Dr. Chubb's Class Notes
Dr. Chubb's Class Notes.............................................................................................. 1 C01 - God, Evil and Eschatology ............................................................................................ 7 God, Evil and Eschatology - 1 .................................................................................................................. 7 Theodicy – ‘God’ and ‘Justice’ or ‘Justification’. ...................................................................................... 7 The Augustinian Tradition: ...................................................................................................................... 7 God, Evil and Eschatology - 3 .................................................................................................................. 7 Overall view of the relationship of God with the universe: ...................................................................... 7 God, Evil and Eschatology - 4 .................................................................................................................. 8 C02 - History of the Universe ................................................................................................ 10 C03 - Death, Karma, Rebirth and Immortality ....................................................................... 12 Death, Karma, Rebirth and Immortality - 1 ............................................................................................. 12 Death, Karma, Rebirth and Immortality - 2 ............................................................................................. 12 Immortality ............................................................................................................................................ 13 Death, Karma, Rebirth and Immortality - 3 ............................................................................................. 14 Death, Karma, Rebirth and Immortality - 4 ............................................................................................. 14 C04 - The Miracle of Death ................................................................................................... 16 C05 - Death and the Art of Dying .......................................................................................... 19 C06 - Mysticism and Yoga .................................................................................................... 22 Mysticism and Yoga - 1 .......................................................................................................................... 22 Mysticism and Yoga - 2 .......................................................................................................................... 23 Mysticism and Yoga - 3 .......................................................................................................................... 23 Mysticism and Yoga - 4 .......................................................................................................................... 24 Sufism:.................................................................................................................................................. 24 Mysticism and Yoga - 5 .......................................................................................................................... 25 Mysticism and Yoga - 6 .......................................................................................................................... 26 Mysticism and Yoga - 7 .......................................................................................................................... 27 C07 - Mysticism and Pathways to Realization ...................................................................... 28 Mysticism and Pathways to Realization - 1 ............................................................................................. 28 Mysticism and Pathways to Realization - 2 ............................................................................................. 28 Mysticism and Pathways to Realization - 3 ............................................................................................. 29 C08 - Mysticism and Pathways to Perfection ........................................................................ 30 Mysticism and Pathways to Perfection - 1 .............................................................................................. 30 Mysticism and Pathways to Perfection - 2 .............................................................................................. 30 Mysticism and Pathways to Perfection - 3 .............................................................................................. 31 Mysticism and Pathways to Perfection - 4 .............................................................................................. 32 C09 - Mysticism - The Highest Religion ................................................................................ 33 C10 - Mysticism and Contemplation ..................................................................................... 34 Definition of Mysticism ............................................................................................................................ 34 Deification ............................................................................................................................................. 35 Plotinus ................................................................................................................................................... 35 Christian Mysticism ................................................................................................................................. 35 C11 - Essential and Integral Mysticism ................................................................................. 37 C12 - The Life Divine ............................................................................................................ 42 The Life Divine - 1................................................................................................................................... 43 Evolution ................................................................................................................................................. 43 Sri Aurobindo’s view of Evolution............................................................................................................ 43 The Life Divine - 2................................................................................................................................... 44 C13 - Skepticism, Meditation and Wisdom ........................................................................... 45 C14 - Desire and Pure Will.................................................................................................... 48 C15 - J. Krishnamurti ............................................................................................................ 49 C16 - Buddhism and J. Krishnamurti - I ............................................................................... 52 Buddhism and J. Krishnamurti - 1 .......................................................................................................... 52 Buddhism and J. Krishnamurti - 2 .......................................................................................................... 52 Buddhism and J. Krishnamurti - 3 .......................................................................................................... 53 Parable of the Raft: ............................................................................................................................... 54 Buddhism and J. Krishnamurti - 4 .......................................................................................................... 54 The Contemplation of Feelings: ............................................................................................................ 54 The Contemplation of Mind ................................................................................................................... 54 Zen: ...................................................................................................................................................... 55 C17 - Buddhism and J. Krishnamurti - II .............................................................................. 56 Buddhism and J. Krishnamurti - 5 .......................................................................................................... 56 Khandas: .............................................................................................................................................. 56 Dependent Origination: ......................................................................................................................... 56 Buddhism and J. Krishnamurti - 6 .......................................................................................................... 57 The Bodhisattva’s vow: ......................................................................................................................... 57 Buddhism and J. Krishnamurti - 7 .......................................................................................................... 58 J. Krishnamurti ..................................................................................................................................... 58 Buddhism and J. Krishnamurti - 8 .......................................................................................................... 59 C18 - Mahatma Gandhi ......................................................................................................... 60 C19 - Teilhard De Chardin (1881-1955)................................................................................ 63 C20 - Essentials of Indian Culture......................................................................................... 64 Essentials of Indian Culture - 1 ............................................................................................................... 64 Essentials of Indian Culture - 2 ............................................................................................................... 65 Essentials of Indian Culture - 3 ............................................................................................................... 65 C21 - The Spiritual Heritage of India ..................................................................................... 67 C22 - Zen Buddhism ............................................................................................................. 70 Zen Buddhism ...................................................................................................................................... 70 The Koan Method ................................................................................................................................. 71 Hui-neng - The Southern School .......................................................................................................... 72 Soto and Dozen .................................................................................................................................... 72 C23 - Seminar on Zen Buddhism .......................................................................................... 74 Selections from Tao-te teaching ............................................................................................................. 74 Seminar on Zen-Buddhism ..................................................................................................................... 74 C24 - Seminar of Zen Buddhism ........................................................................................... 76 The Parable of the Raft......................................................................................................................... 76 Ch'an Buddhism ................................................................................................................................... 76 C25 - Dialogue of Buddhism with World Religions................................................................ 78 Reincarnation ....................................................................................................................................... 78 Dependent Origination .......................................................................................................................... 78 Dialogue of Buddhism with World Religions ........................................................................................... 78 Buddhist Meditation - The Foundation Of Mindfulness ...........................................................................79 Body-Contemplation ............................................................................................................................. 80 The Contemplation of Feelings ............................................................................................................. 80 The Contemplation of Mind ................................................................................................................... 80 The Contemplation of Mind-Objects ..................................................................................................... 80 Buddhism and Jung- a psychological Approach to Religion ................................................................... 81 Jung’s Insights - Transition to Buddhism. ............................................................................................. 81 The creative potentiality in the shadow ................................................................................................. 81 Two quotes from Jung: ......................................................................................................................... 81 C26 - The Teachings of the Buddha Morality, Meditation and Wisdom. ............................... 82 Morality, Meditation and Wisdom .......................................................................................................... 83 Meditation ............................................................................................................................................. 83 Wisdom ................................................................................................................................................. 83 Nirvana ................................................................................................................................................. 83 C27 - The Teachings of the Buddha ..................................................................................... 84 Dependent Origination .......................................................................................................................... 84 The Non-self ......................................................................................................................................... 85 Khandas ............................................................................................................................................... 86 All theories ............................................................................................................................................ 86 Reincarnation - The Buddhist View....................................................................................................... 87 Reincarnation ....................................................................................................................................... 88 Reincarnation - The Buddhist view ....................................................................................................... 89 C28 - The Teaching of the Buddha Meditation (Bhävanä) .................................................... 91 Mahayana ............................................................................................................................................. 92 Dependent Origination .......................................................................................................................... 93 The theory of No-self ............................................................................................................................ 93 Taoism .................................................................................................................................................. 94 C29 - Buddhist Meditation ..................................................................................................... 96 The Foundations of Mindfulness ........................................................................................................... 96 Body-Contemplation ............................................................................................................................. 96 The Contemplation of Feelings ............................................................................................................. 96 The contemplation of Mind ................................................................................................................... 96 The Contemplation of Mind-objects ...................................................................................................... 96 The Parable of the Poisoned Arrow ...................................................................................................... 98 The Parable of the Raft......................................................................................................................... 99 C30 - Man and Superman ................................................................................................... 100 Man and Superman - 1 ......................................................................................................................... 100 Man and Superman - 2 ......................................................................................................................... 100 C31 - Evolution towards Divinity ......................................................................................... 102 Evolution Towards Divinity - 1 .............................................................................................................. 102 Evolution Towards Divinity - 2 .............................................................................................................. 103 Evolution Towards Divinity - 3 .............................................................................................................. 104 C32 - Shri Aurobindo (1872 - 1950) .................................................................................... 106 C33 - Shri Aurobindo on Sädhanä through Meditation ....................................................... 107 Sri Aurobindo on Sädhanä Through Meditation .................................................................................... 107 Sri Aurobindo from Dictionary of Sri Aurobindo’s yoga .........................................................................108 C34 - Shri Aurobindo on Sädhanä through Meditation ....................................................... 110 C35 - Shri Aurobindo - Psychology and Yoga..................................................................... 114 Man and Superman – ......................................................................................................................... 115 Man and superman ............................................................................................................................. 116 C36 - The Present Tension and the future Possibilities ...................................................... 119 A Talk by The Mother ......................................................................................................................... 119 C37 - Integral psychology, Mental Health and Yoga ........................................................... 121 Integral Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga - 1 ................................................................................. 121 Integral Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga - 2 ................................................................................. 121 Integral Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga - 3 ................................................................................. 122 Integral Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga - 4 ................................................................................. 122 C38 - Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga ....................................................................... 124 Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga - 1 .............................................................................................. 124 Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga - 2 .............................................................................................. 125 Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga - 3 .............................................................................................. 125 Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga - 4 .............................................................................................. 126 Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga - 5 .............................................................................................. 126 C39 - Living Within .............................................................................................................. 128 C40 - Psychology, Health and Yoga ................................................................................... 132 Selections from the Gita ..................................................................................................................... 134 C41 - Spiritual Psychology .................................................................................................. 136 C42 - Yoga and Psychoanalysis ......................................................................................... 138 C43 - The Pathology of Our Times ..................................................................................... 141 THE SUPERMAN ............................................................................................................................... 143 C44 – Mäyäväda, Täntra and Integral Yoga ....................................................................... 144 C45 - Vedanta, Täntra and Integral Yoga ........................................................................... 147 Vedanta, Täntra and Integral Yoga - 1.................................................................................................. 147 Vedanta, Täntra and Integral Yoga - 2.................................................................................................. 147 Vedanta, Täntra and Integral Yoga - 4.................................................................................................. 148 C46 - Irrational Man ............................................................................................................ 150 C47 - Irrational Man ............................................................................................................ 151 C48 - Psychotherapy – an East-West Dialogue .................................................................. 153 Jung’s Insights ...................................................................................................................................... 153 Psychotherapy – an East-West Dialogue ............................................................................................. 154 C49 - Beyond Nirvana ......................................................................................................... 156 Beyond Nirvana .................................................................................................................................... 156 Beyond Nirvana (Selections) ................................................................................................................ 157 Pathways to Perfection ......................................................................................................................... 157 C50 - History and Eschatology : Sacred and Secular ......................................................... 159 C51 - Buddhi Yoga and the Integration of Personality ........................................................ 160 Buddhi Yoga and the Integration of Personality - 1 .............................................................................. 160 Buddhi Yoga and the Integration of Personality - 2 .............................................................................. 160 Disturbances: ...................................................................................................................................... 161 Buddhi Yoga and the Integration of Personality - 3 .............................................................................. 161 Buddhi Yoga and the Integration of Personality - 4 .............................................................................. 161 C52 - Jnäna Yoga ............................................................................................................... 163 C53 - Bhagavada Gita......................................................................................................... 164 The Gita Doctrine.................................................................................................................................. 164 C54 - Selected Verses from the Gita .................................................................................. 170 Chapter I ............................................................................................................................................... 170 Chapter II .............................................................................................................................................. 170 Chapter III ............................................................................................................................................. 172 Determinism of Nature ........................................................................................................................ 172 Chapter IV - The Blessed Lord: ............................................................................................................ 173 End of the Yoga of knowledge and true renunciation of action ........................................................... 173 Chapter V - True Renunciation ............................................................................................................. 174 Chapter VI - Nirvana and Works in the World ....................................................................................... 174 Chapters VII to XI - Selected Verses from the Gita............................................................................... 176 Towards the Supreme Secret ............................................................................................................. 178 Chapters XII to XVIII - Selected Verses from the Gita .......................................................................... 178 Sri Aurobindo’s Commentary on Chapter XVIII .................................................................................... 178 C55 - Satipatthana .............................................................................................................. 180 C56 - The Psychic Will ........................................................................................................ 187 C57 - The Teachings of the Upanishads............................................................................. 189 The Brahman ...................................................................................................................................... 189 Atman (the Self) .................................................................................................................................. 190 Fundamentals of Hinduism ................................................................................................................. 190 The Law of Karma .............................................................................................................................. 190 The Doctrine of Rebirth....................................................................................................................... 191 From the Vedas .................................................................................................................................. 191 C58 - Religion of China ....................................................................................................... 194 Confucianism ...................................................................................................................................... 194 Tao Te Ching ...................................................................................................................................... 194 C01 - God, Evil and Eschatology
God, Evil and Eschatology - 1
The Problem usually stated as a dilemma: Evil exists in God’s creation. Therefore God is either not all
good or he is not omnipotent.
God either wishes to take away evils and is unable, or He is able but is unwilling (Epicures)
Theodicy – ‘God’ and ‘Justice’ or ‘Justification’.
A defense of the justice and righteousness in the face of the fact of evil. An attempt to ‘justify God’s ways
to man.
Some believe that the very notion of a theocracy is impious. It represents a foolish presentation of the
human creature, under the illusion that he can judge God’s acts by human standards.
Theocracy is to be rejected not because it is ‘impious’ but because it is concerned with a pseudoproblem. The ‘problem’ of evil has been misunderstood and the fact of evil does not give rise to the
dilemma; God is either not perfectly good or he is not omnipotent
The Augustinian Tradition:
Evil is not an entity in its own right but merely a privation of good, e.g. blindness in man.
The Free Will Defense: Augustine attributes all evil, both moral and natural, to the wrong choices of free
rational beings, angels and men.
‘An evil will is the cause of all evils’. ‘The descendants of Adam and Eve inherited their guilt and also a
corrupted and sin-prone nature.’
The Basic criticism of Augustine’s view is that the idea of an unqualified good nature committing sin is
self-contradictory and unintelligible. Negative and positive freedom. No one can freely choose evil in the
positive sense of freedom. Angels and men are created as ‘fallen’.
Irenaeus (c130 – c202) rejects the Pauline theology regarding sin and evil. He rejects the notion of
original but lost righteousness of man living in a (finitely) perfect world. He rejects the notion of the fall of
man.
Irenaeus distinguishes between image and likeness. Man was created in the image of God but not in the
likeness of God. The image represents his nature as an intelligent creature capable of fellowship with his
Maker. ‘Likeness’ represents man’s final perfecting by the Holy Spirit.
Man was created as an imperfect, immature creature which needs to undergo moral development and
growth before finally being brought to the perfection intended for him by his Maker.
The ‘fall’ occurred in the childhood of the race, an understandable slip due to weakness and immaturity
and not an adult crime full of malice and pregnant with perpetual guilt.
God, Evil and Eschatology - 3
Overall view of the relationship of God with the universe:
Reject dualism. Universe not created “ex nihilo”. Only alternative to dualism is pantheism. God is all.
The universe is included in the being of God and is God.
“All this is verily Brahman.” The individual also is Brahman. ”That are thou.” ’’This Atman is Brahman.”
Pantheism opens the door to mysticism. Direct knowledge of one’s true being as non-different from
Brahman. ”To know Brahman is to become Brahman.”
What the intellect hears (Shruti) and understands (I am Brahman) has to be realized. Metaphysics and
theology are parts of the process of Yoga.
The problem of evil as usually stated: How do we reconcile the goodness and omnipotence of God with
the fact of evil? This is a pseudo-problem.
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Theodicy –‘justifying the ways of God to man’ thus deals with a pseudo-problem. This is seen when we
realize that the Supreme Being embraces everything in itself. What God wills is still part of and included
in the being of God, otherwise God would not be God.
God is the self-existent source of all existence. He is the perfect Being, perfect in power, goodness and
wisdom. Hence what God wills cannot be imperfect.
It follows that if ‘evil’ means ‘what ought not to be’, there is no evil in the being of God or the universe.
Hence the problem of reconciling the presence of evil with God does not arise. For “whatever is right” is
as it should be.
Those who deal with the pseudo-problem of evil also make pseudo-statements and raise pseudoquestions. e.g. (a) ‘This is the best of all possible worlds’. (b) ‘God could have created a world free of
evil’, (c) ‘Why does God permit evil? ’ (d) ‘All things are possible to God’.
The notion of ‘possibilities’ in relation to God is meaningless. Both ‘God could have acted otherwise’ and
‘God couldn’t have acted otherwise’ are meaningless statements.
‘Possibility’ has meaning only if it is regarded as outside the being of the individual for whom it is a
possibility. e.g. What Jones could or could not do are outside the being of Jones. But God includes
everything in his being. This means that all possibilities are included and already realized in the being of
God. There are no possibilities outside God’s being, confronting the supreme wisdom and omnipotence
of God.
The only question concerning evil is not why is there evil but what is the place of evil in God’s
manifestation?
God, Evil and Eschatology - 4
I’ve reached a point of being unable to imagine the world, even physically, other than in the form of a
huge movement of spirit.’ (Teilhard de Chardin 1881-1955)
In T. De C.’s eschatology the Kingdom of Heaven will be a transformation of our present world, not the
substitution of a new world. It will not come by an arbitrary intervention of God but by the consummation
of a universe already prepared for it.
Christ constitutes the center and final goal of all things. ”It is impossible for me to possess Christ without
embracing the earth, to be absolutely Christian without being desperately human.” ”To Christify matter…
therein lies the whole adventure of my inner life.”
For T. De C. - Sacred history finds it’s fulfillment in secular history.
Creation is not over. It is yet to take place. Creation is the unification of the multiple. We are living in a
world that is being born.
‘Because it has been assimilated into the Body of Christ, something from matter is destined to pass into
the foundations and walls of the heavenly Jerusalem.’
T. De C. Brings Christ into close relation with cosmogenesis and understands the Parousia (the second
coming) as the crown of the evolutionary process –cosmogenesis completing itself in Christogenesis. In
Christian dogma, the Parousia has no intrinsically organic relationship to human progress.
Christ the Redeemer has significance for T. De C. not in the context of Sin and Fall but as sowing the
seeds of future unification as part of the process of creation, which, for T. begins in a chaotic multiplicity.
Redeeming the world is not appeasing an angry God but making it possible for the world to be taken up in
God so that it may be divinized. The Cross is a symbol of the labor of evolution and not of expiation.’
”To reach heaven by bringing earth to perfection, to Christify matter that is the whole adventure of my
life.”
The total Christ is not only the Christ above but also the Christ ahead.
“If Evolution were to reach its highest point in our small separate lives then indeed the enormous travail of
terrestrial organization would be no more than a tragic irrelevance. We should do better in that case to
stop, to call a halt, destroy the machines, close the laboratories, and seek whatever way of escape we
can find in pure pleasure or pure nirvana.”
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The Incarnation has planted in the universe the seed of all that is to develop in the future. Evolution
makes Christ possible, just as Christ, by giving direction to the world, makes evolution possible.
The Omega is the ‘purely immanent focus of convergence.’
‘I am a born pantheist, an adorer of the world as divine in its inner substance and in its wholeness.’
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C02 - History of the Universe
Hindu Cosmology
The Cosmic Dance of Shiva (Nataraja - King of the Dance)
Dance Rest
Day of Brahma - 4, 320 million years.
Night of Brahma - 4, 320 Million year
Kalpa (One period)
Divided into 1000 Mahayugas (Aeons) - 4, 320, 000 human years; 12000 divine years
1. Sat - Krta - Golden Age - 4800 divine years;
2. Treta - Ritualistic Age. 3600 divine years Righteousness decreases
3. Dvapara - Further decline 2400 divine years;
4. Kali - Present age 1200 divine years - Righteousness decreases; suffering evil, corruption,
confusion - began in 3102 BC
Mahayuga divided into 4 Yugas (cycles of cosmic history)
After 1 Mahayuga universe dissolved (Night of Brahma)
Exhalation and inhalation
Jaina Cosmology
Kala Chakra (wheel of Time) Also called Serpent Cycle. Each Cycle has two ages
Age I
Best
Age II Worst
Avasarpini (Descending period) Symbol of serer biting its own tail
Utsarpini (Ascending period)
1. Best
6. Best
2. Good
5. Good
3. Good-Bad
4. Good-Bad
4. Bad-Good
3. Bad-Good
5. Bad
2. Bad
6. Worst
1. Worst
Time has no meaning or value except as an opportunity to escape from the cosmic cycle. and time
Zoroastrianism (Linear view of history)
World History - Great year (12, 000 years)
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Divided into 4 World Ages (3000 years each)
First Quarter:
Before creation of the world. Ähurä Mazda “produced spiritually the creatures.”
Second Quarter:
Everything according to the will of Ähurä Mazda. World created. Gayomard, the Primordial Manplaced
on earth. A paradisiacal (cf. Garde of Eden) existence.
Third Quarter:
Intermingling of the wills of Ähurä Mazda and Ahriman. Ahriman attacks creation with venomous
creatures, causing blight, and diffusing avarice, want, pain, hunger, disease, lust and finally Death. Death
of Gayomard and the ox. From Gayomard’s seed are created Mashya and Mashyoi, the first human pair
(cf. Adam and Eve)
Fourth Quarter:
The coming of religion, i.e., the birth of Zoroaster. Final battle against Ahriman preceded by era of great
trials and tribulations. At intervals of a 1000 years three more messiahs will appear, fathered by
Zarathustra himself whose seed preserved in a like where virgins will come to bathe. Aushetar,
Aushetarman, and then the final Redeemer, Sayoshant. General resurrection and final judgment. The
wicked are the “white sheep”. After this fire and molten metal will pour over the earth. After purge by
molten metal all persons (including sinners) will become immortal in heaven. Ahriman and his demons
finally destroyed. Hell reclaimed “for the enlargement of the world”. A new heaven and a new earth. A
blissful end to world history.
Halleluiah!
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C03 - Death, Karma, Rebirth and Immortality
“Cowards die many times before death. The valiant never taste of death but once”
”Death thou shall die. And death, once dead, there is no more dying.”
”Death is the devouring of life”.
“There is reincarnation but no one reincarnates.” (Buddhism)
”The master word of the law of karma: A complex web is what we have to unravel. What the law of karma
states is that the conditions under which an individual is reborn, the totality of circumstances, are so
arranged as to afford the individual the best opportunity for gathering experiences and for making
progress towards his goal.”
Death, Karma, Rebirth and Immortality - 1
Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva-Creator-Preserver-Destroyer-Hindu Trinity-Three in One and One in Three. So
Death is part of Divine Providence.
Two basic theologies-Dualistic and Monistic giving rise to Prophetic and Mystical religions respectively.
In the case of most theologies the account of death and life after death is a matter of mere speculation,
giving ad hoc explanations for the facts of experience, particularly human misery and suffering.
In the ‘Religions of the Book’ – Judaism, Christianity and Islam, death is regarded as a form of
punishment for the sin of Adam and Eve.
The Jews and early Christians did not believe in an independent soul. Man is merely an animated body.
They believed in a corporate personality. After death man either became extinct or if he survived it was a
very shadowy form joyless existence in Sheol, a place of Darkness.
As a result of their contact with Persians, the Jews adopted the doctrine of the resurrection of the body,
which will occur at the end of Time.
After crucifixion, Jesus appeared to some of his disciples. This was regarded as a Miracle – rising from
the dead. The Jesus movement revived and became a world religion. (A blessed error!).
Sin, death, punishment, the Last Judgment, Heaven or Hell.
Another strand in Christian religious thought inaugurated by St. Irenaeus (2nd century C.E.) was the
rejection of the notions of sin and punishment. Man was not created finitely perfect but as a ‘spiritual
infant’ who is to grow gradually towards perfection. Death is simply the termination of one stage of the
journey. There is no hell – just universal salvation.
Set aside all theories and subjective reactions and look at Death. In this scene, see only what is seen. In
the heard hear only what is heard. Bare Awareness.
There is no ‘self’ that looks on death. There is simply a continuous stream of energy in action like the
continuous flowing of a river or the Nirvana? The Buddha’s answer: Question not, Answer not.
The question then is who seeks Nirvana? Who attains Nirvana?
Shankara’s theory of Maya needs reinterpretation. ‘The world illusion must be understood to mean that
there is no spiritual fulfillment here in the world of plurality and relations. ‘This is a transient and sorrowful
world’ (Gita). Note that traditional Hinduism also calls on man to abandon the world and seek refuge only
in the Eternal.
Shankara was accused of being a ‘prachhana Buddha’ – a Buddhist in disguise. Integral Yoga was
initiated to the Täntra and the Gita and has found consummation only in the vision of Sri Aurobindo of a
Divine Life in a Divine Body on earth.
Death, Karma, Rebirth and Immortality - 2
It is contrary to the wisdom and justice of God that he should compel man, whom He made upright for
everlasting happiness, to suffer death for no fault. It follows therefore that man never would have died
(St. Anselm).
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•
Concentrate without concentrating.
•
The free man has to be freed (Zen sayings.)
•
Bare attention (Buddha)
•
Choiceless awareness (Krishnamurti)
Vachha: But does the Enlightened One have any theories of his own?
Buddha’s reply: O Vachha, The Tathägata is free of all theories, “Question not, Answer not”.
It seems the Buddha regarded all philosophical questions concerning meditation and Nirvana as either
irrelevant, an obstacle to meditation, or as logically inappropriate.
Example of the latter: Where does the fire go when it is put out – north, south, east or west? Similarly the
questions, is nirvana empty? , Is Nirvana full? , have no answer for they are logically inappropriate.
The Upanishads place a similar ban on questions about Nirguna Brahman: Is Brahman full? Neti, Neti.
Is Brahman then empty? Neti, Neti. But the Upanishads also speak of Saguna Brahman of Ishvara
concerning to whom philosophical questions are relevant.
In the Gita we have three basic concepts – the Transcendent, the Universal and the Individual. The Gita
endorses the Buddhist ‘No self’ (sarvam anätman) teaching but supplements it in a more comprehensive
view that recognizes the importance of intellectual inquiry and provides an answer to the questions: who
seeks/attains Nirvana? (See selection).
The many faces of Death: (1) It terminates life (2) It is a part of the process of life (3) It is the gateway to
Eternal Life. (Physical Death).
The popular view of the law of karma: it is stated as the law of reward and punishment. It explains why
the good man is thrust down into the press of miseries and why the wicked flourish like a green bay tree.
God is a strict and honorable accountant like a schoolmaster who rewards his good boys with lollipops
and canes the naughty ones. This view of the law of karma is simply an extension of the human idea of
practical justice into future births and a rectification of the apparent in justice of life. All these ideas are
the rectification of the child and the savage and the animal in us which we have failed to transform or
outgrow.
For a true interpretation of the law of karma we must go back to the Vedic notion of 'Rita' – the ordered
truth of things. The universe is a manifestation of the Divine. The manifestation is teleological and its key
concept is evolution. The circumstances of our life in a future birth are to be understood with reference to
our growth towards freedom and perfection.
Immortality
The ordinary cut and dried account of rebirth is of doubtful validity. The soul gets out of one case of flesh
and into another, as a pillow is lugged out of one pillowcase and thrust into another. A common and
popular blunder: Titus Bulbous is reborn as John Smith, a man with the same personality, character and
attainments as he had in his former life with the sole difference that he wears a coat and trousers instead
of a toga and speaks cockney English instead of popular Latin.
The non-materialistic European idea makes a distinction between soul and body. The body is perishable,
the mental – vital consciousness is the immortal soul and remains always the same (horrible idea!) in
heaven as on earth; or if there is a rebirth, it is also the same damned personality that comes back and
makes a similar fool of itself.
For it is the extinction or dissolution of this personality, of this mental nervous composite that I call myself
which is hard to bear for those enamored with life, and it is the promise of its survival and physical
reappearance that is the great lure.
The made personality does not reappear. Our ‘personalities’ are transient they are not entities but a mere
complex of qualities. Achilles is not reborn as Alexander, but the stream of force in its works which
created the changing mind and body of Achilles flowed on and created the changing mind and body of
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Alexander. But secure behind all the changes of our personality upholding the stream of mutations, there
must be a true Person, a real spiritual individual. It is this inner person that survives death.
Death, Karma, Rebirth and Immortality - 3
The law of karma must be understood with reference to the Vedic concept of 'Rita' – the ordered Truth of
things. The Vedic gods are not only maintainers of the cosmic order but also upholders of the moral
order. The implied view is a purposive (teleological) manifestation of the Truth and VaSt. The purpose,
according to Sri Aurobindo, is veiled and evolutionary. Karma, the circumstances of our life must then be
understood not as rewards and punishments but as relevant and appropriate factors in the growth and
evolution of the soul towards freedom and perfection. Suffering and happiness, misfortune and
prosperity, are experiences of the soul in its training. Prosperity is often a worse ordeal than suffering;
Adversity sometimes is the greatest help and purifier of the soul. “It is the hand of Love that strikes the
blow/For if the dreamer will not break his dream/But in the magic of the twilight glow/Pursues the shadows
of the things that seem/Then comes great Sorrow with her rude caress/And shakes the sleeper into
wakefulness.
Alongside the dark punitive conception of the meaning of death, there has always been the very different
picture of human life as a pilgrimage with bodily death as the end of one stage of that view. Man was not
created in a finitely perfect state from which he then fell, but was brought into being as an immature
creature who was only at the beginning of a long process of growth and development. Man did not fall
disastrously from a better state in to one of sin and guilt, with death as its punishment, but rather he is still
in the process of being created from the ‘image’ of God to the ‘likeness’ of God. Our present embodied
earthly life is not a penal condition but a time of soul making.
The law of karma: We must leave far behind us the current theory of Karma and its shallow attempt to
justify the ways of the Cosmic Spirit by forcing on them a crude identity with the summary notions of law
and justice; the crude and often savagely primitive methods of reward and punishment, lure and deterrent
dear to the surface human mind. Let us then call Karma no longer a Law, but rather the many-sided
dynamic truth of all action and life, the purposive movement here of the Infinite. That was what the
ancient thinkers saw in it.
Death, Karma, Rebirth and Immortality - 4
The Augustinian View: The dogma of a soul without a past, created by the birth of a body but
indestructible by the death of the body involves the difficulty of a creature beginning in time but enduring
through all eternity. Further, the soul inherits a past for which it is in no way responsible or is burdened
with mastering propensities imposed on it not by its own act and yet is responsible for its future. And we
only have this one chance. Plato and the Hottentots, the fortunate child of saints of Rishis and the born
and trained criminal plunged from the beginning into the lowest fetid corruption of a great modern city
have equally to create all their eternal future by the actions of this one unequal life. This is a paradox that
offends the soul and the reason, the ethical sense and the spiritual intuition.
The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge (Cf.- the doctrine of
corporate personality). Jeremiah, rejecting this thought, proclaimed: Each man who eats sour grapes
shall have his teeth set on edge (31.30).
Death is the question which Nature puts continually to Life and her reminder that life has not yet found
itself. If there were no siege of death, the creature would be bound forever in the form of an imperfect
living being. Pursued by death, he awakens to the idea of a perfect life and seeks out its possibilities and
its meaning.
Rita, the ordered Truth of things, manifests itself as an evolutionary process. Moksha or Liberation from
this 'transient and sorrowful world’ is then not the end of the spiritual life, but the beginning of a new
‘adventure of consciousness’, growth in joy and freedom – evolution in Knowledge.
The purpose of this evolution is to transform human nature as such, leading to a Divine Life in an
Immortal and Divine body here on earth. The Divine manifestation, open and unveiled, has yet to take
place. (Cf. T. de C).
14
In the old philosophies of salvation, the self separated itself from the body and its transient personality
and is taken up into Heaven or passes into Nirvana. Body, Life, mind and the world are left behind and
abandoned. There is no further truth in the world of becoming and death.
In Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga we have the final reconciliation of the extreme terms of existence – God
and Matter. There is a harmony of opposites in which all opposition is overcome. Eternal fulfillment and
eternal progress, Spirit and Matter, are reconciled and each is shown to have its own characteristic mode
of self-fulfillment.
15
C04 - The Miracle of Death
1. It is this survival of the identical personality that attracts the European mind today in the theory of
reincarnation. For it is the extinction or dissolution of the personality, of this mental, nervous and
physical" composite which I call myself which is hard to bear for the man enamored of life, and it is
the promise of its survival that is the great lure.
2. There remained then even in the house of Hades a spirit and phantom of the dead, albeit the life be
not anywise in the m(Iliad)
3. The Christian knows that death is not the end because he knows that Jesus rose from the grave.
4. It is contrary to the wisdom and justice of God that he should compel man, whom He made upright for
everlasting happiness, to suffer death for no fault. It follows, therefore, that had man never sinned, he
never would have died (St. Anselm) the wages of sin is death.
5. The fact of having been born is a bad augury for immortality (Santayana). 6. Let me alone that I
might find a little comfort before I go, whence I shall not return, to the land of gloom and deep
darkness, the land of gloom and chaos, where light is as darkness (Job 10:29-22) He who goes down
to Sheol does not come up (Job 7:9)
6. From the standpoint of Christian faith it should not be regarded as a centrally important question
whether the resurrection event involved the reanimation of Jesus's body and its. emergence from the
tomb (John Hick).
7. Sri Aurobindo tells us that death is an indispensable means to awaken the need of perfection and
progress in the consciousness of matter. In this process of growth, dissolution of forms became an
inevitable necessity. A definite and concrete formation contracts the tendency to become at once
rigid and hard and petrified. A new form must be created; a new harmony and parity (between the
form and the force that presses upon it) made possible. This is the true significance of death and this
is its use in nature (The Mother).
8. Death is there because the being in the body is not yet developed enough to go on growing in the
same body and the body itself is not sufficiently conscious (Sri Aurobindo).. But if the form can
become more quick and pliant and the cells of the body can be awakened to change with the
changing consciousness, there would be no need of a drastic dissolution; death would no longer be
inevitable (The Mother).
9. Death is the constant denial by the A11 of the ego's false self-limitation in the individual frame of
mind, life and body.. If there were no siege of death the creature would be bound forever in the form
of an imperfect living. Pursued by death he awakens to the idea of a perfect life and seeks out its
means and its possibility.. This is the necessity and justification of Death, not a denial of Life but as a
process of Life. Death is therefore an instrument of Life, destruction of creation (Sri A.).
10. Direct Zoroastrian influence on post-exilic Judaism explains the sudden abandonment on the part of
the Jews of the old idea of Sheol, a shadowed Jews made and Persians and Zarathustra's teachings
concerning the afterlife.. The idea of a Divine Judgment and a final resurrection and a future life all
seem to have come from the doctrines of Zarathustra.
11. That Jesus’s presence was or was not at the same time a physical reality could neither add to nor
detract from the experienced reality and transforming impact of such an encounter with the risen
Lord. From the standpoint of Christian faith it should not be regarded as a centrally important
question whether the resurrection event involved the reanimation of Jesus's body and its emergence
from the tomb (John Hick).
12. The resurrection doctrine is a myth foreshadowing Sri Aurobindo's conception of a Divine Life in a
Divine Body here on earth as the final sense of the long travail of earthly evolution..
Death brings, into existence a responsibility and seriousness that it could not otherwise have. It is in the
face of death that man stands most Strikingly and irrevocably alone.
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Man has opted not to become himself, but to sink himself in the world and in the mass, obsessed with
what others think
Death forces, me to detach myself from all that binds me to the world and to others, for I must separate
myself from them in dying.
There is truth only when Being discloses itself, draws the veil. In authentic existence man is
characterized by openness to Being, capable of receiving its revelation.. Man has the capacity to let
things be, to accept them simply as They are. This openness, this letting things be constitutes our
freedom.
Valves are man-made, nets with which we catch what is, in order that we may choose and reject
according to some convenience of our own.
Thinking has a meditative character which contrasts with the probing activity of the calculating mind. One
should wait and listen...We must attempt to hear only what is said. But we are inexperienced at such
hear and our ears .are full of things that prevent us, from hearing proper
"Everyday" existence is the escape from responsibility, the covering up of death, the dumping from one
immediate concern to the next, the quest for illusory security. 8. It is in the face of death that each man
stands most irrevocably alone.
At the time of death the being goes cut of the body through the head -in the subtle body and goes to
different planes of existence for a short time. Afterwards it reaches the psychic world where it rests in a
kind sleep until it is time for it to start a new life on earth.
There is after death a period in which one passes through the vital world and lives there for a time. Here
one works out the remnant of the vital desires which one had in the body.. The vital part of us normally
exist after the dissolution of the body for some time and passes away into the vital plane where it remains
till the vital sheath dissolves, afterwards it passes* if it is mentally evolved, in the mental sheath to some
mental world and finally the psychic leaves its mental sheath also and goes to its place of rest where it
prepares for the next birth. It is this preparation that determines the circumstances of the new birth and
guides it in the constitution, of a new personality.
If the mental is strongly developed, then the mental part of us can remain; so also can the vital, provided
They are organized by and centered round the true psychic being.
Thou must die to thyself to reach God's height:/ I, Death, am the gate to immortality.
Even there shall come as a high crown of all/ the end of Death, the death of Ignorance.
How should the news of death be received, especially when it is a near relative? Say to the Supreme
Lord: "Let Thy Will be done" and remain as quiet as possible (The Mother).
Death is a question which Nature puts continuously to Life and her reminder to it that it has not yet found
itself.
0 thou who fearest death, it is Life that has come to the e sporting with a death-head and wearing a mask
of terror.
Death transformed becomes Life that is Immortality.
1. When I say I am afraid of death, am I really afraid, of the unknown which is death, or am I afraid of
losing what I have known?
2. We avoid death as something abominable, something of which we are frightened and we try to
overcome it by beliefs and moral ideals, but we have never understood the significance of death.
3. Since our everyday life is so empty, so dull, so meaningless, so intolerably stupid, we ask: what is the
meaning of life? But when you seek a purpose in life you are really trying to escape from life, not
trying to understand what life is. Life is action in relationship. Our lives are empty; we are lonely,
frustrated? We have never looked into ourselves to see ourselves as we are in day to day living.
4. A healthy skepticism with regard to everything the mind considers important or unimportant, so that it
strips itself of all conflicting supports and stands completely alone is the precondition for self
17
knowledge. Only such a mind is innocent, only such a mind can find out whether or not there is
reality.
5. If you are aware of the factual existence of your life, the pain, the misery, the shallowness of it all,
then from that awareness of the fact there comes mutation without effort. To face the fact, to look at
it, requires extraordinary intelligence and energy. You cannot understand the fact if you are in conflict
with it. Find when you look at the fact without conflict, that very fact releases energy which brings
about its own discipline.
6. The religious mind is the mind that in no way follows traditions, that is utterly free from all authority. It
does not investigate from a center, from the known. It is the mind that has entered into the unknown.
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C05 - Death and the Art of Dying
From death lead me to immortality.
Death is the devouring of life by life.
It is this survival of the identical personality that attracts the European mind today in the theory of
reincarnation. For it is the extinction or dissolution of the personality, of this mental, nervous and physical
composite which I call myself which is hard to bear for the man enamored of life, and it is the promise of
its survival. That is the great lure.
The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead. The self neither slays nor is slain.
Cowards die many times before their deaths; / the valiant never taste of death but once. / of all the
wonders that I yet have heard, / It seems to me most strange that men should fear; / Seeing that death, a
necessary end, / Will come when it will come.
When I am death is not; when death is I am not.
A Greek poet has expressed the poignancy of the contrast between the destiny of frail tender plants that
die to live again and to bloom in another year, and he destiny human beings “so great, so strong, so
clever, who, when once we have died, then sunk unhearing in the hollow earth, sleep a sleep that is long
indeed - so exceeding long that it knows no end and no awakening.
The shade of Achilles is represented as saying to Odysseus that the lot of an agriculture laborer who is
the serf of a pauper in the land of the living is preferable to being king of all the dead.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews x30-31).
For a human being it is better to be dead than to be alive. (Herodotus)
There remained then even in the house of Hades a spirit and phantom of the dead, albeit the life be not
anywise in them (Iliad)
The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set n edge. Jeremiah rejecting this
thought, proclaimed, “But every one shall die for his own sin; each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth
shall be set on edge.” (31:30)
The Christian knows that death is not the end because he knows that Jesus rose from the grave.
Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is
eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
It is contrary to the wisdom and justice of God that he should compel man, whom he made upright for
everlasting happiness, to suffer death for no fault. It follows, therefore that had man never sunned he
never would have died (St. Anselm).
The hour of death is the decisive moment at which the soul’s destiny is determined. To die in a state of
grace, having repented and confessed one’s sins, however great they might be, was to be bound for
heaven; whilst to die in one’s sins meant eternal damnation. The emphasis this was not upon living but
upon dying. For any life, however evil, could be redeemed by a good death; and any life however
relatively blameless, could be spoiled forever by dying in a state of sin
Death, thou salt die! and Death once dead there’s no more dying the n.
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore / so do our minutes hasten to therein.
Let me alone that I might find a little comfort / before I go whence I shall not return / to the land of gloom
and deep darkness, / the land of gloom and chaos, / where light is as darkness (job 10:20-22). He who
goes down to shoal does not come up (Job 7:9).
That Jesus’ presence was or was not at the same time a physical object could neither add to nor detract
from the experienced reality and transforming impact of such an encounter with the risen lord. From the
standpoint of Christian faith it should not be regarded as a centrally important question whether the
resurrection event involved there animation of Jesus’ body and its emergence from the tomb (John Hick)
I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting (Apostle’s Creed).
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If there remained in man some human thin that was not absorbed, those words of scripture which say that
God must be all in all must be false (Suso). We are to be come so transparent to the divine life that we
no longer live as separate self-enclosed individual.
In the triune conception of God as three persons in one and one in three Christian thought offers an
important model for a community so intimate and harmonious as to constitute a single corporate person.
The goal is the unity of mankind in a state in which the ego aspect of individual consciousness has been
left behind and the relational aspect has developed into a total community which is one-in-many and
many-in-one. The sense of our ultimate belonging together in a total community is the unselfish love
which the New Testament calls agape (John Rick).
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER DEATH
The soul takes birth each time, and each time a mind, life and body are formed out of the materials of
universal Nature according to the soul’s past evolution and its need for the future.
When the body is dissolved, the vital goes into the vital plane and remains there for a time, but after a
time the vital sheath disappears. The last to dissolve is the mental sheath. Finally the soul or psychic
being retires into the psychic world to rest there till a new birth is close.
This is the general course for ordinarily developed human beings. There are variations according to the
nature of the individual and his development. For example, if the mental is strongly developed, then the
mental being can remain; so also can the vital, provided they are organized by the centered around the
true psychic being; they share the immortality of the psychic.
The soul gathers the essential elements of its experiences in life and makes that its basis of growth in the
evolution; when it returns to birth it takes up with its mental, vital, physical sheaths so much of its karma
as is useful to it in the new life for further experience.
Automatic writings and spiritualistic séances are a very mixed affair. Part comes from the subconscious
mind of the medium and part from that of the sitters. But it is not true that all can be accounted for by a
dramatizing imagination and memory. Sometimes there are things none present could know or
remember; sometimes even, though that is rare glimpses of the future. But usually these séances. etc.
put one into rapport with a very low world of vital beings and forces, themselves obscure, incoherent or
tricky and it is dangerous to associate with them or to undergo any influence. Ouspensky and others
must have gone through these experiments with too “mathematical” a mind, which was no doubt their
safeguard but prevented them from coming to anything more than a surface intellectual view of their
significance.
What do you mean by a ghost? The word “ghost” as used in popular parlance covers an enormous
number of distinct phenomena which have no necessary connection with each other. To name a few
only:
An actual contact with the soul of a human being in its subtle body and transcribed to our mind by the
appearance of an image or the hearing of a voice.
A mental formation stamped by the thoughts and feelings of a departed human being on the atmosphere
of a place or locality, wandering about there or repeating itself, till that formation either exhausts itself or is
dissolved by one means or another. This is the explanation of such phenomena as the haunted house in
which the scenes attending or surrounding or preceding a murder are repeated over and over again and
many other similar phenomena.
A being of the lower vital planes who has assumed the discarded vital sheath of a departed human being
or a fragment of his vital personality and appears and acts in the form and perhaps with the surface
thoughts and memories of that person.
A being of the lower vital plane who by the medium of a living human being or by some other means or
agency is able to materialize itself sufficiently so as to appear and act in a visible form or speak with an
audible voice or, without so appearing, to move about material things, e.g., furniture or to materialize
objects or to shift them from place to place. This accounts for what are called poltergeists, phenomena of
stone-throwing tree-inhabiting Bhutas, and other well-known phenomena.
Apparitions which are the formations of one’s own mind and take to the sense an objective appearance.
20
Temporary possession of people by vital beings who sometimes pretend to be departed relatives etc.
Thought-images of themselves projected, often by people at the moment of death, which appear at that
time or a few hours afterwards to their friends or relatives.
Yu will see that in only one of these cases, the first, can a soul be posited and there no difficulty arises.
21
C06 - Mysticism and Yoga
Mysticism and Yoga - 1
Mysticism is a total, unconditional, standardless and unquestioning selfgiving to the Transcendent and
Ineffable Absolute for no other reason except that It is It and we are we. It results in a self-exceeding or
transcendence of our limited, phenomenal, ego-centered mode of existence entering into a state of direct
knowledge of or union with the Supreme Being above the realm of concepts.
Mysticism is the flight of the alone to the Alone. (Plotinus)
It is the ineffable in man rising to meet and unite with the Ineffable in the totality of things.
Mysticism is where the psychology of man mingles with the psychology of God.
We must go away, silent, in utter perplexity and seek no further. We should make no inquiry about It for it
is a profanation to apply any terms to It. It is ‘not this, not this.’ Silence is Its name from which speech
falls back and the mind returns baffled, unable to reach It.
Plotinus understood creation as a process of falling away from the One. He regarded the end result as a
kind of degradation. Hence he said: ’I am ashamed to be in the body.’ Here we have final recoil from the
world of space and time and embodied existence – the ascetic withdrawal.
But the ‘apostasy’ is only apparent. There cannot be an absolute falling away from the One. What is
required is not to reject the creative order but to disclose the One and unveil Its Glory in the world of
change and exhibit Its power and perfection in all things, including the human body.
Void of concepts and images, the mind spirals down to the core of one’s own being which is God. It is as
if a tiny streamlet enters the sea from which it will find no way of separating itself (St. Teresa).
God communicates His own Supernatural Being in such a way that the soul seems to be God rather than
itself, and indeed, it is God by participation (St. John of the Cross).
“My being is God not by simple participation, but by a true transformation of my being”. (Catherine of
Genoa).
“Thy will is swallowed up in Mine, and thou hast become one with Me by grace.” (Tauler on what God
says to him)
Yoga is a new birth, a birth out of the ordinary mentalized material life of man into a higher spiritual
consciousness and a greater, divine being. But there has to be a strong awakening to the necessity of
that larger spiritual experience.
He who seeks the Divine must consecrate himself to God and to God only.
There is one indispensable condition, “sincerity.” A sincerity which must become total and absolute.
Faith is the soul’s witness to something not yet manifested, achieved or realized. It is not a mental belief
but certitude in the soul.
The power needed in yoga is the power to go through the difficulty of trouble without getting fatigued,
depressed, discouraged or impatient.
The first necessity is purifying all of the members of our being. While each member of our being has its
own proper principles of purification, it is the purified understanding in man that is the most potent
cleanser of his turbid and disordered being. Sovereignty imposes their right working on his other
members. Knowledge is the sovereign pure.
One must every morning clean one’s soul and one’s body, but if you don’t have time for both, it is better
to clean the soul than the body (Vive Kaman)
Being pure - cast aside all fear.
There are many forms of dhyäna meditation. Stand back from your thoughts, let them occur in your mind
as they will and simply observe them and see what they are. This is dhyäna in self-observation. Let
thoughts arise but do not fix them anywhere. This form of dhyäna leads to another, the emptying of all
22
thought out of the mind so as to leave it a sort of pure vigilant blank on which divine knowledge may come
and imprint itself, undisturbed by the inferior thoughts of the ordinary human mind.
Mysticism and Yoga - 2
He (God) is neither this nor that. (Ruysbroeck)
The fuller truth is that God is both all and beyond all. Iti, Iti and Neti, Neti.
The Divine Dark is the inaccessible Light where God is said to dwell. Dark with the excess of Light (Plato)
The Barren Godhead. In the pure Godhead there is no activity.
The Godhead is beyond and above God.
God operates; the Godhead does not.
We pray to God to take us beyond God (Eckhart)
God in the depths of us receives God who comes to us. It is God welcoming God (Tauler)
Either to fade into the unknowable thrill with the luminous seas of the Infinite (Sri Aurobindo).
Religion is what a man does with his solitude (Whitehead)
'Love of the Highest and total surrender to It' are the surest and swiftest way to Divine Oneness (Sri
Aurobindo)
The Divine gives Itself to those who give themselves without reserve wholly to the Divine. For them is the
calm, the Light, the Power, the Freedom, the heights of Knowledge and the Seas of Änanda (Sri
Aurobindo).
Seek and ye shall find. But he who asks will receive no answer.
Tat tvam asi - That art thou.
Aham Brahmasmi - I am Brahman.
To know Brahman is to become Brahman (Brahma vid Brahmaiva Bhavati) Upanishads.
In His Transcendent aspect, God is utterly beyond the range of human thought. The One is beyond all
statement. Its nature is that nothing can be affirmed of it. Great beyond anything great.
The wayless abyss of fathomless beatitude. Perfect prayer is that he who is praying is unaware that he is
praying at all. Cf. Fana – the passing away into God. Fana-al-fana, the passing away of passing away.
Though he (man) looks not, all is illumined. Though he strives not, all is accomplished (Lao-Tse). Cf.
Gita doctrine of action-in-inaction.
Plotinus has influenced Christian theology more than any other thinker. His ideas can be traced in St.
Augustine, Erigena, Eckhart and the whole series of Christian Platonists.
The One is beyond all statements. Its nature is that nothing can be affirmed of It. The One is everywhere
and nowhere. The Principle of matter is the cause at once of the weakness of the soul and of all its evil.
Matter is the principle of negation or non-being. It is the utterly unordered.
The word ‘soul’ is very vaguely used in English. It often refers to the whole non-physical consciousness
including even the vital with all its desires and passions…The Jivatman is the central being above
evolution, changeless and eternal. It puts forward a representative of itself in manifestation. This is the
soul or psyche. It is the very nature of the soul, the psychic being, to turn towards the Divine Truth as the
sunflower turns to the sun. Personality is a complex composite of nature: a temporary mental, vital,
physical formation, which the real Person, the psychic entity, puts forward on the surface. The vital is the
Life-nature, made up of desires, sensations, feelings, passions, energies of action and reaction and all
the play of possessive and other related instincts, such as anger, fear, greed, lust, etc.
Mysticism and Yoga - 3
He who chooses the Infinite has been chosen by the Infinite (Sri A.)
I could not have sought Thee if I had not already found Thee (St. Aug.)
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Man seeks God only because God seeks man (A Sufi saying)
He sought me before I sought Him (Al Bistami)
They move as God causes them to move and their words are the words of God which roll upon their
tongues (A Sufi saying).
To seek God without already having Him is, of all things, the most impossible. (This means that the
initiative comes from Above, and yet there is no cause-effect temporal relation between Divine Grace and
human response).
He walked, but it was his body that walked as a machine might do (Suso). The One is everywhere and
nowhere… Since the beholder was one with the beheld it was not a vision compassed but a unity
apprehended. (Plotinus)
At the core of our personality is a spark lit at the altar of God, something too holy ever to consent to evil.
(W. R. Inge)
Then when all things were wrapped in the deepest silence, to me was uttered the hidden Word…. There
is a part of the soul that is untouched by time of mortality. (Eckhart)
He is the One without oneness and the Single without singleness. (Ibn Al-Gabi)
He prays well who is so absorbed in God as not to be conscious that he is praying. Cf. Fana-al-FanaThe passing away of passing away. (Sufi doctrine)
God is with us provided that He finds us within and not gone out on the business of our five senses.
(Eckhart)
Mysticism and Yoga - 4
It is no longer I that lives, but Christ that lives in me. (St. Paul)
He possessed Christ wholly and was himself like ChriSt. He was in fact entirely Christ (St. Simeon –
speaking of an ascetic)
If in man aught of the human were to remain, how should God be all in all?
The highest part of the soul is eternally united with God. It possesses a godly will that never assented to
sin, nor ever shall (Julian of Norwich).
The soul is in its essence uncreated; it is outside the serious time in the eternal 'Now' of God. There is
something in the soul that is uncreatable (Echart)
Through the eternal Birth, all creatures have come forth in Eternity before they were created in time
(Ruysbroeck).
The center of the soul is a divine temple from which God never departs.
Augustine believed in human depravity and foreordination, which doomed a great part of mankind to
everlasting Hell. Augustine strikingly illustrates the difficulty which has always confronted the orthodox
Christian mystic, combining the illumination which comes to him as a mystic with the dogmatic tradition
radically divergent from it (Sidney Spencer, Mysticism in World Religions, a Pelican Original).
Sufism:
In the market, in the cloister, I saw only God. Myself with mine own eyes I saw most clearly. But when I
looked with God’s eyes I saw only God. I passed away into nothingness and lo! I was the All-living (Baba
Kuhi of Shiraz)
If thou dost desire to reach this abode of Immortality divest thyself of self first. Clothe thyself with the
garment of nothingness and drink the cup of annihilation and draw over thy head the robe of nonexistence. Ride the steed of non-being to the place where nothing is (Faraid al-din Attar).
Within the heart and soul is the very essence of God. May God empty your inmost self from all save His
own presence (Ghazzali).
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I passed away into nothingness. I vanished. And then lo! I was the All-living (Baba-Kuhi). Extreme
humility is to be found in the man who says Anal’Haqq – I am God (Rumi).
The purpose of effort is to realize that effort is useless (Papa Rämdäs)
Do not fight against an undesirable state of mind, for it only strengthens the movement by your
concentrating the mind upon it. Try to ignore it. Withdraw attention from it. Rise above it.
Satori is the condition of consciousness wherein the pendulum of opposites has come to rest.
It is contemplation without contemplating, concentration without concentrating, rejection without rejecting
– (Loss of connaturality).
Only when there is no idea of realizing It can It be owned (Giving, not getting. The getting is in the
giving).
The perfect way is without difficulty, save that it avoids picking and choosing. In satori one loses the
sense of being centered anywhere.
All must be freely abandoned before the seeker finds even the fact of seeking. Meditation aims to wipe
out all dualities and does not establish the Real, which implies an opposite – the unreal.
Our personality is fragmented and dispersed into a number of sub personalities, each of which calls itself
“I”. The notion of “I” is problematic.
Mysticism and Yoga - 5
Each individual has his own line of spiritual growth; yet there are certain fundamental truths which are
common to all types of Sädhanä.
There should be a call for the higher life which must proceed from the depths of the being. There should
be a thirst (Aspiration) for the Divine as the fish, in the apt imagery, thirsts for water.
There must be unquestioning Faith in the reality of the Divine and in the path that leads to the Divine – an
entire faith, a dynamic conviction in all the parts of one’s being, mental, vital and physical.
All this is rendered possible by another means, - Surrender. Surrender is a willed delivering of oneself to
the Divine.
The next requisite is Vigilance – spot the opposite and wrong currents as they try to enter and reject
them. There has to be personal effort in the earlier stages. Once the direction of the Sädhanä is taken
up by the higher Agency, there is spontaneous action of the psychic being within replacing the labor of
mental vigilance. (Cf. Rämdäs)
It is essential that the ego be dissolved. The ego is a false front of the real individuality within. It has
many disguises, many centers of operation and aggrandizement. There is the tämasic ego of the sense
of one’s power and dominion; a sättvic ego of one’s superior wisdom and moral righteousness, even a
spiritual ego of sainthood.
Foundations of Sädhanä: One can begin the Sädhanä in any part of the being that is more awake than
the others. But whatever Way one takes, it is essential that the foundations of Sädhanä are laid firm.
The very first step is to acquire a Quiet in the being, a state of mind in which there is no restlessness
which keeps the mind in a whirl, no movement of anxiety, which creates a constant tenseness in the
being. Though a negative condition, it is the first step leading to the Calm. This Calm is positive and
effortlessly rejects all movements that seek to disturb it. This Calm grows into Peace.
How can one grow into this condition of Quiet, Calm and Peace? The most effective way to begin is
mentally to conceive a Silence, which is at the back of all movement. A repeated suspension of thought
movement and an increasing awareness of the silence behind effects the needed opening and Silence
begins to take hold of the being. In this condition Calm and Peace settle themselves. The Silence is both
passive and active. From out of the active Silence there goes out a powerful force of action without
leaving a ripple within. It keeps the vessel empty.
Purity is an equally essential part of the foundation. Purity is not merely moral rectitude. It means an
exclusive opening to the Divine alone and a total rejection of all influences alien to the Divine. Next
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comes Equality (Samatä). The Sädhaka must learn to stand back from the rush of Prakriti and observe
things without attachment to them.
Dhyäna of self-observation is when one stands back from the running activity of thoughts (Säkshi). Next,
thoughts are steadily rejected and the mind kept more and more free from the turbidity of thoughts so as
to provide a more or less empty vessel (a vigilant blank) in which the Higher consciousness may settle
itself. This is the Dhyäna of liberation, freeing the mind of its mechanical and inferior movements, giving it
the freedom to think or not think and the power to choose its thoughts or go beyond them. Treat the
thoughts as coming from outside and vigilantly check them when they try to enter the mind. Treat the
thoughts as foreign, as coming from Prakriti, and stand in the poise of the Witness, without sanction and
without approval or disapproval. “Lose connaturality” with the unregenerate movements of the ordinary
mind.
Quotation: ‘I have done. But when I have done, I am not done. For I have more.” John Dunn
Mysticism and Yoga - 6
Man is not the last step in terrestrial evolution. The human species will necessarily be succeeded by a
new one which will be to man what man is to animal. Evolution will give birth to a superhuman or divine
race.
Transformation is not merely a change but a total reversal of consciousness. This reversal will be abrupt.
Something will open up in you and you will find yourself all at once in a new world.
If the intellect is surrendered, open, quiet, receptive, there is no reason why it should not be a means of
reception of the Light or an aid to the experience of the fullness of an inner change.
Ordinarily the vital is either moved by the human mind and governed by its more or less ignorant dictates,
or takes violent hold of this mind and uses it for the satisfaction of its own passions, impulses or desires.
This part of Nature does not act according to reason. It acts only according to desire, impulse and habit.
That is why in this yoga the ascent to the Divine, which it has in common with other paths of yoga, is not
enough; there must also be a descent of the Divine to transform all the energies of the mind, life and
body.
We want an integral transformation. The Truth demands that the material world should also take part in
this transformation and manifest the Truth.
In traditional Hinduism, the highest goal is Moksha (freedom), which is achieved when the Self separates
itself from its body-mind personality and realizes its true nature. This leaves a good deal unaccounted for
in what is the purpose of this manifestation and our existence in the space Time Universe? Must the
Indian spiritual adventure end in Mäyäväda?
For Sri Aurobindo, freedom or salvation is not the end but only the beginning and the condition of a true
spiritual evolution. Any final recoil from physical life is a turning away from the completeness of the divine
wisdom and renunciation of its aim in earthly manifestation.
Divinity is involved here in inconscient Matter and is emerging by successive stages into manifestation. It
is inevitable that all the powers or degrees of power (of the Divine) should emerge one after another until
the whole glory is embodied and visible. (The city of man is transformed into the city of God – Kingdom
of Heaven on earth).
Our present nature is a derivation from Super nature. Each part of our triple nature (body, life and mind)
contains a hidden truth which, when discovered and developed, would change it from an obscure
impediment to a pliant and luminous instrument of the spirit in manifestation.
The superman shall wake in mortal man / A mightier race shall inhabit the mortal’s world / The superman
shall reign as king of life / For in march of all – fulfilling Time / The hour must come of the Transcendent’s
will / Decreed since the beginning of the world / Even there shall come as a high crown of all / The end of
Death, the death of Ignorance / Then shall earth open to Divinity / And meet the deity in common things /
Nature shall live to manifest secret God / The spirit shall take up the human play / This earthly life become
the life Divine.
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A supreme perfection is possible only by a transformation of our lower or human nature, a transformation
of the mind into a thing of light, our life into a thing of power and a self-fulfilling force of action and joy of
life. There must also be a transformation of the body so that it transcends old age, disease and death.
Mysticism and Yoga - 7
The Absolute and the relative – how related.
The Upanishads say: All this is verily Brahman. Brahman is the self-existent source of all existence. It is
the source not in the sense that it creates the universe out of nothing but that It manifests Itself as the
Universe. The Universe is the Body of the Lord.
It follows then that Brahman is the only doer.
Brahman’s action is free, uncaused – like the rays of the sun streaming forth from the sun. Brahman is
above the cause-effect relation. We cannot ask ‘why’ Brahman does what It does. This, put in another
way, is to say that Brahman’s action is Grace. And since Brahman wills everything, we can say with St.
Teresa ‘All is a Grace’.
Q. Is there then no place for personal effort, no need for Sädhanä?
There is. Effort and Sädhanä also have a truth. In the integral vision there is a place for everything and
everything is in its place.
Q. But how can Grace and personal effort is reconciled with each other?
To understand this we must ask, what kind of a statement is a statement about Brahman? We must first
realize that every intelligible statement presupposes a context – (My grandmother was a vegetarian.
Have you driven a Ford Lately? Are you still hooked on drugs? )
In addition to this, spiritual truths presuppose another (practical) context. The Upanishads, when
revealing a truth, add ‘This is to be realized’. Thus revelation is to be understood in the context of yoga.
The revealed truth is to be understood as that which is to be made true. (Cf. ‘Become what you eternally
are – Zen). Taken outside this dynamic context, ‘Brahman wills All, All is a Grace’, become empty beliefs.
These beliefs are likely to degenerate into error (Tämasic surrender). When understood in this context,
yoga effort is seen to be necessary. But when the spiritual truth is realized, it is seen that effort itself was
an expression of Divine Grace. We may interpret Papa Rämdäs’ statement ‘Effort is necessary to realize
that effort is useless‘ by saying ‘Effort is necessary to realize that our effort itself is the expression of
Grace.’
How are two truths – ‘Effort is necessary’ and ‘All is a Grace’ related? They are truths belonging to two
different levels – the relative and the absolute. Now what we have to understand is that these truths,
belonging to two different levels, cannot be brought together and coordinated as parts of a larger truth.
The absolute Truth includes the relative and therefore is not confronted by it. Another way of putting this
is to say that the relation of the ‘two truths’ is one-sided. The relative points to the Absolute. But the
Absolute does not return and point to the relative. Therefore we cannot ask, ‘how can effort be reconciled
with Grace’? For from the point of view of Grace there is only Grace and no effort. The inquiry rests on
the confusion that the Absolute needs to be related to the relative. But the Absolute is all – embracing
and self-existent. ‘All this is verily Brahman’.
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C07 - Mysticism and Pathways to Realization
Mysticism and Pathways to Realization - 1
Catholic Mystic - If in man aught of the human remains how can God be all in all? There is something in
the very nature of the Soul that can never consent to sin. God in the depths of us receives God who
comes to us. It is God we coming God.
God is not in time. His Being is Eternal. If so, how can Creation (the Space-Time Universe) be regarded
as creation by God in time?
God is Being of Infinite Love and Compassion. How can He cast human beings into Hell, which is a place
of eternal torment?
The very nature of the Infinite is that it is all encompassing. Hence man and the space-time universe are
necessarily included in the Being of the Infinite and share with It Its Eternal Nature.
We must therefore reject Dualism and start with Pantheism, - God is all and all is God. This is the basis
of Mysticism.
The next step is to seek means of overcoming the sense of separation and realize one’s unity and identity
with the Supreme. Mysticism is a journey in God and to God. The truths rationally understood have “To
be realized”. Since all initiative comes from the Supreme, the Truth has first to be revealed. Shravan,
Manana, Nididhyäsana, Säkshätkär.
‘By him It is realized whom It chooses’. All is a Grace (Mother Teresa)
To know Brahman is to become Brahman. Brahma vid Brahmaiva Bhavati.
Aham Brahmasmi - I am Brahman.
Tat tvam asi - That art thou.
Mysticism is the highest religion.
Mysticism and Pathways to Realization - 2
‘Mysticism’ – from the word ‘Mysticism’ which comes from the Greek verb muo, to shut or close the lips or
eyes.
‘When you speak, It is silent. When you are silent, It speaks (Zen saying)
‘The highest state of the mystic life can only be reached when there has been a complete death of the
selfhood, when a man enters that Dark Silence, that Nothingness, that Way less Way where the sons of
God lose and, at the same time, find themselves’ (Ruysbroeck). It is the way of emptiness; for it makes a
man empty of all things.’
‘I passed away into nothingness; I vanished. And lo, I am the All-Living only God I saw’. (Sufi poet –
Baba Kuhi)
The psychology of man mingles with the psychology of God – Naked Godhead.
This union is within us of our naked nature and were this nature to be separated from God it would fall
into nothingness (Ruysbroeck)
The Godhead is not only Unconditioned Dark, the Nameless Being, but also the super essence of all
created things (Ruys.)
That (eternal) is full. This (Space Time Universe) is full. From that full cometh this full. If from that full
this full were to be taken away, that Full would still remain.
The psychology of the individual. Broad distinction between Spirit (Purusha) and Nature (Prakriti)
Prakriti consists of three qualities – sattva (harmony, poise), rajas (activity, restlessness), and tamas
(inertia). The human personality is a combination of these three qualities. Hence there are different
types of personalities. Personality is perishable, Cf. the Buddhist ‘No soul’ theory – (Anätmaväda). But
behind the personality there is the changeless Eternal Individual. It is imperishable. Through Ignorance
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(avidyä) It identifies with its changing personalities through successive births. ‘All is a Grace’ (St. Teresa).
All initiative comes from the Divine (see H.O. p. 1 sel. 9).
Reconciliation of Divine Grace and human effort is found in the Upanishadic saying, ‘This truth is To Be
Realized’.
Our ways of thinking must be appropriate to the subject thought about.
Mysticism and Pathways to Realization - 3
Give up all desires, even the desire for Nirvana (Zen).
This is a process of self-emptying. The Divine gives itself to those that give themselves to the Divine
without reserve and in all parts of their being.
Surrender – a willed delivering of oneself to the Divine.
Though ‘All is a Grace’, personal effort and initiative are necessary till the initiative passes into the hands
of the Guiding Power.
Surrender must be active, cooperative, not tämasic and inert. At every step there must be a rejection of
all that proceeds from what is not The Truth and the Light. – This is to be realized!
The human ego (personalities) has many disguises and centers of operation. There is the Tämasic ego
of wallowing in inertia and weakness, the Vital or Rajasvic ego of the sense of one’s power and
domination, and the Sättvic ego of one’s wisdom and moral righteousness.
In a certain sense we are nothing but a complex mass of mental, nervous and physical habits held
together by a few ruling ideas, desires and associations. - Personalities
There is nothing the mind can do that cannot be done better in the mind’s immobility and thought-free
stillness.
‘The hushed heart, the unuttered word.’
The most effective way to begin is to stand back from the running activity of thoughts into a Silence,
which is at the back of all movement. - Säkshi
The self –existent has pierced the doors of the senses outwards; therefore one sees things outwardly not
in one’s inner being. The Sage desiring immortality, his sight turned inward, sees the Self face to face.
Rational theology: The mind is not an instrument of knowledge, but only an organizer of knowledge. It
does not prove the existence of the Divine but only explicates, unifies and gives a systematic expression
to the Integral Truth. ‘Don’t think but look.’ (Wittgenstein)
Mysticism is the flight of the alone to the Alone. – Self emptying; being nothing. – Via Negetiva
Stand back from your thoughts and simply observe them. This leads to the emptying of all thought out of
the mind so as to leave it a sort of pure, vigilant blank in which divine knowledge may enter and be
poured into it. Let thoughts arise; Passive alertness, Concentrate without concentrating; Reject without
rejecting - Säkshi
Yoga is not so much a way of learning as of unlearning a crowd of imperative habits which we have
inherited from our animal evolution. - Via Negetiva
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C08 - Mysticism and Pathways to Perfection
Mysticism and Pathways to Perfection - 1
Man cannot turn to God unless God first turns to man. The Truth has first to be heard (Shravan). Finally
the Truth has to be realized.
Mysticism is the direct and supra-rational knowledge of Truth. This direct knowledge is knowledge by
identity.
‘Tat tvam asi’ ‘That art thou’.
