division and duality, but through Nature to begin with, and eventually through Soul -- through the inner growth and soul connection of individuals -- will reach its ultimate potential and perfection.
Nature vs. Spirit's Way
to Overcome Problems, Knots of the Past
Unless one consciously digs them up and holds them
up to the descending Light, the problems and knots of the past have to
undo themselves by the negative impact of life events. This is Nature's
way.
The spiritually conscious approach, is
preferable, in terms of greater speed, joy, and great results, undoing
the burdens of the past ways. (Paraphrase of MSS)
Suffering of Nature vs. Being in the Evolving
Soul
Life is in Prakriti, Nature, where there is no soul. The
Soul is behind as witness. Hence suffering, pain, and death are in life.
Yogic life is not in Prakriti. It is in the evolving soul, the Psychic Being. There is no suffering, pain or death. (MSS)
Consciousness, Contradiction, and Progress
When we evolve our consciousness, we enable conflict to
turn into progress.
Moving from Our Lower to Our Higher Nature
We live for the most part in a lower consciousness, for the most part still tethered to a lower animal existence, far from our potential higher nature which could open to and embody these ultimate divine powers.
We are blinded and deceived by our lower nature. We are lost in the fog, inertia, inconscience of a lower consciousness. We live for personal power, for food, for pleasure, for desire, for attachment, for our ego, and predominantly for our own self-interest. We are self-centered and very selfish. Unfortunately, we know no other ways, save for the small moral or religious sense we are provided to keep us on the straight and narrow. There is no objectivity, no true thinking, no sense of an inner way; no or little understanding of the purpose of our existence, or the infinite potentials of life.
When we discover our higher nature, when we discover our greater self, there is great discovery. Great discovery produces great delight and joy of being. So, as we discover our higher nature, we experience ever increasing delight and joy of being.
The common way we evolve is by Nature forcing us to evolve. That's a productive way in that Nature does accomplish what it set out to do, which is to enable the forms that are in the universe, the individuals and the society to progress and evolve. And yet Nature's Way is a slow and painful way, with growth and progress coming through contradiction, conflict, division, and duality. Instead, we can progress, grow, and evolve by becoming more conscious. We can replace Nature's slow method of progress of contradiction and conflict to a rapid method of progress to even greater harmonies through our higher consciousness.
Nature's vs. Self-Directed Tapas
The Sanskrit word "Tapas"
roughly translates as
"spiritual discipline."
For a yogi,
it might
involve lengthy
meditation to
connect with the Spirit.
For an individual
dedicated to personal
growth, it might
entail learning
to be calm in the face
of an abusive boss. The
intention in both cases
is an evolution of
consciousness through
inner discipline.
There is also the tapas that life forces us into. It is Nature compelling us to take to a certain inner or outer tact to overcome a limitation and bring about our individual progress. In Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Bennet, the father of five daughters, is forced by life into the discipline of not reacting to his vulgar, loud-mouthed, churlish wife. That tapas was the means of his personal progress in life.
In that way, each of us are compelled by Nature to move forward in consciousness; whether it means standing up to an abusive partner; or being a more understanding manager, when one is not normally disposed that way; or being forced to do things we are reluctant to do. It is the Tapas of Nature forced on us, secretly working in our own best interest, so we can overcome personal limitations, enabling is to grow in consciousness.
While, it is certainly in our best interest to embrace the Tapas requirements of Nature, it is better to consciously direct the course of our lives through inner and outer self-discipline. Conscious Tapas can be taken up at two identifiable levels. the first are those methods that will enable us to accomplish more in life and find basic fulfillment in life. Examples of such disciplines are developing our level of knowledge and skills, raising our level of personal organization, taking to greater psychological strength, and ridding ourselves of wanting attitudes and beliefs.
There is also spiritual Tapas, which is mainly for those who have taken to a higher calling in life. Examples of spiritual discipline is moving our center of awareness more inward, practicing non-reaction and remaining absolutely still in the face of difficulty, opening to the spiritual Force, deep meditation and prayer, and many others.
When we practice conscious, self-directed Tapas, we not only evolve our consciousness, and lead more successful and happy lives, but we tend to attract good fortune from the environment. In that way, this form of self-discipline is eminently superior to practicing the Tapas demanded of Nature.
Resolving Contradictions and Progress
through Inner, Soul Connection
When Man functions from the depths, and
particularly when he connects with his evolving soul, he becomes more
attuned to the unfoldings of life and is therefore able to resolve the
contradictions of life. He thus enables progress more quickly and
integrally instead of Nature's slow and painful method of contradiction
and resolution.
Availing Nature's
Opportunities for Higher Consciousness
Nature, i.e. life presents opportunities to implement
higher consciousness. Centered within, the opportunity can proceed
without friction, smoothly, outside the bounds of space and time, which
in essence moves us beyond Nature's usually difficult way.
Contradictions Become Complements; Through a
Conscious Individual Can Resolve in Higher Harmonies
When there are contradictions between two forces,
entities, situation, people, etc. the opposing entity knows the truth
that the other side lacks. It is thus only in their interaction in
conflict and contradiction that the other side discovers its missing
truth. Also, it is through this process that Nature evolves into higher
harmonies. Ultimately as we become more fully conscious beings, we
perceive the higher harmonies breaking out of the contradictions; we
perceive the resolutions of the contradictions in higher harmonies that
are at the next round of progress.
To put it simply, we can discover the half dozen aspects of our being that are wanting, and make the effort to change ourselves. The wanting half dozen qualities can be found amongst the following: limited amounts of energy, will, focus, direction, psychological strength, skills, wisdom, positive attitudes, an ability to give and love, a peaceful mind and demeanor, organization, attitudes, and personal values. When we overcome the necessary ones, we move from our unique contradictory nature to a Higher nature. In one sense, we were born for one purpose; to overcome our conflicting nature and become whole. All other purposes are secondary. The evolving Soul awaits on us to make that change. If we do both, we and our Soul together experience the ultimate purpose of Life -- to experience intense Joy and Delight in being alive.
Overcoming the Unique Contradiction of Who We Are
Every person is a contradiction waiting to become whole. And each person
is a unique contradiction, whose greater success, progress, and
happiness on life depends on overcoming a unique set of wanting
characteristics. In can even be said that is the very reason we are
individually here on earth: to overcome the unique differential between
who we are and what we can become; to bridge the gap between our inner
light and the darkness, in order to create a higher Light. If we seek to
overcome the dark elements inside, we grow and evolve. If we don't, we
fall back and regress. To the degree we take to that inner adventure, we
are alive and live dynamic lives. To the degree we don't, we wither and
die.
Consider the fact that the Soul has taken birth within us with its Own
aspiration to acquire something more on its own journey through space
and time. It aspires to learn that Something New through that the
individual it inhabits movement out of its particular contradiction
towards one's Higher Nature. When that person discovers what those
lacking elements are, the evolving Soul gains some unfathomable
sustenance it did not have before in its cosmic journey through space,
time, birth, death, and rebirth.
It is actually a two-way collaboration between the individual, who can
move out of his or her contradiction, and the evolving Soul, which seeks
subtle sustenance in its voyage in and out of creation. When we move
away from the surface of life to a deeper poise, we become more
conscious, mindful, and aware. When we go to the deepest place, to the
evolving Soul behind the heart, our consciousness develops the most. We
perceive our purpose; we discover becomes our Inner Guide, and we feel
connected to others, to the universe, and the transcendent Divine. The
Soul is then the ultimate touchstone of our growth, progress, and
evolution. And yet as we grow, we give the soul what it yearns for in
choosing this life, our life. It us a two-way collaboration and
fulfillment.
Beyond the Political Opposites
in Society, Enabling Rapid, Vast, Smooth, Creative Progress
In the USA as elsewhere there is a
two-party system. It is an indicator of democracy, as opposed to the
oppression of monarchy and aristocracy. And yet it is flawed relative to
what it can be. The Democrats are passionate about ending poverty, and
many of their policies are very helpful, but many are flawed. Their
hearts are in the right place, if not all of their ideas. The
Republicans want to cut taxes, which is one of a series of fine ways to
stimulate the economy, and yet behind is a virulent selfishness and
greed in that approach that is cut off from the social aspirations of
people. Each side has positives that are wrapped in negatives, or
negatives wrapped in the positive. When you also add in the political
instinct, it can turn poisonous, as useful policy is abandoned for doing
what is expedient and in the interest of that party.
One of the ways America and similar countries progress is through the opposition of parties that are each flawed. And yet we now progress through the interaction of these two conflicting and flawed opposites. This is Nature's way of progress through complementary contradictions, here expressed in governance. She also expresses elsewhere; in fact everywhere. E.g. in business through a traditional opposition of executives and the remainder of the staff. Through conflicts between nations; through conflicts between lovers; even of ideas. Everywhere we look, we will see such complementary opposites that appear to be in opposition, in duality.
As we rise in consciousness, the dualistic nature of progress dissipates, and there is growth and development in society through unity that is also exceedingly diverse. We release ourselves from a particular side to embrace the Whole. (Where is the Whole? It is the sum of all the truths of an object, and then some.) Life progresses in this more conscious way through positive energies only, not through an incessant mixture of positive and negative. Even the appearance of the negative in this new consciousness is seen as positive in disguise. As a result, progress is exceedingly fast, is exceedingly smooth, is vast, and infinitely creative -- replacing the slow and difficult way of Nature that is our current way.What is this consciousness that sees the world in this new way? It occurs when we take to rationality certainly, moving away from our superstition and falsehood. More than that it has the spiritual touch, which expresses several ways: (1) a movement out of ego and separateness; (2) a giving up of exclusive points of view and the tendency to take sides; (3) a connection within that sees harmonies instead of dualities outside one's self; that even sees the unity emerging from conflicting opposites; (4) that acts in such a way that opposition is never created. It is for the future life, but we can each begin now by connecting with the calm and serenity and joy and love of our inner being and True Self. We discover this spiritual Being by moving away from the surface of life and connecting with the silence within.
Soul in Nature Evolved through Individual
Connecting to Personal Evolving Soul
-When
the individual progress and evolves, Nature does so too.
-When man finds his highest nature, in his true self, his personal
evolving soul within, he evolves, and so does Nature.
-Man, or more specifically man coming in touch with his soul is Nature's
method of soul evolution (as opposed to its slow evolution.)
-We can think of Nature and the Soul in Nature. Nature evolves slowly
through the contradictions of life. Soul in Nature evolves through the
evolution of the individual which rises to his highest nature by coming
in contact with his soul space within.
Nature's Experiences Collects in the Evolving Soul
-
When Nature moves, She gains experience.
-
The essence of her experience is spiritual.
