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- The Mechanical Mind - by Submitted on Aug 13, 2023 from santosh krinskyThere is another aspect of mind that holds the habits, instincts and trained responses in place. This is what Sri Aurobindo and the Mother call the ‘mechanical mind’. There are uses and benefits to this mind, but it is one of the most rudimentary actions of mind, which arose to provide a ...
Views: 282 - The Physical Mind and the Power of Doubt - by Submitted on Aug 12, 2023 from santosh krinskyThe physical mind, which responds to the external objects of the senses and the impact of those external objects, has strict limits within which it can either perceive or understand what it is perceiving. The reality of our existence, however, reaches far beyond the boundaries of response that ...
Views: 286 - Understanding the Physical Mind and the Process of Change - by Submitted on Aug 11, 2023 from santosh krinskyThere is in Nature, a conservative force that resists change. There is a benefit inasmuch as it ensures that life does not devolve into chaos, and there is a further benefit that it forces the change-process to become much more solid and effective in order to eventually bring out the intended ...
Views: 292 - The Nature and Action of the Physical Mind - by Submitted on Aug 10, 2023 from santosh krinskyIndividuals who are primarily rooted in the function of the physical mind have a difficulty in accepting the reality of anything that goes outside their ability to sense and perceive. These individuals will frequently deny the existence of the soul because it cannot be seen, measured or ...
Views: 287 - Distinguishing the Vital Mind from the Mental Power of Reason, Thought and Will - by Submitted on Aug 09, 2023 from santosh krinskyWe may observe feelings, perceptions, thoughts, emotions, ideas, imaginations, memories, etc. all arising in our minds, and, for most of us, this is all just ‘mental activity’. And for most people this is clearly enough! For those taking up the spiritual life and practice, however, it becomes ...
Views: 260 - The Need to Gain Control Over the Action of the Vital Mind and Its Function - by Submitted on Aug 08, 2023 from santosh krinskyEveryone has had the experience, at some time or another, of imagining themselves doing something extraordinary, or at least fulfilling some dream about how their lives could develop or turn out. It may be a fantasy about winning a lottery, or gaining fame or recognition, or finding the right ...
Views: 258 - How to Recognise the Awakened Soul - by Submitted on Aug 07, 2023 from santosh krinskyIn the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna asks how the ‘liberated soul’ can be recognised. How does he walk? How does he talk? What distinguishing characteristics can we find that identify such a person? Sri Krishna responds that there are not external signs, but only the inner standpoint of the individual ...
Views: 318 - The Superior Man: Beyond Good and Evil… - by Submitted on Aug 06, 2023 from santosh krinskyNietzsche espoused the idea that the ‘superior man’ was, by definition, ‘beyond good and evil’ and was therefore not bound by the rules of society. This concept has led a number of people into serious trouble. Dostoevsky explored this idea in his novel Crime and Punishment, in which the ...
Views: 277 - The Limitations of the Reasoning Intelligence and the Need to Maintain It During the Spiritual Practice - by Submitted on Aug 05, 2023 from santosh krinskyThe mental knowledge we acquire is mostly a form of ignorance reaching out to try to acquire knowledge. In The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo describes the various forms of knowledge. With one exception, they are set up in the paradigm of subject, object and the process of knowing, and treats the ...
Views: 320 - Knowledge … and Wisdom - by Submitted on Aug 04, 2023 from santosh krinskyAs we go through school and acquire knowledge, knowledge of facts, knowledge of ideas, knowledge of principles, knowledge of methodologies, knowledge of trained skills, we gain in our ability to act in the world and succeed in our external life. We learn how to employ the faculty of reasoning ...
Views: 278 - How has mindful living changed your perspective on life and relationships? - by Submitted on Aug 04, 2023 from Dada BhagwanMindfulness helps transform our life from one of stress, fear and uncertainty, and clogged up with thoughts, to one that is on the whole calmer and stable, full of positive and clear thinking and wholesome. Mindful living helps focus ourselves on the present, here and now, rather than worrying ...
Views: 194 - Is the Mental Consciousness an Aid or an Obstacle for the Spiritual Seeker? - by Submitted on Aug 03, 2023 from santosh krinskyEvery level of consciousness is limited by the frame within which it operates, as well as by the mechanism of its action within that frame. In its own field of action, with its own native operation, the mind can be a powerful tool and aid to the individual. Yet, when it tries to assert for ...
