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ARTArticleSpiritual Insight, Not Psychotherapy, Leads to Deeper Truths of the BeingAs human beings typically rely on their mental capacities to understand things, seekers frequently take the advice of tracing back to the roots of the impulses, thoughts, feelings they experience as requiring a method akin to the processes followed in psychotherapy. Western psychotherapy uses the mind to try to analyze causes and interpret signs, symbols and dreams to lead the individual to the underlying issues he is facing.ARTArticleSteps Needed to ‘Become Conscious’Some people believe that an intense aspiration is all that is needed to overcome the obstacles that prevent seekers from seeing, understanding and effectively responding to the forces that drive the outer life they lead. Others emphasize the details of the methodology to gain the needed insights and convert them into action items in the life. In reality, it is a combination of aspiration, and a specific and detailed methodology that together effectuate the needed consciousness changes. The aspiration energizes the will and focuses the attention.ARTArticleSupermindWithin the framework of our mind and the experience of our vital existence, we are inculcated in the belief that everything is subject to duality, good and bad, happy and unhappy, light and dark. We cannot generally conceive of an existence that is not subject to these pairs of opposites. We believe that we cannot appreciate happiness without the experience of sadness, or that we cannot truly gain any measure of knowledge without a corresponding experience of ignorance, or that light cannot be valued unless we have gone through darkness.ARTArticleThe Action of the Psychic Being Independent of and in Relation to the Exte
al BeingEach level of consciousness acts on its own native level independent of any single individual person or embodiment. There is a subtle physical plane, a vital plane, a mental plane, and various spiritual planes beyond that characterize and represent further levels of the evolution of consciousness in the universal manifestation.ARTArticleThe Aspiration and Surrender of the Body Consciousness in Its Seeking for Health and BalanceWhile the mind does not generally recognise the consciousness of the body, it remains true that the body has its own ability to respond to circumstances. For those who have a highly developed mental or vital being, these powers frequently override the natural responsiveness of the body. When we look at the animal kingdom, for instance, we see that if a dog or cat is ill or out of sorts, it tends to find its solution in letting the body rest, or even, finding the right plant or herb that it needs at that moment, if such is available.ARTArticleThe Aura — the Vital Envelope that Surrounds the Physical BodyFor those people who only treat as ‘real’ things they can directly perceive with the physical sense organs, the aura is considered to be some kind of fantasy of imagination. The aura, a vital sheath or envelope that extends beyond the boundaries of the physical body, has therefore long been the province of psychics and mystics. However, in recent years science has developed methods to determine the existence of the aura, and this has gone a long way toward debunking the idea that the aura is simply an illusion.ARTArticleThe Awakened Psychic Being Attracts What It Needs for Its Growth and DevelopmentThere has been a lot of publicity about what is called generally the “law of attraction”. This holds that an individual can focus on something and thereby cause it to be attracted to him. People have used it to try to attract wealth, romance, and other things they desire to themselves. There is, of course, an occult truth behind the connection between ‘subject’ and ‘object’ that takes place when the focus or concentration of the subject shifts to the object, and thereby can cause some attraction.ARTArticleThe Awakening of the Soul to a Greater Life and PurposeUntil an aspiration awakens in the being, we tend to go about our lives taking cues from the promptings of family, friends, community, religion, or schools. Most people will not therefore recognise any greater or deeper purpose to their lives, and they simply determine to try to support themselves, enjoy themselves and carry out the tasks and relationships that are normal in their society.ARTArticleThe Benefits of a Prepared Mental Instrument for Action in the WorldMany spiritual seekers in today’s world dismiss the need to develop the mind and its inherent powers. The mind is seen as the obstacle to the attainment of the greater knowledge that accompanies spiritual development. This understanding is rooted in the larger belief that spiritual growth implies a separation and abandonment of the life in the world, a belief that took hold with the ascendancy of Mayavada and similar schools of thought around the world that placed primacy on spiritual realisation at the expense of the development of the inherent powers of the mind to develop and refine the lifARTArticleThe Bifurcation of the Exte