- It collects as the evolving soul, the psychic being [of the individual]. (MSS)
Centered in the Soul of Nature, in the Evolving Soul
To centre oneself in the soul of Nature - Becoming - and aspire
for its evolution is
YOGA for Him. TO
LIVE CENTERED IN THE PSYCHIC AND BE EVOLVING ALL THE TIME and to make
the human choice every minute so as to fulfil that purpose is YOGA for
Sri Aurobindo. (MSS)
Nature and the
(Supramental) Force
(main)
Nature,
the Force, and
The "Hour of God"
Nature functions in Time and her movements wait
for the right time. The Force I speak of is not functioning in Nature or
through Nature. It functions through the soul of Nature. The Soul of
Nature does not wait for Time.
It chooses its own Time. And such a period is called the HOUR of GOD. It
is an hour when what requires a thousand years gets done quickly.
During such moments, events occur one after the other on their own. What
is started as a flat, usual, local affair, grows to national stature and
initiates a national debate. Men who initiated a glorious movement fall
on the wayside, events that were harbingers of a great dawn are
forgotten, but the central vibration forges ahead.
It does not matter that corruption is prevalent, it does not also matter
that there is stark poverty as long as the central MOVE is truthful. The
Indian public life has a touch of that flame. The French writer said
that TIME makes the Idea powerful. Sri Aurobindo says the inner truth of
MAN who aspires makes that Time come.
And that Time is NOW. Individuals moving into the evolutionary movement
make the nation enter that HOUR. They would never fail, as it is an
unfailing Force. Should their service to the nation fail, it will
succeed in their individual lives.
Nature
vs. the [Supramental] Force (i.e. the Soul of Nature)
Nature functions in Time and her movements wait
for the right time. The
[Supramental] Force I speak of is not
functioning in Nature or through Nature. It functions through
the soul of Nature. The Soul of Nature does not wait for Time.
It chooses its own Time.
(MSS)
Untitled
In Supermind and beyond, Nature gives way fully to the movement of the
Force in life.
Nature, and Being in
the Becoming
(main)
Being in the Becoming
There are three aspects of the Divine,
Brahman, God. There is Being, Becoming, and Being in the Becoming. Being
is the essential spiritual nature of the Divine. Becoming is universal
existence; i.e. life and Nature in the cosmos. Being in the Becoming is
the spirit in Life, Nature. (MSS)
Being in the Becoming
Being
is Purusha [Soul], Becoming is Prakriti [Nature] so far. The
concept of Being of the Becoming is the
spiritual evolutionary goal.
Thoughts on Free Will and Determinism
Raising our Consciousness Resolves the
Contradictions
The great contradictions we see in life between spirit
and matter we resolve by raising our consciousness to the point where we
see their opposites in their inherent unity and oneness.
Unity in Diversity
All things are one in their being and origin, one in their general law
of existence, one in their interdependence and universal pattern of
their relations; but each realises this unity of purpose and being on
its own lines and has its own law of variation by which it enriches the
universal existence. (Sri Aurobindo)
Right and Wrong, and the Cosmic Play
We can witness the conflicts and contradictions of life in two ways.
First, where we see the powers of right grappling with the powers of
wrong; or second where we perceive that these two sides are really bound
to one another to enable the full and higher emergence of the Cosmic
Play. When we rise to an integral consciousness, we can even know both
simultaneously.
Overcoming the Knots of Contradiction - Example 2
We can see the contradiction between two parties, that is secretly a
complementary relationship of growth, even between individuals and the
social institutions they partake of.
Take the customers of the electrical utility company and the utility itself. The individuals complain of too higher prices; the energy company complains that it is not charging enough to survive or grow. Let's look at both sides. From the perspective of the individual who complains, we see that he has a corresponding negative tendency in himself. He does not conserve energy in his own life, he keeps lights on, doesn't' recycle, and is unorganized in many facets of life that wastes resource (e.g. lack of orderliness, cleanliness, punctuality, proper attention to objects, lack of focus, etc.). He is like many others in the community; and then he/they complain when life responds negatively in kind in the form of the utility's higher prices. It is really a negative life response to their shared low social consciousness. From the side of the utility, it complains about its inability to raise prices to survive even as it rejects new forms of energy development in the name of preserving its current stake, which causes life to respond in the form of energy shortages, outages, and complaining customers.
These two entities are locked in their contradiction. They are like coiled snakes around one another, who depend on one another in their conflict for their further growth. When they express their unconsciousness, the other side tightens, which in turn reacts which further strangles the original side. When they become more conscious, it enables higher harmonies to emerge that benefit both sides, relieving Nature's method of contradictory pairs in coiled conflict. However, each side can rise in consciousness to enable such resolutions to occur much faster, invoking Consciousness Time instead of slow Nature Time. Years of frustration can resolve in days of illumination. And the opening to that light is seeing the truth that the other side represents in one's self.
Untitled
In Supermind and beyond, Nature gives way fully to
the movement of the Force in life.
Untitled
The seed of all conflict in the world can be
observed in one's mental angst and anguish in our opposition to one side
or the other on an issue. If we conquer these distressed moments -- that
is the key -- and call to the Force for the best emergence of
circumstances, life will move for the better in the world relative to
that concern.
Nature's Compulsion on our Lives vs. the
Spiritual Way
Life is always pressing us, is always bringing out something
very unique to our nature that is deficient; that we are being
compelled to address, improve on, make better. These are the experiences
that in retrospect are the very obvious difficult or exhilarating
milestones of our lives.
Nature is compelling each of us to deal with certain limiting aspects of ourselves, through specific difficult situations or positive opportunities. The more we are conscious, the higher the consciousness we bring to bear to meet these circumstances, the more easily we overcome the challenges presented, and the rapidly we progress and evolve. At a further point in our evolution as individuals and as a species, Nature will fail to have any direct influence on us at all; as we are then able to meet life, to move life through our higher consciousness. At that point we connect directly with the Spirit, the true Force behind Nature. With that power in hand, at that level of highest consciousness, we can overcome, dissolve all problems and knots of life, all of the dualities and divisions that are manifest here; and we can do so rapidly, powerfully and delightfully. In that way we become true masters of life.
Nature is really an instrument of, an agent of, an appointed deputy of the Divine spirit.
There is a spiritual, a Divine purpose in life that is unfolding in the universe; and Nature is the force and agent enabling it to occur; compelling life to move toward the direction of spirit's intent, of God's intent, if you will. On the other hand, Nature's way is a slow and painful way. Though she is an obedient agent of the Divine Will, secretly the Spirit seeks higher consciousness, not Nature's slow workings, to evolve the universe; for the forms in the universe, including us, to evolve. Secretly the Divine hopes for us to also become Divine in being, to develop a higher consciousness and spiritual nature, so that Its purpose is more readily, more easily, dynamically, forcefully, harmoniously, and rapidly carried out!
Great Results of Spirit Resolving Contradictions
The contradictions and conflicts of life are resolved through Nature,
enabling relatively finite benefits and results. When resolved
directly through spirit, unforeseen, never-before-existing infinite
benefits and results are derived.
It is a truth of life that when you are armed against an eventuality, it never comes to pass. Life hits unconscious people. When you are armed, you become conscious.
On
Cause of, Avoiding Catastrophes
-Catastrophes
strike more often people who are unconscious. It stops harassing them
the moment they become conscious.
-It is a truth of life that when you are armed against an eventuality, it never comes to pass. Life hits unconscious people. When you are armed, you become conscious.
-Mother Earth will not quake when her sons are awake. What is true of a nation is true of an individual. He who is conscious, alert, who avails of opportunities, will have no problems. Nature or Fate will not strike him awake. (MSS)
Bringing All
the Aspects Together that Nature Has Developed
Nature has developed different aspects -- physical, vital, mental,
Spiritual -- of human existence to the next stage at different periods
and in different places. Now that Nature has completed one round, all
the different aspects must be brought together as a whole on earth.
(MSS)
Yoga of Nature
There is a subconscious Yoga [i.e. spiritual progress] in
Nature, attempting to realize her perfection, expressing her potential,
connecting with her Divine Reality. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)
Man's Mastery Over Nature
Man has attempted mastery over Nature. To a great extent he has acquired
it. (MSS)
The Positive in the Negative in
Nature's Ways
We see a tragedy and feel shocked, saddened, perplexed by the
outcome. However, at a higher level of consciousness, we see a
marvel of the workings of Nature that bring about higher
harmonies through contradiction. Some examples will clarify: A
man in a car is hit by a train because there are no overpasses
over the train tracks for him to cross. As a result a new
overpass is created, saving the lives of many. But what about
his lost life you say? Perhaps he was ready to move on, i.e. his
personal evolving soul was seeking a way out of its current
host, in search of another to gain the evolutionary substance
for its further progress. In that sense there is no positive and
negative in the workings of Nature. Everything is as it should
be. We see the same situation when a cargo ship destroys
thousands acres of sensitive coral reefs because it has strayed
into a restricted area. We do not realize that a massive
restricted area was created in the first place because of a
similar incident long ago. The previous "tragedy" enabled the
great movement towards a vast preservation. But is here a way
for us to evolve more consciously, instead of through this
merciless method of Nature? Of course. That is the next stage of
human evolution built on higher human consciousness above our
mentality to the spirit around us.
Dividing Nature, Not Being
Force of Nature can be divided; not the Being.
(MSS)
The Role of Nature and Soul in Progress in the
World
Nature does not work for progress in all fronts at all places
simultaneously. Nature herself is a partial force. Soul and Nature
together make for the whole. Nature is a part. A partial force cannot
work for total progress. Hence Nature has decided to develop emotion in
Asia and Mind in Europe. India was chosen by Nature to develop the
Spirit. (MSS)
Nature Evolves
When Nature moves, She gains experience. The essence of her experience
is spiritual. It collects as the evolving soul, the psychic being. This
is to contradict the traditional position that the soul is immutable. In
truth, it is an improvement. When all Nature is constantly gaining
experience, all her components too are progressing simultaneously.
Energy, force, power, organisation, skill, knowledge, and a host of
other things are her parts. (MSS)
Out of the
Darkness of Life
Life is a journey in the darkness of the
night.
Wake up to the inner light.
(The Mother)
[older]
NATURE'S
WAY VS. OUR CONSCIOUS HIGHER WAY
Please click here to continue
Nature's Way:
Contradictions, Slow Resolution, and Higher
Harmonies
The Conscious Higher Way; i.e. Rapidly Resolving the Contradictions
THE PROCESS OF CREATION
(top)
ORIGINS,
MAKEUP, & SOLUTION TO LIFE'S PROBLEMS
(main)
Origins and Makeup of Life's Problems | Solving Life's Problems
Origins and
Makeup of Life's Problems
(main)
The Division & Duality of Life
Everything in the universe is rooted in division and duality because the
universe came about in division and duality.
