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(Conscious Evolution)
Yoga
(conscious evolution)
by
Roy Posner and
MSS
Overview
(main)
Yoga
To evolve one's self consciously to one's ultimate spiritual
potential and possibilities is Yoga.
Yoga
Yoga is to dedicate one's self to one's ultimate possibility. It is
conscious evolution.
Conscious Evolution
The
Spiritual Aspirant is one who directs his life
to his own physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual growth and
evolution. It is conscious
evolution. The Sanskrit term for this is Yoga.
Embarking on Conscious Evolution through Spirit
Instead of progressing through the pressure of Life/Nature, we can
consciously direct our lives. When we do so through the spirit, then we
embark not only on progress but on conscious evolution.
Yoga
Yoga [i.e. conscious evolution] begins when man awakens to an
existence beyond mind, when he senses or feels a greater consciousness
operative in the world, when he turns toward and seeks to discover the
Divine in himself, in the world or beyond this world. By this quest he
grows in consciousness beyond the limitations of normal human nature and
lives in a higher plane of existence with a more illumined knowledge,
purer vaster love and more powerful will for action.
(MSS)
What Yoga Is
Yoga is a means of
compressing one's evolution into a single, life, year or month.
(Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)
Yoga,
Organization, and Consciousness
By yoga, Sri Aurobindo means a conscious
ORGANISATION for the progress of consciousness. Life, He says,
progresses by consciousness and consciousness progresses by
organisation. (MSS)
Yoga
Yoga means union with
the Divine.
Yoga (Conscious Evolution) vs. Nature
-What
Nature aims at for the mass is a slow evolution, Yoga effects for the
individual by a rapid evolution.
-Yoga is the
rendering in personal experience of the truth which universal Nature has
hidden in herself and which she travails to discover. It is the
conversion of the divine soul and of natural life into divine living.
-The aim and goal of
Nature and Yoga are the same; though the later is infinitely more rapid
and positively effective. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)
-Sri
Aurobindo means by the word yoga the self-willed progress of the deepest
element even in the shallow layer. (MSS)
Beginning Conscious Evolution by
Discovering the Inner Being
Man lives mostly in his surface mind, life and body, but there is an
inner being within him with greater possibilities to which he has to
awake - for it is only a very restricted influence from it that he
receives now and that pushes him to a constant pursuit of a greater
beauty, harmony, power and knowledge. The first process of Yoga is
therefore to open the ranges of this inner being and to live from there
outward, governing his outward life by an inner light and force. In
doing so he discovers in himself his true soul which is not this outer
mixture of mental, vital and physical elements but something of the
Reality behind them, a spark from the one Divine Fire. He has to learn
to live in his soul and purify and orientate by its drive towards the
Truth the rest of the nature. There can follow afterwards an opening
upward and descent of a higher principle of the Being. (Sri Aurobindo)
The Nature of Yoga
All yogas are in essence a reversal of consciousness. It means
MAN who was building up his ego, now should drastically change and build
up the God-consciousness in him.
(MSS)
Yoga is Spiritual Experience
Yoga is not a thing of ideas but of inner spiritual experience. (Sri
Aurobindo)
Spirit Calling Us
to Yoga
In yoga it is not man who calls, but the Spirit that awakens in these
depths that calls from inside. (MSS)
Becoming the Opposite of Who You are in Yoga
If you take to yoga -- i.e.
conscious evolution -- you basically have to become the person you are
the opposite of. I.e.
many if not most of your attitudes, habits, opinions, capacities, etc
have to be reversed. On the other hand, 99% of the people are not even
willing to change one small attitude. That is why they say it takes many
lives to change. Through conscious evolution, we can condense dozens of
lives into one, through an intense 50-year effort of becoming the
opposite of who we are.
If we know the rules of conscious evolution, we can
make the majority of those changes in a few years.
Supramental transformation to a new divine species
is a step beyond, but there is a spiritual Force at our disposal to
facilitate the process. That Force is even there to help us change a
single, solitary wanting attitude if we so choose to make use of it.
Yoga and Four
Levels of Personal Progress
For people in the West, "Yoga" generally
refers to physical movements and exercises that
bring one a greater sense of physical and vital
well-being. Yoga is far beyond that. It is to
consciously develop, evolve, and transform our
nature. If the physical movements take us from
say a level 1 to a level 2, then dedicating
ourselves to a life of conscious progress can
take us from 1 to a 5, to a 10, or even to 100.
When a person with substantial skills adds
similar ones, or a prosperous individual becomes
more prosperous through the same methods, then
there is "growth"
- i.e. progress that is more of the same.
In this scheme, one rises from a 1 to a 1+ or
perhaps a 2. On the other hand, improving
several parts of our being is a more formidable
change and progress that I call
"development."
E.g., a person giving up a persistent grudge
about his difficult station in life, or an
individual overcoming a virulent tendency to
dominate and oppress others would qualify as
development. Another example would be a general
practitioning doctor becoming an expert
pediatrician, or a lawyer becoming a district
attorney or even a judge. In our scheme, that
individual would move from a 1 to as far up as a
5 or 10, depending on the nature of the change.*
If growth is more of the same (i.e. horizontal
expansion), and development is to make
considerable upward progress in one's character,
station in life, etc. (i.e. vertical expansion),
then evolution is to move to a whole
new plane of existence. Evolution can occur
consciously through a dedicated
commitment to change over the course of one's
life -- which is essentially what Yoga is -- or
it can occur less decidedly and consciously as a
result of conditions that arise in one's life.
For example, in the film Educating Rita we
see how Rita moves from a rough, street-smart
woman to a semi-educated individual in an
extraordinarily short period of time. She has
essentially evolved a good part of her nature to
a new plane of existence -- from a vital-focused
individual to a more mental-centric one.