al Parts of the Being and the Central ConsciousnessWhen we happen to identify ourselves with certain parts of the being, such as those parts that are conscious, or which are aware of the divine Presence, we generally fail to recognise that this is not the entirety of our being, nor that other parts of the being, with different types of needs, desires, demands and predilections, may act in opposition to, or at least, without active support for, the spiritual consciousness. It is thus that we may have spiritual experiences and realisations, and yet have vital movements, physical conditions or mental directions that fail to live up to the implicaARTArticleThe Body’s Formation Does Not Directly Correspond to the Person’s Character and DevelopmentWe frequently try to judge the character of an individual based on physical characteristics. While it is true that there is an interaction and influence between the body, the life-force and the mind, for most people these are not at all absolute or determinative. There are well-known instances where someone is born with a massive, powerful body, and we assume he uses his physical strength to gain some type of power or ascendancy in the life he leads; and yet, we may find that the soul contained within this powerful physical frame is one of extreme kindness and gentleness.ARTArticleThe Breakthrough to the Reversal of ConsciousnessSri Ramana Maharshi, to point the seeker towards the truth of his existence, asked ‘who am I?’ With persistent inquiry, the individual soon finds that this exte
al personality, ego-self that we normally treat as who we are, is in reality a front, a shell, an illusion, and that the truth of our existence lies deep within, held as knowledge within the soul, and only released into the forefront of our consciousness when the being is ready. The readiness may be prepared over many lifetimes, and at the right moment, the realisation occurs as if by a miracle.ARTArticleThe Call of the Divine FluteAn individual is living out his life, following his career, pursuing education, enjoying himself, raising a family, pursuing a hobby. All quite normal things. For most people, this is the frame within which his life carries on, and he experiences the joys and sorrows, the pains and the pleasures, the victories and the defeats that life doles out to him.ARTArticleThe Case for the Rare Instance of an Ongoing Physical, Vital or Mental Formation Surviving the Death of the IndividualWe have no difficulty seeing and understanding that an individual can create a legacy in the physical world we inhabit, as we see the evidence everywhere around us in the form of buildings, enterprises, religious movements, mental developments and conceptualization, and artistic creations, not to speak of the children that carry on much of our physical development and in many cases, our enterprises into future generations. These things continue to exist even when the individual who represented the driving force for their creation has left the scene.ARTArticleThe Case for the Rare Instance of an Ongoing Physical, Vital or Mental Formation Surviving the Death of the IndividualWe have no difficulty seeing and understanding that an individual can create a legacy in the physical world we inhabit, as we see the evidence everywhere around us in the form of buildings, enterprises, religious movements, mental developments and conceptualization, and artistic creations, not to speak of the children that carry on much of our physical development and in many cases, our enterprises into future generations. These things continue to exist even when the individual who represented the driving force for their creation has left the scene.ARTArticleThe Challenge of Duality and the Conquest of Light Over DarknessWe live in a world filled with contradictions, a world of dualities. We accept the premise that we cannot have light without dark, pleasure without pain, joy without sorrow. This appears to be the nature of the world, and it seems like an irrefutable concept. Yet, we can in fact conceive of the idea that there could be endless light, without darkness, and that there are potentially worlds or planes where this actually is the case. We can also conceive of a time in the future of our world where this may arise, even if the physical organisation continues to manifest both light and dark. The factARTArticleThe Challenges of Merging the Ego into the DivineThere are several ways to approach the question of consecration of one’s being and life to the Divine. As the Mother makes clear, the need to be an individualised being that can actually have something to offer to the Divine is both paramount, and requires substantial effort to both understand the complexity of the energetic interchanges that go to make up who and what we are, and to gain a measure of independence from the forces that toss us too and fro through these interchanges.ARTArticleThe Complexity and Time to Harmonise and Unify the BeingThe mind is the characteristic power exercised by the human race. While the higher reasoning and abstract mind is somewhat limited in its action across the broad spectrum of human individuals, the basic mental powers are widespread, providing the capability to review, categorize and classify, and decide. What we do not generally recognize is how much the mind is under the influence or control of the vital nature and even the status of the physical body, although modern science has begun to acknowledge and recognise the mind-body connection.ARTArticleThe Complexity of Predicting the Destiny of Any IndividualWe predict the times and the seasons, we can predict to a certainty physical and mechanical operations, and we can even predict within a range, the pattern and scope of a particular set of events we set in motion in various fields. We expect that the physical world in which we live follows certain laws and thus, we can understand in advance the pattern that is expected to appear.ARTArticleThe Constant Effort Needed in the Yogic PracticeWhen people think about yoga, they generally think about practicing certain poses, or asanas, or doing certain breathing techniques, or chanting various mantras, reading certain books, meditation, or singing devotional songs, etc. Those who take up the practice of Raja Yoga follow an eight-fold path starting with various vital