It is the origin of our problems.
Division and Duality in Existence
The Divine manifest a universe in division and duality to enable the
greatest multiplicity and possibility of forms. The greater this
diversity and multiplicity of forms, including us, the greater the
possibilities of discovery which we experience as delight; the very
delight for which the Divine created the universe. (When we live at
higher planes of our consciousness, we perceive that these division,
dualities, and problems of existence, are not in fact in conflict; that
each side of the duality needs the other side to further evolve; that
there is no good and bad, that they are one in a truer Good.)
Why There is Ignorance
Falsehood, and Evil in Creation
Why is
there ignorance, falsehood, evil, etc. in the world is a subject that
has bee discussed throughout the ages. No one has come up with an
adequate answer, except modern sages like
Sri Aurobindo
who have the advantage of understanding evolution in combination with
the spiritual reality. He explains that out of a
Divine Source
emerged a universe of forms of an original Force/energy, including
ourselves. We, however, emerged as ignorant, divided beings, just as
there is much negativity in the universe. There was, of course, great
positive as well. So why is there positive and negative in creation?
The immutable, infinite, unknowable Reality, extended itself into a universe of forms so that those forms could experience the same Delight of Being that It knows. The static Joy of the Infinite would therefore be complemented by a dynamic joy through those forms, including us. E.g. when an individual rises in consciousness or otherwise become more aware, he has the joy of discovery of his true nature, which is the experience of the Delight that the Divine Source intended in our creation.
Then why the negative in creation? In order for the Delight of the Spiritual Source to extend into the greatest quantity/multiplicity of the forms, it had to enable a universe of unlimited possibilities, including the possibilities of the negative. The Divine, through its deputy of Nature (as opposed to Soul) also allowed for difficulty, pain, division, duality, ignorance, falsehoods, and evil so that the greatest Delight of the immutable Divine can enter the greatest multiplicity of forms in the most varied way, i.e. through the greatest possibilities in the universe. This is the secret reason of ignorance, falsehoods, and evil in life.
As we evolve to our highest nature, we will then overcome our ignorance, falsehood, and evil, which will create an even greater richness to life in the future, as all possibilities (including the movement from the current good to the greater good), are now included, create an even more joyful, blissful, yes Divine life on earth.
Life's Limitations at the Start
Life is
at first dumb inconscient will rooted in the
physical energy; inconscient, and subject to mechanical forces. This is
reflected in the necessity of the separative ego, and to survive.
(Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)
Source of Ignorance, Falsehood, Evil
Ignorance
is there in the creation of the universe. In man Ignorance is a result
of mind's exclusive nature, selecting one truth from an abundant of
truths that are there at any point, moment in time. It is reinforced by
our ego, which strengthens our separateness. Falsehood is our emotional
attachment to our Ignorance. Evil is action taken based on our Ignorance
and Falsehood.
Separativeness
of Ego as Source of Problems
Problems are created by the separativeness
of egos.
(MSS)
Ignorance, Falsehood, and Evil
What we call Falsehood and Evil are
simply extensions of Ignorance. What we call Falsehood is a result of
our ATTACHMENT to our Ignorance and unconsciousness. What we call
Evil is a result of ACTING on the unconsciousness of Ignorance and
Falsehood. This separateness, rooted in ego and enabled by the limiting
action of mind is the root of all falsehood, and evil.
All Problems of Man are Vital
All problems of man are vital. Some are
mental.
(MSS)
The Three Problems of Life
for the Individual
The first problem of life is that man is aware
only of the surface of life, not his inner being and true Self. The
second problem of life is that he is disconnected from the universal,
and therefore from others. The third problem of life is that the body,
the vital, and mind are not in harmony with each other, nor with its
self. When man becomes conscious he becomes more aware of the discords
and creates this harmony.
(Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)
Problems in Life are Not
Forever
1. Problems
surface due to our actions which are not in sync with what we
actually should do
Problems are uneasiness in the
system of life and many a times they are the indicators for the
need of action and it turns to be opportunity when right action
is taken as APPA says.
2.Problems appears to be
problem when it is not understood in right perspective
When we do not know to answer a situation in life it creates
disturbance in mind and in physic and this is called as problem
or pain as well.
When one understands problem and knows
that it is a need for an action what life is asking for mostly
it disappears/
3.Connecting with Divine
When we connect with Divine in situations where our capabilities
are not useful , Divine appears and solves problems either
directly or indirectly.
Mother acts instantly when
called for help and that too if called from heart she acts in
fraction of a second is my experience and also for all Mother
devotees.
4. Oneness with Divine
When
we understand that Life is not there to punish us through
problems and it is there to give us abundance and bliss - life
becomes one with Divine and one starts to see Divine all around
There is no space for hatred or no space for Ego or No
space for even competition as always one realizes that God has
created everything enough for all
Hence when one
understands what one needs to do at the time when he feels is
undergoing a problem is that it is matter of action what we need
to take and time what is required to solve a so called problem.
Divine connection reduces time and even in no time it can
solve a problem and hence connecting and consecration to Divine
is very important
One can ultimately realize that
problems are not for ever. (Ramanan)
Utility of
Suffering
Suffering in life is Nature's way to arouse in one the aspiration for
change; even evolutionary and transformational change. We can avoid
suffering and achieve the same gain by consciously aspiring for the
Divine help.
Progress without Tragedy
Shakespeare could only depict as tragedy what now can be depicted as
comedy or happy consummation. Now, however, man has risen from his lower
physical and vital nature, and has begun to become mental, which enables
him to learn from life, without undergoing the torture of tragedy.
Further still, if we are open to it, the Force has come to help us
escape from the torture, darkness, pain and tragedy of mental life into
a life of light and knowledge and joy.
Also see Thoughts from Sri Aurobindo's The Life Divine on this Subject by clicking here.
Solving Life's Problems
(main)
Click here to see entries
PRINCIPLES
OF LIFE
(top)
Overview
Life Has a Character
Like the individual and society, Life too has what
may be called a character of its own. Life can be described in terms of
the characteristic ways in which events occur, repeat, reverse, and the
factors that determine the results and consequences of human action. We
often perceive and label the characteristic actions of life with terms
such as chance, luck, fate or destiny. (MSS)
Character of Life
Life has a
character. Every great civilization has discovered behind the
sum total of events that we call 'Life' universal laws that are
at work determining and altering the course of events in
unexpected ways. The collective wisdom of humanity has acquired
deep insight into the nature of Life's character and its
interaction with the nature of human beings.
Life's Laws & Principles
Life is governed by subtle laws and principles of
action and reaction that characterize the interaction between the
thoughts, feelings and acts of the individual, society and universal
nature.
(MSS)
Character of Life
When we speak of the character of life, we refer
to those subtle laws and principles that govern the interaction between
individuals and the world around them.
(MSS)
Personality of Life
Just as an individual has a character, and
can develop personality and spiritual personality, so can Life.
Life has a character in the sense that it operates in a certain
way that we can identify through principles. E.g. the Tao Te
Ching has tried to identify many of them, even as we have by
going to the subtle heart of the matter. Life is also in the
process of developing personality. When a EU, Internet, or a
Barak Obama appear on the scene (just to give 3 wildly different
examples), it is developing personality. I.e. it is the
unfolding of something new to serve a purpose. Likewise, as the
supramental Force, the writings of Appa, the knowledge of the
Secret and Life Response emerge, life is developing Spiritual
Personality.
The idea can be expanded in many directions. E.g. in business life and societal life vs. life itself.
Universal, Individual, Collective Character of Life
-Life's character expresses through fundamental
subtle principles of life that permeate all -- i.e. universal/life
-- existence, as well as through subtle laws that express the
consciousness of the individual, as well as though the dynamic
interaction between the society/collective and that person.
-This is analagous to the interplay of the playing
field (the universal/life itself), the individual and the team
(collective)
The Character of Life and Individual and Environmental Energies
There are forces positive and negative around one, and forces positive and negative within one. Through the interaction and outcomes of these forces one can observer the character of life.
Man succeeds when his own energies are greater than the forces that oppose it.
Life continually responds to the sum total of energies in the atmosphere.
Life is a field of energy. Life's character then is a reflection of the balance of energies -- individual and environmental.Life's Causality Expressing through Life Response & Inner-Outer Correspondence
Life is moving in direction due to the attitudes, actions, motives, and actions of the individual. It is also influenced by the social atmosphere. Everything that is occurring can be traced back to these forces. As a result we see a stunning causality in which life is constantly responding positively or negatively on the outside to the state of consciousness of the individual or society on the inside, defying or normal perceptions of what is logical and possible, and of space and time, and cause and effect. These sudden movements which we call coincidence or fate is actually the phenomenon of life response occurring through the principle of the law of inner-outer correspondence. An Extended Article on What Life is and the Character of Life
The Character
of
Life
vs the Character of the Divine
Life has a character of its own which simple-minded folk ignore. Meeting
with misfortune, we exclaim, 'I have not done any wrong, why the
punishment?' To succeed in life, it is not enough one has not done any
wrong. It is also necessary to be strong enough to handle the forces of
life. Edmond Dantes had not wronged anyone. He was incapable of it.
Still, he was jailed. When Dantes became a captain at 19 and won the
love of the prettiest girl there, Life demanded he be strong to enjoy
them. He did not have the capacity to suspect his friend and therefore
could not defend himself against betrayal. This is the stamp of Life
which I call character of life. You will be punished for no fault of
yours if you are not resourceful, alert, awake and aware of all that
might arise in the minds of your enemies. It is not enough to be GOOD.
One must be fortified against life by strength as well as cunning.
Dantes is a fine example of this.
What life has not, God has - benevolence. Life could not reward Dantes
for his goodness, but when he was about to die, God gave him Faria, the
priest, and through him knowledge, wealth and prosperity. God in him
gave all this, not Life. (MSS)
Benefit of Understanding Character of Life
By observing and understanding the character of life, whether in literature or in the actual world we live in, we gain a knowledge that if applied to ourselves can help us lead a life of unending and ever-increasing happiness and success. If we learn to build up our own capacities, understand the social forces at play, and understand the hidden forces that act within us and outside us, we will be better prepared to take life by the horns, and rise to the heights of achievement, success, and happiness. Character of Life
As characters play off one another, as they react positively or negatively to one another, or to situations of life, we can observe a kind of symphony of unfolding. Whereas to the untrained mind, it can seem more like a cacophony, by understanding the character of life, including principles like inner-outer correspondence and phenomena like life response, we can make sense of it all, and see everything in their right relations.