Views: 315 - The Power of Love - by Submitted on Aug 02, 2023 from Maetreyii Ma NolanEvery day is a new opportunity, a new beginning, an opportunity to live the life you truly want to live. Spirituality uplifts the human spirit. It is governed by love, lovingkindness, compassion, and awareness. When the mind and body and spirit are aligned, there is a flow from that infinite ...
Views: 380 - The Two Uses of the Mind and Its True Role in the Manifestation - by Submitted on Aug 02, 2023 from santosh krinskyThe primary functionality of the mind is to organize and classify, breaking down and fragmenting the reality into component parts. We see this easily in the classification systems for flora and fauna, in our detailed review of the genetic structure of life, gene sequencing, and in our ability to ...
Views: 291 - The Source and Nature of the Mental Substance - by Submitted on Aug 01, 2023 from santosh krinskyHow does Mind evolve out of Matter? Some scientists will tell you that through random chance, chemicals and electrical forces and heat led to the development of beings capable of reflecting, thinking and contemplating deep thoughts, exploring the nature of life and the universe, etc. They do not ...
Views: 322 - Understanding the Various Aspects of Mental Activity - by Submitted on Jul 31, 2023 from santosh krinskyWestern medical researchers have invested a considerable amount of time and attention on gaining an understanding of the way the brain functions, mapping the regions of the brain responsible for various types of activities, and monitoring the function of neurotransmitter chemicals and nervous ...
Views: 323 - The Vital-Physical, the Physical-Vital and the Material Vital: the Linkages Between Matter and the Vital - by Submitted on Jul 30, 2023 from santosh krinskyWhen Life emerges in Matter, there must, obviously, be some mechanism for the two principles to interact with one another. Matter must develop ways to sense, respond to and react to the action of the Life-Force. Similarly, when the Life-Force evolves and manifests in Matter, it must also become ...
Views: 278 - The Vital Embodies Power of Realisation - by Submitted on Jul 29, 2023 from santosh krinskyA life focused solely on meditation, inner development, growth of knowledge, or on prayer and devotion, tends to avoid the implications of the ongoing evolution of consciousness and the need for transformation and positive change to create the circumstances for that evolution of consciousness to ...
Views: 276 - The Contagious Nature of Desire in the Vital Being - by Submitted on Jul 28, 2023 from santosh krinskyVirtually everybody, at some point in their lives, has the experience of entering a room or a gathering of some sort and feeling the movement of some vital force rising up within them. It could be a room filled with the energy of greed, or sexual tension or anger. They feel like they are being ...
Views: 286 - Making the Vital Into a Willing Collaborator in the Transformation of Life - by Submitted on Jul 27, 2023 from santosh krinskyAfter all the attempts to bring the vital being under some kind of control, it may seem like it is an impossible task! The vital has its fixed habits of fulfillment and satisfaction and tends generally to want to continue its normal modes of action. It is, however, not a thankless task and there ...
Views: 272 - The Vital Nature and Its Ability to Withhold Cooperation and Obstruct Progress in Spiritual Pursuits - by Submitted on Jul 26, 2023 from santosh krinskyIn order to carry out the spiritual practices and work for the transformation of human nature, the vital being needs to agree to changes its habitual sources of satisfaction and fulfillment to an entirely different basis. The pursuit of pleasure, and the accompanying experience of pain, is ...
Views: 254 - Vital Energy in Ordinary Life and in the Spiritual Life - by Submitted on Jul 25, 2023 from santosh krinskyWe generally do not question the movements of the vital nature in our ordinary daily life. They are so much a part of what we consider to be human nature and human experience that we simply accept them and treat them as inevitable. It is true that human society has developed a framework within ...
Views: 268 - The Standpoint of the Individual Rooted in the Vital Nature - by Submitted on Jul 24, 2023 from santosh krinskyEach individual is rooted primarily in one of the major component aspects of our human individuality. Some are clearly rooted in the physical and their thoughts, actions and needs are those called for by the physical being. The vast majority of people are moved by their vital being, and are ...
Views: 283 - The Education and Uplifting of the Vital Nature - by Submitted on Jul 23, 2023 from santosh krinskyOne of the most confusing issues for the spiritual seeker is the ‘care and feeding’ of the vital nature. We shift from one extreme to the other in our view of how to bring it under control, for it is virtually uniformly recognised that for spiritual development, the vital nature must be ...
Views: 285 - The Food of the Vital Being - by Submitted on Jul 22, 2023 from santosh krinskyWe can observe that there are times when the vital nature is energetic, enthused, active, and makes efforts. There are other times when it is dull, withdrawn, sullen, lacking energy and clearly is not taking interest in doing anything. The difference between these two states generally lies in ...
