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ARTArticleThe Necessity for Quietude of the Vital NatureThere can be no permanent settlement of peace in the mind if the vital nature has not also attained quiet and peace. Many people take this as a reason to abandon active life and involvement in society and the world-at-large; yet, this is not a solution. The vital nature is very much driven by the Guna of Rajas, which involves action, passion, desire, and can be highly ambitious or aggressive when it is fully active. Abandonment of this action would be allowing the Guna of Tamas, inertia, darkness, indolence to become predominant.ARTArticleThe Need for Intense Aspiration for the Divine RealisationThe time and effort needed to overcome the numerous impediments along the way for those seeking the Divine realisation implies that the seeker must have an intense inner drive to carry on through all difficulties and delays encountered. This inner drive is known as aspiration. It is called the “flame of aspiration” because of the sense of a burning need deep within the being, and because obstacles are ‘burned up’ through the intensity of the seeking.ARTArticleThe Need for Spiritual Discrimination, the Ability to Distinguish the Pure from the ImpureAs the spiritual seeker develops the sadhana over time, eventually he is confronted with lights, voices, and energies that come to him. It is not sufficient for him to simply accept that whatever comes is to be seen as valid and supportive of his spiritual aspiration. Spiritual discrimination, the ability to distinguish between the pure and the impure, the higher and the lower, the light and the dark forces is essential.ARTArticleThe Need to Balance Meditation and Work in the Practice of the Integral YogaIn an ancient Upanishadic tale, a youth approached a sage requesting to become a disciple and achieve spiritual realisation. The sage indicated that he should take two cattle into the forest, and when they numbered 1000 he should return and would undertake to teach the youth. The young man made sincere efforts and learned all there was to know about raising and breeding cattle, protecting them from predators, and survival in the forest for himself and his charges.ARTArticleThe Play of the Gunas and the Difficulty of Effecting True Change in Human NatureWe do not generally recognise that it is virtually impossible to hold one thought, one idea, one form of concentration, one energetic status for long periods of time. As time goes on, the balance of the Gunas changes and we lose the intensity, shift our focus to something else, and we find that the fear, the anger, the desire, the despair, or the concentration or aspiration we held earlier has attenuated or disappeared for the time being.ARTArticleThe Power of Concentration is the Key to Realization in All Fields of LifeEvery major accomplishment in human life involves some form of concentration. We live in a modern world that systematically distracts and disperses the mind, thus making it more difficult to achieve a state of concentration. Cell phones, internet surfing, music, flashing lights, entertainment, fast moving vehicles, powerful storms, news media gathering sensational reports to place before us 24 hours a day. It is a wonder that we can concentrate at all in the modern world!ARTArticleThe Process of Changing Human NatureWhen we take up the question of how to go about changing human nature, we are confronted with the difficulty of that attempt. Instincts, habits, trained responses, ‘nature’ and ‘nurture’ all conspire to maintain the status quo. When we attempt to make any change, we run up against the opposition of this status quo within ourselves, and the fact that the vital being can influence the mind to justify whatever it wants to do, even if those things are diametrically opposed to the evolutionary attempt.ARTArticleThe Psychic Entity Knows the Purpose and Significance of Our ExistenceWhen we live primarily, or entirely, focused on our exte
al life via the instruments of the body, life-force and mind, we cannot determine nor recognise the purpose and significance of our existence. We may speculate. We may hold opinions. We may adhere to some doctrine, such as a religious doctrine, particularly if we are members of a particular faith and have been trained in that faith. None of these things, however, provide us any certainty as to this question.ARTArticleThe Role and Function of the Guru, the TeacherThere are a number of ways that a teacher, or Guru, impacts the student or disciple. To the extent there is a method or science involved, that science can be described, organised and taught to the disciple. We see this frequently in the sciences of Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga, as the teacher takes the disciple through very specific processes in order to train the body, the nervous being and the mind to achieve the intended results. In terms of spiritual growth, however, acquiring a teaching is not fully sufficient.ARTArticleThe Role of Spiritual Experiences in the Change of Human NatureThe vital ego is attracted to the excitement of having experiences that are unusual or powerful. It therefore wants to find ways to repeat or expand upon them once they have had such an experience. In reality, however, there is very little of long-term value in this approach. The experiences come, and they go, and the