Likewise, Eliza Doolittle in Shaw's Pygmalion does
the same as she rises from a flower girl who
speaks in vulgar tones to a more polished woman
who speaks genteelly and with dignity. A degree
of evolution has surely occurred in both
instances. In Rita and Eliza's case, it occurred
semi-consciously, whereas Yoga enables evolution
to occur consciously and continuously throughout
one's life. Thus, where development is a
movement from a 1 to a 5 or even a 10, evolution
takes one much further, to perhaps a 20.
Conscious or semi-conscious, or even
unconsciously enabled, it is a vast leap,
ordinarily reserved for a very few in life.
Having identified these levels of progress, one
wonders what is it that we actually change in
our being when we develop or evolve ourselves.
For one, each of us has several major wanting
characteristics in our being. Each of these can
be overcome through our willful decisions to
change. E.g., I can change two of the most
untoward parts of my character -- such as a
propensity to laziness and pig-headedness -- to
the point that I actually become its opposite;
in this case, continually hard working and
open-minded. Likewise, a disorganized, weak
person could become a fully organized individual
who continually demonstrates psychological
strength in his behavior. In a life of conscious
Yoga, one continually attempts to overcome each
of our unique limitations of capacity, skill,
knowledge, attitude, opinion, belief, etc. To
the degree we overcome our limitations,
determines whether we are developing or
evolving.
Our limitations of character and capacity do not
end there however. For even if we were to
overcome all of our own unique limitations,
there are also wanting qualities that are
common to all humanity -- such as our
tendency towards anger, hate, fear, desire,
jealousy, and many others primal emotions. In
addition to these are the limitations of our
habitual nature -- including our tendency to
go on repeating our old ways avoiding change,
continually rejecting the new and the
unfamiliar, and an attachment to fixed opinions
and beliefs, amongst. Overcoming the limitations
of our primal and habitual nature is another
goal that can be achieved through a life-long
yogic effort.
Beyond development and evolution is the ultimate
form of progress -- transformation.
Transformation is the changeover from a
current
human functioning to a higher, supra-human
functioning. It is usually enabled by opening to
the transformative power of the Spirit. E.g.,
while a vital/emotional person becoming a
rational mental-oriented individual is
evolution, transformation would bring about a
radical change to the mind itself.
Instead of knowing a thing through study,
understanding, etc., one could come to know the
truth of any subject through descents of
intuitions of knowledge. I.e., through a
newly formulated spiritualized mind,
intuitions of the complete truth of a thing
simply descend and appear in our mind without
the hard churning of thought. Thus, the mind has
been transformed from its usual functioning into
its supra-human mental counterpart.
Such radical transformation can take place in
the mind, in the psyche, in the emotional/vital
centers, in the heart, even in the physical body
itself. E.g., one of our other universal
limitations concerns our physical body --
including the fact that we experience pain,
illness; and that the body withers, decays, and
dies. The transformation of the body would
overcome this -- as we would live in constant
health, and could eventually overcome death
itself. That would require the transformation of
the physical organs and systems of the body to a
new type of functioning, enabling the emergence
of a new type of human being. In our scheme of
things then, such transformation would be a
further exponential change that would take us
beyond a 20, up to 100.
At whatever level we make our change --
development, evolution, or transformation -- we
can utilize the power of the Spirit to help us
along the way. We can offer up to the Divine any
aspect of our nature that we wish to change,
which will attract its infinite power to aid in
the change. From our side we can make every
effort to attain the necessary knowledge to
understand this process, and make all necessary
psychological and behavioral change to overcome
the offending parts. It is a life-long endeavor,
demanding vigilance, dedication, and sincere
effort. It is Yoga in action.
Yogic life culminates when our entire being is
surrendered to the Divine Will, Purpose, and
Influence. We become in all aspect of our lives
-- physical, vital, mental, and spiritual --
instruments of the Higher Functioning. It is the
ultimate possibility of human existence, and the
culmination of Yoga in life.
*Keep in mind that each number upward is not just an
incremental increase, but something akin to an
exponential one!
Coming out of Ego
as First Step of Conscious Evolution
Each of us can certainly take to overcoming one deficiency in our nature
-- perhaps a wanting attitude toward someone else, or a mistaken belief,
or a harmful habit. That in itself will guarantee continuous progress in
life. We can also open to the spiritual Force which, will continually
bring life under our control. If we follow these simple approaches, we
would be all but assured of living a happy, productive -- even magical
-- lives.
However, we can go a
step further and take to an even greater journey. It is dedicating
ourselves to a life of conscious evolution, with the purpose of
continually evolving our highest nature. It an aspiration and
determination to progress from our current status to an ultimate status
through the power of the spiritual dimension of life.
If we are interested
in such an undertaking, how would we begin? There are many places to
start. E.g., we could commit to overcoming our limited attitudes; or
continually open to the spiritual Force before engaging in ant activity
acts, as mentioned above. The major step of conscious evolution is to
make the effort to come out of ego -- the main bar to our higher
nature. It is the way out of our current sense of separateness and
selfishness to a higher state of harmony, oneness, and unity with the
world and individuals around us. It is the decisive step that brings us
to the next step of our own personal evolution.
How then does one
come out of the ego-sense, this very human tendency to focus on one's
own needs and concerns, at the expense of others, and the true
unfoldings of the world around us? We can begin to overcome our
ego-sense by discovering our higher nature, thereby replacing its lower
complement, which is ego. We do that by moving our center of
consciousness away from the surface of life and into the depths within.
There we come to a stillness, a silence that engenders a state of
mindfulness that puts us in harmony with the truths of life that are
unfolding, and the wills and purposes of those around us. As we move
away from the surface bubblings, the visual and auditory stimuli of the
senses that hogs our still and rational mentality, and discover the
deeper poise within, we begin to dissolve our ego and connect more
deeply with the world around us.