Various Character of Life Principles
Subtle
Patterns of
Life
There
are subtle patterns of life that
go unnoticed, and which defy our normal perceptions
of logic, cause and effect, and space and time. Understanding
these hidden patterns not
only enables us to see the world in a different way, but gives us the
insight to perceive the truth that is unfolding around us, which can
lead to right decisions that ends in right actions (or non-action) and
vastly successful outcomes. In other words, perceiving the subtle
workings of life can lead to great accomplishment, success, and
happiness in life.
Power of the Subtle
Sense
While we meander to and fro in our daily lives, those who have the
subtle sense -- i.e. are in touch with the true unfoldings of life --
know precisely in which direction to turn. Their lives consist of
endless moments of the miraculous.
Various Principles of Life indicating the Character of Life
INNER-OUTER CORRESPONDENCE & LIFE RESPONSE
- Everything on the outside is an expression of our inner condition.
- If we make a decisive shift within, life on the outside can suddenly and abundantly respond on the outside. This is 'life response."
- The shift of the outer to the inner can occur instantaneously and at any distance and quantity.
- This laws governing the relationship between the outer and the inner can be called the principle of "inner-outer correspondence."
-
Life outside one's self is a reflection of one's inner consciousness.
-
PRINCIPLES OF ACTS & ACCOMPLISHMENT
-
When we function in the world we do so through the individual acts we perform. We can say that the act is the fundamental unit of life in the same way that the atom or molecule are the fundamental units of matter. In fact, each act is in fact a microcosm of the universe; the universe in miniature.
Each act is a force with a propensity to repeat that increase with each occurrence. Each repetition of an act increases its tendency for further repetitions.
There are always predecessor events that point to the bigger events. To know those smaller acts can help us control the bigger ones; turning them into great accomplishment and results.
The outcome of a chain of events is indicated at the very beginning, though the meaning of that indication may not be evident.
The consequences of an act depend on the strength of the act, the actor and the social atmosphere.
An individual's ability to accomplish is affected by the social environment and atmosphere -- which includes the capacities, energies, character, and circumstance of the social environment and social institutions he is involved in.
An opportunity taken up in a positive atmosphere supports and enhances its eventual outcome.
When the atmosphere is negative, the initiative will fail, unless the individual is able overcome the resistance of the atmosphere.
When there are deficiencies in the act that are greater than the atmosphere, the act fails. When the capacities are stronger than the atmosphere, then the act succeeds.
When an individual tries to make a significant progress for improvement in life often there appears on the scene a negative influence to bring it down. If the person has the significant energy and character they can overcome this negative influence and move on to the next level. If they don't they are brought down.
Various Principles of Life
-
Fear attracts the object of fear
-
Giving attention to pain increases it.
-
Negatives are positive in disguise.
-
Contradictions are really complements.
-
Time is relative.
-
To receive love, give it. The same with happiness.
-
Whatever you focus your attention on attracts more of it.
-
The inner is the determinant of the outer.
-
Simultaneous acts are related.
-
Every event has its predecessor.
-
The initial event indicates the final outcome.
-
Acts tend to repeat.
-
Our ability to accomplish is affected by the atmosphere.
-
Energy is the determinant of accomplishment.
-
Not only our actions, but our thoughts, feelings, attitude, motives determine outcomes.
-
Giving attention to a thing energizes it.
-
Giving attention to a negative, makes things worse.
-
Every thing in creation, good and bad, are necessary for the unfolding of progress.
-
All things are expressions of the one omnipresent Reality.
-
Everything in a life are expression of, are forms of an essential Force and Energy.
-
Each and every thing is related in space and time.
-
A shift in one thing instantly affects related things across space-time.
-
An essential Force and Energy is the source of Life, not the other way around as scientists believe.
-
Matter is simply a form of Spirit.
-
All things have a seed of infinite potential involved in it.
-
Each thing has the next higher plane of it, embedded, involved as potential.
-
The universal is the instrument of the transcendent; the individual of the universal.
-
Man exists from physical to vital to mental to spiritual. (vertical plane)
-
Each plane contains the seeds of the next one upward; actually all above it.
-
Man also exists from outer to inner; from surface to depths. (horizontal plane)
-
Evolution occurs through an ascent of planes from physical to vital to mental to spiritual.
-
Evolution upward is completed by a decent of that progress into the planes below it.
The Game of Life: The Individual
and the Collective
In any big sporting event
there is the social dynamic; the fans in the crowd, the people in the
community, i.e. there are energies and atmospheres surrounding the game.
So to in life, the individual through his character confronts the
conflict of life's situation in a social context. In the big game there
are team dynamics. In the real game of life there are the swirl of
forces of other people, the group, society itself that come into play.
There are the other individuals and their character. There is also the
character of the society. These other forces may be in harmony or
opposition to our intent. If we have great enough strength of character
we can overcome almost any opposition. Normally, however, we are at the
mercy of the character of those other individuals, institutions and
social norms that we come in contact with.
For example, an individual taking a great initiative in life may be thrust forward into success or set back into failure based on the swirling forces of the social character and atmosphere. On the one hand strength and direction of will may help him accomplish, but if the opposition is too great he may not be able to prevail. Even if he takes an action with good intent and demonstrates great character, he still may not be able to succeed because of the opposing social forces and atmosphere in play. If the actions are mixed with vital force of character, as are the two main characters driven in Romeo and Juliet, then the negative social atmosphere (of the conflict of the Montagues and Capulets) can play a part in unleashing a great tragedy for the main individuals.
Looking at the game of life from the perspective of the collective rather than the individual we may see that to a smaller extent the collective is also going through its own evolution. Often when an individual is confronted with big situations in the playing field of life not only is he working out an outcome and a personal growth for himself, but the other participants, the group involved, the society, i.e. the collective are also working out its own outcomes, and hence its own growth and development. From the perspective of the collective, its character and condition, past deeds, etc. are also in play in the game of life, and are working themselves out toward (hopefully) a higher resolution and progress.
Biological, Social, and Spiritual Evolution and the Character of Life
The scope of the Character of Life is
infinite, like the
Source that created it.
One aspect that I learned from Sri
Karmayogi through our
regular email
interchanges from
1999-2003 was the
influence of three
layers of evolution that
are occurring
simultaneously. Life's
character reflects the
confluence of these.
They are what He calls
Biological evolution,
Social evolution, and
Spiritual evolution.
These are their positive
forms. At any moment,
there can also be
non-evolution; even
regression. Life’s
character stands at the
interface of these
three.
For example, in
Pride and Prejudice
several individuals are
clearly going through
Biological evolution,
Darcy being the most
dramatic as he reverses
a large part of his
nature; a startling
achievement for which he
is greatly rewarded by
attracting the love of
his life Eliza to
marriage. She herself is
going through a degree
of her own Biological
evolution.
In the story, Social evolution is also
occurring. We see it at
the level of class,
where we witness the
progress of the
gentleman farmers moving
up in English society in
status, privilege, and
prosperity, represented
clearly by the Bennett
family. There is also a
certain social
regression occurring,
represented by the
aristocratic Lady
Catherine; even though
her nephew, Mr Darcy,
also of that class are
moving forward, as they
are refreshed by the
dynamic, positive
energies of the middle
class.
The Spiritual evolution
can be thought of as the
intention and
determination of the
divine Force that seeks
to spreads Its Will
throughout the cosmos
and life on earth. In
the story, we can
perceive through the
interaction of the
middle and upper
classes. Rather than
having these two sectors
progress friction and
strife, as it did in
nearby revolutionary
France, it instead
occurs through
interaction,
cooperation, and
harmony. Other spiritual
aspects -- like wisdom,
truth, goodness,
creativity, beauty,
love, delight, and
timelessness -- also
express the intention of
the Force and hence
Spiritual evolution in
life; seeking the right
individuals, conduits,
and circumstance.
So Man stands at the interface of
Biological, the Social,
and the Spiritual. Each
moment is like that for
us; as is every event.
The Character of Life is
determined by the
conditions of these
three aspects, and their
confluence and
interaction.
We can see this in our own lives, in the
world around us; even in
literary fiction and
cinema. E.g. Shakespeare
portrays the
intersection of these
forces throughout his
works; and does so
elegantly and
poetically. He is able
to blend the micro and
the macro view of
circumstance; which is
the cornerstone of his
greatness. We should
note that his emphasis
was often on the tragic
because 500 years ago
Man’s nature was
brutish. Evolution –
biological, social, and
spiritual -- took place
through very coarse
action and reaction
during those times.
The confluence of the three forms of
evolution (as well as
their neutral and
negative/regressive
forms) also relates to
Life Response, i.e.
instances of sudden good
fortune. For example, we
see that in our own
lives life response is
determined not only by
our own energies (our
intentions, attitudes,
decisions, actions,
etc.) but by the
influence of the social
atmosphere. When the
social atmosphere is at
our back, then our
initiatives succeed;
life responds in our
favor. When they are
negative or absent, life
will respond neutrally
or counter to our
aspirations.
Pride and Prejudice
is an example of the
former; Shakespeare's
Othello, the
latter.
Then there is the influence of the Sprit
and its effect on life.
E.g. the Force can
descend on its own as
Grace. In addition, we
can open to that Power,
which also sets right
life’s conditions,
manifesting starling
positive outcomes. If we
develop an inner power
to perceive life’s
subtle movements, we can
put ourselves in direct
line with the spiritual
unfolding that is trying
to manifest in the
world. Even without us,
spiritual evolution is
constantly occurring, as
the spirit continually
manifest its cosmic
aspects including
harmony, oneness,
goodness, wisdom,
creativity, beauty, and
delight.
In the end, we each stand at the
crossroads of these
influences. To be able
to pan back and perceive
what that is at any
moment in time, in any
circumstance, gives us a
great perspective of
life’s conditions. It
reveals why things are
happening the way they
are, and what we can do
to change them. For
after all we are fully
capable of influencing
the world outside
ourselves from within
ourselves, which is yet
another principle of the
Character of Life.
Subtle Principles of Life
Perhaps the one principle of life we
readily agree upon is the law of cause and effect. E.g. if I do
something, there is an effect. Unfortunately, we only see this principle
at work the
physical/material
level. E.g., when I
hammer in a nail, the wood splinters and it is penetrated. This
physical/material causality is obvious for every human being. However,
that is only a small part of the life picture. There is also the cause
and effect at the non-material plane -- i.e. subtle
level of life. E.g., if
I feel an emotion, someone else in the next town subtly perceives it.
