Self Improvement Site
On The Internet! Take the Self Improvement Tour
On The Internet! Take the Self Improvement Tour
Self Knowledge Articles
We are currently looking for an Official SelfGrowth.com Guide to "Self Knowledge". If you have expertise in Self Knowledge and your own website and/or product for this topic, please review this form for complete details. The Official Guide Position is part of our Premium Placement Package
- The Path to the Attainment of Integral Self-Knowledge - by Submitted on Jun 20, 2023 from santosh krinskyIn The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo describes at some length what he calls ‘the refusal of the ascetic’. This refusal is caused by the focus on the attainment of the Supreme by disregarding or even eliminating the relationship of the seeker to the life of the external world and society. He eschews ...
Views: 394 - Sachchidananda (Existence-Consciousness-Bliss) - by Submitted on Jun 19, 2023 from santosh krinskyIn our mental view of the world, we see everything separated and fragmented, and we identify separate objects, beings and forces as interacting with one another. We can intellectually conceive of the concept that all these separate entities and forces are part of a coordinated and combined ...
Views: 345 - Supermind - by Submitted on Jun 18, 2023 from santosh krinskyWithin the framework of our mind and the experience of our vital existence, we are inculcated in the belief that everything is subject to duality, good and bad, happy and unhappy, light and dark. We cannot generally conceive of an existence that is not subject to these pairs of opposites. We ...
Views: 396 - Overmind - by Submitted on Jun 17, 2023 from santosh krinskyThere are further levels of consciousness beyond the intuition. The next superior level, as Sri Aurobindo has defined it, is that of the ‘overmind’. The overmind involves at least a partial shift of standpoint as it sees and understands the greater oneness and unity and factors that knowledge ...
Views: 356 - Is the mind a part of our immortal soul, which is also immortal along with the soul? - by Submitted on Jun 17, 2023 from Dada BhagwanNo, the mind is not immortal. And it is not a part of the immortal Soul either. The Soul and the mind are two different entities. Just as this body is physical, the mind too is physical and is made up of matter. Whereas the Soul is not at all physical, it is pure consciousness and has no ...
Views: 270 - Intuition - by Submitted on Jun 16, 2023 from santosh krinskyThe popular idea about intuition is tied to some kind of unexplainable process of "knowing" that people go through. If it is purely based in the type of extrapolation from past experience, or some sense that drives the decision without careful and logical analysis, it is still based in the ...
Views: 493 - Illumined Mind - by Submitted on Jun 15, 2023 from santosh krinskyWhen we study the functioning of the mind, we see that the essential nature is one that can receive sense perceptions, analyze, organize and then subject the objects so developed to a process of reasoning using systematic application of rules of logic. We can also see a process of recall of ...
Views: 373 - What makes you get emotionally attached in a relationship? - by Submitted on Jun 15, 2023 from Dada BhagwanIt is good to earnestly love someone. But to allow yourself to become overly emotionally attached can result in an unhealthy, troubling and even on occasions, an unnatural relationship. When you are deeply in love with someone, so much so that that person inadvertently takes over your entire ...
Views: 348 - Higher Mind - by Submitted on Jun 14, 2023 from santosh krinskyIf 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: 353 - The Superconscient - by Submitted on Jun 13, 2023 from santosh krinskyJust as the electro-magnetic spectrum has ranges below those that we can consciously receive and translate, as well as ranges above those we can utilize, so also consciousness has ranges below and above our limits. The ranges below our limits are called subconscient and inconscient. Those above ...
Views: 350 - The Subconscient and the Inconscient - by Submitted on Jun 12, 2023 from santosh krinskyWe are conscious and aware of forces and energies that operate within a certain specified range. Anything that falls outside that range, whether above or below, remains unseen and unknown to us, even if the forces operative in those superior or inferior ranges impact our thoughts, feelings, ...
Views: 335 - The Supramental Evolution Represents the Fulfillment of Life, Not the Abandonment of Life - by Submitted on Jun 11, 2023 from santosh krinskyFor much of human history, spirituality has been looked upon as a contradiction of an active life in the world. The anchorite in the desert, the renunciate, the Sannyasin, the monk or nun in the cloister are held up to us as the examples of dedication to spiritual growth and purpose. All of ...
Views: 306 - The Inmost Being — the Psychic Being - by Submitted on Jun 11, 2023 from santosh krinskyFor those who live their lives on the surface, focused on fulfillment of their external lives, desires and their ego-personality, there is generally no direct knowledge of the existence of the soul. They may accept the idea of a soul without a clear sense of what that implies or means. Or they ...