There is no bottom
to the depths, as there is no limit to how we can connect to the world
and the universal plane around us. Behind the calm and silence, we
discover within, there is a deeper Subliminal being that sends up its
positive influences to the surface. Deeper still we discover our True
Selves, our personal evolving Soul within. Though there we are now at
our deepest depths, we are at that point ironically most connected with
the world around us, extending out to the universal plane of life. It is
the poise from which we develop the greatest identity with the world and
to the individuals in our lives; it is where our essential Ignorance of
life's workings ends, and where our True Knowledge and wisdom begins;
and it is where we feel the greatest joy, sweetness, and delight of
being.
Thus, as we
continually move to the deeper parts of our being, our ego gradually
gives way -- which translates through self-givingness, mindfulness, and
connectedness. At that point we will a have made the first decisive
change in our attempt to follow the course of Conscious Evolution.
The First Yogic Realisation: to Dissolve the Ego,
that the Divine Alone Acts
God
executes his Will in the world through the instrumentation of the
individual MAN. Sri Aurobindo says Shakti acts and She alone acts. Man
is a mere instrument, a channel.
Creative personalities create unique products, but their theme is
social, what all society happily receives and endorses. A writer feels
that what he writes is his OWN thought. Yoga says thoughts are not ours,
they are universal and they pass through our minds.
With that Realisation, ego dissolves and disappears. To dissolve our ego
is the sadhana [the practice of yoga].
It never occurs to us that God can live our lives better than we can.
What stands in the way is ego. To dissolve the ego, to be aware that He
alone acts, is the First Yogic Realisation. (MSS-extracted)
Dissolving Ego and Yoga
To dissolve our ego is the sadhana [the practice of yoga].
Also See Entries on Moving to the depths ('Concentration')
Reaching Brahman in
the Spirit
You can reach Brahman in
the Spirit, if you choose yoga or yogic life.
(MSS)
Illness and Yoga
Yoga begins deeply
when the body falls ill. Its first symptom is headache and stomach
disorders. (MSS)
Traditional Indian Yoga Methods, Ideas, Writings
(main)
Traditional Indian
View of Yoga
Yoga is a group of ancient
spiritual practices possibly originating in
India
around 3300 BCE for the purpose of cultivating a
steady mind and raising our consciousness. A
practitioner of Yoga is called a
Yogi or Yogini. The real word is actually Yog, not Yoga, but it
seems like people who were not Indians, especially the ones from UK (as
India remained under the rule of UK for approximately 200 years, till
1947), could not speak the word Yog, so they started calling it Yoga and
the pronunciation spread.
Yoga has been defined as "technologies or
disciplines of asceticism and meditation which are thought to lead to
spiritual experiences and a profound understanding or insight into the
nature of existence." Outside India, yoga is mostly associated with the
practice of asanas (postures) of Hatha Yoga or as a form of exercise.
Many Hindu texts discuss aspects of yoga, including
the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the
Hatha Yoga Pradipika, and the Shiva Samhita
Major branches of yoga
include: Hatha Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Raja Yoga.
Raja Yoga, established by the Yoga Sutras
of Patanjali, and known simply as yoga in the context of Hindu
philosophy, is one of the six orthodox (āstika) schools of thought.
The Sanskrit term yoga has
many meanings.
It is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj, "to
control", "to yoke", or "to unite".Common meanings include "joining" or
"uniting", and related ideas such as "union" and "conjunction". Another
conceptual definition is that of "mode, manner, means"or "expedient,
means in general".
(Wikipedia)
The (Traditional)
Triple Path of Yoga -- of Knowledge, of Works, of Devotion
The Way of Knowledge
We live a social life. There is a soul-life of which we have no
knowledge. The soul life has three versions, one of which is the mental
soul-life of the human being. Reason is a tool of knowledge. Mind has
the capacity of vision. Knowledge can go to God with a single-minded
devotion. For that, the knowledge needs to be purified. The purified
knowledge acquires force when concentrated. So purified and
concentrated, mind reaches God-knowledge when so directed. It matures
into God-vision. Thus, Mind knows God, sees God. In the end, it becomes
God.
This is the way knowledge [Jnana]
reaches God.
Of the three paths of works, devotion and knowledge, jnanamarga is one.
One rule of life is what one man can achieve, any other man can also
achieve. Its miraculous spiritual extension is what the greatest man has
accomplished, the smallest too can. Any one part of the Being, when
perfected, can discover God.
The Way of Works
The other is the path of works. What does the work,
[karma] is the will of Man. Will is the
force part of knowledge. The chosen instrument of the path of works
[karmayoga] is the human WILL. The Will
is the doer of works. Life is made up of works of all descriptions,
small and big, important and unimportant. We work to build up our life.
In the end, our life becomes "us".
It actually means we build up our ego. It is the ego of the doer, the
vital ego. All yogas are in essence a reversal of consciousness. It
means MAN who was building up his ego, now should drastically change and
build up the God-consciousness in him.
The method for that is known as sacrifice. The yogi sacrifices all his
works to the Divine. Life itself becomes an OFFERING. This too needs
purification. One needs to concentrate on the Will that does the work.
Further, a discipline is called for. This discipline subjects the human
Will to the WILL of the Divine. It is a means to forge a unity of the
soul of man with the Master of the Universe. This is the path of works.
The Way of Devotion
By an exactly similar path, the heart expands its human
emotion, sublimates it into divine emotion with a view to achieving
unity with the Soul of All-souls. This path is known as
devotion [bhaktimarga].
In its crown it is seen as swoon. The emotions
of the heart have the power to pervade the entire body with their amrita
and send the devotee into an oblivious
self-forgetfulness in the Touch of the Divine [Laya].
Such a union has the power to neutralise poison administered to the
follower [devotee],
as it did in the case of Mira. Andal, who sang her devotion in the poems
of Pasuram, was in love with Krishna [incarnated
symbol of the Divine]. To her, Krishna was a living being. The
gopis of Brindavan enjoyed that nectar of devotion. Radha was its peak
and symbol. Radha was Devotion. Her life was Devotion, her existence too
was such. (MSS, somewhat modified)
Radha's Devotion
to the Divine (as Personified by Lord Krishna) vs. Desire
Radha dwells at the climax of the Krishnalila at Brindavan. Radha is
pure devotion personified. [I.e. her devotion to the Divine, personified
by Krishna. -editor] We often err, taking our desire for devotion.