When they then receive my phone call, they comment that they were
thinking of me. An even less known example: I change a negative
attitude, and suddenly someone from half way around the world that I
have never known before contacts me with an offer of a job of a
lifetime. This is a subtle principle of life called 'inner-outer
correspondence'. I.e. there is a direct connection between the inner me
and the outer life. Therefore when I change a wanting aspect of myself
consciousness within, such as a negative attitude, life outside myself
instantly responds in kind -- even though I took to no perceptible outer
action to make it occur. This stunning unfolding defies our normal
perceptions of what is possible, and how space and time unfold. Yet this
principle is always at work, just beyond the bounds of our normal state
of awareness.
There are many other subtle principles of life. One is that everything that occurs in life is indicated long before it occurs; i.e. by a 'predecessor event'. For example, an individual is eager to come to a meeting that could change his life, but then gets very lost while driving around in a huge housing development -- though eventually he finds his way. Years later, he goes out of business when in his relationship with the very people he tried to meet at that earlier difficult-to-arrive-at, fateful meeting. The earlier negative event of getting hopelessly lost was the predecessor of the later negative circumstance of meeting with financial disaster through that same party.
It is also interesting to note that there are no exceptions to this rule: everything in life is indicated earlier by a predecessor event. Or to make it more personal: everything that is currently happening to your life -- whether great or small -- has been indicated by a predecessor event beforehand. Here is one other example of the phenomenon. A young man comes to India and meets with a teacher. Years later, they would be involved in a difficult trial against another person in which they (temporarily) lost a considerable financial judgment. At the very first instance when the two individuals met a decade earlier, the young man had asked the elder for a small loan to pay for a taxi. That sorry request was a predecessor of the near-financial ruin suffered by both. If we were to go back and trace the events our lives, we would see this same principle at work in our own lives. Something to think about: the things we are doing now will become signs and predecessors for future events.
Inner-outer correspondence and predecessor events are two startling subtle principles of life. How can the average person who only sees the obvious causalities of life perceive them? It is a matter of living a more concentrated existence, where our focus in life is more inward, and less outward where we are caught up in the surface unfoldings of life. From that deeper poise, we more readily perceive the subtle movements of life around us.
Let me add one other subtle principle -- one I have mentioned frequently in this column. It is that the negatives we experience in life serve the greater good. Or to put it another way, negatives are just as good in the creating the greater Good as the ordinary good is. Consider how the central episode in Pride and Prejudice unfolds, and you will see what I a mean. In the story, Darcy is in love with Eliza, but she has rejected him due to his prideful ways. There appears on the scene an old nemesis of Darcy, Mr. Wickham. He runs off with Eliza's youngest sister, precipitating a scandal. Darcy then takes it upon himself to overcome the predicament, and succeeds in bringing Wickham and the younger sister back to the community married, thus avoiding the scandal. As a result, Eliza perceives Darcy in a new light, they reconcile, she expresses her love, and they marry. Cannot we then say that it was because of the negative Wickham that Darcy is given an opportunity to act in a way that wins over the love of Eliza? Put in philosophical terms we could say that Wickham appeared on the scene in order to bring about the marriage of Darcy to Eliza -- even though that was not his conscious intent. Thus, life progresses very quickly through the unfolding of negative circumstance, adding to the greater Good. It is one of Nature's profound methods.
The most extreme example of that would be the startling statement that the ultimate evil represented by Adolph Hitler and the Nazis unified Europe! Without their treachery, it may have never happened, or it may taken hundreds of years before an EU was created. Because these nations had to jointly oppose the Nazis in WWII, instead of acting selfishly and separately apart as they did in the years leading up to the war, they developed the beginnings of a unity of purpose. Then at the end of the war when the devastation was complete, the nations knew that they had to come together, or face similar consequences once again. They then went on to see their shared values and purpose. It was a vast evolutionary movement of hundreds of years through the misery of a few years of extreme negative unfolding.
If we think about it, each of us can identity extreme negative circumstance that precipitated a great advancement forward in our own lives. It is unfortunately too often the case that only through the shock of negative circumstance does our lives make the necessary leap forward. It is the cause because our habitual nature and our virulent attitudes and beliefs do not readily change on their own to allow for such progress. It is know by the spiritually wise man that the Divine itself sanctions the negative, including evil, as a radical means of moving forward -- at least until we develop the positive means to do the same. Thus, this negative unfolding that serves the greater Good, can be thought of not as a negative at all, but as a more intense form of the positive. It is a form of the positive that is not easily recognizable, and bitterly accepted if at all. This is Nature's difficult method -- though in the future we will discover the inner, spiritual means to move life forward without the need of pain and difficulty. It is called the way of Soul.
I have mentioned a handful
of subtle life principles -- though there are many more, each
more remarkable than the next. Though laudable, the goal is not
simply to be aware of and occasionally experience these
startling unfoldings of life, but utilize their power to raise
our consciousness, while bringing about progress in our lives.
Then life will become an endless adventure, a 'thrill ride of
the within', which will not only take us to the heights of any
endeavor we engage in, and allow us to make remarkable personal
progress, but will fill us with an ongoing deep joy and delight
of being. At that point, we will stand on the shores of a New
Way of Living.
An extended Article Explaining the
Fundamental Principles of Life
How
Life Outcomes are Related to Our Consciousness
There is no coincidence. Every thing that happens that
occurs is a result of some action or state of consciousness of an
individual(s) or other life movement that originated in the past or in
one's being. Everything we see occurring is inextricably bound up
with previous energies that determined the current state. E.g. a
previous bad attitude can suddenly out of nowhere, from a seemingly
unrelated source, bring negative consequences on that individual who
earlier expressed that wanting attitude. In works of literature as in
life, this causality is always at work, though we do not recognize it on
the surface. Instead we call such phenomena fate or coincidence. they
are not so. If we look closely we will see the correlation between the
individual consciousness and the outer condition at any point in time.
This is the mystery of life unknown to the world which can now be known.
It opens us up the true causality of existence, which is a marvel to
behold. To that end can perceive a series of micro laws that
demonstrates these subtle movements, which we collectively call "the
character of life."
Life Response & Other Hidden Patterns of Life
Aside from factors such as the role of human character, the role of positive and negative, and the social forces that come into play in the game of life, there are a number of hard to fathom forces that defy all mental logic and comprehension. A number of these, such as "Life Response," play a large role in the character and outcomes of life. There are other types of patterns, cycles, and repetitions in life that we cannot fathom form our ordinary perceptions of life that are also at play in the game of life. To understand these types of forces will help us better understand the nature and character of life.
Life Response
Life response is how life suddenly, abundantly, and miraculously responds positively on the outside to a corresponding change of our consciousness inside; defying our accepted notions of cause and effect, and space and time. E.g., you change a wanting attitude, and suddenly a moment later someone from half way round the world who you've never known before contacts you with news of a big contract, or a huge monetary gain, or a whole new path for your career. How to continually invoke such wondrous responses from life outside one's self from within is the subject of this book.
Inner-Outer Correspondence
What we experience on the outside is
a direct reflection of what we are inside. I.e. there is a
correspondence between our inner psychological condition -- including
our habits, wants, feelings, attitudes, opinions, and beliefs -- and how
the world takes shape outside ourselves. This would suggest that if we
were shift to a more positive psychological condition inside, life on
the outside would instantly respond positively in kind.
Such sudden response of the outer life to our inner condition can take shape in two ways - positively or negatively. E.g. just after I decide that I will no longer allow myself to feel negative feelings towards another, I am informed that I've been selected to head an exciting and lucrative new project. Inversely, a moment after I feel an intense negative emotion towards a fellow worker, I am informed that an important project I've been working has been cancelled.
From this perspective we see that our normal views of what is logical and possible, of how cause and effect should relate, of how space and time should function, are rendered obsolete. Instead, we develop a new view, a new perception of the true subtle association and relationship amongst objects and individuals in the universe.
Utilizing Character of Life Knowledge
Utilizing the Knowledge of the
Character of Life
Thank you for
the excellent examples of the
principles of the Character of Life.
Several ideas (of Karmayogi) presented
stood out for me:
One is this "there will be always a underlying “swabahva” based on which life acts mainly-positively or negatively. Understanding that is understanding the character of life and taking/ doing/ acting the opposite is making life respond to our wish."
My comment is that if we learn the principles of life response and character of life, which is its superset, then we will be able to fix the swabahva of our or other's being. Then if we want to change it, we can overcome the negative cause, and accentuate the positive. One way is by changing our corresponding nature. The other is by offering it to Her Force, which will act on its own terms.
In this way, we gain power over karma; I.e. we direct it in the way we see fit. It is the difference between Nature's (Prakriti) principle of Contradictions, which requires us to resolve a difficulty into a higher harmony, vs that of Soul, which is self directed higher consciousness. It is actually both, though as we become more self-aware, we shift from resolving contradictions to Soul based improvement, which is a higher order and form of Yoga. Even the way of Soul resolves the contradiction between our earth nature and our potential for supramental realization of the Infinite divine in our being.
“To observe ALL such correspondences that life around you reveal and classify them will be part of learning Life Response.”
-Learning all the micro and macro principles of life will give us the mental understanding of life. When we then experience it, it moves to the life plane, gaining further power for us. When it is realized in the very fiber of our being, it has gone into matter, formulating as ultimate power to navigate and determine life around us. Life will respond at every corner.
The ascent is to gain this knowledge. The descent is to experience and realize it in our lives. Then we become a new person and being at the psychological level. Now Mind empowered knows what to do, thereby constantly gain life’s cooperation.
We still however need Her force to transform the substance of our being; from the sensation of the nerves to the physical cells that deteriorate. In similar fashion we can become an instrument of similar change for the nervous and physical substance of others and the world around us.
-With hundreds of pages of examples of character of life principles I have accumulated over the years (beyond the obvious life response subset of laws), I am been tempted to write a book on ‘The Character of Life.’ It would go far beyond my book on Life Response. All of this accumulated data, my recent columns on the subject, review of Karmayogi's endless principles with examples, organizing the knowledge of Garry Jacobs' P&P audio discussions, the work we did at Human Science especially The Character of Life in Film, etc. would create a staggering basis for such an undertaking. To make a serious beginning, I would need to further warm up to the idea.
Overcoming Dire Conditions; Preventing Tragedy through Character of Life Knowledge
Spiritualpotential has raised a great issue. In essence, by understanding the Character of Life, we can ward off potential disasters (or for that matter any other future problem).
I have been deeply immersed in this issue of late; particularly one aspect. I have learned that if we focus our minds on a problematic circumstance in the world, we create the ‘Mindspace’ that can spread and rectify it. For myself, I have seen that in combination with the spiritual Force and the will to overcome the looming catastrophe under consideration, that if I research the matter in great detail, including determining its deepest causes, life tends to suddenly move and resolve the issue on its own.
