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Articles from santosh krinsky | Selfgrowth.com
- Relaxation: Dissipation or True Rest? - by Submitted on May 11, 2022 from santosh krinskyIf we examine our attitude towards relaxation, we find, generally, that people look at relaxation as a type of reward for efforts made. They work hard all day, or all week, or they finish a major project they are focused on, and then it is time to “relax”. In the West, there is an institution ...
Views: 456 - The True Nature of Rest - by Submitted on May 10, 2022 from santosh krinskyFor most people, rest is a state of lowered consciousness in which we recuperate from the fatigue generated through our various activities. If we reflect on how we respond to fatigue, we find that we have different modes depending on whether it is mental fatigue, vital exhaustion or physical ...
Views: 471 - Exercise of Will as Part of the Process of Yogic Transformation - by Submitted on May 09, 2022 from santosh krinskyThere remains considerable confusion about the role of will-power in the development of the spiritual life of the individual. On the one side, the seeker is asked to not give in to the force of vital desire, and the will is often confused with desire. Thus, the idea of acting without desire is ...
Views: 410 - Psychoanalysis and Yoga Don’t Mix - by Submitted on May 08, 2022 from santosh krinskyWithout the power to control and purify, an individual faces great risk in dredging up all kinds of subconscious energies, fears, experiences, dreams and desires. Psychoanalysis focuses on tapping into this subconscious level, but it does not start with any process to arm the individual with the ...
Views: 436 - Development of the Witness Consciousness Separate from the Analytical Mind Is Needed to Truly Understand the Springs of Action in Mind, Life and Body - by Submitted on May 07, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe ability to perceive, understand and modify the actions of the body, life and mind requires the development of a new standpoint outside of the body-life-mind complex. For this reason, the attempt to undertake this process with the analytical power of the mind is bound to fail. Not only can ...
Views: 432 - The Experience and Difficulty of Drawing Inwards in the Consciousness - by Submitted on May 06, 2022 from santosh krinskyUntil an individual has an actual experience of what the Mother calls ‘interiorisation’, there is no real way to understand what it is about. Many people believe that if they sit quietly in meditation, or follow an internal train of thought, that they have an inner experience, but this is not ...
Views: 445 - The Need and Method to Become Conscious and Change the Nature - by Submitted on May 05, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe identify something about ourselves that we would like to change — it could be a physical transformation we seek, or a way to address an imbalance in our feelings or emotions, or it could be a change to our mind-set to overcome ideas of weakness, failure, incapacity, etc. We then try to find a ...
Views: 422 - Becoming Conscious and Effecting Change in the Nature - by Submitted on May 04, 2022 from santosh krinskyFor the most part, we react to things without considering the source of the impression that sparks the reaction, the process of the reaction or the manner in which the impression is converted into a response. These things simply “happen” and we tend to accept them as ‘human nature’ or, in some ...
Views: 508 - Peace in the Body’s Cells Can Cure Illness - by Submitted on May 03, 2022 from santosh krinskyWhen we conjure up, in our minds, the idea of peace, we tend to give it a form of inaction, a ‘negative’ status. Similarly, peace to our vital nature is the absence of excitement or any form of energetic expression. For the body, we believe peace is a state of quietness that does not ‘do’ ...
Views: 476 - The Influence of the Psychic Being’s Peace and Calm Can Overcome the Disturbances of Mind, Life and Body - by Submitted on May 02, 2022 from santosh krinskyIf we observe how we tend to respond to provocations from outside, things, events or people who impact our lives, either mentally, emotionally, vitally or physically, we see that the first tendency is to internalize the provocation with a pattern of vibration at one or another level of our ...
Views: 384 - The Integral Yoga’s View of Mental Health - by Submitted on Apr 30, 2022 from santosh krinskyMental health in the West is generally understood to be a ‘negative’ state, the absence of various forms of disruptions that affect whether and to what extent an individual can conform or fit into the society and meet its expectations. The integral yoga views mental health in an entirely ...
Views: 450 - The Influence of the Psychic Being on the Body, Life and Mind - by Submitted on Apr 29, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe action of the psychic being is subtle, more of an influence than a direct action in the lives of most people who are focused on fulfilling the needs and objectives set by their body-life-mind complex of their external being. The influence can be experienced and felt in the way the external ...
Views: 382 - The Psychic Being — the Nature of the Soul - by Submitted on Apr 28, 2022 from santosh krinsky.When we try to understand what is meant by the term ‘soul’ we run up against a confusing mix of ideas about what the soul actually is. Similarly, the use of the term ‘psychic’ has its own issues with confused interpretation. Recognising the need to have some term in English that can be employed ...