One mark of devotion is it can only give, it cannot seek recompense;
whereas desire is aggressive and possessive. The presence of
possessiveness is a sure index of its being desire, not devotion. Such a
devotion defies social etiquette.
Suffering from an incurable headache, Krishna said that his headache
would cease if someone devoted to Him placed both their feet on His
head. It was an outrage to hear such a proposition from the Lord. Radha
came forward to do so and relieved Him of His headache. (MSS)
The Lesson for the
Ripe Soul in the Bhagavad-Gita
In The Gita Krishna offers to the ripe soul [i.e. one who has developed
considerably] a psychological method [of yoga, personal evolution]. It
is a method of Jivatma [the individual soul] surrendering to Paramatma
[the Divine]. It is accomplished by renouncing desire, ego and belief in
Dharmas [points of view (?)]. (MSS, with embedded explanations)
The Wisdom of the
Bhagavad-Gita
The Gita declares we should not be attached to the fruits of our work.
It talks about desire. Desire is to be given up. Further, the Gita
pleads for the shedding of the ego. Finally, the Gita exhorts us to
surrender all our dharmas and come to Him [the divine]. These are all
the several stages of perfection according to the Gita. The Lord takes
upon Himself the duty of leading soul to liberation when he treads this
path. This is a profound spiritual truth which will lead one to
realization of the Divine. This is a path meant for the ripe individual
soul. Spirituality is not meant for the unripe soul or for those who are
not serious. (MSS, modified)
Discovery of
Self (Inner Divine, Brahman)
The Vedantic Rishis discovered the Self and tried to understand the
world through Self. For us, the ego is the self. For the Rishi, the
inner Divine, the Brahman is the Self. Tapas or yoga shifts Man from
the egoistic self or desire soul of the surface mind to the inner Self,
the witness Purusha. The Rishi can know the world through his Self
because the entire world is in the Self. The yogi reaches the Self by
concentrating on his mind and detaching the Spirit from the mind. The
pure mind leads to the pure Spirit. Men who develop character, develop
it in life through values. One is to come from above into life and the
other is to rise from life to Spirit above. (MSS)
Transformational Life Requires Overcoming Personal and Corresponding
Universal Resistances
Accepting
life, he has to bear not only his own burden, but a great part of the
world's burden too along with it, as a continuation of his own
sufficiently heavy load. Therefore his Yoga has much more of the nature
of a battle than others; but this is not only an individual battle, it
is a collective war waged over a considerable country. He has not only
to conquer in himself the forces of egoistic falsehood and disorder, but
to conquer them as representatives of the same adverse and inexhaustible
forces in the world. Their representative character gives them a much
more obstinate capacity of resistance, an almost endless right to
recurrence. Often he finds that even after he has won persistently his
own personal battle, he has still to win it over and over again in a
seemingly interminable war, because his inner existence has already been
so much enlarged that not only it contains his own being with its
well-defined needs and experiences, but is in solidarity with the being
of others, because in himself he contains the universe. (Sri Aurobindo,
from The Synthesis of Yoga, p.75)
Role of the Guru
The guru gives spiritual awakening. (MSS)
Yogic Sincerity
Yogic sincerity is to want to overcome one's Ignorance and to aspire for
the Divine for Its own sake, not particularly for one's own benefit.
Energy
The latest conception of Science is that the ultimate Reality is Energy.
Indian yoga and philosophy knew that even before the Buddha [over 2500
years ago]. Indians went two further steps beyond Energy as the ultimate
Reality. (MSS)
Accept (a
Difficulty) that Comes
Anything [e.g.
negative] coming on its own is a reflection of what we really are
inside. In that sense, if we avoid it now, later worse specimens
will present themselves. So the rule in yoga is to accept what comes
and patiently work to overcome it till it leaves by itself. (MSS,
slight change for clarity)
Service to the
Divine
All service done sincerely to the Divine is sadhana. And all
increase in the urge to serve is a sure sign of progress. (The
Mother)
See Additional
Thoughts on Foundations of Indian Spirituality
Yoga (Conscious Evolution) Terminology
Tapas
[spiritual discipline]
Tapas is spiritual discipline.
Moksha [Spiritual
Liberation]
Moksha [Spiritual Liberation] is to lose one's own identity in
identifying himself with the Spirit. (MSS)
Self & Moksha
[liberation]
One who is aware of his Self is at a moment of spiritual awakening.
By tapas, he realises the Self he is now aware of.
Realising his own Self, one becomes a Jivamukta. Leaving his own
body, his Self merges with the Self of the universe in moksha. (MSS)
Being in the Becoming Replaces
Moksha
Moksha/Liberation is for the great but obsolete yoga. Now we must
bring the spirit into our lives; i.e. the Being/Spirit into the
(daily) Becomings of our lives.
Nirvana
Nirvana is a great siddhi [spiritual accomplishment]. Our mind has
opinions, ideas, and beliefs. We function through them. To receive
God into the mind, man-made concepts or structures should not be
there.
To remove every STRUCTURE from the Mind by tapas is Nirvana. (MSS)
Indian
Spiritual Terminology
Nirvana is a great siddhi [spiritual accomplishment]. Our
mind has opinions, ideas, and beliefs. We function through them. To
receive God into the mind, man-made concepts or structures should
not be there. To remove every STRUCTURE from the Mind by tapas is
Nirvana.
Moksha
[Spiritual Liberation] is to lose one's own identity in identifying
himself with the Spirit.
Pranayama
is regulation of the breath. Soon it puts the body in touch with the
universal energies that flow into it, making it glow.
Japa
is to repeat the Lord's name or a mantra so that its power will
enliven us. (MSS)
[additional] Tapas is spiritual discipline.