I have tentatively called a new column I am writing 'Creating Mindspace that Spreads and Changes the World' that addresses this very approach. It is yet another dimension of the Character of Life. I.e. the mind concentrated on the issue in all its facets creates a mindspace that moves out into the world and realzies it or otherwise changes it for the better.
In recent years, I have practiced this technique and attracted powerful crisis-ending results for the collective with (a) the devastating California energy blackouts of ten years ago that threatened to shut down the state, the country, and the Internet;, with (b) the California fires that threatened to poison thousands several years ago, and now (c) the giant oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In each case, a combination of concentrating on the issue in detail, looking for causes, plus deep interest in the matter’s resolution and Her Force overcomes the problem quickly. I have documented these and related incidents elsewhere.
This general inner approach can also work for predicting outcomes, and preventing tragedies, such as terrorism attack. Karmayogi has mentioned that the complete knowledge of the 9/11 attack was there in the earlier Philippine incident, as well as an earlier attack on the World Trade Center. If we follow the knowledge revealed in that predecessor thread, and keep our ears and eyes open to recent developments, offering it all to the Divine, we can discover the time and place such events would occur; even catching it in the bud beforehand.
The Character of Life REVEALS ALL if we learn to understand its subtle laws and signals. Thanks again to spiritualpotential for raising this issue; i.e. the utility of Character of Life knowledge that enables right vigilance that prevents tragedy, guaranteeing safety, peace, and harmony.
The Power of Knowing the Hidden Ways of Life
It is said that the Lord works in
mysterious ways. Indeed if we substitute the word "Life" for the "Lord",
we will see an added dimension to this truth. My focus here is on the
mysterious ways that life works. Let me offer several illustrations.
-
You see on the TV the very subject you had earlier discussed, a subject you never have broached before in your life, and have never seen discussed on the air. This indicates how a decided interest in a subject tends to suddenly attract from out of nowhere corresponding elements from the field of life.
-
There is animal excrement on your doorstep or the lights go out just as you receive a letter from someone who has ill will towards you. With this knowledge, you now know that this is an individual to avoid or to deal with in a different way from before.
-
You take up a project you were unwilling to undertake, and suddenly you receive a call from your agent indicating that your entire spring calendar is filled with work; where just a moment earlier you wondered how you would ever survive.
-
Realizing that the morning training session you have been leading has been a disaster, you open yourself to the spiritual Force, causing the remainder of the course to go absolutely perfectly. In fact, there is a palpable stillness and peace throughout that splendidly effective afternoon session.
-
You change your ill will towards someone, and quickly thereafter not only are you unexpectedly bestowed with an expensive gift from your company, but everyone else in the firm also unexpectedly receives that same wonderful gift. (In an earlier instance, when that person gave up hostility toward certain individuals, she unexpectedly is offered a full time job position, this after 10 years of trying to secure it.)
These are but a few examples of the subtle ways that life works. Understanding why these movements occur, and how to channel these forces and attract positive outcomes is a secret knowledge available to anyone. Practical application of the subtle laws of life enables one to attract its infinite potentials in no time, which in essence gives us an ultimate Power and Efficiency of life. It is an applied wisdom that will enable any individual to quickly move toward the top of their field, in the positive sense, even as you are able to avoid attracting negative situations from the world around you.
This subtle knowledge of life's workings is something unheard of and untaught in our society. However, if we acquire that knowledge early on, we will surely live an entirely new type of existence; one of phenomenal success, of endless discovery and wonder, bring us continuous joy and delight of being. Each of us can begin to acquire that knowledge today and apply it in all aspects of our lives, enabling us to instantaneously attracting good fortune, including the most cherished objects of our desire.
Applying the Subtle Principles of Life to Attract Infinite Success
When
The American
settlers gazed out on
the virgin land, they
knew that a clean slate
was before them --
i.e. there was a land of
infinite possibilities
that they could make
into their own image. We
too have a life of
infinite potential
before us that we can
shape into our own
living reality.
And yet the American settlers created ultimate success because they
already had the knowledge of how to create a civilization, i.e. having
lived there for generations they knew how to recreate Europe in the New
Land. Thus, they knew the world they wanted to create, and had the
skills and knowledge to do so. In our lives, we too have a certain
knowledge passed down through the educations system, which give us the
capacities to succeed. In addition, we have our own native abilities
inherited through our genes and acquired through social interaction. Yet
there is one other power that stands above all for shaping our success
-- knowing the true Workings of Life. There are a series of
previously-unknown, hidden laws and principles that describe the subtle
manner through which life unfolds. These are startling unfoldings that
hardly anyone knows. And yet if we learn what they are and apply them,
we harness a vast power that enables us to instantly bring the infinite
potentials of life to the here and now.
One of the principles of the subtle workings of life the power of
Intention: that what we intent releases energy that moves out into the
field of life and brings us in return that which we aspired for.
It is a miracle to behold. Another miraculous-like principle is
Inner-Outer correspondence: that what is happening on the outside
is a direct reflection of our inner condition, and thus if we change the
inner to the positive, the outer instantaneously responds in kind. This
miraculous-like result I call a 'Life Response.'
When we know the dozen or so hidden principles of life then the
infinite potentials of life instantly turn into a living reality. Not
one in a thousand knows these laws. When the world realizes them, we
will see the beginning of a new reality, a new life on earth. We will be
able to truly make the world into our own image in no time at all, just
as the settlers did after they first viewed the infinite virgin land
before them.
The Character of Life in Literature and Film
Life Principles Expressed in
Literature and Film
Literature
and the Character of Life
-It
is in literature that we can most readily and objectively discover the
nature of life.
-Great literature represents in story form truths of human action, individual character, social character, the character of life and spiritual evolution. The author draws on the vast reservoir of universal life to fashion stories, characters, action and consequences. Regardless of the author's conscious intention, what is portrayed is true in character if not in fact to the fundamental realities of human nature, the life of society and life as a universal plane.
-The results of action in a story of great literature are an expression not only of human initiative, individual and social character, but also of the character of life itself. Life is a universal field in which forces and forms act and interact with each other. Like the individual and society, it too has what may be called a character of its own. That character can be described in terms of the distinctive ways in which life events occur, repeat and reverse, and the factors that determine the results and consequences of human action. (MSS)
Shakespeare's Works & The Character of
Life
Through comedy and tragedy Shakespeare reveals the vast
expanses and profound depths of the character of life. For him they are
not separate worlds of drama and romance, but poles of a continuum.
Helene Gardner writes, 'Generalization about the essential distinction
between tragedy and comedy is called in question, when we turn to
Shakespeare, by the inclusiveness of his vision of life.'
Though the characters differ in stature and power, and the events
vary in weight and significance, the movements of life in all
Shakespeare's plays are governed by the same universal principles which
move events in our own lives. Through myriad images Shakespeare
portrays not only the character of man and society but the character of
life itself. A.C. Bradley observes that 'Shakespeare almost alone
among the poets seems to create in somewhat the same manner as Nature.'
His portrayal of the minutest details of human character and life is
true to life 'and it is just because he is truthful in these smaller
things that in greater things we trust him absolutely never to pervert
the truth for the sake of some doctrine or purpose of his own.'
(MSS)
Shakespeare's Insight into the Character of Life
The pattern of interaction between character, action, and the results of action reveals the importance of a crucial indeterminant which is variously called providence, chance, fate, etc. What appears as chance at the level of physical action is an expression of another dimension of causality in the plane of life. Shakespeare possessed an intuitive insight into this realm and into the role of individual character and social consciousness as points of expression of the wider character of life. (MSS)
Character of Life in Shakespeare
Othello, though basically a good man, the atmosphere there is decidedly negative against him. And so he falls victim to it. In Hamlet he has a moral conscience which prevents him from acting, and becomes life's victim even though he succeeds in attracting the end of the rein of the king who murdered his father. In other works of literature (and in life) man succeeds because the supporting energies are positive.
View Growth Online Portal "The Character of Life in Shakespeare"
View "The Character of Life in Pride & Prejudice"
View the Human Science Portal on the Character of Life in Cinema New!
Other
Also See Nature's Way vs. Our Conscious Way of Progress & Evolution
What is
Sown is Reaped (Law of Karma)
(main)
Definition of Karma
Definition of
Karma
Karma is the belief that all that has occurred in
the past is affecting the current condition.
Definition
of Karma
Sri Aurobindo calls karma the
past initiated act and its momentum.
(MSS)
What You Sow is What You Reap (i.e. Law of Karma)
The energy we give out comes back to us. Life never fails to return good for good, bad for bad, truth for truth, and falsehood for falsehood'in its own time and manner. This principle is otherwise known and often misunderstood as karma. Karma in Sanskrit means 'work'. Every act represents an energy directed toward some purpose or goal. The nature of the energy expressed in an act is defined not only by the physical action, but more essentially, by the motive, attitude, idea and intention expressed in the action.
We Reap What We Sow in Ways that Defy Human Logic
It is not easy to see how one's indulgences come back to haunt one at another time. One idealist lecturer allowed students to pass who were not even close to passing, and should have failed. Many years later his own son became a loafer. The father one day begged him to take an examination in order to rise in life, but he refused. How could the idealist know that when he was indulging his students, he was setting in motion a vibration that would return on him as it totally spoiled the whole career of his own son? Life responds this way, which we sometimes call the "law of karma" or the idea that "what you sow is what you will reap." That law holds true as Nature brings circumstances that substantiate this in ways that defy our ordinary perceptions of cause and effect, and space and time.
All Acts Have Consequences Sooner or Later, and Positive Life Response
Every act that is done has a consequence sooner or later. Often negative things occur to us because of an action taken a while ago. This can account for a negative situation occurring for no particular reason. The same for positive outcomes.
LIFE RESPONSE EXAMPLES
-In Pride and Prejudice Mrs. Bennet, the mother of five daughters, is trying to get them married off. She takes initiatives into arranging for potential suitors to meet her daughters, without consulting the daughters about their interest. Her meddling actions lead to continuously negative reactions, i.e. life responses, in the days that followed her self-centered, shameless initiatives. Events occurred that prevented and were against the very possibility of her daughters being approached in a positive way.
Karma and Life Response
-Much of the world's wisdom has come to us from ages long forgotten.
-One particular insight from the ancient past is the notion that how you act towards life is how life will act towards you.
-In the West, it is captured by the aphorism 'what you sow is what you reap,' while in the East it is expressed by the 'law of karma.'
-Despite the complexity of circumstance, and the long arc of time separating the initiating actions and the returned positive or negative result, there is a flow of events that are logical in sequence, and that lead to a reasonable and just end.
