Growth Online

Discovering the Spirit Within

Interview

In this interview Roy Posner, president of Growth Online, discusses how we can find the spirit within us to enable infinite delight as well as infinite accomplishment and success in life. Created July 2003

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Growth Online: Roy, welcome to the Interview Series again.

RP: Delighted to be here as always!

Growth Online: So our topic today is discovering the spirit within. So what is "spirit" and what is the "within?"

RP: We can put it this way: In the deepest recesses of your being within you find spirit. 

Sri Aurobindo, the Indian sage and seer says that spirituality is an awakening to the inner reality of our being, to a spirit, to the true self, to the soul within, in order that we may be able to enter into contact with the greater Spiritual Reality.

Growth Online: And what purpose would that serve?

RP: Oh so many purposes!

Growth Online: Can you name a few?

RP: Well if we are connected to the Divine reality, the Divine spirit, we can experience any of its qualities in our lives, such as a deep peace, or an inner delight and joy of living and being, or a power, strength and energy that has no bounds, or a love without end, or a profound knowledge and wisdom, or an insight into the deepest truths of existence.

Growth Online: That’s certainly considerable!

RP: Another way of looking at the benefit of discovering the spiritual reality is by asking the question “what do you want?” And the answer is you can have anything you want when you are able to utilize the powers of the Spiritual Reality.

Growth Online: But how do we make the connection?

RP: Connecting to the Spiritual Reality, the Being is accomplished by establishing a connection within yourself to your deepest parts, to your soul parts. By connecting within, finding the spirit there, the Being within you, enables not only the experience of one’s own soul space but readily connects you with the greater ocean of spirit contained in the Divine reality. From this connection to this Omnipresent Reality -- what some call God, what is called Brahman in the East, and the Absolute in the West -- you can tap into any of its infinite powers to help you receive that which you want out of life.

The possibility however of connecting to it is greatly enhanced by going within and finding your true self.

Growth Online: This sounds rather ethereal and distant. Can you present it to me in a way that is a little more practical?

RP: (pause) “Practical” is an interesting term. This might be an appropriate place to introduce a little concept that we call the “practical concept of infinity.” This principle essentially means that you can accomplish and succeed in life to literally an infinite degree if you make contact with and then open yourself to the spiritual powers of the Divine Reality. You could for example increase your income by 10 or a 100 times, increase your health to robust energy and perfection, accomplish a work that would take ten years in two months, find a perfect mate, manifest the greatest artist achievement of your generation, or become the single genius in your field of work and endeavor, just to name a few.

I think you would agree that such results from life would be considered practical from the standpoint that it creates practical outer results; in this case, fantastic outer results, bordering on infinite.

Growth Online: That sounds amazing and wonderful, but isn’t making such a connection to the spirit for a saint or a guru, or a person who sheds his cloths and lives in bliss at the side of a river.

RP: Oh really? How many naked billionaire do you know?!? (laughter)

Growth Online: I mean can the average person do this?

RP: These possibilities are for the average person! The Divine enabled these possibilities for all individuals on earth. That’s why he/she created this universe in the first place, to extend his powers in life so that these spiritual attributes and powers can be utilized by all of the inhabitants of the globe; including Peace, Power, Strength, Delight, Love, Beauty, Knowledge, Truth, and others.

And when we do use them, or manifest them, we experience the greatest delight of being, which is the ultimate reason that the Divine enabled the universe in the first place. Delight of being is the single reason that the Divine extended itself in creation into a universe of forms; in order that each form, that is, we can have the experience of Delight of discovery that the Divine Reality already experiences in its unmanifest state.

Growth Online: So why aren’t we doing this, experiencing this more often?

RP: We haven’t yet risen to a level of consciousness that can apprehend such things. We live for the most part in a lower consciousness, for the most part still tethered to a lower animal existence, far from our potential higher nature which could open to and embody these ultimate divine powers.

In fact, we don’t even use that most basic of human capacities, the power of mind to think logically, objectively, and rationally. We live for our erratic and changeable feelings, our wants, our urges; we respond Pavlovian-like to all of the shiny objects in front of us that grab our attention; and we are led on by what the society urges us to grab onto, and so on. We have little ability to think logically, quietly, objectively, independently, to asses the situations of life, and come to our rational understandings and points of view.

And this ability to think dispassionately in order to see the true truths, the myriad of truths that enable true and multi-sided understanding is anterior to anything so lofty such as connection to spirit and its powers.

We are blinded and deceived by our lower nature. We are lost in the fog, inertia, inconscience of a lower consciousness. We live for personal power, for food, for pleasure, for desire, for attachment, for our ego, and predominantly for our own self-interest. We are self-centered and selfish.