Views: 448 - The Role of the Psychic Being in the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Apr 27, 2022 from santosh krinskyIn order to both observe and manage the actions and reactions of the mind, life and body, it is necessary to achieve a standpoint outside of their action. Sri Aurobindo identifies the psychic being as the separate entity, what may be called the ‘soul’, as the consciousness capable of this ...
Views: 415 - Parental State of Consciousness at Time of Conception Impacts the Child’s Development - by Submitted on Apr 26, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe tend to blame, accuse and punish a child for wild tendencies, without generally recognising that the child is the product of a number of factors, including samskaras from past lives, environmental influences, diet, pollution, celestial energies, societal expectations and acculturation, ...
Views: 402 - The Seeds of Thought, Emotion, Feeling, Action and Reaction Reside in the Subconscient Level of Consciousness - by Submitted on Apr 25, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe yogic trance state called ‘samadhi’ has several levels, including one that is known as ‘with seed’ and one ‘without seed’. The difference essentially is that the level ‘with seed’ means that it still retains the capacity to be broken by the intrusion of external stimuli and internal reaction ...
Views: 418 - Introduction to the Subconscient Level of Consciousness - by Submitted on Apr 24, 2022 from santosh krinskyWestern psychology has invested a considerable amount of time and energy in trying to understand, describe and treat the subconscious levels of our existence. Freud described various complexes that arose from the subconscious and which drove the being into actions that the conscious parts ...
Views: 444 - The Force of Habit and the Physical Consciousness - by Submitted on Apr 23, 2022 from santosh krinskyFor the physical consciousness, repetition and the building of habit is the centerpiece of harnessing physical, material nature. The “laws of physics” are essentially habits at the level of Matter that function to create an order and system in Nature that maintains the cohesion and operation of ...
Views: 413 - Passivity and Weakness of Will-Power Can Be a Disturbance of the Physical Consciousness - by Submitted on Apr 22, 2022 from santosh krinskyPeople struggle all the time with the force of desire and how to deal with it in their lives. For the yogic practitioner this becomes an even greater concern as desire causes countless difficulties in bringing the inner being to a state of peace in which the yogic consciousness can flourish. ...
Views: 406 - The Predominant Characteristic of Physical Consciousness: Tamas or Inertia - by Submitted on Apr 21, 2022 from santosh krinskyAn understanding of the three gunas, or qualities of Nature, is extremely helpful in gaining an understanding of the responses to external stimuli, events, people and circumstances. The gunas are sattwa, with a predominant quality of light and harmony, rajas with a predominant quality of ...
Views: 389 - Desire — and the Need to Control Desire - by Submitted on Apr 20, 2022 from santosh krinskyPeople believe that suppression of the vital forces that are actuated by the force of desire can lead to imbalance and mental illness. For this reason, Western psychology has recommended the moderate expression of these forces, and has generally counseled having a healthy vital life that does ...
Views: 469 - Disturbances of the Vital Caused by Life-Changes, Negative and Positive - by Submitted on Apr 19, 2022 from santosh krinskySome years ago we were witnesses to an event that clearly illustrated the disturbance to the vital that can be caused by a positive experience. In that case, a married couple were planning to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary and their extended family and friends were there to join the ...
Views: 472 - Impatience - by Submitted on Apr 18, 2022 from santosh krinskyWhile at its root impatience has as a primary source the frustration associated with either lack of ability to fulfill a desire, or a delayed gratification of that desire, in the modern world, these root causes are accentuated and provoked through acculturation and the systemic operation of the ...
Views: 438 - Anger and Depression - by Submitted on Apr 17, 2022 from santosh krinskyDepression and anger represent two types of response to a vital impulse or desire which has been thwarted, or to external pressures which try to overwhelm the individual. When we understand the action of the 3 gunas, or qualities of nature, sattwa, rajas and tamas, it is easy to see that when ...
Views: 513 - Anxiety and Fear - by Submitted on Apr 16, 2022 from santosh krinskyAnxiety and fear are constant companions in life for animals, as well as for human beings. Becoming food for a predator is an existential fear that stalks the animal kingdom, but it is not just this fear that human beings engage in. There is fear of failure, fear of being humiliated, fear of ...
