Many people suppose that it is impossible to avoid suffering, as it is an inherent aspect of life on earth. Their strategies for dealing with suffering may vary, but they all believe that suffering is inevitable.
When we consider, therefore, the idea of avoiding suffering, we are either met ... Views: 522
There is a third factor that intervenes in the debate about free will and determinism and that is ‘random chance’. In that concept, there is basically no plan, no framework and no way to manage or control events, which thus can occur through random occurrences with no predetermined end. Both the ... Views: 347
There was a young man who happened to be living at the same place during the 1970’s, who got into his head the idea that the Divine was watching out for him so he could not come to any harm. He walked out into traffic on a busy road and with cars honking and braking, he survived without a ... Views: 100
The development of the vital, life-force integrated with the physical domain led to changes in the physical in order to accommodate the action of this new energy. At the same time, the life-force had to itself make adjustments in order to operate in the material world as opposed to in its own ... Views: 191
Human relationships are subject to eventual disappointment in almost all cases. Friendship and affection are generally based in the ego and its gratification and at some point, the needs and goals of the individuals may diverge, they may be separated due to distance, illness or death, or there ... Views: 533
As we experience relationships in the world, whether family, friend or significant others, we begin to appreciate how complex, demanding and ‘messy’ they are. To cultivate and support relationships takes time, effort and understanding. When we don’t agree 100% with someone, we find that even ... Views: 775
Sri Aurobindo cites the Vedic Rishi of Mandala X, Canto 129, verses 1-5 at the beginning of Chapter 25 of The Life Divine, titled The Knot of Matter: “Then existence was not nor non-existence, the mid-world was not nor the Ether nor what is beyond. What covered all? where was it? in whose ... Views: 315
It is one thing to gain an intellectual understanding of the concept of the subliminal consciousness. However, this does not provide a real experience of nor true knowledge about the action, influence and impact of the subliminal consciousness on our lives. The question then arises, whether and ... Views: 340
It is much easier to spot faults in others than in oneself. The New Testament of the Bible relates a parable directly on point: “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of ... Views: 72
Western psychology is in its infancy as a science. It is, as is all mental knowledge, a form of ignorance, seeking and grasping for knowledge, while not actually able to see the entire picture nor understand the complexity of all the elements that go into human psychology. Thus, Freud gained a ... Views: 343
As each stage of the evolution of consciousness develops, it brings a greater power of knowledge and action than the prior stage. Inevitably, there is an impact on those prior stages. Life effectuated changes in Matter. Mind effectuates changes in Life and Matter. Although the power is not ... Views: 71
The mechanical mind encompasses some of the most basic, most rudimentary activities of the mind. It lies below the faculties of higher logical reasoning, and forms a foundation for the most simple and automatic mental processes. It is like the core computer language upon which all kinds of ... Views: 353
Many people, over the years, have told me that reading Sri Aurobindo’s writings is difficult due to the complexity and wideness of the concepts he presents. I have heard, or experienced, similar issues reading Kant, Leibnitz, Kierkegaard, Sartre, Joyce and others. For those engaged in technical ... Views: 459
We spend most of our lives fixated on the external life we are living, including our internal reactions to that life, such as our feelings, desires, sense impressions, thoughts, ideas, motivations and physical comforts and discomforts (among other things). We focus on earning our livelihood, ... Views: 113
An important step in the practice of yoga is to attain true detachment from the surface nature through the shifting of the standpoint from the surface to the ‘witness consciousness’, the Purusha. The separation of Purusha from Prakriti, the active nature, is needed in order to effectuate change ... Views: 469
One of the issues that every spiritual seeker eventually faces is what to do about the vital nature. The vital being is an essential element of life on earth. Normally however it is distracted with its needs and desires, the seeking for pleasure and enjoyment, the avoidance of pain and ... Views: 460
In any technical field, there are both a general statement of goals and principles, as well as specific steps that should be applied to achieve those results. In many endeavours, particularly those involved in dealing with the physical world and the science that operates in that world, the ... Views: 452