Japa
Japa is to repeat the Lord's name or a mantra so that its power will
enliven us. (MSS)
Pranayama
[control of breath]
Pranayama is regulation of the breath. Soon it puts the body in
touch with the universal energies that flow into it, making it glow.
(MSS)
See Additional
Thoughts on Foundations of Indian Spirituality
Sri
Aurobindo's (Integral, Evolutionary) Yoga
(main)
Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga
Sri Aurobindo describes a method of evolution for individuals which
he calls his "Integral
Yoga." It is "integral" in the sense that it
covers all aspects of life. It is called integral yoga because it
includes and integrates much of the spiritual traditions and knowledge
of the past, yet seeks to create something new that transcends all of
these. It seeks to implement a new force in the universe, in the world,
the Supramental Consciousness, into the process of spiritual evolution.
His view is that the world is an integrated existence. Through the
integral yoga one rises to fulfill the individual purpose as well as the
universal and transcendent purpose of this integral existence.
Sri Aurobindo's
Integral Yoga
[Sri Aurobindo's famous statement is] "All
life is yoga". His Integral yoga says the
Spirit should evolve in Life and make earth heaven. It is an approach
which considers Man as a whole, an integrated whole, a whole of which
the Divine is the centre. (MSS, with addition)
Object of
Sri Aurobindo's Yoga
The object of the yoga is to bring down the supramental
consciousness and fix it on earth, to create a new race of individuals
governed inwardly and outwardly by the supramental consciousness. These
individuals would form a nucleus of a supramental race, a divine life on
earth. By bringing in the supramental consciousness we can transform
ourselves as well as be an instrument of universal transformation for
the earth.
There would be a transformation of the current mental, vital, and
physical aspects that make up the individual to a higher functioning.
"... to convert our twilit obscure physical mentality into the plenary
supramental illumination, to build peace and a self-existent bliss where
there is only a stress of transitory satisfactions besieged by physical
pain and emotional suffering, to establish an infinite freedom in the
world which presents itself as a group of mechanical necessities, to
discover and realize the immortal life in a body subjected to death and
constant mutation, -- this is offered to us as the manifestation of God
in Matter and the goal of Nature in her terrestrial evolution."
Integral Yoga
[Sri Aurobindo's]
Integral
yoga aims at ALL aspects integrating in supramental harmony to
bring heaven on earth. (MSS)
Sri Aurobindo's Yoga
-Sri Aurobindo's yoga is
integral transformation of one's nature at all planes -- from spirit
down to mind to vital to physical.
-Sri Aurobindo's yoga is the means of rising to the
supramental being and the divine life on earth.
-Sri Aurobindo's yoga follows a path of psychic (soul) to
spiritual to supramental transformation.
Sri Aurobindo's Roadmap of Transformation
Sri Aurobindo provides the seeker with a road map to discover the truth
of his theory and their true Nature. Once that discovery has been made,
he invites them to transform the world into the kingdom of heaven on
earth. The broad principles of the search he advocates are clear.
-
Man must begin by detaching from his surface
personality, time, space, ego and selfishness.
-
Man must disengage from the constructive
consciousness of the mind and its divided awareness.
-
Man must discover his psychic center which is the
secret entrance to the ascending grades of higher consciousness.
-
Man must climb back to and station himself in the
Supramental consciousness where he will rediscover the Oneness of
Existence.
-
Man must act from a poise of consciousness that
permits him to live in Status and Extension simultaneously.
-
Man must act from that center as a point of
self-conscious manifestation to transform life on earth to that of
heaven on earth -- God in manifestation. (MSS, Robert
Macfarlane)
Integral Yoga
of Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo describes a method of evolution
for individuals which he describes in his Integral Yoga. The object of
the yoga is to bring down the supramental consciousness and fix it on
earth; to create a new race of individuals governed inwardly and
outwardly by the supramental consciousness. These individuals would form
a nucleus of a supramental race, living a divine life on earth.
By
bringing in the supramental consciousness, individuals would have the
decisive mechanism and power to complete their transformation. They
could use the force in all aspects of life to change one's nature, to
effect events and circumstances around one, to enable one to be in
greater harmony with the world around one including others, and to be
the effecting power that ultimately leads to a universal transformation
for the earth.
In the spiritual paths
of the past the goal was to connect to the Divine above or within
oneself, or to find a release in a Nirvana, or to experience the
unreality of the outer world compared to the spiritual world. In Sri
Aurobindo's yoga that goal is just the starting point. Once one
has made the connection to the Divine, one brings in that consciousness
into one's being and into the world so that the individual and the world
can be transformed into a higher nature, from out of its
inconscience, ignorance, and falsehood to consciousness, knowledge,
truth, and joy. It aspires to create a permanent change in human and
universal nature.
It is called integral
yoga because it includes and integrates much of the spiritual traditions
and knowledge of the past, yet seeks to create something new that
transcends all of these. It seeks to apply yoga to all aspects of life.
It seeks to understand and integrate all parts of the being, all
dimensions of life aided by the discovery of a new plane of
consciousness, the Truth Consciousness, to enable the transformation for
the individual, the society, the world, and the universe itself.