Knowledge prized by the Sufis is the direct knowledge of Allah. ‘Glory to me! How great is my majesty!
(Abu Yazid). The passing away and extinction (fana) of the empirical self.
In contemplation, the soul becomes that which it beholds (Cf. ‘To know Brahman is to become
Brahman’). ‘Whoever rises to pure understanding becomes that which he understands. The soul can
find God because at its center the soul is God’ (John Scoyus Erigena – 9th century C.E.)
Theology – a rational understanding of Truth and the correlation of the Eternal Truth and its space-time
manifestation. What is the pattern of rationality relevant to theology? ‘Our thinking must be appropriate
to the object thought about (Scholastic maxim).' This means that we have to seek an integral
understanding in its proper place. ‘Thinking with charity (St. Paul).
Mysticism is the direct knowledge of the Transcendent and the Eternal. It is knowledge by identity. It is
also union with the Supreme through love.
The reconciliation of apparently conflicting truth-claims: Coincidence of opposites. There is no error.
Error is truth; it is partial truth. (Bradley). ‘Every truth, however true in itself, taken apart from others
which at once limit and complete it, becomes a snare to bind the intellect and a misleading dogma, for, in
reality, each is one thread of a complex web and no thread must be taken apart from the web’ (Sri
Aurobindo). “In God there is no denial except the denial of all denial.”
Two major theologies: Pantheism (All is God) and Dualism (Man is outside the being of God). Hinduism
is pantheistic; Christianity is dualistic. But consider the words of St. Bernard: ‘whoever rises to pure
understanding becomes that which he understands. The soul can find God because at its center the soul
is God’. ‘Glory to me! How great is my majesty’ (Abu Yazid of Bistan. ‘Tat tvam asi’ That art thou. Ayam
Atma Brahman)
‘Give up all desire, even the desire of Nirvana’ (Zen) ‘O my Lord, if I worship thee from fear of Hell, then
burn me in Hell and if I worship thee from hope of Paradise, exclude me thence, but if I worship thee for
thine own sake then withhold not thy eternal Beauty from me.’ (Rabia of Basra)
“All is a Grace’ (St. Teresa). Yet effort is necessary. But the purpose of effort is to realize that effort is
useless’ (Papa Rämdäs) Cf, the Buddhist parable of the raft.
Mysticism and Pathways to Perfection - 2
God in the depths of us receives God who comes to us. It is God welcoming God (Tauler) Tat tvam asi =
that art thou. Aham Brahmasmi (I am Brahman) To know Brahman is to become Brahman.
In very truth the soul not only has God dwelling within it, but it is indeed God (Luis de Leon). My being is
God, not by simple participation but by a true transformation of my being (St. Catherine of Genoa)
The center of the soul is God, for being transformed in God, they live the life of God and not their own life
(St. John of the Cross)
Mysticism is the flight of the alone to the Alone (Plotinus). Mysticism is a total unquestioning self giving to
the Transcendent and Ineffable Absolute for no other reason except that It is It and we are we, resulting in
a self-exceeding of our phenomenal and ego-centered mode of existence and an entering into a state of
direct knowledge of or union and identity with the Supreme Being above concepts (Sri Aurobindo). I live,
yet not I, but Christ live in me (St. Paul)
God and man are never mingled.
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‘God sought me before I sought Him’ (Al Bistami). I could not have sought Thee if I had not already found
Thee. ‘He who chooses the Infinite has been chosen by the Infinite. By him It is realized whom It
chooses.
At the core of our personality is a spark lighted at the altar of God, a something too holy ever to consent
to sin (W. R. Inge). The highest part of the soul is eternally united with God that never could assent to
sin, nor ever shall’ (Julian of Norwich).
To seek God without already having Him is, of all things, the most impossible.
There is an intermingling between the being and will of God and the being and will of man’ (St.
Augustine).
Christ looks out from their eyes, speaks from their tongues, and works through their senses. He occupies
them wholly. In very truth the soul not only has God dwelling within it, but is indeed God (Luis de Leon).
God dwells in a man so fully that nothing is left in him but what is God’s or of God. And thus God Himself
lives, knows, works, loves, wills, does and remains in man. (Theologia Germenica)
Conflict of truth-claims: (Mistaken view: No varieties of mystical experiences). Conflicting truth-claims are
the result of different interpretations of the experience. Differences are the result of individual personal
traits and cultural conditioning.
Mistaken view - It is impossible to discuss mysticism intelligently outside some framework of belief.
Mysticism and Pathways to Perfection - 3
The Divine is, by definition, self-existent and all inclusive. “All this is verily Brahman.”
The alternative to this is that man and the universe are created ex-nihilo. This view runs into the
objection that creation and therefore God Himself is in time, and further that there are beings outside the
being of God.
Pantheism also has to face a difficulty. If God is all, how does the distinction between God and man
arise? Man is God and yet man seeks God.
This mystery can be resolved provided we bare in mind the following considerations:
Distinctions usually presuppose mutual relations. If A is distinguished from B then A is related to B and B
is related to A. This logic does not apply in Theology. Man is both distinct (in the state of Ignorance –
Avidyä) from and identical with God?
The relation therefore is one-sided. The relation goes from man to God but there is no relation that
returns from God to man. From the ultimate point of view, God sees man as one with Himself, as an
eternal portion of the Eternal.
This will become clear (or less mysterious!) if we realize that there is no continuous transition from man to
God, but involves self-denudation and a Leap into a new dimension of existence. This is connected with
the universal mystical practice of via negative (self naughting).
All meaningful statements require a context. The context presupposed by theological statements or
statements of revelation are given in the injunction: Realize that… Without this context, the acceptance of
the revelatory statement lapses into error. It negates the truth of the revealed statement. The
contradiction is not intellectual but something deeper (sin)?
The ‘Mystery’ is not yet over! There is a unique kind of continuity between God and man. The finite or
relative dimension of existence is the stage for pairs of opposites – good/evil, true/false,
freedom/bondage beauty/ugliness, and suffering/happiness. God is beyond all opposites and yet not
unconnected with them. It is false to say that God is neither good nor evil. God embodies all these
values. He is Absolute Goodness, Truth (Sat yam), Freedom, Beauty and Happiness (Änand).
Yet the practice of relative goodness is a means that yet has to be finally discarded (Parable of the raft)
(Cf. Grace and effort). ‘If in man aught of the human were to remain, how should God be all in all’? (St.
Bernard). The Sufi doctrine is fana (passing away) and in the next stages fana-al-fana- the passing away
of passing away. (Parable of the raft).
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Responsible skepticism recognizes that doubt rests on certainty. Skeptical thinking is discriminating but
there are no rules for discrimination. Skepticism is not the meaningless repetitions of ‘how do you know’,
‘how do you know’.
Mysticism and Pathways to Perfection - 4
(In mysticism) paradoxes are necessary in the same way that distortions of grammar and syntax are
necessary to a poet attempting to say something that cannot be encompassed by ordinary language.
There are two sorts of darkness or purgation – the dark night of the senses and the dark night of the
spirit. The first is detachment from all creatures and all affections that bind us to the world. The second is
detachment from all concepts, images, and discursive thinking – ‘intellectual denudation’. The Sämkhya
recommends standing back from the three Gunas of Prakriti (qualities of Nature) and becoming a witness
(Säkshi). This is similar to the Buddha’s recommendation to bypass all theories.
This stage is beyond meditation and is called ‘infused contemplation’.
One can begin Sädhanä in any part of the being that is more awake than the other - longing heart, ardent
mind; life dynamism seeking to yoke itself to a higher purpose – Bhakti Yoga, Gnyän Yoga, Karma Yoga,
There is also Buddhi Yoga.
Whatever the pathway to perfection, two conditions are essential. First is a flame of aspiration. Second
is sincerity – a constant readiness and effort to lift up all the parts and movements of one’s being in
consonance with the truth of one’s seeking.
Love of the Highness and a total surrender to It are the shortest and swiftest path to the Divine Oneness.
Surrender is a willed delivering of oneself to the Divine.
Personal effort is necessary until the initiative passes into the hands of the guiding power. Ultimately it is
not the personal exertions of the human will but the uplifting and transforming touch of the Divine Grace
that carries one over every obstacle and changes the lower into the higher nature.
Karma Yoga – Normally the motive for work is based upon self – interest and aggrandizement. Work so
motivated continually forges fresh chains of karma. In the Gita the path of works recognized as a Godgiven means of self-fulfillment. It is the 'motive' that must be changed. Works are to be directed to the
Divine. The individual becomes a channel or instrument for the realization of the Divine.
Ways of Dhyäna (Contemplation) - Dhyäna of self-observation: one stands back from the running activity
of thoughts and only observes them. - Dhyäna of liberation; a process by which thoughts are steadily
rejected so as to provide an empty vessel in which the Divine Consciousness may settle itself.
Concentrate without concentrating (Zen saying). Reject without rejecting. Do not argue or grapple with
what is to be rejected and reject unconditionally.
I said to my soul, ‘be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing. Wait without
love, for love would be love of the wrong thing. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought.
So the darkness shall be the light and the stillness shall be the dancing’ (T. S. Elliot)
Let all these things go and do not look. Shut your eyes and wait for another way of seeing which
everyone has but few uses.
The return to nous(devine reason) is a return to our true selves; we are so completely united with nous
that we no longer see it but we are it.
The One transcends even nous and our soul is not satisfied until it reaches It. The flight of the alone to
the Alone (Plotinus)
The culmination of mysticism is the supra-conceptual perception of God’s being and presence. In It, the
ineffable in man rises to meet and unite with the ineffable in the totality of things.
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C09 - Mysticism - The Highest Religion
The Buddha:
Disciples, there is a realm in which there is neither earth nor water, fire nor air not endless space, infinite
consciousness, nor nothingness; not perceptions nor nonperceptions. In it there is neither this world nor
another, neither sun nor moon. I call it neither a coming nor a going nor a standing still; not death, nor
birth; it is without basis, change, or stability. Disciples, it is the end of sorrow.
For that which clings to another there is retrogression, but where there is no clinging there is no
retrogression. Where no retrogression exists calm exists, and where there is calm there is no obsessive
desire. Where obsessive desire is absent, there is neither coming nor going, and where coming and
going have ended there is no death, no birth; where death and birth do not exist there is neither this life
nor an afterlife, nor any in between - it is, disciples, the end of suffering.
Yet there is an Unoriginated, Unborn, Uncreated, Unformed. If this Unoriginated, Unborn, Uncreated,
Unformed did not exist, there would be no liberation for whatever is originated, born, created, and formed.
But since there is an Unoriginated, Unborn, Uncreated, Unformed, Liberation is possible for whatever is
originated, born, created and formed.
Mysticism is “the flight of the alone to the Alone.” Plotinus
The Tao that can be spoken is not the true Tao. When you speak It is silent; when you are silent It
speaks.
Thought is lost; in Love or Silence it expires
Where Shall I find the essence of Zen? Look under your feet.
Mysticism is the ineffable in man rising to meet and unite with the Supreme Ineffable within the universe
and Beyond.
The Spirit who is here in man and the Spirit who is there in the heavens, 10, it is one Spirit, and there is
no other.
Where there is duality, as it were, there one sees another, hears, speaks to thinks of, another. Where,
verily, everything has become one’s Self, then whereby and whom should one see, hear, speak to, think
of and understand?
When all this has become one, who will seek whom, who will meditate on whom? There is here no
diversity. Death after death is the lot of one who sees in this what seems to be diverse.
God in the depths of us receives God who comes to us. It is God welcoming God.
Let thoughts arise without being fixed anywhere.
Hatred does not cease by hatred; hatred ceases only by love. This is the law eternal.
All things, 0 monks, are on fire. with the fire of passion, the fire of hatred and the fire of infatuation (from
the fire sermon).
By their very seeking for it they produce the contrary effect of losing it, for that is using the Buddha to
seek for the Buddha and using mind to grasp mind.
Whatever is the extinction of passion, of aversion, of confusion, this is called Nirvana.
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C10 - Mysticism and Contemplation
Contemplation is a supernatural love and knowledge of God, simple and obscure, infused by Him into the
summit of the soul, giving it a direct and experimental contact with Him. It is a gift of God that absolutely
transcends all the natural capacities of the soul and which no man can acquire by any effort of his own.
There is really only one kind of contemplation. It is infused or mystical. It is also called “passive”
contemplation in which God is the principal agent Who infuses it into the soul and Who, by this means,
takes possession of the soul’s faculties and moves them directly according to His will (Thomas Merton).
“The purpose of effort is to realize that by personal effort one can accomplish nothing.” (Swami Rämdäs)
“Contemplation is nothing but a loving fixing of the gaze on the Sovereign Good in the medium, at once
luminous and dark, of faith.” (Pere de la Taille)
“It (the soul made one with God) worketh all its works in God or rather God doth His own works in it.”
(Gerlac Peterson)
The One who is beyond thought surpasses the apprehension of thought and the reach of words.
(Dionysus).
From It, speech falls back and the mind retires baffled, unable to reach It. (Taittiriya Upanishad).
The reason cannot attain to Him or name Him or know Him… nor can any affirmation or negative be
applied to Him… he transcends all affirmation as the perfect and unique Cause of all things, and all
negation by the pre-eminence of His simple and absolute nature, free from every limitation and beyond
them all. (Dionysus).
All these determinate are nothing else than the very indeterminable absolute. The contradiction
disappears when we understand that the indeterminability is not its own true sense negative, not an
imposition of incapacity on the infinite, but positive, a freedom within itself, from limitation by its own
determinations. (Sri Aurobindo).
While God possesses all the positive attributes of the universe, being the universal Cause, yet in a stricter
sense He does not possess them, since He transcends them all… He is super-essentially exalted above
created things. (Dionysus).
We pray that we may come unto this darkness which is beyond light, and through the loss of sight and
knowledge may see and know That which is above vision and knowledge. (Dionysus).
We must go out of ourselves to give ourselves entirely to God… thus God can give Himself to those who
abandon themselves to Him. (Dionysus).
The Divine gives Itself to those who give themselves without reserve and in all their parts to the Divine.
To them go the calm, the light, the power, the freedom, the heights of knowledge and the seas of
Änanda(Sri Aurobindo).
Suddenly God came and united Himself to me in a manner quite ineffable. Without any confusion of
persons, he entered into every part of my being as fire penetrates iron or light streams through glass. (St.
Simens).
God is above all that can be said of Him… he is best adored in silence, best known by nescience, best
described by negatives. (St. Augustine).
The soul loses itself wholly in God and is emptied of itself. To be thus affected is to be made divine (St.
Bernard).
Definition of Mysticism
Mysticism is the flight of the alone to the Alone. (Plotinus)
Mysticism: Where the psychology of man mingles with the psychology of God.
The Culmination of mysticism is the supra-conceptual perception of God’s Being and Presence. This
perception, and nothing short of it, should be given the name of “Mystical Experience”.
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Mysticism is the highest religion. In it the ineffable in man rises to meet and unite with the Ineffable in the
totality of things.
Mysticism is a total, unconditional, standardless and unquestioning self-giving to the Transcendent and
Ineffable Absolute for no other reason except that it is it and we are we, resulting in a self–exceeding of
our limited, phenomenal and ego–centered mode of existence and an entering into a state of direct
knowledge of or union and identity with the Supreme Being above the realm of concepts.
Deification
Tat tvam asi (That art thou) Aham Brahmasmi (I am Brahman) to know Brahman is to become Brahman.
(Upanishads)
They that know God are not themselves; they are as God causes them to move, and their words are the
words of god which roll upon their tongues, and their sight is the sight of God which has entered their
eyes. (A Sufi doctrine)
Void of concepts and images, the mind spirals down to the core of one’s being which is God. The center
of the soul is God, for being transformed in God they live the life of God and not their own life. (St. John)
In very truth the soul not only has God dwelling within it, but it is indeed God (Luis de Leon) My being is
God not by simple participation, but by a true transformation of my being. (St. Catherine of Genoa).
Plotinus
What is this that does not exist? We must go away silent in utter perplexity, and seek no further. We
should make no inquiry about It, but only grasp It in our intellect if we can and learn that it is a profanation
to apply any terms to It. When you think of Him as Mind or God, He is still more. For He exists in and by
Himself without any attributes. We can but try to indicate in our feeble way something concerning It.
The Soul exists in its own right. It neither comes into existence nor perishes. It contemplates the eternal
Reality not as something outside itself but as the real in which it shares, which is its own inmost nature.
The supreme Spirit is great beyond anything great. Intellectual denudation lets all things go and does not
look. Shut your eyes and escape in solitude to the Solitary. One must not chase after It but wait quietly
until It appears, preparing oneself to contemplate It as the eye awaits the rising of the sun. The vision
baffles telling: for how could a man bring tidings of the Supreme as detached when he has seen It as one
with himself? The Light is itself the vision. Through the vision of God, the self is raised to Godhead or,
better, knows its Godhead. I am ashamed to be in the body.
Christian Mysticism
God communicates His own supernatural being in such a way that the soul seems to be God rather than
itself, and indeed it is God by participation. (St. John of the Cross).
My being is God not by simple participation, but by a true transformation of my being. (St. Catherine of
Genoa).
Thy will is swallowed up in Mine, and thou hast become one with Me by grace. (Tauler on what God says
to him).
It is no longer I that live but Christ that lives in me. (St. Paul).
We pray that we may come unto this darkness which is beyond light and through the loss of sight and
knowledge may see and know That which is above vision and knowledge.
In the experience of contemplation, the mind is ineffably merged with God into one spirit. (Gregory of
Sinai).
He possessed Christ wholly and was himself like ChriSt. He was, in fact, entirely Christ. (St. Simeon –
speaking of an ascetic).
Augustine believed in human depravity and the foreordination which doomed a great part of mankind to
everlasting Hell. Augustine illustrates strikingly the difficulty, which has always confronted the orthodox
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Christian mystic, of combining the illumination which comes to him as a mystic with the dogmatic tradition
radically divergent from it. (Sidney Spencer. Mysticism in World Religion, a Pelican Original)
In the culmination of contemplation, the soul loses itself wholly in God and is emptied of itself… If in man
aught of the human were to remain, how should God be all in all.
The “Divine Dark”… In approaching God we must deny all that may be fathomed by our understanding
…As the love of God possesses us it transforms us into God. So that we become one spirit with Him.
(Albertus Magnus)
Of God Himself no man can think. We must enter into the cloud of unknowing which lies between us and
God. (The Cloud of Unknowing)
He who loves with not only a part of himself but the whole, transforms himself in the thing beloved and is
uplifted above its own nature. (Angelo of Foligno).
Whatever one says that God is, He is not: He is what one does not say of Him rather than what one says
that He is. For this reason we call the Perfect “Nothing”. What God is in Himself (as Godhead) no man
can tell except he be ravished into the Light that is God Himself. (Meister Eckhart).
The eye with which I see God is the same eye as that with which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye
are one eye, and one sight, one knowledge and one love.
The highest part of the soul is eternally united with God. It poses a godly will that never consented to sin,
nor ever shall. (Julian of Norwich)
The center of the soul is a divine temple from which God never departs. It is lifted up above all created
things. (Louis de Blois)
The soul is in its essence uncreated; it is outside the time series in the eternal now of God (Julian of
Norwich). There is something in the soul that is uncreated and uncreatable. It has nothing in common
with anything that is created (Eckhart). Through the eternal Birth all creatures have come forth in eternity
before they were created in time.
Thou, O unfathomable fullness of all love… in virtue of Thy being absolutely all in all, purest Thyself so
utterly into the soul’s essence that no part of Thee remains outside (Walter Hilton).
In the actual experience of union, we feel ourselves to be swallowed up in the fathomless abyss of our
eternal blessedness wherein we can never find any distinction between ourselves and God. (Ruysbroeck)
(Eckhart ranks the birth of the Son in the soul above the historical incarnation of Jesus) It is more worthy
of God that He should be born spiritually of every good soul than that He should have been born
physically of Mary (Eckhart).
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C11 - Essential and Integral Mysticism
I want to be able to love Christ passionately and at the same time to love the universe.
(The cross was an evolutionary no less than an expiatory symbol) “The royal road of the cross is no more
nor less than the road of human endeavor, supernaturally righted and prolonged. The cross is the symbol
an gesture of progress.
(Teilhard taught) “A religion of the Chris tic type and an evolution of the convergent type to Christify
matter - therein lies the whole adventure of my inner life.
(“The new world of today has certainly not as yet been integrated into Christian thought.
(Christ is Alpha as well as Omega. He stands at the goal of the evolutionary journey and he was present
in the first sub-atomic particles. Christ is the head of the body. Steadily drawing all evolutionary currents
to its perfect end. Christ has a third nature in addition on his divine and human nature.
“There is not one moment when God creates, and one moment when the secondary causes develop.
There is always one creative action which constantly raises creatures towards fuller being. Creation is an
act co-extensive with the whole duration of the universe.
Creation, Fall, Incarnation, Redemption are aspects of one and the same divine operation.
Evil necessarily appears in the course of the unification of the multiple, since it is precisely the expression
of a state of plurality that is as yet incompletely organized. Evil is not an unforeseen accident in the
universe.
By temperament and occupation Teilhard knew himself to be “a child of earth”, attracted and uplifted by
the spectacle of the cosmos. By upbringing and training he felt himself to be “a child of heaven”. The
tension that exists between these two worlds underlines the crisis in our western culture.
“It is the attraction of the All that has set everything in motion in me. It is my purpose to promote in equal
measure the master of the world and the kingdom of god.
“In the beginning there were, at the two poles of existence. God and pure multiplicity. Even so god was
all alone, because the pure multiplicity which was in a state of absolute dissociation did not exist. Its
essence was to be infinitely divided in itself, that is to say, to tend towards nothingness. This pure
multiplicity Annihilated as to its essence, slept at the antipodes of being which is one and concentrated”
The cross is the symbol of the arduous labor of evolution rather than the symbol of expiation. Evil is not a
punishment for a fault but the sugn and effect of progress. There is not first Adam. The name disguises
a universal and unbreakable law of reversion or perversion the price that has to be paid for progress. “It
must be that scandals.
I have reached the point of being unable to imagine the world, even physically, other than in the form of a
huge movement of spirit.
Through Jesus of Nazareth divinity had been concentrated and organically inserted into the world of
matter, giving the god ward process of the evolving word its decisive impetus towards divinization and
certainty of its fulfillment. The Christian incarnation is only a visible crystallized sign of god’s immersion in
the cosmos.
One might say that a hitherto unknown form of religion is burgeoning in the heart of modern man. From a
seed sown by the idea of evolution.
In the Christian dogma the parousia has no intrinsically organic relationship with human progress; It can
even ripen in rupture with it.
I shall put the intoxication of pagan pantheism to a Christian use.
Fundamentally, since all time and forever but one single thing is being made in creation; the body of
Christ. The universe is the true Host, the total host (comment: the Teilhardian whole has two sides; Christ
eternally complete in himself and Christ becoming complete in his universal body of nature evolving
through the ages into spirit.
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Rabut’s warning: we must not imagine that there is such a thing as a pan-christism in which everything
contains a fragment of Christ. Christ is linked with the cosmos, but the universe is not, and never will be a
vaster Incarnation of him. Earth is not the body of Christ.
There is not only Christ the evolver; there is also the evaluative Christ. A god is being engendered in the
cosmos at the same time that a complete and fulfilled god already exists both in himself and as the
directing cosmic principle of evolution. While in the case of a static world the creator (the efficient cause)
is still structurally independent of his work, and in consequence, without any definable basis to his
immanence - in the case of a world which is by nature evaluative the contrary is true. God is not
conceivable except in so far as he coincides with, but without being lost in, the centre of convergence of
cosmognesis. Who will at last give evolution its own god?
In every creature there exists something of Christ.
Of the cosmic Christ we may say both that he is and that he is entering into fuller being.
Mystical Body is the unification of all men around and in Christ. The total Christ consists of a head and
the members. Recapitulate omnia in christo (Eph. I.9-10). and then god shall be all in all. (Comment:
surly here in the body of Christ we have a beatific union not differentiating the one from the many but the
one into the many.
Another mankind must inevitably energy, one of which we have as yet no idea, but one which I can
already feel stirring through the old mankind. (Comment: Unfortunately Teilhard says that the maturity
attained by humanity will coincide with the end of history, a cessation of by humanity will coincide with the
end of history, a cessation of time and space, a dematerialization of the cosmos into a Pleroma, giving
everything a fulfillment in the Beyond alone.
The dogma of original sin represent a survival of obsolete static view into out now evolutionary way of
thinking. The idea of “fall” is no more than an attempt to explain evil in a fixed universe.
In the new setting, while evil loses nothing of its poignancy and horror, it ceases to be an
incomprehensible element. It is not born from an initial transgression but is a natural feature in the
structure of the world. It is a secondary but inevitable effect.
The world does not hold together “from below” but “from above.”
God fulfilled himself, he is some way completes himself in the pleroma.
By disclosing a world-peak, evolution makes Christ possible, just as Christ, by giving meaning and
direction to the world makes evolution possible. Beyond the Man-Jesus and the word-god there is a third
aspect - The Christ of the eucharis and the parousia, the cosmic, consummating Christ of St. Paul - in
quo omina constant.
Comment: But Teilhard’s view is different. The cosmic Christ, the beginning the bound the termination of
all creation, must now offer himself for our adoration as the evaluative Christ. The crucial step lines in
passing from the moral or juridical to the physical or the organic. Cosmo genesis is Christ genesis. (the
legalist postures)
Omega: the formation of a higher grouping in which all human individual will be at the same time
completed ad synthesized. Another man kind must inevitably emerge, one of which we have as yet no
idea but one I can already feel stirring through the old mankind.
The law of complexity - consciousness spiritual perfection (intriorization) and material synthesis
(complexity) are but two aspects of one and the same phenomenon. We may be sure that every time a
richer and better organized structure will correspond to the more developed consciousness.
Evolution is not supported by its base but suspended from the future.
Christ is not only the supernatural but the physical consummation of humanity.
We speak of the evolution of life in matter, of mind in matter; but evolution is a word which merely states
the phenomenon without explaining it. For there seems to be no reason why life should evolve out of
material elements or mind out of living form, unless we accept the vedantic solution that life is already
involved in matter and mind in life, because in essence matter is a form of veiled consciousness. and
then there seems to be little objection to a farther step in the series and the admission that mental
consciousness may itself be only a form and a veil of higher states higher states which are beyond mind.
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The animal is a living laboratory in which nature has worked out man. Man himself may well be a thinking
and living laboratory in whom and with whose conscious co-operation she wills to work out the superman,
god. Or shall we not say, rather to manifest god?
Apparent nature is secret god. (the purpose of evolution is) to disclose the soul as a divine being and) to
evolve a divine nature.
Man is a transitional being; he is not final. For in man and high beyond him ascend the radiant degrees
that climb to a divine superman hood.
Min is a clumsy interlude between nature’s vast and precise subconscient action and the vaster infallible
superconscient action of the godhead. There is nothing mind can do that cannot be better done in the
mind’s immobility and thought-free stillness.
The word evolution carries with it in its intrinsic sense, in the idea at its root the necessity of a previous
involution. All that evolves is there concealed in the shell of material nature.
Material energy is life packed into the density o matter. Life itself is energy of a secret mind, mind too is
only an inferior scale and formulation derived from a much greater and super mental conscious.
Mind will be changed into a greater consciousness, his (man’s) life will be a direct power and action of the
Divinity, his very body no longer this first gross lump of breathing clay, but a very image and body of
spiritual being.
The one eternal immutable truth is the spirit and without the spirit the pragmatic truth of a self creating
universe would have no origin or foundation; it would be barren of significance, empty of inner guidance,
lost in its end, a firework display shooting up into the void only to fall away and perish in mid-air.
Between the pragmatic truth on which the vital thought of modern Europe enamored of the vigor of life
puts so vehement and exclusive a stress and the eternal immutable truth to which the Indian mind
enamored of calm and poise loves to turn with an equal passion for an exclusive finding there is no
divorce.
Since the Divinity is involved here and is emerging, it is inevitable that all his powers or degrees of power
should emerge one after the other till the whole glory is embodied and visible.
The central interest of the Gita’s philosophy and Yoga is its attempt te idea with which it sets out,
continues ad closes, to reconcile an even effect a kind of unity between the inner spiritual truth in its most
absolute and integral realization and the outer actualities of man’s life and action. All life is a secret yoga.
To deny life is to diminish the Godhead within us. (We must) restate the ancient and eternal spiritual truth
of the self so that it shall re-embrace permeate, dominate and transfigure the mental and physical life.
Our ideal shall be the pouring of the power of the spirit into the physical mould and mental instrument so
that man may developed his manhood into that true superman hood which shall exceed our present state
as much as this exceeds the animal state from which we have issued. Ours is not the spirituality of a life
that is aged and world weary and burdened with the sense of the illusion and miserable inutility of all
God’s mighty creation.
By spirituality religion seems often to mean something remote from earthly life and hostile to it. It seems
to condemn the pursuit of earthly aims and the hopes of man on earth as an illusion or a vanity.
Incompatible with the hopes of man in heaven. This quarrel between earth and heaven, between spirit
and its members becomes still more sterilizing if spirituality takes the form of a religion of sorrow and
suffering and austere mortification and the gospel of the vanity.
The present evolutionary crisis comes from a disparity between the limited faculties of man - mental,
ethical and spiritual and the technical and economic means at his disposal.
Man has created a system of civilization which has become too big for his limited mental capacity and
understanding and his still more limited spiritual and moral capacity to utilize and manage, a too
dangerous servant of his blundering ego.
All that is here is a chaos of clashing mental ideas, a rich fungus of political and social and economic
nostrums, a hustling medley of slogans and panaceas for which men are ready to kill and be killed. If
humanity is to survive, a radical transformation of human nature is indispensable. Organized religion has
not changed human life and.
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Matter could of have become animate if the principle of life had not been there constituting matter; life in
matter could not have begun to feel, perceive, think, reason, if the principle of mind had not been there
behind life and substance, constituting it as its field of operation; so too spirituality emerging in mind is the
sign of a power which itself has founded and constituted life, mind and body. Spirit is a final evolutionary
emergence because it is the original evolutionary element and factor. Evolution is an inverse action of
the .
If the final goal of terrestrial evolution were only to awaken man to the supreme reality and to release him
from ignorance and bondage, the task would be accomplished with the advent of the spiritual man. But
there is also in us an aspiration for the mastery of nature and her transformation, for a greater perfection
in earthly existence, a new creation and order of being in the field of terrestrial nature.
To be established permanently, this new order of existence demands a radical change of the entire
human nature. (there must be) a triple transformation. First the psychic change, the conversion of our
whole present nature into a soul instrumentation. Along with that there must be (2) the spiritual change,
the descent of a higher light, knowledge, power, force, bliss, purity into the whole being, even into lowest
recesses of the life and body even into the darkness of our subconscious last. (3) there must supervene
the sacramental transmutation there must take place as the crowing movement the ascent into the super
mind and the transforming descent of the supra mental transmutation there must take place as the
crowing movement the ascent into the super mind and the transforming descent of the supra mental
consciousness into our entire being and nature. The whole radical change in the evolution from a basis
of ignorance to a basis of knowledge can only come by the direct action of the supra mental power in
earth-existence. So will be created the supra mental being as the firs unveiled manifestation of the truth
of the spirit in the material universe on a complete and completely effective self-knowledge.
The supra mental or Gnostic being will be the perfect consummation of the spiritual man. The spiritual
man is one who has found his self lives in that; he needs nothing external for his completeness of
existence. The Gnostic being starting from this new basis takes up our ignorant becoming and turns it
into a luminous becoming of knowledge matter will reveal itself as an instrument of the manifestation of
the spirit, a new liberated and sovereign acceptance of material nature will then be possible. The body
will become a faithful instrument perfectly responsive to the spirit. All mental standards would disappear
because their necessity would cease; the authentic law of identity with the divine self would have
replaced them.
Our present nature is a derivation from super nature.
The ascent of man into heaven is not the key, but rather his ascent here into the spirit and the descent
also of the spirit into his normal humanity and the transformation of his earthly nature. For that and not
some postmortem salvation is the real new birth of which humanity waits as the crowing movement of its
long. Rescuer and painful course.
The stages in the lower hemisphere constitute the subordinate forms of those in the upper hemisphere.
These are in themselves powers of the superior principles.
Matter is a form of spirit, a habitation of spirit, and here in matter itself there can be a realization of spirit.
The Inconscient from which all starts is apparent only for in it there is an involved consciousness, a
concealed and self-imprisoned divine. But with every potentiality held in its secret depth.
(Entropy: Nature’s downward current resulting in a continual loss of utilizable energy is not the only
process. This aspect is counter balanced by another movement of upward drive and building up, of reenergisation and reintegration.
Man is a transitional being and stands at the turning point of the whole movement.
As there has been established on earth a mental consciousness and power which shapes a race of
mental beings and takes up into itself all the earthly nature that is ready for the change, so now there will
be established on earth a Gnostic consciousness and power which will shape a race of Gnostic spiritual
beings and take up into itself all the earth-nature that is ready for this new transformation.
The true person is not an isolated entity, his individuality is universal, for he individualists the universe.
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The supra mental transformation must carry with it a lifting of mind, life and body out of themselves into a
greater way of being in which their own ways and powers would not be suppressed or abolished but
perfected and fulfilled by the self-exceeding.
Purna Yoga A short dictionary of Sri Aurobindo’s yoga
Central Being: the portion of the divine in us which supports all the rest. It has two forms; above, it is
Jivatman. Our true being; below it is the psychic being which stands behind the manifestation in life.
Divinization
Taking up of the human elements, showing them the way to their perfection ad that means the raising of
the whole earthly life to its full power and Anand - change from human nature into God-nature.
Ego
A mental, vital and physical formation to aid in centralizing ad individualizing the outer consciousness and
action. When the true being is discovered the ego formation disappears.
Ignorance
The separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life that flow from it and all that is natural to the
separative consciousness.
Integral Yoga
Its object is, first, to rise out of the ordinary ignorant world consciousness into the divine consciousness
and then to bring the supra mental power of that divine consciousness down into the ignorance of mind,
life and body to transform the m, to manifest the divine here on earth. Everything in this lower
manifestation, however deformed or vile is the more or less distorted or imperfect figure of some elements
in the harmony of the divine nature (the Gita’s Para Prakriti)
Self
It is being, not a being, eternal, unborn and deathless.
Super mind
It is between the Saccidananda and the lower creation. It is a self awareness of the Infinite and the
Eternal and a power of self determination. Its own life on its own plane is Divine and if Supermind
descends upon the earth, it will bring necessarily the divine life with it and establish it here. It will then
reveal itself in the action of our material, vital and mental parts so that these lower powers can become
portions of a total divinized activity of our whole being. A manifestation of the super mind and its truth
consciousness is then inevitable. The Super mind is simply the direct self-existent Truth consciousness
and the direct self-effective truth-power.
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C12 - The Life Divine
All this is for habitation by the Lord, whatever moving thing there is in the moving world. – Ishä
Upanishad.
Into blind darkness they enter who follow after the Ignorance; they enter into a greater darkness who
devote themselves to knowledge alone. The face of Truth is covered with a brilliant golden lid; that do
thou remove. O Fosterer, for the law of Truth, for sight.
Sri Aurobindo on Täntra:
Täntra expressly differentiates itself from the Vedic methods of knowledge in which the Lord of the Yoga
is the Purusha. But in Täntra it is rather Prakriti, the Nature-Soul, the Energy, and the will-in-power
executive in the universe. The aims of the Täntric Yogi’s discipline are mastery, perfection, liberation,
and beatitude. Instead of drawing back from manifested Nature and its difficulties, he confronts and
conquers them.
Täntric discipline has seized on the large universal truth that there are two poles of being whose essential
unity is the secret of existence, Spirit (Brahman) and nature (Shakti). To raise man into manifest power of
spirit is its method, and it is the whole nature that it gathers up for spiritual conversion.
The Täntras contain the highest spiritual truths, not broken up and expressed in the way most congenial
to the catholicity of the Indian mind and spirit.
The Täntric system makes liberation the final but not the only aim: it takes on its way a full perfection and
enjoyment of the spiritual power, light and joy in the human existence, and even it has a glimpse of a
supreme experience in which liberation and cosmic action and enjoyment are unified in a final
overcoming of all oppositions and dissonances.
“All life is for enjoyment.”
All problems of existence are essentially problems of harmony.
Error is continually the handmaid and the pathfinder of Truth, for error is really a half-truth that stumbles
because of its limitations.
It is the revolt of spirit against Matter that for two thousand years, since Buddhism disturbed the balance
of the old Aryan world, has increasingly dominated the Indian mind.
The truth of science will not reject the cosmic activity. On the contrary, it is the silence that holds in its
depth the infinite potentialities of manifestation and from which wells out eternally the word that creates
the worlds. It brings out what was self-hidden in the silence.
“All this is verily Brahaman”. Brahaman is the truth behind the phenomena world which Nature is in travail
to manifest through all the strifes and discords of life.
“From which speech falls back together with the mind, unable to reach it. It is Neti Neti.” Human
language cannot define It nor can human thought bring It within its compass – it is ineffable.
The spirit descended into Matter, step-by-step, through various levels of consciousness until at last it
involved itself completely in an apparent Inconscience (“Darkness covered with darkness”) and the
journey back is a gradual and progressive self-unfolding of all that was involved in phenomenal existence.
– Involution & Evolution
Suffering, poverty, squalor and all the poignant experiences of life are not permanent features of earthly
life nor are they a punishment meted out to man for disobedience and sin.
It is through evolution that life and mind have emerged out of the dark in conscience and there seems to
be no reason why the process of evolution should stop with the emergence of the self-conscious human
mind.
Integral Yoga is distinctive in its aim. Its object is not mere transcendence but a fulfillment (Sampatti) of
the Divine will in creation.
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The Avatar of the supramind shall- “with the Truth-Light strike earth’s massive roots of trance / And raise
a lost power from its python sleep / that the eyes of the Timeless might look out from time / And the world
manifest the unveiled Divine”.
The Life Divine - 1
Judge not that ye may not be judged.
Neither do I condemn thee. Go thou and sin no more.
The Kingdom of Heaven is extra-terrestrial. It will descend from above.
The works of man are wholly insignificant. “When the last trumpet sounds, all the works of man will fade
out.”
The Kingdom of Heaven is not the fruit of the world’s progress. The heavenly state cannot arise out of
our profane culture. Barth.
In Christianity we have a stark rejection of history. Human history has no continuity with the final truth.
The city of Man cannot grow into the City of God. “History will debauch into its end.”
But for Newman, the consummation is within history. “We must not give up the visible world as if it came
from the evil one. It is our duty to change it into the kingdom of Heaven. God does not abolish but
transfigures historical values… “The end is a hope for history not a release from history”. Robinson.
“There have indeed been intimations and prophecies of a kingdom of God on earth, but this is regarded
as an intervention from above, a Divine fiat, and has no organic relation with humanity’s slow ascent to
Divinity... It comes as the end of history and not as a fulfillment of history.”
“Heaven we have achieved but not the Earth. The aim of our Yoga is to make Heaven and Earth equal
and one.” (Sri Aurobindo).
Evolution
Man is an insignificant creature when seen against the background of cosmic immensity. There is
nothing to indicate that Nature has a special regard for the human species.
In pre-human evolution, the blind chances of variation and the blind sifting of natural selection have
directed the course of evolution and progress. Life is a mere mechanism or automatism.
Criticism: The biologists do not explain the upward tendency of living things. If mere survival is the sole
desideratum, then it would seem that some rudimentary type of organism would be all that is needed.
Many of the species which evolution has thrown up in the past are better adapted to their environment
than is man. According to Julian Huxley there is clearly an endeavor to evolve higher and higher forms of
life.
“Through man’s coming to possess reason, life has become self-conscious and evolution is handed over
to him as trustee and director. Nature will no longer do the work unaided. A chapter in the history of
Earth closed with the appearance of man. Matter has flowered in soul. Soul has now to mold matter. ”
(Julian Huxley).
Sri Aurobindo’s view of Evolution
The Western idea of evolution is the statement of a process of formation not an explanation of our being.
The explaining principle, the rationale, the significance of the whole is left in the dark.
The word evolution carries with it in its intrinsic sense, in the idea at its root, the necessity of a previous
involution. This means that all that evolves already existed, involved, concealed from us in the shell of
material Nature.
The scientific idea starts from physical being and makes psyche a result and circumstance of the body;
our other evolutionary idea starts from soul and sees in the physical being an instrumentation for the
awakening to itself of a Spirit absorbed in the universe of Matter.
On Emergent Evolution: Evolution does not mean merely the addition of some new principles to those
which are already existent. It means that the old principles, by reason of the emergence of the new ones,
43
change their character. Life now is very different from life before mind. The lower principles are
themselves expressions in varying degrees of perfection of the same ultimate Reality.
The Life Divine - 2
Evolution is a word that merely states the phenomenon without explaining it. Before there could be any
evolution there must be a need for an involution of the Divine. In essence, Matter is a form of veiled Life.
Life a form of veiled Consciousness.
The animal is a living laboratory in which Nature has worked out Man. Man himself may well be thinking
and living laboratory in whom and with whose conscious co-operation he wills to work out the superman.
Spirit is involved in Matter, and apparent Nature is a secret God.
Man carries along with him, even at his highest elevation, the mold of original animalism. Thus hampered
and burdened, mental man has still to evolve out of himself the fully conscious being, a divine manhood
or super-manhood. That transition will mark the passage from the evolution in the Ignorance to a greater
evolution in the knowledge.
If a spiritual unfolding on earth is the hidden truth of our birth into Matter, then man as he is cannot be the
last term of that evolution… the mental being can only be a transitional being.
By spirituality, religion seems often to mean something remote from earthly life, different from it, and
hostile to it. This quarrel between earth and heaven, between the spirit and its members, becomes still
more sterilizing if spirituality takes the form of a religion of suffering and austere mortification and the
gospel of the vanity of things.
True spirituality draws back from life to envelop it without being dominated by it… To find the Truth and
live in it, and achieve the most perfect manifestation possible of it, must be the secret of perfection
whether of individual or communal being.
The present evolutionary crisis comes from a disparity between the limited faculties of man and the
technical and economical means at his disposal. IF humanity is to survive, a radical transformation of
human nature is indispensable.
Matter could not have become animate if the principle of life had not been there constituting Matter and
emerging as a phenomenon of life-in-matter; life-in-matter could not have begun to feel, perceive, think,
reason, if the principle of mind had not been there behind life and substance, constituting it as its field of
operation.
If the final goal of terrestrial evolution were only to awaken man to the supreme Reality and to release him
from ignorance and bondage so that the liberated soul could find elsewhere a higher state of being or
merge into this supreme Reality, the task would be accomplished with the advent of the spiritual man.
But there is also in us an aspiration for the mastery of Nature and her transformation for a greater
perfection in earthly existence itself.
Our present nature is a derivation from Supernature. (Gita: Para Prakriti) Each part of our triple nature
(body, life and mind)) contains a hidden truth which, when discovered and developed, would change it
from an obscure impediment to a pliant and luminous instrument of the spirit in manifestation. (Cf.
Täntra: the Divine Will becomes diminished and distorted).
Täntra has preserved within itself all the important results of Indian culture from the time of the Vedas and
has attempted to reconcile them all in its own way. The Täntras contain the highest spiritual truths, not
broken up and expressed in opposition to each other but synthesized by a fusion in the way most
congenial to the catholicity of the Indian mind and spirit.
The Täntra system makes liberation the final but not the only aim; it takes on its way a full perfection and
enjoyment of the spiritual power, light and joy in the human existence, and even it has a glimpse of a
supreme experience in which liberation and cosmic action and enjoyment are unified in a final
overcoming of all oppositions and dissonances.
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C13 - Skepticism, Meditation and Wisdom
Meditation leads to wisdom which consists in knowing ourselves as we are. But meditation is itself.
Wisdom, for only the wise can meditate. This circle of wisdom being both the precondition and result of
meditation can only be broken by a radical skepticism in which one questions the whole structure of
personality, its system of values, its habitual modes of thought and its conditioned responses to life.
Skepticism is both meditation and wisdom. Emptiness is Fullness.
1. Most problems that we encounter with other people are really not problems with others. They are
problems in us and reflect our inability to regulate ourselves.
2. when one learns to observe his thoughts and desires he is also creating a space between himself and
his thoughts and between his thoughts and his actions. To observe one must be detached from what
is observed.
3. The mind is constantly bolstering and shoring up our self-image, what we think of ourselves as being.
This is a constant I-making process. Do not try to stop it, - disengage yourself from it.
4. "From of old there were not two paths. "Those who have arrived" all walked the same road."
5. when we have gone beyond all knowing we shall have knowledge. Reason was the helper. Reason
is the bar.
6. He who wishes to see what his mind really is must free himself of all thoughts. The n he will see it
like a sapphire or the hue of heaven
7. When you depart out He will enter in. In you, void of yourself, will He display His beauty. Passing
away in God (fana) and the passing away of passing away (Sufi teachings)
8. Sitting meditation: In this type of Zen meditation the student marshalls a heightened state of
concentrated awareness with no specific object. He just sits keenly aware of whatever goes on in
him and around him. He sits alert and mindful, free from points of view or discriminating thoughts,
merely watching. "In what is seen there must be just the seen. In what is heard there must be just
the heard."
9. The mind and the world are in everlasting flux. The human mind clings to a "me" in the face of the
insecurity of this flux. But the "me" is a mass of contradictions, desires, pursuits- satisfactions and
frustrations, with sorrow outweighing joy (J.Krishnamurti)
10. when the mind realizes the totality of its own conditioning then all its movements come to an end. It is
completely still, without any desire, compulsion or motive. To know that you have been asleep is
already an awakened state (J. Krishnamurti)
11. when one cultivates concentration, it is from the outset the deluded mind that cultivates it." (Shen-hui
- School of Sudden Awakening.)
12. We are imprisoned within our own minds. To become free the first step is to hold ourselves in a state
of passive awareness. This is done by a self-directed detachment, as though one's thoughts and acts
were those of some other person (Gurdjief) "Observe yourself very carefully and you will see that not
you but it speaks within you, moves, feels, laugh. and cries in you" (Quspensky)
13. The best approach to meditation is one in which the meditator is essentially free from any desired
end. Don't look for a result, for some marvelous change of consciousness or satori. Divert your
energy from thinking to attention. The n your thoughts ill naturally die down.
14. Our ordinary train of thought endless stops nowhere and has no destination. At every moment it
kidnaps our awareness.
15. When people complain that they are overwhelmed with passions and wrong thoughts, they should
know that the right way is not to quarrel nor to plead or argue. Simply give up all claim on their world
and have nothing to do with the m, and after a time you will find that they have gone away." (Zen
Master Bokusan)
16. "Ramdas never did any meditation as such. He followed the path of Ramnam" (Papa Ramdas)
45
1. The goal of the Desert Fathers' efforts was a "nowhere ness and nomindedrress" - a condition known
by the name of quies.
2. There is a polish for everything that taketh away rust; and the polish of the Heart is the invocation of
Allah (Prophet Muhammed)
3. The meditator realizes that his inner states are in constant flux and that there is no such thing as a
permanent "I" within. He sees, instead an internal cast of characters of features. Each, in turn,
dominates the stage and adds its idiosyncrasies to the shape of his personality.
4. That the preparatory groundwork for meditation requires purification is emphasized in most systems.
But T.M. and Zen schools say that genuine purity arises spontaneously as a by-product of meditation
itself.
5. The Kabbalist must observe the working of the Yesod, his ordinary mind or ego, so as to see through
his own foibles and self-delusions and bring into awareness the unconscious forces that shape his
thoughts and actions. To do this he seeks to reach the level of awareness called Tiferet, a state of
clarity that is witness or 'watcher' of the Yesod
6. The man in whom Tao acts without impediment harms no other being by his actions; yet he does not
know himself to be 'kind' to be 'gentle'.
7. The negative way is the practice of "letting go" of habits preconceptions and expectations; letting go
of control and of the filtering mechanisms of the ego. "Bare Attention" is the negative way - mere
register ins of sense impressions feelings and mental states without reacting to them by deed, speech
or mental content, anticipation or reminiscences.
8. I have one aim only to impart the meaning of the word 'now'. To me nothing exists except the now.
The past is no more and the future not yet (Perls).. Right mindfulness cuts men loose from the fetters
of the past, which they foolishly try even to reinforce by looking back frequently with eyes of longing
resentment or regret.
9. Of all these forms and manners of knowledge the soul must strip and void itself so that there may be
left in it no kind of impression of knowledge nor trace of thought whatsoever) but rather the soul must
remain barren and bare in total oblivion and suspension of these forms (St.John).
10. The best approach to meditation is one in which the meditator is essentially free from any desired
end. Don't look for a result, for some marvelous change of consciousness or satori. Center on what
is, not on what should or might be.
11. Observe your thoughts emotions sensations impulses and desires rather than identifying with them.
when one identifies one acts impulsively without forethought or discrimination. He does not act freely.
In observing his thoughts and desires he is creating a space between himself and his thoughts and
between his thoughts and his actions. As a result they lose their compelling force that ordinarily
carries them into action.
12. If one is not at peace in the way he lives before he sits down to meditate he carries his disease into
the sitting meditation.
13. When a habit is no longer unconscious it no longer has the power to command the behavior. It is this
very power to increase our conscious awareness that makes meditation a powerful tool in the
transformation of our personality. We are constantly regulating* altering and controlling both body
and mind. But this is done in the unconscious mind and the habit patterns we happen to have
developed. These patterns have a certain basic quality, - They are I -oriented. The mind is
constantly bolstering, shoring up our self-image what we think of ourselves as being.
14. Thus in meditation our first task is to get a glimpse of this I-making process* to watch it going on. We
must disengage ourselves from it, not try to stop it, because who's stopping it? 'I'm stopping it
because the ego is limited; it is the root of suffering, etc." This is itself an I-making process. The more
we try to control it, the more we reinforce the sense of I and the more we lock ourselves into the very
process we are trying to eliminate. So disengage and observe it dispassionately.
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1. It is not well to spend the whole time or the greater part of the time in meditation, for one gets into the
habit of living in an inner world entirely and losing touch with external realities. This brings in a one
sided inharmonious movement and may lead to disturbance of balance. To do both meditation and
work and dedicate both to the Divine is the best thing. Let us work as we pray for work is the soul's
best prayer to the Divine.
2. Meditation means opening yourself to the Divine concentrating in aspiration and calling in Its force to
work in and transform you.
3. In the beginning of the Sädhanä you need nothing more than concentration with faith, devotion and
sincerity on a form of the Divine Being. You can add prayer or the Name if you like, but prayer that is
itself a communion of the mind and heart with the Divine.
4. Wrong meditation: an eager and vehement wrestling followed by a bitter despair. Your meditation is
lacking in quietude. You meditate with a striding mind, but it is in the quiet mind that the experience
comes -the still water that reflects rightly the sun, the cup made empty before the soma-rasa (nectar)
of the spirit may be poured in it.
5. The first benefit of meditation is freedom from stress and strain; the second is clarity of mind; the third
is knowledge of one's internal states. The n one is established in 'One's essential nature, which is
happiness.. Meditation is an unlearning program, a journey without movement - one advances
without any external movement. One remains still and yet attains one's goal. It is an inward journey
that leads one to the center of consciousness by stilling the mind.
6. The I-ness that is our conscious mind is what prevents the subconscious and the unconscious from
coming into our awareness, It does not fit in with our picture of who we are.
7. In Dream the rapy one makes inferences about what must be down there in the unconscious.
Meditation on the other hand is the process of maintaining the observer while the ego dissolves and
observing the unconscious directly. Dream the rapy is super ceded by meditation.
8. A lot of analysis degenerates into a sort of ego defense, making excuses trying to relieve oneself of
responsibility and maintain the present ego.
9. Through meditation the subconscious will gradually be brought into consciousness and integrated into
our personality. Everything that comes up is to be dispassionately observed. we should not try to do
anything with it for then we are no longer simply observing it.
10. What we call logic is not a part of the subconscious minds it has its own structure. (For that matter
the conscious mind too is far from being a model of rationality? )
11. Purity and concentration are two aspects of the same status of being. The first step in concentration
must be always to accustom the discuisive mind to a settled unwavering pursuit of a single course of
connected thought on a single subject, and this it must do undistracted by lures and alien calls on its
attention.
12. Another process: not to concentrate in a strenuous meditation on a single object but to still the mind
altogether. This may be done in various ways: one is to stand back from the mental action altogether,
not participating in but simply watching it until, tired of its unsanctioned leading and running, it falls
into an increasing and Finally an absolute quiet. Another is to reject the thought-suggestions, to cast
them away from the mind whenever they come and firmly hold to the peace of the being which really
and always exists behind the trouble and riot of the mind. Once this state is obtained strenuous
concentration will be found no longer necessary. It will be replaced by a multiple and equal and not
an exclusive concentration.
13. "Concentrate without concentrating" - a Zen recommendation.
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C14 - Desire and Pure Will
AN INSIGHT FROM SRI AUROBINDO
DESIRE.
It is thought, is the real motive power of human living and to cast it out would be to stop the springs of life;
satisfaction of desire is man’s only enjoyment and to eliminate it would be to extinguish the impulse of life
by a quiestistic asceticism. But the real motive power of the life of the soul is Will’ desire is only a
deformation of will in the dominant bodily life and physical mind.
The essential turn of the soul to possession and enjoyment of the world consists in a will to delight, and
the enjoyment of the satisfaction of craving is only a vital and physical degradation of the will to delight.
It is essential that we should distinguish between pure will and desire, between the inner will to delight
and the outer lust and craving of the mind and body. If we are unable to make this distinction practically
in the experience of our being, we can only make a choice between a life-killing asceticism ad the gross
will to live or else try to effect and awkward, uncertain and precarious compromise between them.
This is in fact what the mass of men do; a small minority trample down the life instinct and strain after an
ascetic perfection; most obey the gross will to live with such modifications and restraints as society
imposes or the normal social man has been trained to impose on his own mind and actions; others set up
a balance between ethical austerity and temperate indulgence of the desiring mental and vital self and
see in this balance the golden mean of a sane mind and healthy human living.
But none of these ways gives the perfection which we are seeking, the divine government of the ill in life.
To tread down altogether the Präna, the vital being, is to kill the force of life by which the large action of
the embodied soul in the human being must be supported; to indulge the gross will to live is to remain
satisfied with imperfection; to compromise between them is to stop half way and possess neither earth
nor heaven.
But if we can get at the pure will undeformed by desire, - which we shall find to be a much more free,
tranquil, steady and effective force than the leaping smoke-stifled, soon fatigued and baffled flame of
desire, - and at the calm inner will of delight not afflicted or limited by any trouble of craving, we can then
transform the Präna from a tyrant enemy, assailant of the mind into an obedient instrument.
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C15 - J. Krishnamurti
To follow another, however learned or noble, is to block all understanding.
What blinds us is the desire to achieve an end, a result; but if we perceived that the result we desire is still
within the self-centered field then there would be no thought of achievement. There must be the
cessation of all search, and only then is there a possibility of the nameless coming into being.
Time exists only when there is a psychological gap between what is and what (we think) should be, which
is called the ideal. To be aware of the falsenesses of this whole manner of thinking is to be free from it which does not demand any effort, any practice. Understanding is immediate, it is not of time.
Let the mind be empty and not filled with the things of the mind. Then there is only meditation and not a
meditator who is meditating.
Being in agony over the impermanent we hopefully pursue what we call the permanent. Thus there is
born in us the dual state of fact and ideal, with its endless conflict between what is and what should be.
The opposite, however exalted, holds the seed of its own opposite. Our search, the n, is merely the urge
to escape from what is.
Reform, however necessary, only breeds the need for further reform, and there is no end to it. What is
essential is a revolution in man’s thinking, not patchwork reform.
The whole hierarchical, authoritarian attitude towards life must come to an end. The desire for guidance
makes for conformity, and a mind the conforms is incapable of finding the true. Following (another) is
mere a symptom of a deep longing for security.
The criterion of truth is not experience but that state in which neither the experience nor the experience
any longer exists.
Thought creates the thinker. Thought comes first and later the thinker it is not the other way round. The
thinker, the censor, is himself part of that which he wishes to change. (True) thought is action, not
thinking first followed by action with the inevitable problem of how to build a bridge between them. The
total awareness of cause and effect as an indivisible unit puts an end to the maker of effort, the “I”.
When the mind realizes the totality of its conditioning then all its movements come to an end; it is
completely still, without any desire or compulsion, without any motive. Only then is there freedom. The
action of love has no motive, every other action has.
What is this “me” that your mind clings to and that you want to be continued? the “me” exists only
through identification with property, with a name with the family, with failures and successes, with all the
think you have been and want to be. You are hat with which you have identify yourself. and is it a living
thing? Or is it just a mass of contradict desires, pursuits, fulfillments and frustrations with sorrow out
weighting joy. The self is a term to cover craving in its different forms.
When all effort to know ceases then there is something the mind has no put together. The unknown is
greater than the known. Realize this and let everything go. The mind must be purged of all the things it
has gathered in its urge to be secure; its gods and virtues must be given back to the society that bred
them. There must be complete, uncontaminated aloneness.
Its comparatively easy to renounce the outward world, but it’s quite another matter to put an end without
any motive, without the promise of a happy future, to the inner world of ambition of power, achievement,
and really to be as nothing.
Awareness is the process of awakening he intelligence. It is direct perception of “What is”, without the
interference of thought, without being evaluated by the self-centre. When there is no thinker observing
judging, molding thought, but only choice less awareness of the whole process of thinking without any
resistance, battle, conflict, then the thought process comes to an end. Awareness is perception of the
mind in action, not a postmortem operation of the intellect. It involves the focusing of the total,
undistracted and undivided attention on what is not concentrating on an object of choice.
When you give your mind, your heart, your whole being to observe life, to see what actually is and go
beyond it and deny completely, totally the life hat is lived now, in that very denial of the ugly, brutal, the
other comes into being.
49
A problem is an internal conflict. It arises when we divide the actual from the ideal, inner from outer and
from God.
Because I am free, not conditioned by any belief, not held by any society religion or creed, I would make
every one free. My fear is that because each one of us wishes to enter a larger cage than his own he will
utilize what I am saying to make of it another cage.
I maintain that truth is a pathless land and cannot be approached by and path whatsoever, by any religion
or sect.
The problem is the mind itself, not the problems it breeds.
The “What is” cannot be understood if there is the interpreter, the censor who denies or accepts. It can
be understood only when the mind is utterly passive, when it is not operating on what is. Understanding
is the instant seeing as a perception and action. It is as when you see a dangerous thing, you act
instantly, there is no verbal, intellectual argument. It is truth that frees, not your effort to be free.
Being petty, partial, limited, how can you understand that which is boundless? In understanding what
makes for limitation for partiality, and transcending it, you will be able to comprehend the whole the
limitless.
In the process of self (psycho) analysis your whole being is not functioning, only that part of you which
you call mind, thought, intellect. With that one part of the mind you are trying to discover the hidden
complexes; whereas I say you can bring all these hidden hindrances into full conscious action only when
you are fully aware in the present. You must know yourself to understand the present. You must know
yourself to understand the present and through the present the past. From the known present the hidden
layers of the past are discovered and this discovery is liberating and creative. There must be a way of
looking at ourselves totally without going through all the complications of introspective analysis. There
must be a state, a regard, a look that will reveal the whole content of our consciousness.
You must be devastated before you can find truth; you must be in that state of uncertainty, complete
frustration, without escape, you must be confronted with the void, the emptiness, without an avenue
through which you can run away. The n only can you find what is truth. But to speculate, to think about
truth is to deny truth.
When a machine is revolving very fast, as a fan with several blendes, the separate parts are not visible
but appear as one; so the self, the me seems to be a unified entity, but if its activities can be slowed down
then we shall perceive that it is not a unified entity but made (? ? ) many separate contending desires
and pursuits. The self is a term to cover craving in its different forms.
Is it possible when you insult me to be completely watchful, attentive so that it doesn’t leave a mark?
When you flatter me - no mark? Then there is no image. If you don’t form any image you are free of the
past.
How is one to examine oneself and the deep hidden content of one’s consciousness? How is one to
expose the whole content of it? Is it to be done bit by bit, slowly, gradually? - or is it to be exposed totally
and understood instantly, and thereby the whole analytical process comes to an end?
Be totally aware during the day, watching your thoughts, your motives your speech, the way you walk and
talk, when you are so aware there are intimations of the unconscious, of the deeper layers, because then
you are exposing, inviting the hidden motives, the anxieties, the content of the unconscious to come into
the open.
Be aware of what is without the observer, the image and the past. Where there is an observer separating
himself from the observed there must conflict. (This is true only when the observer is manipulating the
observed, not when he is rejecting it unconditionally JNC? If you see that the observer is the observed,
that the two are not separate, the you can observe the totality of consciousness without analysis. Then
you see the whole content of it instantly.
When you see actually “What is” you are already beyond it. You stay with what is only when the observer
is different from the “What is”.
This capacity (for understanding) arises only when the mind has no motive of any kind. When you are
asking, inquiring, it is important to find out for yourself the cause of your inquiry. The state of mind which
is really inquiring into the capacity of total perception is one of complete humility, complete stillness; and
50
this very humility, this stillness is that capacity itself. It is not something to be gained. When the mind has
no motive, when it is free and not urged on by any craving when it is totally still, then truth is. You do not
have to seek it; you cannot pursue or invite it. It must come (uninvited).
Practice or discipline implies an incentive, the gaining of an end; and isn’t this a self-centered activity?
When you cultivate in yourself a state on non-violence, you are still violent under a different name.
Creativeness is not a process of becoming or achieving, but a state of being in which all self-seeking
effort is totally absent. When the self makes an effort to be absent, the self is present. All effort on the
part of this complex thing called mind must cease, without any motive or inducement. (Q. “That means
death, doesn’t it? ” Death to all the known, which is the “me”. It is only then that the nameless comes
into being.
(“We specialists in the field of psychology do help the maladjusted to return to society, and that seems to
be our main concern. But is this all we psychologists can do? I personally am not satisfied with this J.
K.: Is society healthy that an individual should return to it? Why should the individual adjust himself to an
unhealthy society? If he healthy he will not be a part of it. Society is man’s relationship individual should
man; its structure is based on his compulsions, ambitions, hates varieties, envies, on the whole
complexity of his urge to dominate and to follow. To help the individual to fit into (such) a society which is
ever at war with itself-is this what psychologists and analysts are supposed to do? there can be no
reformation of society; there can only be a revolution outside the pattern of society.
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C16 - Buddhism and J. Krishnamurti - I
Buddhism and J. Krishnamurti - 1
“These two extremes, O monks, are not to be practiced by one who has gone forth from the world. What
are the two? That conjoined with the passions, low vulgar, common and ignoble, and that conjoined with
self-torture, painful, ignoble and useless. Avoiding these two extremes the Tathägata has gained the
knowledge of the Middle-way, which gives sight and knowledge, and tends to calm, to insight,
enlightenment, nirvana.” ‘Immeasurable is the Tathägata and beyond all reckoning.’
He who sees the Dhamma (Truth) sees me and he who sees me the Dhamma sees ‘I and my father are
one.’
The Middle-Way opens out into the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eight fold Path.
The Four Noble Truths:
(1) There is suffering (2) Suffering has a cause. (3) Suffering can be overcome (4) There is a way to
the removal of suffering
The noble eight-fold path to remove suffering:
(1) Right views (2) Right resolve (3) Right speech (4) Right action (5) Right livelihood (6) Right effort
(7) Right mindfulness (8) Right Concentration.
•
Sarvam dukkham (suffering),
•
sarvam anityam (transitory),
•
sarvam anätman (without a self).
•
Nirvana Shantam (nirvana is peace)
Noble Truth of suffering: Birth, old age, sickness and death. Contact with unpleasant things, NOT getting
what one wishes is the cause of suffering. In short the five Khandas of grasping are at the root of
suffering.
Or it may be said that it is Ignorance and the craving for passion, for existence and for non-existence that
are at the origin of suffering.
Doctrine of Dependent Origination:
Middle path between the two extremes that things have being and that they have no being – Silence of
the Buddha ‘that being thus, this comes to be; from the cessation of that this ceases.”
The chain of causation:
(1) Ignorance (2) Karma (3) Consciousness (4) name and form (5) the six organs of sense (6) Contact (7)
sensation (8) desire (9) attachment (10) existence (11) birth (12) On birth depend old age and death,
sorrow, misery, grief and despair.
“Two things alone I teach, now and always – pain and the uprooting of pain (This is in connection with the
‘bypassing of theories.’)”
The Buddha referred to as the ‘pathless one’. “To walk on the pathless path one must begin with a total
self-distrust. I know nothing. I am nothing. Wait without thought for you are not ready for thought.” So the
darkness shall be the light and the stillness the dancing.
Buddhism and J. Krishnamurti - 2
The four Noble Truths:
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(1) There is suffering (dukkha) (2) Suffering has a cause (3) Suffering can be overcome (4) There is a
way to over come suffering (The Eight-fold Path).
He who overcomes this fierce thirst, suffering falls off from him like water drops from a lotus leaf.
•
Sarvam Dukkham (Suffering).
•
Sarvam Anityam (transitory),
•
Sarvam Anätman (there is no ‘self),
•
Nirvanam Shantam (Nirvana is Peace).
All existence (including the self) is a stream of becoming. All things pass away, dreams, hopes and
desires. None can resist the universal supremacy of death. The Buddha therefore teaches that one
should die to oneself (‘mystical death’). Death is the shedding of the self. When there is death time
ceases and, as Zen and J.K. say, one lives in the Eternal Present. ‘To actualize the present in the
present – that and nothing else is Zen.’ Paradoxically, to die is to bring about the end of death.
Dependent Origination:
‘That things have being constitutes one extreme of doctrine; that things have no being is the other
extreme. The Tathägata has avoided these extremes and it is a middle doctrine he preaches. The world
is uncreated. It is without beginning or end.
Now this, O monks, is the noble truth of pain: birth/old age/ sickness/ death is painful. Contact with
unpleasant things is painful; not getting what one wishes is painful. In short the five Khandas
(aggregates) of grasping are painful.
‘Now this, O monks, is the noble truth of the cause of pain: that craving which leads to rebirth, the craving
for passion, the craving for existence, the craving for non-existence.’ (The true cause of suffering.)
Now this, O monks, is the noble truth of the cessation of pain: the cessation without remainder of that
craving, abandonment, non-attachment.
The five Khandas are (1) form (2) feeling or sensation (3) perception (volitional disposition) (4)
Predispositions (or impressions) and (5) Consciousness.
Sarvam anätman: ‘Self’ or ‘ego’ is nothing other than the group of the five aggregates. There is no
‘owner’ of these aggregates. ‘There is reincarnation but no one reincarnates.’ A person’s name is but an
appellation, a convenient designation, a mere name, this Nagasena; for there is no ego to be found here.
Simile of the chariot: what does ‘chariot’ refer to? Pole, axle, wheels, chariot-body, banner staff, yoke,
reins and goad ‘Chariot’ is simply the name of the aggregate of these qualities.
Buddhism and J. Krishnamurti - 3
Let him no more use the Law as a means of arrival when he has arrived. (St. Augustine). ‘Behold the
soul divorced from every ought, leaving no trace of either vice or virtue’ (Eckhart) (Cf. Parable of the
Raft.)
The Buddha’s Middle Path: Avoidance of extremes: (1) between indulgence and asceticism; (2) Effort and
Passive Awareness. Effort essential but in the end to be cast aside like the raft which carries us across.
Effort carries us to the point where effort is no longer needed.
“You, monks, by understanding the parable of the raft, must discard not only the wrong states but also the
right states of the mind. (Beyond good and evil.) As a lotus though born in the water, when it reaches the
surface stands there unsoiled by the water, even so does a Truth-finder, though grown up in the world,
lives unsoiled by the world.”
(Bypassing of theories) “Two things alone I teach now and always, suffering and the removal of suffering.”
“Having gotten to the other side I do not want a ship”. (Eckhart)
All must be freely abandoned before the seeker finds even the fact of seeking and the will to find. (Zen)
Parable of the Poisoned Arrow: A poisoned arrow wounds man and his friends take him to a surgeon.
Suppose the man should then say, ‘I won’t let the arrow be taken out until I know who shot me, to what
53
caste he belongs, his name, his family, whether he is tall, short or of medium stature, whether his
complexion is black, brown or golden, and from what town or village he comes. I will not let the arrow be
taken out till I know the kind of bow with which I was shot, the bowstring used, the type of arrow and with
what kind of material the point of the arrow was made.' Such a person would die before his questions
were answered. (The following of the eight-fold path should not be conditional on finding answers to
theoretical questions). This, however, is no reason why theories should necessarily be bypassed. A
place for everything; And everything in its place.