individual remains essentially unchanged, other than perhaps being distracted enough to want to chase after experiences.ARTArticleThe Role of the Ego in the Evolution of ConsciousnessIn one of his aphorisms, Sri Aurobindo observes: “…the ego was the helper, the ego is the bar.” For most spiritual seekers, the attachment to the ego-personality is the great hindrance which they must find a way to overcome. Some try extreme methods to minimize the role and power of the ego. But we must ask the question: Why does the ego exist in the first place in the Divine creation, if it has no purpose and must be done away with?ARTArticleThe Semi-Conscious Life We LeadIf we reflect carefully, we will recognise that much of what takes place in our lives occurs without our conscious awareness, participation or control. The activity of the cells, the nervous system, the internal organs are all virtually automatic functions that elude conscious oversight. Very rare exceptions, involving extreme disciplines, bring an individual the ability to slow down the heartbeat or respiration. Normally, these things take place unconsciously.ARTArticleThe Seven Forms of KnowledgeSri Aurobindo concludes that once we have defined the seven forms of Ignorance, our aim and goal in our human lives must be to successively overcome the Ignorance through the development of the sevenfold forms of knowledge. Each aspect of the knowledge we develop addresses one of the already defined seven forms of the Ignorance.ARTArticleThe Seven Rays of the InfiniteSri Aurobindo starts the review of the Knowledge and the Ignorance by reminding us of the sevenfold principles of existence: “In our scrutiny of the seven principles of existence it was found that they are one in their essential and fundamental reality: for if even the matter of the most material universe is nothing but a status of being of Spirit made an object of sense, evisaged by the Spirit’s own consciousness as the stuff of its forms, much more must the life-force that constitutes itself into forms of Matter, and the mind-consciousness that throws itself out as Life, and the Supermind thARTArticleThe Soul’s Faith Is a Precursor to Attainment of the Truth of ExistenceFaith is generally put in opposition to Knowledge, underlying the long-term dispute in the West between ‘religion’ and ‘science’. This debate has religion requiring belief in the tenets of the religion based on pure faith, and denying the validity of a science-based knowledge approach that may contradict those intensely-held beliefs based on faith. In this view of things, faith and science are irreconcilably opposed to one another.ARTArticleThe Spiritual Call Comes… Then What Needs to Happen NextWe have a vision. We get inspired. We have a near death experience. We come back from the spiritual experience and we are sure it is meant to change our lives, as we suddenly have a whole new vista open up before us, a realm of truth, beauty, harmony, light. Then we come back into our normal exte
al state of consciousness, still carrying some lingering memory of the experience, but now confronting all the normal day to day activities, relationships, difficulties and opportunities.ARTArticleThe Spiritual Experience Gets Watered-Down or Lost As It is Transcribed into the Mental FrameworkHuman beings are essentially dependent on their mental perception in order to function in the world. This mental perception frames what we see, how we experience it, and our interpretation. We thus try to transcribe anything provided to us by our senses (or provided directly to the mind without reliance on the senses) into a mental framework. It is similar to the idea that we try to translate one language into another, where the one language has heavy inflection, inference and subtle meanings that are not truly captured in the language into which it has been translated.ARTArticleThe Strength in StillnessWe live in a world that prizes action and that continually impinges upon us with various information feeds and input from all directions. Quiet and stillness, the ability to remain calm without agitation or upset, the ability to achieve true peace in the mind, in the vital and nervous being and in the physical body, are generally not recognised as a true sign of strength. If we try to sit quietly for meditation, we find all kinds of thoughts chu
ing through our minds.ARTArticleThe Subtle Higher Forces of Existence Create Our Exte
al Being and ActionWhen looked at from the outside, it seems that Matter came first and out of Matter arose Life and out of Life arose Mind. What is not addressed here is how material forces were able to create life and intelligence, in a seemingly random fashion. This is why some religious traditions posit that there is an exte