For those who undertake
the path of personal transformation (i.e. yoga), Sri Aurobindo describes
three successive phases of this transformation -- the psychic, the
spiritual, and the supramental. In the first phase of the Triple
Transformation one moves from the outer surface consciousness to the
inner consciousness; the inner mind, the subliminal within, until one
reaches the personal soul, i.e. inner psychic consciousness. At the
psychic one has withdrawn from the ego consciousness, one is able to
understand and control the limitations of one's physical, vital, and
mental being, and one is put in touch with the cosmic, universal forces
and truths. This is the Psychic transformation. At a further phase one
rises higher in one's being toward higher planes of mind, including
Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, and Intuitive Mind. It is an opening to the
presence above, an elevation of one's lower consciousness to the higher,
and the descent of the higher into the lower. This is the Spiritual
transformation, beyond the Psychic transformation. Beyond that still is
the Supramental transformation, where one rises to the level of
Supermind, for a radical transformation of the being out of the
ignorance that is the foundation of our nature, and into a new
functioning that transcends beyond the mental, vital, and physical. One
can become the Supramental being. The Triple Transformation are these
three types that would happen in succession. (MSS &
Growth Online)
One
Perception of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga
When we consecrates the actions of one's life, we create an opening into
the depths of our being. As we move inward, ego is overcome, silence
comes, and we eventually discover the evolving soul. at that point we
have the Guide that helps us further warn us and shed our limiting
nature. We also feel a connection to the transcendent Reality. In the
mean time, we experience thought through silent mind, and go beyond
through through illuminations and intuitions of truth and knowledge. The
light also descends to transform various aspects of our being.
Ultimately we rise to become the gnostic being through the supramental
transformation of our nature, and as gnostic individual the basis of a
Divine Life on earth.
Sri Aurobindo's
Yoga of Self-Perfection
Sri Aurobindo calls His yoga the Yoga of Self-Perfection. His attempt at
Perfection at the level of the Self is His yoga.
The Ultimate, Integral Yoga
This ultimate integral "yoga" then goes further beyond the
planes of mind. As we move into the evolving soul we experience ever
greater descents of light and force and power of the Spirit into our
being. As we open to the Force, as we surrender our very lives to the
Divine and Its Force, it descends into our vital and physical nature,
uplifting an purifying them, and ultimately transforming them into their
ultimate possibilities, just as Mind is transformed into its ultimate
possibilities. Our emotions become more subtle and ennobled, we develop
greater capacities of character and personality, and even the
limitations of our physical nature, its rigidity, its suffering, even
its propensities toward illness and death begin to recede.
The Yoga of Sri
Aurobindo
The yoga of Sri Aurobindo can be
summed up as follows:
When the spiritual experience of
liberation (moksha) is accepted as the goal, the yogi normally would go
within to find the divine spirit, and remain there, no longer relating
to or participating in troubles of the world. However if one wants to
bring the Divine attributes, its powers and consciousness into one's
daily life or to the community or humanity, the yoga cannot be a partial
one of just liberation where one retreats through meditation or other
technique into the spiritual realm. It has to be an integral
realization. In order for it to be integral, the yogi cannot exclude
life, or even the body, from his yogic purification and perfection. In
other words, 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.
In the context of Indian yogic tradition
this is quite a departure, quite a different approach. So in order to
make his yoga more understandable and bring out its unique qualities,
Sri Aurobindo developed new terminology to explain the tenets of his
yoga, which he called the Integral Yoga. All of this acquired a special
and full significance when The Mother [Mira Alfassa, his future
spiritual partner] arrived in the 1920s. She was keen on a plan of
action and had her own original ideas for redeeming the earth from
falsehood, suffering, and pain. Sri Aurobindo and Mother shared their
approaches and finally arrived at the future course of action.
(MSS)
Sri
Aurobindo's Yoga
Sri Aurobindo recognizes the essential divided nature of man. He
lives in his ego, in ignorance, in time, in limitation, finite, and
suffers from disease and death. Yoga is the conscious method of
overcoming Man's nature and arriving at his spiritual and supramental
Nature.
The Double Opening of
the New Evolution of Sri Aurobindo
-
Sri Aurobindo
says this new evolution has a double opening.
-
Its main
characteristic is to move simultaneously above and below.
-
Moving below, it
goes through the consciousness and substance of the mental, vital
and physical.
-
Moving to the
Supermind above, it moves through the higher mind, Illumined mind,
Intuitive mind and Overmind. (MSS)
The Psychic Being as Opening to Spiritual Supramental Transformation
Supermind is come upon through the psychic opening, which then enables
the spiritual and then the supramental transformation.
Untitled
When one does the physical
transformation part of the supramental transformation (i.e. the last
part of the last stage) one must overcome the influence of the
subconscious. To bring in the Force into the cells of the body is the
way to the physical transformation. The subconscious throws up its
falsities; and it is these that must be negated itself by the Force so
that the physical change of the being (to end disease, death, suffering)
can begin.
ARTICLE on the
Psychic [Soul] Transformation
ARTICLE on the
Spiritual Transformation
ARTICLE on the
Supramental Transformation
Man's Stages of Inner
Growth (away from the outer) & Mind
Man's stages of inner growth
are:
-
[The five] Senses
dominate the mind, a pure vital status.
-
Mind sifts the
senses from facts and acts on pure facts--intellectuality.
-
Mind understands,
not the senses.
-
Mind in meditation
can turn off the senses, see, and hear for itself
-- This is concentration.
-
This opens the
Mind to insight and intuition.
-
Intuition shifting
inside from outside becomes supramental intuition (MSS, slightly
modified)
Traditional Spirit as
Ascent vs. Sri Aurobindo's Ascent & Descent
In our own [i.e. Indian] spiritual tradition,
realization means to rise to a height of
Spirit -- e.g. Self, immutable self, mutable
self, Sat, Absolute, Non-Being etc. -- and
know it fully or possess it partially or fully. Sri Aurobindo calls it
ascent to the Spirit. Up above there are dozens of spiritual statuses
that can be realized. Yogis were most enamoured of different states of
Ananda and when realizing them called themselves by that name.
In
Purna Yoga, realization is not in the ascent
but in the descent. The descent such as the one of which Sri Aurobindo
speaks is not part of our traditional aims, but in view of the mighty
souls that attempted YOGA, the strength of their spiritual personalities
has invariably led to several unintended or unsought openings. Any
descent in their experience was taken as a side effect. With Sri
Aurobindo, there were essential differences. They were:
1) His yoga was an
ascent for the purposes of the descent of the higher Force.
2) His ascent was not
partial as a release from the being or its parts, but an ascent of the
whole being that was released from ego and falsehood.
