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Supermind, Mind and the Overmind Maya

(Book 1 Chapter XXVIII)

Introduction

Here are the main points in greater detail:

Our Consciousness of the Superconscient and Subconscient
There are realms, planes above mind that we are unconscious of; they are "superconscient" to us. There are realms below mind that we are also unconscious of; they are "subconscient" or inconscient to us. We need to make these realms conscious to ourselves. [We also need to bring the superconscient into the subconscient to effect and change it.]

The Process of Connecting to Planes above Mind Proper
-Above mind is spiritual mind; (Higher, Illumined, Intuitive) and further to Overmind, and Supermind. Original thinking and the authentic perception of things is an intuitive element of spiritual mind. We can get in touch with these higher ranges above and below mind through two movements. First a movement within into the inner being, the subliminal, all the way to the psychic being, personal soul, which also enables one to open to universal forces, to Cosmic Mind. (Genius in the individual is born of the connection to Cosmic Mind.) This is followed by the spiritual opening to the planes above mind proper. [A full development of these two movements in the individual would entail the psychic and then the spiritual transformation, which are the two forerunners of the ultimate supramental transformation.]

Overmind as Source of Lapse into Ignorance
Overmind is the plane that takes the unity and oneness of the Divine (manifest by Supermind in the universe) and turns it into the first divisions. Those divisions enable the beginnings of the separateness, uniqueness, and individuality of things. Thus it is where ego and ignorance are born. It is however the knowledge in consciousness of Supermind and Satchitananda are lost. [However, the true ignorance, ego, separateness expresses as we move down the planes from spiritual mind, to the vital and the mental.] The Overmental is therefore the root cause of separation and ignorance in life. [though they truly express in the lower mental, vital, and physical planes] This ignorance is the origin of the cosmic Maya.

[The original Ignorance can only be rectified when we rise to the unity of knowledge and consciousness in Supermind beyond Mind.

-Supermind expresses the integral relationship of all things born of the Absolute through Satchitananda; Overmind takes this unity, and expresses the uniqueness of things born of division. Then what actually causes this division. It seems like the transition to Overmind is both a positive and negative thing; in that it enables uniqueness, yet also division?]

The Unmanifest The Absolute (Existence, Conscious Force, Delight/Bliss)

Supermind as intermediary

The Manifest Overmind Spiritual Mind (Higher, Illumined, Intuitive) Mind Vital/Life Matter

 

 

The Source of Divisions and Dualities

The Existence, i.e. being/Spirit (of Existence, Consciousness-Force, Delight) "Above" becomes Non-Being at the dawn of creation. The Consciousness-Force becomes Inconscience (Unconsciousness), and the Delight becomes Insensitivity. Thus we see the essential contradiction, contradictory aspect of what is Above and what is Below, between the One and the Many. Furthermore, the contradiction between Being and Non-being shows itself in particular in the universe and life as the division between Life and Death. The contradiction between Consciousness-Force and Inconscience shows itself as the division between Truth and Falsehood (and between knowledge and error), and the contradiction between Delight and Insensibility shows itself as Pleasure and Pain. Thus we can see the root beginnings and causes of all problems, contradictions, divisions, dualities in the universe. This is VERY SIGNIFICANT BECAUSE IT EXPLAINS ALL OF THE DIFFICULTIES OF LIFE! 

[Through Nature these lesser and greater contradictions work themselves out in an ascending movement back to their oneness; though through our invocation of Spirit we overcome them rapidly as we see them in their inherent oneness and unity, i.e. as we develop the supramental and Brahman consciousness.]

 

Greater and Lesser Contradictions, and their Resolution

 

Greater Contradictions Between Above and Below	Existence (Being)	Consciousness-Force	Delight
	Non-Existence (Non-Being)	Inconscient (Unconsciousness)	Insensibility
How Greater Reflect as Lesser Contradictions in the Below	Life and Death	Truth and Falsehood (and knowledge & error)	Pleasure and Pain
The resolutions of the greater contradictions between the Above and the Below, as well as the lesser contradictions in the Below that reflect the greater contradictions occur through the workings of Nature, or better, faster through our invocation of Spirit in life.

 

[DETAILS]

• What is the process that led to the lapse into the ignorance in the creation?

• What is greater than mind is mostly unconscious to us. It is thus "superconscient" to us. What is below and lower than mind, is mostly subconscient or inconscient to us. So we have this scale of unconsciousness that is above us and below us.

• Intuitive capacities above Mind proper --

  • Into the mind can enter above it the intuitions of spiritual mind.

  • Behind all our original thinking or authentic perception of things is an intuitive element.

  • The intuitive element opens a passage of communications with the higher spiritual ranges. 