Views: 332 - Environmental Consciousness — the Circumconscient - by Submitted on Jun 10, 2023 from santosh krinskyA feeling, an emotion, a thought arises within us. Do we ‘manufacture’ these, or are we the recipients of them from elsewhere? If we manufacture them, how exactly do we do that? Where does the basis for that thought or feeling come from? What causative factors are there for a specific feeling or ...
Views: 363 - The Inner Being (the Subliminal) - by Submitted on Jun 09, 2023 from santosh krinskyThere are many times when people suddenly get a true ‘sense’ or a ‘feeling’ about something that is not directly perceptible to their senses. Sometimes one will feel that someone is watching or following, although the person cannot be seen or heard. There is some inner sense, with a wider and ...
Views: 348 - The Outer Mental, Vital and Physical Consciousness of the External Being - by Submitted on Jun 08, 2023 from santosh krinskyModern-day Western psychological researchers are finding that certain portions of the brain are related to higher cognitive functions, logic, reasoning, extrapolation, imagination, projection, analysis and classification while some parts are in charge of the purely mechanical control of things ...
Views: 347 - Understanding the Relationship of Various Parts and Planes of the Being to Our Current External Mental, Vital and Physical Consciousness - by Submitted on Jun 07, 2023 from santosh krinskySri Aurobindo frequently describes going inward to discover the deepest inner being, the psychic being, or soul, as one way to come into contact with the truth of one’s existence and unify one’s being with the Divine. This is a way to overcome the artificial wall of separation that we set up ...
Views: 347 - Individuation: From Codependent Chameleon to True Self - by Submitted on Jun 07, 2023 from Darlene LancerWhen we first met, I told my husband I was very adaptable. I didn’t realize the price of being a chameleon until I started recovery and my journey of individuation. By then I was dead inside. I’d spent years adapting to abuse and belittling that I’d absorbed. I was detached from my feelings and ...
Views: 527(2 votes) - The Value of Attaining the Standpoint of the Witness Consciousness in Understanding the Complexity of Interaction of the Parts of the Being - by Submitted on Jun 06, 2023 from santosh krinskyIt has been famously stated that we cannot understand the system within which we are acting until we can shift our view to a standpoint outside that frame. As long as we are immersed within any particular system or standpoint, we are locked into the viewpoint and understanding embedded within ...
Views: 338 - The Experience of the Individual in the Ordinary Life of the External Surface Being - by Submitted on Jun 05, 2023 from santosh krinskyFor the individual living on the surface of his being, interacting with the external world, responding to impulsions, pressures, forces and the objects of desire, his inner experience is essentially a reaction to these external pressures and an attempt to meet the desires that arise and somehow ...
Views: 341 - Transformation of Human Nature Requires a Shift of Standpoint Away From Absorption in the Actions and Reactions of the External Being - by Submitted on Jun 04, 2023 from santosh krinskyTransformation of human nature is not practical from a standpoint mired within that nature. Forces push the being in one direction or another, and the individual is under the power of the divergent drives put up by the physical, the vital and the mental being, compounded by the impact of the ...
Views: 387 - A Primary Difference Between Traditional Understanding of Yoga and the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother - by Submitted on Jun 03, 2023 from santosh krinskyYoga has historically focused on liberation of the individual soul from the illusion of the outer world. The seeker is advised to see through the transitory nature of all external rewards, undertake practices that help him to discover his true self, and once that is done, live a life, free from ...
Views: 373 - Self-Knowledge and Self-Mastery - by Submitted on Jun 03, 2023 from santosh krinskyThe purpose of attaining self-knowledge is not to create an intellectual framework and be able to learnedly expound on a subject; rather, self-knowledge implies that the seeker has a purpose behind the effort. This purpose may be to find a way to gain ‘liberation’ from the existing life, to ...
Views: 392 - Understanding the Difference Between Psychic and Spiritual - by Submitted on Jun 01, 2023 from santosh krinskyEvery language has its limitations, particularly surrounding areas of development that were not central to the people who developed and utilized that language. This makes it difficult to translate concepts that are self-evident in one language easily or effectively into another language. This ...
Views: 538 - Discrimination to Recognise the Distinction of Different Forces and the Various Parts of the Being is Necessary for the Spiritual Seeker - by Submitted on May 31, 2023 from santosh krinskyThe Buddhist tradition describes Manjushri as a Bodhisattva who, with his flaming sword of discrimination, cuts through illusion and falsehood to disclose the truth of existence. The power of discrimination between different powers, forces, impressions, suggestions, and their source and intent ...