Genetic engineering. It is everywhere in our lives, whether we recognise it or not. The question arises as to how humanity responds to it, and what, if anything, we can do about it. In the past, genetics was involved with attempts at selective breeding. Over multiple generations certain ... Views: 754
In his epic poem Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol, Sri Aurobindo describes the experience of the awareness moving inwards away from the surface consciousness fixated on external perceptions. “In moments when the inner lamps are lit And the life’s cherished guests are left outside, Our spirit sits ... Views: 343
If we focus on the experience of our normal, daily lives, we will find that it can be characterised by a specific feeling or quality that we know as our usual experience. While each individual may have a different characterisation of this experience, some happy, some sad, some joyful, some ... Views: 627
We face, in every sphere of human endeavor, a conflict of competing ideas or directions. If we look closely we can see an element of truth in each side, but can also recognise that as long as we are bound by the mind’s limitations and its desire to reduce everything to “either-or”, we cannot ... Views: 301
We face, in every sphere of human endeavor, a conflict of competing ideas or directions. If we look closely we can see an element of truth in each side, but can also recognise that as long as we are bound by the mind’s limitations and its desire to reduce everything to “either-or”, we cannot ... Views: 298
As long as we remain fixed in the mental framework, we tend to create judgments and rules for everything we do that are founded on the limited and fragmented understanding that the mental power possesses. The advent of a new wider, more expansive, more unifying and comprehensive consciousness ... Views: 336
Does God exist? Are there more than one God? Is God a figment of human imagination? These questions have confounded humanity for aeons and, even today, they are hotly debated. Some believe there is only one God and that anyone who worships a different form or name of God is deluded. Some ... Views: 702
The devotee may begin the process of devotional surrender to the Divine with a form of bargaining, expecting a recompense from God for the efforts made to express the devotion. Thus, people pray and expect an answer to their prayers, or they carry out devotional exercises and expect God to ... Views: 549
We see a growing movement around the world of people leaving the religion into which they were born, and starting down a spiritual path of inner growth. A driving factor behind this change is the perception among these people that the religion has either lost any life-force that it may have had ... Views: 365
Humanity is facing an existential crisis. Scientists report that changes brought about by human civilisation have created the conditions that are causing what is now being called the sixth planetary die-off of species. The land, water and air are all being polluted. Toxic chemicals are poisoning ... Views: 387
Faith, as described by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, is not a dogmatic acceptance of a system of ideas or ‘articles of faith’; rather, it is a form of knowledge that arises from deeper within, from the soul and its connection with the universe, which provides a certainty that goes beyond the ... Views: 588
Much of the activity in our lives is governed by the force of habits, whether ingrained in the genetic and species memory as ‘instinctive’ behavior, or built into the structure and function of the anatomy and physiology of our bodies, or developed through various forms of conditioning of our ... Views: 358
One of the big issues that all people face is dealing with cravings, habits and addictions and their effects in their lives. The mechanism at work here is not based on conscious decision-making, but on impulses, feelings and pulls that occur subconsciously, whether in the mind, the vital being, ... Views: 575
As the seeker begins to examine his life, he quickly finds that virtually all his thoughts, emotions, feelings and actions are based on habitual patterns, either ingrained in the human encoding as a species, or developed through socialisation in a society or civilisation, through family ... Views: 509
There is a complex interaction between the external mind-life-body complex and the subconscious level of our existence. As we experience various things in our lives, including illness, accidents or various circumstances, our mind tries to build a pattern of recognition and develops a memory. ... Views: 468
We tend to overlook or disregard the capacity of the body and its ‘body consciousness’ to aid in the spiritual quest. Each element of the being, the mind, the vital nature, and the body, has its own consciousness and capacity for response. Each element also can either be an aid or an obstacle to ... Views: 187