Parable of the Raft:
A man comes to a vast stretch of water. On this side, the shore is dangerous and on the other side it is
safe. There is no boat or bridge. He therefore gathers grass, wood, branches, and leaves to make a raft.
Having crossed over to the other side he thinks. ‘This raft was of great help to me. With its aid I crossed
over safely. It would be good if I carry the raft on my head or back wherever I go.'
The wise person would cast the raft aside and go on his way. (The raft corresponds, among other things,
to the eight-fold path. ‘The raft is for crossing over, not for holding.' Meister Eckhart regards even God
as a raft. He says. “We pray to God to take us beyond God.” Beyond God is the Godhead about which
nothing can be said.
Buddhism and J. Krishnamurti - 4
The Buddha’s sermon on the Foundations of Mindfulness:
This is the sole way, monks, for the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow, for the destroying
of pain and grief, for the realization of Nirvana, namely the four Foundations of Mindfulness. What are
four?
Herein a monk dwells:
(1) Practicing contemplation on the body, ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, having overcome
covetousness and grief concerning the world.
(2) He dwells practicing contemplation on feelings, ardent… the world
(3) He dwells practicing contemplation on the mind, ardent… the world
(4) He dwells practicing mind-object-contemplation on mind objects of the five hindrances
A monk sits down cross-legged, his body erect and his mind alert (alert passivity). Just mindful he
breathes in and mindful he breathes out. Breathing in (and out) a long/short breath he is aware that he
breathes in (or out) a long / short breath. (The result is that breathing becomes calm and even.)
And again a monk when going/standing/sitting/lying down knows ‘I am going etc. He dwells
contemplating the origination factors in the body i.e. ignorance, craving, Käma or he dwells
contemplating dissolution both origination and dissolution/factors in the body. (In substance what the
Buddha teaches is that one should be aware of the “here and now” with an undistracted mind. Cf. the
Zen saying: to actualize the present in the present, that and nothing else, is Zen.)
The Contemplation of Feelings:
How does a monk dwell practicing contemplation on feelings?
When experiencing a pleasant/painful/neutral feeling he knows ‘I experience a pleasant, etc. feeling'.
The Contemplation of Mind
How does a monk dwell practicing contemplation on the mind.
Herein a monk knows the mind with lust as with lust; the mind without lust as without luSt. The same with
the mind with/without hate/delusion/distraction state/developed. Concentrated… Independent he dwells,
clinging to nothing in the world.
The Contemplation of Mind-Objects: Herein a monk dwells practicing contemplation on the mind-objects
of the five hindrances: when sense-desire is present/absent he knows there is/is not/ sense-desire in me.
(Similarly with anger, sloth, torpor, agitation & worry and doubt)
54
In the rest of the sermon the Buddha deals (among other things) with the Five Aggregates of Clinging, the
Four Noble Truths,The Noble Eight-fold Path.
Should any person practice these Four Foundations of Mindfulness in this manner for six/
four/five/three/two/one years – Seven/six/five/four/three/two/one months? (Nay) Should any person
practice these four Foundations of Mindfulness in this manner for seven days, one of two results may be
expected in him: Highest knowledge here and now, or, if there by yet a @@@@
Namo Tassa Bhagvato Arahato Samma-Sambuddhasa.
Zen:
(Dhyäna – ch’an – Zen): No looking to the past bemoaning what has been lost; no looking to the future
with anxiety or lamenting over what has not yet come about.
His mind is not concentrated on what is ahead or on what is behind, but it is undirected and set free.
Such a person is fully awake.
All must be abandoned before the seeker finds even the idea that one is seeking. Renounce all desire
including the desire for Nirvana.
Satori – that state of consciousness wherein the pendulum of opposites comes to reSt. Nirvana is not the
‘opposite’ of samara.
To actualize the present in the present – this and nothing else is Zen.
The perfect way is neither far nor near. It is without difficulty, save that it avoids picking and choosing.
When you speak It is silent, when you are silent It speaks.
When in meditation the image of the Buddha arises, destroy it.
Time exists only when there is a psychological gap between what is and what we think should be.
Let the mind be empty and not filled with the things of the mind. Then there is only meditation and not a
meditator who is meditating.
All that I am trying to do is to show you the false so that you may find the true. This awakening of creative
intelligence is the only positive help I can give you.
To understand a problem requires not trying to seek a solution for the problem but a direct consideration
of the problem itself, which is to approach without the desire to find an answer.
Effort is a distraction from what is. ‘The moment I accept ‘what is’ there is no struggle. Struggle or strife
is a distraction.
Memory is nothing else than incomplete action. It is the residue; the scar of action (sanskära), which has
not been completed, lived or understood. Psychological time is utterly false. It is the space between
what is and what might, should or will be (Cf. ”Actualize the present in the present) If you know how to
listen to what is being said there would be immediate understanding. Listening is the complete focusing
of attention. Neither renunciation nor acquiescence: To understand oneself profoundly one needs
balance. That is, one cannot abandon the world or be so entangled in it that there is no occasion to
comprehend oneself (Cf. Gita). What another can help you do is to discern for yourself whether you are
escaping from actuality into an illusion. The guru cannot awaken you. All that he can do is to point out
what is.
A problem is an internal conflict. It arises when we divide the actual from the ideal, inner from outer.
(Also contradictory wants).
The psychological memory that maintains the self, the ‘me’ and the ‘mine’ that gives identification and
self-continuance is wholly detrimental to life and reality. Memory is time; it creates yesterday, today and
tomorrow. Memory of yesterday conditions today and therefore shapes tomorrow. Meditation is the
substance of wisdom. Meditation is like the breeze that comes in when you leave the window open.
If you set out to mediate it will not be meditation.
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C17 - Buddhism and J. Krishnamurti - II
Buddhism and J. Krishnamurti - 5
Learning is an act of purification, not the acquiring of knowledge. Learning is purgation. I cannot learn if
my mind is full. The mind must purgate itself to learn. Therefore the mind, when it wants to learn, has to
empty itself of everything that it has known (J. Krishnamurti).
We cannot grasp the Truth; the Truth reveals itself to one who is silent and totally receptive. The Truth
has to be heard (Shravan).
The Buddhas merely point the way where one must walk alone.
If one does not behold any self or anything in the nature of self in the five aggregates of grasping, one is
an Arahanta, the outflows extinguished.
Just as when the fingers are placed in a certain way there comes to be the term of common usage ‘fist’,
so too when there are the five aggregates of clinging there comes to be the term of common usage ‘a
being’ ‘a person’. Yet when each component is examined one finds that there is no being as a basis for
the assumption ‘I am’ or ‘I’.
Khandas:
The Five Aggregates or the Attachment Groups. They are (1) Form (matter) (2) Feeling or sensation, (3)
perception, (4) Volitional disposition or impressions, (5) consciousness. These are the basic elements of
the transient personality. Each of these is a group, aggregate, or bundle of elements continually in flux
and without a core.
Dependent Origination:
a continuous causal process forming a cycle of twelve spokes, or phases: (1) Ignorance (2) Karmaformations (3) Consciousness (4) Nama-Rupa (psycho-physical complex) (5) Sense organs (6) Contact
(7) Feeling (8) Craving (9) Grasping (10) Becoming (11) Birth (12) Decay and Death. Whoever
understands the Doctrine of Dependent Origination understands the Dhamma.
It is a heresy to think that he who experiences the fruit of the deed is either the same as or is different
from the one who performed the deed. This doctrine avoids the heresies of Eternalism and
Annihilationism.
The Tathägata has not dealt with the question whether the world is eternal or non-eternal, whether it is
finite or infinite, whether body and soul are identical or different, whether after death the Arahat exists or
does not exist or both exists and does not exist or neither exists nor does not exiSt. These questions do
not tend to edification.
Milinda: What is your reverence called?
Nagasena: I am called Nagasena. The name is but a term, an appellation, a convenient label, a mere
name, this ‘Nagasena’, for there is no ego to be found here.
A common and popular blunder about reincarnation: The popular idea is that Titus Bulbous is reborn
again as John Smith, a man with the same personality and character attainments as he had in his former
life, with the sole difference that he wears a coat and trousers instead of a toga and speaks cockney
English instead of popular Latin.
The stream of force in its works which created the momentarily changing mind and body of Achilles
flowed on and created and the momentarily changing mind and body of Alexander.
The non-materialistic European idea makes a distinction between soul and body. The body is perishable;
the mental-vital consciousness is the immortal soul and remains always the same (horrible idea!) in
heaven as on earth; or if there is a rebirth, it is also the same damned personality that comes back and
makes a similar fool of itself.
The Buddhist View: no survival of personality but only continuity. Example of one candle lighting another
and then another. The law of karma provides continuity.
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Two things alone I teach, now and always: suffering and the uprooting of suffering. Sarvam Dukkham,
Sarvam Anityam, Sarvam Anätman, Nirvanam Shantam.
Buddhism and J. Krishnamurti - 6
Secure behind all the changes of our personality upholding the stream of its mutations, there must be a
true person, a real spiritual Individual. It is this inner person that survives death (Sri Aurobindo).
The Buddhist view: The link from one life to another is not the empirical or conscious self but a set of
character dispositions and latent memories which somehow become attached to a new embryo to form a
fresh empirical self. What is that which is reborn? Not the same nor yet another. Not the same because
there is no ‘entity’ that remains the same; not different because that which is reborn bears the same
karma.
Mahayana (the ‘Greater’ Vehicle, as contrasted with Theravada which is referred to as Hinayana, the
‘Lesser Vehicle’):
The ideal of the Hinayana is the Arahat who frees himself from bondage to karma and enters Nirvana.
The ideal of the Mahayana is the Bodhisattva (a would be Buddha) who, out of the abundance of his love,
engages himself in the task of guiding every sentient being to Nirvana.
The Bodhisattva’s vow:
•
However innumerable the beings, I vow to save them.
•
However inexhaustible the defilements are, I vow to extinguish them.
•
I take upon myself the burden of all suffering.
•
The whole world of living beings I must save from the terrors of birth, of old age, of sickness, of
death and rebirth.
There is no difference between Nirvana and Samsär or between Samsär and Nirvana. He who clings to
the void and neglects Compassion does not reach the highest stage. (Wisdom and Compassion).
A critical comment: Finally even the Bodhisattva abandons Samsär. Secondly, it would not be right to say
that there is something greater than Pari-Nirvana. If there are other ‘truths’, these truths are themselves
contained in and are expressions of Pari-Nirvana.
Zen: (Dhyäna –Ch’an –Zen): No looking to the past, bemoaning what has been lost; no looking to the
future with anxiety or lamenting over what has not yet come about.
His mind is not concentrated on what is ahead or on what is behind, but it is undirected and set free.
Such a person is fully Awake.
All must be abandoned before the seeker finds even the idea that one is seeking. Renounce all desire
including the desire for Nirvana.
Satori – that state of consciousness where the pendulum of opposites comes to reSt. Nirvana is not the
‘opposite’ of Samsär.
To actualize the present in the present – this and nothing else is Zen.
The perfect way is neither far nor near. It is without difficulty save that it avoids picking and choosing.
(See 17)
When you speak It is silent, when you are silent it speaks.
When in meditation the image of the Buddha arises, destroy it.
How can one live one’s daily life in which there is no inward disorder? By observing without identifying
with the patterns of your own thinking, the way you act, think; feel, live (Säkshi). The act of instantaneous
self-observation is itself the discovery of how to live without inner disorder. The first step is the last step.
(No method or technique)
To follow another, however learned or noble, is to block all understanding. What blinds us is the desire to
achieve an end, a result. (This means that we cease to be aware of what we are and try to become what
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we are not or not yet). There must be a cessation of all searches. Only then is there a possibility of the
Nameless coming into being.
Choiceless awareness - (J.K.).
Bare Attention (The Buddha).
Buddhism and J. Krishnamurti - 7
The foundations of Mindfulness: The Blessed One addressed the monks thus: This is the sole way for the
purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, for the destruction of pain and grief,
for the realization of Nirvana, namely, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.
Body-Contemplation, Bare attention to, e.g., breathing – Just mindful he breathes in and mindful he
breathes out. (Commentary: The meditator should be aware of nothing else. He should not be
sidetracked by reflections, emotions or mental images evoked by the Contemplation; if they arise they
should be briefly noticed and dismissed),similarly with feelings, mind and mind-objects (of the five
hindrances: Sense-desire, Anger, Sloth and Torpor, Agitation and Worry, and Doubt).
Commentary: The process recommended is Bare Attention, clear awareness and mere registering of
what actually happens in us and to us. It is awareness without the subjective reactions of like and dislike,
which lead to attachment, self-condemnation or self-justification. If reactions arise, do not resist them or
identify with them. The recommendation is that these reactions or anything that distracts attention should
themselves be made the objects of Bare Attention.
This is not the method of exclusive concentration (Zen: ‘Concentrate without concentrating’). Hence in it
there are really no distractions. If distractions arise they should themselves be made the objects of bare
attention. They then cease to be distractions.
Meditation thus becomes coextensive with the whole of everyday life.
Awareness is free of theorizing for it is aware of the here and now. This is living creatively in the present
from moment to moment.
Awareness should be objective and impersonal. Do not refer to yourself what you observe. Do not
meditate from a fixed center. Let thoughts arise but do not fix them anywhere. If there is a center or point
of view then one is not observing; one is organizing, controlling, rearranging, manipulating. Through Bare
Attention the mind is undirected and set free.
No looking to the past bemoaning what has been lost; no looking forward to the future, lamenting what
has not yet come about. Then he is fully aware and his actions become spontaneous and free.
The Insight at which the process aims will arise spontaneously as the natural result or maturing fruit of
growing Mindfulness. The Master said “Knowledge will arise by itself”. The final knowledge: rebirth has
ceased, the Holy life has been lived. Completed is the task and nothing more remains after this.
In what is seen and heard there should be only what is seen and heard.
J. Krishnamurti
Meditation is emptying the mind of the known. The known is the paSt. But we never die yesterday. We
always have a remnant, a tattered part of yesterday remaining, and it is this that keeps the mind
anchored, held by time.
To follow another, however learned or noble, is to block all understanding when the mind realizes the
totality of its conditioning. Then all its movements come to an end. It is completely still, without any desire
or compulsion, without any motive. Only then is there freedom.
The action of love has no motive, every other action has.
What is this ‘me’ that exists only through identification with property, a name, family, with failures and
successes. The ‘me’ is just a mass of contradictory desires, pursuits, fulfillments and frustrations with
sorrow outweighing joy. The ‘self’ is merely a term to cover craving in its different forms.
I maintain that Truth is a pathless land and cannot be approached by any path whatsoever by any system
or religion.
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The problem is the mind itself, not the problems it breeds. (This means that problems do not need to be
‘solved’. They must be dissolved.
Buddhism and J. Krishnamurti - 8
Time exists only when there is a psychological gap between what is and what we think should be.
Let the mind be empty and not filled with the things of the mind. Then there is only meditation and not a
meditator who is meditating.
All that I am trying to do is to show you the false so that you may find the true. This awakening of creative
intelligence is the only positive help I can give you.
To understand a problem requires not trying to seek a solution for the problem but a direct consideration
of the problem itself, which is to approach the problem without the desire to find an answer.
Effort is a distraction from ‘what is’. The moment I accept ‘what is’ there is no struggle. Struggle or strife
is a distraction.
Memory is nothing other than incomplete action. It is the residue; the scar of action (sanskära) which has
not been completed, lived or understood.
Psychological time is utterly false. It is the space between what is and what might, should or will be. (Cf.
“Actualize the present in the presence.”
If you know how to listen to what is being said there would be immediate understanding. Listening is the
complete focusing of attention.
Neither renunciation nor acquiescence: To understand oneself profoundly one needs balance. That is,
one cannot abandon the world or be so entangled in it that there is no occasion to comprehend oneself
(Cf. Gita).
What another can help you to do is discern for yourself whether you are escaping from actuality into an
illusion. The guru cannot awaken you. All that he can do is to point out what is.
A problem is an internal conflict. It arises when we divide the actual from the ideal, inner from outer.
(Also contradictory wants, hope, regret).
The psychological memory that maintains the self, the ‘me’ and the ‘mine’ that gives identification and self
–continuance, is wholly detrimental to life and reality. Memory is time. It creates yesterday, today and
tomorrow. Memory of yesterday conditions today and therefore shapes tomorrow.
Meditation is the substance of wisdom. Meditation is like the breeze that comes in when you leave the
window open.
If you set out to meditate it will not be meditation.
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C18 - Mahatma Gandhi
I do believe that when there is a choice only between cowardice and violence. I would advise violence. I
would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honor than that she should become or
remain a helpless victim to her dishonor. But I believe that non-violence is infinitely superior to violence.
I have therefore ventured to place before India the ancient law of self-sacrifice, of suffering. If India takes
up the doctrine of the sword she will cease to be the pride of my heart.
Quit India Resolution: the formation of a provisional government “whose primary function must be to
defend India and resist aggression with all the armed as well as the non-violent forces at its command.”
Imperfect, erring mortals as we are there is no course open to us but the destruction of rabid dogs. At
times we may be faced with the unavoidable duty of killing a man who is found in the act of killing people.
Anyone who dispatched this lunatic would earn the gratitude of the community
Buber’s letter to Gandhi: (In 1938 G. suggested that the Jews in Germany use satyagraha as the most
effective reply to Nazi atrocities) But Mahatma are you not aware that Jews are being persecuted,
robbed, tortured, murdered, their synagogues and scrolls of the Torah Burn? Do you or do you not know,
Mahatma, what a concentration camp is like and what goes on there, - its torments, its methods of slow
and quick slaughter? .. A diabolic steam-roller cannot thus (by non-violence) be withstood. Buber
reminded G. what he wrote in 1922: “I would have India become free even violence rather than that she
should remain in bondage.” To Buber this implied that the desire for the freedom of India was even
stronger in Gandhi than his faith in non-violence. “And for this, I love you.”
One’s life is not a single straight line; it is a bundle of duties very often conflicting. and one is called upon
continually to make one’s choice between one duty and another.
Nehru: I did not give an absolute allegiance to the doctrine of non-violence or accept it forever. Situated
as we were in India ad with our back ground and traditions, it was the right policy for us but not an
unchallengeable creed. (with reference to G’s distinction between conversion and compulsion) As some
of Gandhiji’s methods of conversion were not far removed from courteous and considerate compulsion,
the difference was not very great.
Man cannot for a movement live without consciously or unconsciously committing outward himsa. The
very act of living - eating, drinking ad moving about - necessarily involves some himsa, destruction of life,
be it ever so minute.
It is a mistake to allow ahimsa to become a fetish and not to kill in certain circumstances. This could be
regarded as a form of himsa rather than ahimsa.
They say “means are after all means.” I would say “means are after all everything.” As the means so the
end. Ends and means are convertible terms. (our religious and ethical ideals not only inform our ends
but all the means we employ to reach them. Hence the practice of himsa can never lead to truth.) Truth
(the end)( and Ahimsa (the means) are like two sides of a smooth metallic disk. We cannot get a rose
through planting a noxious weed.
Fasting: Fasting is a fiery weapon. It has its own science. Fasting for the sake of personal gain is
nothing short of intimidation. A fast may only be undertaken who is associated with the person against
whom he fast.
The ideal creates the means of attaining the ideal, if it is itself the and rooted in the destiny of the race.
To bring in the mass of the people to found the greatness of the future on the greatness of the past, to
infuse Indian politics with Indian religious favor and spirituality are the indispensable condition for great
and powerful political awakening in India.
If India is to arise and be great as a nation, it is not by imitating methods and the institutions of English
politics and commerce, but by carrying her own civilization purified of the weaknesses that have over
taken it, to a much higher and mightier fulfillment than any it has reached in the past.
The present circumstances in India seem to point to passive resistance as our most natural and suitable
weapon. Passive resistance and Boycott divided into: (a) Economic boycott and swadeshi; (b)
Educational boycott and national education; (c) Judicial boycott and national arbitration courts; (d)
Executive boycott and national organization; (e) social boycott.
60
On their fidelity to swadeshi, to boycott, to passive resistance rested the hope of a peaceful and spiritual
salvation. on that depended whether India would give the example, unprecedented in history, of a
revolution worked out by moral force and peaceful pressure.
All great movements wait for their god-sent leader, the willing channel of his force, and only when he
comes, move forward triumphantly to the fulfillment. The men who have led hitherto have been strong
men of high gifts and commanding genius, great enough to be the protagonists of any other movement,
but even they were not sufficient to fulfill one which in the chief current of a world-wide revolution.
Therefore the nationalist party, custodian of the future, must wait for the man who is to come.
“I want the concentration of wealth not in the hands of a few, but in the hands of all. Today machinery
helps a few to ride on the backs of millions. The impetus behind it is not the philanthropy to save labor,
but greed. It is against this constitution of things that I am fighting with all my might. Machinery has its
own place; but it must not be allowed to displace human labor. What I object to is the craze for
machinery.”
The future society visualized by Sri Aurobindo will not be solely agrarian, it will be industrial also. But it
will not wish to retain or to accentuate the gigantic industrial establishments of the modern world.
A full spectrum of technologies would be consistent with the Gandhian scheme if these technologies
satisfied the basic objectives of the Gandhian polity and economy, such as full employment, nonalienation, non-exploitation, ecological balance, rural-urban equality.
“My life is one indivisible whole and all activities run into one another and they all have their rise in my
insatiable love of mankind.”
“My eyes have now been opened. I see that what we practiced during our fight with the British under the
name of non-violence was not really nor violence. God had purpose. Now He has restored my sight.”
“The state represents violence in a concentrated and organized form. It’s a soulless machine, it can
never be weaned away from violence to which it owes its very existence. The ideal state is a state of
enlightened anarchy in which everyone is his own ruler. But the ideal is never fully realized in life. Hence
the classical statement of Thoreau that government is best which governs least.”
If I survive the political holocaust now going on in the country, my next big battle will be against the
capitalist. It is my firm convicts that if the state suppressed capitalism by violence it will be caught in the
coils of violence itself. What I would personally prefer would be not a centralization of power in the hands
of the state but an extension of the sense of trusteeship. Capitalists should exist only as trustees.
Gandhi believed it possible, by appeal to the basic human principles of reason end fellow feeling, to
persuade capitalists to realize that the capital in their hands represented the fruit of the labor of the
people and it should b treated as such. A capitalist or anyone who happens to have surplus wealth
should act as the trustee of the people’s wealth and should spend it for the welfare of the people.
Modern problems of urbanization have sharply come into focus as a result of post-war developments in
technology. Most developed countries have faced a very rapid increase in urbanization with mounting
problems of pollution, congestion, limited accommodation, transport, etc., along with such social problems
as prostitution, juvenile delinquency, drug addiction.
“We have to concentrate on the village being self-contained, manufacturing mainly for use. Provided this
character of the village industry is maintained I have no objection to village using even modern machines
and tools that they can make and afford to use. I have no partiality for a return to the primitive methods of
grinding and husking for the sake of them. I suggest the return because there is no other way of giving
employment to millions of villagers who live in idleness.
“The village is a small manageable group of people constituting a Unit of society of about two to five
thousand souls.” the Gandhian Village is a primary community large enough to offer a diversified life,
small enough to generate and sustain a sense of community.
In this structure composed of innumerable village. Life will not be a pyramid with the apex sustained by
the bottom. But it will be an oceanic circle whose centre will be the individual. The outermost
circumference will not wield power to crush the inner circle, but will give strength to all within and derive
its own strength from it.”
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“Real socialism has been handed down to us by our ancestors who taught, all land belongs to Gopal
where then is the boundary line? Man is the maker of that line and he can therefore unmake it. In
modern language Gopal means the state, i.e., the people.”
(On partition) “Thirty two years of work have come to an inglorious end.
(On communal violence0 “Never in my life has the path been so uncertain and so dim before me. I seek
my peace among disorders.”
(Resistance to ruthless opponents) “The Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife.
They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs. It would have aroused the world and the
people of Germany. There is more to be said than his critics have admitted for his recommendation of
non violent resistance to dictators and ruthless invaders. These are situations a that are hopeless in
immediate terms; violent resistance would be as ineffective as non-violent resistance in the short run.
and in the long run the latter is probably the more effective. What appalled Gandhi even more than the
physical destruction of the Jews was the devastation of their self-respect. “Death”, he said, “could be the
utmost assertion of our individuality.” It was in this sense that he thought of the Jews; if they were to die,
he believed, it was better to go asserting their individualities in non-violent resistance than allowing
themselves to be taken to the slaughter like cattle (George Woodcock)
(On the night before his death) “If an explosion takes places, as it did last week, or if someone shot at me
and I received his bullet in may bare chest without a sign and with Rama’s name on my lips, only then
should you say that I was a true Mahatma.”
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C19 - Teilhard De Chardin (1881-1955)
The God above and the God ahead.
A hitherto unknown form of religion is burgeoning in men’s hearts, from a seed sown by the idea of
evolution.
There is an immense quantity of truths and attitudes for which orthodoxy has not made room. If I dared
use a word which could be given unacceptable meanings, I feel myself irreducibly “hyper-Catholic”.
(T. de C. asks Gilson): Can you tell me who will give us at last the meta-Christianity we are all waiting
for?
Its only thanks to the exotic life I’m leading (a life of isolation and intellectual distance in China) that this
drift has not developed into a break.
The time has come when a new mysticism, at once fully human and Christian, must finally appear.
It is impossible for me to possess Christ without embracing Earth, to be absolutely Christian without being
desperately human.
Christ is present throughout the physical universe and exerts a force drawing all things towards a
developing and converging unity - The omega point, in which evolution reaches its climax and its crown.
Now at last the history of man, of humanity seems to be underway.
Cosmo genesis completes itself in Christogenesis. The cosmic Christ is also the evolutive Christ.
I shall put the intoxication of pagan pantheism to a Christian use. I’ve reached the point of being unable
to imagine the world, even physically, other than in the form of a huge movement of spirit.
I can be saved only by becoming one with the universe. In future the only religion for man is the religion
that will teach him in the first place to recognize, love and serve with passion the universe of which he is a
part.
Mighty Matter! I acclaim you as the driving milieu charged with creative power and infused with life by the
incarnate Word. Even at the highest point of my spiritual trajectory, I only find myself completely at ease
when bathes in an ocean of matter.
The Omega Point will become so widespread as to warm the earth psychically, while physically it is
growing cold. Is it not conceivable that mankind, at the end of its totalization, will reach the greatest point
of maturity where, leaving earth and stars to lapse slowly back to the dwindling mass of primordial
energy, will detach itself from the planet and join the one true, irreversible essence of things - The Omega
Point revolution makes Christ possible, just as Christ, by giving direction to the world, consummation
Christ must find a summit to the world for his consummation…Christ is completing himself little by little
through the ages.
God is attained by entry into the centre of the total sphere that embraces all things a centre that itself is in
process of formation. (Christ as evolver and as evolutive)
Love God in and through the universe in evolution.
The law of increasing complexity and expanding consciousness: We may be sure that every time a richer
and better organized structure will correspond to the more developed consciousness.
Man is not the centre of the universe but something much more wonderful - the arrow pointing the way to
the final unification of the world in terms of life.
From the beginning stages of its evolution, the living matter which covers the earth manifests the contours
of a single gigantic organism.
Everything that is good in the universe is gathered up by the Incarnate Word as a nourishment that it
assimilates, transforms and divinizes. In short Christ is the divine milieu in and through which the
(abstract) attribute of divine immensity is concretely realized for us.
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C20 - Essentials of Indian Culture
Essentials of Indian Culture - 1
All men cannot follow in all things one common and invariable rule of action or be all put under the same
tables of the law.
Spirituality is indeed the master key of the Indian mind; the sense of the Infinite is native to it.
The Spiritual tendency of the Indian does not shoot upward only to the abstract, the hidden and the
intangible; it casts its rays downward and outward to embrace the multiplicities of thought and the
richness of life. No nation before the modern epoch carried scientific research so far and with such
success as India of ancient times.
All we do or create must be consistent with the abiding spirit of India but framed to fit into a greater
harmonized rhythm and plastic to the call of a more luminous future. There cannot be a healthy and
victorious survival if we make a fetish of the past instead of an inspiring impulse.
Hinduism set to itself no sectarian limits, but was only a continuously enlarging tradition of the Godward
endeavor of the human spirit.
Two movements of degeneration succeeded these brilliant periods. First there was a decline of vital
energy and a fading out of the joy of life. Secondly, intellectual activity rapidly ceased. The free pursuit of
science and art drew to a close. All great cultures pass through three stages- a stage of large and loose
formation, then a stage in which forms and rhythms are fixed, and finally the stage of decay.
Slowly India lost her great virtue of plasticity. With the loss of vitality she entrenched herself passively
behind blind conventions and a series of meaningless rites and ceremonies and sat dreaming of her past.
Indian renaissance: “The Infinite giant is rising to her feet”. Vivekananda
Indian religion cannot be described by any of the definitions known to occidental intelligence. In its totality
it has been a free and tolerant synthesis of all spiritual worship and experience. Observing the one Truth
from all its many sides, it shut out none. It gave itself no specific name and bound itself by no limiting
distinction. Allowing separative designations for its constituting cults, it remained itself nameless,
formless, universal, and infinite like the Brahman of its age long seeking.
The ancient civilization of India founded itself very expressly on four human interests. First was Desire
and Enjoyment (Käma). Next was Material, Economic and other aims and needs of the mind and the
body (Artha). Third was Ethical conduct and the right law of the individual (Dharma) and lastly was
Spiritual liberation (Moksha).
The true work of the religious instinct in man is to give each human being a mold of spiritual discipline, a
way of seeking, which is proper to the potentiality of his nature. The wide and supple method of
evolutionary Nature providing the amplest scope and preserving the true intention of the religious seeking
of the human being can be recognized in the development of religion in India, where any number of
religious formulations, cults and disciplines have been allowed, even encouraged to subsist side by side,
and each man was free to accept and follow that which was congenial to his thought, feeling,
temperament, build of nature… Religion in India limited itself to no one creed or dogma. It refused to ban
or excise any of the elements that have grown up in the course of the evolution of religion, but followed to
its deepest or highest outcome every possible line of spiritual realization.
Artha
Interest: material, economic and other aims and needs of the mind and the body.
Käma
Desire: Satisfaction of desires of all kinds. Distinguished from aspiration. Pravriti
and Nivritti – Outward and inward turned.
Dharma
That which holds things together and that which one lays hold of. The law of being;
standard of Truth; rule or action. The collective Indian conception of the religious,
social and ethical conduct and the right law of individual and social life.
Moksha
Spiritual liberation
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Between Artha and Käma on the one side and dharma and between dharma and Moksha there is a
difference not in degree but in kind and hence a “broken continuity”.
Essentials of Indian Culture - 2
Man does not arrive immediately at that highest inner elevation and if it were demanded from him at once,
he would never arrive there. At first he needs lower supports and stages of ascent. He needs some thing
on which he can stand while he builds up the temple of spirit in himself.
Indian religion took as its guiding idea its perception of the varying natural capacity of man (adhikära
bheda). It avoided the error of imposing a single, dogmatic and inflexible rule on every man regardless of
the possibilities of his nature.
True happiness lies in the finding and maintenance of a natural harmony of spirit, mind and body. A
culture is to be valued to the extent to which it has discovered the right key of this harmony and organized
its basic motives and movements. A civilization in pursuit of this aim may be predominantly material, like
the Graeco-Roman, or predominantly spiritual like the still persistent culture of India.
India’s central conception is that of the Eternal, the Spirit here incased in matter, immanent in it. India’s
social system is built up on this conception of a pure spiritual consciousness beyond mind. Her whole
dharma or law of being is founded upon it. Fidelity to this highest ideal has made her people a nation
apart in this world.
Spirituality is not the monopoly of India. It is a necessary part of human nature. But the difference is
between spirituality being made the leading motive and the determining power of both the inner and outer
life, and spirituality suppressed or brought in as a minor power, its reign put off in favor of the intellect or
of a dominant materialistic vitalism, economic, commercial, industrial and utilitarian way of life.
India alone as a nation has till now refused to give up her worshipped Godhead or bow her knee to the
strong reigning idols of rationalism, commercialism and economism, the successful iron gods of the west.
Fullness of life must precede the surpassing of life.
A decline came upon Indian culture in the end and a kind of arrest of growth; not absolute, but still very
serious and dangerous to its life and future. This was a temporary exhaustion of the force of living.
Apart from all phenomena of decline or deterioration we should recognize without any sophistical denial
those things in our creeds of life and social institutions which are in themselves mistaken, and some to
our civilization, dishonoring to our culture. A flagrant example can be found in the treatment of our
outcasts. A solution which condemns by segregation one-sixth of the nation to permanent ignominy,
continued filth, un-cleanliness of the inner and outer life and a brutal animal existence instead of lifting
them out of it, is no solution but rather an acceptance of weakness and a constant wound to the social
body and to its collective spiritual, intellectual moral and material welfare.
“Untouchability is the greatest sin of Hinduism.”
After a period of decline India is rising again with a renewed vitality to fulfill its mission of leading the world
from darkness, discord and frustration to the unfading light of unity, happiness and creative harmony.
(This refers to the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo).
The ancient Four Orders of Society (Chaturvarnya) must not be judged by its later degeneration and
gross meaningless parody, the caste system. The ancient Indian idea was that man falls by his nature
into four types. First is the man of learning and knowledge. Next is the man of power and action, a ruler,
a warrior and administrator. Third in the scale is the economic man, producer and wealth-getter,
merchant, artisan, cultivator. Last came the less developed human type, un-intellectual, incapable of
creation or intelligent production, the man fit only for unskilled labor and menial service.
Essentials of Indian Culture - 3
The ascent of man into heaven is not the key, but rather his ascent here into the spirit and the descent
also of the spirit into his normal humanity and the transformation of his earthly nature. For that and not
some postmortem salvation is the real new birth for which humanity awaits as the crowning movement of
its long, obscure and painful course.
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Moksha is not the end but a new beginning of the spiritual life. A flight into heaven or the eternal order
leaves unsolved the riddle of existence, the significance of manifestation and the vast process of
evolution.
Any final recoil from the physical life must be a turning away from the completeness of the divine wisdom
and a renunciation of its aim in earthly manifestation. The world is a veiled and evolutionary
manifestation or unfolding of the Divine Consciousness. It is inevitable that all the powers or digress of
power of the Divine should emerge one after another until the whole glory is embodied and visible.
The supramental transformation must carry with it a lifting of mind, life and body out of themselves into a
greater way of being in which their own ways and powers would not be suppressed or abolished but
perfected and fulfilled by the self-exceeding.
A divine life in a divine body here on earth is the final sense of earth’s evolution.
From Savitri: The superman shall wake in mortal man… A mightier race shall inhabit the mortal’s world…
A divine harmony shall be earth’s law… Even the body shall remember God… For in the march of allfulfilling Time… The hour must come of the Transcendent’s will… Even there shall come as a high crown
of all. The end of Death, the death of Ignorance… Then shall the earth open to divinity… And meet the
deity in common things… Nature shall live to manifest secret God… The Spirit shall take up the human
play… This earthly life becomes life divine.
Supramental is the direct self-existent Truth-Consciousness and the direct self-effective Truth-Power.
The kernel of the new society will be the race of spiritual Gnostic beings who will be the acknowledged
kings and legislators of all mankind. The new principle of life will exercise a potent and benign influence
over the whole society, transforming human relationships and bringing to birth a new world and a new
order in which freedom, harmony and creative living will be its invariant features.
Salvation or Moksha is the transcendence of our present nature, the spirit within us abandoning body, life
and mind for a supernatural destiny.
But our present nature is a derivation from Supernature (Para Prakriti Gita). Each part of our triple nature
(body, life and mind) contains a hidden truth which, when discovered and developed, would change it
from an obscure impediment to a pliant and luminous instrument of the spirit in manifestation.
Man as he is now is a transitional being and not the last term of the evolutionary series. Through a total
transformation of his instrumental nature there will emerge, as the next stage in the evolution, a race of
“Gnostic beings” who will be as far above our present humanity as man is above the animals.
A divine life in a Divine Body here on earth is the final sense of the earth evolution.
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C21 - The Spiritual Heritage of India
1. And I will give you as a Light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth
(Isaiah: 49)
2. Praising God who has chosen us from among all other nations.
3. God has chosen Israel to make his will known to the rest of the world. Israel possesses a truth which
distinguishes it from all other peoples, but which addresses itself to all mankind.
4. The Election is not a divine favor extended to a people but a task imposed upon it. It does not bestow
privileges; it demands service. It is not a prerogative but an obligation, not a divine title for rights but
a divine mandate for duties.
5. Each nation is a Shakti of the evolving spirit in humanity and lives by the principle which it embodies.
India is the living energy of the Eternal, the Spirit encased here in matter and fidelity to it is the very
principle of her existence. It is her founding of life upon this exalted conception and her urge towards
the spiritual and the eternal that constitute the distinct value of her civilization. and it is her fidelity,
with whatever human shortcomings, to this highest ideal that has made her people a nation apart in
the human world.
6. A Divine Force has embodied herself in India in order to work out a mighty purpose of evolutionary
Nature. and to work for this purpose, individually and collectively, on a world-wide scale is the
mission of India, her raison d'etre in history.
7. India is indeed a vast workshop of evolutionary Nature where things are being moulded and patterned
for the new world of tomorrow, the world of a new Light and a new Harmony, that will emerge out of
its present chaos and darkness.
8. "The peoples of Europe have carried material life to its furthest expression but each has reached the
limit of its capacity. Something is wanting which Europe cannot supply."
9. "Not the blind round of material existence alone and not a retreat from the difficulty of life in the world
into the silence of the Ineffable, but the bringing down of the peace and light and power of a greater
divine Truth and consciousness to transform life is the endeavor today of the greatest spiritual
seekers in India, Here in the heart of such an endeavor feeling the near and greatening descent of
that light and power) the way becomes increasingly clear. One sees the soul of India ready to enter
into the fullness of her heritage and the hour of an unparallel greatness approaching when from her
soil shall go forth the call and the leading to the highest destinies of the race."
10. Every religion has its eschatology which consists of little more than parables and poetic images and
shadowy intimations of "some Divine event to which the whole creation moves". It is a keen sense of
this possibility, says, Sri Aurobindo, "which has taken different shapes and persisted through the
centuries - The perfectibility of man, the perfectibility of society, the Alwar's vision of the descent of
Vishnu and the Gods upon earth, the reign of the saints sadhunam rajyami the city of God, the
millennium, the new heaven and earth of the Apocalypse. But these intuitions have lacked a basis of
assured knowledge."
11. Spirituality in India was a all-embracing as it was integral. It included all the various phases of life, all
its movements and expressions, and sought to reintegrate them into what they are intended to be in
the divine order of things.
1. "The capital period of my intellectual development was when 1 could see clearly that what the intellect
said might be correct and not correct, that what the Intellect justified was true and its opposite also
was true. I have never admitted a truth in the mind without simultaneously keeping it open to the
contrary of it." (Sri Aurobindo)
2. Hinduism gave itself no specific name and bound itself by no limiting sectarian distinction; it claimed
no universal adhesion, asserted no sole infallible dogma, set up no single narrow path or gate of
salvation It was less a creed or cult than a continuously enlarging tradition of the Godward Endeavor
of the human spirit.
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3. The mentality of the West has long cherished the aggressive and quite illogical idea of a single
religion for all mankind, a religion universal by the very force of its narrowness, - one set of dogmas,
one cult, one ecclesiastical ordinance.
4. At first he needs lower supports and stages of ascent; he asks for some scaffolding of dogma,
worship, image, symbol, some indulgence and permission of a lower, provisional, truth on which he
can stand while he builds up in him the temple of the spirit.
5. The guiding principle and impulse of the religious quest in India: Truth is many-sided and unfolds
itself in many ways. There are innumerable pathways to the Truth. (Cf. Gita iv.11)
6. "At the outset one is confronted by the difficulty of defining what Hinduism is. To many it seems to be
a name without any content. Is it a museum of beliefs, a medley of rites, or a mere map, a
geographical expression? To the West, religion in India tends to appear as a rich and rather baffling
tangle of myths, with endless gods and goddesses worshipped in countless different forms- But this
complexity is only the surface of Indian faith, Underlying it is a unity of spirit binding its different
expressions and linking up the different periods of its history into one organic whole" (Radhakrishna,
the Hindu View of Life)
1. "Error is truth it is partial truth, and error only because it is left partial and incomplete" (F. H. Bradley)
2. Every truth, however true in itself, yet, taken apart from others which at once limit and complete it,
becomes a snare to bind the intellect and a misleading dogma; for in reality each is one thread of a
complex weft.
3. The tendency of the normal western mind is to live from below upward and from out inward. A strong
foundation is taken in the vital and material nature and higher powers are invoked and admitted only
to modify and partially uplift the natural terrestrial life. India's constant aim has been on the contrary
to find a basis of living in the higher spiritual truth and to live from the inner spirit outwards Spirituality
was made the leading motive and determining power of both the inner and the outer life.
4. The unity of Hinduism must be understood with reference to its spirit -a search for Truth in its
completeness embracing all views, rejecting no, It seeks a richly diversified unity, a maximum of
differentiation within an all-comprehensive oneness.
5. When we look at the past of India what strikes us is her stupendous vitality, her inexhaustible power
and Joy of life. For 3000 years or more she has been creating abundantly republics and kingdoms
and empires and all kinds of monuments, temples and public works, laws, codes and ritual physical
and psychic sciences, systems of politics and administration, arts, spiritual and worldly, trades,
industries* fine crafts .No nation before the modern epoch carried scientific research so far, - in
mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, Medicine, surgery. Two striking examples: the Concept -of zero
and the decimal notation in mathematics and the perception that the earth is a moving body in
astronomy. Prithvi sthira Bhati
6. Indian civilization lost the first grand simplicity of its early order. Society became more artificial and
complex (e.g. The caste system).spiritual liberation was pursued in hostility to life, ignoring its capacity for organizing and transforming the whole of life.. By spirituality we do not mean a withdrawal from
life. Though in later times it led too much away from life, yet that was not its original character, not
the great India of old in her splendid days of vigor.
7. All we do or create must be consistent with the abiding spirit of India, but framed to fit into a greater
harmonized rhythm and plastic to the call of a more luminous future.. How stands Indian civilization
with regard to this yet unrealized future of the race? Are its master ideas and dominant powers
guiding lights and helping forces towards it or do they end in themselves with no vistas on the
evolutionary potentialities of the earth's coming ages?
8. The labor of ascent from our half-animal human nature into the fresh purity of the spiritual
consciousness needed to be followed and supplemented by a descent of the life and force of the
spirit into man's members and the attempt to transform human into divine nature. But it could not find
its complete way or its fruit because it synchronized with a decline of the life-force in India and a
lowering of power and knowledge in her general civilization and culture. Nevertheless here lies the
destined force of her survival and renewal, this is the dynamic meaning of her future. A widest and
highest spiritualizing of life on earth is the last vision of all that vast and unexampled seeking and
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experiment in a thousand ways of the soul's outermost and innermost experience which is the unique
character of her past; this in the end is the mission for which she was born and the meaning of her
existence.
1. At first he needs lower supports and stages of ascent' he asks for some scaffolding of dogma,
worship, image; form, symbol, some indulgence and permission of mixed motive on which he can
stand while he builds up in him the temple of the spirit.
2. The unity of Hinduism is understood in terms of its spirit, the search for Truth in its totality. It regards
religion as a vast field of experimentation and its purpose is to exhaust the entire field of religion in all
its varied manifestations. Hinduism takes the whole of religion for its province. Truth, according to it,
is many-sided and there are innumerable approaches to the ultimate Truth.
3. Hinduism freely admits within itself any number of formulations, cults, disciplines. Diverse trends and
lines of growth are not only allowed to exist side by side but encouraged to do so.
4. To the Indian mind the least important part of religion is its dogma: the religious spirit matters, not the
theoretical credo on the contrary to the western mind a fixed intellectual belief is the most important
part of his religion; it is its core of meaning, what distinguishes his religion from those of others.
5. The mentality of the west has long cherished the aggressive and quite illogical idea of a single
religion for all mankind, a religion universal by the very force of its narrowness, - one set of dogmas,
one cult) one array of prohibitions and injunctions, one ecclesiastical ordinance.
6. There are infinite differences between man and man; some are more inwardly evolved, others less
mature, many, if not most, are infant souls incapable of great steps and difficult efforts. Each needs
to be dealt with according to his nature and his soul stature.
7. There has been from early times in the Indian mind a tendency towards a lofty and austere
exaggeration in the direction taken by Buddhism and Mayavada. This excess was inevitable, the
human mind being what it is; it had even its necessity and value. Our mind does not arrive at the totality of truth easily and by one embracing efforts an arduous search is the condition of its finding, the
mind opposes different sides of truth to each other* follows each to its extreme possibility, treats it
even for a time as the sole truth. The Indian mind followed this method; it covered as far as it could
the whole field, tried every position, looked at truth from every angle, attempted many extremes and
many syntheses.
8. At the present time, in spite of a temporary exaltation of Shankar’s philosophy, the most vital
movements of Indian thought and religion are moving again towards the synthesis of spirituality and
life which was an essential part of the ancient Indian ideal.
9. Freedom or salvation is not the end but only the beginning and the condition of a true spiritual
evolution.
10. "Any final recoil from the physical life leaves unsolved the riddle of earthly existences it is a turning
away from the completeness of the divine wisdom and a renunciation of its aim in earthly
manifestation.. The world is a veiled and evolutionary manifestation of the Divine Conscious.
11. Our present nature is a derivation from Super nature. Each part of our triple nature (body, life and
mind) contains a hidden truth which) when discovered and developed, would change it from an
obscure impediment to a pliant and luminous instrument of the spirit in manifestation - a lifting of the
mind, life and body out of themselves into a greater way of being in which their own ways and powers
would not be suppressed or abolished but perfected and fulfilled by the self-exceeding.
12. “This wonderful world of delight waiting at our gates for our call to come down upon earth."
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C22 - Zen Buddhism
To actualize the present in the present - that, and nothing else, is Zen.
Past things are in the past. The sun and moon revolving in their orbits do not turn around. Every moment
of time is self - contained and quiescent.
Will you please enlighten me on the saying, “Mind is Buddha”? When the preceding thought is not born, it
is Mind; when the following thought does not end, it is Buddha.
Just as the Buddha is contained in the tiniest particle and the whole universe in every grain of rice or drop
of water, so the whole of enlightenment is contained in every moment.
Ma-tsu was continuously absorbed in meditation. The Master asked, “Why are you sitting in meditation?
Ma-tsu: I wish to become a Buddha. The Master picked up a tile and started rubbing it on a stone. Matsu: What are you doing, Master? I am polishing this tile to make a mirror. How can you make a mirror by
rubbing a tile? How can one become a Buddha by sitting in meditation?
Self-knowledge does not come by setting the mind to see itself in the pure state. A knife cannot out itself,
an eye cannot see itself.
To stop the working of the mind and to sit quietly in meditation is a disease and not Zen. There is no
profit whatever to be gained by a long sitting.
It is contemplation without contemplating, practice without practicing. All cultivation of concentration is
wrong-minded from the start.
Meditation itself is the substance of wisdom; wisdom itself is the function of meditation.
Meditation is to enter without a place to enter; wisdom is to depend on nothing.
Note the thoughts that arise - do not repress and do not identify with them. Ignore them and put them
aside. In this state one can know without touching things.
The perfect man employs his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothings; it refuses nothing. It receives but does
not keep.
When you are silent it speaks; when you speak it is silent.
What is myself? What would you do with a self? Am I right when I have no idea? Throw away that idea
of yours. What idea? You are free of course to carry about that useless idea of no idea.
Separate yourself from views; do not activate thoughts. No-thought is not to think even when involved in
thought.
Only those whose minds no longer measure or compare things understand Nirvana which they grasp not
nor reject.
He should neither cling to the Voidness nor foolishly reject the law of causality. Both acceptance and
rejection still pertain to the realm of relativities.
All must be freely abandons before the seeker finds, even the fact of seeking and the will find.
It never leaves the place and is always perfect. When you look for it you can’t see it. You can’t get at it,
you can’t be rid of it. When you do neither, there it is!
How shall I escape from the wheel of birth and death? Who puts you under restraint.
At a later stage one learns that there is no walking and no goal.
Only when there is no idea of realizing it can it be won.
Satori - that state of consciousness wherein the pendulum of opposites has come to res.
Zen Buddhism
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Hung-Jen (602-675) - The Fifth Patriarch of Ch’an Buddhism. Shen-hsiu (pronounced Shun-Shao - The
most senior disciple) Hui-neng (pronounced Whay-nung - 638-713)
Division into Northern and Southern schools. The Northern school died out. The Southern school gave
rise to five schools. Tow most important of these were Chinese : Lin-chi and Ta’so-tung - Established in
the 9th century CE Japanese: Rinzai and Soto. Rinzai established by Eisai (1141-1215) and Soto
established by Doge (1200-1253).
Were the honored Shakyamuni and the great Bodhidharma to appear, I would out them down instantly,
demanding: why do you totter forth? You are no longer needed.
A disciple uttered the name of Buddha. The Master said: Go and wash your mouth.
To discard the sutras of the Buddha is to discard the mind of the Buddha, and when you have abandoned
the teaching what will be left except a lot of bald headed monks? Dozen.
Ch’an simplified into their sentences: Don’t recall the past; don’t contemplate the future. BE HERE NOW.
Enlightenment is your own nature.
Contemplation and wisdom are one and the same.
Resolve all dualities in the void.
One who clings to words and phrases to achieve understanding is like one trying to strike the moon with a
stick or scratching a shoe because there is an itchy spot on the foot.
Nothing that enters by the gate can be a family treasure. (What is gained from outside is always subject
to change and will pass away)
From where can I enter into Zen? Can you hear the murmuring of the mountain stream? Yes, I can.
Enter Zen from there.
Gateless is the great Tao. There are thousand ways to it.
Pictures of cake do not satisfy one’s hunger.
Die while alive, and be completely dead. The n do whatever you will, all is good. (Cf. St. Augustine:
“Love God and do what you will.”
If the mind seeks to secure itself in Nirvana it is bound by the concept of Nirvana. If it seeks to cling to
the Void it is bound by the concept of the Void.
It is like cutting a reel of thread:/ one cut, and all is cut./ It is like dyeing a reel of thread: / One dip and all
is dyed.
Repeatedly she calls out, “Oh, Shogyoku” / It is for no other purpose / than that her lover may recognize
her voice. (So When the Masters say, “Mind is Buddha”, “Mind is not Buddha”, “No mind, no Buddha”,
their real intention is not in these words. They only want us to realize by means of various words “True
Buddha”, which is not really in the words.
Search out the point where your thoughts arise and disappear. Never treat the distracted thought as a
concrete thing. When it arises notice it right away, but new try to suppress it. Let it go and watch it as
one watches a calabash floating on the surface of a stream. Thoughts are rootless. If you can break one
thought into pieces all thoughts will instantaneously be stripped off. But never rejoice and wallow in this
ravishing experience; if you do the devil of joy will possess.
The Koan Method
Koan (Chinese Kung-an: an official record, a public notice. In Zen a technical term. An exercise given by
a Zen master designed to break through Reason and its systematic logical structures and its dualistic way
of thinking. The aim is to lead to a flash of sudden insight and the attainment of enlightenment.
Koans are words or actions which are seemingly illogical, paradoxical, absurd, or irrelevant to the
question asked.
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In attempting the solution the disciple eventually comes to learn that he is not to think about the answer
but just to gaze at it closely. Trying to solve a koan rationally is like “trying to smash one’s fist through an
iron wall.”
“Recite the koan exerting all your mind. Take it word by word, syllable by syllable, and say it with all your
attention, dwelling at length upon each word. Don’t look for the answer, look at the koan. Employ every
ounce of your energy to work on this “Mu”. If you hold on without interruption, behold: a single spark and
the holy candle is lit.” Katsuki Sekida - a contemporary Zen teacher.
Examples.
Has the dog the Buddha Nature? Mu
What is the significance of the Budhidharma’s coming from the West? (i. e. what is the essence of Zen?
) the Cyprus tree in the courtyard. Three pounds of flax.
Please give me instructions, Master. Have you had your breakfast Yes, I have. The n go and wash your
bowls.
What is the Buddha? This very mind is the Buddha (The same question is answered on another occasion
thus: ) No mind, no Buddha.
What is the Buddha? A stick of dry dung.
When being and non being become one, what remains? the Master laughed heartily and drank a cup of
tea.
Speak without moving your tongue.
Hui-neng - The Southern School
(School of Sudden Enlightenment; meditation non-formal, non-exclusive; Plays down effort and discipline;
Reaches the state of concentration without concentrating
Soto
Rinzai
Gradual enlightenment
Sudden enlightenment
Discipline and reading of
scriptures
Discipline - no respect for
scriptures
Meditation basically non-formal
Meditation on koan
Concentration without
concentrating
Exclusive concentration.
The more we think over a problem, the more we investigate, analyze and discuss it, the more complex it
becomes. So is it possible to look at the problem comprehensively, wholly? How is this possible?
Because that, it seems to me, is our major difficulty. Our problems are being multiplied - there is
imminent danger of war, there is every kind of disturbance in our relationships - and how can we
understand all that comprehensively, as a whole? When is that possible? Surely it is in only possible
when the process of thinking - which has its source in the ”me”, the self, in the background of tradition, of
conditioning, of prejudice, of hope, of despair - has come to an end. Can we understand this self, not by
analyzing, but by seeing the thing as it is, being aware of it as a fact and not as a theory? - not seeking to
dissolve the self in order to achieve a result, but seeing the activity of the self, the “me”, in action?
Soto and Dozen
Zazen (sitting meditation)
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Soto stresses quit sitting, the practice of observing one’s mind in tranquility. It avoids the shock methods
of Rinzai, the shouts and thwacks with a stick. It also rejects the koan method which it disdainfully
characterizes as “gazing upon the word” “Zazen is the Dharma-gate of great peace and joy.
Zazen does not signify inactivity or the passivity of inertia. It is reaching the inner Silence, the original
stillness which is the ground of the enlightened mind.
The aim of Zazen is to attain the state of absolute Samadhi: the condition of total stillness in which “body
and mind are fallen off”, no thought stirs and the mind is empty. Yet one is in a state of extreme
wakefulness. It is a condition of existence that recalls the impressive silence and stillness that one
experiences in the heart of the mountains.
In this stillness is the source of spontaneous, unimpeded and detached action. It holds the secret of pure
action without reaction. It is “knowing without touching the thing known:” like a mirror that reflects but
does not grasp or hold.
Zazen does not mean that the mind should be grasped (not introspection), that the idea of purity should
be clung to; nor is stillness induced, it comes naturally.
How mental activities are brought to rest: Note the thoughts that arise; neither suppress them nor identify
with them. The n ignore them and put them aside. The n the mind is concentrated, but not in thought.
A creative silence and self-emptying. When the mind is undisturbed and concentrated without thought
one’s true self-nature which is eternal and always pure manifests itself.
Live in the moment. (The mind that is detached and free of fear, regret, hope and anxiety has broken the
continuity of the present with the past and the present with the future and lives self - fulfilled in the pure
present.
Ju-ching said, “It is universally empty, it is universally overflowing.” It is nothing more than the green of
pines in the spring and the glory of chrysanthemums in autumn.
To practice the Way single heartedly is, in itself, enlightenment. There is no gap between practice and
enlightenment or Zazen and daily life.
The method of Buddhist training is to cut off the functions of the discriminating consciousness and turn
away from the road of intellectual understanding.
I once heard Chih-yuan say, “The essence of Confucianism is sincerity; the essence of Taoism is
disinterestedness and the essence of Buddhism is seeing into one’s own nature. Dogen’s comment: the
essence of Buddhism has never been to see into one’s own nature. One must free oneself from
attachment to self and others. It is no wonder they could not understand the Mahayana teaching that as
both self and others are, in essence, empty, there is nothing to be attached to.
The starting point is intrinsic Buddhahood. No ordinary being ever became a Buddha: only Buddhas
becomes Buddhas. (This means that one does not become Buddha; one realizes one’s eternal Buddhanature.
When you are alive be completely alive, and when you are dying die thoroughly, with nothing else
intruding into the living or dying.
When one studies Buddhism one studies oneself; when one studies oneself one forgets oneself; when
one forgets oneself one is enlightened by everything.
Master, my mind is greatly disturbed and unhappy. Yesterday I was robbed as I was crossing the bridge
over the Kung river. How often have you walked on that bridge? Only once, Master. If you went to the
bridge only once your mind would not be so greatly disturbed and unhappy.
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C23 - Seminar on Zen Buddhism
Selections from Tao-te teaching
The Tao that can be spoken of is not the eternal Tao. The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth;
The Name is the mother of all things. When the people of the world all know beauty as beauty, there
arises the recognition of ugliness. Being and non-being produce each other.
(Cf. There is no Nirvana except where there is Samsär. “No birth, no death, no persistence, no
annihilation, no oneness, no manyness, no coming, no departing – this is doctrine of the Mean (Middle
Path)” Nagarjuna. The idea is that when there is grasping, picking and choosing, then one is caught in
the pendulum of opposites.)
Therefore the sage manages his affairs without action (wu-wei) and spreads doctrines without words. (Cf.
the Gita doctrine of action-in-inaction. And also “ It moves and It moves not.”)
All things arise and he does not turn away from them. He produces them but does not take possession of
them?
We look at it and do not see it its name is the invisible. Meet it and you will not see its head. Follow it
and you will not see its back.
Attain complete vacuity maintain steadfast quietude.
Abandon sageliness and discard wisdom. (Cf. Jung’s ‘persona’.)
The spirit of the valley never dies…He who knows glory but keeps to humility, becomes the valley of the
world.
The sage never strives for the great, and thereby the great is achieved (Through mindfulness virtue and
compassion blossom spontaneously).
Few can understand teaching without words and the virtue of taking no action… The way of Heaven does
not compete, and yet it achieves victory. It does not speak and yet it responds to things. It comes to you
without your invitation. Without anxiety it plans perfectly.
Chuang Tzu (b. 369 BC? )
Don’t listen with your ears but with your mind. No, don’t listen with your mind but with your spirit.
Listening stops with the ears, the mind stops with the image of things, but spirit is empty and waits for
things to come. Tao gathers only in emptiness. Emptiness is the fasting of the mind.
Isaiah, 53 – 3 -12
He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Surely he has borne
our grief and carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions and he was bruised for our
iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole and with his stripes we are healed. He
was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He shall see the fruit of his travail and
be satisfied; and he shall bear their iniquities. He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the
transgressors.
Seminar on Zen-Buddhism
Secure behind all the changing of our personality, upholding the stream of its mutations, there must be a
true Person, a real spiritual individual. It is this inner Person that survives death.
It is the central being that incarnates, not the outer personality, which is simply a mold that it creates for
its experience in that one life. This outer personality is transient and perishable.
(But) It is the survival of the identical personality that attracts the European mind. The non-materialistic
European idea makes a distinction between soul and body. The body is perishable; the mental-vital
consciousness is the immortal soul and remains always the same (horrible idea!) in heaven as on earth;
or if there is a rebirth, it is also the same damned personality that comes back and makes a similar fool of
itself.
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The Buddhist theory is that of a Void or Nirvana and somehow imposed on that, an eternal action or
energy of successive becoming karma which creates the illusion of a persistent self by a constant
continuity of associations, ideas, memories, sensations, images. The link from one life to another is not
the empirical or conscious self but a set of deep character dispositions and talent memories which
somehow become attached to a new embryo to form a fresh empirical self. (Selections 1 to 4 are from Sri
Aurobindo.)
The Buddhist view is that there is reincarnation but no one reincarnates. What it is that is reborn? Not the
same nor yet another. That which does not pass over, yet reconnects. There is continuity but no identity.
The so-called “Personal identity” within the rebirth process is explained by the simile of a lamp lit from
another lamp. The second lamp does not pass over from the first. When the personality is dissolved and
the wheel of becoming comes to a halt, what remains? Question not. Answer not!
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C24 - Seminar of Zen Buddhism
If anyone should say, “I will not lead the religious life under the Blessed one until he shall explain to me
whether or not the world is eternal, whether the soul and the body are identical or different, whether the
enlightened on exists or does not exist after death” - that person would die before the Blessed One had
over explained this to him.
“It is as if a man had been wounded by an arrow thickly smeared with poison, and his friends were to
procure for him a physician or surgeon; and the sick man were to say, “I will not have this arrow taken out
until I have learnt to which caste the man who wounded me belongs, what the name of the man is and
whether he is tall or short or of middle height, whether he is from this or that village, town or city.” That
man would die, Malunkyaputta, without ever having learnt this.
“The religious life does not depend on any dogma. Whatever dogma obtains, there still remain birth, old
age, death, sorrow, lamentation, misery, grief and despair.
“Accordingly, Malunkyaputta, bear always in mind what it is that I have not taught and what it is that I
have taught. I have not taught that the world is eternal or non - eternal. (see above), because this profits
not, nor tends to aversion, absence of passion, quiescence, supreme wisdom and Nirvana.
“And what, Malunkyaputta, have I explained? Suffering have I explained, the origin of suffering the
cessation of suffering and the path leading to the cessation of suffering have I explained. and why have I
explained this? Because this does profit, tends to aversion, absence of passion, quiescence, supreme
wisdom and Nirvana.
The Parable of the Raft
Monks, I will teach you the Dhamma - the parable of the raft - for going across, not for retaining. It is like
a man who going on a journey should see a great stretch of water, the hither bank with dangers and
fears, the farther bank secure and without fears, but there is neither boat nor bridge for crossing over. It
occurs to him that he should fashion a raft out of grass and sticks, branches and foliage so that he could
cross over to the beyond in safety. When he has done this it occurs to him that the raft has been very
useful and he wonders whether he ought to proceed taking it with him packed on his head or shoulders.
Would he be doing what should be done with the raft?
No, lord.
But if that man, when he has crossed over, thinks, “having beached this raft on dry ground, or having
immersed it in the water, I should proceed on my journey”, that man would be doing what should be done
to the raft. In this way, monks, I have taught you the Dhamma - the parable of the raft - for getting across,
not for retaining. You, monks, by understanding the parable of the raft, must discard even the right states
of the mind and, all the more, the wrong states of the mind.
Never get caught in the jungle, the thicket of intellectual wrangles and theories.
Vacchagota asks: “But has Gautama any theory of his own?
The Lord answers: “The Tathägata (the Enlightened One), O Vaccha, is free from all theories.”
Therefore, O Ananda, be ye lamps unto yourselves and do not rely on any external help. Hold fast to the
truth. Seek salvation alone in the truth.
(When questioned about Nirvana): Answer them only with silence; silence and a finger pointing the way.
The word is not the thing. The finger pointing to the moon is not the moon.
Nirvana is not to be “attained”, he who seeks nirvana is like a man who goes riding on an ox to find that
very ox.
Whatever is the extinction of passion, of aversion, of confusion, this is called Nirvana. Here, monks, I say
that there is no coming or going or remaining or deceasing or uprising, for this is itself without support,
without continuance, without mental object. It is the end of suffering. Two things alone I teach, now and
always: suffering and the cessation of suffering. (Buddha)
Ch'an Buddhism
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"Sudden enlightenment” - The elimination of all preliminary stages and the renunciation of all preparatory
exercises is the typical Chinese element in the Zen of Hui-neng (the sixth Patriarch of Ch'an Buddhism)
Comment: Hot “typically Chinese”. This is what the Buddha taught. There may be preparatory stages
before Dhyäna (Mindfulness) but in the case of Dhyäna itself there are no preliminaries.
Hung-Jen (the fifth Patriarch) and the verse competition:
The body is the Bodhi tree./ the mind is like a clear mirror nowhere standing / At all times we must strive
to polish it;/ Allow no grain of dust to cling to it.” (Shen-hsiu, 670-762)
“Bodhi from the outset has no tree./ the clear mirror is nowhere standing./ Since fundamentally all is void,
/' Where then can the dust alight? (Hui-neng, (638-713)
Let thoughts arise but do not fix them anywhere. Let your mind move about freely without abiding
anywhere or in anything.
Not thinking of good, not thinking of evil, tell me what was your original face before your mother and
father were born.
What is this teaching that we call “Sitting in meditation”? “Sitting” means without any obstruction
anywhere, outwardly and under all circumstances, not to activate thoughts. “Meditation” is internally to
see the original nature and not become confused.
Protracted sitting only shackles the body without profiting the mind.
The teaching concerning “no-thought”: to be unstained in all environments is called no-thought. If you
separate from environment. The n, in regard to things, thoughts are not produced. If you stop thinking of
the myriad things and cast aside all thoughts, as soon as one instant of thought is cut off. You will be
reborn in another realm.
Imperturbable and serene, the ideal man practices no virtue; calm and silent. he gives up seeing and
hearing; even and upright, his mind abides nowhere. Self-knowledge does not come by settling the mind
to see itself in its pure state. A knife cannot cut itself, an eye cannot see itself. To stop the working of the
mind and to sit quietly in meditation is a disease and not Zen and there is no profit whatever to be gained
by a long sitting. It is contemplation without contemplating, practice without practicing. All cultivation of
concentration is wrong-minded from the start. Meditation is realization. There is no difference between
means and end. (CF. “The first step is also the last Meditation itself is the substance of wisdom; wisdom
itself is the function of meditation. The perfect man employs his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing. It
refuses nothing. It receives but does not keep. Separate yourself from views; do not activate thoughts.
No-thought is to think even when involved in thought. Where shall I find the essence of Zen? Look under
your feet. Where shall I find the Buddha? Have you had your breakfast? Yes. The n go and wash your
bowl. In satori one loses the sense of being centered anywhere (There is dhyäna only when one is not
centered anywhere.
Asked why he meditated all day long, a pupil replied that he desired to become a Buddha the Master
picked a brick an began to rub it. Asked what he was doing he explained that he wished to make a
mirror. But no amount of polishing will make a mirror. If so, no amount of sitting cross-legged will make
you a Buddha.
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C25 - Dialogue of Buddhism with World Religions
The principle that all existence is suffering (dukkha) is not apparent to a worldly man; it is proclaimed as
part of the truth revealed by the Buddha.
If one does not behold any self or anything in the nature of self in the five aggregates of grasping, one is
an Arahat (Liberated being), the outflows extinguished.
Simile of the chariot: The word “chariot” is but a way of counting, term, appellation, convenient
designation and name for pole, axle, planks, wheels.
When the strings of the lute are too taut, is it tuneful and fit for playing? Certainly not Lord. And when
they are too slack, is the lute tuneful and fit for playing? No, Lord. But when the strings are keyed to an
even pitch, is the lute tuneful and fit for playing? Yes, Lord. Even so does too much output of vigor
conduce restlessness and too feeble a vigor conduce slothfulness. Therefore determine on evenness in
vigor.
It is this survival of the identical personality that attracts the European mind. For it is the extinction or
dissolution of the personality, of this mental, nervous physical composite that I call myself that is hard to
bear for the man enamored of life and it is the promise of its survival that is the great lure. (Sri Aurobindo)
Reincarnation
There is reincarnation but no one reincarnates.
The link from one life to another is not the empirical self but a set of character dispositions and latent
memories, which somehow become attached to a new embryo to form a fresh empirical self.
That which does not pass over, yet reconnects. Simile of a lamp lit from another lamp- the second lamp
does not pass over from the firSt.
What is it that is reborn? Not the same nor yet another. (Not the same because there is no ‘entity’ that
remains the same; not different because that which is reborn bears the same karma.)
Within these bodily or mental phenomena there cannot be found anything that could be regarded as selfexistent, ego-entity, or any other abiding substance.
Dependent Origination
He who understands the doctrine of Dependent Origination understands the Dhamma; he who
understands the Dhamma understands the doctrine of Dependent Origination. Änand: It is wonderful,
Lord, that this doctrine is so deep, and to me it seems perfectly clear. Buddha: say not so, Änand, say
not so. Profound is this doctrine. It is from not awakening to it that this generation has become tangled
like a ball of thread and cannot overpass the sorrowful state, cannot find liberation from the round of
births and deaths.
Conditioned by (1) Ignorance are (2) the karma-formations, (3) consciousness, (4) mind and body, (5)
birth) (6) old age (5) six sense fields, (6) impression, (7) feeling, (8) craving, (9) grasping, (10) process of
becoming, (11) birth, (12) old age and death. Thus is the origin of this whole mess of suffering.
“Each of these factors is conditioned as well as conditioning. Therefore they are all relative,
interdependent and interconnected, and nothing is absolute or independent; hence Buddhism accepts no
first cause. Conditioned Genesis should be considered as a circle, not as a chain.”
All problems are but one problem, and when that is realized the problem is not solved but dissolved.