Unfortunately, we know no other ways, save for the small moral or religious sense we are provided to keep us on the straight and narrow. There is no objectivity, no true thinking, no sense of an inner way; no or little understanding of the purpose of our existence, or the infinite potentials of life.

Growth Online: So things like desire, power seeking, ego, wants and all are not things that are very good? 

RP: “Good” is a shifting reality. For a person who is a brute, a killer, an evil doer, doing any of the above things might be a step forward! Good and bad in that sense are relative.

Where then to set the standard for good and bad? The standard shifts from one country to another, from one culture to another, from one time period to another, and, most importantly, it shifts from one individual to another. A selfish, rascal-like womanizer could do well by settling down with a wife and children to live a life of satisfied desire and narrowed family focus in order to meet his biological needs and some of his psychological needs. Another man may have already been through marriage and a family, realized its limitations and its squashing of the spirit of adventure (for him), and is ready for something more. It just depends on who you are and what your soul is seeking.

Growth Online: “What your soul is seeking?” What do you mean?

RP: A very good question! So now we are moving a little closer to the main subject at hand. Let’s see if I can provide you with an adequate answer.

(pause) Each person has a soul, which we can think of as an inlet of the great ocean of the Divine spirit. The soul is in essence a spark of the Divine in each of us.

When you are born, at some point in your life the divine spark that is in each individual develops a new aspect of itself. This soul extends itself to something we call the personal evolving soul, otherwise known as the Psychic Being or the True Self. This personal evolving soul has been moving from one body to the next seeking its own progress and evolution, accumulating experiences along the way to enable its growth. When this personal evolving soul enters or develops in you as an extension of soul, it is seeking yet additional progress through your own growth and progress. It takes the essence of your newly developed higher consciousness and absorbs in into its own growth. When it has gathered all it can from you, it moves on. If you stop developing, it will withdraw, in which case your body normally dies, and it will seek other sustenance or perhaps rest for awhile. If you rise to higher and higher consciousness, it can stay on board for a long time, adding extra decades to your life.

A most interesting point here is that not only we evolve, but our soul, or rather the extension of our soul, our personal evolving soul is also evolving!

Growth Online: So if I evolve, then this psychic being also evolves?!?

RP: Yes, exactly.

Growth Online: So how do I evolve? … Yes, I know, “in many ways!” (laughter)

RP: Yes, there are many ways!

The common way we evolve is by Nature forcing us to evolve. That’s a productive way in that Nature does accomplish what it set out to do, which is to enable the forms that are in the universe, the individuals and the society to progress and evolve. And yet Nature’s Way is a slow and painful way, with growth and progress coming through contradiction, conflict, division, and duality. Instead, we can progress, grow, and evolve by becoming more conscious. We can replace Nature’s slow method of progress of contradiction and conflict to a rapid method of progress to even greater harmonies through our higher consciousness.

Growth Online: Then how can we grow in consciousness?

RP: There are many ways to become conscious. But normally we grow in fits and spurts, if at all. If we want to grow systematically, integrally, all-inclusively, consciously, then we need to find some method that will enable this to be never ending i.e. never-ending progress.

Growth Online: Do you know of such a way?

RP: When we go into the depths within, and discover our personal evolving soul, we have made the decisive movement that will enable a never-ending progress in life so that we can overcome the divisions and dualities in life; not through the slow and painful method of Nature, but through the power of connecting to our inner spirit, our personal evolving soul, our True Self.

This connection also turns out to be the first decisive step on the journey to discover, reveal, and embody our ultimate evolutionary possibilities.

Growth Online: So we get in touch with our evolving soul, and then life becomes infinitely better?

RP: Yes. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. It is unlikely that a person will suddenly make this soul connection. There are a number of preliminaries.

Growth Online: Which are?

RP: Which are that you first have to make a connection within. As I mentioned before, we need to somehow move away from living at the surface of life, and move to a deeper consciousness within. Only when you have begun to break the never-ending link of our consciousness to the surface of life can we move within.  Only when we are able to move the focus of our thoughts away from the constant input of the five senses to rational thought, or even beyond that to silence in the mind, can we break the connection with the surface.  And only when we have begun to live within for a good while can we then descent further to the deepest depths within where we discover the personal evolving soul, the True Self, this Psychic Being.

Growth Online: But what is the real benefit of living within?

RP: So many benefits! First of all when you are removed from the surface bubbling of life and have moved within you begin to develop a stillness from which you have a much better perceptions of what is happening around you. You are far more in tune with how life is emerging from moment to moment. You have a better sense of what is happening around you, of the myriad of details and influences around you, and of what is truly important. You become much more in tune with the environment; in tune with other people, including their thought, desires, and motives.

From within you gain a multi-sided knowledge and understanding, are more connected to, more unified and in identity with the environment and others, and therefore are able to have deeper insight on what to do and what not to do, and how and when to act. As a result you develop vastly greater understanding, develop great insight, are able to always make right decisions, and take the right actions which lead to great results, achievement, and success in life.