Views: 539 - Where Does Desire Come From? - by Submitted on Apr 15, 2022 from santosh krinskyEveryone experiences the tug of desire. We observe something and suddenly we want to have it. We experience something pleasant and we want to have it happen once again. Sometimes we feel a sudden urge for something after being exposed to a commercial message. At other times we can simply be in a ...
Views: 498 - Additional Forms of Disturbance Associated with the Physical Mind - by Submitted on Apr 14, 2022 from santosh krinskyDr. Dalal identifies other manifestations of the physical mind which can present issues for an individual. Everyone has had the experience, at some point or another, of thoughts that keep revolving around in the brain, and no matter how much one tries, they continue to crop up and recur. We chew ...
Views: 502 - Disturbances Attributed to the Physical Mind - by Submitted on Apr 13, 2022 from santosh krinskyWhat is the physical mind? The element of mental activity that relates to the actual physical substance that conveys and responds to sense perceptions and the operations of the physical body is considered to be the ‘physical mind’. We normally believe that the operation of our mind is ...
Views: 539 - Understanding the Defense Mechanism of Projection - by Submitted on Apr 12, 2022 from santosh krinskyDue to what we may call ‘observational bias’ we tend to attribute intention and motive to others that we ourselves have internally and project our internal response onto the other party, without knowing exactly what the cause of their action may be from their standpoint. Some of this is due to ...
Views: 454 - Understanding the Defense Mechanism of Rationalization - by Submitted on Apr 11, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe can clearly see the influence of the vital on the mind when we understand the lengths to which the mind will go to justify satisfaction of the needs, desires or actions of the vital nature. The defense mechanism of ‘rationalization’ is a clear example. We understand, intellectually, that ...
Views: 478 - The Nature of the Mind Creates and Enhances Much Human Psychological Suffering - by Submitted on Apr 10, 2022 from santosh krinskyIt is often said that animals do not suffer in the same way that humans do. They experience pain and can suffer from it, but they seem to not be tortured by all of the mental suffering that we go through in our lives. The major differences are first, the ability of the mind to observe itself and ...
Views: 429 - Major Subdivisions of the Primary Parts of the Being - by Submitted on Apr 09, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe more one examines the play of awareness and activity internally, the more one begins to recognise the subtle interactions that take place between the various parts of the being. There are not clear borderlines but rather influences and actions that are based primarily in one part of the ...
Views: 426 - Characteristics of the Body Consciousness - by Submitted on Apr 08, 2022 from santosh krinskyImagine we had to manage all the functions of the body through conscious attention by the mind, telling the body how to operate each organ, controlling each breath and heartbeat, controlling the energy production activities in the cells, etc. It would be clearly impossible. We depend entirely on ...
Views: 470 - Three Parts of the Outer Being: Mental, Vital and Physical - by Submitted on Apr 07, 2022 from santosh krinskyOnce an individual recognises that there are three separate foundations of consciousness in the outer being, and that they are not simply part of one unified awareness, it becomes much easier to untangle the numerous strands of pressure internally and understand how to address and deal with the ...
Views: 483 - Separate Consciousness in the Mind, the Vital Being and the Body - by Submitted on Apr 06, 2022 from santosh krinskyDuring the Olympic games in the summer of 2021, we were able to hear about the separate consciousness of the various parts of the being. One of the premier gymnasts in the world withdrew from events by saying that she had lost, at least temporarily, the body consciousness that basically oriented ...
Views: 430 - Necessary Elements Required to Understand and Apply Techniques of Psychological Healing - by Submitted on Apr 05, 2022 from santosh krinskyWhether one is working with a professional in the field of psychology, or one is working on one’s own internally to resolve disturbances and inner conflicts, attain peace, or achieve balance in one’s life, certain basic knowledge is required. One needs to understand the complex nature of the ...
Views: 442 - What Is Meant By the Concept of Mental Health? - by Submitted on Apr 04, 2022 from santosh krinskyFor the most part, Western psychology is focused on treating what is considered ‘abnormal’ in order to help an individual fit into society and act ‘normally’. Much focus is put on external causes of various forms of disturbance and how the individual can adjust, adapt or respond to those ...
Views: 523 - Introduction to Living Within: the Yoga Approach to Psychological Health and Growth by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, compiled by Dr. A.S. Dalal - by Submitted on Apr 03, 2022 from santosh krinskyWhat is psychological health and growth? Western psychology tends to define psychological health as the absence of various forms of extreme disturbance or disruption. ‘Normal” levels of dissatisfaction, upset-ness, are considered to be both acceptable and part of everyday life. It is only when ...