Dialogue of Buddhism with World Religions
“Meditation is this attention in which there is an awareness, without choice, of the movement of all things,
the cawing of the crows, the electric saw ripping through the wood, the trembling of leaves, the noisy
stream, a boy calling, the feelings, the motives, the thoughts chasing each other and, going deeper, the
awareness of total consciousness. “(J. Krishnamurti).
They do not repent the past nor do they brood over the future. They live in the present. Therefore they
are radiant.
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To actualize the present in the present, that, and nothing else in Zen.
Bare Attention: The clear and single-minded awareness of what actually happens to us and in us. It is a
bare registering of the facts observed without reacting to them by deed, speech or mental comment (likes,
dislikes, emotional entanglements, self-justification, self-condemnation).
In what is seen there should be only the seen; in what is heard only the heard, in what is thought only the
thought.
We take for granted that we are free, rational, unified, that we know how to organize our lives and what
our well-being consists of. When one is mindful, one becomes aware that these presuppositions are
false.
His mind is not concentrated either on what is before or on what is behind, but it is set free, it is
undirected. Then he is fully aware.
The mind is alert and attentive but not fixed anywhere. It is a non-exclusive form of attention. One is
concentrated without concentrating.
If reactions arise do not resist them or identify with them. They should themselves be made the objects of
bare attention.
Attention releases creative energy. Knowledge will arise by itself.
Awareness should be objective and impersonal. Do not refer what you observe to yourself. Do not
contemplate from a fixed center. Let thoughts arise without being fixed anywhere. When there is a
center one is not observing; one is organizing, controlling, rearranging, manipulating.
These reactions should neither be repudiated nor pursued, but dismissed after a brief mental note has
been made of them.
Awareness is detached observation, the withdrawal of sanction from what is observed. Rejection is not
suppression or the exercise of the will to control. Is there need for effort? Effort is part of awareness
itself. It is the process of distancing oneself from what is observed and unconditionally saying “no” to the
natural tendency to identify with it.
“Misery only doth exist, none miserable, / no doer is there; naught waves the deed is found. / Nirvana is
but not the man who seeks it. / The path exists, but not the traveler on it “. (It is a pathless path).
Just as when a tree is cut at the root and all the twigs and leaves wither away, so all passions are
extinguished by destroying the heresy of individual existence. There is no fire like hatred, no rushing river
like hatred. Hatred ceases only by love. This is the eternal Dhamma.
“He who attempts to act and do things for others or for the world without deepening his own selfunderstanding, integrity, freedom and capacity to love, will not have anything to give others. He will
communicate to them nothing but the contagion of his own obsessions, his aggressiveness, his egocentered ambitions, his delusions about ends and means, and his doctrinaire prejudices and ideas.”
(Thomas Merton)
The experience “I am angry” arises as a result of sanctioning and identification with an external vibration.
To reject is to withdraw the sanction.
Nirvana: The cessation of becoming, the getting rid of craving, the going out of the fire of greed, hatred
and delusion. The Tathägata is deep, immeasurable, and unfathomable. The Tathagata is freed from all
reckoning.
Buddhist Meditation - The Foundation Of Mindfulness
The Blessed One addressed the monks thus:
This is the sole way for the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, for the
destruction of pain and grief, for the realization of Nibbana, namely the four Foundations of Mindfulness.
What are the four? Herein (in this teaching)
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a monk dwells practicing body-contemplation on the body, ardent, clearly comprehending and
mindful, having overcome covetousness and grief concerning the world (‘ardent’, etc is repeated after
the mention of each of the other three foundations);
he dwells practicing feeling-contemplation on feelings;
he dwells praising mind-contemplation on the mind;
he dwells practicing mind-object-contemplation on mind-objects.
Body-Contemplation
Mindfulness of Breathing: A monk sits down cross-legged, keeps his body erect and his mind alert. Just
mindful he breathes in and mindful he breathes out. Breathing in a long breath, he knows ‘I breathe in a
long breath’; breathing out a long breath, he knows ‘I breathe out a long breath’ (similarly with ‘short
breath’).
His mindfulness that there is a body is established in him to the extent necessary for knowledge and
mindfulness. Independent (of craving and wrong views) he dwells, clinging to nothing in the world.
(Commentary: The meditator should keep within the domain and purpose proper to this method of
practice. He should not be side tracked by reflections, emotions or mental images evoked by the
contemplation; on arising they should be briefly noticed and dismissed).
And again a monk in going forward and in going back (in looking straight ahead and in looking elsewhere,
in bending and in stretching, in wearing the robes and carrying the alms bowl, in eating, drinking, walking,
standing, sitting, falling asleep, waking, speaking and being silent) applies clear comprehension. Thus
indeed a monk dwells practicing body-contemplation on the body.
The Contemplation of Feelings
When experiencing a pleasant (painful, neutral) feeling, the monk knows: ‘I experience a pleasant
(painful, neutral) feeling’. Thus he dwells contemplating origination factors and dissolution factors in
feelings. His mindfulness that there are feelings is established in him to the extent necessary for
knowledge and mindfulness. Independent he dwells, clinging to nothing in the world. (See commentary
above).
The Contemplation of Mind
A monk knows the mind with lust as with lust; the mind without lust as without lust- (Similarly with hate,
delusion, the shrunken state of mind (rigid and indolent), the distracted and the concentrated state of
mind, the freed mind and the mind not freed). Thus he dwells contemplating origination and dissolution
factors. (See above).
The Contemplation of Mind-Objects
A monk dwells practicing mind-object-contemplation the mind-objects of the Five Hindrances (Sensedesire, Anger, Sloth and Torpor, Agitation and Worry, Doubt).
When sense-desire is present (absent) in him, the monk knows, ‘There is(no) sense-desire in me’. He
knows how the arising of sense-desire comes to be; he knows how the rejection of sense-desire comes to
be, and he knows how the non-arising in the future of the rejected sense-desire comes to be. (Similarly
with anger, sloth and torpor, agitation and worry, and doubt).
Thus he dwells contemplating origination and dissolution factors…. (See above).
And again a monk dwells practicing mind-object contemplation on the mind-objects of the Five
Aggregates of Clinging (Material form, Feeling, Perception, Mental formations, consciousness). A monk
thinks: Thus material form and the arising and passing away of material form. (Similarly with the other
four aggregates). Thus he dwells contemplating origination and dissolution factors. (See above)
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Buddhism and Jung- a psychological Approach to Religion
Jung’s Insights - Transition to Buddhism.
Recognizes the fragmentation of the psyche – rejects the traditional western view of man as a unified
moral agent possessing unlimited free will (see H.O. I, p 1:6)
Recognizes the need for transcending the ego and the personal will, “the assimilation of the ego to a
wider personality.” “In view of the powerlessness of the will, analytic psychology appeals not so much to
the will but believes rather in the hidden wisdom of inner growth. The ego cannot accomplish much but
can release its powers to the wind of the spirit in such a way that it can act through the ego.” “The healing
experience is not something one can will or make happen – a kind of submission is involved to that which
is beyond the reach of the personal will. The ego should give up its futile willing and striving and let
things happen.”
Rejects asceticism - the morality of suppression. The ‘shadow’ must be ‘accepted’ as a part of the
psyche.
The creative potentiality in the shadow
“It is as if a stream that was losing itself in marshy tributaries suddenly discovered its bed, or as if a stone
that lay upon a germinating seed were lifted away so that the sprout could begin its natural growth.” “Out
of evil much good has come to me. By keeping quiet, repressing nothing, remaining attentive, and by
accepting reality - taking things as they are and not as I wanted them to be- by doing all this, unusual
knowledge has come to me and unusual powers as well. “By taming the animal spirits a person may
become civilized, but he does so at the expense of decreasing motive power for spontaneity, creativity
and deep insights. He cuts himself off from the wisdom of his instinctual nature and life tends to become
shallow and spiritless.
Recognizes the problems cannot be solved but need to be resolved. A problem is a tension of opposites.
The ascetic solution is to repress one of the pair of opposites. Jung rejects this ‘solution’.
“The greatest and most important problems of life are all insoluble.
They can never be solved but only outgrown in a new level of consciousness. The problem is not solved
logically in its own terms but fades out and loses its urgency. “Tensions and opposites fade and the self
is born. Everything appears in a new light.” “The power of opposites increases the more one attempts to
separate them.”
Recognizes the importance of being aware of what we are.
Recognizes that psychic strands, though not unified, are interwoven. The psyche is a system of mutually
penetrating energies. (The Buddha’s teaching that there should be total awareness. All ‘problems’
reduced to one problem and that one problem not solved but dissolved).
Two quotes from Jung:
“Even the enlightened person remains what he is and is never more than his own limited ego”.
“To be human is to be a creature par excellence caught in the tension of opposites.”
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C26 - The Teachings of the Buddha Morality, Meditation and Wisdom.
Avoid all evil; do good and keep your minds pure.
Those learned men who merely studied the texts but did not practice the teachings were compared by the
Buddha to “cowherds who protect cows for the benefit of other people’s.
The Five Precepts (Panchashila):
I undertake to abstain from (1) Killing, (2) taking that which is not given, (3) unlawful sexual intercourse,
(4) falsehood (5) taking stupefying drinks and drugs.
Hindrances:
(1) Attachment covetousness; (2) ILL-will and anger; (3) Sloth and torn, (4) Agitation and worry; (5) Doubt.
The overcoming of these is the condition for true meditation.
Brahma-Viharas (Boundless States, Illimitables)
1. Loving kindness (metta); 2. Compassion (karma); 3. Joy in the well-being and happiness of others
(mudita); 4. Equanimity (upper).
Practice limitless compassion unto all beings, a boundless good-will for all the world.
Asavas: (Taints, influxes, wrong movements)
(1) sensuality; (2) Lust for life; (3) Ignorance (lack of the higher knowledge); (4) False views and
speculation. Extinction of the asavas alone leads to wisdom (arahantship).
If, monks, others should speak with blame of me or of the Dhamma or of the Sangha, you should not on
that account have in mind ill-will, dejection or anger; for would you the be able to judge to what extent
their words were well-founded or ill-founded? If others should speak in praise of me or of the Dhamma or
of the Sangha, you should not on that account have in your minds joy, delight, or any elation.
All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speak or act with an thought, suffering
follows him as a wheel follows the hoof of the beast that draws the cart. If a man speak or act with a
good thought, happiness follows him like a shadow that never leaves him.
Hatred does not cease by hatred; hatred ceases only by love. This is the eternal Dhamma.
Let a man overcome hatred by kindness, evil by goodness, greed by generosity and lies telling the truth.
There is no fire like hatred, no rushing river like craving, no snare like delusion.
Let us live happily without hating those who hate us. Let us live happily though we call nothing our own.
Let us be like gods feeding on love.
The conquest of oneself is better than the conquest of all others. He who conquers himself is the
greatest warrior.
Better than sovereignty over the earth, better than the heaven-state, better than domino ova all the
worlds, is the first step on the Aryan path.
Victory breeds hatred, for the conquered is unhappy. The calm one is he who has given both victory and
defeat.
Morality is washed all round with wisdom and wisdom is washed all round with morality. It is just as if one
should wash one hand with the other.
The Aryan Eightfold Path:
Right
(1) understanding, (2) thought, (3) speech, (4) action, (5) livelihood, (6) effort, (7) mindfulness, (8)
concentration.
(1) & (2) start with faith and end in wisdom;
(3) to (5) represent morality;
(6) to (8) represent meditation.
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Great is the fruit, great the advantage of meditation, when surrounded by morality; great the advantage,
great the fruit of wisdom, when surrounded by meditation.
He takes delight in peace and his words make for peace. Whatever words are pure, comforting to the
ear, reaching to the heart, gentle, gracious to the people, such is the quality of his words.
Morality, Meditation and Wisdom
The four right effort: a monk exerts his mind and strives that (1) evil, unwholesome mental states that
have not arisen should not arise; (2) evil, unwholesome mental states that have risen should be got rid of;
(3) wholesome mental states that have not risen should arise; (4) wholesome mental states that have
risen should be maintain preserved, increased, developed, and brought to completion.
Meditation
The Four Fundamentals a mindfulness: This is the only way that leads to the attainment of purity, to the
overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, to the end of pain and grief, to the entering upon the right path
and the realization of Nirvana.
Herein a monk lives contemplating the body in the body, ardent, clearly comprehending it and mindful of
it. (Similarly, feelings in feelings mind in mind, and mental objects in mental objects.)
Watchfulness is the path to immortality and thoughtlessness the path to death.
Let no man think lightly of evil saying, It will not touch me. Drop by drop is the pitcher filled, and little by
little the unwise man becomes filled with evil.
Two types of meditation: (1) development of concentration and on-pointeness leading to a series of
trance states (jhanas); development of insight into the nature of thing complete deliverance, nirvana.
Trances not directly related to the path of Deliverance useful but dispensable.
They do not repent the past, nor do they brood over the future. They live in the pressure. Therefore they
are radiant.
To actualize the present in the present - that and nothing else is Zen.
Meditation is this attention in which there is an awareness, without choice, of the movement of all things,
the cawing of the crows, the electric saw ripping through the wood, the trembling of leaves, the noisy
stream, a boy calling, the feelings, the motives, the thoughts, chasing each other and, going deeper, the
awareness of total consciousness - J. Krishnamurti.
Wisdom
With mind thus composed, cleansed, free from defilements, plaint and fir for work, remaining unperturbed,
he directs and bends it to the destruction of the asavas. He comes to know the Four Aryan Truths. He
knows: I am free; exhausted is birth, the religious life is fulfilled to perfection, done what was to be done,
there will be no more of the present state. Ignorance was dispelled, knowledge arose; darkness was
dispelled, Light arose, even as I abided diligent, ardent, self-resolute.
Nirvana
The cessation of becoming, the getting rid of craving, the going out of the fire (of greed, hatred, and
delusion.
Here, monks, I say that there is no coming or going or remaining or deceasing or uprising, for this is itself
without support, without continuance, without mental object.
When all qualities are removed all modes of speech are removed also.
“Reckoned as so and so” no longer applies, for all ways of telling who or what he was or is have been
removed.
The Tathägata is deep, immeasurable, unfathomable, Free from all reckoning is the Tathägata.
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C27 - The Teachings of the Buddha
The First Sermon
The Tathägata, the fully Enlightened One, has established the supreme kingdom of Truth; it is the setting
forth, the explaining of the Four Noble Truths.
(1) Al life is suffering. (2) Suffering has a cause (3) Suffering can cease. (4) there is a path that leads to
the cessation of suffering.
There are two extremes not to be practiced by one who has gone forth from the world. What are these
two? the pursuit of desires and passions and of the pleasure which and the pursuit of pain, hardship and
torture, which is grievous, ignoble and unprofitable. The Middle Path of the Tathägata avoids both these
extremes. It brings clear vision, makes for wisdom, and leads to peace, insight, enlightenment and
Nirvana. and what, monks, is the Middle Path? It is the Noble Eightfold Path (see p. 7:18)
Now this, monks, is the noble truth of suffering. Birth, age, disease and death, each one of these is
suffering contact with the unpleasant is suffering, separation from the pleasant is suffering every wish
unfulfilled is suffering. In short all the five Skandhas (aggregates of grasping) lead to suffering. (see p.
3:5)
Now this, monks, is the noble truth of the origin of suffering. It arises from craving which leads to rebirth,
which brings pleasure and lust, which seeks pleasure, now here, now there,. It is the craving for passion,
the craving for individual existence, the craving for self-annihilation. (See also Dependent Origination
10.2)
Now this, monks, is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering. It is the complete extinction of craving,
the abandonment, forsaking, release and non-attachment.
Now this, monks, is the noble truth of the way that leads to the cessation of suffering it is the noble
Eightfold Path.
The three characteristics of existence: All is suffering; all is transient; all that is without a self. In Nirvana
there is Peace.
Subject to decay are all compounded things. Diligently work out your own salvation (the Buddha’s last
words)
The wise disciple beholds of material shape (and the other aggregates of grasping) : “This is not mine,
this am I not, this is not myself.” So that when the material shape (and so on) change and become
otherwise there arise not for him grief, sorrow, lamentation and despair.
When ignorance has been got rid of and knowledge has arisen, one does not grasp after sensepleasures, speculative views, rites and customs, the theory of self.
If one does not behold any self or anything of the nature of self in the five groups of grasping, one is an
Arahat. The outflow extinguished.
When the strings of the lute are too taut, is it tuneful and fit for playing? Certainly not, Lord. and when
They are too slack, is the lute tuneful ad fir for playing? No, Lord. But when the strings are keyed to an
even pitch, is the lute tuneful and fit for playing? Yes, Lord. Even so does too much output of vigor
conduce to restlessness and too feeble a vigor to slouthfulness. Therefore determine on evenness in
vigor.
Dhamma has been taught by me without making a distinction between esoteric and exoteric. For the
Tathägata does not have the closed fist of a teacher.
Go ye forth, brethren, on your journey, for the profit of the many, for the happiness of the many, out of
compassion for the world, for the welfare, the profit, the bliss of gods and mankind.
Dependent Origination
That things have being constitute one extreme of doctrine; that thing have no being is the other extreme.
These extremes have been avoided by the Tathägata and it is a middle doctrine that he teachers:
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Who understands the doctrine of Dependent Origination understands the Ehamma; who understands the
Dharma understands the doctrine of Dependent Origination.
If this is, that comes to be; from the arising of this, that arises; if this is not, that does not come to be; from
the cessation of this that also ceases.
Conditioned by Ignorance are the karma-formations - consciousness - mind and body - six sense fields impression - feeling - craving - grasping - process of becoming - birth - old age and death, sorrow,
lamentation, misery, grief, and despair. Thus is the origin of this whole mass of suffering.
But on the complete fading out and cessation of Ignorance there cease karma - formations, etc. Thus
does this entire mass of suffering cease.
By the first of these two words, “dependent”, is shown the falsity of such heresies as that of the
persistence of existences (the hereby of Eternalism), and by the second word, “origination”, is shown a
rejection of such heresies as that existences cease to be. For if the elements of being are continually
originating by means of an antecedent dependence, whence can we have an annihilation of existence?
By both words together, “dependent origination”, is shown the truth. Inasmuch as such and such
elements of being come into existence by means of an unbroken series of their full complement of
dependence, the truth, or middle course, is shown. This rejects the heresy that he who experiences the
fruit of deed is the same as the one who performed the deed and also rejects the converse heresy that he
who experiences the fruit of a dead is different from the one who performed the deed, and leaning not to
either of these popular beliefs, holds fast by nominalism.
Ananda: It is wonderful, Lord, that while this doctrine is so deep and locks so deep, to me it seems
perfectly clear.
Buddha : Say not so, Ananda, say not so. Profound is this doctrine. It is from not awakening to it, from
not penetrating it, that this generation has become tangled like a ball of thread, twisted up like a grassrope, and cannot overpass the sorrowful state, cannot escape from the round of births and deaths.
There are four grasping: after sense-pleasures, after speculative view, after rite and custom, after the
theory of self.
One who comprehends “condition” thus is an Aryan of penetrating wisdom, who stands knocking at the
door of the Deathless.
The Non-self
(When asked whether the self exists or does not exist the Buddha remained silent. Later Ananda asked
him why he had remained silent the Buddha replied:
Ananda, if I had answered the question of Vacchgetta in the affirmative, saying Atta exists, I would have
sided with those who hold the doctrine of Eternalism. If I had answered it in the negative, saying Atta
does not exist, I would have sided with those who are Annihilationist. If I had answered that Atta exists,
would that have been in accordance with my teaching that phenomena do not have any self-nature? But
if I had said that Atta does not exist, that would have caused even greater confusion to the ascetic, as he
would have thought; Formerly I had an Atta but now I do not have one.
If one does not behold any self or anything in the nature of self in the five aggregates of grasping, one is
an Arahant, the outflows extinguished.
What think you, monks, is the body permanent or impermanent? Impermanent, Lord.
But is the impermanent painful or pleasant? Painful, Lord.
Then is it fitting to consider what is painful, impermanent and subject to change as, this is mine, this am I,
this is my soul? No indeed, Lord. (And so also of the other four aggregates, feeling, perception, etc.)
Thus perceiving, monks, the disciple becomes detached from the five aggregates. He becomes free from
passion and is emancipated. He understands that destroyed is rebirth, done is what was to be done,
there is naught (for him) beyond this state.
Nilinda: How is your reverence called? What is your name?
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Nägasen: I am called Nägasen; but whether parents give one the name Nägasen (or some other), it is but
a way of counting, a term, an appellation, a convenient designation, a mere name; for there is no self
here to be found.
Milinda: if there is no self to be found, who is it, the n, furnishes you with priestly requisites? Who is it
makes use of the same? Who is it keeps the precepts, applies himself to meditation and realizes
nirvana? What then is this Nägasen? Is the hair of the head Nägasen?
Nägasen: Nay, verily, your majesty.
(Milinda then asks the same question concerning different parts of the body and Nägasen gives the same
reply. Milinda then asks the same question concerning the five aggregates, single and in conjunction, to
which Nägasen replies, Nay, verily, your majesty. Milinda then ask whether Nägasen is something
besides the five aggregates, to which Nägasen replies, Nay, verily, your majesty).
Milinda: Although I question you very closely I fail to discover any Nägasen. Verily, Nägasen is a mere
empty sound; there is no Nägasen.
Nägasen: Your majesty, did you come afoot or riding?
Milinda: I came in a chariot.
Nägasen: Declare to me the chariot. Is the pole the chariot?
Milinda: Nay, verily, Nägasen.
(Nägasen then asks the same question concerning the different parts of the chariot, singly and unitedly,
to which Milinda replies, Nay, verily, Nägasen. Nägasen then asks whether the chariot is something over
and above these constituent parts, to which Milinda replies, Nay, verily, Nägasen).
Nägasen: Your majesty, although I question you very closely, I fail to discover any chariot. The word
chariot is a mere empty sound; there is no chariot.
Milinda: the word “chariot” is but a way of counting, term, appellation, convenient designation, and name
for pole, axle, etc.
Nägasen: Thoroughly well, your majesty, do you understand a chariot. In exactly the same way in
respect of me, Nägasen is but a way of counting, term, appellation, convenient, designation, more name
for the hair of my head, etc. But in the absolute sense there is no self here to be found.
The word “fist” is but a mode of expression for the fingers, the thumb, etc., in a certain relation.
Suffering only doth exist, no one who suffers, / no doer is there; naught save the deed is found. / Nirvana
is, but not the one who seeks it. / the Path exists, but not the traveler on it.
Khandas
The Five Aggregates or the Attachment Groups. They are
(1) form (matter), (2) feeling (or sensation), (3) perception, (4) volition disposition, or impressions, (5)
consciousness.
These are the basic elements of the transient personality. Each of these is a group, aggregate or bundle
of elements, continually in flux and without a core.
Just as a fire, its fuel consumed, is extinguished, in the same way all the five aggregates by which a Truth
- finder might be made known have been destroyed by him, cut off at the root, so utterly done away with
that they can come to no future existence. A truth-finder is freed of the ascription of “body” (and so on);
he is profound, measureless, unfathomable, even like unto the great ocean.
When ignorance has been got rid of and knowledge has arisen, one does not grasp after sensepleasures, speculative views, rites and customs, the theory of the self.
All theories
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I have made no declaration as to whether the world is eternal or that any other view is foolishness. I have
made no declaration concerning these (speculative) matters because they do not lead to that which is
connected with welfare, truth, the absence of desire, the destruction of desire, to calm, to thorough
understanding, to the highest wisdom, or to the final Bliss, Nibbana. That is why I do not teach
concerning them.
What then does the Exalted one teach?
Suffering is my teaching, the origin and the cessation of suffering, and the Way to the cessation of
suffering is my teaching.
There is, monks, an unborn, not become, not made, uncompounded, and were it not for this unborn….,
no way out could be shown here for that which is born, has become, is made, is compounded. But
because there is an unborn, therefore a way out can be shown for what is born.
These view-points, thus taken up, thus adhered to, will have for result future rebirth. That the Tathägata
knows, and he knows immeasurably beyond. But he is not attached to the knowledge, and from lack of
attachment has found out for himself even the final bliss. Having come to know as they really are,
according to the truth, the origin of feelings, etc., their passing away, the Tathägata, from not grasping, is
freed.
There are other things, profound, difficult to discern, difficult to understand, of peaceful and excellent
import, not of the order of logical, speculation, subtle, which only the wise can appreciate. These the
Tathägata, having realized them in his own experience, makes known.
As far as mental objects and the range thereof, as far as language and the range thereof, as far as
concepts and the range thereof, so far does there reach the cycle of rebirth and its turnings. Having
thoroughly understood that the disciple is freed and, being so freed, he does not know and does not see
in the same way. To him the theories are of no consequence.
Eel wrigglers: Whatever living things in the waters of the lake are coarse, those of them that get inside the
net will struggle and, enclosed in the net, will go on struggling. So with the samanas, their speculations,
their views; They are caught up inside the net of the 62 grounds and go on struggling. They go about in
the pursuit of wisdom but are in reality enmeshed in speculative theory.
Theories, O Vaccha, are a jungle, a wilderness, a writhing and a fetter and do not tend to aversion,
absence of passion, cessation, quiescence, knowledge, supreme wisdom and nibbana. This is why I
have not adopted any of these theories.
But has Gautama any theory of his own?
The Tathägata, O Vaccha, is free from all the ories; but this does the Tathägata know - The nature of
form and how form arises, and how form perishes (and go with sensation, perception, predispositions,
and consciousness.) therefore say I that the Tathägata has attained deliverance and is free from
attachment, inasmuch as all agitations, or false notions concerning a self or anything pertaining to a self
have been relinquished, have perished.
He in whom a desire for the ineffable has sprung up, who in his mind is satisfied, and whose thoughts are
not bewildered by desires, he is called one who is headed upstream.
There is a saying widely current among the Mahayana Buddhists in China and Japan that from the day of
His enlightenment to the day of his final passing away, the Buddha did not utter even a single word.
Reincarnation - The Buddhist View
The Buddhist theory (is that) of Nihil or Nirvana and, somehow imposed upon that, an eternal action or
energy of successive becoming, karma, which creates the illusion of a persistent self or soul by a
constant continuity of associations, ideas, memories sensations, images, Rebirth is imperative because
karma compels it; not a soul, but karma is the link of an apparently continuing consciousness, a fictitious
individual moving between different worlds.
Not survival of personality but continuity. There is simply a continuous stream of energy in action like the
continuous flowing of a river or the continuous burning of a flame. No soul that is reincarnating but only
karma that persists in flowing continuously down the same apparently uninterrupted channel.
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The stream of force in its works which created the momentarily changing mind and body of Achilles
flowed on and created the momentarily changing mind and body of Alexander.
Continuity is provided by the law of karma. In the series of lives there is a succession of mental states.
The causal law of karma binds together these personalities into a single chain. This process of becoming
continues because of craving and ignorance.
The link from one life to another is not the empirical or conscious self but a set of deep character
dispositions and latent memories which somehow become attached to a new embryo to form a fresh
empirical self.
Explanation of personal identity within their birth process by a simile: Nägasen: That which does not pass
over yet reconnects. Simile of a lamp lit from another lamp. The second lamp does not pass over from
the first.
karma, as it moves from death to birth, is likened to a flame which another flame is kindled. The second
flame is produced from the first and reproduces its character (i.e., shape, color, brightness), and yet is a
second flame and not a continuation of the existence of the first.
Milinda: What is it, Nägasen, that is reborn?
Nägasen : Name-and-form (i.e., the five aggregates) is reborn
Milinda: Is it this same name-and-form that is reborn?
Nägasen; No, but by this name-and-form deeds are done, good or evil, and by these deeds (this karma)
another name-and-form is reborn. But that other is not released from its seed (i.e., consequences of the
deeds done by the name-and-form of the previous life).
What is it that is reborn? Not the same nor yet another. (not the same because there is no “entity” that
remains the same; not different because that which is reborn bear the same karma).
Milinda: will you, Nägasen, be reborn? Nägasen: Nay, great king, what is the use of asking this question
again? Have I not already told you that if, when I die, I die with craving in my heart, I shall; but if not, not?
When ignorance has been got rid of and knowledge has arisen, one does not grasp after sensepleasures, speculative views, rites and customs, the theory of self.
When the Aggregates arise, decay and die, every moment you are born, decay and die. (Comment by
Rahula): If we can understand that in this life we can continue without a permanent, unchanging
substance…., why can’t we understand that those forces themselves can continue without a Self or a
Soul behind them after the non-functioning of the born.
Reincarnation
The ordinary, simple cut and dried account of reincarnation is of doubtful validity; the soul gets out of one
case of flesh and into another case of flesh, as a pillow is lugged out of one pillow case and thrust into
another.
A common and popular blunder about reincarnation: the popular idea is that Titus Balbu is reborn again
as John Smith, a man with the same personality, character attainments as he had in his former life with
the sole difference that he wears coat and trousers instead of a toga and speaks cookney English instead
of popular Latin.
The non-materialistic European idea makes a distinction between soul and body. The body is perishable;
the mental-vital consciousness is the immortal soul and remains always the same (horrible idea!) in
heaven as on earth; or if there is a rebirth it is also the same damned personality that comes back and
makes a similar fool of itself.
It is the survival of the identical personality that attracts the European min in the theory of rebirth. For it is
the extinction of dissolution of the personality, of this mental, nervous, physical composite which I call
myself that is hard to bear for the man enamored of life, and it is the promise of its survival and physical
reappearance that is the great lure.
That dogma of a soul without a past created by the birth of a body but indestructible by the death of the
body involves the difficulty of a creature beginning in time but enduring through all eternity. Further, this
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soul inherits a past for which it is in no way responsible, or is burdened with mastering propensities
imposed on it not by its own act, and is yet responsible for its future. and we have only this one chance.
Plato ad the Hottentot, the fortunate child of saints or Rishis and the born and trained original plunged
from beginning to end in the lowest corruption of a great modern city have equally to create by the action
or belief of this one unequal life all their eternal future. This is a paradox which ends both the soul and
the reason, the ethical sense and the spiritual intuition.
It is the inner Person that survives death, for this constant survival is a rendering of the eternity of our
timeless spirit into the terms of Time.
Secure behind all the changing’s of our personality, upholding the stream of its mutation there must be a
true Person, a real spiritual Individual.
It is evident that in one life we do not and cannot labor out and exhaust all the values ad powers of that
life, but only carry on a past thread, weave out something in the present, prepare infinitely more for the
future.
The true foundation of the theory of rebirth is the evolution of the soul, or rather its efflorescence out of
the veil of Matter and its gradual self-finding. If this efflorescence be true then the theory of rebirth is an
intellectual necessity, a logically unavoidable corollary.
There are higher powers of the spirit attainable by birth. The soul comes into birth for experience, for
growth, for evolution, till it can bring the Divine into Matter.
It is the central being that incarnates, not the outer personality, which is simply a mould that it creates for
its figures of experience in that one life, Something of the outer characteristics may reappear but very
much changed and new-cast in a new combination.
The soul has not finished what it has to do by merely developing into humanity; it has still to develop that
humanity into its higher possibilities. We may reasonably doubt whether even a Plato or a Samkara
marks the crown and therefore the end of the out flowering of the spirit in man.
Rebirth is not a necessity if there is no evolution of the soul in Nature. Without such an evolution birth
would be an initial step without a sequel, the starting of a journey without its farther steps and arrival. It is
rebirth that gives to the birth of an incomplete being in a body its promise of competences and its spiritual
significance.
Reincarnation - The Buddhist view
The Buddhist theory (is that) of a Nihil or Nirvana and, somehow imposed upon that, an eternal action or
energy of successive becoming, karma, which creates the illusion of a persistent self or soul by a
constant continuity of associations, ideas, memories, sensations, images, Rebirth is imperative because
karma compels it; not a soul, but karma is the link of an apparently continuing consciousness, a fictitious
individual moving between different worlds.
Not survival of personality but continuity. There is simply a continuous stream of energy in action life the
continuous flowing of a river or the continuous burning of a flame. No soul that is reincarnating but only
karma that persists in flowing continuously down the same apparently uninterrupted channel.
The Stream of force in its works which created the momentarily changing mind and body of Achilles
flowed on the created the momentarily changing mind and body of Alexander.
Continuity is provided by the law of karma. In the series of lives there is a succession of mental states.
The causal law of karma binds together these personalities into a single chain. This process of becoming
continues because of craving and ignorance.
The link from one life to another is not the empirical or conscious self but a set of deep character
dispositions and latent memories which somehow become attached to a new embryo to form a fresh
empirical self.
Explanation of personal identity within their birth process by a simile; Nägasen: That which does not pass
over yet reconnects. Simile of a lamp lit from another lamp. The second lamp does not pass over from
the first.
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Karma, as it moves from death to birth, is likened to a flame from which another flame is kindled. The
second flame is produced from the first and reproduces its character (i.e., shape, color, brightness, and
yet is a second flame and not a continuation of the existence of the first.
Milinda : What is it Nägasen, that is reborn?
Nägasen: Name-and-form (i.e., the five aggregates) is reborn
Milinda: Is it this same name-and-form that is reborn?
Nägasen: No, but by this name-and-form deeds are done, good or evil and by these deeds (this karma)
another name-and-form is reborn. But that other is not released from its seed (i.e., consequences of the
deeds done by the name-and-form of the previous life)
What is it that is reborn? Not the same nor yet another. (Not the same because there is no “entity” that
remains the same; not different because that which is reborn bears the same karma).
Milinda: Will you, Nägasen, be reborn?
Nägasen: Nay, great king, what is the use of asking this question again? Have I not already told you that
if, when I die, I die with craving in my heart, I shall; but if not, not?
When ignorance has been got rid of and knowledge has arisen, one does not grasp after sensepleasures, speculative views, rites and customs, the theory of self.
When the Aggregates arise, decay and die, every moment you are born, decay and die. (Comment by
Rahula): If we can understand that in this life we can continue without a permanent, unchanging
substance, why can’t we understand that those forces themselves can continue without a Self or a Soul
behind them after the non-functioning of the body.
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C28 - The Teaching of the Buddha Meditation (Bhävanä)
Jhana:
Even when full concentration has been attained, and even though the mind of the aspirant has been
considerably purified, yet he is not wholly free from passions; for by concentration the evil tendencies of
the mind are only temporarily inhibited. It is insight that enables the disciple to annihilate completely the
passions temporarily inhibited by Samadhi (concentration).
Rupa-Jhanas:
Four - Serenity and one-pointedness remain in the fourth jhana. Progressively discursive thought, rapture
and joy are discarded.
Arupa-Jhanas:
(1) By passing quite beyond all perceptions of form, by laying to rest the perception of impact, by not
attending to the perception of manifoldness, on thinking “Endless Space”, he dwells in the attainment of
the station of Endless Space. (2) Consciousness as Infinite; (3) Consciousness of nothing (no-thingness,
i.e., objectless consciousness); (4) the plane of neither perception nor non-perception.
Mind precedes things, dominates the m, creates them. If mind is comprehended, all things are
comprehended.
Mind-control:
If there arise in the disciple evil and unwholesome ideas connected with greed, hate or delusion, then the
disciple (1) should attend to more wholesome ideas; (2) he should investigate the peril of these ideas; (3)
he should pay no attention to these ideas; (4) he should attend to the composition of the factors which
produce these ideas; (5) or, with teeth clenched and tongue pressed against the gums, he should by
means of sheer mental effort hold back, crush and burn out the unwholesome thought.
Vipassana-bhavana (Insight meditation):
the way of mindfulness is the heart of the entire doctrine (Dhamma-hadaya).
Bare Attention:
The clear and single-minded awareness of what actually happens to us and in us. It is a bare registering
of the facts observed, without reacting to them by deed, speech or mental comment (likes, dislikes,
emotional entanglements)
In what is seen there should be only the seen; in what is heard, only the heard; in what is thought only the
thought.
Just mindful he breathes in and mindful he breathes out.
Herein a monk knows the mind with lust as with lust; the mind without lust as without lust (similarly with
hate and delusion).
He dwells contemplating both origination and dissolution factors in the body (in feelings and in the mind).
Contemplating mind-objects: the Five Hindrances; the Five Aggregates of Clinging; the Six Sense-bases;
the Seven Factors of Enlightenment (mindfulness, investigation of reality, energy, rapture, tranquility,
concentration and equanimity); the Four Aryan Truths.
No looking to the past, becoming what has been lost; no looking forward to the future (in hope and
anxiety) lamenting over what has not yet come about.
His mind is not concentrated either on what is before or on what is behind, but it is undirected and set
free. The n he is fully aware.
The three goals of mindfulness; (1) to know the mind that is so near to us and yet is so unknown; (2) to
shape the mind that is so unwisely and obstinate and yet may become so plaint; (3) to free the mind here
and now. “The holiness during lifetime.”
Meditation leads to the Comprehension of reality to Insight which is the direct and penetrative realization
of the three characteristics of existence (suffering, impermanence, absence of self). The delusion of self
ceases with its offspring of craving and hatred.
The knowledge will arise by itself.
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Meditation is emptying the mind of the known. The known is the past. But we never die to yesterday.
We always have a remnant, a tattered part of yesterday remaining, and it is this that keeps the mind
anchored, held by time. J. K.
Mahayana
Great Ones, perfect beyond learning, utter no words of teaching.
The Tathägata has no formulated teaching to enunciate. Wherefore? Because the Tathägata has said
that truth is uncontainable and inexpressible.
Words cannot express Truth. That which words express is not Truth.
Through the consummation of Incomparable Enlightenment I (the Buddha) acquired not even the least
thing; wherefore it is called Consummation of Incomparable Enlightenment.
Thus shall yet think of all this fleeting world; / A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream; / A flash of lightning in
a summer cloud, / A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.
It is the fire that burns in the eternal light, when the fuel is expended and the flame is extinguished; for
that fire is neither in the flame nor in the fuel, but above, beneath, and everywhere.
Just as when a tree is cut at the root, all the twigs and leaves wither away, so all passions are
extinguished by destroying the heresy of individual existence.
The Bodhisattva’s Vow: However innumerable being are, I vow to save them. However inexhaustible the
defilements are, I vow to extinguish them. However immeasurable the Dharma are, I vow to master them.
However incomparable enlightenment is, I vow to attain it.
one virtue should be fully mastered by him, in which are included all the virtues of the Buddha. It is great
compassion.
The Perfection of Wisdom: Just as people born blind cannot, without a leader, go along a path and get to
their destination, just so Giving, Morality, Patience, Vigor, and Meditation, cannot by themselves be called
“perfections”, for without the perfection of Wisdom They are as if born blind.
There is no difference at all between nirvana ad samara nor between Samsär and nirvana.
he who clings to the Void and neglects Compassion does not reach the highest stage. But he who
practices only Compassion does not gain release from toils of existence. He, however, who is strong in
practice of both remains neither is Samsär nor in nirvana.
What is Nirvana? Not to commit oneself to the karma of birth-and-death in Nirvana. What, the n, is the
karma of birth-and-death? To desire Nirvana is the karma of birth-and-death.
A glowworm does not think that its light could illuminate the Continent of India. But the sun, when it has
arisen, radiates its light over the whole of India. Just so a Bodhisattva, after he has attained to the full
enlightenment of Buddhahood, leads countless beings to Nirvana.
He has gone beyond all that is worldly, yet he has not moved out of the world.
A bodhisattva resolves: I take upon myself the burden of all suffering. The whole world of living beings I
must save from the terrors of birth, of old age, of sickness of death and rebirth.
All being are potentially Tathägata. Because the Buddha-cognition is contained in the mass of beings,
because it is immaculate and non-dual by nature, therefore all animate beings have the germ of
Buddhahood in them.
Where there is no perception, appellation, conception or conventional expression, there one speaks of
“perfect wisdom.”
The three Bodies of the Buddha: Truth Body (Dharmakaya), Bliss Body (sambhogakaya), and
Transformation Body (Nirmanakaya). Foolish are those who adhere to the Tathägata through form and
sound, and who in consequence imagine the coming or going of a Tathägata. For a Tathägata cannot be
seen from his form-body. Me those people will not see. From the Dharma one should see the Buddha.
The supreme affirmation of the perfection of wisdom: So void is the Void that it is void of Voidness. The
no-thing-ness of the ultimate Plenum-Void.
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Dependent Origination
That things have being constitute one extreme of doctrine; that things have no being is the other extreme.
These extremes have been avoided by the Tathägata and it is a middle doctrine that he teaches:
Who understands the doctrine of Dependent Origination understands the Dhamma; who understands the
Dhamma understands the doctrine of Dependent Origination.
If this is, that comes to be; from the arising of this, that arises; if this is not, that does not come to be; from
the cessation of this that also ceases.
Conditioned by Ignorance are the karma-formations - consciousness - mind and body - six sense fields impression - feeling - craving - grasping - process of becoming - birth - old age and death, sorrow,
lamentation, misery, grief, and despair. Thus is the origin of this whole mass of suffering.
But on the complete fading out and cessation of ignorance there cease karma - formations, etc. Thus
does this entire mass of suffering cease.
By the first of these two words, “dependent”, is shown the falsity of such heresies as that of the
persistence of existences (the heresy of Eternalism), and by the second word, “origination”, is shown a
rejection of such heresies as that existences cease to be. For if the elements of being are continually
originating by means of an antecedent dependence, whence can we have an annihilation of existence?
By both words together, “dependent origination”, is shown the truth. Inasmuch as such and such
elements of being come into existence by means of an unbroken series of their full complement of
dependence, the truth, or middle course, is shown. This rejects the heresy that he who experiences the
fruit of deed is the same as the one who performed the deed, and also rejects the converse heresy that
he who experiences the fruit of a deed is different from the one who performed the deed, and leaning not
to either of these popular beliefs, holds fast by nominalism.
Ananda: It is wonderful, Lord, that while this doctrine is so deep and looks so deep, to me it seems
perfectly clear.
Buddha: Say not so, Ananda, say not so, Profound is this doctrine. It is from not awakening to it. From
not penetrating it, that this generation has become tangled like a ball of thread, twisted up like a grassrope, and cannot overpass the sorrowful state, cannot escape from the round of births and deaths.
There are four grasping: after sense-pleasures, after speculative views, after rite and custom, after the
theory of self.
One who comprehends “condition” thus is an Aryan of penetrating wisdom, who stands knocking at the
door of the Deathless.
The theory of No-self
(When asked whether the self exists or does not exist the Buddha remained silent. Later Ananda asked
him why he had remained silent the Buddha replied:
Ananda, if I had answered the question of Vacchagotta in the affirmative, saying after exists, I would have
sided with those who hold the doctrine of Eternalism. If I had answered it in the negative, saying Atta
does not exist, I would have sided with those who are Annihilationist. If I had answered that Atta exists,
would that have been in accordance with my teaching that phenomena do not have any self-nature? But
if I had said that Atta does not exist, that would have caused even greater confusion to the ascetic, as he
would have thought: Formerly I had an Atta but now I do not have one!.
If one does not behold an self or anything in the nature of self in the five aggregates of grasping, one is
an Arahant, the outflow extinguished.
What think you monks, is the body permanent or impermanent? Impermanent, Lord.
Immeasurable and beyond all reckoning is the Tathägata.
Nirvana has no abode.
No looking to the past, bemoaning what has been lost; no looking to the future, lamenting over what has
not yet come about.
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His mind is not concentrated on what is ahead or on what is behind but it is set free.; it is undirected. The
n he is fully aware.
Confucianism
Confucius (k’ung Fu-tzu - Master K’ung: 551 B.C. - 479 B.C.)
There were four things that Confucius was determined to eradicate: a biased mind, arbitrary judgments,
obstinacy and egotism.
Requite kindness with kindness and injury with justice. (see 12:16)
I wish I did not have to speak at all. But if you did not speak, Sir what should we disciples pass on to
others? Look at Heaven there. Does it speak? the four seasons run their course and all things are
produced. Does Heaven speak?
Let us leave heaven to the angels and the sparrows.
To devote oneself earnestly to one’s duty to humanity, and while respecting the spirits, to keep aloof from
the m, may be called wisdom.
When you do not understand about life how can you know about death?
The Superior Man is the combination of the good man who has no sorrow, the wise man who has no
perplexities, and the courageous man who has no fear.
Heaven sees as the people see, Heaven hears as the people hear.
Heaven reigns but it does not rule.
Heaven does not speak. August Heaven has no affections. It helps only the virtuous.
(Comment on Confucius’s statements about Heaven: For Confucius Heaven is identified with the cosmos
and particularly with that aspect of the universe which stands for order and harmony - the order and
harmony exhibited by natural laws and the moral order is the mind of man. Confucius wanted to show
that Heaven’s mandate is internal and that it expresses itself through the moral law and is not arbitrarily
imposed on us from above. Hence “Heaven reigns but it does not rule.”)
It is man that can make the Tao great and not the Tao that can make the man great.
(Comment: This again means that Heaven is imminent in man and the universe. It seeks to express the
principle of harmony, but it can do so only through the efforts of human beings. Hence “Man makes the
Tao great.”)
The best prayer is the kind of life one leads.
Taoism
Founder - Lao-Tzu, (7th century B.C.) - a legendary figure. Reputed author of Tao.
Te-Ching (The way and its Virtue) but actually a compilation of materials set down probably in the 3rd
century B. C. Tao Te Ching is a short but one of the most inspired works in all Chinese literature.
The Tao that can be spoken of is not the eternal Tao; the name that can be named is not the eternal
name. Nameless, it is the origin of heaven and earth; Namable, it is the mother of all things.
attain utmost vacuity; hold fast to quietude.
To return to the root is called quietude. To know the eternal is enlightenment. To be one with the Tao is
to endure forever.
It was when the Great Tao declined that there appeared humanity and righteousness It was when
knowledge and intelligence arose that there appeared much hypocrisy.
(An epigrammatic way of saying that the Tao is beyond relative good and evil, knowledge and ignorance,
and all pairs of opposites)
Tao invariably does nothing (we-wei), and yet there is nothing that is not done.
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To seek learning one gains day by day. To seek the Tao one loses day by day. Losing and yet losing till
one has reached doing nothing (we-wei).
Do nothing and yet there is nothing that is not done. To win the world one must attend to nothing.
Let your mind wander in simplicity, blend your spirit with the Vastness, follow along with things the way
They are, and make no room for personal views.
(“Personal views” are the result of personal likes and dislikes which are the expression of the superficial
or surface nature).
Of all things yielding and weak in the world none is more so than water. But for attacking what is
unyielding and strong nothing is superior to it.
The sage manages his affairs without doing anything, and conveys his instructions without the use of
speech.
Scour your heart till it is free from all desire. Through the fasting of the mind we transcend the intellect
and enter the emptiness of the Tao.
When things are allowed to take their natural course They move with a wonderful perfection and
harmony, for the Tao is not hindered in its smooth operation.
Wu-wei: the non-action by which all is accomplished - a creative quietude. While the rest of men spin
round and round in mindless activity like the spokes of a wheel, the Taoist is serenely quiet at the hub.
The way of Heaven is not to contend and yet to be able to conquer. Heavenly Tao that conquers without
striving.
To those who are good to me I am good; and to those who are not good to me I am also good; - and thus
all get to be good.
Lao-Tzu rebukes Confucius: Get rid of that arrogance of yours all those desires, that self-sufficient air,
that over weaning zeal; all that is of no use to your true self.
Lao-Tzu condemned Confucius for his attachment to the past and for excessive concern for external
displaying of goodness.
Confucius’s comment on his meeting with Lao-Tzu: of birds I know that they have wings to fly with, of fish
that they have fins to swim with, of wild beasts that they have feet to run with. But who knows how
dragons surmount wind and cloud and soar into heaven. This day I have seen Lao-Tzu. Today I have
seen a dragon.
Those who know don’t say; those who say don’t know.
There is nothing mind can do that cannot be better done in the mind’s immobility and thought-free
stillness. - SRI AUROBINDO.
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C29 - Buddhist Meditation
The Foundations of Mindfulness
The Blessed One addressed the monks thus:
This is the sele way for the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, for the
destruction of pain and grief, for the realization of Nibbana namely the four Foundations of Mindfulness.
What are the four? Herein (in this teaching) a monk dwells practicing body-contemplating on the body,
ardent, clearly comprehending and mindful, having overcome covetousness and grief concerning the
world (“ardent”, etc. is repeated after the mention of each of the other three foundations); he dwells
practicing feeling-contemplation on feeling he dwells practicing mind-contemplation on the mind; he
dwells practicing mind-object contemplation on mind-objects.
Body-Contemplation
Mindfulness of Breathing: A monk sits down cross-legged, keeps his body erect and his mind alert. Just
mindful he breathes in and mindful he breathes cut. Breathing in a long breath, he knows “I breathe in a
long breath”; breathing cut a long breath, he know “I breathe cut a long breath” (similarly with “short
breath”).
His mindfulness that there is a body is established in him to the extent necessary for knowledge and
mindfulness. Independent (of craving and wrong views) he dwells clinging to nothing in the world.
(Commentary: the mediator should keep within the domain and purpose proper to this method of practice.
He should not be side-tracked by reflections, emotions or mental images evoked by the Contemplation;
on arising they should be briefly noticed and dismissed.)
And again a monk in going forward and in going back (in looking straight ahead and in looking elsewhere,
in bending and in stretching, in wearing the robes and carrying the alms bowl, in eating, drinking, walking,
standing, sitting, falling asleep, waking, speaking ad being silent) applies clear comprehension.
Thus indeed a monk dwells practicing body-contemplation on the body.
The Contemplation of Feelings
When experiencing a pleasant (painful, neutral) feeling, he monk knows: “I experience a pleasant
(Painful, neutral) feeling. Thus he dwells contemplating origination factors and dissolution factors in
feelings. His mindfulness that there are feelings is established in him to the extent necessary for
knowledge and mindfulness. Independent he dwells, Clinging to nothing in the world. (See commentary
above).
The contemplation of Mind
A monk knows the mind with lust as with lust; the mind without lust as without lust (similarly with hate,
delusion, the shrunken state of mind (rigid and indelent), the distracted ad the concentrated state of mind,
the free mind and the mind not freed) Thus he dwells contemplating origination and dissolution factors.
(see above)
The Contemplation of Mind-objects
A monk dwells practicing mind-object-contemplation the mind-objects of the Five Hindrances (Sensedesire, Anger, Sloth the Torpor, Agitation and Worry, Doubt).
When sense-desire is present (absent) is him, the monk knows, “There is (no) sense-desire in me.” He
knows how the arising of sense-desire comes to be; he knows how the rejection of sense-desire comes to
be; and he knows how the non-arising in the future of the rejected sense-desire comes to be.
(Similarly with anger, sloth and torpor, agitation and worry, and doubt.)
Thus he dwells contemplating origination and dissolution factors. (See above).
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And again a monk dwells practicing mind-object contemplation on the mind-objects of the Five
Aggregates of Clinging (material fours, Feeling, Perception, Mental Formations Consciousness). A monk
thinks: Thus is material form: thus the arising and passing of material form. (Similarly with the other four
aggregates). Thus he dwells contemplating origination and dissolution factors. (See above).
Thus he dwells contemplating origination and dissolution factors in mind-objects. (See above)
And again a monk dwells practicing mind-object contemplation on the mind objects of the Seven Factors
of Enlightenment (Mindfulness, investigation of reality, energy, rapture, tranquility, concentration and
equanimity).
Herein, monks, when the enlightenment factor of mindfulness, etc. id present (absent) in him, a monk
knows, “The enlightenment factor of mindfulness, etc. is (is not) in and he knows how the arising of the
enlightenment factor of mindfulness, etc. comes to be; and how perfection in the development of the
arisen enlightenment factor comes to be. Thus he dwells contemplating origination ad dissolution factors.
(See above)
An again a monk dwells practicing mind-object contemplation on the mind-objects of the Four Noble
Truths (See below)
Herein a monk knows according to reality, This is suffering, This is the origin of suffering, This is the
cessation of suffering, This is the path leading to the cessation of suffering.
And what, monks, is the Noble Truth of Suffering? Birth (old age, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain and
despair, not to get what one wishes) is suffering; in short the five aggregates of Clinging are suffering.
And what, monks, is the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering? It is that craving which gives rise to fresh
rebirth, and, bound up with pleasure and lust, finds ever fresh delight, now here, now there - to wit, the
sensual craving, the craving for (eternal) existence at the craving for non-existence.
But where does this craving arise and take root? Wherever in the world there are delightful and
pleasurable things, there this craving arises and takes root.
And what, monks, is the Noble Truth of the Path leading to the Cessation of Suffering? It is that Noble
Eight fold Path, namely Right:
(1) Understanding, (2) Resolve, (3) Speech, (4) Action, (5) Live hood, (6) Effort, (7) Mindfulness (8)
Concentration.
Verily, monks, whosoever practices there four foundations of Mindfulness in this manner for seven years
(indeed, seven months, or even seven days), one of two results may be expected in him: Highest
knowledge here and now, or, if there be yet a remainder of clinging the state of Non-return.
This is the sole way, monks, for the purification of beings. (See p. 1 Para 1.)
Thus spoke the Blessed One. Glad in heart, he monks welcomed the words of the Blessed One.
The process recommended is Bare Attention, clear awareness and were registering of what actually
happens in us ad to us. It is awareness without the subjective reactions of like and dislike which lead to
attachment, self-condemnation or self-justification. If reactions arise do not either resist them or identify
with them. The recommendation is that these reactions or anything that distracts attention should
themselves be made the objects of bare attention.
This is not the method of exclusive concentration; hence in it there are really no distractions. If the socalled “distractions” are themselves made the objects of bare attention They cease to be distractions.
Direct confrontation with what is, including what goes on in the mind; (2) Meditation becomes coextensive
with everyday life and the whole of life; (3) Direct observation takes the place of the orizing about the
mind and mental states; (4) Emphasizes the here and the now-living creatively in the present from
moment to moment.
In what is seen and heard there should be only what is seen and heard.
A dispassionate and brief form of mere registering will often prove more effective than a mustering of will,
emotions or reason, which frequently provoke antagonistic forces of the mind to stiffer resistance. By the
simple, non-coercive method of bare attention the tension creating forces which distort experience will
gradually be absorbed into the main current of one’s aims and purposive actions.
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Awareness should be objective and impersonal, i. e., do not refer what you observe yourself. Do not
meditate from a fixed center. Let thoughts arise without being fixed anywhere. If there is a center or
point of view then one is not observing; one is organizing, controlling, rearranging, manipulating. Be fully
concentrated without exclusive concentration. The mind is then undirected and set free.
Love has for its near enemy lust, and for its distant enemy ill will. For if love awakens passion, desire is
born; this selfish, possessive, blind love is the near enemy of such love it is said “Hatred is the shadow of
Love.”
Awareness of every movement of the body, every action and thought must be heightened. Many of our
actions are entirely automatic. Be being more aware of our every action we cultivate the quality of
thoughtfulness, viewing everything calmly, without being ruffled, in a poise of detachment and making the
right response which the situation requires. Fears and worries are then overcome. This prepares one for
the higher type of meditation.
Bare attention slows down or even stops the transition from thought to action. It gives rise to the “inner
brakes of wisdom”.
Bare attention is concerned only with the Present. It enables us to live with full awareness in the here
and now. Ordinarily the past and the future are objects of day dreaming and vain imaginings. How much
energy is wasted by useless thoughts of the past: longing idly for bygone days, vain regrets and
repentance, and senseless and garrulous repetition of all the banalities of the past. of equal futility is
much of the thought given to the future: vain hope, drastic plans and empty dreams, ungrounded fears
and useless worries. Freedom is to be found only in the present.
This method is more wholesome and efficacious than the method of introspection that enters into
arguments of self-accusations and self-justifications, or into an elaborate search for hidden motives. Just
observe: Ah! Mind with anger! This will dissolve the feeling of irritation.
The insight at which the method aims will present itself to the mind spontaneously as the nature result or
he maturing fruit of growing Mindfulness. The Master said, “knowledge will arise by itself.”
No looking to the past bemoaning what has been lost; no looking forward to the future lamenting over
what has not yet come about. The n he is fully aware and his actions become spontaneous and free.
Feeling (of physical or mental origin) is a potential condition of craving and later of more intense clinging.
If made the object of bare attention it will not originate craving. One then realizes that feelings are
transitory; they arise and pass away.
Through attention one opens up the controlling power of meditation. It is a power based on seeing things
as they really are. Attention releases creative energy.
To live without craving means that the feeling of “I” ceases. During meditation we come to understand
that there is no self to be found. (There is no I; only an I-sense.)
In awareness there is no thinking, only complete attention given to the process or object. Awareness in
the sense of total or complete attention produces comprehension. One sees things as they are.
One who is aware of lust, hatred, etc., should not feel guilty for such thoughts or make an effort to
eliminate then through sheer force of will. Indeed to become embroiled in the agony of guilt is itself a
form of attachment to be overcome.
The Parable of the Poisoned Arrow
“If anyone should say, “I will not lead the religious life under the Blessed. One he shall explain to me
whether or not the world is eternal, whether the soul and the body are identical or different, whether the
enlightened one exists or does not exist after death” - that person would die before the Blessed One had
over explained this to him.
“It is as if a man had been wounded by an arrow thickly smeared with poison, and his friends were to
procure for him a physician or surgeon; and the sick man were to say, “I will not have this arrow taken out
until I have learnt to which caste the man who wounded me belongs, what the name of the man is and
whether he is tall or short or of middle height, whether he is from this or that village, town or city”. That
man would die, Malunkyaputta, without ever having learnt this.
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“The religious life does not depend on any dogma. Whatever dogma obtains, there still remain birth, old
age, death, sorrow, lamentation, misery, grief and despair.
“Accordingly, Malunkyaputta, bear always in mind what it is that I have not taught and what is that I have
taught. I have not taught that the world is eternal or non-eternal. (See above), because this profits not,
nor tends to aversion, absence of passion, quiescence, supreme wisdom and Nirvana.
“And what, Malunkyaputta, have I explained? Suffering have I explained, the origin of suffering, the
cessation of suffering, and the path leading to the cessation of suffering have I explained. and why have I
explained this? Because this does profit, tends to aversion, absence of passion, quiescence, supreme
wisdom and Nirvana.”
The Parable of the Raft
Monks, I will teach you the Dhamma - the parable of the raft - for going across, not for retaining. It is like
a man who going on a journey should see a great stretch of water, the hither bank with dangers and
fears, the farther bank secure and without fears, but there is neither boat nor bridge for crossing over. It
occurs to him that he should fashion a raft out of grass and sticks, branches and foliage so that he could
cross over to the beyond in safety. When he has done this it occurs to him that the raft has been very
useful and he wonders whether he ought to proceed taking it with him packed on his head or shoulders.
Would he be doing what should be done with the raft?
No, lord.
But if that man, when he has crossed over, thinks, “Having beached this raft on dry ground, or having
immersed it in the water, I should proceed on my journey”, that man would be doing what should be done
to the raft. In this way, monks, I have taught you the Dhamma - the parable of the raft - for getting across,
not for retaining. You, monks, by understanding the parable of the raft, must discard even the right states
of the mind and, all the more, the wrong states of the mind.
Never get caught in the jungle, the thicket of intellectual wrangles and theories.
Vacchagota asks: “But has Gautama any theory of his own?
The Lord answers: “The Tathägata (the Enlightened One), O Vaccha, is free from all theories.”
He who attempts to act and do things for others or for the world without deepening his own selfunderstanding, integrity, freedom and capacity of love, will not have anything to give others. He will
communicate to them nothing but the contagion of his own obsessions, his aggressiveness, his egocentered ambitions, his delusions about ends and means, his doctrinaire prejudices and ideas. (Thomas
Merton)
When the wrong man uses the right means, the right means work in the wrong way (Chinese proverb).
The Buddhas merely point the way where one must walk alone.
The acquire understanding at the hands of others is to close the gate of self-enlightenment.
Two things along I teach, now and always: suffering and the cessation of suffering (the Buddha).
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C30 - Man and Superman
Man and Superman - 1
God is the denial of all denials (Meister Eckhart)
The capital period of what my intellect said might be correct and not correct, clearly that what the intellect
justified was true and its opposite also was true. I have never admitted a truth in the mind without
simultaneously keeping it open to the contrary of it. And the first result was that the pride of the intellect
was gone! (Sri Aurobindo). ‘Thinking with clarity.'
The Truth is beyond all pairs of opposites.
For our must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again (II Sam.
Xiv. 14).
Religion alienates man from himself (Karl Marx).
The City of God has no organic relationship with the City of Man. It comes in from outside and merely
replaces it. “It descends from God out of heaven like a bride adorned for her husband” (St. Augustine)
“In the day of the Lord’s wrath…the whole earth shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy; He will make
an end, yea a terrible end of all them that dwell on the earth” (Zephaniah 1.10; 3.8).
Jesus did not think in terms of stages of development from the existing society to the Kingdom of God.
His historical vision of the coming of God’s Kingdom was not that of a society that man would have to
prepare and fight for, but that of an entirely new divine creation.
“The Kingdom of God is not the fruit of the world’s progress. The heavenly state cannot arise out of our
profane culture. When the last trumpet sounds all the works of man will fade out” (Karl Barth)
We must not give up the visible world as if it came from the evil one. It is our duty to change it into the
kingdom of heaven – Newman. The kingdom of God is in time, and history is moving to its
consummation. The End is a hope for history, not a release from history – Robinson.
But the end can bring nothing new but only translate into universal acknowledgment what is already a fait
accompli in the finished work of Christ. Perfection had been exhausted In the divinized humanity of
Jesus.
Hellenistic influence upon Jewish minds: The author of the Wisdom of Solomon, in striking contrast to
Jewish orthodoxy, shows little concern with divine vindication in this world but concentrates upon postmortem destiny. Human nature is also viewed differently: “For a corrupt body weigheth down the soul”
(ix.15). It also believes in the pre-existence of the soul: “Being good I came into a body undefiled” (viii.1920)
Since there are these two sides of existence, the ignorance of Nature (I.e., ignorance which is part of
Nature) and the light of the Spirit and since there is behind them the One Reality, the reconciliation or the
bridging of the gulf ought to be possible. It is a keen sense of this possibility which has taken different
shapes and persisted through the centuries, - the perfectibility of man and society, the Alwar’s vision of
the saints, sadhunam rajyam, the city of God, the millennium, and the new heaven and earth of the
Apocalypse. But these intuitions have lacked the basis of assured knowledge and the mind of man has
remained swinging between a bright future hope and a gray present certitude – (Sri Aurobindo)
Eckhart saw the kingdom of God as “God himself with all his riches.”
Man and Superman - 2
The two negations: (1) the denial of the materialist and (2) the refusal of the ascetic. At the gates of the
Transcendent stands that mere and perfect Spirit, luminous, pure, sustaining the world but inactive in it, the pure self of the Advaitins. Here in the perception of this pure self or the Non-Being behind it, we have
the starting-point for a second negation, - the refusal of the ascetic. It is this revolt of Spirit against Matter
that for two thousand years has increasingly dominated the Indian mind. Not that some attempt at an
adjustment between the two terms has been wanting even from the most extreme philosophies. But all
have lived in the shadow of the great Refusal and the final end of life for all is the garb of the ascetic.
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Whoever does the work which he ought to do without resort to its fruit, he is the sannyasin (renouncer)
and the yogin, not he who does not light the sacred fire and performs no rites. What they call
renunciation is known to be karma yoga, for no one becomes a yogin who has not renounced attachment
to desire (Gita, vi. 1-2).
The Täntric system makes liberation the final, but not the only aim; it takes on its way a full perfection and
enjoyment of the spiritual power, light, and joy in the human existence. It seizes upon the obstacles to
the spiritual life and compels them to become the means for a richer spiritual conquest and enables us to
embrace the whole of life in our divine scope as the Lila (the cosmic Play) of the Divine. It grasps at the
idea of the divine perfectibility of man possessed by the Vedic Rishis, but thrown into the background by
the intermediate ages which is destined to fill so large a place in any future synthesis of human thought,
experience and aspiration.
All life is for enjoyment. Dharma comprises both Bhoga (enjoyment) and yoga. The evil turns to good
(From the Täntras)
Evolution is a word which merely states the phenomenon without explaining it. For there seems to be no
reason why Life should evolve out of material elements or Mind out of living form unless we accept the
Vedäntic solution that Life is already involved in Matter and Mind in Life because in essence Matter is a
form of veiled Life, Life a form of veiled Consciousness. And then there seems to be little objection to a
farther stem in the series. The animal is a living laboratory in which nature has worked out man. Man
himself may well be a thinking and living laboratory in whom and with whose conscious co-operation she
wills to work out the superman, the god. Or shall we not say, rather to manifest God?
Religion often considers spiritual life as a life of renunciation and mortification; by spirituality it seems
often to mean something remote from earthly life and hostile to it. If so religion has no positive message
for human society or for the individual in any of the lower members of this being. Each principle of our
nature seeks naturally for perfection in its own sphere. This quarrel between earth and heaven, between
the spirit and its members becomes still more sterilizing if spirituality takes the form of a religion of sorrow
and suffering and austere mortification and the gospel of the vanity of things.
The present evolutionary crisis comes from a disparity between the limited faculties of man – mental,
ethical and spiritual – and the technical and economical means at this disposal…without an inner change
man can no longer cope with the gigantic development of the outer life. If humanity is to survive, a radical
transformation of human nature is indispensable.
The Avatar of the Supermind shall “With the Truth-Light strike earth’s massive roots of trance/ wake a
dumb self in the inconscient depths/ And raise a lost power from its python sleep/ That the eyes of the
Timeless might look out from Time/ And the world manifest the unveiled Divine.”
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C31 - Evolution towards Divinity
Evolution Towards Divinity - 1
T’s general theory of evolution is unified under the law of complexity Consciousness and includes a set of
thresholds at which different major strata of being appears, each time revealing a higher level of
consciousness which was dimly present from the beginning.
The cosmic Christ is the evolver of the world toward Divinity. A christified universe is the goal of
evolution.
From childhood, T felt the appeal of two Gods - the Lord Jesus and Matter for which he had a
spontaneous adoration. He strove to commune with some thing which “Shone at the heart of Matter”.
Child of heaven and son of earth “Where does our salvation lie? Ahead in time on the earth or above in
eternity in heaven? ” (The God above and the God ahead).
The classical Christian notion is that Nature is static. Each species is fixed in its being and cannot
change. Human nature is also fixed.
The line of growth has culminated finally in man. Man is the summary and synthesis of all the preceding
levels of organization. We have here ‘a critical transformation’ in which consciousness becomes reflexive
– conscious of itself. There is continuity but also a leap to a totally new kind of being-Rationality and the
birth of Thought.
Since man and in man simple evolution tends gradually to mutate into auto (or self) evolution. Man
becomes the instrument of the evolving Christ. The evolved becomes the evolver.
T does not accept the old ‘interventionist’ image of creation. Divine action is timeless and everywhere. It
is not a case of God suddenly injecting a soul into the world separately prepared for it. The world itself
from the very beginning has been integrally oriented to this production of conscious reflexivity and
personality.
The Galilean ministry was not the whole of the Incarnation. Everything has continued to move ever since
that tremendous event because Christ has not yet attained His fullness. The establishment of the
Kingdom of God may thus be considered as “a prodigious biological operation.”
Participation in worldly actions and the service of Christ, far from being incompatible, even coincide. (The
God ahead).
“Over every living thing which is to spring up, to grow, to flower, to ripen during this day, say again the
words: “This is my Body.”
The interventionist theory of creation does not provide any foundation for God’s immanence in the world.
It leaves God “structurally detached” from creation functioning only as efficient cause.
Creation is more accurately to be located not at the beginning of the world but at its end. God’s creation
is yet to take place.
Cosmogenesis will finally be revealed as Christogenesis, the transformation of the body of the cosmosfrom brute matter through living matter to self-conscious matter – into the Body of Christ.
To create is to unite. God is not separate from the world. Christ is the power of assimilation through love.
Hence his domination results in each element achieving its own unique completion and fulfillment.
In spite of the repeated assertions of St. Paul and the Greek Fathers Christ’s Universal power over
Creation has hither been considered by theologians primarily in an extrinsic and juridical aspect.
(Organic side).
T’s fundamental vision is of Christ as all in everything. “Come clothed to us, O Jesus, in the glory of the
world. Not only your Epiphany, O Jesus, but your Diaphany!” Pleroma (The kingdom of God) is panChristism.
Even at the highest point of my spiritual trajectory I can only find myself completely at ease when bathed
in the ocean of Matter.
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But alas, in the end for T there is a rupture with earthly evolution! “The Omega point will become so
widespread as to warm the earth psychically, while physically it is growing. At the end of its tantalization,
mankind will reach the greatest point of maturity, leaving the earth and stars to lapse slowly back to the
dwindling mass of primordial energy and will detach itself from the planet and join the one, true,
irreversible.