• Cosmic Mind --

  • We can also open to ranges beyond mind to ranges beyond our ego limitations, to a level of impersonality, universality; a connection to a Cosmic Mind. (This we can enter into by first connecting with the inner mind, the subliminal, and the psychic being in the subliminal.)

  • Our (normal) mind action is a derivative of cosmic Mind, and it is of an inferior process.

  • Genius comes from connection to Cosmic (Universal) Mind.

  • Cosmic Mind is the plane which descended, which our mind is a limited derivative.
    [Is Cosmic Mind universal Mind or Supermind or both together?]

• There are two successive movements of consciousness. 

  • 1. (Inward) An inward movement that breaks into the subliminal self, into the inner being, an inner life, and further into a personal soul, a psychic being there. It is capable of directly connecting with universal forces, enabling us to become universal beings. [This movement into the psychic is what is later the foundation of what he calls the Psychic Transformation, the first of the three steps of the Triple Transformation.]

  • 2. (Upward) This inward movement is followed by a spiritual opening above mind, beginning with a) Higher Mind, which enables one to have the ability to include a mass of knowledge in a single view, having a cosmic character, not the stamp of the individual thinker; beyond that to b) Illumined Mind, which enables one to have Truth sight, light with less thought formation; beyond that to c) Intuitive Mind, where we have a supra-intellectual way of knowing, a movement of self-existent knowledge; above that d) Overmind, which is in direct contact with Supramental, Truth Consciousness, though not quite it; and above that e) the Supramental, Truth Consciousness.

Nature of Overmind

• Overmind releases a million Godheads, each empowered to create its own worlds, which can interact with the others. (On the other hand, in Supermind all this would be held together as a harmonized play of one Existence.) Overmind is where Satchitananda is given its infinite possibilities, which can be developed into a multiple of worlds.

• In Supermind all is held in one Existence, whereas Overmind gives the one Existence the teeming infinite possibilities which can be developed into multiple worlds.

• Overmind is an organizer of many potentialities of Existence, each affirming its separate reality, but all capable of linking themselves together in many ways.

• [Can we say this is where is the basis of where each person's unique individuality and part in the universal unfolding comes from? Yes]

• Overmind is a creator of truths. It is not yet the fall from truth.

• An Overmind world is a world of harmony.

• What are to the mind contradictions are complementaries in Overmind.

• Thought Supermind transmits to Overmind all of its realities, Overmind is still a first parent of the Ignorance, where the essential truth of things, integrality of things, as in Supermind, is no longer there. It illuminates in a separative manner, where it works out each thing in its separative importance. It works its truth through division, not unity, integrality. It enables truth but truth through division, not integral truth.

• Therefore Overmind is the original of the cosmic Maya, of separation in the descent from Supermind. If they are separative, then each idea, force, separative consciousness from there must collide, are in conflict, moving to independent assertion, rather than in total harmony. Thus we have the origins of, the beginnings of an answer to his question "What is the process that led to the lapse into the ignorance in the creation?"

• Overmind is a power that made the Ignorance possible, for each principle loosed into action must follow its own independent course, and its consequence. Each separation, idea, force, living being will live through necessity of its ignorance; it will be in collision with other entities, as it asserts its own self.

• Overmind in its descent is the dividing line between the cosmic Truth and the cosmic Ignorance.

• [Overmind is the origin of separativeness. The plane of Mind is what enabled us as humans through our senses to perceive the separation and division of reality, substance, forms, matter.]

• [Perhaps we can say that Overmind is the point at which ego, separateness, AND division and duality begins; as each thing asserts its individuality. Falsehood and error would also follow from that Ignorance.]

• Beyond these limitations of Overmind are the integral Truths, of harmony, of Oneness, of Supramental Truth Consciousness. 
  [This is the status that we in our evolution need to reach. Sri Aurobindo instructed Mother that we needed to go beyond Overmind to this realm of Supermind, to bring its truth, its unitary consciousness into the world, our lives to truly transform life on earth]

 

The Source of Divisions and Dualities in the Universe

The Existence, i.e. being/Spirit (of Existence, Consciousness-Force, Delight) "Above" becomes Non-Being at the dawn of creation. The Consciousness-Force becomes Inconscience (Unconsciousness), and the Delight becomes Insensitivity. Thus we see the essential contradiction, contradictory aspect of what is Above and what is Below, between the One and the Many. Furthermore, the contradiction between Being and Non-being shows itself in particular in the universe and life as the division between Life and Death. The contradiction between Consciousness-Force and Inconscience shows itself as the division between Truth and Falsehood (and between knowledge and error), and the contradiction between Delight and Insensibility shows itself as Pleasure and Pain. Thus we can see the root beginnings and causes of all problems, contradictions, divisions, dualities in the universe. This is VERY SIGNIFICANT BECAUSE IT EXPLAINS ALL OF THE DIFFICULTIES OF LIFE!