3) Also, the path of
His ascent was the same as the path of descent.
4) He did not exclude
the parts of being he exceeded.
5) Each stage of his
ascent is completed by a descent from that height into the entire being,
thus completing the transformation at that level.
6) He ascends to
Supermind, trying to bring it down into his being.
7) His instrument is
not mind, though he begins with the soul in the mind, but Supermind.
8) At every point, as
well as every moment, there is a double opening towards the heights as
well as depths.
9) The Brahman is
directly reached when he reaches the Supermind, as it is in constant
touch with Brahman.
10)
He has
gone beyond Supermind,
Satchidananda
and into the Brahman and realized it not as a partial experience but the
Brahman in its fullness. Mind cannot fully grasp the Brahman, but
Supermind can.
11) As descent is the
main thrust of his yoga, the Brahman he realized descended.
12) That descent Mother
says, reached his physical body.
13) Mother went beyond
that, BECAME the Supreme and tried for a descent into the very physical
substance of her body, not the mere physical consciousness. (MSS)
Integral Yoga and Surrender
Integral
yoga's instrument is surrender.
Surrender in Sri
Aurobindo's Yoga
-The surrender Sri Aurobindo describes moves the man from egoistic
centralisation of rationality to universalised individuality. This
change takes place on the surface, the mind, the ego, Time and in the
finite structure of events and objects.
-Human energy cannot
sustain yoga. Only the universal energy can. For that to enter our
system, all human energy must be fully exhausted. No drop of energy
should go to preserve the existing activities. Thus, HE arrives at the
method of SURRENDER. (MSS)
The Act as Occasion
to Surrender in Sri Aurobindo's Yoga
Sri Aurobindo chose a method that is not of any one part. He chose
the ACT as the occasion and the method as surrender. He called it
self-surrender and self-consecration. That way it is voluntary
self-giving of one's self to the Divine. He says perfect self-giving is
perfect self-surrender. (MSS)
Connection to
Divine + Transformation
In the spiritual paths of the past the goal was to connect to the
Divine above or within oneself, or to find a release in a Nirvana, or to
experience the unreality of the outer world compared to the spiritual
world. In Sri Aurobindo's yoga that goal is just the starting point.
Once one has made the connection to the Divine, one brings in that
consciousness into one's being and into the world so that the individual
and the world can be transformed into a higher nature, from out
of its inconscience, ignorance, and falsehood to consciousness,
knowledge, truth, and joy. It aspires to create a permanent change in
human and universal nature.
Sri Aurobindo's Yoga
The belief of converting knowledge into practical utility is the
theme of Sri Aurobindo's yoga when the descent is expressed by the body.
(MSS)
All Life is Yoga
All aspects of life can be a field for one's growth, development,
and evolution. Everything in life is an avenue by which one can
transform one's self. Everything one encounters in life can reveal
itself as a field and opportunity for one's progress. In everything in
life one can find the Divine. Hence Sri Aurobindo's expression that "All
life is yoga."
Aspiration,
Rejection, Surrender
The attempt to change and ultimately transform on one's
consciousness requires three things: an aspiration for the Divine, a
rejection of all elements of our lower consciousness, and a surrender to
the Divine Force. [These are the also the essentials of the yoga, the
path of transformation of Sri Aurobindo.]
A Light Version of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga
A simplified version of Sri Aurobindo is aspiration for the Divine to
come into our lvies, the rejection of our wanting qualities, and the
Surrender of all aspect of our lives to the Supreme.
Aspiration,
Equanimity/Detachment
The one thing to do always is to remain firm in your aspiration
to the Divine and to face with equanimity and detachment
all difficulties and all oppositions. (The
Mother)
Aspiration for
Self-Improvement
One must have an unvarying will to acquire what one does not have in
one's nature, to know what one does not yet know, to be able to do what
one cannot yet do. (The Mother)
The Supramental Being
When the Force comes down it will make man immortal - a
Supramental Being. (MSS)
Meaning of Yoga
Sri Aurobindo means by the word yoga the self-willed progress of the
deepest element even in the shallow layer. (MSS)
Progressing in
Yoga
It is not by the intellect that one can progress in the yoga
but by psychic [i.e. inner soul] and
spiritual receptivity -- as for knowledge and
true understanding, it grows in sadhana by the
growth of the intuition, not of the physical
intellect. (Sri Aurobindo)
The Life Divine and Integral Yoga
The Life Divine can give us the intellectual conception of
the Integral Yoga.
Becoming the Perfect
Individual
The question that has arisen is whether there is a perfect man.
There is no perfection in man today. He is
born of Ignorance with positive and negative traits. Hence there is the
availability of Yoga (conscious evolution) which enables him to
eventually, through a great effort, become perfect in all aspects
- vital, psychological, mental, and eventually
physical and spiritual too. This is a vast undertaking that no one has
completed; few have actually even begun!
Then there is the relationship we have
with the world that can also rise to
perfection. If we change the consciousness within, then life on the
outside will reflect correspondingly, and as a result move towards
perfection.
Therefore overall there is an ascending
movement of progress (positive change), evolution (dramatic change to a
higher consciousness), and eventually transformation (complete,
permanent change and perfection at a plan of being) of the various
centers of the being; a well as the outer world as well
- i.e. society, and the universe itself we
know.
The method of perfection (of yoga) is
twofold. Reject and overcome our
negative propensities (attitudes, beliefs, habits, motives, weaknesses,
incapacities, etc.) as we become aware of
them, and aspire for the Spirit to enter us so that it does its
work and changes us as well. Then we make dramatic strides towards
perfection; overcoming our Ignorance born of creation, and fulfilling
our evolutionary destiny, as individuals and as a species.
This would then be the process of creating
a Perfect Man.