One might say that a hitherto unknown form of religion is burgeoning in the heart of modern man from a
seed sown by the idea of evolution. It is impossible to think of Christ as ‘evolver’ without at the same time
having to rethink the whole of Christology. The twofold notion of statistical evil and evolutionary
redemption corrects the idea of a catastrophic sin and reparatory expiation. In Christian Dogma the
Parousia had no intrinsically organic relationship with human progress. It can come even in rupture with
it. Whether the terrestrial world achieves its success or ends in failure, maybe the Divine Kingdom will
arrive even more certainly if failure is the answer. St. Augustine – ‘Bride from Heaven’
Can you tell me who will at last give us the meta-Christianity we are all waiting for? (‘Meta’ not to
Christianity but to the Church’s version).
Evil and sin are simply by-products of evolution. They are peripheral deviations of a natural process
having nothing to do with the central problem of life…Evil is the structural stress of evolutionary creation.
It counts for nothing in itself. There is no human responsibility for sin because it is part and parcel of a
natural process and not a disruptive influence within the process.
A static view of the world leads men in the end to despise a physical world which never gets anywhere
and persuades them to concentrate on an extrinsic, Transcendent ‘God on High’ and neglect not only the
intrinsic, immanent God within but also, to use T’s phrase the ‘God ahead’.
The Omega Point stands for the end of evolution, the human superorganism. It also stands for Christ, the
preexisting center of this superorganism. Fundamentally it denotes Christ bound up with the cosmos
when at last he takes possession of the final human unity and supernaturalizes it.
Salute to autumn
The leaves are falling,
The leaves are falling,
They didn’t ought to
Aut ‘um?
Evolution Towards Divinity - 2
We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now. (Romans) For in him all
things were created, in heaven and on earth- all things.
We are created through him and for him – In him all things hold together.
He has put all things under His feet and made Him the head over all things for the church which is His
body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Ephesians.
T does not seem to be clear as to what his method is. His conclusions go beyond experimental facts. He
called his method “Phenomenology” but added that these phenomena should be interpreted, not simply in
their sheer facticity, but also in terms of their inner orientation and their organic connection with the whole.
But this lets in philosophy and theology. (The ‘how’ of Evolution)
T’s religious thought must not be seen as an extension of his evolutionary ideas; it would be closer to the
truth to say that his evolutionary perspective is an extension of his faith in the Incarnation. By itself
science cannot discover Christ, but Christ satisfies the yearnings that are born in our hearts in the school
of science. T fails to separate clearly his scientific generalizations from his mystical insights.
T’s overriding concern was to create a living unity between the movement of supernatural faith in God
that rises upwards and the movement of natural faith in man that advances forward (God above and God
ahead).
How often does the Christian read or hear that perfection consists in detachment, that the world around
us is vanity and ashes?
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To synthesize the ‘Upward’ and then ‘Forward’. To reach heaven by bringing earth to perfection. To
Christify matter.
The Body of Christ is the Body-Person of Jesus. It here and now forms a personal Center for mankind
and the material world.
By his incarnation he (Jesus) inserted himself not just into humanity but into the universe as a directing
principle, a center towards which every thing converges in harmony and love.
T’s thought is emphatically Christo-centric. Attention not to the historical Jesus but to the cosmic Christ
present in the universe from the least particle of matter to the farthest reach of the human spirit.
The body of Christ is the Body-person of Jesus. It here and now forms a personal Center for mankind
and the material world. By his incarnation Jesus inserted himself not just into humanity but also into the
universe as a directing principle, a Center towards which everything converges in harmony and love.
The picture of the world which forms a background to mediaeval theology: in its intrinsic character it is
static, not evolving. In such a world there is really no central place which one could point as adequately
representing the dignity and status of Christ.
Creation is the unification of the multiple. It has never ceased.
Mankind is being drawn together both externally and internally in an ever-increasing unification. The next
stage will be socialization. Next planetization – an intermediate state between socialization and the
ultimate unity- Omega. In T’s eschatology, the Kingdom will be a transformation of our present world not
the substitution of a new world. It will not come by an arbitrary intervention of God but by the
consummation of a universe already prepared for it. Man and Nature collaborate with God in bringing the
cosmos to completion.
How often does the Christian read or hear that perfection consists in detachment, that the world around
us will be vanity and ashes? In the most spiritual layers of their being, the Christians experience a
tension between the drawing power of two rival stars which are apparently opposed: God and the World.
Evolution Towards Divinity - 3
A poetic critique of a hasty generalization concerns the significance of suffering. The first part gives the
partial truth underlying the generalization; the second part provides the necessary corrective.)
It is the hand of love that strikes the blow/ For if the dreamer will not break his dream/ But in the magic of
the twilight glow/ Pursues the shadows of the things that seem/ Then comes great sorrow with her rude
caress/ And shakes the sleeper into wakefulness.
Not always do we wake, so long we’ve played/With dreams and in their mist our spirits steeped/that when
the quickening hand on us is laid. We deem our visions into life have leaped/We stretch, not break our
dreams, so backward creep/ into this Death in life, the cave of sleep.
Evolution is a word which merely states the phenomenon without explaining it. Before there could be any
evolution there must be an involution of the Divine. In essence Matter is a form of veiled Life. Life a form
of veiled consciousness.
The animal is a living laboratory in which Nature has worked out Man. Man himself may well be a
thinking and living laboratory in whom and with whose conscious cooperation she wills to work out the
superman.
Supermanhood in the mental idea consists of an overtopping of the normal human level, not in kind but in
degree of the same kind. It expresses a violent and turbulent exaggerated vital ego satisfying itself with a
supreme tyrannous or anarchic strength of self-fulfillment. Nietzsche hymned the Olympian but
presented him with the visage of a Titan.
If a spiritual unfolding on earth is the hidden truth of our birth into Matter, then man as he is cannot be the
last term of that evolution…. The mental being can only be a transitional being.
Heaven we have possessed but not the Earth. The aim or our (Integral) Yoga is to make heaven and
Earth Equal and one.
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Moksha (Freedom) is not the end of the spiritual quest. True spirituality draws back from life to envelop it
without being dominated by it.
Our present nature is a derivation from Supernature (Gita: Para Prakriti) Each part of our triple nature
(body, life and mind) contains a hidden truth which, when discovered and developed, would change it
from an obscure impediment to a pliant and luminous instrument of the Spirit in manifestation.
It is the revolt of spirit against Matter that for two thousand years since Buddhism disturbed the balance of
the old Aryan world and has dominated increasingly the Indian mind.
The spirit descended into Matter, step by step; through various levels of consciousness till at last it
involved itself completely in the apparent inconscience. (Of. “Darkness covered with darkness” – Vedas).
The journey back is a gradual and progressive self-unfolding of all that was involved in the phenomenal
existence.
Integral Yoga is distinctive in its aim. Its object is not mere transcendence but transformation of human
nature, not an extra-terrestrial liberation but a fulfillment of the Divine will in creation.
The Supermind is between the Sachchidananda (Being-Consciousness, Bliss) and the lower creation
(Mind, Life and Body). It is the direct self-existent Truth-Consciousness and the direct self-effective Truth
Power. Its descent here will establish a new creation, a permanent new order of being in the field of
terrestrial Nature.
The supramental transformation will be the first unveiled manifestation of the truth of the Self and Spirit in
the material universe.
The Avatar of the Supermind shall “With the Truth-Light strike earth’s massive roots of trance/And raise a
lost power from its python sleep/ That the eyes of the timeless might look out from Time/And the world
manifest the unveiled Divine” (Sri Aurobindo; Savitri)
I have done/ but what I have done I have not done/ for I have more. Who wrote that? John Dunn
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C32 - Shri Aurobindo (1872 - 1950)
The Yoga of Perfection and the Future Evolution of Man
Heaven we have possessed but not the earth. The aim of Integral Yoga is to make heaven and earth
equal and one.
It is only divine Love which can bear the burden I have to bear, that all have to bear who have sacrificed
everything else to the one aim of uplifting earth out of its darkness towards the Divine.
The supramental transformation must carry with it a lifting of mind, life and body out of themselves into a
greater way of being in which yet their own ways and powers would not be suppressed or abolished, but
perfected and fulfilled by the self-exceeding. The Supramental is a truth and its advent is in the very
nature of things inevitable. I believe the descent of this Truth opening the way to a development of divine
consciousness here to be the final sense of the earth evolution.
The animal is a laboratory in which Nature has worked out man; man may very well be a laboratory in
which she wills to work out superman, to disclose the soul as a divine being, to evolve a divine nature.
Superman is Super mind.
Mind will be changed into a greater consciousness, life will be a direct power and action of the Divinity,
the very body no longer this first gross lump of breathing clay, but a very image and body of spiritual
being.
Since the divinity is involved here ad is emerging, it is inevitable that all his powers or degrees of power
should emerge one after the other till the whole glory is embodied and visible.
The Supermind at its highest reach is the divine Gnosis, the Wisdom-Power-Light-Bliss of God by which
the Divine knows and upholds and governs and enjoys the universe. The Supramental Yoga is at once
an ascent towards God and a descent of Godhead into embodied nature.
This divinization of nature of which we speak is a metamorphosis, not a mere growth into some kind of
super-humanity, but a change from the falsehood of our ignorant nature into the truth of God nature. If
the redemption of the should from the physical vesture be the object, then there is no need of
supramentalisation.
The change that is effected by the transition from mind to Supermind is not only a revolution in knowledge
or in our power for knowledge. It is to be complete and stable it must be a divine transmutation of our will
too, our emotions, our sensations, all our power of life and its forces, in the end even of the substance
and functioning of our body. The n only can it be said that the Supermind is there upon earth, rooted in
its very earth-substance and embodied in a new race of divinized creatures.
Matter will reveal itself as an instrument of the manifestation of Spirit; a new liberated and sovereign
acceptance of material Nature will then be possible A certain reverence for Matter and sacramental
attitude in all dealings with it is possible. The body will be turned by the power of the spiritual
consciousness into a true and fit and perfectly responsive instrument of the Spirit. A spiritual Ananda can
flow into the body and inundate cell and tissue; a luminous materialization of this higher Ananda could of
itself bring about a total transformation of the deficient or adverse sensibilities of physical Nature.
Beauty and plenitude, a hidden sweetness and laughter in things, a sunshine and gladness of life are also
powers and expressions of the Spirit.
Our present nature is a derivation from Supernature and is not a pure ignorance but a half-knowledge. (It
has a hidden divine potentiality to realize which is to goal of evolution.) Our evolution in the Ignorance
with its chequered joy and pain of self discovery and world-Discovery, its half-fulfillments, its constant
finding and missing is only our first state. It must lead inevitably towards an evolution in the knowledge a
self-finding and self-unfolding of the Spirit, a self-revelation of the Divinity in things in that true power of
itself in Nature which is to us still a Supernature. A universal beauty and glory of being will begin to
manifest. In the Universal phenomenon will be revealed in the eternal Ananda.
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C33 - Shri Aurobindo on Sädhanä through Meditation
There are many forms of dhyäna. Vivekananda advises you to stand back from your thoughts and let
them occur in your mind as they will and simply observe them. This may be called concentration in selfobservation.
This form leads to another, the emptying of all thought out of the mind so as to leave it a sort of pure
vigilant blank on which knowledge may come and imprint itself, undisturbed by the inferior thoughts of the
ordinary human mind. The Gita speaks of this rejection of all mental thoughts as one of the methods of
yoga and even the method it seems to prefer. This may be called the dhyäna of liberation, as it frees the
mind from slavery to the mechanical process of thinking and allows it to think or not to think as and when
it pleases.
Self-observation and liberation from the chains of thought is the most difficult (process) of all, but the
widest and greatest in its fruits.
Brahman is always the best object for meditation, and the idea on which the mind should fix is that of
'God in all, all in God, and all as God.'
There are no essential external conditions, but solitude and seclusion at the time of meditation as well as
stillness of the body are helpful and sometimes almost necessary to the beginner. But one should not be
bound by external conditions. Once the habit of meditation is formed, it should be made possible to do it
in all circumstances, lying, sitting, walking alone and in company, in silence or in the midst of noise, etc.
The first internal condition necessary is concentration of the will against the obstacles to meditation, i.e.
wandering of the mind, forgetfulness, sleep, physical and nervous impatience and restlessness etc. The
second is an increasing purity and calm of the inner consciousness, a freedom from all disturbing
reactions, such as anger, grief, depression, anxiety about worldly happenings etc.
Ordinarily consciousness is spread out everywhere, dispersed, and running in this or that direction. The
first thing one should do is to draw back all this dispersed consciousness and concentrate.
In this yoga, instead of concentrating on an object, you concentrate in the head in a will, a call for the
descent of the peace above or an opening of the unseen lid and an ascent of the consciousness above.
In the heart center one concentrates in an aspiration for an opening for the presence of the living image of
the Divine there.
When consciousness and nature are ready, then concentration must become spontaneous and easily
possible without effort at all times. When at last it becomes the natural and permanent condition of the
being – it is then no longer concentration but the settled poise of the soul in the Divine. Effort means
straining endeavor. There can be an action with a will in it in which there is no strain or effort.
If the difficulty in meditation is that thought of kinds come in, that is due to the ordinary nature of the
human mind. All Sädhaka have this difficulty and with many it lasts for a very long time. There are
several ways of getting rid of it. One of them is to look at the thoughts and observe what is the nature of
the human mind as they show it, but not to give any sanction and to let them run down till they come to a
standstill. Another is to look at the thoughts as not one’s own, to stand back as the witness Purusha and
refuse the sanction – the thoughts are regarded as things coming from outside from universal Nature and
they must be felt as if they were passers-by crossing the mind-space with whom one has no connection
and in whom one takes no interest. There is a third, an active method by which one looks to see where
the thoughts come from and finds that they come not from oneself, but from outside the head as it were; if
one can detect them coming before they enter, they to be thrown away altogether. This is perhaps the
most difficult way and if it can be done, it is the shortest and most powerful road to silence.
The mind is always in activity, but we do not observe fully what it is doing and allow ourselves to be
carried away in the stream of continual thinking.
Sri Aurobindo on Sädhanä Through Meditation
The best thing to do is to realize that the thought-flow is not yourself; it is not you who are thinking but
thought that is going on in the mind. The next thing is to reject the thoughts. You as the Purusha must
stand back as the witness observing this whirl of thought in you, but refusing to identify yourself with it.
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Sometimes by the very act of detachment, the thought-habit falls away and there is a sufficient silence or
quietude which makes it easy to reject the thoughts that come.
A persistent practice of rejection may become necessary. But there should be no struggle or wrestling
with the thought, but only a quiet self-separation and refusal. Success does not come at first, but if
consent is constantly withheld, the mechanical whirl eventually ceases and begins to die away and one
can then have an inner quietude or silence at will.
It is not easy to get into the silence. It is easier to let the silence descend into you. The way to do this is
to remain quiet, not fighting with the mind or making efforts to pull down the silence but keeping only a
silent will and aspiration for it.
To wrestle with the mind, to make it quiet is not of much use; usually the mind gets the better of that
game. It is this standing back, detaching oneself, getting the power to listen to something else other than
the thoughts of the external mind that is the easier way.
The silent mind is a result of yoga; the ordinary mind is never silent. In the case of thinkers and
philosophers, the common incoherent metalizing stops and the thoughts that rise and shape themselves
are coherently restricted to the subject or activity in hand. But that is quite a different matter from the
whole mind falling silent.
(What is best is) an all-receiving concentration that is the very nature of Integral Yoga.
(Mother’s clarification): A concentration which is open to all that exists; it is a concentration that does not
oppose anything. It is a concentration which is open. It means that one must not reject certain things
from oneself and practice an exclusive concentration on a particular part while neglecting all the others.
All the possibilities should be admitted and pursued.
We have to understand our own mind in all its aspects – both the conscious and the unconscious mind.
We have to penetrate to its deeper layers, to discover latent tendencies or factors underlying its
conscious level. You may say it is necessary to go into deep meditation in order to see this, but in fact
you can see the symptoms of all latent tendencies in your daily activities, expressions, and in the many
facets of your behavior. Therefore if we become aware of our behavior, especially in your interaction with
different people, we shall observe what is important or unimportant to us. For this, 'attention' is required.
Without it, it is not possible for us to understand ourselves or to explore in any depth whatever what we
come across. We have to be serious about what we are doing, yet this must be free from tension. To be
serious is to give complete attention to what is in front of you, what is happening here and now.
(Dhiravamsa, The way of Non-Attachment – the Practice of Insight Meditation). Let thoughts arise; Do
not fix them anywhere; Here & Now; all is well; Unconditionally.
Sri Aurobindo from Dictionary of Sri Aurobindo’s yoga
Consciousness is usually identified with mind, but mental consciousness is only the human range. There
are ranges of consciousness beyond and below the human range with which the normal human has no
contact and they seem to it unconscious.
For human beings who have not gotten deeper into themselves, mind and consciousness are
synonymous. Only when one becomes more aware of oneself by a growing consciousness, then one can
see different degrees, kinds, powers of consciousness, mental, vital, physical, psychic, spiritual. The
mind is a modified consciousness that puts forth a mental energy. A man can stand back in his mind consciousness and watch the mental energy doing things, thinking, planning, etc.
Environmental cons
The extension of ourselves into the general or universal nature surrounding atmosphere which we carry
about with us and by which we communicate with the universal forces…Each man has his own personal
consciousness entrenched in the body…yet all the time the universal forces are pouring into the surface
and these he takes for his own. Really they come from outside in mind waves, of feeling and sensation
etc.
Inner consciousness:
The inner mind/vital/physical and behind then the psychic which is there in most beings. The inner mind
is in touch with the universal forces and more open to the higher consciousness and capable of an
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immensely deeper and larger range of action than the outer or surface mind, but it is of the same
essential nature.
The ordinary man is aware only of his surface…and yet what is on the surface, what we know or think we
know of ourselves and even believe that is all we are is only a small part of our being, and far the larger
part of us is…behind the frontal consciousness behind the veil, occult and known only by an occult
knowledge.
This hidden consciousness is the subliminal self, and here too it is seen that this subliminal self has more
powers, more knowledge, a freer field of movement than the smaller self that is on the surface. But the
truth is that all this that is behind this sea of which our waking consciousness is only a wave or a series of
waves. It cannot be described by any one term, for it is on a level with it but behind and much larger than
it; part is above and superconscient to us. What we call our mind is only an outer mind, a surface mental
action and instrumental for the partial experience of a larger mind behind which we are not ordinarily
aware and can only know by going inside ourselves.
Material consciousness is mostly subconscious, but part of it that is conscious, is mechanical, and is
inertly moved by habits or by the forces of lower nature. Always repeating the same unintelligent and
unenlightened movements, it is established to the routine and established rule of what already exists
unwilling to change, unwilling to receive the Light or obey the higher Force.
The inner mind is something very wide projecting itself into the infinite and finally identifying itself with the
infinity of universal mind. To deal with this (physical mind) two things are necessary:
Not so much to try to control or fight with or to suppress it is to 'stand back from it': one looks at it and
sees what it is but refuses to follow its thoughts or run about among the objects it pursues, remaining at
the back of the mind quiet and separate;
To practice quietude and concentration in this separateness until the 'habit of quiet' takes hold of the
physical mind and replaces the habit of these activities.
Subconscient: that quiet submerged part of your being in which there is no wakingly consciousness or
coherent thought or will or feeling or organized reaction but which yet receives obscurely the impressions
of all things and stores them up itself and from it too all sorts of stimuli, of persistent habitual movements,
crudely repeated or takes or disguised in strange forms can surge up into dream or the waking nature.
Subliminal: S. self stands behind and supports the whole superficial man; it has in it a larger and more
efficient mind behind the surface mind, a larger and more powerful vital behind the subliminal vital, a
subtler and freer physical consciousness behind the surface bodily existence.
And above them it opens to higher superconscient as well below to lower subconscient ranges. From the
superconscient come all the greater aspirations, ideals, strivings towards a better self and better humanity
without which man would be only a thinking animal – as also most of the art, philosophy, poetry, thirst for
knowledge, which relieve if they do not yet dispel the ignorance.
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C34 - Shri Aurobindo on Sädhanä through Meditation
There are many forms of dhyäna. Vivekananda advises you to stand back from your thoughts, let them
occur in your mind as they will and simply observe them. This may be called concentration in selfobservation.
This form leads to another, the emptying of all thought out of the mind so as to leave it a sort of pure
vigilant blank on which knowledge may come and imprint itself, undisturbed by the inferior thoughts of the
ordinary human mind. The Gita speaks of this rejection of all mental thought as one of the methods of
yoga and even the method it seems to prefer. This may be called the dhyäna of liberation, as it frees the
mind from slavery to the mechanical process of thinking and allows it to think as and when it pleases.
Self-observation and liberation from the chains of thought is the most difficult (process) of all, but the
widest and greatest in its fruits.
Brahman is always the best object for meditation and the idea on which the mind should fix is that of God
in all, all in God and all as God.
There are no essential external conditions, but solitude and seclusion at the time of meditation as well as
stillness of the body are helpful, sometimes almost necessary to the beginner. But one should not be
bound by external conditions. Once the habit of meditation is formed, it should be made possible to do it
in all circumstances, lying, sitting, walking, alone, in company, in silence or in the midst of noise, etc.
The first internal condition necessary is concentration of the will against the obstacles to meditation, i. e.
wandering of the mind, forget fullness, sleep, physical and nervous impatience and restlessness etc. The
second is an increasing purity and calm of the inner consciousness, a freedom from all disturbing
reactions, such as anger, grief, depression, anxiety about worldly happenings etc.
Ordinarily the consciousness is spread out everywhere, dispersed, running in this or that direction. The
first thing one should do is to draw back all this dispersed consciousness and concentrate.
In this yoga, instead of concentrating on an object, you concentrate in the head in a will, a call for the
descent of the peace above or an opening of the unseen lid and an ascent of the consciousness above.
In the heart centre one concentrates in an aspiration, for an opening, for the presence of the living image
of the Divine there.
When consciousness and nature are ready, the concentration must become spontaneous and easily
possible without effort at all times. Even at last it becomes the natural and permanent condition of the
being - it is then no longer concentration, but the settled poise of the soul in the Divine. Effort means
straining endeavor. There can be an action with a will in it in which there is no strain or effort.
If the difficulty in meditation is that thoughts of all kinds come in, that is due to the ordinary nature of the
human mind. All Sädhaka have this difficulty and with many it lasts for a very long time. There are
several ways of getting rid of it. One of them is to look at the thoughts and observe what is the nature of
the human mind as they show it but not to give any sanction, and to let them run down till they come to a
standstill. Another is to look at the thoughts as not one’s own, to stand back as the witness Purusha and
refuse the sanction - The thoughts are regarded as things coming from outside, from universal Nature
and they must be felt as if they were passer-by crossing the mind - space, with whom one has no
connection and in whom one takes no interest. There is a third, an active method by which one looks to
see where the thoughts come from and finds that they come not from oneself, but from outside the head
as it were; if one can detect them coming, the n, before they enter, they have to be thrown away
altogether. This is perhaps the most difficult way and if it can be done it is the shortest and most powerful
road to silence.
The mind is always in activity, but we do not observe fully what it is doing, but allow ourselves to be
carried away in the stream of continual thinking.
The best thing to do is to realize that the thought - flow is not yourself; it is not you who are thinking, but
thought that is going on in the mind. The next thing is to reject the thoughts. You as the Purusha must
stand back as the witness observing this whirl of thought in you, but refusing to identify yourself with it.
Sometimes by the very act of detachment the thought-habit falls away and there is a sufficient silence or
a quietude which makes it easy to reject the thoughts that come.
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A persistent practice of rejection may become necessary, but there should be no struggle or wrestling
with the though. But only a quiet self-separation and refusal. Success does not come at first, but if
consent is constantly withheld, the mechanical whirl eventually ceases and begins to die away and one
can then have at will an inner quietude or silence.
It is not easy to get into the Silence. It is easier to let the Silence descend into you. The way to do this is
to remain quiet, not fighting with the mind or making efforts to pull down the Silence but keeping only a
silent will and aspiration for them.
To wrestle with the mind, to make it quiet, is not of much use, usually the mind gets the better at that
game. It is this standing back, detaching oneself, getting the power to listen to something else, other than
the thoughts of the external mind that is the easier way.
The silent mind is a result of yoga; the ordinary mind is never silent. In the case of thinkers and
philosophers the common incoherent metalizing stops and the thoughts that rise and shape themselves
are coherently restricted to the subject or activity in hand. But that is quite a different matter from the
whole mind falling silent.
(What is best is) an all-receiving concentration that is the very nature of the Integral Yoga. (Mother’s
clarification) : A concentration which is open to all that exists; it is a concentration that does not oppose
anything. It is a concentration which is open. It means that one must not reject certain things from
oneself and practice an exclusive concentration on a particular part while neglecting all the others. All the
possibilities should be admitted and pursued.
We have to understand our own mind in all its aspects - both the conscious and the unconscious mind.
We have to penetrate to its deeper layers, to discover latent tendencies or factors underlying its
conscious level. You may say it is necessary to go into deep meditation in order to see this, but in fact
you can see the symptoms of all latent tendencies in your daily activities, expressions, and in the many
facets of your behavior. Therefore if we become aware of our behavior, especially in our interaction with
different people we shall observe what is important or unimportant to us. For this, attention is required.
Without it, it is not possible for us to understand ourselves or to explore in any depth whatever we come
across. We have to be serious about what we are doing, yet this must be free from tension. To be
serious is to give complete attention to what is in front of you, What is happening here and now.
(Dhiravamsa, the way of non-attachment - The Practice of Insight Meditation)
To resolve the problems of the world one must approach them in a very simple and direct manner; and
simplicity, directness do not depend on outward circumstances nor on our particular prejudices and
moods.
The solution obviously lies in the creator of the problem who is the individual, you and I, not the world as
we think of it. The world is the projection of ourselves and to understand the world we must understand
ourselves.
The process of understanding ourselves is not an isolating process. It is not withdrawal from the world.
To be is to be related.
It is the lack of right relationship that brings about conflict, misery and strife. However small our world
may be, if we can transform our relationship in that narrow world, it will be like a wave extending outward
all the time.
Self-knowledge is the beginning of wisdom therefore the beginning of transformation or regeneration.
Self-knowledge cannot be given to us by another; it is not to be found through any book. Without
knowing what you are there is no basis for right thought.
To know oneself as one is requires an extraordinary alertness of mind. The mind must not be tethered to
particular dogma or belief, to any particular pattern of action. To know yourself there must be the
awareness, the alertness, the alertness of mind in which there is freedom from all beliefs, from all
idealization, because beliefs and ideals only give you a color, perverting true perception.
If you want to know that you are you cannot imagine or have belief in something which you are not. If I
am greedy, envious, violent, merely having an ideal of non-violence, of nongreed, is of little value. But to
know and understand that one is greedy require an extraordinary perception. It demands honesty, clarity
of thought, whereas to pursue an ideal away from what is an escape; it prevents you from discovering
and acting directly upon what you are.
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The understanding do what you are without distortion, whatever it be - ugly or beautiful, wicked or
mischievous - is the beginning of virtue. It is not the cultivation of a virtue, which merely brings about
respectability. There is a difference between being virtuous and becoming virtuous. Being virtuosi comes
through the understanding of what is and so leads to freedom; whereas becoming virtuous is
postponement, the covering up of what is with what you would like to be. Therefore in becoming virtuous
you are avoiding action directly upon what is, virtue is not the becoming of what is not; virtue is the
understanding of what is and therefore freedom from what is.
What is the actual, and to understand the actual requires awareness, a very alert, swift mind. But if we
begin to condemn what is, if we begin to blame or resist it, then we shall not understand its movement.
To understand what is requires a state of mind in which there is no identification or condemnation, which
means a mind that is alert and yet passive. We are in that state when we really desire to understand
something’s. The n one does not need to force, discipline or control what is; on the contrary there is
passive alertness, watchfulness.
The understanding of oneself is from moment to moment. There is no method for self knowledge.
Seeking a method invariably implies the desire to attain some result which will give us security. We do
not really want to understand ourselves, our impulses and reactions, the whole process of our thinking,
the conscious as well as the unconscious. There can be creativeness only through self - knowledge.
Most of us are not creative; we are repetitive machines, mere gramophone records playing over and over
again certain songs of experience, certain conclusions and memories, either our own or those of another.
Such repetition is not creative living.
Creativeness is a state in which the self is absent, in which the mind is no longer a focus of our
experiences, our ambitions, our pursuits and our desires.
The understanding of oneself is not a result, a culmination; it is seeing oneself from moment to moment in
the mirror of relationship - one’s relationship to property, to things, to people, to ideas, (Through such
understanding) there comes a tranquility that is not a product of the mind, that is neither imagined nor
cultivated; and only in that state of tranquility can there be creativeness.
There exists in every human being the constant source of intelligence, energy and happiness.
Maximum simplicity and naturalness. The procedure of concentration or control or of forcing the mind to
be free of content leads away rather than towards the desired result. There is a great difference between
directing the mind towards a particular preconceived goal and directing it by permitting its natural affinities
to operate. The natural tendency of every mind is to flow towards a field of greater happiness.
The direction of development it towards the full development of those normal faculties of body, mind and
emotions that we already value in everyday life to their maximum possible capacity.
Pure consciousness is a condition wherein self-consciousness is present, accompanied by a sense of
boundlessness, but though activity is absolutely nil.
TM is basically a procedure for experiencing the mechanics of the thinking process in a new direction.
Normally one is aware of a thought all at once in its fully developed form. Through TM one can bring the
prior stages in the development of the thought to conscious awareness. For this purpose a thought
associated with a sound is most appropriate. Each one is given a particular sound which has a quality
that resonates best with the structure of his/her particular nervous system.
The benefits of the TM technique in terms of 5 qualities; the fundamentals of programmed adaptability,
stability, integration, purification and growth.
TM reduces tension improves personal relationship and makes meditators more energy and efficient.
(That TM cures drug abuse may be true but remains unproven).
The fourth or transcendent state of consciousness is the state in which one goes beyond specific and
transient thoughts and arrives at the source of thought. Pure consciousness is utterly silent and yet is the
source of creativity.
Creative Intelligence: Creativity is the cause of change and Intelligence is the quality exemplifies in the
purpose and order of change. Within man a tremendous dynamo of energy and intelligence is constantly
empowering and directing human activity. The Maharishi has identified this potential energy and
intelligence with man as creative intelligence, that which causes and directs change.
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TM is a systematic procedure of turning the attention inwards towards the subtler levels of a thought until
the mind transcends the experience of the subtlest state of the thought and arrives at its source.
The whole day to day and future destiny of every nation is in the hands of individual. The external
harmony and progress of the entire human race is founded on the internal harmony and progress of every
individual. “An individual influences the entire Cosmo by every thought, word and action. Therefore
someone with peace in his heart naturally radiates peace and harmony and influences the whole
universe.
The Age of Enlightenment: A world where happiness, harmony and unrestricted progress will prevail.
This age will be marked by good health, good behavior, abundant love and happiness and harmony
everywhere. Crime, wars and all negative behavior will have no ground to appear.
The enlightened person enjoys an unshakeable baseline happiness and an optimal mental temperature,
i.e., he wastes no energy on worries and anxieties. Enlightenment dissolves a person’s deepest fears
and inhibitions.
Enlightenment represents the ultimate development of the most valuable qualities of human life:
intelligence, creativity, compassion, freedom and the capacity for spontaneous, life-supporting responses
under any circumstances.
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C35 - Shri Aurobindo - Psychology and Yoga
Transformation is not merely a change, but a reversal of consciousness, the being wheeling round and
taking its stand in an altogether different dimension of consciousness. This reversal is abrupt. You are
suddenly awakened or born into the new. No effort of the mind can bring it. For you cannot imagine with
the mind what it is (M) CF. Gita.
When the psychic being comes forward all is happiness, the right attitude the right vision of things.
Psychic transformation: One is to go inward and open fully the connection between the psychic being and
the outer nature. Spiritual transformation: Comes by opening upward to the divine peace, force, light,
Ananda above, by rising up into it and bringing it down into the nature and the body.
Nothing can be done without the vital but it must be converted and become an instrument of the divine
will. (M)
The vital energy by itself leads nowhere, runs in chequered, often painful ad ruinous circles, takes even to
the precipice, because It has no right guidance. Ordinarily it is governed by its more or less ignorant
dictates, or takes violent hold of the mind and uses it for the satisfaction of its own passions. Impulses or
desires. This part of our nature does not act according to reason, it has no understanding of things. It
acts only according to desire impulse and habit.
Difficulties in Sädhanä
The difficulties and ordeals of the path are those which rise from one’s own nature and those which come
in from outside. (But) the difficulty of the difficulties is self created, a knot of the ignorance. One carries it
with oneself, for the difficulty is truly inside, not outside. Outside circumstances only give it the occasion
to manifest itself and so long as the inner difficulty is not conquered, the circumstances will always crop
up one way or another.
It is best not to struggle with the resistances but to stand back from the m, observe as witness, reject
these movements and call on the divine power to remove them. Difficulties ad perplexities can never be
got rid of by the mind brooding over them and trying in that way to get out of the m; this habit of the mind
only makes them recur without a solution and keeps up b brooding the persistent tangle.
The vital ego hates being opposed in its desires, resents disappointment is furious against wounds to its
pride and vanity. All this has to be faced and overcome, for the temple of the being has to be swept clean
if the lord of our being is to take his place and receive our worship there.
Dissolve it (the formation of ignorance) by seeing it for what it is, never allowing any mental justification of
it, however seemingly logical right and plausible but always replying to all the mind’s arguments or the
vital’s feelings in favor of it, like Cato t the debaters, Delendaest Carthago.” Carthago has to be
destroyed, cartage in this case being the formation and its nefarious circle.
You must remember that your being is not one simple whole, all of one kind, of one piece, but complex,
made up of many things. There is the mental with its limited knowledge and its hesitations, there is the
vital with its desires, unwillingness and its struggles, there is the physical with its obscurity, slowness and
inertia.
When some weakness comes up you should take it as an opportunity to know what is still to be done and
call don the strength into that part.
It is not good to dwell too much on you difficulties and shortcomings for that makes them turn for ever like
squirrels in a cage always in the same circle of difficulties without the least breaking of light through the
clouds. What should be done is to detach oneself from the m, not to identify, not to admit them any
longer as part of one’s real nature but to look on them as things imposed to which one says “This is not I
or mine - this is a thing I reject altogether.
The negative means are not evil if one’s objects is to get away from life, But from the positive point of
view They are disadvantageous, because They get rid of the powers of the being instead of transforming
them. By negative I mean merely repressing the desires and wrong movements and egoism; by positive I
mean the bringing down of light and peace and purity in those parts from above. These movements are
not only to be rejected but there must be a positive replacement of them by the higher consciousness.
The more this consciousness comes. The easier also will the rejection be.
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It is not with indifference that one has to look at them (forces of ignorance) for that might mean inertia, a
want of will to change; it is rather with detachment which means that one stands back from the m, does
not identify oneself with them or get upset or troubled because they are there, but rather looks on them as
something foreign to one’s true consciousness and self, rejects them and calls in the mother’s force into
these movements to eliminate them.
Psychichisation means the change of the lower vital bringing the right vision into the mind, right impulse
and feeling into the vital, right movement and habit into the physical - al turned towards the divine.
The psychic being grows behind the mind, the vital and the physical until it is able to transform the Prakriti
(nature) of ignorance into the Prakriti of knowledge, transforming by degrees the whole nature.
The lower vital is not a part that listen to reason. There is no way to its action; it acts in a particular way
because it has been accustomed to act in that way, and it goes on even if the going brings a painful
reaction. Always the vital is irrational. It does not like the voice of knowledge and wisdom - but by the
necessity which has grown up in man of justifying action by reason, the vital mind has developed a
strategy of its own which is to get reason to find out reasons for justifying its own feelings and impulses.
It is certainly not the answering of questions that will remove the underlying cause of the recurrence.
Even if the answers satisfy, it could only be for a time. The same questionings would arise either in a
mechanical reiteration or else presented from a shifted ground or a somewhat changed angle of vision.
The principle of mechanical repetition is very strong in the material nature, so strong that it easily makes
one think that it is incurable. That, however, is only a trick of the forces of material nature; it is by creating
this impression that they try to endure.
Do not let depression depress you. Stand back from it, observe and remove its cause; for the cause is
always in oneself - perhaps a vital defect somewhere, a wrong movement, indulged or a petty desire
causing a recoil by its satisfaction or disappointment.
Remorse, repentance, is the natural movement of the vital mind when it realizes it has done something
wrong. This is better than indifference but is disadvantage is that it disturbs the vital stuff and sometimes
leads to depression or discouragement. For that reason what is recommended is a quiet recognition of
the mistake with a sincere aspiration and will that it should not be repeated.
This tendency to irrational sadness and despondency and these imaginations, fears and perverse
reasoning - always repeating, if you will take careful notice, the same movements, ideas and feelings and
even the same language and phrases like a machine - is characteristic working of the lower vital nature.
It is not easy to overcome gloom, depression and grief, because something in the human vital clings to it
and almost needs it as part of the drama of life. There is something in the vital which likes suffering and
clings to it for the sake of the drama and because it gives a spice to life.
The ego centric man feels and takes things are in themselves and would be if he were not there. Or else
he feels calm and refers everything to the Divine.
Man and Superman –
God is the denial of all denials (Meister Eckhart)
The capital period of my intellectual development was when I could see clearly that what the intellect said
might be correct and not correct, that what the intellect justified was true and its opposite also was true. I
have never admitted a truth in the mind without simultaneously keeping it open to the contrary of it. and
the first result was that the pride of the intellect was gone! (Sri Aurobindo) “Thinking with charity. (Paul)
The truth is beyond all pairs of opposites.
For we must needs dies, and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again. (II
Sam. XIV14).
Religion alienates man from himself (Karl Marx).
The city of god has no organics relationship with the city of man. It comes in from outside and merely
replaces it. “It descends from god out of heaven like a bridge adorned for her husband”. (St. Augustine)
“In the day of the lord’s wrath. The whole earth shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy; for he will
make an end, yea a terrible end of all them that dwells in the earth.” (Zphania 1.10; 3.8).
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Jesus did not think in terms of stages of development from the existing society to the kingdom of god. His
historical vision of the coming of god’s kingdom was not that of society that man would have to prepare
and fight for, but that of an entirely new divine creation.
“The kingdom of god is not the fruit of the world’s progress. The heavenly state cannot arise out of our
profane culture. When the last trumpet sounds all the works of man will fade out. (Karl Bairth)
We must not give up the visible world as if it came from the evil one. It is our duty to change it into the
kingdom of heaven - Newman the kingdom of god is in time, and history is moving to its consummation
the end is a hope for history, not a release from history - Robinson.
But the end can bring nothing new but only translate into universal acknowledgement what is already a
fait accompli in the finished work of Christ. Perfection had been exhausted in the divinized humanity of
Jesus.
Hellenistic Influence upon Jewish minds : the author of the wisdom of Solomon, in striking contrast to
Jewish orthodoxy, shows, little concern with divine vindication in this world but concentrates upon post
mortem destiny. Human nature is also viewed differently: “For a corrupt body weighted down the soul (I x
15). Also believes in the pre-existence of the soul, “Being good I came into a body undefiled” (viii 19-20).
Since there are these two sides of existence, the ignorance of nature (i.e., ignorance which is part of
nature) and the light of the spirit, and since there is behind them the one reality, the reconciliation or the
bridging of the gulf ought to be possible. It is a keen sense of this possibility which has taken different
shapes and persisted through the centuries, - The perfectibility of man and society, and Alwar’s vision of
the descent of Vishnu and the gods upon earth, the reign of the saints, sadhunam rajyam the city of god.
The millennium the new heaven and earth of the Apocalypse. But these intuition have lacked the basis of
assured knowledge and the mind of man has remained swinging between a bright future hope and a grey
present certitude - (Sri Aurobindo)
Eckhart saw the kingdom of god as ‘god himself with all his riches.”
Man and superman
The two negations: (1) the denial of the materialist, (2) the refusal of the ascetic. At the gates of the
Transcendent stands that mere and perfect spirit, luminous, pure, sustaining the world but inactive in it,
the pure self of the advaitins. Here in the perception of this pure self or of the non-being behind it, we
have the starting point for a second negation, - The refusal of the ascetic. It is this revolt of spirit against
matter that for two thousand years has dominated increasingly the Indian mind. Not that some attempt at
an adjustment between the two terms has been wanting even from the most extreme philosophies. But
all have lived in the shadow of the great refusal ad the final end of life for all is the garb of the ascetic.
whoever does the work which he ought, to do without resort to its fruit, he is the sannayasin (renounce)
and the yogin, not he who does not light the sacred fire and performs no rites. What they call
renunciation know to be karma yoga, for no one becomes a yogin who has not renounced attachment to
desire (Gita, vi. 1-2).
The Tantrik system makes liberation the final, but not the only aim; it takes on its way a full perfection and
enjoyment of the spiritual power, light ad joy in the human existence. It seizes upon the obstacles to the
spiritual life and compels them to become the means for a richer spiritual conquest and enables us to
embrace the whole of life in our divine scope as the Lila (the cosmic play)of the divine. It grasps at that
idea of the divine perfectibility of man. Possessed by the Vedic Rishi but thrown into the background by
the intermediate ages, which is destined to fill so large a place in any future synthesis of human thought,
experience and aspiration.
All life is for enjoyment. Dharma comprises both Bhoga (enjoyment) and yoga. The evil turns to good
(From the Täntras)
Evolution is a word which merely states the phenomenon without explaining it. For there seems to be no
reason why life should evolve out of material elements or mind out of living form, unless we accept the
Vedantic solution that life is already involved in matter and mind in life, because in essence matter is a
form of veiled life, life a form of veiled consciousness. and then there seems to be little objection to a
farther step in the series. The animals is a living laboratory in which nature has worked out man. Man
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himself may well be thinking and living laboratory in whom and with whose conscious cooperation she
wills to work out the superman, the god. Or shall we not say, rather, to manifest god?
Religion often considers spiritual life as a life of renunciation and mortification; by spirituality it seems
often to mean something remote from earthly life and hostile to it. If so religion has no positive message
for human society or for the individual in any of the lower members of his being. Each principle of our
nature seeks naturally for perfection in its own sphere. This quarrel between earth and heaven, between
the spirit and its members becomes still more sterilizing if spirituality takes the form of a religion of sorrow
and suffering and austere mortification and the gospel of the vanity of things.
The present evolutionary crisis comes from a disparity between the limited faculties of man - mental,
ethical and spiritual - and the technical and economical means at his disposal. Without an inner change
man can no longer cope with the gigantic development of the outer life. If humanity is to survive, a radical
transformation of human nature is indispensable.
The Avatar of the super mind shall “With the Truth - light strike earth’s massive roots of trance/ wake a
dumb self in the inconscient depths / and raise a lost power from its python sleep / that the eyes of the
timeless might look out from time / and the world manifest the unveiled divine.
1. The word evolution carries with it in its intrinsic sense, in the idea at its root, the necessity of a
previous involution. We are bound then to suppose that all that evolves already existed involved
Concealed from us in the shell of material Nature. The spiritual process of evolution is then in
some sense a creation, but a self-creation, not a making of what never was, but a bringing out of
what was implicit in the Being.
2. Since the Divinity is involved here and is emerging it is inevitable that all his powers or degrees of
powers should emerge one after the other till the whole glory is embodies and visible.
3. Salvation or moksha (freedom) is the transcendence of our present nature the spirit within us
abandoning body, life and mind for a supernatural destiny. But our present nature is a derivation
from Supernature. Each part of our triple nature (body, life and mind) contains a hidden truth
which, when discovered and developed, would change it from an obscure impediment to a pliant
and luminous instrument of the spirit in manifestation. Man as he is now is a transitional being
and not the last term of the evolutionary series. Through a total transformation of his instrumental
nature there will emerge, as the next stage in evolution a race of "Gnostic beings" who will be as
far above our present humanity as man is above the animals.
4. The supramental transformation must carry with it a lifting of mind, life and body out of
themselves into a greater way of being in which their own ways and powers would not be
suppressed or abolished but perfected and fulfilled by the self-exceeding.
5. To bring the Divine Love and Beauty and Ananda into the world is, indeed, the whole aim and
essence of our yoga. But it has always seemed to me impossible unless there comes as its
support and foundation the Divine Truth, what I call the Supra mental - and its Divine Power.
6. The Super mind is the highest possible mode of manifestation. It is the dynamic self-vision of the
Infinite the Supreme viewing itself from the standpoint of indivisible unity. It is the Creature of the
worlds, an intermediate power between the transcendent Sacchidananda (Existence,
consciousness, Bliss) and the multitudinous forms of the manifested Universe (Cf. "Logos" the
Father knowing and articulating Himself as the Son.)
7. A supreme perfection is possible only by a transformation of our lower or human nature a
transformation of the mind into a thing of light, our life into a thing of power an instrument of right
action right use for all its forces, of a happy elevation of its being lifting it beyond its present
comparatively narrow potentiality for a self-fulfilling action and joy of life, there must be equally a
transforming change of the body by a conversion of its actions its functioning, its capacities as an
instrument beyond all limitations by which it as present clogged and hampered.
8. The super mental is a truth and its advent is in the very nature of things inevitable. I believe the
descent of this Truth opening the way to a development of divine consciousness here to be the
final sense of the earth evolution.
9. For Teilhard de Chardin the genesis of the Kingdom of God will not occur as the sudden eruption
of something supernatural into a degraded world ruled by demons. It will rather be the ascent of
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the earth and its metamorphosis into something new. Uniform humanity will flow into God, while
God as the centre and axis flows onto humanity and will become visible in it.. The incarnation of
God is not a process which exhausts in a single and unique historical person It is a process of
transformation which aims at the divinization of man. But, in man, it transform the entire universe
(Ernest Benz Evolution and Christian Hope.)
10. A spiritual Ananda (Bliss) can flow into the body and inundate cell and tissue; a luminous
materialization of this higher Ananda could of itself bring about a total transformation of physical
nature. The body will be turned by the power of spiritual consciousness into a true and fit and
perfectly responsive instrument of the Spirit.
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C36 - The Present Tension and the future Possibilities
A Talk by The Mother
One thing seems obvious, humanity has reached a certain state of general tension - tension in effort, in
action, even in daily life - with such an excessive hyperactivity, so widespread a trepidation, that mankind
as a whole seems to have come to a point where it must either break through the resistance and emerge
into a new consciousness or else fall back into an abyss of darkness and inertia.
The tension is so complete ad so widespread that something obviously has to break. It cannot go on in
this way. We may take it as a sure sign of the infusion into matter of a new principle of force,
consciousness, power. Which by its very pressure in producing this acute state. Outwardly, we could
expect the old methods used by nature when she wants to bring about an upheaval; but there is a new
characteristic, which of course is only visible in an elite, but even this elite is widespread - it is not
localized at one point, at one place in the world; we find traces of it in all countries, all over the world; the
will to find a new, higher, progressive solution, and effort to rise towards a vaster, more comprehensive
perfection.
Certain ideas of a more general nature, of a wider, perhaps more “collective” kind are being worked out
and are acting in the world. and both things go together: a possibility of a greater ad more total
destruction, a reckless inventiveness which increases the possibility of a catastrophe, a catastrophe
which would be on a far greater scale then it has ever been; and, at the same time, the birth or rather the
manifestation of much higher ad more comprehensive ideas ad acts of will which, when they are heard,
will bring a wider, vaster, more complete, more perfect remedy then before.
This struggle, this conflict between the constructive forces of the ascending evolution of a more and more
perfect ad divine realization, and the more and more destructive, powerfully destructive forces - forces
that are mad beyond all control - is more and more obvious, marked, visible, and it is a kind of race or
struggle as to which will reach the goal first. It would seem that all the adverse, anti-divine forces, the
forces of the vital world, have descended on the earth, are making use of it as their field of action, and
that at the same time a new, higher, more powerful spiritual force has also descended on earth to bring it
a new life. This makes the struggle more acute, more violent, more visible, but it seems also more
definite, and that is why we can hope to reach an early solution.
There was a time, not so long ago, when the spiritual aspiration of man was turned towards a silent,
inactive peace, detached from all worldly things, a flight from life, precisely to avoid battle, to rise above
the struggle, escape all effort; it was a spiritual peace in which, along with the cessation of all tension,
struggle, effort, there ceased also suffering in all its forms, and this was considered to be the true and
only expression of a spiritual and divine life. It was considered to be the divine grace, the divine help, the
divine intervention. And even now, in this age of anguish, tension, hypertension, this sovereign peace is
the best received aid of all, the most welcome, the solace people ask and hope for. For many it is still the
true sign of a divine intervention, of divine grace.
In fact, no matter what one wants to realize, one must being by establishing this perfect ad immutable
peace; it is the basis from which one must work; but unless one is dreaming of an exclusive, personal and
egoistic liberation, one cannot stop there. There is another aspect of the divine grace, the aspect of
progress which will be victorious over all obstacles, the aspect which will propel humanity to a new
realization, which will open the doors of a new world and make it possible not only for a chosen few to
benefit by the divine realization but for their influence, their example, their power to bring to the rest of
mankind new and better conditions.
This opens up roads of realization into the future, possibilities which are already foreseen, when an entire
part of humanity, the one which has opened consciously or unconsciously to the new forces, is lifted up,
as it were, into a higher, more harmonious, more perfect life. Even if individual transformation is not
always permissible or possible, there will be a kind of general uplifting, a harmonization of the whole,
which will make it possible for a new order, a new harmony to be established and for the anguish of the
present disorder ad struggle to disappear and be replaced by an order which will allow a harmonious
functioning of the whole.
There will be other consequences which will tend to eliminate in an opposite way what the intervention of
the mind in life has created, the perversions, the ugliness, the whole mass of distortions which have
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increased suffering, misery, moral poverty, and entire area of sordid ad repulsive misery which makes a
whole part of human life into something so frightful. That must disappear. This is what makes humanity
in so many ways infinitely worse than animal life in its simplicity and the natural spontaneity and harmony
that it has in spite of everything. Suffering in animals is never so miserable and sordid as it is in an entire
section of humanity which has been perverted by the use of a mentality exclusively at the service of
egoistic needs.
We must rise, above, spring up into Light and Harmony or fall back, down into the simplicity of a healthy
unperverted animal life.
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C37 - Integral psychology, Mental Health and Yoga
Integral Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga - 1
“We are not only what we know of ourselves but an immense more which we do not know; our
momentary personality is only a bubble on the ocean of our existence.” ... Sri Aurobindo
Psychology that divorced itself from Philosophy and emerged as a distinct scientific discipline more then a
century ago was initially defined as the science of consciousness or mind. It concerned itself with the
internal or subjective domain of sensations, perceptions, thoughts, emotions, will, memory etc. This early
concept of mind had a restricted connotation referring only to those aspects of mental life which one can
become aware of through introspection. It is called Introspectionism.
The philosophical basis of this Psychology was Materialism. Consciousness in itself does not exist. There
are only phenomena of reactions of Matter to Matter or Energy in Matter to another Energy in Matter.
There is no person who is conscious, speaks, perceives, thinks, wills, acts. It is the body that speaks, etc.
Materialism posits matter as the only reality, consciousness being regarded as its epiphenomenal
byproduct.
Materialism is reductionistic and attempts to explain all of human psychology in the same elementary
terms of physiology and biology applicable to the animal.
No mere mechanism of gray stuff of the brain can explain the imagination of the poet or scientific
exploration. A gland cannot write Hamlet or pulp of brainwork out a system of metaphysics.
Materialism misinterprets the phenomenon of Evolution. It explains the later stages as mere
modifications of the earlier stages. There is the theory of Emergent Evolution, which declares that the
later stages are already involved in the earlier stages. Mind is already present in Matter, only waiting to
be released. Consciousness does not evolve out of Matter
‘But does the secret of the lotus flower lie buried in the mud from which it rises in the form and beauty it
embodies? '
The first systematic attempt to get away from the surface phenomena and look behind them for their true
operations and causes was made by Psychoanalysis, founded by Sigmund Freud. The mind, said Freud,
is like an iceberg of which nine-tenths lies below the surface of the conscious mind and is therefore
inaccessible to introspection. Yet this is the most powerful determinant and real cause of outward
behavior. Space and transcended dimension may belong to both.
Integral Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga - 2
Freud discovered the Unconscious, the storehouse of instincts, impulses and other psychological
contents that are not only outside conscious awareness but also ordinarily inaccessible to it.
Psychoanalysis gave birth to Depth Psychology, the recognition of unconscious motives and attitudes.
This had a revolutionary influence in field of Psychiatry.
“The new science has taken the first capital step. It has made the discovery which is the beginning of
self-knowledge that our waking and surface existence is only a small part of our character, mentality and
actions”.
The great secret discovered by Freud – why at times we all do things against our will – is that the
unconscious part of our mind lacks any sense of what we call reality. It does not distinguish between
truth and fantasy. The purpose of psychoanalysis is to make the unconscious fantasies conscious.
“Where there is id let ego be”.
The therapeutic intent of psychoanalysis is to strengthen the ego, to widen its field of perception and
enlarge its organization so that it can appropriate fresh portions of the id ‘where id was ego shall be.’
Modern science obsessed with the greatness of its physical discoveries has long attempted to base even
its study of Soul and Mind upon physical data. Its very psychology founded itself upon physiology and the
scrutiny of the brain and nervous system.
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The psychoanalysis of Freud takes up a certain part, the lower vital subconscious layer, isolates some of
its most morbid phenomena and attributes to it and them action out of all proportion to its true role in
nature.
Integral Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga - 3
Transpersonal Psychology includes in its purview areas beyond those dealt with by Psychoanalysis. It
includes experiences in which an individual transcends the limitations of identifying exclusively with the
ego or personality.
Jung differed from Freud chiefly in two respects. In the first place, Jung maintained that the libido is not a
purely sexual drive but a general psychic energy or life instinct. Secondly, Jung believed that besides the
unconscious in the individual there is a collective unconscious which is common to the human race as a
whole. It plays a far greater role in determining an individual’s behavior than the personal unconscious. It
is a source of creative ideas.
The psychic entity which is at first an undifferentiated power of the divine Consciousness, the immaculate
spark soul, puts forth and develops its individuality in nature.
The psychic being has in itself no desires; it has only an aspiration and a seeking and love for the Divine
and all things that tend towards the Divine.
The psychic entity which is at first an undifferentiated power of the divine Consciousness, the immaculate
speak-soul, puts forth and develops its individuality in the nature. The psychic being is that spark of the
Divine fire that grows behind the mind, vital and physical until it is able to transform the Prakriti of
Ignorance into the Prakriti of Knowledge. It seeks to bring about a transformation of mind, life and body.
I
Moksha is only the beginning and not the end of the spiritual queSt. “O soul, it is too early to rejoice! Thou
hast reached the boundless silence of the Self. Thou hast leaped into a glad divine abyss: But where
hast thou thrown self’s mission and self’s power? On what dead band on the Eternals road? ” (Sri
Aurobindo – Savitri)
Mind: Part of the nature that has to do with cognition, intelligence and ideas. (2) Vital has three parts: (a)
Emotional-the seat of feelings, joy, sorrow; (b) Central –seat of stronger vital longings an reactions, e.g.
ambition, pride, fear, attractions, repulsions, desires (c) Lower vital – occupied with small desires, food,
sex, vanity, love of praise. (3) Physical: the body, which is tämasic and obscure. Its movements are
mechanical and repetitive and the greater part of it is subconscient.
Integral Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga - 4
Freedom is not the final goal of evolution. There is also in us an aspiration for the mastery of Nature and
the transformation for a greater perfection in earthly existence itself.
To be established permanently, this new order of existence demands a radical change of the entire
human nature. In this transformation there are three phases. In the first phase of this transformation
there are three phases. The first phase of this transformation can be called psychic: the soul or psychic
beings has to come forward and take the lead of the whole being. Two principle results follow this
emergence: first an effective guidance and mastery which unmasks and rejects all that is false and
obscure or all that opposes the divine realization; then a spontaneous influx of spiritual experiences of all
kinds.
The second phase of the transformation may be called spiritual: it is an opening to an Infinity above us,
an eternal Presence, a boundless Self and infinity of Consciousness of Bliss and All-Power.
The third phase: the transition from mind to Supermind is a passage from Nature into Supernature. For
that very reason it cannot be achieved by Superconscience and must descend into us and uplift us and
transform our being.
The Supermind or Gnosis is the full truth-Consciousness. Its fundamental character is knowledge by
identity in which the knower is one with the known.
The supramental or Gnostic being will be the perfect consummation of the spiritual man. It will be a
transition from an evolution in the Ignorance to an always-progressive evolution in the Knowledge.
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Matter will reveal itself as the instrument of the manifestation of Spirit; a new liberated sovereign
acceptance of material Nature will then be possible. To cease to be identified with the body is a
necessary step. But this redemption once affected, the descent of the spiritual light and force can invade
and transform the body. “Even the Body shall remember god “. A spiritual Änand can flow into the body
and inundate cell and tissue and bring about a total transformation of deficient sensibilities of physical
Nature.
The life of the Gnostic being is superhuman or divine life, but this must not be confused with popular
ideas of a magnified and exaggerated ego, of a forceful domination over humanity by the superman, a
return to barbaric strength and ruthlessness, a Supermanhood of the Nietzsche type.
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C38 - Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga
Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga - 1
“We are not only what we know of ourselves but an immense more which we do not know; our
momentary personality is only a bubble on the ocean of our existence.” (Sri Aurobindo)
Psychology which divorced itself from philosophy and emerged as a distinct scientific discipline a little
over a century ago was initially defined as “the science of consciousness or mind” – the internal or
subjective domain of sensations, perceptions thoughts, emotions, will, memory, etc. This early concept of
mind had a restricted connotation, referring only to those aspects of mental life which one can become
aware of through introspection. Sometimes called Introspectionism.
The first systematic attempt to get away from the surface phenomena and look behind them for their true
operations and causes was made by Psychoanalysis founded by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939).
The mind said Freud, is like an iceberg of which nine-tenths, which he called the Unconscious, lies below
the surface of the conscious mind and is therefore inaccessible to introspection. Yet this is the most
powerful determinant and real cause of outward behavior. This is know as “depth psychology” and was a
great advancement on the earlier psychology which dealt only with the surface mind.
“The new science has taken the first capital step. It has made the discovery which is the beginning of
self-knowledge that our waking and surface existence is only a small part of our being and does not yield
to us the root and secret of our character, mentality and actions.” (Sri Aurobindo)
But scientific psychology is reductionistic and attempts to explain all of human psychology in the same
elementary terms of physiology and biology applicable to the animal. It assumes that the body and the
biological and physiological factors of our nature are the whole real foundation and regards the human
mind as only a subtle development from the life and body.
Behaviorism regards all “mental” processes as merely epiphenomenal accompanying physiological
processes.
Humanistic Psychology (Abraham Maslow) is critical of psychoanalysis and Behaviorism. Psychology,
according to it, should deal not only with what is abnormal and pathological but also with what is uniquely
human, namely, the striving for growth and self-development and the pursuit of the higher values of life
for the attainment of one’s highest potential.
“I consider Humanistic Psychology to be transitional, a preparation for a still ‘higher’ Psychology,
transpersonal, transhumance, centered in the cosmos rather than human needs and interests, going
beyond humanness, self-actualization and the like.” (Maslow)
This ‘higher’ Psychology took shape in the form of Transpersonal Psychology which includes in its
purview areas beyond those dealt with by Psychoanalysis and Humanistic Psychology. Such new areas
of research include higher states of consciousness, ultimate values, self-transcendence, mystical
experiences, etc. Psychology in general and psychoanalysis in particular regard the ego as representing
the most advanced stage in the psychological development of the individual.
“I find it difficult to take these psycho-analysts at all seriously when they try to scrutinize spiritual
experience by the flicker of their torch-lights. They look from down up and explain the higher lights by the
lower obscurities; but the foundation of these thoughts is above not below. The superconscient not the
subconscient is the true foundation of things. You must know the whole before you can know the part.”
The “still higher psychology” envisaged by Maslow strikingly echoes Sri Aurobindo’s prevision of “the
greater psychology awaiting its hour.”
Perhaps the clearest expression of this new concept of consciousness in modern psychology is to be
found in Ken Wilber. He has formulated the concept of “the spectrum of consciousness”, i.e. human
personality is a multi-leveled manifestation of a single consciousness. The ego-consciousness is a
“drastically narrowed sense of identity.” This is a total reversal of what modern psychology has hitherto
held regarding the ego.
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Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga - 2
(This dialogue between a Vedantist (V) and a Materialist (M) is intended to show that Materialism is not
only false but self-refuting and, in the end meaningless.)
V. So Mr. Materialist, you preach materialism. Pray tell me what is materialism?
M. Materialism is the doctrine that only matter exists. What you call consciousness does not exiSt. It is a
fiction.
V. Then what shall we say about such things as ‘thoughts’, ‘emotions’, ‘perceptions’ etc.?
M. They are only forms of matter-matter in motion. They do not exist as such but only as physical and
physiological processes.
V. Sounds fantastic! How can you hold such a theory?
M. It’s a true theory and by that I mean that the theory corresponds to or accords with facts.
V. Just one question. If you say that the mind or consciousness does not exist then how can you explain
your ‘theory’ with the use of mental concepts?
M. What do you mean?
V. What I am pointing out is that in explaining a ‘theory’ which says that consciousness does not exist
you have used such terms as ‘consciousness’, ‘thought’, ‘truth’, ‘theory’, ‘correspondence’. These are
mental terms. Even the name of your ‘theory’, ‘Materialism’ is a mental concept. It presupposes a mind
that ‘holds’ that theory.
M. So what?
V. Don’t you see? If matter alone exists then when you use mental concepts you must, if what you are
saying is to make any sense, replace these mental concept-terms by using terms that refer only to
physical and physiological processes. So tell me, what are the physical processes you are referring to
when you talk of ‘truth’ ‘theory’ ‘correspondence’, etc.? And, further what is this ‘you’ who has been doing
all this meaningless talking, meaningless because ‘talking’ and ‘meaning’ themselves are mental
concepts? The moment you open your mouth you contradict yourself out of your own mouth. On your
‘View’ there can be no such thing as a ‘view’.
M. I don’t understand what you are saying.
V. And, materialist, nobody understands what you are saying for you are merely making noises but
saying nothing at all!
Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga - 3
The Atman is the self or Spirit that remains above, pure and stainless, unaffected by desire, ego and
ignorance. It is the true being of the individual.
Consciousness is usually identified with mind, but mental consciousness is only the human range. There
are ranges of consciousness above and below the human range with which the normal human has no
contact.
The Central Being is the portion of the Divine in us which supports all the rest and survives through death
and birth. This central being has two forms: above it is Jivatman, our true being, of which we become
aware when the higher self-knowledge comes; below it is the psychic being which stands behind mind,
life and body.
The Ego is a perverse reflection of the psychic being or the Jivatma. Tämasic ego is the ego of
weakness, inertia, despondency and unbelief. Rajasic ego is puffed up with pride and self-esteem or
stubbornly asserts itself at every step or wherever it can. Sättvic ego is the sense of goodness, poise and
virtue. All these ego-formations have in the end to be transcended.
The three gunas associated with the three ego-formations are:
Sattva
the quality that illumines and harmonizes.
Rajas
energy, the quality that drives to action.
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Tamas
the quality that hides.
It is inertia and mechanical in its movements or subject to the law of association.
“Our mind and ego are like the crown and dome of a temple jutting out from the waves while the great
body of the building is submerged under the surface of the waters.” (Sri Aurobindo) (Cf. Freud’s
‘iceberg’.)
According to Freud the mental apparatus is made up of three components the 'id', consisting of the
primitive instinctual energies; the 'ego' constituted by the thinking part of the mind and its cognitive
functions such as perception, memory, problem solving, etc.; and the 'superego' which acts as a
conscience for the ego in censoring the instinctual demands of the id.
From the viewpoint of Sri Aurobindo, the fundamental limitation of modern psychology in delineating the
nature of what it calls the unconscious stems from the mistake of describing the whole of a vast and
complex reality in terms of a miniscule part (the blind men and the elephant). One must, says Sri
Aurobindo, know the whole before you can know the part. The whole explains the parts, not vice versa.
Cf. the significance of evolution. The later stages explain the earlier.
Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga - 4
There is a psychological health just as there is a physical health. Not a single person is normal because
to be normal is to be divine. Man is an abnormal who has not yet found his true normality.
Yoga as practical psychology necessarily deals with psychological disturbances.
‘Mind’ refers to that part of the human being which has to do solely with cognitive functions and
processes. Feeling pertains to the vital, whereas will or volition can be either mental or vital.
The vital is the Life-nature made up of desires, sensations, feelings, passions, energies of action and of
all that play of possessive and other related instincts, anger, fear greed, lust, etc. that belong to this field
of nature.
Some of the chief characteristics of the physical consciousness are inertia, mechanical activity,
repetitiveness, chaotic movement and narrowness or constriction.
In Integral Yoga, psychological disturbances are seen as springing from various inherent characteristics
of physical, vital and mental consciousness and of their intermixtures.
Disturbances associated with the Mind: The peculiar characteristic of mental consciousness is that it is
self-reflective, that is, it can objective itself. Hence the agony of any disturbance is magnified by several
other factors related to the mind, such as memory, anticipation, imagination and anxiety about whether
things can be set right and how it can be done.
Animals do not have the problem of anxiety and worry. Man watches himself live. The animal lives
spontaneously and automatically. That is why it does not worry. Even if an animal is suffering because
of an accident or an illness, this suffering is reduced to a minimum by the fact that it does not observe it.
It does not ask why it happened or when will it end. It does not imagine things about its accident or
illness.
In man, because of his objectivising consciousness, there begins anxiety, painful imagination, worry,
torment, and anticipation of future catastrophes with the result that many live in perpetual torment. The
solution is not to fall back to the level of the animal but to emerge into a higher state where worry is
replaced by a trusting surrender and the certitude of a luminous culmination.
These fearful imaginations, etc. come from a part of the mind intermixed with the vital – the vital mind.
Another manifestation of the vital mind in relation to psychological disturbances is seen in what are called
‘defense mechanisms’. A defense mechanism is an unconscious process which serves to ward off a
painful feeling.
Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga - 5
One of the chief defense mechanisms is rationalization by which the mind colludes with the vital in
providing specious explanations and justifications for the impulses and desires of the vital. Explanation of
rationalization: The vital obeys only impulse and is deaf to reason. But curiously enough, by the
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necessity which has grown up in man of justifying action by reason, the vital mind has developed a
strategy of its own which is to get the mind to find out reasons for justifying its own feelings and impulses.
Another example of a defense mechanism is that of 'projection' by which we tend to attribute a feeling or
motive to another person to quit the pricking of our own conscience.
The physical mind is that part of the mind that is intermixed with the physical consciousness. The
mechanical and chaotic activity of the physical consciousness (tamas) is reflected in the ceaseless and
incoherent mental activity that turns the mind into a veritable market place where thoughts constantly
come and go in a disorderly manner.
Another characteristic of the physical consciousness is its 'mechanical repetitiveness'. This trait is
manifested in the automatic recurrence of thoughts and words. Still another disturbance related to the
physical mind consists in 'perpetual doubt' leading to compulsive behavior such as the compulsion to
check and recheck if a door has been locked.
The obsessive-compulsive neurosis is related chiefly to the physical mind.
Disturbances associated with the Vital: In the first place, the vital as the source of desires, longings and
cravings constitutes an inherent disturbance of the vital. Besides desire there is a host of other disturbing
feelings. One of the chief is fear. It is part of the normal human condition. Closely related to fear are two
other major disturbances of the vital, namely anger and depression. A disturbance prominent in modern
civilization is impatience – the ‘hurry sickness.’ The recommendation of Yoga is ‘Live in the present’.
The essential morbidity of the untransformed vital nature is particularly evident in its masochistic tendency
to continue clinging to a disturbance and to wallow in it and not to let it go.
Disturbances associated with the Physical: The most prominent characteristic of physical consciousness
is inertia or Tamas. An intense stimulus is needed to produce an emotional reaction in tämasic
individuals. They always need new excitements, dramas, murders, suicides, etc. to get the impression of
something happening.
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C39 - Living Within
1. Modern Psychology has followed a certain progressive trend, a dimensional development. To the
lateral or surface view of the humor being was added a new dimension by the 'depth' psychologists
which discovered the 'unconscious', ascribing to it a greater role than the conscious mind in
determining human behavior.
2. Recently yet another dimension, that of 'height' was discovered through experiences of 'higher' states
of consciousness - Transpersonal Psychology. Thus psychology is drawing closer to the
pluridimensional concept of the human being found in Yoga. Since notions of mental health stem
from the ories regarding personality structure, the convergence of psychology and yoga is reflected
also in the field of mental health.