-And yet, a shift in one's consciousness -- such as a change in attitude -- can also bring about instantaneous results, not waiting for the exigencies of life to unfold; not waiting for a to-be-expected lengthy or complex chain of events to run their course.
-In this modified view of things, the principle of sow/reap, law of karma is expanded to also include the subtle movements of life that do not conform to our traditional - i.e. linear, consequential, time-bound - experiences.
Overcoming Karma
Karma is
Not Fixed; It Can be Overcome by the Spirit
The belief that we are locked into and are bound by our past
karma is a false one. The way out is by opening that karma to the Force
of the spirit, which dissolves it.
On Karma
No Karma need bind him if he is willing to give up those
habits through which Karma has a hold on man.
(MSS)
Spirit
Overcomes Karma
If we open to spirit, i.e the Force -- e.g. related to a
problem -- the Karma can be dissolved. Thus in this sense he
determination of our past karma is not absolute. We can overcome our
negative past actions.
Being/Spirit Can Cancel Karma
Being can cancel "what is written" (i.e
karma).
(Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Book II, Chapter 22)
Consciousness-Will is Greater than Karma
Karma, and Consciousness-Will working
through mind, life, and body are two instruments. The latter is a
greater instrument.
(Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Book
II, Chapter 22)
The West's Disregard for Karma is a Reason for Its Progress
To a Westerner, the idea of karma is alien to his way of thinking. It is one reason for his endless progress. (MSS)
Seeing Beyond the Morality of Karma through Yoga
Alexander Dumas knew every secret of life and reveals LIFE to us through Dantes [in The Count of Monet Cristo]. Here a moral aspect of life is portrayed. We Indians will call it karma. To see beyond morality and karma is philosophy. To live that is yoga.
Overcoming Karma by Offering to Divine
Mother
Offering the karma: If the devotee
knows now that his past actions have led to the present
situation, he should offer to Mother the original acts so as
to dissolve the karma at its roots. A father whose son had
run away from home acknowledged that in his youth he had run
away from home as a truant. His offering of his earlier
actions now to Mother brought his son back to him exactly at
the moment when his mind repented.
Offering of the propensities that have created the karma: This is the same as offering of karma but is deeper and has a greater purifying effect.
Invoking the Supramental Force Overcomes
the Karmic Rules of Life
The rules of life are rigorous and inexorable. ... When the Force of
Supermind is invoked, it has the power to go beyond the rules of life
which we call karma. (MSS)
Overcoming Habits that Create
Karma
No Karma need bind him if he is willing to give up those
habits through which Karma has a hold on man. (MSS)
Karma Not Sole Determinant
The mechanical law of karma cannot be accepted as the sole determinant of circumstances, and the whole machinery of rebirth and our evolution. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Book II, Chapter 22)
Invoking the Supramental Force Overcomes the Karmic Rules of Life
The rules of life are rigorous and inexorable. ... When the Force of Supermind is invoked, it has the power to go beyond the rules of life which we call karma. (MSS)
Inner-Outer Correspondence
(main)
(This is a big topic and has its own section. Click here to see entries.)
The
Phenomenon of
Life Response
(main)
(This is a very big topic and has its own section. Click here to see entries.)
General | Acts Repeat | Acts that Unfold Opposite of What One Intended
Simultaneous Acts are Related | Parallel Events
Predecessor Event Indicates Successor | Outcome Indicated at Beginning
Acts
The individual
meets life through acts. Individual acts are the fundamental unit of
life and action. They
are the building blocks
of activity,
and motion, i.e. life. The ways these acts are
acted out have an ultimate effect on the ability of the individual to
accomplish in life. Into every act the individual takes his level of
aspiration, capacities and character, social perception, and meets the
social forces
around him. The result
and accomplishment is determined by the mix of these forces.
A series of acts make up the interaction, events, situations, and circumstances of life. We can also perhaps say that the play of life is the story of how the acts unfold, of whether or not there was accomplishment. For example, in his plays Shakespeare portrays a series of acts that occur in a timeline that make up a play. Through a series of acts he clearly portrays the individual and social forces, and the outcomes that result, either good or bad (i.e. tragedies).
The Nature of Acts
The master word of life is an act.
When we function in the world we do so through the individual acts we perform. We can say that the act is the fundamental unit of life in the same way that the atom or molecule are the fundamental units of matter. In fact, each act is in fact a microcosm of the universe.
All the forces and factors that exert their influence in life are represented at the level of the individual act and reveal their characteristic role at that level. The timing, sequence, quality and intensity of the act influence its outcome.
E.g. acts that lack the necessary quality (knowledge, skill) or intensity (energy) or are carried out in the wrong sequence or with the wrong timing fail to produce results. Acts that are adequate on all these criteria have a strong propensity for accomplishment.
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Life is a plane of force, and each act expresses a
force. Each force wants to continue and perpetuate itself. (MSS)
Nature of Acts
The basic unit of vital substance is the individual discrete act. Acts combine to form all the larger units of activity observable in life. When we delve into the nature of an act, we find it too consists of a microcosm of smaller components' thoughts, sensations and impulses, which are themselves energy vibrations.
The Movement of Energy Amongst Forms
Energy creates form. However, forms break down, is unable to hold the energy, and so the energy takes new form. What lasts is the energy. What changes is the form. E.g. forms of government change, but the force and energy continues, even increases when of a higher consciousness. Thus energy goes from one form to another; one act to another.
The Act is Universal Life in Miniature
An act is the unit of life, as the atom is the unit of Matter. An act is a miniature of the universal life. An act is not a mere part of life or creation. It is an integral part of creation. An integral part must necessarily be of the structure of the whole. (MSS)
An Act (an Entity to Itself) is Energized by the Individual
- An act is inanimate.
- It can be animate when done by a person.
- Still, the act has its own existence.
- An ACT is the unit of the universe.
- In the individual, an act is given the energy of his life.
- An act is a universe by itself.
The Right and Wrong in Attitude and Acts
The right or wrong does not lie in the ACT, it dwells in one's attitude. (MSS)
Components of an Act
The components of an act are energy that comes from interest, goal that gives the direction, organisation from which power issues, and skills that convert that power into results. (MSS)
Consequences of Acts Dependent on
Three Factors
The consequences of an act depend on the strength of the
act, the actor and the social atmosphere.
The Effect of the
Atmosphere on Ability of Act to Succeed
Principles of Acts
When we function in the world we do so through the individual
acts we perform. We can say that the act is the fundamental unit
of life in the same way that the atom or molecule are the
fundamental units of matter. In fact, each act is in fact a
microcosm of the universe; the universe in miniature.
Each act is a force with a propensity to repeat that increase
with each occurrence. Each repetition of an act increases its
tendency for further repetitions. Comment:
Each time you meet with a certain person after a lengthy period
of time, the person seems to be the same with all of the same
wanting qualities and limitations. And yet if we consecrate the
act beforehand, we can change those conditions, there will be
freshness, as the other person will show their very best nature.
In that way, the natural repetition of life is overcome.
There are always predecessor events that point to the
bigger events. To know those smaller acts can help us control
the bigger ones; turning them into great accomplishment and
results. Comment: A man was running into
great difficulties searching for some lotion before a boat ride,
creating stress. When the boat ride occurred, it was marked by a
near catastrophic accident, which was indicated by the earlier
stress of seeking the lotion.
The outcome of a
chain of events is indicated at the very beginning, though the
meaning of that indication may not be evident.
Comment: See above.
The
consequences of an act depend on the strength of the act, the
actor and the social atmosphere. Comment:
Darcy's initiative in Pride and Prejudice to resolve the
elopement succeeds royally because he was very determined to do
so (and to show Eliza he has changed his nature); plus the
supporting atmosphere, despite obstacles, is very positive.
An individual's ability to accomplish is affected by the
social environment and atmosphere -- which includes the
capacities, energies, character, and circumstance of the social
environment and social institutions he is involved in.
An opportunity taken up in a positive atmosphere supports and
enhances its eventual outcome. Comment: The
atmosphere in Pride and Prejudice was highly positive,
despite obstacles, which ended in the very successful marriage
of three daughters. Life responded positively to the initiative.
When the atmosphere is negative, the initiative will fail,
unless the individual is able overcome the resistance of the
atmosphere. Comment: Two partners tried to
make an import business work, yet there was ill-will against the
manufacturers that created such a negative atmosphere that it
led to the failure of the partner's endeavor, even though they
tried so hard to succeed. Their energies were not strong and
subtle enough to combat the resistance.
When
there are deficiencies in the act that are greater than the
atmosphere, the act fails. When the capacities are stronger than
the atmosphere, then the act succeeds.
When an
individual tries to make a significant progress for improvement
in life, often there appears on the scene a negative influence
and counter force to bring it down. If the person has the
significant energy and character they can overcome this negative
influence and move on to the next level. If they don't they are
brought down. Comment: In the film
Unbreakable, when one man rises with extraordinary psychic
capacities to benefit the world around him, a negative force
rises -- they are unknown to each other -- to overcome that
positive force. Life has this quality. The negative is
responding to the positive. Fortunately,
the positive individual through his inner strength prevails.
Another Example: A woman had reached maximum prosperity due to her capacity, but at the same time was threatened by her husband and in laws to stop praying and apply spiritual principles. She then took a firm decision, forgetting her future and child, and instead increased her energy and faith towards her spiritual teacher, and said in her mind to others "if you don’t want me to pray to the Divine and follow the spiritual principles, I don’t want to live with you." The moment when she forgot the society, its norms and in laws, life responded with a Divine blessing in the form of birth of a new baby girl. (MSS, with comment by Growth Online, and a Karmayogi.net forum reader)
The Process of Creation for the Divine, the Individual, and Acts are the Same
-The process by which an individual or a collective creates in life is the same process that enabled a universe to emerge from a Spiritual source.
-When we create and accomplish in life, we essentially have a vision of, an aspiration of that which we want to accomplish, we organize its details, and carry it out through skills and positive attitudes that enables it to manifest as a living reality.
-Likewise, the Divine had a Vision of creating a universe to extend its Delight into forms, which it manifest by extending its original Spiritual status into a conscious Force, out of which emerged an essential Energy, which became/s becoming all forms in the universe, including us, via the dividing action of Truth Consciousness (Supermind). Thus the Divine too enabled the universe through a process of vision/conception to organization to manifestation.
-The individual act is a microcosm of the universe.
-The process of a successful act that manifests as accomplishment is the same process as the process of the creation, whether for the individual or the universe.