The importance of the rule of the 3 Gunas, the qualities of Nature, cannot be over-emphasized. Each of these qualities has both its positive aspects and its downsides, and they are functional in all life. They are continually in fluctuation and intermix with one another to create the events and ... Views: 421
The prevailing wisdom in today’s world holds that science has understood enough about the etiology of disease to be able to intervene and take steps to mitigate or cure disease using drugs or even, at the cutting edge, various forms of genetic intervention. The practitioners of that science ... Views: 256
An individual reported an experience which, at the time, was unique to him. He was suddenly attacked by a virulent disease and collapsed on the floor. He was carried off to another room in the facility where various individuals tried to figure out what happened to him and what to do about it. ... Views: 221
Healing the Body Through Spiritual Force or Through Faith
Posted on October 19, 2024
We tend to believe that an individual who has a strong mental development has advantages in all fields of life. It is true that the mind has provided some strong benefits, particularly in navigating the ... Views: 258
“All evolution is in essence a heightening of the force of consciousness in the manifest being so that it may be raised into the greater intensity of what is still unmanifest, from matter into life, from life into mind, from the mind into the spirit. It is this that must be the method of our ... Views: 391
“All evolution is in essence a heightening of the force of consciousness in the manifest being so that it may be raised into the greater intensity of what is still unmanifest, from matter into life, from life into mind, from the mind into the spirit. It is this that must be the method of our ... Views: 367
The 3 gunas of Nature, Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas are active in all things, even in the approach we take to the practice of meditation. Understanding these modes and the specific types of energy they each represent can aid us in tuning the meditation practice for ultimate positive results. Tamas ... Views: 684
There is an impulse to share something that we find valuable in our own lives. This impulse is oftentimes harnessed by religious organizations or spiritual groups to become a method of proselytizing and conversion, and in some cases, it can become a situation filled with pressure on the ... Views: 595
In his play Hamlet, William Shakespeare has the protagonist proclaim “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Particularly in the West, anything that references the possibility of past lives, inherited memories or capacities, or experiences, ... Views: 10
There is an interesting contradiction in the way humanity deals with unseen, or invisible forces at work. We believe wholeheartedly nowadays in gravity, electricity, wireless communications, magnetic transportation vehicles, and, despite the fact that all of these represent invisible forces, we ... Views: 671
If we reflect for a moment on the shift from one evolutionary principle of consciousness to another, we can see a shift of standpoint as well as a difference in the mechanism of operation. Those beings who are primarily based in the vital nature tend to react based on principles of fear and ... Views: 389
It is difficult to appreciate that there are gradations of consciousness, each with their own distinct characteristics, that occur outside our normal human range of perception. We tend to see separations and divisions within our limited range, while we treat anything outside that range as being ... Views: 353
There are forces in the universal creation that can obstruct, delay or harm the development of consciousness. They try to maintain a form of status quo, or they try to protect a vested interest or desire that they maintain. These forces, sometimes called ‘hostile forces’ are a frequent topic of ... Views: 279
We have learned quite a bit about the sexual impulse. Young children are basically asexual, and it is only with the coming of puberty and the flooding of mood-creating chemicals in the system (hormones), that we become susceptible to responding to the sexual energy when it arises. Not everything ... Views: 465
There are legends in major traditions about opposing and actively hostile beings who attempt to disrupt the spiritual evolution. Buddha was tempted by Mara. Jesus was tempted by the Devil. The Buddha and Jesus had to overcome the pressures of these beings in order to carry out their evolutionary ... Views: 652
There are powers at work in the world that have a vested interest in maintaining the current status. They have control, they have power, they can exult in their predominance. They do not want to see their power or influence wane or disappear. On the contrary, they may seek further control and ... Views: 39
Food for Thought: President Trump recently was speculating about how he can eventually earn his way into heaven. He speculated that achieving peace in Ukraine and winning the Nobel Peace Prize might help him get his wish.
I am certain that Christians will welcome with open arms any person who ... Views: 115