Views: 283 - The Vital Nature: Transformation Not Suppression - by Submitted on Jul 21, 2023 from santosh krinskyThe vital has a natural tendency to seek for the fulfillment of its being in some form of enjoyment. In the external surface being, this enjoyment takes the form of a seeking after pleasure. With this seeking after pleasure, however, comes also the experience of pain. Pleasure and pain alternate ...
Views: 269 - The Desire-Soul and the Life and Death of the Body - by Submitted on Jul 20, 2023 from santosh krinskyThe vital desire-soul animates the external being. When it enters the physical frame, we say that there is life in the body. When it departs, we say that the person has died. This is distinguishable from the true soul, the psychic being, which is not dependent on either the life or death of a ...
Views: 303 - The Vital Desire Soul and the True Soul of the Psychic Being - by Submitted on Jul 19, 2023 from santosh krinskySri Aurobindo and the Mother make a distinction between the ‘desire soul’ of the vital nature and the ‘true soul’ which expresses the inmost being that is a direct spark of the Divine. They differ in their focus, orientation, and basis of action. The desire soul incorporates the drives of the ...
Views: 293 - The Vital Being: Its Nature, Its Role and Its Mode of Action - by Submitted on Jul 18, 2023 from santosh krinskyWhen the vital nature is involved, which individual has the power to control its impulsions and demands and keep it focused on the higher aims of life? The vital nature is a powerful and essential component of life on earth. It animates material nature and functions through the force of desire. ...
Views: 281 - The Physical Consciousness: Abandon or Transform? - by Submitted on Jul 17, 2023 from santosh krinskyThrough long habit, spiritual seekers tend to look at the question of how to attain spiritual liberation involving abandonment of the external life in the world. Not only spiritual seekers raise this question in some form or another. Anyone involved in aesthetic, mental, artistic, or emotional ...
Views: 292 - The Aspiration and Surrender of the Body Consciousness in Its Seeking for Health and Balance - by Submitted on Jul 16, 2023 from santosh krinskyWhile the mind does not generally recognise the consciousness of the body, it remains true that the body has its own ability to respond to circumstances. For those who have a highly developed mental or vital being, these powers frequently override the natural responsiveness of the body. When we ...
Views: 281 - Conservative Bias and Progressive Action - by Submitted on Jul 15, 2023 from santosh krinskyThere is a conservative bias in earthly existence that seeks to preserve established ways of life as a means of providing an element of stability. This principle helps to avoid the chaotic implications of unrestricted change, thereby providing a basis and a certain amount of certainty. This ...
Views: 302 - The Interaction of the Mind and the Body - by Submitted on Jul 14, 2023 from santosh krinskyThe body has its own consciousness and much of its operation takes place without active mental intervention. However, there is also a serious interaction that takes place so that the mental power can influence, guide, train, direct and otherwise gain at least some control over certain aspects of ...
Views: 309 - How does the soul take a new birth? Where does the soul fly away after death? In which form does the soul go? - by Submitted on Jul 14, 2023 from Dada BhagwanHave you ever seen a talking and walking toy that runs on battery? According to what it is fed, it says, ‘I am hungry, I am happy’, and so on. It works as long as there is a battery in it. And, when the battery is discharged, it is dead. Similarly, a dead body doesn’t have any energy or power to ...
Views: 225 - Understanding the Consciousness of the Body - by Submitted on Jul 13, 2023 from santosh krinskyIf we reflect on how many actions or operations of the physical body take place without our mental intervention, it becomes clear that the body has its own highly developed, and essential, form of consciousness that operates independently of the mind. One common example is widely experienced. An ...
Views: 317 - Causes and Avoidance of Accidents - by Submitted on Jul 12, 2023 from santosh krinskyAn accident avoided. An individual related the following incident. He was driving with a passenger through Yellowstone National Park in the USA some years ago during the summer season in a van late in the afternoon. He had a sense or feeling of an impending accident involving a bison, although ...
Views: 368 - Why chastity has always been considered as highest virtue? - by Submitted on Jul 12, 2023 from Dada BhagwanIn the book, ‘Brahmacharya – Celibacy Attained with Understanding’, Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, an Enlightened being, has shown the beneficial effects of brahmacharya with scientific exactness. Let’s look at the following excerpts from this book: Param Pujya Dadashri, herein, says: “So ...