3. "Yoga is nothing but practical psychology." (Sri Aurobindo)
4. The study of psychopathological behavior led Freud to the discovery of the Unconscious - The
storehouse of instincts and impulses below consciousness and ordinarily inaccessible to it. Freud's
'Pansexual' was an attempt to explain the entire gamut of normal as well as abnormal behavior literary and religious pursuits as well as the aberrations of hysteria and psychosis - in terms of the
libidinal impulse.
5. Jung differed from Freud chiefly in two respects: (1) he regarded the libido as not merely a sexual
drive but a general psychic energy of (? ? ) instinct which expresses itself in diverse forms, including
the sexual urge. (2) Besides the unconscious in the individual Jung discovered a collective
unconscious which is common to the human race as a whole. For Jung this plays a far greater role in
determining human behavior
6. Jung's broader concept of the libido as a general instinctual energy is akin to what Sri Aurobindo has
termed the vital.
7. "Vitality means life-force, - wherever there is life, in plant or animal or man there is life-force. The vital
is the 1ife-nature made up of desires, sensations, feelings passions, energies of action., and all that
play of possessive and other related instincts, anger, fear, greed lust, etc., that belong to this field of
nature." Sri A.'s concept of the vital connotes life-force in all its gradations from the grosser lifeenergy (Präna) to the higher forms of the vital, such as feelings and emotions. He says: "The three
strongest motivating forces for the ordinary individual, power, wealth and sex.
8. Psychoanalysis and Behaviorism are characterized by reductionism. They explain the complex
human behavior - (an-attempt to explain the complex behavior) of the more highly evolved human
organism in terms of the same Physiological and biological principles which are applicable to the
simpler of the less evolved animal organism. Body and the biological and physiological factors of our
nature are not only the starting point but the whole real foundation of human nature.
9. "I find it difficult to take these psycho-analysts at all seriously when they try to scrutinize spiritual
experience by the flicker of their torch lights. They look from down up and explain the higher lights by
the lower obscurities; but the foundations of these things is above and below, (Sri A.) the Gita speaks
of a tree which has its roots above and its branches below. "The significance of the lotus is not to be
found by analyzing the secrets of the mud from which it grows here."
10. For Freud the ego represents the most advanced stage in the psychological development. Even
Jung says that if there is no ego there is nobody to be conscious of anything. But "the ego, with its
sense of a reparative individuality, is only a shadow of the true individuality which is characterized by
a sense of oneness with the all. The ego is a knot in Sri A. has, through personal exploration and
experience, mapped out and intimately described the entire terrain of consciousness in all its
gradations.
11. The leaves are falling. The leaves are falling. They didn't ought to — AUT-UMN?
Modern empirical psychology and psychoanalysis generally abstract man from his metaphysical setting
and regard him purely as a phenomenon to be studied by the methods of natural science. They give at
best partial insights into the structure ad workings of the mind, but cannot lead to self-knowledge or
provide an adequate basis for resolving individual and social conflicts. The so-called “depth psychology”
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uncovers only what is below the surface of the unregenerate, ego-structure personality, but does not
reach down to the True Person concealed in “the cave of the heart.
Man is an abnormal who has not yet found his true normality (Sri Aurobindo)
What we call our personality is fragmented and dispersed into a number of ‘sub-personalities’, each of
which call itself “I”. We all have deeply ingrained in us that each of us is one consistent person, that when
a person says “I” he refers to himself in his entirety, as an entity that persists day after day. The illusion of
unity is created in a man by the sensation of one physical body, by his name, and by a number of
mechanical habits implanted in him by education or acquired by imitation (Ouster mind is one in the
sense that carts are entangled with each other, like a ball of wool that has become a kitten’s plaything.
“The great secret” discovered by Freud - why at times we all do things against our will - is that the
unconscious part of our mind lacks any sense of what we call reality. It does not distinguish between
truth and fantasy.
To deal with the mind two things are necessary: (1) not so much to try to control or fight with or to
suppress it as to stand back from it; one looks at it and sees what it is but refuses to follow its thoughts or
run about among the objects it pursues, remaining quiet and separate; (2) to practice quietude and
concentration in this separateness until poise of quiet takes hold of the physical mind and replaces the
habit of its activities (Sri Aurobindo).
But does the secret of the lotus flower lie buried in the mud from which it rises or the form and beauty it
embodies? (Sri Aurobindo).
Why do we do things against our will? the unconscious part of the mind does not distinguish between
good & evil & insists on its own satisfaction F. attacked the fortress of man’s belief in his omniscience reason and deprived man of his pride in his rationality. A great deal of our conscious thinking only veils
our real thoughts and feelings and hides the truth. Much of our thinking is a rationalization of the thoughts
and desires we prefer not to be aware of at all.
The unconscious is largely a field of autonomous formations and they are disorderly…It zig, where are
you going? Don’t ask me, ask the horse.
It is necessary to understand clearly the difference between the evolving soul (psychic being) and the
pure Atman, self or spirit. The pure self is unborn, does not pass through death or birth, is independent of
birth or body, mind or life or his manifested Nature. It is not bound by these things, not limited, not
affected even though it assumes and supports them. The soul, on the contrary, is something that comes
down into birth and passes through death – although it does not itself die, for it is immortal - from one
state to another, from the earth plane to other planes and back again to the earth-existence. It goes on
with this progression from life to life through an evolution which leads it up to the human state and
evolves through it all a being of itself which we call the psychic being that supports the evolution and
develops a physical a vital, a mental human consciousness as its instruments.
Consciousness is usually identified with mind, but mental consciousness is only the human range. There
are ranges of consciousness beyond and below the human range with which the normal human has no
contact and they seem to it unconscious.
The ordinary man is aware only of his surface being. Yet what is on the surface is only a small part of our
being and far the larger part of us is behind the frontal consciousness, behind the veil, occult and known
only by occult knowledge.
This hidden consciousness is the subliminal self. But the truth is that all this that is behind, this sea of
which our waking consciousness is only a wave or a series of waves, cannot be described by any one
term, for it is very complex, Part of it is subconscient, lower than our waking consciousness, part of it is
above and superconscient to us. Part of it is on a level with it but behind and much larger than it.
Material consciousness is mostly subconscient, but part of it that is conscious is mechanical, inertly
moved by habits or by the forces of the lower nature. Always repeating the same unintelligent and
unenlightened movements, it is unwilling to change, unwilling to receive the light or obey the higher force.
There are many things in the ordinary man of which he is not conscious, because the vital hides them
from the mind and gratifies them without the mind realizing what is the force that is moving the action, thus things that are done under the plea of altruism, philanthropy, service, etc., are largely moved by ego
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which hides itself behind these justifications. In Yoga the secret motive has to be pulled out from behind
the veil, exposed and got rid of. Secondly, some things are suppressed in the ordinary life and remain
lying in the nature, suppressed but not eliminated; they may rise up any day or they may express
themselves in various nervous forms or other disorders of the mind. Vital or body without it being evident
what is the real cause.
1. I said to my soul, Be still and wait without hope / For hope would be hope for the wrong thing wait
without love, for love would be love of the wrong things wait without thought, for you are not ready for
thought / So the darkness will be the light and the stillness the dancing.
2. Effort means straining endeavor. There can be an action with a will in it in which there is no strain or
effort.
3. The best thing to do is to realize that the thought flow is not yourself, it is not you who are thinking,
but thought that is going on in the mind. It is Prakriti with its thought energy that is raising all this whirl
of thought in you.
4. Let the Silence descend into you; open yourself and let it descend. The way to call down the higher
powers is to remain quiet at the time of meditation, not fighting with the mind or making mental efforts
to pull down the Power or the Silence but keeping only a silent will and aspiration for them.
5. There are four elements which make up the totality of man's being: the surface or outer being, the
subconscient, the subliminal and the superconscient. The nature of man is intimately related to the
nature of the universe.
6. The term "mind" has been used indiscriminately to cover the whole surface consciousness. It really
connotes that part of the being which is related to cognitive elements and functions, such as ideas
and thoughts intelligence and reasoning.
7. The vital and the body-consciousness are mixed up with mind. On the surface the vital is the LifeNature made up of sensations, energies of action, instincts, impulses, desires, feelings and emotions.
8. The body is not mere unconscious Matter; it is a structure of a secretly conscious Energy that has
taken form in it, vehicle of an overt consciousness.
9. The Subconscient is that quite submerged part of our being in which there is no wakingly conscious
and coherent thought, will or feeling or organized reaction, but which yet receives obscurely the
impressions of all things and stores them up in itself and from it too all sorts of stimuli of persistent
habitual movements crudely repeated or disguised forms can surge up into dream or into the waking
nature.
10. The Subliminal lies behind the surface personality. It is a greater consciousness endowed with
surprising faculties and capable of a much sure action and experience. (Cf. Jung's "Collective
Unconscious"). The subliminal is a veiled consciousness constituting an inner mind, an inner life and
an inner physical consciousness. It may be called the inner self.
11. In the Subconscient there is an obscure mind full of obstinate sanskara impressions, associations,
fixed nations, habitual reactions formed by our past. It is largely responsible for our illnesses; chronic
or repeated illnesses are indeed mainly due to the subconscient and its obstinate memory and habit
of repetition of whatever has impressed itself up on the body-consciousness.
12. The Superconscient is the supreme consciousness above Nature and ever free. In it we are
inherently conscious of our true Self in union with the Divine.
13. Yoga is nothing but practical psychology. It only begins when we get away from the surface
phenomena and look behind them for their true operations and causes.
1. Empty all thoughts out of the mind so as to leave it a sort of pure vigilant blank on which the divine
knowledge may come and imprint itself. This may be called the dhyäna of liberation, as it Frees the
mind from slavery to the mechanical process of thinking and allows it to think or not to think as it
pleases and when it pleases.
2. There are no essential external conditions, but solitude and seclusion at the time of meditation. as
well as stillness of the body are helpful. But once the habit of meditation is formed, it should be
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possible to do it in all circumstances, lying, sitting, walking, alone, in company, in silence or in the
midst of noise, etc.
3. You have to separate yourself from the mind also. You have to feel yourself in the mental* vital and
physical levels a consciousness that is neither, mind, life nor body.
4. Effort means straining endeavor. There can be an action with a will in it in which there is no strain or
effort.
5. The difficulty in meditation is that thoughts of all kinds come in. There are many ways of getting rid of
this difficulty. One of them is to look at the thoughts and observe what is the nature of the human
mind as they show it, but not to give any sanction and to let them run down till they come "to a
standstill. This is a way recommended by Vivekananda"
6. Another way is to look at the thoughts as not one's own* to stand back as the witness Purusha and
refuse the sanction. The thoughts will be seen as coming from outside. Realize that the thought-flow
is not your, self, it is not you who are thinking. It is Prakriti that is raising all, this whirl of thought in
you* imposing it on the Purusha.
7. A persistent practice of rejection is necessary. There should be no struggle or wrestling with the
thought, but only a quiet self-separation and refusal. If consent is constantly withheld the mechanical
whirl eventually ceases and begins to die away.
8. Let the Silence descend into you, i.e. open yourself and let it descend Remain quiet at the time of
meditation, not fighting with the mind or making mental efforts to pull down the Silence but keeping
only a silent will and aspiration for it. If the mind is active one has to learn to look at it* drawn back
and not giving any sanction from within, until its habitual or mechanical activities begin to fall quiet for
want of support from within.
9. Forceful suppression stands on the same level as free indulgence; in both cases the desire remains;
in the one case it is fed by indulgence, in the other it lies, latent and exasperated by the suppression.
10. The purification of the physical being at its subconscient roots will eliminate most of the causes of
illness, decay and decrepitude and make for health and longevity and a general vigor and efficiency
in the outer personality.
11. Nobody is fit for the Sädhanä (spiritual practice) - i.e. nobody can do it by his own sole capacity. It is
done by the Force but with one's consent and aspiration.
12. If one has a fundamental sincerity, a will to go through in spite of all things, a readiness to be frank
and unbiased - that is the best security in Sädhanä.. Sincerity - sin (without) care (Wax).
13. The best thing to do is to realize that the thought-flow is not yourself it is not you who are thinking* but
thought is going on in the mind. It is Prakriti with its thought-energy that is raising all this whirl of
thought in you.
14. Distrust of the curative power within us was our physical fall from Paradise. Medical science and a
bad heredity are the two angels of God who stand at the gates to forbid our return and entry.
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C40 - Psychology, Health and Yoga
Mind: Part of the nature which has to do with cognition intelligence and ideas. It is an instrument of
organization and action.
(2) Vitals Three parts: (a) Emotional - seat of feelings, joy, sorrow. (b) Central - seat of stronger vital
longings and reactions, e.g. ambition, pride, fear, love of fame, attractions and repulsions, desires and
passions of various kinds. (c) Lower vital - occupied with small desires likings, disliking and feelings such
as make the greater part of daily life, e.g. food and sexual desires, vanity, quarrels, love of praise, anger,
little wishes of all kinds.
(3) Physical: the body as experienced by the outward sense-mind. It is tama sic and obscure. Its
movements are technical and repetitive and the greater part of it is subconscient.
(4) Subcontinent: the quite submerged part of our being in which there is no waking conscious or
coherent thought, will or feeling or organized reaction* but which yet receives obscurely the impressions
of all things and stores them up in itself. and from it too all sorts of stimuli, of persistent habitual
movements, crudely repeated or disguised in strange forms can surge up into dream or into the waking
nature,
(5) Subliminal: the subliminal self stands behind and supports the whole superficial man; it has in it a
larger and more efficient mind behind the surface mind, a larger and more powerful vital behind the
surface vital, a subtler and freer physical consciousness behind the surface bodily existence. From the
subliminal come all the great aspirations, ideal, strivings towards a better self and humanity, as also most
of the art, Philosophy, poetry and thirst for knowledge. Every/plane of our being, mental, vital and
physical, has its own consciousness, separated thought interconnected and interacting. The
disturbances in our surface consciousness is the result of the intermixture and confusion of these different
parts of our being.
The leaves are falling, the leaves are falling, they didn't ought to, Autumn?
1. Meditation is a deliberate attempt to separate oneself from the flow of daily life and to "turn off" the
active mode of normal consciousness, in order to enter the mode of darkness and receptivity.
2. Forget all creatures that God ever made, and the works of them so that thought or they desire not. be
directed to any of them. At the first time when thou dost it, thou fondest but a darkness and as. it
were a kind of unknowing? Thou newest not what, saying that thou feeless in thy will a naked intent
unto God.
3. People do not generally I've in their actions in the present moment. They live in the past or in the
future.
4. To be aware we must have empty heads.
5. "The most creative, riches person has no character"(F. S. Perls).
6. "Be open even to emptiness because then whatever does come will be real"
7. "What is the point of life? Why do we suffer and die? Living spontaneously? we do not think to ask.
We live in the ripeness of each moment. We live, as Kant said? with a sense of purposiveness
Without a purpose.
8. While the primary thrust of Western psychology is to strengthen the ego, Yoga psychology
emphasizes that the ego is only a stepping stone to further evolution.
9. To Jung departure from ego-consciousness could only mean insanity. "The Yogis attain perfection in
Samädhi, a state of ecstasy, which so far as we know is equivalent to a state of unconsciousness. A
universal consciousness is a contradiction in terms, since exclusion, selection, discrimination, are the
root and essence of everything that lays claim to the name of consciousness" (Jung).
10. Kleshas (Causes of misery) are CD Avidyä. (Ignorance) (2) Asmita (a stagnant and narrow definition
of oneself) (3) Attachment (raga) (4) Aversion (Dvesha) and (5) Fear of death.
11. Modern psychologists and the rapists have studied the growth process as one moves from mental
disturbance to the "adapted ego". They are now struggling to understand growth as it extends
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beyond the ego. The emphasis of Yoga psychology is in the attainment of more advanced states of
consciousness rather than a mere recovery from emotional imbalance.
12. To live completely, wholly every day as if it were a new loveliness? there must be a dying to
everything of yesterday (J. Krishnarturti)
13. I encourage the person to become an impartial witness, an observer who watches without evaluating,
as a way to see oneself more objectively"
14. Equanimity: This involves learning to see every situation we are in as a means of growing. what
happens is the best possible learning experience for us at that time. There are no good and bad
experiences — all have equal potential for helping us to grow.
15. The word "soul" is very vaguely used in English. It often refers to the whole non-physical
consciousness including even the vital with all its desires and passions.
16. The Jivatman is the central being above the evolution, changeless and eternal. It is the unborn who
presides over the individual being and its developments. It knows itself as universal and Divine. It
puts forward a representative of itself in manifestation. This is the soul or psyche.
17. The psychic being is formed progressively around this Divine centre. It is at first an undifferentiated
power of the Divine Consciousness. It is immutable only in the sense that it contains all the
possibilities of the Divine within it, but it has to evolve them and its evolution assume the form of a
developing psychic individual. It grows until it is able to transform the Prakriti of Ignorance into a
Prakriti of Knowledge.
1. I find it difficult to take these psycho-analysts at all seriously when They try to scrutinize spiritual
experience by the flicker of their torch lights. They look from down up (from the blind end) and
explain the higher lights by the lower obscurities; but the foundation of these things is above, not
below. Does the secret of the lotus flower lie buried in the mud from which it rises or the form and
beauty it embodies?
2. The psyche is the inmost soul-being. It is a portion of the Divine and permanent from life to life.
3. The soul in its evolved individualized form is the psychic being or personality, the spark growing into a
fire.
4. The psyche which the Purusha puts forth as its representative the imperfection of Nature and evolves
in it till it has recovered its full psychic essence and united itself with the 5elf above "of which the Soul
is the individual projection in the evolution. The soul is at first an undifferentiated power of the Divine
Consciousness containing all.
5. The Inconscient is an involved state of consciousness which contains all things suppressed within it.
It is not inconscient in itself. Under a pressure from above or within all the dimensions of being and
consciousness evolve out of it.
6. The vital part of us normally exists after the dissolution of the body for some time and passes away
into the vital plane where it remains till the vital sheath is dissolved. Afterwards it passes, if it is
mentally evolved, in the mental sheath to some mental world and finally the leaves its mental sheath
also and goes to its p1ace rest.
7. The mental part of us can remain if it is strongly developed; so also can the vital, provided They are
organized by and centered around the true psychic being.
1. A man had an itchy nose, he scratched his head, shoulder, arms, legs, all over the body, except his
nose. In despair he went to his doctor, and said, "I have a terrible itch; it driving me crazy. Please tell
me where to scratch.
2. A man put his Finger in a pot marked "poison" and placing a drop on his tongue said* "this poison I
will keep away from"
3. A man, deciding to go on a fast for a day went to the kitchen and smelling the aroma of food said "this
I will not eat, " then opening the gerator he popped a delicious morsel in his mouth and declared"
Now this I will keep away from."
4. Who are these crazy and deluded men? They are ourselves.
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5. He who asks will never know, He who can know does not need to ask.
6. Even if you are in a hurry to do something, step back for a while and will discover to your surprise
how much sooner and with what greater success your work can be done. Never decide anything
without stepping.
7. If someone is angry with you, do not be caught in his vibrations but simply step back and his anger,
finding no support or response, will vanish.
8. How can I solve my problem? You are yourself the problem.
9. One must be clearly aware of the origin of one's movements because there are contradictory
velocities in the being - some pushing you here, other. pushing you there, and that obviously creates
a chaos in life.
10. Stand back detached from the movements of the mind, life, physical being, and regard their activities
as only a habitual formation of general Nature.
11. As soon as the wrong movement manifests you must catch it and holding it up to the Light, say, "No! I
don't want you. I have nothing to do with this movement, it is something contrary to my nature!" and
so by dirt of insisting and driving it away, finally one separates oneself from it.
12. It is only his friends whom God treats with severity, (i.e. if one is in the right poise of being difficulties
turn into God-sent opportunities.)
13. A long as the mind refuses to accept the situation and struggles against it, there are torment, storms,
inner struggles and suffering. But the moment the mind says, "Good, this is what has to come."
whatever happens you are content.
14. Be as quiet as one can be but without trying to stop all thoughts realizing that these thoughts are
purely mechanical. Instead, gather together all your consciousness and remain as quiet as possible
and detach yourself from external things as though they do not interest you at all, and all of a sudden,
you brighten the flame of aspiration and threw into it everything that comes to you so that the flame
may rise higher and higher, without thinking of what may or not happen. But above all do not desire
that something may come, - simply the joy of an aspiration which mounts and mounts. and if you
succeed in living consciously in this column of mounting aspiration, you will see that even if you do
not have an immediate result, after a time something will happen.
15. In a general and almost absolute way anything that shocks you in other people is the very thing you
carry in yourself in a more or less veiled or hidden. Realize this and it will greatly help you to change
yourself. At the same time it will bring a sunny tolerance to your relationships with others* the
goodwill which comes from understanding, and it will very often put an end to these completely
useless quarrels.
16. When these different parts are all under the control of the Psychic then there begins the
harmonization of all the parts and their progressive recasting into moulds of the higher
consciousness, growing in peace, light, force, love, knowledge and Ananda. This is the first, the
psychic, transformation of the human personality.
Om! Shänti, Shänti, Shantihi!
Selections from the Gita
Action is greater than inaction (3.80)
For the deliverance of the good, for the destruction of the evil-doers, for the enthroning of the right, the
Dharma. I am born from age to age.
In that which is night to all creatures, the self-mastering sage is awake; that in which all creatures wake, is
night to the eyes of the seer (2.69).
It was even by works that Janaka and the rest attained to perfection. Moreover, if thou lookest to the
holding together of the peoples (Lokasamgraha) thou shouldst be activity engaged in works (3.20)
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Threefold are the doors of Hell, Destructive of the soul: desire, wrath and greed. Therefore these three
one should abandon (16.21).
There are two Purushas in this world, Kshara (Mutable) and Akshara (immutable); the Kshara is all these
existences, and the Kutastha (the stable and high-seated) is called Akshara (15.16)
It (the soul) is not born, nor does it die, nor is it that having been it will cease to be. It is unborn, ancient,
eternal, everlasting; it is not slain with the slaying of the body (2.20)
It is an eternal portion of me that becomes the Jiva (the individual soul) in the world of living creatures
(15.7)
The fourfold order was created by Me according to division of quality and active functions (4.13) (Principles of knowledge, strength, mutuality and production, and service.)
Thou hast the right to action but only to action, never to its fruits; let not the fruits of thy works be thy
motive, neither let there be in the e any attachment to inactivity. (2.47)
Be thou My-minded and My devotee, to Me do thou offer thy sacrifice and to Me do thou bow thyself;
united thus with Me in the self and having Me as thy supreme goal, thou shalt come unto me (9.34)
Renunciation and Yoga of works both bring about the supreme good, but of the two Yoga works is
distinguished above the renunciation of works (5.2)
With a glad and calm spirit from which fear has been driven out, with the mind under control, with a heart
full of Me, let him sit firm in Yoga, giving himself wholly to Me (6.14)
Become Me-minded, My lover and adorer, a sacrifice to M, bow thyself to Me, to Me thou shalt come, this
is my firm pledge to the e, for dear art thou to me. (16.65)
One who has attained to union with the Divine casts away from him even here both good and evil doing.
Therefore strive to be in Yoga. Yoga is skill in works (2.50)
He who does the work to be done without resort to its fruits, he is the Sannayasi, he is the Yogin, and not
he who lights not the sacrificial fine.
It is said to be unman fest, inconceivable, immutable (2.25)
This is the lower Nature, but know my other nature different from this the supreme which becomes the
Jiva and by which this world is upheld (7.5)
When a man expels all desires from his mind and is satisfied in the self then he is said to be in stable
wisdom (sthitha prajna) (2.55) As I am beyond the mutable and higher even than the immutable, therefore
I am proclaimed as Purushottama (15.18) O thou who hast come to this transient and sorrowful world,
love and turn to me. (9.33)
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C41 - Spiritual Psychology
Personality is a temporary formation and to eternize it would be to eternize ignorance and limitation. The
true “I” is not the mental ego or the present personality which is only a mask but the eternal “I” which
assumes various personalities in various lives. None who has not arrived at the silence and motionless
solitude of the eternal self can have the free and integral activity of the higher divine Nature.
If the vital is purified and subjected to the psychic, then the vital gives intensity, but if it is unpurified it
brings in a rajasio intensity (restless energy) with impatience and reactions of depression and
disappointment.
The evil forces are perversions of the Truth by the ignorance. In easy complete transformation they must
disappear and the truth behind them be delivered. It is simply a steady and quiet rejection that is needed
and a quiet steady calling down of the true force. All this emotional excitability must be quieted down.
Reject persistently, fully and tenaciously these disabling thoughts and feelings which hamstring all hope
and faith in you; not to accept the m, not to justify the m, not to give them by your acquiescence the right
to go on harping on the same note always of discouragement, incapacity and failure. For the ego,
however insistent it may be, one has to keep one’s eye on it and say no to all its suggestions so that such
position it takes up proves to be a fruitless move, treated in that way, it becomes ready for the moment
when the psychic has only to give a slight push for it to fall away in such field of its activity from its
loosened roots.
It is certainly not the answering of questions that will remove the underlying cause of recurrence. Even if
the answer satisfy, it could only be for a time,. The same questionings would arise either in a mechanical
reiteration, for it is not truly the reason from which they arise. It is a certain part of the vital consciousness
affected by the surrounding atmosphere - or else presented from a shifted ground or a somewhat
changed angle of vision.
The lower vital is not a part that listen to reason. There is no way to its action. It acts in a particular way
because it has been accustomed to act it that way, and it goes on even if the doing brings a painful
reaction.
Psychic being is the soul of the individual evolving in the manifestation of the individual Prakriti and taking
part in the evolution. It is that spark of the Divine Fire that grows behind the mind, vital and physical until
it is able to transform Prakriti of ignorance into Prakriti of knowledge.
To be aware that one is bound is to become free to be aware that our surface being is disorganized and
at war with itself is to be inwardly harmonized and integrated. (Anon).
There is one indispensable condition sincerity.
Man usually work from the ordinary motives of the vital being need, desire of wealth or success or
position or power or fame. When one takes up the yoga these ordinary motives of the vital being have to
be replaced by another, a mainly psychic and spiritual motive. The Gita’s yoga consists in the offering of
one’s work as a sacrifice to the Divine, egoless and desire less action. The n the divine power itself will
act through the Sädhaka (seeker) and use his capacity and vital force for its ends. Any work can be done
as a field for the practice of yoga.
Do not let your mind go back on a work that is finished. It belongs to the past and all re-handling of it is a
waste of power. Do not let your mind labor in anticipation on a work that has to be done. The power that
acts in you will see to it at its own time.
The rough handling and careless breaking or waste and misuse off physical things is a denial of the yogic
consciousness.
Stand back from your thoughts, let them occur in your mind as they will an simply observe them. This
leads to the emptying of all thought out of the mind so as to leave it a sort of pure vigilant blank on which
the divine knowledge may come and imprint itself. This is the dhyäna of liberation, as it frees the mind
from slavery to the mechanical process of thinking and allows it to think or not to think, as it pleases, or to
choose its own thoughts or else to go beyond thought to the pure perception of truth.
The first internal condition necessary (for meditation is concentration of the will against obstacles, i.e.,
wandering of the mind, forgetfulness, sleep, physical and nervous impatience and restlessness, etc. The
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second is an increasing purity and calm of the inner consciousness out of which thought and emotion
arise, i.e., a freedom from all disturbing reactions such as anger, grief, Depression about worldly
happenings, etc.
Effort means straining endeavor. There can be an action with a will in it in which there is no strain or
effort.
Let the silence descend into you. The way to do this is to remain quiet, not fighting with the mind but
keeping a silent will or aspiration for the power or the silence. If the mind is active one has to learn to
look at it, drawn back and not giving any sanction from within, until its habitual or mechanical actives
begin to fall quiet for want of support from within. If it is too persistent, a steady rejection without strain or
struggle is the one thing to be done.
Love of the supreme and a total surrender to it are the shortest and swiftest way to the divine once ness.
The Divine gives itself to those who give themselves without reserve and in all parts of their being to the
Divine. For them the calm, the light the power, the peace, the freedom the heights of knowledge and the
seas of Ananda.
The self-Existent has pierced the doors of the sense outward, therefore one sees things outwardly and
sees not in one’s inner being. Rarely a sage desiring immortality, his sight turned inward, the self face to
face (Kathä Upanishad).
The center of personality acts like a magnet upon the disparate materials and processes of the
consciousness and like a crystal grating catches them one by one (Carl Jung)
Discrimination, detachment, moral purification and a longing for liberation are the basic requisites of the
Path.
A more restless dissatisfaction with the ordinary life is not a sufficient preparation for this yoga. A positive
inner call, a strong will and a great steadiness are necessary for success in the spiritual life. (Sri
Aurobindo)
All our problems spring ultimately from one nameless problem. The n that is perceived the problem is not
solved but dissolved. One become free of problems. To achieve this total awareness detachment,
discrimination and rejection are necessary (Anon.)
It is essential in all things to understand the process of oneself; because without knowing oneself, no
human problems can be solved. This required a great deal of detachment perseverance and penetrate
body can be an expert about you. You must be your own psychologist. (J. Krishnamurti)
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C42 - Yoga and Psychoanalysis
There are many things in the ordinary man of which he is not conscious, because the vital hides them
from the mind and gratifies them without the mind realizing what is the force that is moving the action.thus things that are done under the plea of altruism, philanthropy, service etc. are largely moved by ego
which hides itself behind these justifications; in yoga the secret motive has to be pulled out from behind
the veil, exposed and got rid of. Secondly some things are suppressed in the ordinary life and remain
lying in the nature, suppressed but not eliminated they may rise up any day or they may express
themselves in various nervous forms or other disorders of the mind, vital or body without it being evident
what is the real cause. This has been recently discovered by European psychologists and much
emphasized, even exaggerated in a new science called psycho-analysis. Here again in Sädhanä one
has to become conscious of these suppressed impulses and eliminate the m; that does not mean that
they have to be raised up into action, but only raise up before the consciousness o as to be cleared out of
the being. (Sri Aurobindo).
A continuity, not an identity. One thing must not be reduced to another. e.g., art to sexuality, love to
biological drives, but each may be represented as forming part of continuity (Charles Baudouin).
Contemporary psychology is not so much a psychology without a soul as a psychology without man. But
as long as psychology claims to be merely a sort of humanistic outgrowth of biology, and even seeks to
guarantee the “scientific approach by imitating the model of physics, it is bound to have a scientific blind
spot in view in the core of the human condition which can neither be measured or expressed in
quantitative terms. To be human is a quality of being which can never be expresses as the quantitative
sum of biological characteristics (Tgore Caruso).
Mankind seems to have lost the shelter of belief; perhaps this is the crisis of our time, the cause of the
general feeling of insecurity which makes psychotherapy more necessary the ever. (Caruso) psychiatry
cannot make use of a norm based on value the specific content of which lies outside the realm of
scientific discussion.
“The great secret” discovered by Freud - why at times we all do things against our will. The unconscious
part of our mind lacks any sense of what we call reality. It does not distinguish between truth and fantasy.
O, what may man within him hide / though angel on the outward side. The insane root / that takes the
reason prisoner (Shakespeare) For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do
(bible)
“It zig (the Sunday horseman), where are you going? “Don’t ask me, ask the horse.”
Id has no order; it is choked with contradictions and opposing feelings. In Id is king. The purpose of
psychoanalysis is to make unconscious fantasies conscious. “Where there is Id let ego be.”
Freud’s makeshift solution: Repression of instinctual demands is supposed to be the basis of the
development of civilization: the repressed instinctual drive is sublimated into valuable cultural channels,
but still at the expense of full human happiness. Repression leads not only to increasing civilization but
also to the development of neurosis. Among many. These are the tragic alternatives presented by
Freud: lack of civilization combined with full happiness or civilization combined with neurosis and
diminished happiness (Eric Fromm)
Man is an abnormal who has not yet found his true normality (Sri Aurobindo)
Jung was primarily concerned with self-knowledge. “Become the person you are.” the principle of
individuation. Individuation involves a constructive relationship to the collective psyche (anima and
animus). By working out the “shadow” (aspects of personal experience that have been repressed) one
achieves self-realization.
The goal of individuation is to detach consciousness from the object so that the individual no longer
places the guarantee of his happiness, or of his life even, in factors outside himself. Jung’s purpose was
to penetrate to the very core of man, to the hidden treasure in the depth of his soul.
The deepest we can reach in our exploration of the unconscious mind in the layer where man is no longer
a distinct individual, but where his mind widens out and merges into the mind of mankind - the
unconscious mind where we are all the same.
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“When I say “self” you mustn’t think of “I, myself”, because that is only your empirical self (the ego). Self
is personality and is more complete than the ego which only consists of what you are conscious of, what
you know yourself to be.”
For Jung the dynamic factors in the psyche are not simple pleasure tropisms but the vital concepts of
God, the world and man, hidden within the specific structure of the human race. Faith in god is no mere
sublimation of the sexual instinct but one of the inborn characteristics of each soul, an archetype. But do
these archetypal concepts relate to any transcendent reality? the answer is, no. Jung’s archetypes are
all myths, symbolic representations of the collective unconscious mirrored in the individual psycho. Jung
resists having to relate the freedom which he has discovered in the soul to an objective being; but in
doing so he robs himself of the last possibility of overcoming neurosis.
What the psychoanalyst classifies as neurosis, that is, as an illness, can in certain circumstances be for
the priest or spiritual advisor the decisive phase on the way towards sanctification. All conditions and
events which show conflict, tension and suffering, are explained away as pathological and then
“resolved”, “analyses away” or “compensated”. The “normal” person tends to become a colorless
abstraction.
If neurosis only had negative aspects it would be incurable. But neurosis is not merely an existential lie, it
is also in some way the sensitive conscience’s patent of nobility. It is both a betrayal of what we are
called to be in life and a confirmation of that calling. It represents a protest against the existential lie.
Even naturalistic depth psychology has recognized this, since it regards the neurotic symptom as an
abortive attempt at healing.
Defense mechanisms: Ways in the ind. protects his ego from anxiety-inducing id impulses.
Repression: most basic, the uncons. Activity of the ego wh. Keeps the undesirable id impulse (or any
feeling, wish, memory or fantasy associated with it) from entering cons.
Rationalization: process of concocting plausible reasons to account for one’s practices or beliefs derived
from other sources. Also the ego changes the nature of a thought or feeling to make it more acceptable.
Projection: attributing one’s own traits, problems or points of view to others. The ind. Protects his ego
from the recognition of an undesirable id impulse by relocating the impulse in another person.
Introjections: Ego protects itself against an anxiety laden impulse from the id by taking in (identifying
itself) with another person.
Regression: Ind. Under influence of emotional strain returns to behavior characteristic of an earlier stage
of geniality - protects the ego from being overwhelmed by the id. Back to babyhood to escape
responsibility.
Denial of reality: the ego defense wh. Prevents admission of external stimuli that points to the existence
of feared id impulses. Also shear irrationality.
What we call our personality is fragmented and dispersed into a number of what Gurdjieff calls “subpersonalities”, “each of which calls itself “I”, we all have deeply he ingrained in us that each of us is one
consistent person, that when a person says he refers to himself in his entirety, as an entity that persists
day after day. The illusion of unity is created in a men by the sensation of one physical body, by his
name and by a number of mechanical habits which are implanted in him by education acquired by
imitation.”
The unity of human nature is not a fact with which we start and on the basis of which we cultivate our
moral life. The unity is something that we have still to achieve. Doxically, we have yet to become
ourselves.
The image ness ad parable ness are, from the ological point of view, the norm of normality. Viewed the
ologically is one who is not reborn a normal man? Is he not a distortion, a caricature of the image which
God himself had in mind?
It is necessary to create an inner distance to the interfering psychic events. Making these events
conscious means to take them out of the identifying sphere of the subject and allow the ego to confront
them as objects. They are externalized, objectified, thus the neurotic can give them distance. The
separation and distancing of these tents from the ego enables the patient to make clearer distinctions.
He can now in a more precise way the positive from the negative. From this distance-creating of
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consciousness springs the possibility of a free decision or free choice of willing or not willing to use one’s
energies, and of willing to use them in this or that way. This experience of distance and distinction from
one’s ego can be called an empiric experience of one’s spirit-ness. By distancing, the spiritual being
experience himself in his self-stand with a certain independence and irreducibility of a higher level of
being. (Josef Rudin - Psychotherapy and Religion).
These new “patients” come to the psychoanalyst without knowing what they really suffer from. They
complain about being depressed, having insomnia, being unhappy in their marriages, not enjoying their
work, etc. But these various complaints are only the conscious form in which our culture permits them to
express something which lies much deeper. The common suffering is the result of the crisis in Western
culture which has been describe as “malaise”, “ennui”, “mal du siecle”, the deadening of life, the
autoimmunization of man, his alienation from himself, from his fellow man and from nature.
Zen in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one’s being, and it points the way from bondage
to freedom. We can say that Zen liberates all the energies properly and naturally stored in each of us,
which are in ordinary circumstances cramped and distorted so that they find no adequate channel for
activity (Suzuki).
I see the objects without distortions by my greed and fear. I see it as he or it is, as I wish it or him to be or
not to be. I experience intensely - yet the object is left to be what it is (Selections 4 and 6 from Erich
Fromm Psychoanalysis and Zen Buddhism.
To deal with this (physical mind) two things are necessary: (1) not so much to try to control or fight with or
to suppress it as to stand back from it; one looks at it and sees what it is but refuses to follow its thoughts
or run about among the objects it pursues, remaining at the back of the mind quiet and separate; (2) to
practice quietude and concentration in this separateness until the habit of quiet takes hold of the physical
mind and replaces the habit of these activities. (Sri Aurobindo).
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C43 - The Pathology of Our Times
The capital period of my intellectual development was when I could see clearly that what the intellect said
might be correct and not correct, that what the intellect justified was true and its opposite also was true. I
have never admitted a truth in the mind without simultaneously keeping it open to the contrary of it.
Mankind as a whole has at present no consciously organized common life; it has only an inchoate
organization determined much more by circumstances than by human intelligence and will. It has
discovered the law of the collectivity, the pack the mass.
The community exists by the individual who is not a mere cell of the collective existence. The individual is
indeed the key of the evolutionary movement; for it is the individual who finds himself, who becomes,
conscious of the Reality. He is not merely a member of a human pack, hive, or ant-hill; he is something in
himself, a soul, a being who has to fulfill his on individual truth and law as well as his natural or assigned
parting the truth and law of the collective existence. He does not owe his ultimate allegiance either to the
state which is a machine or to the community; it is to the Truth, the Self the Divine.
It is only by finding a unifying and harmonizing knowledge in ourselves that we can solve the problem of
our existence and with it the problem of the true way of individual and communal living.
To remove freedom in order to get rid of disorder, strife and waste; to remove diversity in order to get rid
of separatism and jarring complexities is the impulse of order and regimentation by which the arbitrary
rigidity of the intellectual reason seeks to substitute its straight line for the difficult curves of the process of
Nature. The progression has been cyclic or spiral rather than in a straight line or has at least journeyed in
a very zigzag swinging curve of advance.
But freedom is as necessary to our life as law and regime; diversity is as necessary as unity to out true
completeness. Unity we must care but not necessarily uniformity.
By liberty we mean the freedom to obey the law of our being; to grow to our natural self-fulfillment, to find
out the harmony with our environment. The wrong use of liberty leads to disorder, strife, confuses.
The true law must develop from within and be not a check n liberty, but its outward image and visible
expression. Human society progress really and vitally in proportion as law becomes the child of freedom.
Law exists only as the outward mould of man’s self-governed liberty.
At present mankind is undergoing an evolutionary crisis in which is concealed a choice of its destiny; for a
stage has been reached in which the human mind has achieved in certain directions an enormous
development while in others it stands arrested and bowered and can no longer find its way. A structure of
the external life has been raise up of an unmanageable hugeness and complexity for the service of his
mental, vital, physical, claims and urges, a complex political, social, administrative, economic, cultural
machinery. Man has created a system of civilization which has become too big for his limited mental
capacity and understanding and his still more limited spiritual and moral capacity to utilize and manage.
(the system has become a too dangerous servant of his blundering ego and its appetites.
The philistine is in fact the modern civilized barbarian. His typical attitude is the spirit of commercialism
which has penetrated an influenced all the spheres of modern life. His ideal man is the successful man.
His idea of civilization is comfort, his idea of morals social respectability, his idea of politics and
encouragement of industry. He values education for its utility in fitting a man for success in a competitive
or a socialized industrial existence. The essential barbarism of all this is its pursuit of vital success,
accumulation, possession, enjoyment, comfort, convenience for their own sake.
An essential principle of Nature is diversity in unity. Therefore the ideal or ultimate aim of nature must be
to develop the individual an all individuals to their full capacity, to develop the community and all
communities to the full expression of that many sided existence and potentiality which their differences
were created to express. Man’s reason prefers uniformity because uniformity gives him a strong and
ready illusion of unity in place of the real oneness. Also because uniformity makes easy for him the
business of law order and regimentation. It prefers it too because the impulse of the mind in man is to
make every considerable diversity an excuse for strife and separation and therefore uniformity seems to
him the one secure and easy way to unification.
For man, below the gods, above the brute, / Is given the calm reason as his guide; / He is not driven by
an unthinking will.
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The son of God was crucified; I am unashamed of it because men must needs be ashamed of it. and the
son of God died; it is by all means to be believed, because it is absurd. and He was buried and rose
again; the fact is certain because it is impossible.
They reckon ill who leave me out, / When me They fly I am the wings (Emerson)
No man ever went out to break logic but in the end logic broke him (Mctaggart).
But the whole man is not whole without such unpleasant things as death, anxiety, guilt, fear and trembling
and despair. We are still so rooted in the Enlightenment - or uprooted in it - that these unpleasant
aspects of life are like the Furies for us: hostile forces from which we would escape. and of course the
easiest way to escape the forces we think, is to deny that they exist.
Dionysus reborn, Nietzsche thought, might become a savior-god for the whole race, which seemed
everywhere to show symptoms of fatigue and decline.
In spite of material prosperity, political and sexual freedom, the world today is sickened than in the 19th
century. Adlai Stevenson says, “We are not in danger of becoming slave any more, but of becoming
robots.” Authority today is not over authority, but anonymous, invisible, alienated authority. The me
chanism through which anonymous authority operates is conformity. I ought to do what everybody else
does. I am “as you desire me. Our gods are the machine and the idea of efficiency. In the end such a
civilization can produce only a mass man. The ideals of the Judaeo-Christian tradition cannot possibly
become realities in a materialistic civilization whose structure is centered around production, consumption
and success on the market.
If god does not exist everything is permitted.. If God does not exist the most meaningful reality in human
life is individual freedom and the supreme expression of individual freedom is suicide (Dostoevsky)
The road leads from reason fulfilled in faith through reason without faith to reason filled with demonicdestructive faith. (Tillich)
There is a profound truth in the old saying: “No one contends with God except God himself.” For it there is
a God, those promethean powers which antagonize Him must in some manner be ordained by him. (B.
Frank).
(a) Enough of science and of art; / Close up these barren leaves; / Come forth and bring with you a heart
/ That watches and receives. Our meddling intellect / misshapes the beauteous forms of things; / We
murder to dissect. (words worth)
(b) Grey are all your theories; green is life’s glowing tree (Goethe)
(c) When head is too far away from body, head withers of goes crazy.
5.
Man has no nature, only a history.
6.
(a) To be radical means to go to the roots, and the root - is man himself (K. Marx) Underlying
Marx concept of man was the implicitly assumption of man’s natural goodness which would assert itself
as soon as the crippling economic shackles were released.
(b) For Freud there is a basic and unalterable contradiction between human nature and society.
Love is in its essence sexual desire. Civilization is the product of frustration Competition and mutual
hostility are inherent in human nature (E. Fromm)
The unity of the human race by political and administrative means implies eventually the formation and
organization of single World-State. This must now either be brought about by a mutual understanding or
by the force of circumstances and a series of new a disastrous shocks (Therefore) two alternative
possibilities present themselves, a world state founded upon the principle of centralization and uniformity,
a mechanical and formal unity, or a world union founded upon the principle of liberty and variation in a
free and intelligent unity, a real psychological rather than a mere formal, mechanical, administrative,
political and economic union.
The aim of the religion of humanity was formulated in the eighteenth century by a sort of primal intuition;
that aim was and it is still to re-create human society in the image of three kindred ideas, liberty, equality,
fraternity. (but) these are three godheads of the soul; they cannot be really achieved through the external
machinery of society or by man so long as he lives only in the individual and the communal ego. When
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this ego pivot is abandoned and this ego-hunt ceases, then man gets his first real chance of achieving
spirituality.
A spiritual human society would start from and try to realize three essential truths of existence which are
as yet for the mass of mankind only words and dreams, God, freedom unity. (Such a society) would treat
in its sociology, the individual, from the saint to the criminal, not as units of a social problem to be passed
through some skillfully devised machinery but as souls growing and to be encouraged to grow. The aim
of its Economic would be not to create a huge engine of production, but to give all men the joy of work
according to their own nature and free leisure to grow inwardly.
A perfected human world cannot be created by men or composed of men who are themselves imperfect.
Even if all our actions are scrupulously regulated by education of law or social or political machinery, what
will be achieved is a regulated pattern of minds, a fabricated pattern of lives, a cultivated pattern of
conduct; but a conformity of this kind cannot recreate the man within.
In the light of a larger knowledge matter also can be seen to be a form and substance of Brahman.
(Hence) a certain reverence, even, for matter and a sacramental attitude in all dealings with it is possible.
Mankind as a whole has at present no consciously organized common life; it has only a inchoate
organization determined much more by circumstances than by human intelligence and will.
(There is) the ancient tradition of a golden age in which man was freely social without society. It is
possible that our progress has not been a development in a straight line but in cycles it is even possible
that our original state was an instinctive animal spontaneity of free and fluid association. Our destiny may
be the conversion of on original animal association into a community of the gods.
A life of unity, mutuality and harmony born of a deeper and wider truth of our being is the only truth of life
that can successfully replace the imperfect constructions of the past which were a combination of
association and regulated conflict, an accommodation of egos and interests grouped or dovetailed into
each other to form a society. It has not been found in experience, whatever might have been hoped, that
education and intellectual training by itself can change man. Nor can human mind and life be cut into
perfection by any kind of social machinery.
Organized religion has not changed human life and society. It insists only on a creedal adherence, a
formal acceptance of its ethical standards and conformity to institution, ceremony and ritual; but it does
not transform the race; it cannot create a new principle of human existence. A total spiritual direction
given to the whole life and the whole nature can alone life humanity beyond itself; for to hope for a true
change of human life without a change of human nature is irrational. What is necessary is that there
should be a turn in humanity towards the vision of this change. and this trend must increase with the
tension of the crisis in human world destiny.
THE SUPERMAN
The gospel of true a per manhood gives us a generous ideal for the progressive human race. It is a call
to man to do what no species has as yet & done or aspired to do in terrestrial history, evolve itself
consciously into the next superior type. and when we so envisage it, this conception ranks surely as one
of the most potent seeds that can be cast by thought into the soil of our human growth.
Nietzsche first cast it, the mystic of will-worship, the troubled, profound, half-luminous Hellenizing slave
with his strange clarities, his violent half-ideas, his rare gleaming intuitions that came marked with the
stamp of an absolute truth and sovereignty of light. But Nietzsche was an apostle who never entirely
understood his own message.
Especially, in his concept of the superman he never cleared his mind of a preliminary confusion. For if a
sort of human godhead is the goal to which the race must advance, the first difficulty is that we have to
decide to which of the two very different types of divinity the idea in us should owe allegiance. For the
deity within may confront us either with the clear, joyous and radiant countenance of the God or the stern
convulsed visage of the Titan. Nietzsche hymned the Olympian, but presented him with the aspect of the
Assure (Titan). He presents to us a superman who fiercely and arrogantly repels the burden of sorrow
and service, not one who rises victorious over mortality and suffering, his ascension vibrant with the
triumph song of a liberated humanity.
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C44 – Mäyäväda, Täntra and Integral Yoga
The spirit of Hinduism is not so much a religion as an urge towards and the attainment of an integral
vision of Truth. Integral vision is one that is universal and all comprehensive. In its total vision there is a
place for everything and everything in its place. In this all accommodating vision there is no ultimate
denial or rejection of any point of view. In it, to use the words of Meister Eckhart, “there is no denial
except the denial of all denials. A denial of any positive outlook needs to be denied since such a denial is
incompatible with the universal and integral view of things”.
To give an example: the naturalist, scientifically oriented view that Matter is real and occupies a
significant place in our lives is a positive view and as such must be accepted and accorded a proper
place in the scheme of things. But if on the basis of this positive truth one goes on to say that Matter
alone is real and that life, mind and intellect are merely expressions of matter in motion, that would be an
illegitimate denial indicating a narrowness and limitation in one’s perception of truth. It suppresses our
urge towards wholeness and consequently in the interest of integral understanding, this denial had to be
denied.
To put the matter very simply, the assertion ‘A is B’ is taken as true; but the assumption which is generally
made that if ‘A is B’ is true A, is therefore not C is baseless and erroneous. With reference to the position
element in a statement we may say there is no error. I believe Bradley held the same view when he said.
“Error is truth, it is partial truth and error only when left partial and incomplete.”
Our ways of thinking must be appropriate to the subject-matter thought about when thinking about the
Infinite which by definition is universal and All-Comprehensive. It would be an error to use the logic of
exclusive affirmation. What is appropriate here is what Sri Aurobindo calls the logic of the Infinite in which
assertion does not involve denial, for the Infinite or God is, in the words of Meister Eckhart, “The denial of
all denials”.
The Täntric system implicitly accepts and operates with the logic of the Infinite. It is in its nature
synthetical. “The Täntric System”, says Sri Aurobindo, “ Is in its aspiration one of the greatest attempts
yet made to embrace the whole of God manifested and unmanifested in the adoration, self-discipline and
knowledge of a single human soul.”
Distinguishing two levels of being, The Transcendent and the Eternal on the one hand and the SpaceTime manifestation on the other, the Täntra, while seeking its ultimate roots in the former does not deny
the value and importance of the latter. In it there is no denial. And yet, as we shall see, it falls short of
the whole or integral truth. The reason for this is that it lacks the necessary Revelation that precedes
theology and, in fact, it is only through Revelation that theology even becomes possible.
“The Truth has first to be heard (Shravan)”. Only then can it be thought about (Manana), meditated upon
(Nididhyasana) and finally realized (Sakshatkar). Without Shruti an understanding of the ultimate nature
of thing is not possible. It is Sri Aurobindo who provides the necessary revelation in the light of which a
totally integrated vision of Truth becomes possible. This explains why the Täntra, while accepting the
principle that Truth is the whole and all-inclusive and filled with the Spirit of the Divine Shakti, yet falls
short of the Integral Truth and is unable to explain how the relative and Absolute dimensions of existence
are to be finally integrated or what is the Divine purpose that is being realized in space-Time
manifestation or samsara.
Before, clarifying this view, it is, I think, necessary to consider certain very general issues. This may be
called a prolegomenon to the discussion of the problem of Integral Yoga.
First of all, what we will be doing is not the first order level of thinking which we call Philosophy but the
second order level which may be called Meta-Philosophy or Critical Philosophy. This is, according to me,
Philosophy becoming aware of itself in an attitude of total detachment, free of bias or commitment to any
theory or point of view.
The metaphilosopher assumes the poise of Säkshi and is aware without the subjective reactions of
acceptance or rejection. He does not think but looks or, as the Zen philosophers would paradoxically put
it, “he concentrates without concentrating.” Previous Critical philosophers, including Kant, the “Father” of
Critical philosophy, have not realized this point. Critical philosophy is a form of Yoga. It presupposes a
Buddhi that is purified and mask universal. Its activity consists not in reasoning or looking for or
evaluating rational grounds for arriving at conclusions, but in organizing truths into a fully coherent
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system. Buddhi becomes Pashyanti Buddhi, a Seeing Intellect. (This, incidentally, is similar to what the
Buddha called Mindfulness or Bare Awareness without subjective reactions of like and dislike.).
What I have said so far is that the problem of Integral Yoga or Philosophy can only be dealt with at the
meta-philosophical level and to reach this level is itself an adventure of Consciousness, a process of
Yoga. It is part of Buddhi Yoga in which the Buddhi, the charioteer of the soul, is purified. The next
question is, what is the spiritual or rational status of this Poise of the Witness Consciousness? Or, to put
it differently, when it claims to embody a Supreme Value transcending even Dharma, as Dharma
transcends Artha and Käma, how can its claim be shown to be rationally justified?
A consideration of this question will expose the pretensions and shortcomings of pre-critical philosophy as
well as Kant’s allegedly “Critical Philosophy.” Two alternatives lie before us.
(1) We may ask, what are our grounds for asserting the validity of this Poise of consciousness which
claims not to think but to look and register? But how shall we answer this question to decide
whether this attitude of detachment is valid or not. We would need to stand back from it, detach
oneself from it and view it from a higher or deeper Poise of consciousness. This obviously would
be the beginning of an infinite regress, for the same question or skeptical doubt would have to be
directed to what we may call this Super Poise of consciousness. This should reveal to us that
one of the supreme errors of pre-critical thinking is that we need to provide rational grounds or the
underpinning of logic for what we assert to be true. This demand is valid only in empirical science
and not in a priori reflection.
(2) The second alternative is that we recognize the detached Poise of Consciousness is selfvalidating and that its nationality is internal to it and is not the ground on which it rests. It does
not seek understanding but possesses it and its rational activity consists in explicating and
organizing its contents into a coherent system. I have discussed this point fully in my book: Faith
Possesses Understanding.
This brings me back to what I said earlier that the transition from the lower to the higher dimension of
Being or from partial truth to complete Truth is not a transition made by the exercise of logic. It is attained
by a leap and the leap is made possible only through Revelation (Shruti).
I shall now consider Mäyäväda. My object will not be to try to refute it but, on the contrary, to show in
what sense it is partially justified. Mäyäväda has been both misunderstood and misinterpreted. In the
first place it is not, as usually assumed, a doctrine associated solely with Shankara’s Adhvaita. According
to me all systems of Vedanta are forms of Mäyäväda. In the case of the Täntra we may say that it keeps
the door open for going beyond Mäyäväda but itself does not, and in the absence of a further Revelation,
cannot take that giant leap forward. Let me clarify these statements.
From the standpoint of Critical or Second Order Philosophy as I have explained it, the question is how are
we to understand metaphysical statements of which ‘The world is an illusion’ is but one instance? To
answer this question we have to understand that all speech, questions and assertions, metaphysical and
non-metaphysical, presuppose a context in the absence of which what is said would be either
unintelligible or pointless.
Here are two examples to illustrate what I mean:
(1) a stranger stops you in the street and Says ‘My grandmother died at the age of ninety.’ Your
response to this statement made out of the blue as it were, would not be to ask, Is it true? Or
consider whether to accept or not to accept what the stranger tells you. Your response would
naturally be one of puzzlement – why are you telling me this? You may even wonder whether the
man is saying anything at all or just making noises which sound like words. No intelligible
communication has taken place between you and the stranger for the simple reason that his
statement is totally lacking in any discoverable context.
(2) (The analysis of this example will be different)
You have never driven a car and do not even know how to drive. A Maruti salesman comes to you
and asks you ‘Have you driven a Maruti lately? ‘Neither the answer ‘Yes I have’ nor the answer ‘No I
haven’t’ would be appropriate. This is because the context of the question presupposes some things
which are not true, namely, that you can drive and have driven cars.
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Similarly, and in a much more important sense, statements which articulate the whole or part of a positive
theological system presupposes a special context. In Hinduism as far back as the Upanishads, this is
very clearly recognized. Affirmations about Brahman are not merely to be accepted (as they are intended
to be in the case of creedal religions) and certainly not to be questioned. They are revelations made to
the intellect (Buddhi). These revelatory statements, as the Upanishads affirm, are to be realized or
become truths correctly and self-evidently experienced. Accompanying every statement about the
Transcendent is the rubric “Realize that….” The Truth that is heard has to be thought about, meditated
on, and finally realized.
Bearing this in mind we may ask what is the real import of the statement that the world is an illusion? It is
not subjective idealism. It does not cast a doubt on the view that pratyaksha is a pramana. The
statement ‘the world is an illusion’ is consistent with a full-blooded realism.
What then does it mean? It means the there is no possibility of any spiritual fulfillment with particular
reference to the world of space, time and causation. All spiritual fulfillments are solely in the Supreme
Reality, the Transcendent and the Eternal. This ‘transient and sorrowful world has nothing to offer to the
spiritual seeker.’ This is the truth that is conveyed in the declaration that the world is Maya. It follows
from this that the systems of Ramanuja (Visishtadvaita) and Madhva (Dvaita) and in fact all systems of
traditional Hinduism are not in a better case. They too reject the space-time universe as a field for any
kind of spiritual fulfillment.
I have discussed this view in a paper entitled ‘Sri Aurobindo, the Fulfillment of Hinduism” in which I have
stated what may appear to some as a shocking view that all systems of Vedanta end finally in Mäyäväda.
The criticism of Mäyäväda therefore is not that it is false but that, in turning its back on the space-time
manifestation, it absolutizes what is only a partial truth. I repeat that it is not by a logical process that one
can transcend the limitations of Mäyäväda. What is needed is a fresh revelation that opens the door to
higher spiritual possibilities and calls on the seeker to regard Moksha not as the end but only as the
beginning of a higher spiritual quest, higher not merely in degree but in a qualitatively new dimension.
Sri Aurobindo has brought down to use the Supreme Revelation whose key concept is not Moksha but
based on Moksha, the Transformation and Divinization of the human personality. Moksha is only the
beginning of spiritual fulfillment. Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga may be regarded as fully integral because it
correlates and synthesizes the two dimensions of existence, the Absolute and the relative, Shiva and
Shakti, the actionless Eternal and the dynamic Space-Time Manifestation. The manifestation, says Sri
Aurobindo, is veiled and evolutionary. A Divine Life In a Divine Body here on earth is the final sense of
the earth evolution.
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C45 - Vedanta, Täntra and Integral Yoga
Vedanta, Täntra and Integral Yoga - 1
The Täntra is concerned not only with liberation which is the one all occupation of the Vedäntic systems.
It seeks also a cosmic enjoyment of the power of the Spirit. Yoga and Bhoga, Mukti and Bhakti.
The Täntras contain the highest spiritual and philosophical truths, not broken up and expressed in
opposition to each other as in the debates of the thinkers, but synthesized by a fusion or harmony in the
way most congenial to the catholicity of the Indian mind and spirit.
Hinduism is in its inmost urge a search for Wholeness with a place for everything and everything in its
place. In it there is no denial except the denial of all denials. Hence Hinduism is not the name of a
religion.
Adhikära bheda: There are marked differences between men and men. Some are more inwardly
evolved, others are less mature. Many, if not most, are infant souls incapable of great steps and earnest
efforts. Each needs to be dealt with according to his nature and his soul stature.
There are three stages in the growing human consciousness. One is crude, ill-formed, and turned
outward. Another is more developed and capable of much stronger and deeper spiritual experience. A
third, the ripest and most developed, is ready for the spiritual heights, and fit to tread the summits of
divine experience. The distinction is between the animal man (pasu), the hero man (vira) and the divine
man (deva)
Bhoga verily becomes Yoga; the evil turns to good; life leads to liberation.
Only that mantra which is received through the grace of the Guru can give fulfillment. The Guru instills
into it his own tapas-sakti which keeps the Mantra alive in the being of the recipient.
Shankara says, ‘The Advaitin has no quarrel with anybody.’ But his attitude is patronizing. Other systems
of Vedanta are accepted only as stages on the way Advaita. They are finally to be discarded.
The Integral and all-comprehensive Truth is that which embraces all spiritual realizations as inalienable
aspects or poises of the Being of the Supreme.
Moksha not an other–worldly state but a necessary precondition of a total fulfillment. Desires are not to
be rejected but sublimated. It is the Divine Will that is the energy behind even a criminal action. The
Täntra recommends that one should liberate the will and then the energy will flow into its proper channel.
Seek the Divine in and not away from Samsär.
Vedanta, Täntra and Integral Yoga - 2
The proper method of providing guidance for spiritual aspirants is to give each human being a mold of
spiritual discipline, a way of seeking which is proper to the potentiality of his nature.
Hinduism limited itself by no one creed or dogma. It refused to ban or excise any of the elements that
have grown up in the course of the evolution of religion, but followed to its highest and deepest outcome
every possible line of spiritual realization.
It is said that a religion must be defined and differentiated with reference to its content rather than its
spirit. A true Hindu would have to renounce religion altogether and describe himself as religious without a
religion.
Sri Ramakrishna repeatedly affirmed that Brahman is both with form and without form, Saguna as well as
Nirguna, the supreme Divine Mother and the transcendent, relationless and immobile Absolute.
Scholastic Philosophy teaches that our ways of thinking must be adequate to the nature and structure of
the object that one is trying to understand. Sri Aurobindo presents the Logic of the Infinite and
distinguishes it from the logic that is adequate to finite existence which may be called the logic of
exclusive affirmation. Affirmation here necessarily entails the denial of the contrary of the quality
affirmed. This is because finite objects are partial and limited. The Being of the Infinite is complete and
self-contained. In ‘It’ there is no denial except the denial of all denials. The Supreme Being is by
definition all-inclusive.
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All traditional spiritual philosophies are philosophies of salvation. Their goal is not here but in the beyond,
in a Heaven or Nirvana or a supra-mundane union with God. But Shri Aurobindo says, “Any final recoil
from the physical life is a turning away from the completeness of the divine wisdom and a renunciation of
its aim in earthly manifestation.”
According to the Täntra Siva and Shakti, the Transcendent and the Dynamic principles of existence are
regarded not only as equally real but also as each being contained in the other.
It is an essential principle of the Täntric Sädhanä that man must rise through and by means of Nature and
not by an ascetic refusal or Nature.
The Vedas (Book of knowledge) constitute the foundation of Indian culture and religion. They teach that
spiritual life is not opposed to earthly life and vice versa. Truth, according to it, is both Transcendent and
cosmic or universal. Its key concept is Rta – Cosmic Order.
Vedanta, Täntra and Integral Yoga - 3
Truth around which the Täntric Sädhanä is built up is this: the entire universe is a joyful efflorescence of
the dynamism of the Supreme Purusha and Shakti in their creative movement. The Intention is to repeat
this joy of manifestation in each of the million forms, which people this creation. The Täntra has seized
on the large universal truth that there are two poles of being whose essential unity is the secret of
existence, Brahman and Shakti, Spirit and Nature, and that Nature is power of the spirit or rather is spirit
as power.
In two ways the Täntra enlarges by its synthetic turn the province of the Yogic method. First, it lays its
hand firmly on many of the main springs of human quality, desire, action and it subjects them to an
intensive discipline with the soul’s mastery of its motives as a first aim and their elevation to a more divine
spiritual movement as its final utility.
Secondly, it includes in its object of Yoga not only liberation (Mukti) which is the one all –mastering preoccupation of the Vedäntic system, but a cosmic enjoyment (Bhukti) of the power of the Spirit.
‘All recognition of the sex principle, as apart from the gross physical indulgence of the sex impulse, could
not be excluded from a divine life upon earth. It cannot be ignored or suppressed. It is in one of its
aspects a cosmic and even a divine principle.'
Vama Marga (The Left-hand Path) is the result of the Täntric insight of using the so-called profane
material in such a way as to make it an expression of divinity.
Underlying the Sädhanä is the psychological truth that so long as we have an antagonistic and
contemptuous attitude towards vasanas (specially sex) we are not able to overcome them. All we can do
is to repress them and this results in an unconscious self – deception and dissociation of personality.
The Täntric view is that the Shakti is responsible for all joy and creativity in different areas of life. This
Divine Shakti expresses itself in different forms- in the gross form of physical sex-union and in the finer
and sublimated forms of the experience of love and aesthetic enjoyment. One should therefore cultivate
a feeling of sanctity and reverence towards sex.
The Täntra does not approve of the contemptuous and ascetic attitude towards sex (Narakasya
Dvaram!). The attitude of holiness towards sex is actually a way of changing our attitude towards sex.
Sex then no longer confronts us as a problem. We no longer feel the compulsion or inordinate desire to
indulge in sex. We have overcome and transcended sex.
Käma must first come under the influence of dharma (cf. Purushärtha) goals of life and sublimate the sex
impulse for the joy sex comes from a higher source.
Vedanta, Täntra and Integral Yoga - 4
The Absolute is beyond personality and beyond impersonality, and yet is both the Impersonal and the
supreme Person and all persons.
Evolution is the one eternal dynamic law and hidden process of the earthly nature. Mind cannot be our
last conscious expression because mind is fundamentally an ignorance seeking knowledge; it is only the
supramental Truth-Consciousness that can bring us the true and whole Self knowledge and world
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knowledge; it is through that alone that we can get to our true being and fulfillment of our spiritual
evolution.
God is the reverse side of Nature. Nature is the observe side of God.
The Inconscient is in reality an involved state of consciousness and contains all things contained within it
so that under a pressure from above or within all can evolve out of it.
Integral Yoga accepts the value of cosmic existence and holds it to be a reality; its object is to enter into a
higher Truth-Consciousness or Divine Supramental Consciousness in which action and creation are the
expression not of ignorance and imperfection, but of the Truth, the Light, the Divine Änand. Its aim is not
merely to rise out of the ordinary ignorant world-consciousness into Freedom and union with the divine
consciousness but to bring the supramental power of that divine consciousness down into the ignorance
of mind, life and body to transform them, to manifest the Divine here and create a divine life in matter.
Our yoga is new as compared with the old Yogas (1) because it aims not at a departure out of the world
and life into Heaven or Nirvana, but at a change of life and existence, not as something subordinate or
incidental, but as a distinct and central object. Even as the Täntra and Vaishnavism end in the release
from life here, the object is the divine fulfillment of life.
Life in man seeks expression mainly through the vital being. Desire, at attachment, ambition, greed, lust
etc. constitutes its ordinary movements. But it is not necessary that action of the vital should always
remain bound to the lower consciousness. An ascetic refusal of life is also no solution. Life has to be
accepted as the means of our activity and the mold into which we have to pour the Divine Existence.
Any final recoil from the physical life is a turning away from the completeness of the divine wisdom and
renunciation of its aim in earthly manifestation. A divine life in a divine body here on earth is the final
sense of the earth evolution. Sri Aurobindo “willed all, attempted all, prepared, achieved all “so that “The
eyes of the Timeless might look out from Time/ And the world manifest the unveiled Divine.”
All this is for habitation by the Lord – whatever moving there is in the moving world. With this renounced
thou mayest enjoy. Covet not the wealth of any man. (Isha Upanishad)
Action is greater than inaction but thou must abandon the fruit of action. Act without attachment. To work
you have the right but not to the fruits thereof. (Gita)
Evolutionary Nature intends not merely a revelation of the Spirit but a radical and integral transformation
of Nature. The Prakriti of the three gunas will be transformed into what Sri Krishna calls ‘My Supreme
Nature’ (Mana Pana Prakriti)
Just as the light by which the moon shines does not belong to the moon but comes from the sun, so also
the joy of sex-life comes from love and Änand. Bhoga is Yoga, but not Bhoga as such but Bhoga purified
(sublimated).
Supermind is the supreme supracosmic Sachchidananda’s power of self – awareness and worldawareness. It is the direct self-existent Truth-Consciousness and world-awareness. It is the Alpha and
the Omega, the starting point of all differentiation and the instrument of all unification.
Sri Aurobindo - “worked, struggled, suffered, endured willed all, prepared and achieved all so that “The
eyes of the timeless might look out from time and in the world manifest the unveiled Divine.” The theory
of Maya merely cuts the knot of the world problem, it does not disentangle it; it is an escape not a
solution.
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C46 - Irrational Man
Anxiety is the uncanny feeling of being afraid of nothing at all.
Man must learn to let the Being be instead of twisting and dislocating it. There is revelation only when
one is silent and waits. Otherwise one hears not the authentic voice that is speaking to us but only the
noises we make in our own heads (Heidegger).
Man becomes what he is. The process of individuation is the emergence of the Eternal Individual.
All problems are interrelated. There is basically only one problem but it takes many forms. Even this
problem dissolves when one becomes aware of the Nameless. Consciousness is essentially problemfree.
Pure awareness of what ‘IS’ is liberation.
