Dealing With the Reactive Impulses of the Vital Nature of the External Personality

We tend to be reactive by nature. Something occurs and we immediately capture the vibration and respond to it. Thus we have outbursts of anger when we are frustrated or feel insecure, or when something gets in the way of some idea, intention or movement we want to undertake. An example of this type of instantaneous reactivity is the phenomenon of ‘road rage’. Perhaps someone is driving too slowly, or cuts in front. There is a reaction of anger and in some cases, this manifests as a confrontation and a beating, a fight or even an attempted murder. Many cases of domestic violence are a result of reacting in the heat of the moment with anger and violence. It is not just anger that occurs in this manner. Many cases of sexual assault are ‘crimes of passion’ as they occur without premeditation when an individual suddenly experiences the sexual force and does not restrain it from expression. Basically all of the vital impulses are subject to instant activation when they are triggered by some vibrational pattern reaching us, or arising internally based on some released cellular stored response. Much of this occurs without being filtered through the mental process as encapsulated memories, feelings or vital reactions are triggered and play themselves out before we can even consider how to respond.

For the spiritual seeker intent on transforming human nature, these triggered responses represent both a particular challenge and an opportunity. With mental control and discipline it is possible to withhold the reaction, but that only helps if the instantaneous nature of it can be modified. Otherwise, the proverbial horse is out of the barn before the door has been closed! That is why adopting the practice of shifting the standpoint to the witness consciousness obsesrving the nature is extremely useful to the spiritual seeker. This allows the witness to create a ‘buffer’ to lengthen the fuse setting of the reactive nature, thus giving time for considered response rather than instant reaction. It is the attachment to the external ego-personality that allows the unfiltered reactions to take place. It is the detachment from that ego-personality that is the first step in gaining mastery over these reactive impulses.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “The diffficulties of the character persist so long as one yields to them in action when they rise. One has to make a strict rule not to act according to the impulses of anger, ego or whatever the weakness may be that one wants to get rid of, or if one does act in the heat of the moment, not to justify or persist in the action. If one does that, after a time the difficulty abates or is confined purely to a subjective movement which one can observe, detach oneself from and combat.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 4, Ordeals and Difficulties, pg. 77