"All Life is
Yoga" Not Truly Perceived
[Sri Aurobindo's statement] "All Life is Yoga" is a theme unperceived by
the greatest sadhak beyond a truism. (MSS)
[Interpretation: We do not perceive that anything we do in life
can be a basis of vast growth and spiritual progress (i.e. yoga). We
don't actively, consciously take up every thing around us, what we come
across in life as an opportunity, a field to raise ourselves in
consciousness, to enable a decided progress.]
Man's Role in the Evolution Towards
Higher Planes of Existence
The movement among the planes (from matter to life to mind and beyond)
is due to a upward movement of consciousness that ends in something new.
[There is a creative outcome.] It's drive is Consciousness-Force and the
power of the Real Idea. It mostly happens on its own in Nature. Now man,
the self-conscious being, can find the sprit within himself, by
discovering the psychic being, and by turning Ignorance to Knowledge,
enabling him to embody the spirit, which will aid in manifesting further
movements of evolution upward into new and higher planes of existence.
However, to do this fully, he will need to transcend his limiting Mind
and open to Supermind to enable the greatest power of reversal and new
emerging existence.]
Sri Aurobindo's Yoga
as a Step Beyond Tanta
Among the many yogas, hatha yoga and tantra are popular.
Hathayoga is popular for the asanas. Tantra is popular for its power. It
is more popular in North India. Tibet is said to be its home. Sri
Aurobindo says Tantra in its nature is a synthesis of all Indian yogas.
The occult part of this yoga attracts people. It uses mantras, yantra,
asana, pranayama. All yogas concentrate on Brahman. The world has two
parts, Brahman and Shakti, or Soul and Nature. Tantra recognises the
value of Brahman and Shakti. Therefore, it acquired the hue of a
synthesis. Sri Aurobindo's yoga is a complete synthesis of all yogas. He
actually uses the idea of Tantra in a different form.
Tantra recognises that Nature is a power of the Spirit. Nature is Spirit
in the form of power. Tantra aims at raising the nature in man into
manifest power of Spirit. This is the method it employs. For this
purpose, it gathers up the whole of man's Nature. Its processes subject
that Nature to spiritual conversion. The process of opening the subtle
centres as in the Hathayogic practice and the Rajayogic processes of
purification and concentration are employed here. Further, it attempts
at a synthesis of these disciplines. It is done in two directions.
Desire and action are the mainsprings of human existence. They are
subjected to an intensive discipline with a view to achieving the soul's
mastery. So disciplined, these motives of desire and action are ripe to
be elevated to the diviner spiritual level. The entire aim of all Indian
yogas is liberation, mukti. Tantra adds a wider cosmic purpose -
enjoyment, bhukti. In truth, it aims at cosmic enjoyment. In this
aspect, Tantra, says Sri Aurobindo, is a larger system. It is bolder
than other yogas, as it attempts to bring the entire universe into its
ambit.
Sri Aurobindo takes these approaches of Tantra to yoga and adds another
aim - the aspiration of the Earth, evolution of the next species beyond
man - the Supramental Being. Also, he does not consider Man as a Soul
in the body as Tantra does. He takes Man as a Soul in the Mind.
His view was to begin at the maximum point of man's evolution of today.
It helps the yogi to dispense with the laborious methods of asana,
pranayama, etc. What is done in these yogas physically, Sri Aurobindo
wishes to do by a mental will. The universal energy enters into the
system in pranayama. In Sri Aurobindo's system, a thought can let the
same universal energy into the human body. It is a thought of
consecration. By consecration Man eliminates his ego, sacrifices his
works to the Lord. The thought of working for the Lord and only the Lord
makes the thought universal and powerful. Therefore, the universal
energies are at his command. (MSS)
Three Tests of
Integral Yoga
The Mother says that thee
are three types of tests for us in life for those doing the integral
yoga. 1) Those of a physical nature: 2) those conducted by spiritual and
Divine forces, and 3) those conducted by hostile forces.
Here is Mother's quote from the Agenda:
"The integral yoga
is made up of an uninterrupted series of tests that you must pass
through without any advance notice, thereby forcing you to be always
vigilant and attentive.
The qualities more
particularly required for the tests of physical Nature are endurance
and plasticity, cheerfulness and fearlessness.
For the spiritual tests: aspiration, confidence, idealism,
enthusiasm and generosity in self-giving.
For the tests stemming from the hostile forces: vigilance, sincerity
and humility."
Yoga of the Earth
The yoga of the earth is done by the work of Nature -- with no waste.
[I.e. Nature can work on multiple objectives/problems
simultaneously -editor] (MSS)
Yoga of Consecutive Moments
We can try an experiment, where we simply observe our inner status and
consciousness from moment to moment for a certain period of time, then
gather all of the facts, and make the concerted effort towards
improvement. We can do this in continuous cycles --absorb, understand,
take right action -- until we have grown well beyond our current status,
and, if we wish, take it all the way to our own transformation. It can
be the yoga of Consecutive Moments. Who will stand forward and take up
the challenge?
The Ideal Attitude of
the Spiritual Aspirant Toward Time
The ideal attitude of the Spiritual Aspirant towards Time is to have an
endless patience, as if he had all of eternity for his fulfillment, and
yet to develop the energy that shall realize now and with an
ever-increasing mastery and pressure of rapidity till it reaches the
miraculous instantaneousness of the supreme divine Transformation. (Sri
Aurobindo, slightly modified)
Preliminaries of Integral Yoga's Full Flowering
The level of consciousness progress is prepared by progress in
attitude. In an
integral
yoga for a long time the main progress is in the lower stage
until the being is sufficiently refined and purified. Only then the pure
yogic capacities -- meditation, concentration, aspiration, consecration,
silence etc. -- can be achieved in some permanent fashion. Only then can
the psychic come forward and take up the
yoga.
Also See Interview "A
Roadmap for Individual Transformation"
MSS Articles on Yoga
-Some
Fundamentals of Yoga
-Spiritual
Realisation in Yoga and Spiritual Fulfillment in Life
(Luck)
Thoughts on Sri Aurobindo &
The Mother
TO BE
CATEGORIZED
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