Envy, mockery, contempt, anger, revenge, and the other emotions, which are related to hatred or arise
from it, are evil (Spinoza)
He who lives according to the guidance of reason strives as much as possible to repay the hatred, anger
or contempt of others toward himself with love or generosity. (Spinoza)
The man who avoids crime solely from the fear of punishment, in no sense works from love, and in no
sense embraces virtue (Spinoza)
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C47 - Irrational Man
Let it (the soul) be likened to the union of powers in a team of winged steeds and their winged charioteer
who controls these steeds. One of them is noble and good and of good stock, while the other has the
opposite character. Hence the task of our charioteer is difficult and troublesome. The good steed is
upright and clean limbed, carrying his neck high. A lover of glory, but with temperance and modesty, he
needs no which no blooded, consorting with wantonness and vainglory. With head down and tail
stretched out he takes the bit between his teeth and shamelessly plunges on. But the driver jerks back
the bit in the mouth of the wanton horse, bespatters his railing tongue and his jaws with blood, forcing him
down on legs and haunches. and so it happens time and again until the evil steed casts off his
wantonness; humbled in the end, he obeys the counsel of his driver. (Plato).
When the head is too far away from the body, the head withers or goes crazy.
The son of God was crucified; I am unashamed of it because men must need be ashamed of it. and the
son of God died, which is to be believed because it is absurd; and he was buried and rose again; the fact
is certain because it is impossible. What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? Tertull.
Our meddling intellect misshapes the beauteous forms of things / We murder to dissect.
Existence precedes essence. Man has no nature, only a history.
The senselessness and aimlessness of life - the general neurosis of our time, a time in which all
fundamental values dangerously totter and a complete emotional and spiritual disorientation has seized
mankind.
Normal man convinces me, even more than the lunatic of the powerful autonomy of the unconscious.
The Unconscious as a whole is far from being a relic of consciousness. It is prior to conscious mind and
is autonomous; it has a law unto itself. It is an ineluctable law that overvaluation of consciousness (man’s
claim to be master of his own thought) brings forth an over compensation from the unconscious’ and so it
came to pass in the latter part of the “century of Reason”. From the Enlightenment came its diametric
opposite, Romanticism; and from Romanticism, itself an upsurge from the neglected unconscious.
At what point do I experience the fact that I am the one who has these different egos? What unity do I
presuppose of which the various egos are fragments? Such question indicate that logically as well as
psychologically, we must go behind the ego-id-superego system and endeavor to understand the “being”
of whom these are different expressions. Myself or my being is to be found at that center at which I know
myself as the one responding in these different ways (Rollo May).
The tendency to distrust reason as such in our culture has arisen from the fact that the alternatives
presented to intelligent and sensitive, people have seemed to be only arid rationalism in which one saves
one’s mind by losing one’s soul, or the vitalistic romanticism in which there has seemed at least a chance
of saving one’s soul for the time being. The existentialist approach is not to be rationalistic or
antinationalistic, but to seek the ground on which both reason and unreason are based we must not be
mycologists, but the logos, the word that expresses and reveals reason, must be made flesh. (Rollo
May).
Truth exists for the individual only as he himself produces it in action.
Existence precedes essence. Only as we affirm our existence do we have any essence at all. We are
our choices (Sartre).
Man becomes truly human only at the moment of decision (Tillich)
Everyone knows nowadays that people “have complexes”. What is not so well known is that complexes
have us. One cannot get round the impressive fact of their autonomy and the deeper one penetrates into
their nature the more clearly do they reveal their character as splinter psyches.
All those qualities capacities and tendencies which do not harmonize with the collective values come
together to form the shadow, that dark region of personality which is unknown and unrecognized b the
ego.
There is really no such thing as the extermination of evil (Freud)
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No one can become conscious of the shadow. Without considerable moral effort. To become conscious
of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real (Jung.)
Individuation means bringing to fulfillment the collective as well as the personal qualities of the person.
The one-sidedness of conscious life is corrected, compensated for, by the interaction of the conscious
and the unconscious. This leads to the assimilation of the ego in a wider personality described as the
self. “This process is, in effect, the spontaneous realization of the whole man.” “By individuation” I mean
the psychological process that makes of a human being an individual, a unique, indivisible unit, or whole
man.
Near and hard to grasp in the god / yet where peril lies / Grows the remedy too. What shakes the
individual to his foundations is the necessity of recognizing that the other side, though hostile and alien to
ego, is part of his own personality, that the ego is evil, sick in mind, antisocial and a prey to neurotic
suffering, ugly and narrow-minded, infantile, a sexual beast. The acceptance of one’s dark brother
involves granting him freedom and a share in one’s on life. Integration requires admitting the shadow
tendencies and allowing some measure of realization, tempered with criticism. Man must not simply
tolerate but learn to live with (but not in) his sin. (Jung.)
Anxiety is the uncanny feeling of being afraid of nothing at all.
Men must learn to let being be instead of twisting and dislocating it. There is revelation only when one is
silent and waits. Otherwise one hears not the authentic voice that is speaking to us but only the noises
we make in our own heads (Heidegger).
Man becomes what he is. The process of individuation is the emergence of the Eternal Individual.
All problems are interrelated. There is basically only one problem but it takes many forms. Even this
problem dissolves when one becomes aware of the nameless. Consciousness is essentially problemfree.
Pure awareness of what is liberation.
Envy, mockery, contempt, anger, revenge, and the other emotions which are related to hatred or arise
from it are evil. (Spinoza)
He who lives according to the guidance of reason strives as much as possible to repay the hatred, anger
or contempt of other toward himself with love or generosity (Spinoza)
The man who avoids crime solely from the fear of punishment, in no sense works from love and in no
sense embraces virtue (Spinoza)
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C48 - Psychotherapy – an East-West Dialogue
I do not imagine that I can stand beyond and above the psyche so that it would be possible to judge it, as
it were, from some transcendental Archimedean point “outside”. I am fully aware that I am entrapped in
the psyche and can only describe the experiences that there befall me.
Self: the archetypal image that leads out of polarity to the union of both partial systems, - consciousness
and the unconscious – through a common mid-point. It is the archetype of transformation and expresses
psychic wholeness. The “Self” represents one of the profoundest potentially most integrative insights that
modern psychology has so for achieved.
Shadow: the negative aspect of a pair of opposites. It cannot be suppressed by the positive, for they are
split-asunder halves of the same whole. It is the primitive who is still alive and active in civilized man and
our civilized reason means nothing to him.
It cannot be emphasized enough that we are not Orientals and that we have an entirely different point of
departure in these matters.
Only that which acts upon me do I recognize as real actual. The nature of the imprinter? Jung responds
as Job did and places his hand over his mouth. (See selection 10.)
Persona: an adaptively organized image of oneself for meeting the world.
Complex: - the constellating of psychic contents and structures within the personality around central
themes. It behaves like a partial personality and operates on its own, often in a way diametrically
opposed to our conscious wishes – splinter psyches.
If the tension of opposites is the source of psychic energy, a complete overcoming of the split would
mean the cessation of psychic energy or Death. To be human is to be the creature par excellence,
caught in the tension of opposites.
Individuation: this process is the spontaneous realization of the whole man. The more he is merely “I” the
more he splits himself off from the collective man of whom he is also a part. The autonomous complexes
lose their significance and potency. But where does the free energy get to? The danger is that the ego
will lay claim to it.
Archetypes: they are archaic and primordial images which have been imprinted on the psyche from time
immortal.
It is as if a stream that was losing itself in marshy tributaries suddenly discovered its proper bed, or as if a
stone that lay upon a germinating seed were lifted away that the sprout could begin its natural growth.
Jung questioned two basic assumptions upon which psychoanalysis rested: firstly that whenever a
psychic condition had been thoroughly and successfully analyzed it would be found to be derived from an
event in earliest childhood; and, secondly that the conscious recognition of this analytic reduction would,
in itself, have a healing effect.
Jung’s view is unsatisfactory because of the dualism inherent in this notion of conscious and
unconscious. Though Jung saw this duality as complementary rather than as antagonistic he still tended
to ascribe autonomous agency or power to the unconscious. The unconscious “has a mind of his own.”
If the ego is merged into the self, the individual stands the risk of self-destruction. Hence they need to
keep “the scales balanced”.
God is a way of looking at the world, an image that the limited human mind creates in order to express an
unfathomable and ineffable experience.
Jung’s Insights
Recognizes the fragmentation of the psyche. Rejects the traditional western view of man as a unified
moral agent possessing unlimited free will.
Recognizes the need for transcending the ego and the personal will. “In much view of the powerlessness
of the will, analytic psychology appeals not so much to the will but believes rather in the hidden wisdom of
inner growth. The ego should give up its futile willing and let things happen.”
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Rejects asceticism. “The ‘shadow’ must be accepted as part of the psyche gives a hint of the creative
potentialities in the shadow.”
Recognizes that problems cannot be solved but need to be resolved. Problems are tensions of
opposites. “The greatest and most important problems of life can never be solved but only outgrown in a
new level of consciousness. The problem is not solved logically in its own terms but fades out and loses
its urgency.” “Tensions and opposites fade and the self is born.”
Recognizes that psychic strands, though not unified, are interwoven. The psyche is a system of mutually
penetrating energies.
Psychotherapy – an East-West Dialogue
Consciousness is usually identified with mind, but mental conscious is only the human range. There are
ranges of consciousness beyond and below the human range with which the normal human has no
contact and they seem to be unconscious.
The ordinary man is aware only of his surface being. Yet what is on the surface is only a small part of our
being and far the larger part of us is behind the frontal consciousness, behind the veil, occult and known
only by occult knowledge.
This hidden consciousness is the subliminal self. But the truth is that all that is behind, this sea of which
our waking consciousness is only a wave or a series of waves, cannot be described by any one term for it
is very complex. Part of it subconscient, lower than our waking consciousness, and part of it is above and
superconscient to us. Part of it is on a level with it but behind and much larger than it. Material
consciousness is mostly subconscient, but part of it that is lower nature. Always repeating the same
unintelligent and unenlightened movements, it is unwilling to change, and unwilling to receive the Light or
obey the higher Force.
There are many things in ordinary man of which he is not conscious because the vital hides them from
the mind and gratifies them without the mind realizing what is the force that is moving the action, - thus
things that are done under the plea of altruism, philanthropy, service, etc. are largely moved by ego
which hides itself behind these justifications. In yoga the secret motive has to be pulled out from behind
the veil, exposed and got rid of. Secondly, some things are suppressed in ordinary life and remain lying
in the nature, suppressed but not eliminated; they may rise up any day or they may express themselves
in various nervous forms or other disorders of the mind, vital or body without it being evident what is the
real cause. This has been recently discovered by European psychologists and it is much emphasized,
even exaggerated, in a new science called psychoanalysis. Here again in Sädhanä one has to be
conscious of these suppressed impulses and eliminate them. They have to be raised up, not in action but
before the consciousness so as to be cleared out of the being.
The unconscious is the result of a fragmentation and centering of consciousness in the ego – the result of
samskaras and karma.
A problem can only be solved if it is dissolved. The problem, then, with its attendant anxieties, fears, the
wound and the pain is seen to roll off our consciousness like water off a lotus leaf. The consciousness
becomes or, rather, is seen to be stainless and returns to its natural stain.
Awareness: without detachment (disidentification) one is aware not of what is in itself but of what is
wrapped up in subjective reactions. Begin by rejecting not all thoughts but those that are foolish,
irrational and discordant. The rejection must be a simple, unconditional and absolute “No”, without
argument and considerations of pros and cons.
Awareness is passive but alert, without justification or condemnation, - “Choiceless awareness” (J.K.).
Awareness is without a center. It is “concentration without concentrating”, meditation but no meditator.
Through total awareness a new energy is generated or, better, released not through the tension of
opposites (Jung) but the transcendence of opposites. The energy of the “persona” and the “shadow” is a
diminished and distorted form of that which is in itself spontaneous and self-fulfilling. “Sex is a distortion of
Änand” (Sri Aurobindo).
True control of the mind is the freedom to think or not to think.
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“The mind cannot be found within or outside or in between. Mind is formless, invisible, intangible,
inconceivable, without support or abode but Purusha (Spirit) or oneself as one truly is”.
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C49 - Beyond Nirvana
Beyond Nirvana
The human intellect approaches truth in three stages: thesis, antithesis and synthesis. To begin with, it is
one-sided and in the case of many remains incurably so.
The Gita: Articulated by a profound seer who sees truth in its many-sidedness. It represents not any sect
of Hinduism but Hinduism as a whole, not merely Hinduism, but religions as such in its universality.
The Self-Existent has pierced the doors of the senses outwards; therefore one sees things outwardly and
sees not in one’s inner being. One rarely sees face to face (Katha Upanishad).
Shankara: Action and work are totally incompatible with knowledge. The goal is not a provisional
withdrawal from outward life but a total abandonment of it.
Action is recommended to one who is not fit for taking the path of meditation and knowledge. (Cf. thorn
therapy).
Universal creation and activity cannot be reconciled with the silence and inactivity of Brahaman. The
world is an illusion as there can be no creation, no movement, and no activity in the ultimate Reality.
Shankara sees the Immutable Being as the only Reality, so he finds no basis for action of a liberated man
in the world.
The starting point of the Gita is the enigma of action, the apparently insuperable difficulty of living in the
highest self and spirit while we continue to do the works of the world. Arjuna’s dilemma.
The truth in Shankara’s recommendation of sannyas (the path of renunciation): (1) withdrawal from the
solicitations of Nature is essential for freedom; (2) Nirvana is in a sense the ultimate realization.
The view that Nirvana is the whole truth is diametrically opposed to the teaching of the Gita. Gita praises
the way of action as superior to renunciation ( G. VI. 1-2).
The Gita distinction between sannyas and tyaga (XUIII. 1)
The real tyaga has action and living in the world as its basis and not a flight to the monastery or the cave.
The Gita begins with the ascetic turn of Arjuna representing the tendency that was gaining ground at the
time. Arjuna felt that if he carried out his duty as a kshatrya he could not avoid being involved in sin and
suffering.
The Gita turns round this central difficulty of Arjuna and gives a solution to him, not the giving up of the
world and action, but the giving up of egoism, desire and attachment both to action and inaction. There
should be an inward and not an outward renunciation.
The true devotee does not initiate any action. He lets the divine will and divine knowledge flow though
him undisturbed by his own resolves, preferences and desires. Yoga is skill in action.
The secret is not inaction when one reaches the higher truth, but desireless action both before and after it
is reached.
Shankara’s question: How can one act in Prakriti and still be free? All the gunas of Prakriti, even sattva,
cause bondage. Prakriti is the only source of action. Hence in order to be free of Prakriti one must give
up all action and be absorbed in the silence and inactivity of the self.
The Gita’s answer: Prakriti of the three gunas is the lower Prakriti. There is a higher Nature – para
Prakriti –, which is the will and executive power of the Lord Himself. One established in para Prakriti can
do all works and still be free. When freed of the bondage of the lower mechanical Nature, it becomes a
conscious center of the divine action in the world.
The Gita distinguishes three purushas – kshara (mutable). Akshara (immutable) and purushottama
(supreme). Kshara and Akshara are both aspects of the purushottama.
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Beyond Nirvana (Selections)
“A weakness of spirit has smitten away from me my natural self; my intelligence is bewildred in viewing
what is my dharma. Thee then I ask what is better; that tell me decisively. I am thy disciple and seek
refuge in thee; enlighten me”.(G.2.7)
Gudakesha (Arjuna) having spoken thus to Govinda (Sri Krishna) added, “I will not fight” and became
silent. (G.2.9)
That which is cannot cease to be; and that which is not cannot come into being. (G.2.16)
As much use as there is in a well, with water in flood on every side, so much is there in all the Vedas for
one who has the knowledge. (G. 2.46)
(Sthitaprajna – p.2 Sel. 19):
When a man expels all the desires from his mind and is satisfied in the self by the self, then he is said to
be stable in wisdom. (G. 2.56)
He whose mind is undisturbed in the midst of sorrows and amidst pleasures is free from desire, from who
attachment, fear and wrath have passed away, is the sage of settled understanding. (G. 2.56).
While actions are being entirely done by the gunas, he whose self is be-wildered by egoism thinks, “I,
even I am the doer.” (G. 3.27)
Whenever righteousness and justice decline and fade upon the earth and unrighteousness and injustice
arise, then do I put forth myself. For the deliverance of the good, for the destruction of evildoers, for the
enthroning of the Right, the dharma, I am born from age to age. Avatar (G. 4.7-8)
He who in action can see inaction and action in inaction, he is wise among men; it is in yoga that he does
all works. (G.4.18).
Having abandoned attachment to the fruit of works, ever content, without any kind of dependence, such a
man, even though he engages in action, does nothing. (G. 4.20)
By the self thou shouldst deliver the self, thou shouldst not depress the self; for the self is the friend of the
self and the self is also its enemy. (G. 6.5.).
Verily this Yoga is not for him who eats too much or sleeps too much even as it is not for him who
abstains too much from eating or sleeping.
As a lamp in a windless place flickereth not, to such is likened the yogi of subdued thought who practices
union with the self. (G. 6.19).
We must acknowledge kurukshetra; submit to the Law of Life by Death before we can find our way to Life
immortal. (CF. Trimurti).
“The teaching of the Gita is meant to lift the aspirant from the lower levels of renunciation where objects
are renounced to the loftier heights where desires are dead, and where the Yogi dwells in calm and
ceaseless contemplation while his body and mind are actively employed in discharging the duties that fall
to his lot in life. “(Annie Besant)
Maya: For the Vedic seers Maya meant the power of the Infinite Consciousness to comprehend, contain
in itself and measure out, i.e., to form-for form is delimitation – Name and shape out of the vast illimitable
Truth of Infinite Existence. It is by Maya that static truth of essential being becomes the ordered truth of
active being.
Perception of the Truth and what needs to be done is always direct and therefore groundless.
Pathways to Perfection
The Gita does not give the whole base of sri Aurobindo’s message for it seems to admit cessation of birth
in the world as the ultimate aim or culmination. It does not bring forward the idea of spiritual evolution or
the bringing down of the higher consciousness as the means of the complete transformation of earthly
life. In spite of its distinction between the Higher Nature (para Prakriti) and the lower Nature (Apara
Prakriti) of the Samkhya and its concept of Loksamgraha as the goal of action, its final goal is to draw
157
back from world-nature and arrive at the supreme realization beyond it. “Thou who hast come to this
transient and sorrowful world, turn to Me.”
The Täntric tradition leans on the Shakti or Ishwari aspect and totally depends on the Divine Mother,
because its object is to possess and dominate the world-nature and arrive at the supreme realization
through it.
Täntric mantras: All life is for enjoyment. No antagonism to any. No criticism of other philosophies;
deprecate none. Cessation of crookedness of mind is straightforwardness.
The Gita does not give the whole base of Sri Aurobindo’s message, for it seems to admit cessation of
birth in this transient and sorrowful world, turn to Me. “the Gita distinguishes the Higher from the lower
Nature. I It, in the end, follows the Vedäntic tradition; its object is to draw back from world-nature and
arrive at a supreme realization beyond it.
But the lower nature is a derivation from the Higher Nature and contains the divine potentialities
expressed in the latter.
God has not yet completed His act of creation says Teilhard de Chardin, for though there is already “the
God above” there is yet “the God ahead”
Everything in this lower manifestation, however seemingly deformed or petty or vile, is the more or less
distorted or imperfect figure of some elements of the divine nature.
The principle of mechanical repetition is very strong in the material nature, so strong that it makes one
think that it is incurable. That, however, is only a trick of the forces of the lower nature. These ignorant
forces care nothing for truth or reason and appeal only to the blind feelings of the vital.
It is not the answering of questions that will remove the underlying cause of the recurrence. Even if the
answers satisfy it could only be for a short time. The same questions would arise again in a mechanical
reiteration since they arise from a certain part of the vital consciousness affected by the surrounding
atmosphere.
The many problems are but the different masks of the one basic problem which is not really a problem,
for it is not to be solved but dissolved.
Live in a problem-free consciousness for the so-called problems are merely forms or masks assumed by
our ignorant nature.
The human personality is something transient and perishable and to identify ourselves with this
personality is a mark of ignorance. The main difficulty of the western mind is that it clings to this limited
personality as our true being and it is reluctant to give up this identity which is formed by different
interests, desires and emotions which one refers to as “I”.
Love of the Supreme and a total surrender to it are the shortest and swiftest way to the divine oneness.
The Divine gives itself to those who give themselves without reserve and in all the parts of their being to
the Divine. For them, the calm, the light, the power, the peace, the freedom, the heights of knowledge
and the seas of Änand are the divine.
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C50 - History and Eschatology : Sacred and Secular
He who chooses the Infinite has been chosen by the Infinite. (b) I would not have sought Thee if I had
not already found Thee. (c) All is well, all is well, and all shall be made well. (d) the purpose of effort is to
realize that effort is useless. (e) (No effort) All is a Grace.
I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the son of man comes. (Mt.
10.23) Verily I say unto you that there be some of them that stand here which shall not taste of death till
they have seen the kingdom of God come with power. (Mk 9.1) But if I with the finger of God cast out
devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. (Lk. 11.20)
“Now already” and “Not yet” – Realized Eschatology
The fundamental theme of Jesus’ teaching was the imminent coming of the Kingdom and the end of the
present world.
The sayings and parables of the gospels cannot be brought into total harmony. ‘Realized eschatology
and the process of growth’ (see sel. 3).
Jesus’ claim that the coming of the kingdom already reached into this aeon, since in his person and is his
words and actions as a whole. The will of God was experienced as the definitive grace and call. With
him the eschatological reign of God had, in a true sense, already begun.
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens shall pass away and the
elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up (II
Peter 3.10). The total salvation is achieved outside of history.
The kingdom of God is not a fruit of the world’s progress. The heavenly state cannot arise out of our
profane culture. When the last trumpet sounds all the works of man will fade out (Barth) – Here we have
a stark rejection of history. There is no continuity between the city of man and the city of God.
We must not give up the visible world as if it came from the evil one. It is our duty to change it into the
kingdom of heaven (Newman). The end is a hope for history, not a release from history.
The average Christian does not expect to see any positive signs of Christ’s reign in the world. He
believes that the world only becomes worse and races in the direction of the antichrist.
Is the kingdom of God to come by slow stage and by the cooperation of men until God’s will is perfectly
accomplished within history or is the world becoming no better, even deteriorating, and God by his own
unaided act will bring history to a sudden and dramatic end and will then accomplish his perfect will? For
Jesus and the first disciples, the kingdom of God was to break in suddenly, not as a result of a moral
advance but by the supernatural intervention of God.
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C51 - Buddhi Yoga and the Integration of Personality
Buddhi Yoga and the Integration of Personality - 1
I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing. Wait without
love, for love would be love of the wrong thing. There is yet Faith but the faith and the hope and the love
are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought. And so the Darkness shall
be the Light and the Stillness the Dancing. - W.H. Auden.
Prakriti and the gunas (Sattva, Rajas and Tamas): They are called gunas, because by intertwining, they
make a rope (guna) or forge a chain for binding the self. The gunas possess their own characteristics,
lightness, movement and heaviness. Sattva produces harmony. Rajas causes feverish enjoyment and
restless effort, while Tamas resists activity and produces the state of indifference that leads to sloth and
ignorance.
The union of Purusha and Prakriti is compared to the association of a lame man and a blind man –‘the
lame man with good vision is mounted on the shoulders of a blind man of sure foot, the former directing
the latter.’
Buddhi is the Intelligence with its power of knowledge and will. The Buddhi centers its mental action
around the ego-idea, the separativist consciousness and so needs to be purified.
Complete purification of one instrument goes along with complete purification of all. ‘Make the whole
robe clean.’
The Buddhi does not work in man in its own purity; it is assailed by the defects of the lower mentality,
continually clouded by it, distorted, veiled, prevented or lamed in its own proper action.
The Buddhi is, as the Upanishads say, the charioteer of the soul’s journey to the Divine. Taking our stand
in the Buddhi, we can watch the movements of our nature and attempt to change or correct them.
There is no thought or opinion or judgment formed in the normal human mind that is not corrupted or
warped by some desire, predilection or prejudice.
Buddhi is the Intelligence with its power of knowledge and will – thought power and will power of the Spirit
turned into the lower form of mental activity. The highest action of the Buddhi concerns itself
disinterestedly with a pursuit of pure truth and subjects its will to the law of truth. Few of us can use this
highest reason with any purity but the attempt to do it is the topmost capacity of the inner instrument.
Normally the Buddhi centers its mental action round the ego-idea, the separativist consciousness.
Because it is ignorant of its true nature=Divinity.
It may be said that while each member has its own proper principles of purification, yet it is the purified
understanding that in man is the most potent cleanser of his turbid and disordered being and most
sovereignty imposes their right working on his other members.
Human nature and the character of the individual are a formation that has arisen in and out of the
Inconscience of the material world and can never get entirely free from the pressure of that Inconscience.
All conflicts are endogenic. No one is tempted unless in his inner obscure nature he wants to be tempted.
These things, anger, jealousy, desire are the very stuff of the ordinary human vital consciousness.
There are several ways of self-purification. One is to offer all the activities to the Divine and call for the
inner guidance. Another method is to stand back detached from the movements of the mind life, physical
being, to regard their activities as only a habitual formation of general nature in the individual imposed on
us by past workings, not as any part of our real being.
There is also the way of the psychic – when the psychic being comes out in its inherent power, its
consecration, adoration, love of the Divine, self-giving, surrender and imposes these on the mind, vital
and physical consciousness and compels him to turn all his movement Godward. This is the sunlit path
and a great joy and sweetness become the note.
Buddhi Yoga and the Integration of Personality - 2
We do not think, Thoughts arise and flutter about in the mind.
160
Do not look at the thoughts or listen to them. Do not even name them. Stand back as the Witness
(Säkshi) and dismiss the thoughts.
Sometimes a persistent practice of rejection may become necessary. But there should be no struggle or
wrestling with the thoughts, but only a quiet self-separation and refusal. If consent is constantly withheld,
the mechanical whirl eventually ceases and begins to die away. Reject without rejecting. This, however,
should not lead to a rejection of life but only to its attachments and distortions. (Kant and the holy will).
Beyond good and evil, yes, but when the dualism of good and evil is overcome, it is only the evil that is
eliminated. The good is raised to its absolute term. Truth, Beauty and Goodness are, in their essence,
aspects or poises of the Supreme Reality.
Silence is a capacity not incapacity. It is a profound and pregnant stillness, a Silence from which all
words are born. In complete silence alone is the Silence heard; in a pure peace alone is its Being
revealed. Therefore the name of that is the Silence and the Peace.
Disturbances:
Two things rise up and assail the Silence, vital suggestions and the physical mind’s mechanical
recurrences. To deal with this mind, one should not so much try to control, fight with or suppress it as to
stand back from it and refuse to follow its thoughts on run about among the objects it pursues. The most
material part of the mind never stops its activities. The truth is that the physical mind is truly completely
stupid.
You have an idea that to give expression to an impulse or a movement is the best way or even the only
way to get rid of it. That is a mistaken idea. If you give expression to, e.g. anger, you prolong or confirm
the habit of the recurrence of anger. The free expression of a passion may relieve the vital for a time, but
at the same time it gives it a right of substitution.
Buddhi Yoga and the Integration of Personality - 3
The first movement must be to get rid of desire which is the whole root of evil and suffering, and to do this
one must put an end to the cause of desire, the rushing out of the senses to seize and enjoy their objects.
What is needed is not an external asceticism, the renunciation of the objects of sense but withdrawal and
renunciation of desire
The Samkhya reaches the Purusha by a rejection of Nature. According to it, action and will must cease
because all action belongs to Nature.
The will is perfected when it gets away from and behind its impulses and its customary ruts of effectuation
and discovers an inner power of the Spirit, which is the source of intuitive and luminous action.
The stilling of this current, running, circling, repeating thought-mind is one of the most effective disciplines
of Yoga.
There is need to purify all the members of our being, especially the understanding; but a purified
understanding is not possible without the purification of the other members. An unpurified heart, sense,
life confuse the understanding, disturb its data, distort its conclusions, and darken its seeing. There must
be an integral purity.
The understanding must lift itself beyond the siege of desire and emotion but not by suppressing them. A
place for everything and everything in its place. The will to enjoy is proper to the vital being. All life is for
enjoyment (Täntra), but it must be rid of craving and attachment.
Mindfulness (Sati) is awareness only of what is presently happening. It is non-judgmental observation. It
is bare attention in the seen/heard see/hear only what is seen/heard. Mindfulness sees things as they
really are without addition, subtraction or distortion. It is a state of passive alertness. Mindfulness is a
process, but it does not take place in steps. It is a holistic process or integral awareness.
Buddhi Yoga and the Integration of Personality - 4
I find it difficult to take these psychoanalysts at all seriously when they try to scrutinize spiritual
experience by the flicker of their torchlights. They look from down up and explain the higher lights by the
lower obscurities; but the foundation of these things is above not below. - Gita
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Sri Aurobindo distinguishes three parts of the being which are outside the surface consciousness: a) that
which lies below (the subconscient), b) that which lies behind (the subliminal) and c) that which is high
above (the superconscient). He writes, ‘there is a consciousness much wider, more luminous than that
which wakes upon our surface; that is our inner being, the subliminal self. Sri Aurobindo ascribes the
best part of our selves – our art, poetry, philosophy, etc. – to the influences emanating from the collective
unconscious as some of the highest values of the human psyche. The most significant resemblance
between the concepts of the subliminal and the collective unconscious lies in that both are regarded as
extending beyond the individual consciousness.
Man is an abnormal that has not yet realized his true normality. To be normal is to be Divine.
The most prominent characteristic of the physical consciousness is inertia (Tamas). It is slow to react and
hence needs immense stimulus. It always needs new excitements – dramas, murders, suicides, etc. to
get the impression that something interesting is happening (Cf. Obit column).
Other characteristics of the physical consciousness are obscurity, mechanical activity, repetitiveness, and
chaotic movement.
The vital is the Life-nature made up of desires, feelings, passions and all that play of instincts, anger, fear,
greed, lust, etc. Fearful imaginations, anticipations resulting in anxiety come from the mind inter mixed
with the vital. It gives rise to a host of other disturbances; one of them is fear. Anxiety, which is simply
‘fear spread thin’, is the commonest of all psychiatric symptoms. Closely related to fear are the
disturbances of anger and depression. (Impatience).
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C52 - Jnäna Yoga
The thinker in us separates himself from all the rest of what we phenomenally are rejects the heart, draws
back from the life and the senses, separates from the body, that he may arrive at his own exclusive
fulfillment in that which is beyond even himself and his function.
It is the Yoga of self-knowledge. Knowledge by identity, knowledge that is self existent.
When the witness Purusha stands back from his action of nature, he sees that it proceeds of its own
impulsion by the power of its mechanism, by force of continuity of movement, of mentality, of life impulse,
of an involuntary physical mechanism.
The free will seems to be imperfect, almost illusory, since the actual will itself is a machinery of Nature
and each separate willing determined by the stream of past action and the sum of conditions it created.
In any severe and pure Jnäna Yoga all works must be abandoned. and even devotion, love, worship are
(regarded as) disciplines for the unripe souls.
(It is) difficult for the spiritual existence to live on in world that appears full not of Truth, Love and Beauty
but of every lie and illusion, of an encompassing discord and ugliness. Therefore the spiritual life tends
easily in the saint and the sannyasin to withdraw from the material existence ad reject it. He sees the
world as the kingdom of evil or of ignorance and the eternal and divine either in a far-off heaven or
beyond world and life. He separates himself from that impurity and asserts the spiritual reality in a
spotless isolation.
Separation from our phenomenal states) leads to the rejection of the phenomenal worlds as an illusion
and the final immergence without return of the individual soul in the Supreme.
The truth of this (the severe and pure Jnäna Yoga) is that there is an Essence that is in its nature a
quiescence, a supreme of Silence that is immutable and is superior to all activities of which it is a witness.
It reaches the Silence from which all words are born. A profound and pregnant stillness.
The supreme Existence is not conditioned by the individual or the universe. A spiritual knowledge can
therefore surpass or even dominate these two powers of the spirit and arrive at the conception of
something utterly transcendent, a something that is unnamable and mentally unknowable, a sheer
Absolute, featureless, indefinable, relationless, - Neti, Neti (not this, not this).
Mundane, Religious and Integral Perfection
The mundane perfection is conceived of as something outward, social, a thing of action, a more rational
dealing with our fellow-men and our environment, a better and more efficient citizenship and discharge of
our duties, a better, richer, kindlier and happier way of living, with a more just and a more harmonious
associated enjoyment of the opportunities of existence.
The religious aim fixes before it the self-preparation for another existence after death; its commonest
ideal is some kind of pure sainthood and the conversion of the sinner through grace. This aim may
include a social change, but it is then a change brought about by the acceptance of a common religious
ideal and consecrated living, a brother-hood of the saints….
The object of our synthetic Yoga must be more integral and comprehensive; it must embrace and unify all
these elements and tendencies of a larger impulse of self-perfection. In order to do that it must seize on
a truth which is wider than the ordinary religious and higher than the mundane principle. Hind, life body
are the means towards the discovery and fulfillment of the divine principle hidden in Nature, but they find
their last perfection only by opening out to something beyond them.
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C53 - Bhagavada Gita
(The Song of the Lord)
Dhritarashtra
Pandu
Duryodhana
Yudhishthira
A man of evil propensities
Dharmaraja-Embodiment of
Not fit to be the ruler of Dharmarajya
Virtue and Purity
Kauravas
Pandavas
The Gita Doctrine
The Transcendent is ineffable in itself and in all its poises.
Absorbed in itself it is the sheer ineffable- the Nirvana of the Buddhist.
The Spiritual seeker has a choice:
“Either to fade into the Unknowable
Or thrill with the luminous seas of the Infinite”.
This is the sheer ineffable – Nirvana.
This is the ineffable opening out into its numerous poises and taking it’s dwelling in the universe and the
heart of all living beings.
Note: this distinction between the ineffable and the sheer ineffable is consistent with the Gita teachings
but not explicitly brought out there.
A Short Glossary
Ahamkara
The Ego sense
Änand
Bliss
Atman
The Self
Avatara
Incarnation of God
Bhakti
Love, Devotion
Brahman
The Supreme Reality
Buddhi
The Intellect
Dharma
That which holds together Right action, innate law of being etc.
Guna
Quality, mode of energy
Jiva
The individual soul
Jnana
Knowledge
Käma
Desire
Karma
Action
Moksha
Liberation
Naishkarmya
Actionlessness
Nishkama
Free from desire
Prakriti
Nature
Purusha
Self, Spirit
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Purushottama
Supreme Spirit
Rajas
The guna that drives to action passionate and restless
Säkshi
Witness
Samadhi
Trance, but also self recollectedness, the natural state
Sattva
The guna that illuminates, purifies
Sannyas
(Outward) renunciation
Shakti
Force, Divine or cosmic energy
Tamas
The guna that obscures, leads to inertia
Tyaga
Inner renunciation
Yoga
Union or oneness; the path to oneness.
The Gita occurs as an episode in the Epic poem Mahabharata that saw the vision of a great India
(Bharat), one in culture and unified in political life, from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin.
Teachings are given in a dialogue between Krishna, the Avatara of Vishnu and his favorite disciple Arjuna
(brother of Yudhishthira) who is the representative man. Hence it is God speaking to man. This
Brahmavidya and Yogashastra are expounded not in a forest or hermitage but on the battlefield, during a
period of transition and crisis, on which great forces clash together for a huge destruction and
reconstruction. Kurukshetra is Dharmakshetra. We must acknowledge Kurukshetra.
“The Gita is articulated by a profound seer who sees truth in its many sidedness and believes in its saving
power. It represents not any sect of Hinduism but Hinduism as a whole, not merely Hinduism but religion
as such in its universality without limit of time or space, embracing within its synthesis the whole gamut of
the human spirit.” (S. Radhakrishnan)
Kurukshetra is a symbol of human life in our present imperfect state which contains terrible features such
as violence, destruction and death. It is a symbol of the human dilemma and crisis we have to face and
not run away from. We must submit to the law of Life by Death before we can find our way to life
immortal. The Gita’s aim is to reconcile life in the world with the spiritual life. Frequently these two
aspects of life are torn apart or separated, with some kind of compromise and adjustment without any
clear principle or reconciliation. The Gita does not shirk this problem; indeed it highlights it and makes
the practical crisis in the application of ideals to life the very starting point of its teachings.
The peculiarity of the Gita is that it is given as an episode in an epic history of nations and their wars and
arises out of a critical moment in the soul of one of its leading personages (Arjuna) face to face with the
crowning action of his life, a terrible, violent, and sanguinary work. The teaching of the Gita is not merely
a general spiritual or ethical doctrine; it has a bearing upon a practical crisis in the application of ethics
and spirituality to human life. ‘Yoga Karmasu kaushalam’
The secret of action is one with the secret of all life and existence, which is a constant manifestation of
the Spirit. The living soul of man is an eternal portion of the Godhead. Action is for self-finding, for selffulfillment, for self-realization, and not only for its own external and apparent fruits of the moment or the
future. The supreme, the faultless largest law of action is therefore to find out the truth of your own
highest and inmost existence and live in it and not to follow any outer standard and Dharma. Know your
true self to be god and one with the self of all others. First offer all your actions as a sacrifice to the
Highest and the One in you and to the Highest and the One in the world. Last deliver all you are and do
into his hands for the supreme and universal Spirit to do through you his own will and works in the world.
This is the solution that I present to you and in the end you will find that there is no other.
The consciousness of man is of a double kind and corresponds to a double truth of existence; for there is
truth of the inner reality and a truth of the outer appearance. Accordingly as he lives in one or the other,
he will be a mind dwelling in human ignorance or a soul founded in divine knowledge. In the outer
appearance man seems to be a creature of Nature differentiated from others by a separation of his body,
life and mind and especially by his ego-sense –that subtle mechanism constructed for him that he may
confirm and centralize his consciousness of all this strong separateness and difference. All in him is very
evidently determined by the law of his ego; but that in reality amounts to nothing, since his ego is only a
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sense which makes him identify himself with the creation that Nature has made of him. Indeed his ego is
itself a product of her workings.
There is, however, something in man’s consciousness which does not fall in with the rigidity of this
formula. In his inner reality the truth of existence is no longer Nature but soul and Spirit, Purusha rather
than Prakriti. Nature herself is only a power of Spirit, Prakriti the force of the Purusha. A Spirit, a Self, a
being one in all is the master of this world, which is only his partial manifestation. The real soul and self
of us is hidden from our intelligence by its ignorance of inner things, by a false identification, by an
absorption in our outward mechanism of mind, life and body. But if the active soul of man can once draw
back from this identification with its natural instruments, if it can see and live in the entire faith of its inner
reality, then all is changed to it, life and existence take on another appearance, action a different meaning
and character. His consciousness becomes infinite and divine and his will and action too are no longer
that of this bounded personality and its ego, but a divine and spiritual will and action.
The need for this great change and transfiguration is difficult indeed to accept for the human intellect is
always attached to its own cloud-forms and half-lights of ignorance and to the yet obscure habits of man’s
mental, nervous and physical parts. There has to be a change of the habitual and normal nature of man
as he is now a supreme and divine spiritual nature. There will be needed a Yoga which shall be at once a
Yoga of integral knowledge, a Yoga of the integral will and its works, a Yoga of integral love, adoration
and devotion and a Yoga of an integral spiritual perfection of the whole being and of all its states and
powers.
This integral knowledge is the knowledge of the supreme Soul and Spirit in its oneness and its
wholeness. It is the knowledge of One who is always beyond Time and Space, high beyond his own
personal and impersonal levels and yet from whom all this proceeds. The Divine, whom you have to
seek, the supreme soul of whom your soul is an eternal portion, is simultaneously all these things; you
have to know them simultaneously in a supreme oneness. You are not merely a succession of soul
moments in Time. There is an impersonal self in you, which supports the stream of your personality and
is one with God’s vast and impersonal spirit. Incalculable beyond this impersonality and personality,
dominating these two constant poles of what you are here, you are eternal and transcendent in the
Eternal Transcendence.
God in the world and you in the world are realities; the world and you are true and actual powers and
manifestations of the Supreme. Therefore accept life and action and do not reject them. Be one with
God in your impersonal self and presence, an eternal portion of the Godhead turned to him by the love
and adoration of your spiritual personality. Make your natural being what it is intended to be, an
instrument of works, a channel, a power of the Divine.
The Supreme is the Purushottama eternal beyond all manifestation, infinite beyond all limitations by Time
or Causation or any of his numberless qualities and features. He is the supreme ineffable and
transcendent Spirit and all comes into manifestation from him and are his forms and his self-powers. All
living beings are in their spiritual personality deathless portions of the one Purusha. He is in all and all
are in him; he has become all and yet too he is above all and not limited by his creations. He descends
as the Avatar and is the Godhead secret in every human being.
The nature which we see when we look outwards, the Nature which acts in our mind and body and
senses is a lower Force, a derivation, mere figures of the Spirit in which the Spirit lies hidden.
It is possible by drawing back from the lower turn of his nature in which man now lives, to awake from this
light that is darkness and live in the luminous truth of the eternal and immutable self-existence. He is
then merged in the vast and free impersonality of the pure spirit; he becomes the Brahman. He is no
longer aware of the ego, no longer troubled by the dualities, no longer feel brief anguish or disturbance of
joy, is no longer shaken by desire, troubled by sin or limited by virtue. This spiritual state (however)
brings with it a still peace and freedom but not dynamic divinity, not integral perfection; it is a great step,
but it is not the integral God-knowledge and self-knowledge.
A perfect perfection comes only by living in the supreme and the whole Divine…. He still sees the self as
an eternal and changeless Spirit silently supporting all things; but he sees also Nature no longer as a
mere mechanical force that works out things according to the mechanism of the gunas, but as a power of
the Spirit and the force of God in manifestation.
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But to climb to this pre-eminent condition the first necessity, the original radical step is to turn away from
the ally that belongs to your lower Nature…. And first of all you must turn to your own eternal and
immutable self, impersonal and the same in all creatures … But to impersonalized your being is not
possible so long as you nurse and cherish and cling to your ego or anything that belongs to it.
Then slay desire; put away attachment to the possession and enjoyment of the outwardness of things.
Separate yourself from all that comes to you as outward touches and solicitations, as objects of the mind
and senses. Learn to bear and reject all the rush of the passions and to remain securely seated in your
inner self even when they rage in your members, until at last they cease to affect any part of your nature.
Similarly bear and put away the forceful attacks and even the slightest insinuating touches of joy and
sorrow. Castaway liking and disliking, destroy preference and hatred, root out shrinking and repugnance.
Let there be a calm indifference to these things and to all the objects of desire in all your nature. Look on
them with the silent and tranquil regard of an impersonal spirit.
Observe simply, observe unmoved the working of Nature and the play of her qualities. Observe too that
even the will in your works is not yours but Nature’s. It is the will of the ego sense in you and is
determined by the predominant quality in your composition that she has developed in the past or else
brings forward at the moment. If you can do this, you will find yourself uplifted into a great release. Then
you will be aware of God and (become) possessed of your dateless self-existence, independent of mind
and life and body. Rejecting from your mind all seed of thought and all root of desire, you will possess
inalienably the self-sufficient delight of a clam and eternal spirit.
(Sri Krishna says): This however is not all the truth of the Yoga and this way of departure (into spiritual
freedom) is not the thing I propose to you. For I am the eternal Worker within you and I ask work of you .
I demand of you action complete and divine done for God in you and others and for the good of the world.
Action is part of the integral knowledge of God and of his greater mysterious truth and entirely living in the
Divine; action can and should be continued even after perfection and freedom are won. Works can be
made one spirit with knowledge. For works done in a total self-vision and God-vision are themselves a
movement of knowledge, of light, an indispensable means and an intimate part of spiritual perfection.
The Supreme whom one meets as the pure silent self can be met also as a vast dynamic Spirit who
originates all works and is Lord of the worlds and Master of man's action and sacrifice. You can wholly
respond to that Spirit only when you are impersonalized by knowledge and widened to see all things in
the self and in God and the self and God in all things.
The first step on this free, this equal, this divine way of action is to put from you attachment fruit and
recompense and to labor only for the sake of the work itself that has to be done. Consecrate your labor
and leave its results to the Spirit who manifests and fulfils himself in the universal movement. An entirely
desireless and disinterested working of the personal will and the whole instrumental nature is the first rule
of karma yoga. Accept whatever result is given to you; accept it with equality and a calm gladness.
This is no more than the first step. For you must be not only unattached to results but unattached also to
your labor. Cease to regard your works as your own; as you have abandoned the fruits of your work, so
you must surrender the work also to the Lord of action and sacrifice.
Next know that you are an eternal portion of the Eternal and the powers of your nature are nothing but his
partial self-expression. Give up then all sense that you are the doer, see the Eternal alone as the doer of
the action and become an instrument, a channel of power and means of manifestation. When there is
surrender to the Highest the divine Power executes freely without any other interference or preventing
reaction, all works in the purity and safety of your transmuted nature. To allow your every act to be
shaped through you by the divine will in its immaculate sovereignty is the highest degree of perfection
that comes by doing works in Yoga. This way of divine works is a far better release and a more perfect
way and solution than the physical renunciation of life and works. A physical abstention is not entirely
possible and is not in the measure of its possibility, indispensable to the spirit’s freedom.
The mind of knowledge and the will of action are not all; there is within you a heart whose demand is for
delight. Here too your nature must be turned, transformed and lifted to one conscious ecstasy with the
Divine. The knowledge of the impersonal self brings its own Änand. But an integral knowledge brings a
greater triune delight, the Transcendent’s bliss, the limitless delight of a universal impersonality and the
rapture of all this multitudinous manifestation. An entire God-love and adoration extends to a love of the
world and all its forms and powers and creatures; in all the Divine is seen, is adored or is felt in oneness.
Add to knowledge and its works this crown of the eternal triune delight; admit this love, make it one spirit
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with works and knowledge. That is the apex of the perfect perfection. But it must be a love which is one
with God-knowledge. For when the God-Lover is also the God-Knower, the lover becomes one self with
the Beloved. Develop in yourself God-engrossed love. It will reveal to you most intimately the secrets of
God’s immeasurable being. It is perfect love that is the key to perfect knowledge.
The integral God-love also demands an integral work for the sake of Divine in yourself and in all
creatures. The oneness in love will bring the moving sense and the pure and divine passion of the
presence of the Beloved into your works; there will be an insistent joy of labor for God in yourself and for
God in all beings. Love is the crown of works and the crown of knowledge.
An integral union of the individual’s being with the Divine Being is the condition of a perfect spiritual life.
Turn then altogether towards the Divine; make one with him by knowledge, love and works all your
nature. Ungrudgingly give up into his hands your mind and your heart and your will, your consciousness,
and even your very senses and body. Adore and sacrifice to all you are. Persevere until all your
thoughts and feelings, every impulsion and act are wholly his and he has taken up even in most common
and outward things as in the inmost sacred chamber of your spirit his constant transmuting presence.
This triune way is the means by which you can rise entirely out of your lower nature into your supreme
spiritual nature. This perfection can be enjoyed in its own native status, aloof in a supreme supracosmic
existence; but here also you may and should realize it, here in the human body and physical world. It is
not enough for this end to be calm, inactive and free from the Gunas in the inner self and to watch and
allow indifferently their mechanical action in the outer members. For the active nature as well as the self
has to be given to the Divine and to become divine.
Take refuge with me in all the many ways and along all the living lines of your nature; for that alone will
bring about this great change and perfection. This high consummation of the Yoga will destroy at its roots
the problem of action. Human action is a thing full of difficulties and perplexities, tangled and confused
like a forest with a few more or less obscure paths cut into it or rather through it; but all this difficulty and
entanglement arises from the single fact that man lives imprisoned in the ignorance of his mental, vital
and physical nature. But when he has once achieved a true consciousness and knowledge, there is no
longer any problem; for then he acts freely out of himself and lives spontaneously in accordance with the
truth of his spirit and his highest nature. It is not he who acts but the Divine, the One eternal and infinite
who acts in him and through him in his liberated wisdom and power and perfection.
The Divine and not you will enact his own will and works through you, not for your lower personal
pleasure and desire but for your divine good and the manifest or secret good of all. This will be your
perfection in the world and the body, and beyond these worlds of temporal birth the supreme eternal
superconsciousness will be yours and you will dwell forever in the highest status of the Supreme Spirit.
This then is the Supreme movement, this complete surrender of your whole self and nature, this
abandonment of all Dharmas to the Divine who is your highest Self. A supreme Presence within you will
take up your Yoga and carry it swiftly along the lines of your Swabhava (The cast of one’s spirit, the inner
law of one’s being) to its consummate completion. This is the supreme way... the highest secret and
mystery and yet an inner movement progressively realizable by all. This is the deepest and most intimate
truth of your real, your spiritual existence.
There is undoubtedly a Truth one and eternal which we are seeking, from which all other truth derives, by
the light of which all other truth finds its right place. But precisely for that reason it cannot be shut up in a
single trenchant formula. It is not likely to be found in its entirety or in all its bearings in any single
philosophy or scripture or uttered altogether and for ever by any one thinker, teacher, prophet or Avatar.
Nor has it been wholly found true by us if our view of it necessitates the intolerant exclusion of the truth
underlying other systems; for when we reject passionately, we mean simply that we cannot appreciate
and explain.
The Gita is not a weapon for dialectical warfare; it is a gate opening on the whole world of spiritual truth
and experience and the view it gives us embraces all the provinces of that supreme region. It maps out,
but it does not cut up or build walls or hedges to confine our vision.
The Gita takes for its frame such a period of transition and crisis as humanity periodically experiences in
its history, in which great forces clash together for a huge destruction and reconstruction.. a violent
physical convulsion of strife, war or revolution. The Gita proceeds from the acceptance of the necessity
in Nature for such vehement crises and it accepts not only the moral aspect, the struggle between
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righteousness and unrighteousness, but also the physical aspect, the actual armed war or other
vehement physical strife between human beings who represent the antagonistic powers.
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C54 - Selected Verses from the Gita
Chapter I
Arjuna:
Stay my chariot between the two armies so that I may scan these people who stand arrayed longing for
battle.
Then I saw Partha, standing in the opposing armies, uncles and grandsires, teachers, cousins and
grandsons, comrades, fathers-in-law and benefactors.
Arjuna:
Seeing them, my own people thus arrayed for battle, O Krishna, my limbs collapse and my mouth is
parched, my body shudders and its hair stands on end. Gandiva (Arjuna’s bow) slips from my hand, and
my very skin is on fire. Yet I cannot stand and my mind whirls and evil omens meet my eye, O Keshava.
What is kingdom to us, O Govinda, what is enjoyment, what even is life? Even if they slay me then I
would not consent to stay, not even for the kingdom of the three worlds.
It is more for you my good that the armed sons of Dhritarashtra slay me unarmed and unresisting in the
battle.
Sanjaya:
Having thus spoken on the battlefield and abandoning his bow and arrows, Arjuna took his seat in the
back of the chariot, his spirit overwhelmed with grief.
Chapter II
To him besieged with pity and his eyes full of tears and distress, his heart was full of grief. Madhusudan
(Sri Krishna, the Blessed Lord) spoke these words:
Whence comes to thee in the very hour of peril, this stain, this dejection, cherished not by the Aryan
man? It leads one not to heaven, not to glory, O Arjuna! Fall not into unmanliness, O Partha; it is not
worthy of thee. Shake off this paltry faint-heartedness and arise, O Parantapa!
Arjuna:
How shall I combat Bhishma in the fight and Drona, O Madhusudana? How shall I smite with arrows
these venerable heads? By slaying these gurus, blood-stained will be the joys I shall taste here. A
weakness of spirit has smitten away from me my natural self; bewildered is my decisiveness. I am thy
disciple and seek refuge in thee; enlighten me.
Sanjaya:
Gudakesha, terror of his foes, spoke thus to Govinda and adding “ I will not fight” then became silent.
To him thus dejected in the midst of battle, spoke Hrishikesha, smiling as it were;
The Blessed Lord:
Thou grievest for those who should not be grieved for yet speakest wise-seeming words, but the wise
grieve not whether for the living or for the dead.
It is not true that at any time before I was not, nor thou, nor these kings of men, nor yet that we shall not
be again hereafter.
As the soul passes through childhood, youth and old age in the body, so also it passes from one body to
another. This does not delude the wise. That which is cannot cease to be, and that which is not cannot
come into being. The soul is eternal, indestructible illimitable. Therefore, fight, O Bharata.
He who regards the Soul as the slayer knows not, nor does he who thinks it is slain. It slays not nor is it
slain. It is not born, nor does it die. It is unborn, ancient, eternal, and everlasting; it is not slain with the
slaying of the body.
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As a man casts from him his worn-out garments and takes other that are new, so the embodied being
casts off its bodies and takes on others that are new.
Weapons cannot cleave it, not the fire burn it, nor do the waters drench it, nor the wind dry it. Eternal, all
pervading, stable and immobile, it abides forever.
And if thou thinkest that it is constantly subject to birth and death, even then thou shouldst not grieve. For
certain is the death of that which is born, and certain is the birth of that which dies; therefore what is
inevitable ought not to be a cause of sorrow. One sees it as a mystery, another speaks of it as a mystery,
and still another hears of it as a mystery; but even hearing of it not one knows it.
Happy are the kshatriyas, O Partha, when such a battle comes to them of itself like the open gate of
heaven. But if thou does not this battle for the right, then hast thou abandoned thy duty and virtue and
thy glory, and sin shall be thy portion. Slain thou shalt win Heaven, victorious thou shalt enjoy the earth;
therefore arise, resolved upon battle. Look with detached equanimity alike on pleasure and sorrow, gain
and loss, victory and defeat; then gird thyself for the combat.
The action of the three gunas is the subject matter of the Veda; but do thou, O Arjuna, become free from
the triple gunas, free from the dualities; not caring for acquiring and possessing, be firmly fixed in the Self.
Thou hast a right to action, but only to action, never to its fruits; let not the fruits of thy works be thy
motive; let there not be in thee any attachment to inactivity.
Fixed in Yoga do thy action having abandoned attachment with an even mind in success and failure, for it
is equality (evenness of mind) that is meant by Yoga.
One whose intelligence has attained union with the Divine casts away from him even here both good
doing and evil doing. Therefore strive to be in Yoga. Yoga is skill in works.
When thy intelligence shall cross beyond the whorl delusion, then shalt thou became indifferent to the
Scripture that is heard or that which thou hast yet to hear.
As much use as there is in a well with water in flood on every side, so much is there in all the Vedas for
the Brahmin who has the knowledge.
Arjuna:
What is the sign, O Keshava, of him in whom wisdom is stable, of him who is in Samadhi? The sage of
settled understanding, how does he speak, how does he sit, how walks he?
The Blessed Lord:
When a man expels all desires from the mind and is satisfied in the Self by the Self in the Self, then he
said to be stable in wisdom.
He whose mind is undisturbed in the midst of sorrows and amidst pleasures is free from desire. From
whom passion and fear and wrath have passed away is the saga of settled understanding.
He who is in all things without affections, whether good come to him or evil, who rejoices not nor hates, in
him wisdom is firm in its seat.
He who draws away the senses from the objects of sense as a tortoise draws his limbs into his shell, in
him is wisdom firm in its seat.
Having brought all the senses under control, he must sit forming Yoga, wholly given up to Me; for in him
who has mastered the sense is the wisdom firm in its seat.
When one’s mind dwells on the subject of the senses, attachment for them grows on him; from
attachment comes desire, from desire anger. Anger leads to bewilderment, to loss of memory (of one’s
true self), and by that the intelligence is destroyed; and by the destruction of intelligence he perishes.
But a man of disciplined mind, who moves among the objects of sense with the sense under control and
free from attachment and aversion, he attains purity of spirit and in that purity of spirit there is produced
for him an end of all sorrow; the intelligence of such a man of pure spirit is soon established (in the peace
of the self).
In that which is night to all creatures, the self-mastering saga is awake; that in which all creatures wake, is
night to the eyes of the seer.
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He into who all desires enter as water into the sea, which is ever being filled, yet ever motionless, it is he
who attains peace, not he who is disturbed by every little inrush of desire. He who abandons all desires
and lives free from craving, who has no “I´ or “mine”, attains the great peace.
This is Brahma Sthiti, firm standing in the Brahman. Having attained thereto man is bewildered no more
and fixed in that status even at the hour of his end, he attains to Brahma Nirvana (the merging of the
separate personal self into the vast reality of the one infinite impersonal Existence).
Chapter III
Arjuna:
If thou holdest the path of understanding to be greater than the path of works, why then dost thou appoint
me to a terrible work, O Keshava?
Thou seemest to bewilder my intelligence with mixed and tangled speech; tell me then decisively that one
thing by which I may attain to the highest welfare.
The Blessed Lord:
In this world, O sinless one, two are the ways of consecration already declared by me: that of the
Samkhyas by Yoga of knowledge and that of the Yogins by the Yoga of works.
Not by abstention from, does a man enjoy Naishkarmya (Actionlessness): nor by mere renunciation of
works does he attain his perfection.
For verily none stands even for a moment not doing work; everyone is made to do action helplessly by
the modes born of Prakriti.
Do thou thy allotted work, for action is greater than inaction; yea, without action the very maintenance of
thy body cannot be accomplished.
Be doing works otherwise than in a spirit of sacrifice this world of men is in bondage to works. Therefore,
O son of Kunti, do thy work as a sacrifice, becoming free from all attachment.
But the man whose delight is in the Self and whose whole satisfaction is in the Self, yea who in the Self is
content, for him there exists no work that needs to be done. For, indeed, he hath no end at all to gain by
doing; neither by not doing; no dependence he hath for end or aim in this whole world of creatures.
Therefore without attachment do ever the work that is to be done, since by doing works without
attachment man reacheth the HigheSt. Moreover, even if thou lookest to the holding together of the
peoples (Loksamgraha), thou shouldest engage in action.
Whatsoever the Best doeth, the same is done by other as well. Whatever standard he sets, the world
follows. Behold, O Partha, there is naught at all in the three worlds that I need to do, nothing there is that
I have not done, or that I have yet to gain; and still I abide in the paths of action. For, verily, if I did not
abide sleeplessly in the paths of action, then would all these worlds sink and perish and I should become
the creator of confusion and destroy these people. (Therefore) the wise should act and should act
without attachment with the sole desire of holding together of the peoples.
Determinism of Nature
While the actions are being entirely done by the guans, he whose self is bewildered by egoism thinks, “I
even I, am the doer”. But one who knows the true principles of the divisions of the guans and their
actions, realizes that it is the gunas that are acting and reacting on each other and is not caught in them
by attachment.
With the consciousness identified with the Self, giving up all thy actions to me, freed from longing and
egoism, delivered from the fever of thy soul, fight!
All beings follow their nature and what course shall it avail? Even the man of knowledge acts according
to his own nature.
Better is one’s own of being is better; perilous it is to follow the law of another’s being.
Arjuna:
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But what is it, O Krishna, which impels a man to sin even against his wish, constrained as it were by
force?
The Blessed Lord:
It is desire; it is wrath, the child of Rajoguna, all consuming and most evil. Know this to be the enemy of
man’s soul here on earth. As a fire is covered over by smoke and a mirror by dust, so is this (the self)
enveloped by that (passion). Therefore control first the senses. Enveloped is knowledge by this eternal
enemy in the form of desire which is an insatiable fire.
Supreme beyond their objects are the sense, supreme over the sense is the mind, supreme over the
mind is intelligent will; that which is supreme over the intelligent will is He, the Purusha.
Thus awakening to the Purusha who is beyond even the intelligence hold the self by the Self, O mightyarmed, and slay thou the enemy so hard to overcome in the form of desire.
Chapter IV - The Blessed Lord:
Many are my births that are past and gone, and thine also, O Arjuna; all of them I know but thou knowest
not, O scourge of the foes.
Though I am the unborn, though I am imperishable in my self-existence, though I am the Lord of all
existences, yet I stand upon My own nature and I come into birth by my self-Maya. Wherever
righteousness and justice decline upon the earth, O Bharata, and unrighteousness and injustice arise and
flourish, then do I put forth myself? For the deliverance of the good, for the destruction of the evildoers,
for the enthroning of the Right, the Dharma, I am born from age to age.
Delivered from passion, fear and anger, absorbed in Me, taking refuge in Me, many purified by the
austerity of knowledge have attained to My state of being.
Even as men come to Me, so I accept them with love; it is My path that men follow from all sides, O son of
Pritha.
Action and Inaction
What is action and what is inaction, as to this even the sages are bewildered. Therefore I will declare to
thee that action, by the knowledge of which thou shalt be released from all ills. One has to understand
what action is, and likewise what is wrong action; and one has to understand about inaction. Hard and
tangled is the way of works.
When he has abandoned all attachment to the fruit of works, is ever content without any kind of
dependence, such a man, even though he engages in action, does nothing. Well-content with whatever
comes to him, lifted beyond the dualities, free of jealousy, undisturbed by success or failure, he is not
bound even when he acts.
When a liberated man, leaving all attachment behind him, with mind founded in knowledge, does works
as sacrifice, all his work is dissolved.
Know this by humble reverence, by inquiry and by service. When thou hast known it, thou shalt not fall
again into delusion; for by this thou shalt see all existences without exception in the Self, then in me.
Even as a kindled fire turns its fuel to ashes, O Arjuna, so the fire of knowledge turns all works to ashes.
He who has renounced works by Yoga and destroyed doubts by knowledge and is in possession of the
Self, is not bound by his works, Therefore take up the sword of knowledge and cleave asunder this doubt
that has arisen out of ignorance and made its seat in thy heart; be thou firm in Yoga and arise, O Bharata.
End of the Yoga of knowledge and true renunciation of action
Commentary: Yoga and knowledge are in this early part of the Gita’s teachings, the two wings of the
soul’s ascent. By Yoga is meant union through divine works done without desire (Nishkama karma) with
equality of soul to all things and all men as a sacrifice to the Supreme, while knowledge is that on which
this desirelessness, this equality, this power of sacrifice is founded. The two wings indeed assist each
other’s flight, acting together, yet with a subtle alternation of mutual aid like the two eyes in a man which
see together because they see alternately. As the works grow more and more desireless, equal-minded,
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sacrificial in spirit, the knowledge increases; with the increase of the knowledge the soul becomes firmer
in the desireless sacrificial equality of its works.
To attain to divine birth and to do divine works both as a means towards it before it is attained and as an
expression of it after it is attained is then all the Karma-Yoga of the Gita…. No work the world needs
should be shunned; no limit or hedge set round our human activities; on the contrary, all actions should
be done, but from a soul in Yoga (union) with the Divine. - Sri Aurobindo.
Chapter V - True Renunciation
Arjuna:
(Note: When the term “Yoga” is used by itself it means the Yoga of works, Karma-yoga)
Thou declarest to the renunciation of works, O Krishna, and again thou declarest to me Yoga; which one
of these is the better way, that tells me decisively.
The Blessed Lord:
Renunciation and Yoga of works both bring about the soul’s freedom, but of the two, the Yoga of works is
superior to the renunciation of works.
He should be known as a Sannyasin (a man of renunciation) always, even when he is doing action and
who neither hates nor desires; for free from the dualities, he is released easily and happily from bondage.
The status attained by those on the path of knowledge (followers of Samkhya) is also reached by those
on the path of action. He who sees Samkhya and Yoga as one, verily sees. He who is in Yoga, the pure
soul, master of his self, who has conquered the senses, whose self becomes the self of all existences,
even though he does works, he is not involved in (tainted by) them.
He, who having abandoned attachment, acts dedicating his works to the Supreme, is not touched by sin
even as water clings not to the lotus leaf.
By abandoning attachment to fruits of actions, the soul in union with Brahman, attains to lasting peace;
but he who is not united with Brahman, who is spurred by desire, being attached to the fruit of action, is
firmly bound.
For those in whom ignorance is destroyed by knowledge, for them knowledge lights up the supreme Self
like the sun.
Sages see with an equal eye the learned and humble Brahmin, the cow, the elephant, the dog and the
outcaste.
With intelligence stable and unbewildered, the knower of Brahman living in Brahman neither rejoices on
obtaining what is pleasant nor sorrows on obtaining what is unpleasant.
When the soul is no longer enticed by the solicitations of outward things, then one finds the happiness
that is in the self; such a one who by Yoga is in union with Brahman enjoys imperishable happiness.
The enjoyments born of contact with objects are causes of sorrow; they have a beginning and an end.
Therefore the man of awakened understandings does not seek delight in these.
He who has his happiness within and his joy, repose and light within, that Yogin becomes Brahman and
enters into Brahmanirvana (the extinction of the ego in Brahman).
Those austere souls who are delivered from desire and wrath and have gained self-mastery and
knowledge of the self find nirvana in the Brahman within them and everywhere.
Having known Me as the enjoyer of sacrifices and austerities, as the great Lord of all the worlds, as the
friend of al beings, he attains to peace.
Chapter VI - Nirvana and Works in the World
The Blessed Lord:
Whoever does the work that is to be done without resort to its fruits, he is the Sannaya-Renonciato sin
and the Yogin, not the man who lights not the sacrificial fire and remains inactive. That which they have
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called Sannyas know to be in truth Yoga, O Pandava, for no one becomes a Yogi who has not
relinquished the incentive of desire.
By the self thou shouldst raise up the self; thou shouldst not depress and cast down the self, for the self
is the friend of the self and the self is also its own enemy.
When one has conquered one’s self and attained to the claim of self-mastery, the supreme Self ever
abides with him, concentrated in itself and unaffected in cold or heat, pleasure or grief, honor or disgrace.
The yogi who is firmly established in self-knowledge, tranquil and self-poised, master of his senses,
regarding alike clod and stone and gold is said to be in Yoga (union with the Highest).
He who is equal-minded among friends, companions and foes, among those who are neutral and
impartial, among hateful persons and kinsmen, saints and sinners, he excels.
Serene and fearless, firm in the vow of celibacy lets him sit steadfastly in Yoga with his controlled mind
turned to Me and wholly given up to Me.
Verily this Yoga is not for him who eats too much or sleeps too much, even as it is not for him who gives
up sleep and food.
For the man who is temperate in food and recreation, who is restrained in his actions, whose sleep and
waking are regulated, there ensues Yoga that destroys all sorrow.
As a lamp in a windless place flickereth not, to such is likened the yogi of controlled mind who practices
union with the Self.
That in which the mind becomes silent and still by the practice of Yoga, that in which he beholds the Self
by the Self and is satisfied in the Self; that in which he finds this supreme delight beyond the reach of the
senses, wherein established he no longer falls away from the truth; that which he realizes to be the
greatest of all gains, reaching when he is not shaken even by the fieriest assault of grief; that indeed is
known as Yoga, this divorce of the Self from grief. Resolutely should one practice this Abandoning
without reserve of all the desires born of the desires-will and restrained by the mind on all sides of the
whole cohort of senses, let him little by little gain tranquility through steadfastness, and having fixed the
mind in the Self, let him not think of anything.
Whenever the restless and unsteady mind goes forth it should be restrained from its wanderings and
brought under the control of the Self.
The highest bliss comes to the Yogin whose mind is peaceful, stainless, whose passions are at rest, and
who has become the Brahman.
He whose self is in Yoga sees the self in all being and all being in the Self; he sees all with an equal
vision.
He who sees Me everywhere and sees all in Me, to him I do not get lost, nor does he get lost to Me.
He who is established in Oneness and loves Me who is present in all beings, that Yogi in all ways and
however he lives and acts, lives and acts in Me.
He who sees with equality everything in the image of the Self whether it be grief or it be happiness, him I
hold to be the supreme Yogi.
Arjuna:
This Yoga of equality (perceiving all things with an even mind ) of which Thou hast spoken, I see no
stable foundation for it on account of restlessness.
Restless indeed is the mind, O Krishna, turbulent, strong and unyielding. I deem it as hard to control as
wind.
The Blessed Lord:
Neither in this life nor hereafter is there destruction for him, O Arjuna… He who fell from Yoga is again
born in the house of the pure and illustrious or in the house of the wise yogis. There he recovers the
state of union gained in his previous life and starting from there strives again for perfection. Gradually
perfecting himself through many lives, he reaches the highest goal.
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The Yogi (who finds union with Me) is greater than the ascetic, greater than the man of knowledge or the
man of action. Do thou become a Yogi, O Arjuna.
Of all Yogis, he who, full of faith, worships Me with his whole self given up to Me, him I hold to be the
most united with Me in Yoga.
(It is this that is the closing word of the first six chapters and contains in itself the seed of the rest… (That
leads to) the highest spiritual mystery and the divine secret-Sri Aurobindo)
Chapters VII to XI - Selected Verses from the Gita
The Blessed Lord:
This (the Prakriti of the three gunas) is the lower Nature. But know my other Nature different from this,
the supreme Nature which become the Jiva and by which this world is upheld.
There is nothing else that is supreme beyond Me. On Me all that is here is strung like pearls upon a
thread.