controls called ‘yamas’ and ‘niyamas’ followed by attaining a good seat, or asana, implementing specific breath controls, and then developing various mental concentration techniques to enter into a state of yogic trance.ARTArticleThe Contagious Nature of Desire in the Vital BeingVirtually everybody, at some point in their lives, has the experience of entering a room or a gathering of some sort and feeling the movement of some vital force rising up within them. It could be a room filled with the energy of greed, or sexual tension or anger.ARTArticleThe Continuum of Consciousness and the Interactions of the Various Wave-FormsWe recognise the electro-magnetic spectrum, the color spectrum, the sound wave spectrum and others, each as representing a continuum of wave forms with varying characteristics. There are shorter, more intense waves and longer wave frequencies. Some conduct tremendous amounts of physical heat, such as infrared frequencies, while others, such as ultraviolet have longer wave forms. There is a range within each spectrum that we can perceive with our senses, and there are ranges both below and above the vibratory levels we can pick up, that represent extensions of those spectra.ARTArticleThe Desire-Soul and the Life and Death of the BodyThe vital desire-soul animates the exte
al being. When it enters the physical frame, we say that there is life in the body. When it departs, we say that the person has died. This is distinguishable from the true soul, the psychic being, which is not dependent on either the life or death of a particular body, which transcends and survives the life of the body, and which takes on new forms as needed to carry out its role in the universal manifestation.ARTArticleThe Development of Individuality Within the Human RaceIn various parts of the world, homes and buildings have a clear ‘identity’, through shape, color, size, layout of the rooms, functionality, and location. In other places we see vast tracts of virtually identical houses or apartments in rows, with the same size, shape, color and layout. Someone trying to locate a house or apartment in such a location can easily be confused as to which one they are trying to find, and, except for the identifying numerical address, it can be a daunting affair.ARTArticleThe Development of the Powers of the BodyFor the seekers who wish to depart the creation through unification with the Supreme, the body is often considered to be an obstacle, something that needs a certain amount of begrudging attention in order to allow the meditation to take place uninterruptedly. These seekers prefer to give as little attention as possible to the body, do not trouble about its health and well-being, aside from having the ability to enter the meditative state and maintain it.ARTArticleThe Difficulties of Changing Human Nature and the Need for Patience and PerseveranceWhen a seeker awakens to the deformations of the body-life-mind complex, the distorted feelings, the misdirected emotions, the incomplete and misguided thoughts, the entire complex focused on and rooted in the idea of the aggrandisement of the ego-personality at the expense of everything else, he can easily become depressed with the magnitude of the work to be done, the difficulty of implementing the needed changes, the inter-relationship between the different parts of the being, all of which impact one another and increase the complexity of the actions required to accomplish those changes.rARTArticleThe Divine Spark Resides Even in the Demonic BeingsThe earth is the locus of the evolutionary principle. It is said that when the gods themselves want to grow and evolve, they must consent to take birth on the earth. It is therefore important to understand that the beings who take birth on the earth-plane are, for the most part, taking part in an evolutionary process and the growth of consciousness. There are of course exceptions, where typal beings occupy a specific rung in the development of consciousness and carry out the characteristics and principles of that rung, but that does not mitigate the ability of the soul to migrate over time acrARTArticleThe Education and Uplifting of the Vital NatureOne of the most confusing issues for the spiritual seeker is the ‘care and feeding’ of the vital nature. We shift from one extreme to the other in our view of how to bring it under control, for it is virtually uniformly recognised that for spiritual development, the vital nature must be controlled. We may choose to try to suppress the vital nature, to prevent its natural predilections from expressing themselves. In such a case we tend to struggle with the impulses, urges, demands of the vital forces that surge within us.ARTArticleThe Ego Experience and the Experience of the JivatmanWhen we observe the standpoint we inhabit closely, we find that we tend to identify ourselves as a distinct ‘person’ or ‘personality’ with specific traits, habits, relationships and viewpoints about ‘who we are’ and ‘what we do’. This is the ego-personality and we tend to try to associate everything to its impact on this ego-personality. The ego-personality tends to treat all other beings and forms as totally separate and distinct entities, and it thus creates a form of isolation and fragmentation in the creation which does not exist in reality, just in the ego-sense.ARTArticleThe Ego Was the Helper, the Ego is the BarThe spiritual seeker invariably hears, repeated constantly, the requirement to overcome the ego and find his true Self. The Self is one with the Divine and shares the divine consciousness, knowledge and impetus to action. The ego, which anchors the sense of a separate and distinct individuality, is an obstacle to this liberation taking place.