-Acts are accomplished perfectly through knowledge, aspiration, conception, will, organization, and skilled execution. This is a complete act that yields infinite results, mirroring the infinite results that took form as our universe originating from a Divine source. When we perfect an act by following the process of creation, we are mirroring the process of creation of the universe from a Divine source. In all instances, the ultimate purpose of the result is Delight of Being.
-There is ultimately only one process in the unmanifest, as well as in our manifest universe -- the Process of Creation.
-Click here for additional thoughts on this topic.
Greatness of Seeing Life Response in the
Smallest Acts
-For one who observes and wants to learn, no move
or event is too trivial to study. The more trivial the act is, the
greater is the revelation.
-Only when we are able to SEE the laws of Life Response in every act, do we understand it.
-Analysis will reveal there is no simple ACT, but all acts are complex processes, each is a marvel, defying classification. Understanding is to find the complex in the simple. (MSS)
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Profundity is to discover the wisdom in ordinary events. (MSS)
The Complete Act in the Process of Creation
Every day you are
afforded the opportunity to create something perfect. When we
follow the process of creation from vision to manifestation, we
create such perfection -- and then some. This universal process
can be seen in the largest of undertakings, as well as the
smallest of acts. An example will illustrate.
You prepare breakfast every day for yourself. One day you have the will to make it, though you are a little fuzzy on the precise entity you want to create. Another day you now exactly what you want to create, yet you are not all that motivated to prepare it. A third day still you know what you want and have the will to create it, but have not thought through and organized the details of its execution. In each of these cases, --and there are a myriad of combinations -- the process of creation is not being followed, which leads to perfect outcomes; even the cooperation of life.
The process of creation in the act requires a vision of what you want to create, which is the conception of the undertaking. For it to actually take shape, it requires your will, desire, and drive. You then need to organize the details so that it can be created as intended. Then you carry out your organized plan through right skills to get the job done, and determination and positive attitudes to prevent any back sliding.
In the case of the breakfast, you know that you want eggs and toast, but the eggs need to have peppers and mushrooms in them. Your conception is clear. Now you have to have the energy, drive, and will to prepare the food. You also need to consider the details of the undertaking, such as which item to prepare first and other aspects of the organization of the cooking process. Along the way, you must have the necessary physical skills to make it happen. In addition, you need to feel positive at every stage, avoiding any negative attitudes or feelings that might retard the operation.
There is thus focus, intensity, organization, skill, and right consciousness in the process of creation and accomplishment. To start in the middle of the process (e.g. with will, but not goal and vision of what is to be truly achieved), or leave out one aspect, will create wanting results. To follow the process in right order and meet all its conditions will create a perfect outcome. Often it will be accompanied by instances of sudden good fortune, where positive developments from the surroundings suddenly and most unexpectedly move in your direction. It is the miracle that unfolds when we follow the process of creation in a given act -- large or small -- bringing out the infinite potentials of life to the here and now.
Consecrating Acts
As any act rises before you, you can offer
it to the Divine Spirit, or in my case to the Divine Mother. It can be
an important act, such an upcoming critical meeting, or something
seemingly inconsequential, like brushing one's teeth. The outcome will
be the cooperation of life relative to that activity.
Here is another approach. At the outset of the day, offer it in its entirety to the Higher Power. If there are several critical events that are going to occur during that day, offer them individually as well at this outset of the day 'prayer.' Also, when a major event in the day comes up, offer that before you start. Eventually, you can go further and offer smaller acts from having a meal to getting dressed to when the phone rings.
Several people I know consecrate based on time, e.g. every hour or even 15 minutes, no matter what acts follow it. (remember; doing this sets life in order, gains its cooperation; often in the most startling ways.)
You can also consecrate past actions, particularly if they went awry. Consecrating them can reduce their influence on the present; even reverse their occurrence in the past! You can also consecrate the negative inner or outer behavior that precipitated that act in the past.
You can also offer a negative thought or quality in your being you now have for the sake of its improvement.
Also, eventually you can learn the laws and principles of acts. Then you can consecrate these as necessary. E.g. one law of acts is that they tend to repeat. If you sense that you are in similar circumstance which brought negative results last time, it will tend to repeat. If you consecrate it, you you can avoid the repetition. (It also works for positive circumstance.)
Another law of acts is that everything is a predecessor of something else; a first sign and indicator of something else that will occur down the line. If you consecrate after a negative has taken place, then follow-up negatives will be prevented. E.g. I have trouble finding sun lotion and I am very late. When I then get to the boat, I consecrate the ride, knowing that something negative could happen which would be a successor of that predecessor. (E.g. another boat nearly hitting us at 50 mph.)
The Laws of Acts is different than consecrating an Act, though as in the above situations, they relate.
True Value of an
Event
Acts Repeat
Each act is the expression of a force that tends to
repeat itself. The greater the intensity of the force and the more times
it repeats, the greater its capacity for further repetition. The quality
and intensity of the force express in each subsequent repetition of the
act. (MSS)
The Nature of and the Stopping of Repeating Acts
-Acts repeating is a perennial theme, ever present all around us. Mostly
we are unaware of the acts repeating in one form or another.
-Sri Aurobindo describes the repetition as the momentum of the past
initiated energy. It repeats for a very long time until the mould wears
out.
-In life, we have to wait for Time to come. It is not in our hands.
Moving to the Spirit, one can say to himself, ''The Time has come'', as
Time is subordinate to Spirit. While in Spirit, the act does not repeat,
as the mould is dissolved. One is master of one's life. (MSS)
Acts Repeat
Acts are alive. They repeat ad infinitum. No act dies a death by
dissolution. (MSS)
Acts Repeat
Human action is the expression of life forces and
it has their character. Each action is in the nature of a struggle or
intermixture of forces. Each act creates and generates a force which is
strengthened by repetition. Each act tends to repeat itself, to multiply
and increase in intensity by repetition. We can imagine life as a virgin
forest. Each original action is like a pioneer forging a new path. Once
he has cleared the way, others can easily follow and make the path more
clear and well established as they do so.
The life of the individual and the society can be similarly viewed. Each act by the individual generates a force for that act to repeat in himself or in others. If the force behind the act is strong, he continues to repeat it and others follow. If it is weak, the act may be successfully opposed by other forces and negatively fall back on him. The unspoken word, the unexpressed will or emotion can also go out as forces and produce their effects. (MSS)
Laws of Acts Repeating
-Events occur according to a cycle of energy, it repeats till it is exhausted or it is transformed. Attempting to repeat an act before the energy is fully replenished will not succeed.
-When you have not outgrown a situation / act and repeat it, it grows in life.-
-When you have outgrown a situation / act and repeat it, it life fails but no accomplishment. When you take efforts not to repeat or do it based on newly acquired “life’s knowledge” it goes to the next plane to give next level of rewards. (paraphrase of Karmayogi)
Overcoming Repeating Acts
Acts tend to repeat unless there is a significant reversal of consciousness, energy.
Acts Repeat in Pride and Prejudice
Another Acts in Similar Fashion to One's Self -- When Mrs. Bennet first asks Mr. Bennet to call on Bingley, Mr. Bennet protests and apparently refuses, but the next day he goes in deference to her request. When Bingley becomes interested in Jane, his sisters and Darcy protest, though ultimately they all accept Jane as his wife. Bennet's initial protest is mirrored by their own. The vibration of protest continues and ripples through the story. His initial reaction is a portent of the reactions that come later.
An Act Repeats in a Similar Way -- Bingley brings Darcy to Herefordshire and is the first to call Darcy's attention to Eliza, where he suggests Darcy asking her to dance at the Meryton ball. Later it is Bingley who brings Darcy back to Herefordshire and then to Longbourn and during that time Darcy proposes to Eliza.
Another Acts in Similar Fashion to One's Self -- Darcy's initial refusal to dance with Eliza at the Meryton ball repeats as Eliza's initial refusal to dance with Darcy when he asks her during her stay at Netherfield ball. Darcy first reacts to Bingley's suggestion and then reverses his reaction by asking Eliza to dance at Netherfield. At this point, Eliza is still reacting to Darcy's initial behavior -- first by refusing his dance offer, later by refusing his marriage proposal! Life has to wait until she too plays out the reaction and its reversal. Both respond negatively to the first approach of greater opportunity, so life or karma has to take its course.
Another Acts in Similar Fashion to One's Self -- Eliza teases Darcy during their dance at Netherfield ball. The rest of the evening she is 'teased' by Collins who clings to her
and the teasing repeats.Two Person's React Similarly -- - Collins takes for granted that Eliza will accept his marriage proposal just as Darcy does when he proposes to her later. The false presumption repeats.
Two People Have a Shared Coincidental Experience Repeatedly -- Darcy and Eliza meet by surprise at Hunsford and then meet again by surprise at Pemberley. They are brought together repeatedly by the initiative of life, rather than by their own initiative. The chance encounter repeats.
Darcy's problem of elopement (Wickham's elopement with Georgiana) comes to Eliza (Wickham's elopement with Lydia). Darcy arrives at the inn in Lambton at the same moment as the letter from Jane, so Eliza feels compelled to confide in him and he has the opportunity to solve a problem for her family that originated in his family. Both Elopement and confiding are repeated.
An Individual Repeats the Same Action in Different Circumstance -- Wickham's elopement with Lydia is a continuation and fulfillment of the movement of his failed attempt to elope with Georgiana. In the first case, Darcy arrived by chance two days early. In this case, Darcy arrives to convert it into a marriage.
Quarrel Repeats through Multiple Generations -- The quarrel of Collin's father with Bennet's father repeats in Eliza's 'quarrel' with Collins when she refuses his proposal and he abruptly departs from Longbourn. The quarrel repeats.
Collins returns to Longbourn for the second time after proposing to Charlotte, rather than staying with Lucases. He later has to receive Eliza at the parsonage where Darcy proposes to Eliza.
Positive Attitude to Another Attracts Same Result for Self -- Collins feels abused by Eliza's refusal of his marriage proposal. By informing Lady Catherine of Darcy's proposed engagement to Eliza, Collins becomes an instrument for Lady Catherine's visit and abuses Eliza about Darcy's marriage proposal. Eliza meant no ill will by refusing Collins. As a result, Collins gets a better match in Charlotte. Eliza feels no harm from Lady Catherine's abuse. It brings Darcy to propose and the abuse leading to positive results repeats.
One's Response to Another is Repeated by Another to One's Self -- Impossible! -- Eliza's response to Charlotte's engagement repeats as Jane's response to Eliza's engagement.
Outset Indicates Repetitions -- On the return trip of Eliza, Jane and Maria from London to Herefordshire, Lydia wants to treat her sisters with lunch but makes them pay. They will continue to pay for the rest of their life. (MSS)