There are four kinds of bhaktas (devotees), the suffering, the seeker for good in the world, the seeker for
knowledge, and those who adore Me with knowledge.
Of these the knower, who is ever in constant union with the Divine, whose Bhakti is all concentrated on
Him, is the beSt. For I am supremely dear to him and he is dear to Me.
Having come to Me, these great souls come not again to birth in this transient and painful condition of our
mortal being; they achieve highest perfection.
This is the Supreme Person in whom all existences abide and by whom all this is pervaded. He can be
reached only by unswerving devotion.
Always adoring Me, steadfast in spiritual endeavor, bowing down to Me with devotion, they worship Me,
ever in yoga (union) Me.
He who offers a leaf, a flower, a fruit, a cup of water, to Me with devotion , I accept that offering of love of
the pure of heart.
Thou who hast come to a transient and sorrowful world, love and turn to Me.
Become my-minded, my lover and adorer; worship and revere Me; thus united with Me in the Self thou
shalt come to Me, having Me as thy supreme goal.
To those who are thus in constant union with Me, adore Me with as intense delight of love, I give the
Yoga of understanding by which they come to Me.
Out of compassion for them lodged in their self, I destroy the darkness born of ignorance by the blazing
lamp of knowledge.
Whatsoever being there is endowed with glory and grace and vigor; know them to have sprung from a
fragment of My splendor.
But what need is there, O Arjuna, for detailed knowledge of Myself? Know that I support this entire
universe pervading it with an infinitesimal portion of Myself.
(“A shattering theophany…the most intense expression of the Numinous in religious literature.” Ninian
Smart)
Arjuna:
So it is as Thou hast declared Thyself, O Supreme Lord; but I desire to see Thy divine form and body, O
Purushottama.
The Blessed Lord:
Behold, O Partha, My forms, a hundred-fold, a thousand-fold, various in kind, divine, of various colors and
shapes.
Here today behold the whole universe moving and unmoving and whatever else thou desires to see, all
unified in My body.
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Sanjaya:
Having spoken thus Hari (Krishna), the great Lord of Yoga then revealed to Arjuna His Supreme and
Divine Form.
(“It is the Form of the infinite Godhead whose faces are everywhere and in whom are all the wonders of
existence who multiples unendingly all the many marvelous revelations of his being, a universal Divinity
seeing with innumerable eyes, speaking from innumerable mouths, armed for battle with numberless
divine uplifted weapons, glorious with divine ornaments of beauty, robed in heavenly raiment of deity,
lovely with garlands of divine flowers, fragrant with divine perfumes.” Sri Aurobindo)
If the light of a thousand suns were to blaze forth all at once in the sky, that might resemble the splendor
of the exalted Being.
The Blessed Lord : By him who loves and adores Me alone in all things may I be known in this Form. He
who does My work and looks on Me as the Supreme Goal, who worships Me, free from attachment and
enmity to all creatures, such a man comes to Me, O Pandora.
The Blessed Lord:
Those who fixing their minds on Me worship Me, ever earnest possessed of supreme faith-do I consider
most perfect in yoga.
Those who seek after the Imperishable, the Undefinable, and the Unmanifested… they also come to Me.
But those who giving up all their actions to Me and wholly devoted to Me, worship, meditating on Me with
an unswerving devotion…. I straightway deliver them from the ocean of death-bound existence.
Equal to friend and enemy, the same in honor and insult, pleasure and pain, praise and blame, cold and
heat, he who is silent, content and well satisfied, free from attachment, who has no fixed abode and is
firm in mind, that man is dear to Me. But exceedingly dear to Me are those devotees who make Me their
one supreme aim and follow this immortal Dharma with a perfect faith.
The Purusha involved in Prakriti enjoys the qualities born of Prakriti. Attachment to the qualities is the
cause of his birth in good or evil wombs.
The supreme Spirit seated in this body in said to be the Witness, one who consents to and upholds the
work of Nature. He is the almighty Lord and the Supreme Self.
He who sees that all action is verily done by Prakriti and that the Self is the inactive Witness, he sees.
I will once again declare the supreme and highest of all Knowledge, attaining which all the sages have
gone to the highest perfection.
The three gunas born of Prakriti, sattva, rajas and tamas, bind in the body the imperishable dweller in the
body.
When the seer perceives that the modes of Nature are the whole agency and cause of works, and knows
and turns to that which is beyond the modes, he attains to My being.
When the soul thus rises above the three gunas, he is freed from subjection to birth and death and their
concomitants, decay, old age and suffering and attains in the end Immortality.
He also who loves and strives after Me with an undeviating love and adoration passes beyond the three
gunas, and he too is prepared for becoming the Brahman.
For I (the Purushottama) am the foundation of the silent Brahman (Ashore), of Immortality and the
Imperishable, of the eternal and of absolute bliss.
Those who are freed from pride and delusion, who without attachment and all desires stilled, are ever
devoted to the Supreme Spirit, liberated from dualities, they go to that supreme Infinite.
The sun does not illumine that, nor the moon, nor the fire. That is My supreme abode from which those
who reach it never return.
It is an eternal portion of Me that becomes the Jiva in the world of living creatures. I am lodged in the
hearts of all beings. As I am beyond the Mutable and am greater and higher even than the Immutable, I
am proclaimed the Purushottama here and in the Veda.
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Threefold are the doors of Hell destructive of the soul- desire, wrath and greed:
Therefore one should abandon the three.
Towards the Supreme Secret
An understanding without attachment in all things, a soul self-conquered and empty of desire, the yogi
attains by renunciation a supreme perfection or Naishkarmya (actionless). Endowed with a pure
understanding, firmly restraining oneself, casting aside attraction and aversion, taking refuge in
dispassion and free from all I-ness and my-ness, calm and luminously impassive – he is fit to become the
Brahman.
Having become the Brahman and being tranquil in spirit, he neither grieves nor desires, regarding all
being as alike, he attains supreme devotion to Me.
Devoting all thyself to Me, giving up in thy conscious mind all thy actions unto Me, resorting to
steadfastness is understanding, he be always one in heart and consciousness with Me.
The Lord abides in the hearts of all beings, turning all beings by His Power as if they were mounted on a
machine.
Chapters XII to XVIII - Selected Verses from the Gita
Thus has Knowledge, more secret than all that is hidden been declared to thee by Me.
Having reflected on it fully, do as thou wouldst.
Further hear My supreme word, the most secret of all. Beloved art thou of Me, therefore I will speak for
thy good.
Become My-minded, My lover and adorer; sacrifice to Me: prostrate thyself before Me; so shalt thou come
to Me; this is my pledge and promise to thee, for dear art thou to Me.
Abandon all dharmas and take refuge in Me alone. I shall release thee from all evils. Do not grieve.
Has this been heard by thee with a concentrated mind, O Partha? Has thy delusion caused by ignorance
been destroyed?
Arjuna:
Destroyed is my delusion and I have become self-recollected through thy grace, O Krishna. I am firm,
dispelled are my doubts. I will act according to Thy word.
Sanjaya:
Thus have I heard this wonderful dialogue between Vasudeva and the great-souled Partha, causing my
hair to stand on end. I have heard this supreme secret, this Yoga directly from Krishna, the Lord of Yoga,
who himself declared it. O King, as I recall again and again this dialogue wondrous and holy, as I recall
that marvelous form of Hari (Krishna), great is my wonder and I rejoice again and again.
Wherever is Krishna, the Lord of Yoga, wherever is Partha, assured are there glory, victory and prosperity
and there also is the immutable Dharma.
Sri Aurobindo’s Commentary on Chapter XVIII
The teacher has completed all else that he needed to say, and now all that rests for him to do is to put
into decisive phrase and penetrating formula the core of his gospel.
“Vasudeva is all this”. But there are two aspects of this All,- his immutable, eternal self that supports
existence and his self of active power that moves abroad in the world movement. To be one with all and
with the Divine and his will in the cosmos we must become at first impersonal and free from our ego and
its claims. To become the impersonal Brahman in our consciousness is therefore the first movement of
this Yoga. And yet there must be no abandonment of the active life…. no absorbed disappearance of
the Individual in the Eternal. All is not lost in the silent immobile identity of the Jiva with the Akshara
Purusha. Here there is given to us something yet higher than the Impersonal. Here there is the supreme
Self, the Purushottama and its supreme nature, who is beyond the personal and impersonal and
reconciles them on his eternal heights. The ego personality still disappears, but all nature becomes the
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power of the one Divine and all action his action through the individual as channel and instrument. In
place of the ego there comes forward conscious and manifest the true spiritual individual in the freedom
of his real nature, an imperishable portion of the supreme Godhead, an indestructible power of the
supreme Prakriti.
The concluding verses carry in them the innermost heart of the Yoga and lead to its crowing experience:
the words express the most complete, intimate and living relation possible between God and Man.
Master, Friend, Lover and an intimate Spirit of our life, he is the indwelling and overdwelling Lord of all our
personal and impersonal self and nature.
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C55 - Satipatthana
Jung has broken through the traditional Western framework of thought as a result of great loyalty to face
experiences. He discovered that the process of integration or wholeness comes about through the
operation of the religious instinct or religious approach. So his psychotherapy consists in trying to give
each man back his religion & develop it. His more important task was not to deal with those who are
neurotics in the clinical sense of the word - he dealt with them also – his more important task was to deal
with people who were apparently well-adjusted and has no problems of personal relationships, but
somehow life had become meaningless for them. Meaninglessness is, says Jung, the pathology of our
times, and the only way in which this disease, this mal-dusiecle, can be overcome is to undertake a
process of analysis in which the ego, the center of con-ness, simultaneously comes to absorb more and
more of the contents of the universe on the one hand and surrender itself or allow itself to be assimilated
more and more by the universe. It is a dual process of absorbing the contents of the universe and
allowing the ego to become influenced by a wider sphere of existence which he calls the universe. Now
all this, though admirable, falls short of the true spiritual approach. Let us now see the difference and
contrast between Jung & Buddhism and the spirit of the teachings of the Buddha as a whole.
I would suggest that you begin by totally relaxing - go over the whole body and see if there is any tension
anywhere and relax it. Then come to the head and see if there is any tension there and relax it. Do not
be keyed up; do not be on the defensive & resist what I say; do not be overeager but totally relaxed. The
reason for this is that to understand the Buddha’s teachings concerning Mindfulness. One has to start
anew and you cannot start anew unless you are totally relaxed.
The Discourse of the Buddha (the foundations of Mindfulness) gives his teachings in outline; it is rather
sketchy. It requires a concrete filling in. We have to give it a specific form; and this is where there can be
different expressions of the Buddhist tradition. When we give different emphases to what the Buddha
taught then we have different schools of Buddhism. If you pay too much attention to what the Buddha
says about breathing-be mindful of your breathing-it is not breath control-breathe normally, naturally, but
be mindful or your breathing. If you pay too much attention or put too much emphasis on what he says
about the first foundation of mindfulness-awareness of the body-breathing, the posture of body, its
movements, whether we are sitting or standing or walking-be aware, he says-but if we pay too much
attention to that, the likelihood is that we shall turn his teachings into a kind of technique, laying down
rules & regulations-so much sittings a day, walking for such period of time & so on. The essential thing
about his recommendation that we should be mindful about breathing, bodily postures, etc. is to
introduce his disciples to a new mode of awareness. Be mindful of your breathing; don’t control it.
By constant repetition: be mindful of this, be mindful of that, the Buddha is drawing attention to a new
mode of awareness in which you do not control, manipulate, discipline, and make no effort at all. So what
I am concerned about is the essential spirit of the Buddha’s teachings and this is found much better
developed in a school of Zen Buddhism of which Hui Neng was the founder. He was the 6th patriarch of
Zen Buddhism in China. In his teachings, there is an emphasis on sudden awakening – not a gradual
process in which you employ a technique, a discipline, but an instantaneous awakening. The spirit of the
Buddha’s teachings is completely captured by a contemporary sage — J. Krishnamurti. Particularly
Reading in J.K.—the volume that has over 200 pages of J.K.'s teachings about meditation. It is
completely Buddhistic. Its not that he learnt from the Buddha; he was an original; but the parallels,
similarities, closeness is so great that one would be pardoned if one thought that he had learnt from the
Buddha.
Let me tell you briefly what this new mode of awareness or mindfulness consists of. Bear in mind that
there is no method, no technique. Do not ask, what shall I do or practice in order to become mindful? It
is a sudden awakening and for a sudden awakening one can’t have rules. But we can talk about it and
then maybe somehow something awakens and then you know that this is mindfulness. First let us
consider certain general characteristics – they are all negative – naturally; you can’t have positive
indications of the state of mindfulness, because then you can practice it and acquire it. But mindfulness
is not something that can be acquired. First of all, when you are mindful, there is no center of
consciousness. One is not mindful from a particular center. This means that consciousness: I am
mindful, does not arise. For as soon as you say: I am mindful, you have created a center. And that
center will not be an empty center; it will already be filled with content. The “I” as we understand it, has a
specific form, a specific nature. It is not an unknown x; it is something close to us and very concrete in
content. So when you say: I am mindful, you have already taken your stand in that center.
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What the Buddha is recommending is that you should start anew, start afresh. If this is to be a completely
fresh beginning, then you cannot start with the “I” the ego, no subjective reactions. Secondly, in the
process of meditations there is no subjective reactions, that’s to say, broadly speaking, our reactions can
be classified under two heads, like and dislike. I am for it or I am against it. I want to acquire it or I am
repelled by it – desire or aversion. Now these are responses of the mind that we have to set aside if we
want to start anew. When we start with these readymade reactions, the first thing we do is to manipulate
what we observe. If we like it then we try to grasp it, hold it, repeat it: and if it passes away there is
suffering. If we dislike it then the emotion of hatred, ill will, etc. come into play, and there is conflict and
agitation within us; and we try to destroy what we observe. So can there be observation when there is no
observe. This is not metaphysics. I am not saying that you are not there, that you are non-existent but
the idea that I am observing is not there. Can you observe without the usual set of reactions?
Lastly, can you observe without concentrating on anything in particular? Such concentration is called
exclusive concentration when you pick out something and say: I will observe this. Many systems of
meditation recommend concentration… You are asked to concentrate on image; a part of the body and
then every thing else is regarded as a distraction. If the concentration is interrupted then there is
distraction, and with an effort of the will you try to put aside this distraction and return again to the object
of concentration. This is exclusive concentration.
In the Buddha’s teachings there is no exclusive concentration. There is observation, awareness of what
there is. We do not pick out anything and excluding other things, regard them as distractions. We allow
everything to come within the observation field. Hui Neng, when he was a young boy heard this sloka
from a Buddhist scripture and as soon as he heard it he became enlightened. The sloka was: let
thoughts arise but do not fix them anywhere. As soon as we try to pick out one thought and exclude other
we are fixing the thought. Let thoughts arise.
This leads to what may be called total awareness, an awareness that goes beyond all pairs of opposites.
In the mindfulness recommended by the Buddha, we start with total awareness because there is no “I” to
pick and choose, to manipulate, to grasp, to repel. In being totally aware, being aware with and of the
whole mind, one makes a great discovery, something that Jung also made at his own level and the
discovery is this: you find that all the strands of the mind are intermingled, intertwined, they come together
and run into each other without creating a unity. In fact, they are so intertwined that it is not possible to
pick out and isolate a particular strand, for if one does, the other stands will be activated and will clamor
for attention.
This means you cannot solve a problem by itself. If you pick out a particular problem and try to deal with
it – exclusive concentration, there is a failure to be aware of the total process of the mind since the other
parts of the mind will rush in and complicate the situation. So you can only deal with a problem by leaving
it alone and observing the other strands of the mind that are dragged into or insinuate themselves into
what seemed an isolated problem. This leads to the realization that finally there are not many problems
but only one problem. The usual procedure is to go from one problem to another and then to anotherand this is an endless process, “ one damn thing after another”. One can diagram of the workings of the
mind - the tangle of mental processes
So what would be the point of exclusive concentration? There is no movement in the mind that excludes
other movements. Hence no problem can be solved or gone through in isolation. So we come to the
realization that there is in the end only one problem. And when one is aware of that one problem it
ceases to be a problem. There is a problem only when one is trying to manipulate or change what is.
There is no problem if one is merely aware of what is, aware the total mind.
Problems persist only if you have exclusive concentration – separate troubles arise one after another, and
they are never completely solved or dissipated. Each attempt at solving a problem brings another
problem and that problem is dissolved when there is total awareness, when one “concentrates without
concentrating”, as the Zen teacher put it. As J.K. says: If you are angry and are concerned with ending
that anger, then you focus your attention on the anger and the whole escapes you and anger is
strengthened. But anger is interrelated to the whole; so when we separate a particular from the whole,
the particular breeds its own problems. If you are aware of anger with your whole being, is there anger?
How is the process of mindfulness to be awakened? If there is no method, no technique how, for
example, do we awaken our aesthetic sensibilities? How do you lead a child to appreciate beauty in art
and nature? There is only one-way which is not a systematic training or technique. You place works of
art before the child. You lead the child out and let him/her look upon the beauties of nature and then his
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aesthetic sense is evoked; we cannot bring it into existence by imposing any discipline. Similarly,
mindfulness CAN BE EVOKED and this process of evocation is an art, not a science. It somehow comes
into being and not by the application of rules.
Plato said: Let us cleave to the upward path and follow after truth and righteousness. The Buddha would
say: there is no path to the Truth. Sometimes the Buddha’s journey to the Truth is described
paradoxically as walking on “the pathless path”, pathless, because there is no technique or method; it is
not formalized – no formal systems of meditation effort or discipline. “Follow after truth and
righteousness”. According to the Buddha, truth is not something that you follow after, because when you
follow after truth you are following after a particular image of truth that you have projected from your own
mind. Truth is something that comes into being when the mind is totally silent, completely passive or
receptive and at the same time fully alert. Righteousness is a virtue. We cannot cultivate virtues. That is
the ordinary way, the ascetic path of control and suppression. Virtue is something that blossoms from
within. It is a natural growth.
When the age of Enlightenment dawned on the Western world, the general feeling was that Reason is our
supreme instrument and guide. Exercise your reason, it was believed, and you are assured of ordered
and harmonious progress. But that dream has faded. It was a one-side solution. Reason is only a part
of our nature and it cannot establish its kingdom over the whole. That is why later on there were many
movements towards irrationalism, emphasis on feeling, on life, impulse, desire, expressing a strong
opposition to rationalism. I mention this because modern psychology, psychoanalysis and depth
psychology in particular have drawn our attention to the other side of human nature, the darker side.
Reason, it is pointed out, is so often powerless, because our psychology is a mess. There are irrational
things at work within it; there are unconscious motivations and a good part of the time is spent in covering
it up, hiding it from ourselves, glossing it over with rationalizations. There is ignorance; we do not know
how our minds work. They even go so far as to say that we are all neurotics to a greater or lesser
degree. This is the discovery of modern psychology. So this pathetic faith in Reason as a sovereign
instrument will solve all problems – that dream has once and for all been shattered.
Now here we have a swing to the opposite – from emphasis on conscious reason, the light in the mind, to
its opposite- the darkness of the unconscious. This is a natural tendency of the human mind to swing
from one opposite to another, and then to believe that in that opposite there is health, there is freedom
and the solution of all problems. Now in the Buddha’s approach one goes beyond all pairs of opposites
because one is mindful, and if one is mindful, then one does not identify with one’s prejudices,
preconceived ideals, or different forms of rationalization. One achieves freedom. Freedom is an
essential conquest for truth. The Buddha says: there is a way, O monks, by which a monk, without
recourse to faith, to cherished opinions, to tradition, to specious reasoning, gives approval to views
pondered upon. Such a monk may declare final knowledge: Herein a monk has seen a form with his
eyes and if greed, hated or delusions are in him, he knows that, greed, hatred and delusion are in him.
And if he knows this, monks, are these ideas such that he knows them by recourse to faith, to reasoning,
to tradition, to philosophy. Are these not ideas to be known after wisely realizing them through
experience? So here, in the Buddha’s teachings, we come with a totally fresh mind, a mind, as J.K. puts
it, which is freed of the past-the past is in the paSt. One can completely free oneself of the past, which
means all the learning, the traditions, the acquisitions and look with a fresh mind-then there is direct
experience. Then there is no need for faith, opinions, tradition, efforts and so on.
Now the very process of the awareness of these elements is the beginning of freedom and fulfillment.
We have a kind of a paradox here. There is sudden awakening; you cannot come to this point by a
method or process. At most we can say that it requires sincerity of the mind, total honesty. But that is
only another way of saying: Be mindful – do not deceive yourself or allow yourself to be deceived. If there
is sudden awakening, which is the first step, then that first step is also the last step. There is no process,
technique or method which one can adopt after becoming awake. Nevertheless, there is a period
between the first awakening and the full realization. There is a period and process but it is a period and
process which consists of more and more of something greater, and intensification of the same
awakening. This of course means that there are degrees of wakefulness. But in between one degree of
wakefullness and another there is nothing except the same process of becoming more and more awake.
In this sense, the first step can be said to be the last step, and yet there is a distinction between the first
step and the last – the initial awakening and the fullness of realization.
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Let us talk more about this process of mindfulness. We are aware of the fact that the human mind is
conditioned. It is conditioned by the past, by culture, by our environment, by our past experiences &
karma, by our system of reactions, and our likes and dislikes. Now the desire to be free from all
conditioning is something that doesn’t need justification. The desire is to reach objectivity in which the
mind does not warp, distort, mangle what it observes, and set up an obstacle to the spontaneous flow of
creative, living. One does not need any justification for wanting this, wanting to be free of all hindrances
to the truth. To achieve an alert mind, free oneself of the systems of values which one has adopted, from
your whole psychology, your total psychological process. Can you start anew, looking with fresh eyes, be
in the presence of something new? Whether there is something new is not the question; but we cannot
find out unless our eyes have been cleansed, unless “the doors of perception have been cleansed” (like a
little child).
There is no awareness or mindfulness without detachment. When you are resentful you know that you
are resentful; but how do you know it? You continue to be resentful and angry. That is to say, there is
identification with the resentment. So let us discriminate. There are two kinds of awareness. The first
kind of awareness is the usual mode of awareness: one is aware through identification. That is why one
says: I am angry; I am annoyed. This is awareness through identification. But that is not true awareness;
because when you already identify with the psychological state then you cannot see clearly, you cannot
understand what you see. You are, as it were, swept up into a particular psychological structure, are
already entrapped, and caught. See if you have the capacity to be aware without identification. If you are
aware, you will begin to realize that you are not observing what is in its nakedness, but you are covering it
up with your subjective reactions and conditioning.
We have been talking about awareness and meditation. This mindfulness is a meditative awareness.
With meditation we usually associate the idea of fulfillment, not just seeing, observing, but a process of
self-fulfilling. So it is a form of meditative awareness. This awareness has no center. It is not the ego.
We may put it paradoxically (as some Buddhists do): there is meditation but no meditator. What it means
is that there is no awareness or operation of an “I” that is meditating. Now let us see when this “I” comes
into being. When we observe through a screen of subjective prejudices, reactions and preconceived
ideas, we are observing not the thing itself but our responses to the thing, then the “I” comes into being.
When we ask, for example, what is there in it for us? When we look at it from the utilitarian point of view
or observe it with reference from the utilitarian point of view or observe it with reference to self-interest,
then the “I” comes into being. Or if we disapprove of what we see in ourselves, e.g. –suppose one is
aware of anger in oneself, pride, or whatever and we disapprove of this. Then we set out to change it,
saying, “this is bad, I shouldn’t be jealous, etc.” Changing ourselves means trying to become the opposite
of what we are: I am bed-tempered, I must become good-tempered. When we try to initiate such a
process of change in ourselves, then the “I” comes into being. This is what I am and that is what I want to
become. But when there is no desire to manipulate or exploit, when there is neither like nor dislike, when
we are not trying to change ourselves but merely observe what we are, there is no “I”. There is the
profound saying of the Buddha: the monk with lust knows that he is with luSt. The monk with hatred
knows that he is with hatred. There is no suggestion here of condemnation, of arousing feelings of
shame and guilt, becoming agitated, or resolving to become the opposite of what one is. The Buddha is
calling on the monk to be aware of what he is, of what is going on in his mind. To see ourselves as we
are and to see things as they are is, we may say, the goal of Buddhist meditation.
As I said earlier, this awareness is total awareness. When mindfulness is detached, then there is no
exclusive concentration and therefore no attempt to choose a psychic element and observe it in isolation
from the rest of the psyche. (J.K. calls this “Choiceless awareness.”. This leads to an awareness of total
contents of the mind. And when one has total awareness one has transcended all opposites. Opposites
arise only when there is a center, which means exclusive identification. Consciousness become
fragmented and so creates pairs of opposites. The ego creates its own opposite - the unconscious. But
when there is total awareness one transcends all pairs of opposites not by gradual stages, not by effort
and discipline, but instantaneously. There is no opposition of subject and object, of male and female, of
higher and lower, of ego and the unconscious, of the rational or good and the irrational or evil (corrupt).
One attains a new poise of consciousness in which all oppositions are overcome. The process is not one
of going through a succession of opposites, of balancing them and passing on to new opposites. There is
an instantaneous transcendence of all pairs of opposites. There is also a transcendence of time. When
does time come into being? When there is a process of growing, of becoming; when we say: I am this
and I want to become that, then there is a temporal process. But if meditation consists in observing
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yourself as you are, is there any time? By time I am not referring to chronological time. One may start
the process of awareness at 6a.m. and time doesn’t stand still. After a while it will be 7 a.m. “Time
marches on”. The time measured by the clock flows on without a stop, but there is no psychological time.
Time in the psychological sense comes into being when you are pursuing an ideal. You are here and the
ideal is there and the journey towards the ideal takes time, since ideal is always in the future. (Q. So
there is no room for ideal at all? ) That’s right. It is necessary to point out here that there is another
approach, the traditional approach where there is authority, revelation – this is the Truth – and then
spiritual practice which consists in realizing the Truth. In this approach there is a place for ideals. Now
these two approaches can be harmonized, but today I don’t have the time to attempt this wider synthesis.
Now when there is this total awareness – these are things you have to discover for yourselves by actually
practicing mindfulness…When there is this poise of consciousness above all pairs opposites then a new
energy is generated, a totally different quality of energy and you realize that the energy generated by the
tension of opposites is of a lower level, of a different kind (Cf. Kent’s distinction bet. The moral will, the
will of effort and struggle and the spontaneous holy will). The energy generated by total awareness is
qualitatively different because its movement is spontaneous and unimpeded. It is not a movement
through opposites, through the overcoming of tension. The process of mindfulness starts when one rises
above all tension and conflict. One then sees that there is no significance and validity in the long,
laborious Jungian process of the exploration of the unconscious. Let us be clear about this, the
unconscious stands as an opposite to the ego. And then one gets involved in this endless process of
assimilating the unconscious and surrendering to it, giving, talking, emptying the ego and filling the ego.
But when you transcend all opposites, the unconscious disappears. True, there is the anima/animus,
there is the shadow, but one becomes aware of the hidden and the “dark” elements through mindfulness
alone and without any need for a technique of analysis.
(Q Doesn’t transcendence of opposites become an ideal? ) No, that is a direct experience. Refer again
to the statement of the Buddha: where is the authority, the tradition, etc…. when you become aware of
greed in yourself? When there is direct experience there is no need for ideals. In true meditation in
which there is no center, you instantaneously not by stages, not by pursuing a distant goal, but
instantaneously go beyond all pairs of opposites. Then whatever there is in the unconscious, like the
shadow, the repressed anima/animus, and all other forms of irrationality, they come up; they are, as it
were, forced up, you become aware of them, go though them or dissolve them. All negative qualities are
shown up for what they are in the light of mindfullness and are dissolved… I shall presently modify that
statement. Let us go back to that statement of Jung that there is a stream, which is obstructed, and if you
clear its path then it can continue its flow. “It is as if a stream that was losing itself in marshy territories
had suddenly discovered its bed or as if a stone that lay on a germinating seed were lifted away so that
the sprout could begin its natural growth”. Now here when I talked about the emergence of a new quality
of energy, the greatest obstruction or dam blocking the flow of creative force is the ego itself. Its not that
ego lifts up a stone or clears the path, the ego is simply a structure of past experiences, cultural
conditioning and karma. Q. The ego itself is the screen? Yes, it is itself the obstacle it wants to remove
and the problem it tries to solve.
So when there is awareness without a center, energy is released which then flows spontaneously and
unimpeded. Now let us observe further what is going on in the mind through a further deepening of the
process of meditation. The recommendation is: beware of what you are. Now when you look at yourself
with a fresh mind, putting aside all conditioning, reactions, memories, etc. then you become aware that
the mind has a tendency to react to what it observes. The Buddha `s recommendation is: Be mindful of
these reactions. The reactions are broadly one of two kinds- Raga and Dvesha - liking, grasping or
dislike, - attraction or repulsion. Be aware of these reactions so that there you see a difference between
what is and your reactions to what is. Now when you are aware of your reactions, not identifying with
them- for once you identify with them you lose the calm poise of silent awareness – when you are aware
of these reactions you will see that they are irrational, confused, they lack purpose and coherence. They
are even wasteful and counterproductive. I shall develop this point.
In the process of being mindful, a thought arises of something unfortunate that has happened in the past.
Let it arise but do not identify with it or try to control or manipulate it. Or a thought arises of something
you are looking forward to. In other words, a thought occurs that takes you back to the past, or projects
you forward into the future. Now associated with that backward looking thought there is the emotion of
regret. You regret that something has happened. Be aware, without identification, of this movement of
regret. If you are not mindful of it you will go on regretting; the mind will keep on going back, harking back
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to the past again and again, saying: I wish I hadn’t done this, I wish that hadn’t happened - this is vain
regret. But once you are mindful of this movement of regret concerning what has happened, then you
have detached yourself from it. Then you see that this movement of vain regret is irrational, wasteful; it
achieves nothing, it is energy misspent and foolish, like trying to sweep your shadow away with a broom.
Seeing this clearly, you will put it aside and cease to be entangled with it. No looking back to the past in
regret. Then there arises the thought about the future. Will this happen? There is hope, there is
expectation, there is fear, there is worry - all these emotions are irrational. By fretting, worrying and
anxious expectation, we are not going to make the future happen as we want it to. If you are mindful of
the foolishness of these reactions you will put them aside. This means that you have put aside the past
completely what is past is paSt. You put aside the future. There is only the NOW, the present.
This is the one criterion of mindfulness: Are you in the Now, Are you living from moment to moment, each
moment being complete and without any continuity between One moment and the next? If not, then you
are not mindful. As a Zen master said: To actualize the present in the present – that, and nothing else, is
Zen.
Here is a recommendation that you might perhaps like to try out. When you sit for meditation you start
with this affirmation: here and now, unconditionally (that is, without reference to what has happened and
what might happen) all is well. To begin with, this is not an expression of belief. Just make that
affirmation in order to provoke your mind to throw up all its contents. Then you will see how the mind
revolts against this suggestion that all is well. Remain a passive but alert spectator of the drama
unfolding in the mind and become aware of these movements of revolt. For the first time you will realize
them as different patterns of ignorance and irrationality.
Now there are two stages of this further process of meditation. You become aware of the reactions in
your own mind which are forms of irrationality, and then you can go to look at another. You will find that
there emerge feelings of compassion, of understanding. If you have understood your own reactions, then
you will understand the behavior of another person. Let me explain this. If you realize that these
negative qualities that arise in us, anger, lust, jealousy, etc. – are movements of ignorance, then you will
realize that when we indulge in these movements when we are angry, jealous, etc. – we are not acting
freely. It is all a part of a messed-up psychology, normal, but messed up. There is no freedom, no
genuine act of will. One does not have dealings with another person and he does something which
normally will be led to see with compassion, annoying, provoking one to anger, then you will be led to see
with compassion that his action, his behavior is similarly the expression of the irrational elements in his
nature. He is not acting freely. We are not masters of our passions but slaves to them.
There is no innate wickedness in man. No one says: let me hurt, destroy that other person as a free
expression of an innate wickedness or a free and deliberate act of impassioned choice. All these harmful
movements are expressions of the irrational part of our nature. In the Dhammapada there is this one
verse: He beat me, he abused me, he defeated me, he robbed me – those in whom these thoughts arise
are not free of hatred. Hatred can never cease by hatred; hatred can only cease by love. This is the law
eternal. This means that hatred is a reaction of the unregenerate mind. He abused me. There is the
reaction of annoyance and anger and a desire for revenge. One is not observing what is, the behavior of
the other person but covering it up with subjective reactions. It is just as if you were to take a piece of
food and sprinkle it liberally with salt and eat it – then you won’t taste the food. You will only taste salt.
You are not aware of the objective fact as it actually is but of the situation as wrapped up in your own
subjective reactions. The Buddha once said: if a man abuses me I feel nothing; it is as if he were
throwing dust at me when the wind is blowing in the opposite direction. It doesn’t touch me. The Buddha
is not hurt.
Normally what happens is that if somebody behaves in an offensive way, we are hurt. Then we try to
deal with that hurt, we try to forget it, we try to suppress it, we try to bring ourselves to forgive the other
person; or we seek revenge, we indulge in the emotion of hate and then seek revenge. We condemn the
other person, put-him outside the pale of society. All these are reactions of the mind that is not aware of
what is, alert and watchful. When the mind is alert and observes these reactions and puts them aside,
then one is not hurt. It is not that one has to deal with hurt for one is not hurt. And that is true of all
negative subjective reactions. So there comes into being this feeling of compassion, understanding. One
goes beyond the sphere of conflict, claims and counterclaims: I claim this; you claim that, tension,
opposition – there is complete transcendence of the sphere of conflict.
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Now suppose one is mindful and certain movement arise, let us say, regret. One sees that it is irrational.
As the Buddha says: glance at it and dismiss it. But now here comes the practical problem. Very often
however much you glance at a thing and dismiss it, it is still there and keeps on coming up again and
again like flies and mosquitoes however often you drive them away. You have to verify this in your own
experience. You will find that the disturbance keeps on coming up because of the paSt. It has acquired a
certain strength and mobility and seems almost to function autonomously like a Jungian complex. One
cannot get rid of its nagging presence. Then what should one do? This is where I would like to make a
recommendation that is not usually found or emphasized in the Buddhist texts, and that is; besides
mindfulness cultivate a capacity to say No, without argument, without pros and cons, without struggle,
and without the effort to suppress or control. Just say No. And each time the thing comes up dismiss it
immediately while it is still unformed and indeterminate. An unconditional No, not no because…. do not
argue with it. Once you start arguing with the thing then you become a part of it. In essence, an
unconditional No results in one’s losing connaturality (kinship) with the thing. It is as if a problem arises
but by rising to a new level of consciousness the problem is not solved but 'dissolved', just as when
something felt to be a problem in a dream is instantaneously dissolved the moment one wakes up.
So, I think, over and above mindfulness there is need for something. Something that is not merely alert
and passive but also active in rejecting what is seen to be irrational and false. Passivity and Activity are
two aspects of the process of mindfulness.
Now each time you say no (period), the thing becomes weaker and finally it drops away. What you are
doing then is to work through the jungle of mind, clearing it and turning it into fresh green pasture. The
process of transformation comes from within. Mindfulness appears to be a simple idea but it contains a
whole world of meaning. It has the potentiality of total awakening and fulfillment. There is a continuous
process of inner growth and fulfillment, through this dual process of mindfullness and rejection. It is not
the pursuit of a preconceived idea of Truth. Through the rejection of the false, the Truth comes into
being.
Finally I would like to draw your attention to a situation in which one is faced with a problem which has no
specific form. I have met some people who struggle with a 'nameless' problem. One can usually put a
name to one’s problem - jealousy, paranoia, uncontrollable temper, addiction – but there could be a
nameless problem. A person who has such a problem tries to gives it a name; he may call it fear or
depression, but he does not know the cause. If there is this burden on the mind, one does not know what
to do about it because one does not know the cause. It is no use going to a psychiatrist because he will
unearth any number of causes and not one of these lines of analysis will lead to freedom from the
problem. The reason for this is that the thing, whatever it is, does not have a cause at all. Through a
process of mindfulness one learns to distinguish between the cause of a phenomenon and the occasion
on which the phenomenon arises. For example: I get angry because you have abused me; and I say:
your abusing me is the cause of my anger; but it is not. Because if I don’t get angry because you abused
me; I shall get angry because somebody else does so. The anger is already in me. So it is not caused, it
is there already in latent form. When you abuse me that is the occasion on which a wave of anger rises
into conscious. Now one has to learn to discriminate: your abuse activated my feeling of anger; it did not
cause anger to come into being. Similarly when one comes across this thing there is no point in looking
for the cause. The thing is, let us say, causeless fear or a causeless depression. What is necessary is to
develop the courage to say No to each one of its manifestations. You will then come to realize that what
you are up against is something nameless, faceless and it puts on a face –many faces – and it assumes
different names. It is we who give it a face and a name. In Jungian language it develops a persona. It is
we who put a mask over it and give it a face. The thing takes many forms and each time it manifests, say
“No”. That means you are saying No to one of its faces. Keep on saying No to all its faces and names as
they arise one after another. Saying No is a way of withdrawing sanction from the thing. Since we no
longer keep it alive, it weakens and disappears. It would help, I think, - to depart a little from the Buddhist
approach – if one’s religious sense is awakened, a feeling of love and devotion for the Supreme Being.
Then one can turn to the Lord of our being and cry: Help!
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C56 - The Psychic Will
Friend of the self and yet self’s enemy !
Thyself the antagonists in the civil strife.
Toe faced god, courting mortality
To plant death’s terror in the breast of life.
He grieves who sees Thy Mask but not Thy Play
One Will that shams the surge of clashing wills.
One Light, self-veiled, reversing night and day.
One savior Grace uplifting as it kills.
Now stir my parts with Thy integral Force.
An impulse leaps down in the warring breast.
Bearing the strength and joy of its high source.
Dark shapes go scurrying past the shining Guest.
My will now surging from its fountain-head.
All passions lie confounded, still and dead.
J. N. C. (J.N. Chubb)
Socrates’ view that Virtue is Knowledge and that wrong doing is due to ignorance rests on the assumption
that knowledge integrates our being and produces a spontaneous will towards goodness. Yet the
experience of mankind does not always bear out the truth of Socrates teaching. The torment of wrong
desire that cannot be controlled remains with us, expending our soul’s powers in a waste of shame. “We
must cleave to the upward path” Misery follows evil as the wheel of the cart the steps of the bullock”.
But“All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell” !
The problem we are told is not to know what is good, but to do it :“knowledge we ask not, knowledge Thou hast lent.
But Lord, the will ! - there lies our bitter need.”
But there is only a partial truth in the common protest against the “intellectualism” of Socrates. If the will
is not spontaneous, but has to struggle ad labor towards goodness, that is a sure sign of some obscurity
and darkness in the working of the will. A tug of war with evil implies really that the self is at war with
itself. “All conflicts are endogenic” say the psychologists. If we see a man attempting in imitation of
Stephen Leacock’s horseman, to walk off simultaneously in two directions, we cannot grant him the
possession of sanity, much less of wisdom. Evil must be due to Ignorance. The mistake of Socrates and
the other intellectualists, however, is to identify knowledge with thought and ignorance with confused
thinking. But there is ignorance underlying thinking itself which remains unaffected by thinking and which
has for its object the very self of man. The true Psyche (of which Western Psychologists as yet know
nothing). The Psyche is an already integrated consciousness poised above the Reason, But hidden by
Ignorance (Avidyä). All Energy (the Will) comes from it and not, as Spinoza thought, from the intellect;
but when the Will enters the region of Mind, It disintegrates and divides into the good will and the
negation of the good will. The knowledge that is virtue must then be sought in the Psyche, whereas
Socrates sought it in the intellect, at the level of the divided mental will. To open to the Psyche within us
and above our normal mentality and allow its integral will to pour down, without distortion, is the best way
to overcome evil. The Psychic will does not struggle, it merely rejects, as light rejects darkness. It is the
will of Love which is a stranger to hostility. It neither commits the external act of adultery, nor permits the
lust in the heart, which, as Christ saw, is the root of adultery and turns the latter into a problem of the
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mental will. It does not struggle with evil, because in the worlds of St. Paul it does not have connaturality
with evil. Evil tempts us because we have given prior sanction to evil in some part of our being. To look
and feel in wards and having becomes conscious of it, to withdraw the sanction (Adhyasa) and then
remain firm whatever commotion rises within, is the utmost that we can achieve through self-effort and the
exercise of the separative will. For the rest we must call on the Divine Grace to cleanse and purify our
being and illumine the obscurity in the part which makes the inward sanction possible and creates in us a
seeming connaturality with evil Dharma (Rules of conduct) is powerless to remove evil from the roots.
“Leaving aside all Dharma, surrender to Me. I shall liberate you from evil.”
The psychic will is thus in reality, the Divine will flowing uncorrupted through the psychic consciousness.
The psyche is a veiled centre of the indivisible Divine represented in the supporting the flux of
personalities (skandbas or soul-structures) in a single life, and the wider flux of the transmigratory series.
Joy is the very nature of the Psyche, the stuff of its being. Hence what was said of desire and evil applies
also to every tension and depression in consciousness which obscures the native joy of the Psyche. All
grief is self caused and can be purged through the action of the psychic will. In the tremendous words of
Ouspensky, “Man must learn to sacrifice Suffering” ! Since the aim is to lose connaturality with evil and
suffering it cannot be done through any form of analysis. Analysis keeps us on the same level as the
complex analyzed, gives it a sanction and sanctuary in some obscure part of our being and comes to
terms with it, or establishes a partial victory over it in the surface consciousness. This is true even of
what is known as psycho-analysis. I think it may be safely predicted that in the not distant future the
practice of psychiatry will lose its present dominant role and will be replaced more and more by the
method of psychic purgation. This implies of course a widespread will bring, along with their gifts of
freedom and Änand, a luminous and powerful intellect, and in comparison with whom the present day
official philosophers who pride themselves on their “technique of analysis” will appear as a crowd of
babblers and metaphysical psychotics whose thought has lost all contact with Reality.
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C57 - The Teachings of the Upanishads
From the unreal lead me to the Real; from darkness lead me to light; from death lead me to Immortality.
Arise! Awake! Having approached the great realize the self. Like the sharp edge of a razor is that path,
hard to tread and difficult to cross.
The Turning Inwards : Frail indeed are those rafts of sacrifice; They are destructible. Fools who rejoice in
them as the Highest Good fall victims again and again to old age and death.
The Self-Existent has pierced the doors of the sense outwards; therefore one sees things outwardly and
sees not in one’s inner being. Rarely a sage desiring immortality, his sight turned inward, sees the Self
face to face.
The Quest: As from the knowledge of one lump of clay all that is made of clay is known, so what is that
knowing which all things becomes known?
The Brahman
Brahman is Saccidanandam, Existence, Consciousness, Bliss.
From Bliss all these beings are born, by Bliss They exist and grow, to Bliss They finally return.
Om! That is full, this is full. From Fullness, fullness proceeds. If we take away the fullness from the Full,
even the Full then remain.
The Self-Existent: Who is without parts, without actions, tranquil, taintless, like a fire that has consumed
its fuel.
On what does the Infinite rest? on its own greatness.
The Self-Luminous: there the sun cannot shine, the moon has no luster and all the stars are blind: there
our lightning’s flash not, nor any earthly fire. For all that is bright is but the shadow of His brightness and
by His shining all this is illumined.
As Creator: As the spider sends forth and draws in its thread, as plants grow on the earth, as hair grows
on the head and body of a living man, so does everything in the universe arise from the Imperishable.
As from a blazing fire sparks fly forth by the thousands, so also do various beings come forth from the
imperishable and unto Him again return.
Pane the ism and Pantheism: He by whom this whole world is constantly enveloped, who dwelling in all
things is yet other than all things.
The heavens are his head; the sun and moon his eyes; the revealed Vedas his speech; the wind is his
breath; the universe his heart. From his feet is produced the earth. He is indeed the inner self of all
beings.
Brahman alone pervades everything above and below; this universe is that supreme Brahman alone.
Verily this whole world is Brahman.
The Inner Self: the luminous Brahman dwells in the cave of the heart. Know that to be yourself, adorable,
supreme and beyond the understanding creatures. The Spirit who is here in man and the Spirit who is
there in the sun, 10, it is one spirit and there is no other.
As Nirguna (qualities): What is here the same is there; and what is there the same is here. He goes from
death to death who sees any difference here. He goes from death to death who sees any multiplicity in it.
Where one sees nothing else, hears nothing else, understands nothing else that is the infinite. For where
there is duality, as it were, there one sees (hears, speaks to, thinks of) another; there one understands
another. Where verily everything has become one’s self, then whereby and whom would one see.
understand? Whereby should one see the Seer of all things?
As Transcendent and Immanent, Static and Dynamic: Smaller than the small greater than the great, It is
hidden in the hearts of all living creatures. Though sitting still It travels far; though lying down It goes
everywhere One unmoving that is swifter than Mind. That, standing, passes beyond others as they run.
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That moves and that moves not; that is far and the same is near; that by which the word is expressed.
He is the unseen Seer.
The unseen, incommunicable, unseizable, featureless, unthinkable, self evident in its own selfhood. This
is that which has to be known.
From which word fall back without attaining and the mind also retires baffled. It is not this, not this (Neti,
Neti)
Atman (the Self)
He who sees everywhere the self in all existences ad all existences in the self shrinks not thereafter from
aught.
The knowing self is not born; it does not die. It has not sprung. From anything sprung from it. Birth less,
Eternal, everlasting and ancient, it is not killed when the body is slain.
The simile of the chariot: know the Atman to be the master of the chariot the body, the chariot; the
intellect, the charioteer; and the mind is thereins. The sense, they say are the horses; the objects, the
roads. The wise call the Atman, united with the body, the senses and the mind, the Enjoyer.
As the sun which helps all eyes to see is not affected by the blemishes of the eyes or of the external
things revealed by it, so also the one Atman, dwelling in all beings, is never contaminated by the misery
of the world.
“Bring hither a fig from that tree” “Here it is, sir.” “Divide it.” “It is divided, Sir.” “What do you see there? ”
“These rather fine seeds, sir.” “Of these divide one. Now what do you see there? ”
“Nothing at all sir.” then he said to his son: “Verily, my dear, that finest essence which you do not
perceive, verily from that finest essence this great Nyagrodha (Sacred fig) tree thus arises. My child, that
which is the finest essence, this whole world has that as its self. That is the Real, that is the Atman. Tat
tvam asi (That art thou) Svetaketu.
When the sun has set and the moon has set and the fire has gone out and speech has stopped, what
light does a person here have? the self, indeed is his light, for with the self as his light one sits, does his
work, moves around and returns.
The Atman is not this, not his, It is incomprehensible, indestructible, detached and unfettered; it is beyond
the sphere of sorrow.
Mahavakyas (Great Utterances)
(Also called Identity statements) (1) All this is verily Brahman. (2) I am Brahman. (3) This Atman is
Brahman. (5) That art thou.
On Hinduism: “Religion is always imperfect because it is a mixture of man’s spirituality with his endeavors
that come in trying to sublimatignorantly, his lower nature. Hindu religion appears to me as a cathedral
temple. Half in ruins, noble in the mass, often fantastic in detail but always fantastic with a significance crumbling or badly outworn in place but a cathedral - temple in which service is still done to the Unseen,
and its real presence can be felt by those who enter with the right spirit. The outer social structure which
it built for its approach is another matter” Sri Aurobindo.
Fundamentals of Hinduism
The Law of Karma
Justice is an ethical notion; but true ethics is Dharma, the right fulfillment and working of the higher
nature, and right action should have right motive, should be its own justification and not go limping on the
crutches of greed and fear.
The formula, good produces good and evil, is true, but not the whole truth. The habit of love confirms and
enhances my power of love; It purifies my being and opens it to the universal good. The habit of hatred
corrupts my being, fills it with poison, with bad and morbid toxic matter and opens it to the general power
of evil.
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But even here the ethical power does not turn perfectly into some term of kindred hedonistic result. For
love is a joy in itself, but also love suffers; hatred is a troubled and self-afflicting thing, but has too its own
perverse delight and its gratifications.
The key notion which underlines this doctrine (of karma) is the Notion of Rta, the ordered truth of action.
In the Vedas we find the idea that there is, pervading the universe, an unalterable law or principle of
harmony or purpose, Later the idea of Rta developed into the idea of Dharma and acquired a specifically
moral connotation. The law of karma must be interpreted with reference to the notion of Dharma.
The law of karma is usually stated as a law of return: As you sow so shall you reap. The popular
interpretation of this maxim takes the form of associating good deeds with a life of prosperity or material
reward or birth in a higher caste and bad deeds is associated with its corresponding penalties: bad
fortune or birth in a lower caste. We must reject this popular presentation of the cosmic law of Rta in
terms of reward and punishment and a crude sense of justice.
The ethical soul accepts the pains and sufferings and difficulties and fierce intimidation of life, not as a
punishment for its sins, but as an opportunity and trial of its built or native strength, and it accepts good
fortune and all outer success not as a coveted reward of virtue but as an opportunity also and an even
greater, more difficult, trial.
What then is the master word of the law of karma? A complex web is what we have to unravel. The most
general statement of the law of karma: What the law of karma asserts is that the conditions under which
an individual is reborn - The totality of circumstances which includes his capacities, temperament, virtues,
defects, environment, heredity - all this is so arrange as to afford the individual the best opportunity for
gathering experience and for making progress towards his goal.
The Doctrine of Rebirth
The popular view, that which attracts unripe minds: the ordinary cut and dried account of reincarnation is
of doubtful validity. (According to it) the soul gets out of one case of flesh and into another as a pillow is
lugged out of one pillow case and thrust into another.
A common and popular blunder: Titus Balbus is reborn as John Smith, a man with the same personality,
character and attainments as he had in his former life with the sole difference that he wears coat and
trousers instead on a toga and speaks cockney English instead of popular Latin.
The name personality does not reappear. Achilles is not reborn as Alexander, but the stream of force in
its works which created the changing minor and body of Achilles flowed on and created the changing
mind and body of Alexander.
From the Vedas
May auspicious thoughts come to us from every side?
May we with our hear words that are auspicious; may we without eyes see things that are auspicious.
Come together, speak in harmony, and may your minds see alike. Uniform be your deliberation and
uniform the result you achieve. Uniform your mind and uniform your thought. A common prayer do I
send forth for you and a common oblation do I offer for you.
Prosperity to our mother and father; prosperity to the world and all be happy and be endowed with
auspicious knowledge.
May the supreme Truth come to me; may the sweetness of Bliss come to me; may that supreme Truth
which is the supreme bliss come to me.
Peace to the earth, the atmosphere, the waters, the trees and the heavens peace, peace, peace. May
we bring to peace whatever here is terrible, cruel and sinful. May all that become for us tranquil,
benevolent and full of peace.
Gayatri Mantra: We meditate on the most resplendent and adorable light of the self-luminous spirit who
dwells in the hart as its inner ruler and manifests Himself as the earth and sky and Heaven. May He
guide our thoughts and actions along the right path?
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Same be your intention, united be your hearts and minds so that there might be complete unison amongst
you.
Fundamentals of Hinduism
A Short Glossary
Ahamkara - The ego sense
Ananda - Bliss
Atman - The self
Avtara - Incarnation of God
Bhakti - Love, devotion
Brahman - The Supreme Reality
Budhi - The Intellect: that which discriminates and wills
Dharma - that which holds together: Right action, innate law of being, etc.
Guna - Quality, modes of energy (See sattva, rajas and tamas)
Jiva - The individual self
Khana - knowledge
Kama - Desire
Karma - Action
Moksha - Liberation
Nishkama Karma - Action without attachment or desire for fruits of action
Prakriti - Nature (See Guna)
Purusha - Self, Spirit
Purushottama - Supreme Spirit
Rajas - The guna that drives to action passionate & restless
Sakshi - Witness
Sattva - The guna that illuminates, purifies
Shakti - Force, Divine or cosmic energy
Tamas - The guna that obscures, leads to inertia.
Karma and Rebirth
The non-materialistic European idea makes a distinction between soul and body is perishable, the metalvital consciousness is the immortal soul and remains always the same (horrible idea!) in heaven as on
earth; or if there is a rebirth it is also the same damned personality that comes back and makes a similar
fool of itself.
For it is the extinction or dissolution of this personality, of this mental, nervous, physical composite which I
call myself that is hard to bear for the man enamored of life, and it is the promise of its survival and
physical reappearance that is the great lure.
Secure behind all the changing of our personality upholding the stream of mutations, there must be a true
person, a real spiritual individual. It is this inner person that survives death.
It is evident that in one life we do not and cannot labor out and exhaust all the value ad powers of that life,
out only carry on a past thread, weave out something in the present, prepare infinitely more for the future.
The alternative: One life and eternal judgment: the dogma of a soul without a past, created by the birth of
a body but indestructible by the death of the body involves the difficulty of a creature beginning in time but
enduring through all eternity. Further, this soul inherits a past for which it is in no way responsible, or is
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burdened with mastering propensities imposed on it not by its own act, and is yet responsible for its
future. and we have only this one chance. Plato and the Hottentot, the fortunate child of saints or Rishis
and the born and trained criminal plunged from beginning to end in the lowest fetid corruption of a great
modern city, have equally to create by the action of this one unequal life all their eternal future. This is a
paradox which offends both the soul and the reason, the ethical sense and the spiritual intuition.
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C58 - Religion of China
Confucianism
Confucianism stood for a rationalized social order through the ethical approach, based on personal
cultivation. It aimed at political order by laying the basis for it in a moral order and it sought political
harmony trying to achieve the moral harmony in man himself. It abolished the of politics and ethics. Its
approach differed from that of the Legal who tried to bring about a strong nation by a rigid enforcement of
the .
Confucianism known as the religion of li. But “li” is difficult to trans on one extreme it means ritual,
propriety; in a generalized sense it sin means good manners; in its highest philosophical sense it means
an ideal order with everything in its place and particularly a rationalized order.
Walking slowly around the door Confucius sighed and sang a song; Ah! the T’aishan (Mountain) is
crumbling down; the pillar is falling down; the philosopher is passing out. He then shed tears and said:
For a long time the world has been living in moral chaos, and no ruler has been able to follow me!
Tsekung: the Master’s teachings are too great for the people, and that the world cannot accept them.
Why don’t you come down a little from your heights? Confucius: Ah, Tse, a good farmer plants the field
but cannot guarantee the harvest, and a good artisan will do a skillful job, but he can guarantee to please
his customers. Now you are not interested in cultivate yourselves, but are only interested in being
accepted by the people. I am afraid you are not setting the highest standard for yourself.
The common good was to be secured by the attainment of five cardinal virjen (the root), yi (righteousness
by justice - The trunk), li (the religion and moral ways of acting - The branches), chih (wisdom - The
flower), and (faithfulness - The fruit). Jen is the motivating force of the moral.
Reciprocity (shu) - a rule of practice for all one’s life; What you do want done to yourself do not do to
others. This is the central principle runs through all my teachings.
The moral man can find himself in no situation in life in which he is no master of himself.
Plato_ Goodness becomes embodied in society neither through might nor that law, but through the
impress of a great personality. How will a man the ruler who shall rule over him? Will he not choose a
man who has fire established order in himself? Jefferson: the whole art of government consists in the art
of being honest. Confucius: In a twelvemonth I could affect great changes, and in three years. I could
perfect everything. The fundamental conviction of Confucius was that people being at heart. Are
responsive to those above them to whom They look for leadership. country had none but good rulers for
a hundred years crime would be steam.
Mencius: All men are good by nature. Everyman is born with the buds of and chih. Because of this
innate goodness man is perfectible thro.
Man is never set over and against the universe as something different distinct. He differs from the other
animals not by the possession of an soul or a divine destiny, but only by his ability to collaborate with
bellows to create and maintain a social order. The Chinese estimate of nature was such that the
individual instinctively contemplated the future of in terms of his own survival as such but of that of the
family of who he as a member.
Hsun-Tzu (298-238) Man’s nature is evil and all goodness is the result artificial training.
Confucius: Any man can be a Yao or a Shun, if educational conditions.
C. was trying to replace the traditional tribal morality with an inward motivated morality based on one’s
awareness of his common humanity with others.
Tao Te Ching
The Tao that can be spoken of is not the eternal Tao/ the name that can be given is not the eternal name
/ the nameless is the origin of heaven and earth; / the named is the mother of all things. / therefore ever
desire less, one can see the Mystery; / Ever desiring one sees only the manifestation. / these two are the
same, They are both profound and mysterious.
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When the people of the earth know beauty as beauty, / there arises the recognition of ugliness./ When
They know good as good, / there arises the recognition of evil. / therefore being and non-being produce
each other; / Difficult and easy complement each other. / therefore the sage manages affairs without
action; / and spreads doctrines without words. / the ten thousand things arise, but he does not turn away
from the m; / He gives them life, but does not take possession of the m; / He acts, but does not
appropriate; / Accomplishes, but claims no credit.
Tao is a hollow vessel, / and its use is inexhaustible, fathomless, / Like the fountain head of all things. / It
resolves tangles and subdues turmoil / I do not know whose offspring it is; / It is like a preface to God.
The spirit of the valley never dies. / It is called the Mystic Female. / the gate of the mystic Female is the
root of Heaven and Earth.
The sage puts himself last and finds himself in the foremost place. / Because he has no personal
interests, he finds eternal fulfillment.
The highest good is like water; / Water gives life to all things and does not compete or strive. / It dwells in
the lowly places that all disdain / and so is like the Tao. / It is because the saga does not contend / That
he is beyond reproach.
In controlling your vital force to achieve gentleness, / Can you become like the new-born child? / To lead
men without managing them - / This is called thru profound and secret Virtue.
Thirty spokes unite around the hub; / But the use of the cart depend on the part of the hub that is void.
(Doors and windows - empty spaces - make a house livable in. Cp. “The still point of the turning
universe.
The five colors blind the eyes of man; / the five musical notes deafen his ears; / the five flavors dull the
taste. / therefore the sage provide for the belly (the inner self) and not for the eye.
We look at it and do not see it; / We touch it and do not find it; / Meet it and yu do not see its face; / Follow
it and you will not see its back.
Attain complete vacuity, hold firm to the basis of quietude. / To return to the root is Repose. / To know
the Eternal Tao is enlightenment.
On the decline of the great Tao, / the doctrine of humanity and justice arose. / When knowledge an
cleverness appeared, / Great hypocrisy followed in its wake.
Banish wisdom, discard knowledge, / and the people will benefit a hundred fold. / Abandon humanity and
discard righteousness, / and the people will recover love of their kin. / Reveal thy simple self, / Embrace
thy original nature, / Check thy selfishness and curtail thy desires.
Yield and overcome; bend and be straight; / Empty and be full; wear out and be new; / Have little and
gain; Have much and be confused. / Be really whole and all things will come to you.
He who stands on tiptoe is not steady; / He who strides cannot maintain the pace. / A good runner leaves
no track.
The universe is sacred, you cannot improve it. / If you try to change it will ruin it. / If you try to hold it you
will lose it. / therefore the sage avoids excess, extravagance and pride.
Fine weapons are instruments of evil. / the slaying of multitudes should mourned with sorrow. / A victory
is an occasion that calls for a funeral rite. / He who calls victory beautiful is one who delights in slaughter.
The Great Tao flows everywhere. It may go left or right. / the myriad things derive their life from it; it does
not turn away from them. / It accomplishes its work but claims no credit. / Always without desires, it may
be called the small. / All things return to it but it does not dominate the m; / Thus It may be called the
Great. / therefore the sage never strives for the great, and thereby the great is achieved.
The Tao never acts, yet through it everything is done. / If princes and rulers can keep the Tao, the world
will of its own accord be reformed. / Looked at, the Tao cannot be seen. Listened to, it cannot be heard.
The man who possesses Virtue (Te) is not conscious that he does. / He acts with kindness without an
ulterior motive (or conscious purpose). / If there is no response he does not roll up his sleeves to force it
on others. / therefore: after Tao is lost then arises the doctrine of humanity. / After humanity is lost then
arises the doctrine of justice. / After justice is lost then arises the doctrine of li.
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Returning is the motion of the Tao. Yielding is the way of the Tao. / the ten thousand things are born of
being. / and being is born of non being.
When the highest type of men hear the Tao They try to live in accordance with it, / When the mediocre
type hear the Tao, They are aware ad yet unaware of it. / When the lowest type hears the Tao, They
break into loud laughter - / If it were not laughed at it would not be the Tao.
Out of Tao, One is born. Out of one, two. Out of two, three. Out of three, the created universe.
The softest things in the world overcome the hardest things. / the non-being can enter where there is no
room. / Hence I know the value of non-action. / Teaching without words and work without doing / Are
understood by very few.
When the world lives in accord with Tao, / Horses are used to haul manure / When the world lives not in
accord with Tao. / Cavalty abounds in the countryside.
Without going outside one can know the whole world; / Without looking out of the window one can see the
Tao of Heaven. / the farther one pursues knowledge the less one knows. / Thus the sage knows without
running about; / Understands without seeing, / Accomplishes without doing.
In the pursuit of learning every day something’s is acquired. / the pursuit of the Tao every day something
is dropped. / Less and less is done until non-action is achieved. / By doing nothing everything is
accomplished. / the world is conquered by doing nothing. It cannot be ruled by interference.
The sage has no opinions. / I am good to those who are good. I am also good to those who are not
good;. / Because Virtue is goodness. / I have faith in those who are faithful. I also have faith in those
who are not faithful. / Because Virtue is faithfulness.
The Tao gives them birth but does not own them. / It helps but does not appropriate them. / It leads but
does not master them. / This is called profound and secret virtue.
He who possesses Virtue in abundance is like a child. / Poisonous insects will not sting him. Wild beasts
will not attack him. / and no birds of prey pounce upon him.
Bodhidharama (c. 470-543 CE)- Ta Mo. : A special transmission outside the Scriptures, / No
dependence upon words and letters, / Direct pointing at the soul of man, / Seeing into one’s own nature
and attainment of Buddha hood.
Hui Neng (CE 628-713) - Wei Lang; sixth patriarch of ch’an Buddhism.
The mind is like a clear mirror standing. / Take care to wipe it all the time, / Allow no grain of dust to cling
to it. (Shen Hsiu)
The Bodhi from the outset has no tree, / Nor has the bright mirror any frame. / Buddha nature is forever
clear and pure, / on what then can grai of dust cling?
Mediation and wisdom are one. Meditation is the substance of wisdom and wisdom is the function of
meditation.
The original nature which has no evil, disturbance or delusion is realized suddenly, not gradually steps by
step.
If the mind seeks to secure itself in Nirvana, it is bound by the concept of Nirvana. If it clings to the void it
is bound by the concept of the void. Renunciation of all methods is thus supreme method.
If you encounter the Buddha, slay him. If you encounter the patriarch, the arhat, the parent, slay them all
without hesitation, for this is the only way to deliverance.
Gatelessness is the gate to the Dharma (the Truth).
If there is anything in the world which transcends the relativities of cultural conditioning it is Zen.
Past things are in the past. The sun and moon, revolving in their orbit do not turn around. Every moment
of time is self-contained and quiescent.
Hui-Neng: To stop the working of the mind and to sit quietly in meditation is a disease and not Zen, and
there is no profit to be gained by a long sitting. There is contemplation without contemplating, practice
without practicing. All cultivation of concentration is wrong-minded. Fundamentally the mind is pure and
196
neither grasps nor rejects anything. If one sees Buddha one is not seeing Buddha. When one sees there
is no Buddha, one is really seeing Buddha.
Enlightenment is that state of consciousness wherein the pendulum of opposites comes to rest. The
perfect way is neither far nor near. It is without difficulty save that it avoids picking and choosing.
All must be freely abandoned before the seeker finds, even the fact of seeking ad the will to find.
“Will you enlighten me on the saying “Mind is Buddha”? When the preceding thought is not born, it is
Mind; when the following thought does not end, it is Buddha.
To actualize the present in the present - this and nothing else is Zen. The whole of enlightenment is
contained in every moment.
When you are silent It speaks; when you speak it is silent.
Self-knowledge does not come by settling the mind to see itself in its pure state. A knife cannot cut itself,
an eye cannot see itself.
Spirit calculates not, yet it responds to the necessities of the given movement.
How shall I escape from the wheel of birth and death? Who puts you rest under.
The mind of the enlightened person abides nowhere.
Wipe out all dualities and do not establish even the real which implies an opposite the unreal.
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Dr. Chubb’s Class Schedules (Date and Course Title)
New
Num
Old
Num
Date
Dr. Chubb Course Title
C01
A01
4/2/1994
God, Evil and Eschatology
C02
B16
History of the Universe
C03
A02
Death, Karma, Rebirth and Immortality
C04
B31
7/8/1989
The Miracle of Death
C05
B19
7/14/1982
Death and the Art of Dying
C06
A03
Mysticism and Yoga
C07
A04
Mysticism and Pathways to Realization
C08
A05
Mysticism and Pathways to Perfection
C09
B05
C10
A06
Mysticism and Contemplation
C11
B26
Essential and Integral Mysticism
C12
A07
The Life Divine
C13
B29
Skepticism, Meditation and Wisdom
C14
B02
Desire and Pure Will
C15
B22
5/28/1983
J. Krishnamurti
C16
A09
10/2/1993
Buddhism and J. Krishnamurti-I
C17
A10
C18
B21
C19
B07
C20
A11
C21
B30
C22
B08
C23
A12
Seminar on Zen Buddhism
C24
B25
Seminar of Zen Buddhism
C25
A13
C26
B12
C27
B11
C28
B13
C29
B14
3/23/1985
Buddhist Meditation
C30
A14
10/15/1988
Man and Superman
C31
A15
10/31/1992
Evolution towards Divinity
C32
B09
9/27/1977
Mysticism - the Highest Religion
Buddhism and J. Krishnamurti-II
9/24/1983
Mahatma Gandhi
Teilhard De Chardin (1881-1955)
4/5/1986
Essentials of Indian Culture
The Spiritual Heritage of India
10/11/1986
7/12/1986
Zen Buddhism
Dialogue of Buddhism with World Religions
The Teachings of the Buddha Morality, Meditation, and
Wisdom.
7/7/1990
The Teachings of the Buddha
The Teaching of the Buddha Meditation (Bhävanä)
Shri Aurobindo (1872 to 1950)
198
C33
A08
Shri Aurobindo on Sädhanä through Meditation
C34
B10
Shri Aurobindo on Sädhanä through Meditation
C35
B27
C36
B03
The Present Tension and the future Possibilities
C37
A16
Integral psychology, Mental Health and Yoga
C38
A17
Psychology, Mental Health and Yoga
C39
B33
10/30/1993
Living Within
C40
B32
11/2/1991
Psychology, Health and Yoga
C41
B23
3/18/1983
Spiritual Psychology
C42
B20
5/1/1982
Yoga and Psychoanalysis
C43
B18
9/25/1982
The Pathology of Our Times
C44
A18
Mäyäväda, Täntra and Integral Yoga
C45
A19
Vedanta, Täntra and Integral Yoga
C46
A20
C47
B24
C48
A21
8/22/1987
Psychotherapy – an East-West Dialogue
C49
A22
3/28/1992
Beyond Nirvana
C50
A23
7/13/1991
History and Eschatology : Sacred and Secular
C51
A24
Buddhi Yoga and the Integration of Personality
C52
B06
Jnäna Yoga
C53
A25
9/15/1984
Bhagavada Gita
C54
A26
3/20/1980
Selected Verses from the Gita
C55
A27
Satipatthana
C56
B04
The Psychic Will
C57
B15
The Teachings of the Upanishads
C58
B17
Religion of China
4/11/1987
3/17/1984
Shri Aurobindo - Psychology and Yoga
Irrational Man
Irrational Man
10/18/1976
Harmony of World Religions
3/21/1977
Yoga
11/1/1977
Buddhism-Taoism
3/15/1978
Buddhism
9/27/1978
Yoga
10/1/1979
Meditation
8/23/1980
Spiritual Awakening
11/1/1980
Hinduism
3/21/1981
Types of Mysticism
5/21/1981
History of China
10/13/1981
Messiah
199
11/7/1981
Shri Aurobindo : Fulfillment of Spiritual Philosophy
3/19/1982
Secret of Total Relaxation
6/16/1984
Teachings of Upanishads
7/13/1985
Doctrine of Self, Karma and Reincarnation
10/31/1987
Upanishads
3/19/1988
Skepticism, Meditation and Wisdom
4/1/1989
Spiritual Heritage of India
11/4/1989
Integration of the Personality
3/31/1990
Integral Yoga and other paths
10/27/1990
Evolution of Man
3/23/1991
Integral Yoga and other Paths
7/11/1992
The Upanishads
5/2/1993
The Harmony of world religions
200