Views: 623 - The Opportunity of Life's Challenges to Awaken and Grow - by Submitted on May 30, 2023 from Maetreyii Ma NolanFor hundreds of thousands of years, humans have lived on this planet. They have each struggled to exist, to survive, to have a good life - to live. And in this time throughout history, people have encountered various obstacles, difficulties, and struggles in life. These struggles are a natural ...
Views: 384 - Utilizing the Mental Power to Aid the Understanding of Our Complex Being - by Submitted on May 30, 2023 from santosh krinskyMany years ago, Sri M P Pandit suggested that a devotee write an article about the importance of precise bookkeeping and accounting while engaged in service. There was a prevailing sentiment that such ‘mental ideas’ were antithetical to the kind of absolute devotion and surrender that put ...
Views: 363 - Yoga: The Science of Consciousness - by Submitted on May 29, 2023 from santosh krinskyIn our modern world, we see the wide dissemination of yoga, primarily as a means of gaining some measure of control over the body, through the postures developed and taught under the rubric of ‘hatha yoga’. In many instances, teachers of hatha yoga have taken the step of teaching their students ...
Views: 521 - Our Many Selves: Practical Yogic Psychology — Introduction - by Submitted on May 28, 2023 from santosh krinskyWe tend to believe that we are a single, consistent and harmonized individuality, personality, character. For the most part, we are not self-reflective enough to recognise the inconsistencies and inner conflicts that take place within the being, due to different drives, needs, desires, and ...
Views: 478 - Growing Within: the Psychology of Inner Development: Summary and Conclusions - by Submitted on May 27, 2023 from santosh krinskyHumanity 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: 348 - As per karma, what we go through now is because of good or bad that we did in our past. Hence, the people who suffer horrific crimes like getting killed is beacuse they did severe bad things before. Do we need to help others in their sufferings? - by Submitted on May 27, 2023 from Dada BhagwanWhatever you do will come back to you! The slightest misery one gives to any living being does return back to him - such is the law of Nature! So, the pain given to other’s bodies will be reflected in the same way to one’s own body indeed. However, these are all effects of one’s past ...
Views: 292 - The Shift or Reversal of Consciousness Happens All At Once, Not Gradually - by Submitted on May 26, 2023 from santosh krinskyWe are used to the idea that if we practice something, if we undertake a course of study, we will gradually increase our ability and our level of understanding, so that eventually we move, in the academic field, for example, from primary school to high school, to college, potentially to graduate ...
Views: 391 - Becoming Aware of the Illusion of the External Life - by Submitted on May 25, 2023 from santosh krinskyMany people are begin to reflect, and even entertain the notion, that the world we experience on a day to day basis is somehow unreal or illusory. Films such as the dystopian story set forth in The Matrix envision that human beings are fettered and their brains wired so they experience a form of ...
Views: 339 - Attaining Certainty About the Actuality of the Reversal of Consciousness - by Submitted on May 24, 2023 from santosh krinskySeekers wonder how they can be sure that the true shift of consciousness to the divine standpoint, or even a soul-centric standpoint has occurred. The status is so ‘real’ that it permits no doubt whatsoever. When one combines this sense of reality with the way in which one reacts totally ...
Views: 369 - Preparation for the Definitive Shift of the Consciousness to a New Standpoint - by Submitted on May 23, 2023 from santosh krinskyWhen a seeker has an unusual experience, when the consciousness shifts to a different standpoint, when new forms of understanding, inspiration, and response suddenly arise, there can be a feeling of intense disorientation, concern, fear or anxiety. ‘What is happening to me?’ Given the ...
Views: 325 - The Breakthrough to the Reversal of Consciousness - by Submitted on May 22, 2023 from santosh krinskySri Ramana Maharshi, to point the seeker towards the truth of his existence, asked ‘who am I?’ With persistent inquiry, the individual soon finds that this external personality, ego-self that we normally treat as who we are, is in reality a front, a shell, an illusion, and that the truth of our ...
Views: 392 - A New Birth Into a Spiritual Life - by Submitted on May 21, 2023 from santosh krinskyThere is a considerable amount of talk about being “born again” in the modern-day Christian tradition. When we explore what is meant, it seems like it is a matter of accepting in one’s heart a certain belief set central to the denomination that espouses this idea. There does not seem to be any ...
Views: 373 - Spiritual Experiences Manifest When They Are Ready and When the Seeker Can Perceive Them - by Submitted on May 20, 2023 from santosh krinskyOur ability to perceive is limited both by the scale within which we are able to perceive, as well as the operation of the “all or nothing” phenomenon. Thus, events are occurring, activities are underway at wavelengths below those we can perceive, and above those we can perceive. At some point, ...