Views: 233 - Interaction of the Mind, the Vital Envelope and the Physical Body in the Development of Acute Illness - by Submitted on Jul 11, 2023 from santosh krinskyFor most people, acute illness is an event of the body, which is subject to attack by various malign types of germs, bacteria and viruses. We tend to envision the body as a battlefield and the attacking germs aggressively target the cells and organs and the body fights back with an immune ...
Views: 389 - Understanding the Causes and Prevention of Illness - by Submitted on Jul 10, 2023 from santosh krinskyThere are many ideas about the causes of illness, as well as ways to prevent or cure illness. In the West, the prevalent idea is related to what may be called the “germ invasion” theory, namely, that illness is caused by specific physical ‘germs’ (bacteria or viruses) which invade and overpower ...
Views: 409 - The Role of the Vital-Physical Aspect of Our Being - by Submitted on Jul 08, 2023 from santosh krinskyWhen we observe the nerves and their role in our actions, we see that they carry vital sensations within a physical frame to connect our senses and responses to external pressures to the brain, and then, carry impulses back to the organs of action. Most people do not recognise the essential role ...
Views: 284 - Understanding the Physical Body in its Gross and Subtle Aspects - by Submitted on Jul 07, 2023 from santosh krinskyWhen a particular power of consciousness is intended to participate in the evolution in the external world, it utilizes the physical body as the foundation or anchor of its action. This fixes its action in the world, while at the same time, imposes limits on the power due to the watering-down ...
Views: 293 - Interaction of the Powers of Consciousness in the Material World - by Submitted on Jul 06, 2023 from santosh krinskyWhile each power of consciousness, physical, vital, mental (and others) operates in its native mode and strength in its own plane or sphere of action, it projects itself into the world we inhabit by tying itself to the foundation of the basic physical principle. This involves a ‘watering down’ ...
Views: 289 - The Continuum of Consciousness and the Interactions of the Various Wave-Forms - by Submitted on Jul 05, 2023 from santosh krinskyWe recognise the electro-magnetic spectrum, the color spectrum, the sound wave spectrum and others, each as representing a continuum of wave forms with varying characteristics. There are shorter, more intense waves and longer wave frequencies. Some conduct tremendous amounts of physical heat, ...
Views: 273 - The Reality of Worlds of Existence Other than the Physical World - by Submitted on Jul 04, 2023 from santosh krinskyWe have a strong bias in favor of accepting things that we can perceive with our physical senses, and we tend to disbelieve or discount anything that is not directly, physically available to our experience. Yet if we reflect on the totality of our life experience, it becomes clear that there are ...
Views: 325 - The Status of the Purusha in the Individual and in the Universal Manifestation - by Submitted on Jul 03, 2023 from santosh krinskyWe see pattens repeating from the macro-level to the micro-level. The study of fractals shows us that there are indeed certain patterns and relationships that repeat themselves in every smaller configurations as we drill down toward the micro-level. The macrocosm and the microcosm reflect the ...
Views: 320 - Understanding Planes of Existence or Planes of Consciousness - by Submitted on Jul 02, 2023 from santosh krinskyWe reflect on the evolution of consciousness, how Life evolves out of Matter and Mind evolves out of Life in Matter. Nothing can evolve that has not been previously involved, just as a tree can develop out of an acorn, because the genetic coding is 'involved' in that seed and under the proper ...
Views: 307 - Becoming Conscious of the Multiple Sheaths or Planes of Our Being - by Submitted on Jul 01, 2023 from santosh krinskyIn the Taittiriya Upanishad, the seeker discovers, through intensive tapasya that there are multiple layers, or sheaths, of consciousness that make up the human being. His seeking first discovers the material body, or ‘food sheath’. As he continues he recognises the vital body, or ‘prana ...
Views: 310 - Yoga as Applied Psychology to Understand and Address the Complexity Inherent in the Evolution of Consciousness - by Submitted on Jun 30, 2023 from santosh krinskyThe evolution of consciousness involves an increasing level of complexity as successive levels of consciousness are layered and then interact with each other, with each layer attempting to not only express its own native way of seeing and acting, but also needing to accommodate the demands and ...
Views: 302 - Organizing One’s Life Around a Central Aspiration - by Submitted on Jun 29, 2023 from santosh krinskyOne of the things that spiritual seekers experience is that regardless of how strong the central aspiration of the soul happens to be within them, they experience fluctuations based on the various parts of the external nature coming to the front and asserting their own priorities. This leads to ...
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