al, all-powerful Being (God) who creates everything, since Matter, on its own, simply is not able to create something beyond itself. The New Testament of the Bible begins with an intriguing statement of “in the beginning was the Word”.ARTArticleThe Subtle Power of Atmosphere and Example in Spiritual DevelopmentIt is a typical belief that through the use of logic, argument or some kind of pressure that is exerted, through perhaps an enforced dogma or belief system, that opinions and beliefs can be changed. It is true that the power of an idea may capture an individual’s focus and support. It is also true that adherence to that idea may last a lifetime. The question remains open, as to whether a comprehensive change in the way of seeing and acting, penetrating through all levels of the being, is even possible through these methods.ARTArticleThe Sunlit Path of YogaFor many people, the religious life or the spiritual path is considered to be extremely serious and cheerfulness is considered to be some kind of frivolity, not becoming to the serious nature of the endeavour. They make spiritual practice into a harsh discipline and struggle with difficulties and in many cases fight with their nature as they feel it responding to things differently than they want. In extreme cases, they undertake mortification of the body and may use self-flagellation or the cilice in their attempt to punish the body for its ‘sinful’ ways.ARTArticleThe Superman: an Evolutionary Leap Is Not Limited to the Mind’s Extrapolation from Its Present StatusThe human mind has difficulty imagining the possibility of an entirely new direction for evolutionary development, and tends to try to “read” the future by extrapolation from the present and the past. Thus, we see Nietzsche describing the “superman” as someone who has a higher mental functioning and vital force of effectuation, who then has the “right” and the “power” to disregard the strictures of the society’s structure because he has gone “beyond” them.ARTArticleThe Supramental Evolution Represents the Fulfillment of Life, Not the Abandonment of LifeFor much of human history, spirituality has been looked upon as a contradiction of an active life in the world. The anchorite in the desert, the renunciate, the Sannyasin, the monk or nun in the cloister are held up to us as the examples of dedication to spiritual growth and purpose. All of these examples imply that if one is caught up in the world’s affairs, if one acts in a full and rich life in the world, that there is little hope for true spiritual progress.ARTArticleThe Supramental Society Is Based in a New Consciousness of Realisation of the Divine Reality of Oneness with DiversityThe “master race”, the “white man’s burden”, “white supremacy”, “manifest destiny”, the “superman” of Nietzsche all represent past attempts of the mind to translate the urge to transcend the limits of the human mind-life-body and assert power and control over the society through what may be termed a “brute force” method. “Might makes right” has been the watchword. “Survival of the fittest” has been interpreted as justifying this brute forth method, as if brute force represents the “fittest”.ARTArticleThe True Condition of Progress in the Spiritual PathSri Krishna taught Arjuna the lessons of the Bhagavad Gita on a battlefield. The setting is an important aspect of the teaching itself. The inner growth is not dependent on outer events or circumstances. Conditions will always be ‘imperfect’ if not absolutely terrible!ARTArticleThe Usefulness of SufferingDr. Dean Ornish held a webinar on Sunday November 20, 2022 with the Vegan Society of Honolulu, Hawaii, in which he succinctly explained the role of suffering in the progress of humanity. For those who do not know about his work, Dr. Ornish has spent decades studying the impact of diet and lifestyle on human wellness, and has conducted peer reviewed studies with literally thousands of patients with various forms of advanced heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc.ARTArticleThe Value and Rationale for the Yoga of Works — Karma YogaThe vital nature of man is a core existential element of our existence. In the past, those who took up serious spiritual practice frequently recognised both the power of the vital and the difficulty of bringing it under some kind of managed and focused control, and thus, they attempted to abandon it to whatever extent possible and focus on meditation to the exclusion of an outer life.ARTArticleThe Value of Mental Preparation for the Practice of the Integral YogaThe mind can be a powerful tool for spiritual growth, or it can become an obstacle under certain circumstances. Many devotees take the position that aspiration, devotion, surrender to the Divine is the only way forward. For those individuals that may indeed be true. Not everyone is capable of the kind of single focused love and surrender required to tread the path of devotion, where the individuality is consumed in the love for and surrender to the Divine.ARTArticleThe Western Mind and the Relationship to the GuruThe cultural background of the West clearly differs from the background found in India, which has a history of spiritual development stretching back thousands of years. Westerners tend to have difficulty with the concept of surrender to the Guru’s guidance, whereas in India, this is an accepted concept and thus, fits more perfectly into the psychological framework of the people.ARTArticleThe Yogic Practitioner and the Exte
al WorldWe generally live under an illusion of separateness from other beings and the rest of the world. We believe our individual personality, individual body, life, mind are independent from everyone and everything else. This fixed idea, however, is part of the confusion we experience that misleads us about the true nature of existence. In fact, everything is intimately connected. We breathe in oxygen in order to live, which is produced by the plant life of the planet. Similarly, the plant life breathes in carbon dioxide, which we produce.