Views: 342 - The Shift from Ego-Personality to Divine Standpoint - by Submitted on May 19, 2023 from santosh krinskyWe generally tend to believe that if we focus intensely enough, if we undertake serious spiritual disciplines, we will achieve the goal of spiritual liberation or realisations that we may be seeking. There are no doubt many benefits from practicing spiritual disciplines, undertaking tapasya, and ...
Views: 365 - The Nature of the Reversal of Consciousness Cannot Be Fully Grasped by the Ordinary Human Externalized Consciousness - by Submitted on May 18, 2023 from santosh krinskyIf we reflect for a moment that a being who does not have a highly developed abstract mental capacity, perhaps a fish or a honeybee, or even a cat or dog, is unable to truly appreciate and understand the functioning of the higher reasoning and logical capabilities that human beings consider to ...
Views: 362 - Spiritual Experience Comes and Goes Until the Nature Becomes Ready for a Total Shift of Standpoint - by Submitted on May 17, 2023 from santosh krinskyMost people who take up spiritual practices are deeply involved in some kind of regular practice and, as with everything else in the normal life, they look for signs and signals that show they are making progress in their chosen path of development. An experience comes, some new revelatory ...
Views: 328 - Your True Lasting State of Happiness - by Submitted on May 16, 2023 from Maetreyii Ma NolanWhat do people want, really want? They want to be happy. Everyone loves their life. They want to find happiness, find expression, find love, find joy. This desire for happiness is universal. The desire to live and the fear of death are shared by all human beings and most living beings. This ...
Views: 451 - The Limits of Mental, Vital and Physical Efforts to Change Human Nature and the Need for a Shift of Consciousness to a New Evolutionary Principle - by Submitted on May 16, 2023 from santosh krinskyIn his epic poem Savitri: a Legend and a Symbol, Sri Aurobindo writes: “Heavy unchanged weighs still the imperfect world; The splendid youth of Time has passed and failed; Heavy and long are the years our labour counts, And still the seals are firm upon man’s soul And weary is the ancient ...
Views: 349 - The Necessity of a Reversal of Consciousness for Living the Spiritual Life - by Submitted on May 15, 2023 from santosh krinskyWhether we describe it as a ‘shift of standpoint’ or a ‘reversal of consciousness’, it is an essential turning point in the development of a spiritual life that the individual adjust both his focus and his interpretation of the life experience to conform, not with the outer view on the surface ...
Views: 355 - Number To +18-O3((221))OO-47 United Airlines - by Submitted on May 15, 2023 from Helen ArmitageNumber To +18-O3((221))OO-47 United Airlines United Airlines Phone Number Call United Airlines customer service faster with United Airlines Phone Number Popular customer problems and how to solve them How Do I Check My Flight Status with United Airlines? How Do I Start ...
Views: 232 - The Yogic Practitioner Experiences a Reversal of Consciousness Compared to Most of Humanity - by Submitted on May 14, 2023 from santosh krinskyIt is said that for the yogic practitioner, day and night are reversed when compared to the vast majority of human beings. This statement has many possible implications that can be explored. “Day” and “Night” are representative of opposite concepts, different ways of seeing and reacting to ...
Views: 380 - The Way to Make Steady and Lasting Progress in Spiritual Growth - by Submitted on May 13, 2023 from santosh krinskyWhen we begin to observe ourselves, the thoughts we entertain, the emotions we express, the feelings we have and accept, the physical reactions that occur within ourselves, it soon becomes clear that we are more ‘reactive’ than ‘active’. We respond to energies, vibrations, pressures from outside ...
Views: 332 - The Awakened Psychic Being Attracts What It Needs for Its Growth and Development - by Submitted on May 12, 2023 from santosh krinskyThere has been a lot of publicity about what is called generally the “law of attraction”. This holds that an individual can focus on something and thereby cause it to be attracted to him. People have used it to try to attract wealth, romance, and other things they desire to themselves. There is, ...
Views: 368 - The Growth of the Soul - by Submitted on May 11, 2023 from santosh krinskyIt is the normal process of Nature that each being, each individual experiences life, interacts with his environment and with other individuals and forms thereby his physical being, his vital being and his mental being through these interactions. What is not easily recognised, due to the unseen ...
Views: 359 - The Evolutionary Progress of Nature and the Impact of the Conscious Participation of the Soul - by Submitted on May 10, 2023 from santosh krinskySri Aurobindo describes the long, slow process of development of the universal manifestation. There is an evolution of consciousness which takes place over time spanning many millennia, and which does not involve the conscious participation of the individual. At a certain point in time, when the ...
Views: 336