Views: 501 - Integral Yoga: Sri Aurobindo’s Teaching and Method of Practice — Summary and Conclusions - by Submitted on Apr 02, 2022 from santosh krinskySri Aurobindo took up yoga, not for individual salvation or to abandon the life of the world, but to aid in transforming life, for action in the world. He developed a deep background and understanding of the major lines of thought and development of the West, including his studies of Greek and ...
Views: 500 - Westerners and Indian Yoga, Part 5: the Yogic Path Is Not Limited by Race, Origin or Religious or Cultural Background - by Submitted on Apr 01, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe objective of the integral yoga is to support the evolutionary process of the development and integration of the next stage of consciousness, beyond the mental consciousness. This step is necessary to overcome the limitations of the current mental framework which have helped create the ...
Views: 453 - Westerners and Indian Yoga, Part 4: Obstacles Faced by Westerners and the Soul’s Aspiration to Overcome Them in the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Mar 31, 2022 from santosh krinskyAll human beings, regardless of whether they are born in the West, the East, or elsewhere, find the challenges of taking up yoga to be daunting and requiring of them unstinting efforts to understand the obstacles, and identify and implement ways to overcome them. With its long history of support ...
Views: 393 - Westerners and Indian Yoga, Part 3: Are There Advantages to an Indian Birth for the Practice of Yoga? - by Submitted on Mar 30, 2022 from santosh krinskyIf we look at the qualities required for bringing about the emergence of the psychic being, the development of a devotional attitude, and support for the idea of focusing on the Eternal through subordination or even abandonment of the relations of the outer life, it is clear that India has ...
Views: 391 - Westerners and Indian Yoga, Part 2: A Hindu Temperament in a Westerner’s Body? - by Submitted on Mar 29, 2022 from santosh krinskyWhen a Westerner takes up a serious yogic practice, they frequently hear that they must be Hindu souls born into Western bodies. They are then viewed as somehow anomalous to the cast of mind, vital force and emotions that tend to develop through life-long exposure to Western culture, educational ...
Views: 462 - Westerners and Indian Yoga, Part 1: Is It Possible For Westerns to Practice Yoga? - by Submitted on Mar 28, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe question is frequently raised as to whether Westerners, with a background and culture grounded in materialism, the fulfillment of the vital ambitions and desires, and the development of the mental faculties, can truly enter into the spirit of yoga and obtain the fruits of the yogic practice ...
Views: 482 - Reading and the Concentration and Dispersion of Conscious Awareness - by Submitted on Mar 27, 2022 from santosh krinskyAs we become aware of the states of conscious awareness within our being, it becomes clear that there are times when the consciousness is highly concentrated, intensely focused, and other times when it is dispersed and wandering seemingly aimlessly. Our activities, including reading, are ...
Views: 490 - Reading as a Spiritual Practice and Its Limitations - by Submitted on Mar 26, 2022 from santosh krinskyWhile Sri Aurobindo created an enormous body of written materials regarding the integral yoga, the development of the next phase of consciousness growth in the earth-evolution, he also clearly recognized that there are limits to how much reading can aid the spiritual seeker. He made a clear ...
Views: 492 - Intellectual Understanding and Understanding in the Consciousness - by Submitted on Mar 25, 2022 from santosh krinskyThose who find their basis primarily in the mind tend to believe that their intellectual understanding of something represents something real and definitive and that their “knowing” means they “know” something. This is however, not quite accurate. For instance, one can read books and “know” ...
Views: 409 - Reading, Mental Development and Spiritual Growth - by Submitted on Mar 24, 2022 from santosh krinskyThere is a general bias in our society that holds that someone who has a developed mentality, and who is ‘well-read’ is smarter or more intelligent than those who cannot read or who have limited reading capacity. Yet it must be recognised that intelligence cannot be measured, as is done in the ...
Views: 458 - The Needed Balance of Spiritual Development and Mental Development - by Submitted on Mar 23, 2022 from santosh krinskyThere has been a long-standing debate between those who believe in the power of mental development, under the rubric of ‘science’ and those who believe in the power of faith and spiritual aspiration, under the general terminology of ‘religion’. A similar debate rages between the position of ...
Views: 414 - Art as a Dedicated Expression of the Divine - by Submitted on Mar 22, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe object of creative expression through art is of primary importance to the spiritual seeker. As long as art is used as a way to enhance the vital ego, achieve recognition, fame, wealth, it has little, if any, value for spiritual practice. These objectives, in and of themselves, are part of ...
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