What Is Meant by Spontaneity and How to Apply It

There are two types of spontaneity and each of them proceeds from a different cause and has a vastly different effect. Spontaneity is generally understood in the context of responding ‘naturally’ to situations without a lot of thinking, planning or detailed consideration of one’s actions or their consequences. It is important to distinguish the two types of spontaneity to understand when and how it should (and should not) be applied.

Vital spontaneity is characterized by impulsive behavior reacting immediately to situations or pressures in the world. This is what is normally occurs as people go through life without engaging the mental process. It can lead to both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ actions! The mental filter is essentially absent. On the one side it can lead to unscripted responses that may be novel and potentially better responses than customary trained responses. On the other hand, it can lead to uncontrolled bouts of anger, rage, lust and other vital deformations. One of the reasons that the overlay of mental review and planning developed was to bring a measure of control to these unregulated vital impulses, and thus, help mitigate the worst types of behaviour that negatively impact the individual and the society.

At a certain stage, the mental control becomes too pervasive, and actually curtails innovation and development. It is at this stage that the question of developing spontaneity arises, so that the individual can break out of the limitations imposed by an overbearing mental process. What is required, however, is not a reversion to the unrestrained vital spontaneity but the development of a higher form of spontaneity, which we may call ‘spiritual spontaneity’. 

Spiritual spontaneity is a state of Grace. One is not bound by the step-by-step fragmented processes of the mind to maintain control, but one is also not subject to the random impulsiveness of the vital nature. Rather, the receptivity of the being to the higher divine intention in the world creates a fluidity and freedom of action that far exceeds the mental limits. This does not imply, however, that the individual need abandon the mind and its powers entirely. On the contrary, the mind can and should be used, within its field of activity, to ensure that the needed action is effective in the external world. Just as the physical body and the vital force are put into motion to effectuate results in the world, the mind, too, will have its proper role under the guidance of the spontaneous inspiration that descends directly from the higher spiritual connection to the Divine.

The Mother notes: ”What Lao Tse calls spontaneous is this: instead of being moved by a personal will — mental, vital or physical — one ought to stop all outer effort and let oneself be guided and moved by what the Chinse call Tao, which they identify with the Godhead — or God or the Supreme Principle or the Origin of all things or the creative Truth, indeed all possible human notions of the Divine and the goal to be attained.”

“To be spontaneous means not to think out, organise, decide and make an effort to realise with the personal will.”

“… Naturally, this is not very easy, it asks for preparation. And if one comes down to the sphere of action, it is still more difficult; for normally, if one wants to act with some kind of logic, one usually has to think out beforehand what one wants to do and plan it before doing it, otherwise one may be tossed about by all sorts of desires and impulses which would be very far from the inspiration spoken about in Wu Wei; it would simply be movements of the lower nature driving you to act. Therefore, unless one has reached the state of wisdom and detachment of the Chinese sage mentioned in this story, it is better not to be spontaneous in one’s daily actions, for one would risk being the plaything of all the most disorderly impulses and influences.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Our Many Selves: Practical Yogic Psychology, Chapter 6, Some Answers and Explanations, pp. 193-194