You begin to experience an ever increasing level of harmony, unity, and oneness within yourself, towards others, in relation to the environment, and with the entire unfolding of life.

Also, you start to perceive that there is a deeper working and purpose behind things. You begin to perceive a Spiritual Reality that is at work, moving in life, moving life; a Reality that exists both “outside” yourself, as well as within in the depths of your individual being. You come to know this as a spirit, a Being inside you and throughout the universe and all existence.

Growth Online: This sounds wonderful! The benefits of going within seem endless and joyful.

(pause) But is this method of going within to the depths the only path to discovering spirit? 

RP: There are endless path to uncovering our higher consciousness. We know of the power of meditation, of concentration, prayer, knowledge of deep wisdom, devotion, love, and others as openings to the spirit. These are all valid methods. We each have our own nature, and thus can each relate to a particular method or methods that will help us rise in consciousness. Each person can use his or her own tool to progress in life. Even our daily work, i.e. work done consciously or perfectly, or work saturated with personal values can be the method and vehicle. As can any attempt to overcome a negative attitude, or to change a fixed habit or a strident opinion; or to develop a higher level of personal organization; or to feel gratitude toward others, and so forth. There are many ways. They can each be a path to one’s higher nature, one’s higher consciousness. Like the notions that all roads lead to Rome, all paths of consciousness are valid and can lead to the one Spiritual Reality.

(pause) But our goal here is communion with the spirit within, to the evolving soul within. We are taking this particular path because it is the path that we believe enables the person to rise the highest, to our greatest potential; to discover and embody our ultimate evolutionary possibilities in life.

We take this path within because it is the path that can take us to our most profound parts, our Inner Being, to the realization of our True Self and Soul, our Psychic Being.

Growth Online: Psychic Being?

RP: Yes, the psychic being is our True Self, the personal evolving soul, the Inner Being. They all refer to the same thing.

The Indian avatar Sri Aurobindo said that his greatest discovery was the uncovering of the psychic being, this extension of the soul, the personal evolving soul within; which he often referred to as the “Psychic Being.”

(pause) Notice that he has used the word “Being”. The Being is in essence what we generally refer to as “spirit.” The Being is also the Divine Creator who enables this universe we live in. The Creator then is the Being. When the Omnipresent Divine Reality extended Itself to create a universe, the first thing He did was to “evolve” himself from his unknowable, immutable state -- beyond space and time, beyond mental comprehension -- to his first knowable state, which was the state of Pure Existence, also called the “Being,” which in our terms we know as “the Spirit.” The sages of the past have reported from their spiritual journeys that the first aspect of the Divine that we can fathom beyond its original immutable, unknowable essence is the “Being,” which is in essence what we recognize through our higher consciousness as the spiritual reality.  

As it turns out, we also have a similar phenomenon going on within ourselves. Within each person there is the original spark of the Divine that we know as “the Soul.” It is an inlet of the infinite, unknowable, immutable Divine Being. Well there is also an extension of this Soul that we can come in touch with, which we recognize which is the True Self, also known as the “Psychic Being.”  This then in one sense mirrors the status of the spiritual Being which emerged from its immutable, infinite state that we call the Omnipresent Reality.

So just as the unknowable Divine evolved a Spirit state called the Being, our souls evolve a personal evolving soul called the Inner or Psychic Being.

And just as the Divine Being came about from the unknowable Divine in order to begin the process of creating the universe, we can connect with the Inner Being to enable ultimate creative capacities for accomplishment and joy in life. The Divine Being is/was the creator of the infinite universe. We can likewise be the creators of an infinite reality for ourselves and the world.

In addition, we begin to see that our purpose is in essence to bring spiritual Being into the Becoming of our lives through our connection to our own Inner Being, our personal evolving soul. Bringing the spirit Being into the Becoming of life is our great role as human individuals in the universe.

And as a result we not only enable life to move to a staggering new knowledge, wisdom, power, creativity, achievement, but as a result of this amazing unfolding we experience the ecstatic joy and delight of that experience. By connecting to the personal evolving soul we enable not just the Infinite to enter the Finite, but have the ongoing ecstatic experience of joy and delight in manifesting these attributes in life. This is the Joy of living for which we came upon this earth.

Growth Online: That sounds sublime.

(pause) By the way why do you call the inner being the “personal evolving soul?”

RP: It is personal because this inner Being, this extended soul state has a relationship with our own unique personality and being; whereas the original soul state is the divine spark that is there in all of us, and is more neutral to our own character and being. The personal soul is the spark of the divine that has extended itself to incorporate the growth in consciousness of the person it inhabits. In other words, as I grow and evolve, this personal evolving soul also grows and evolves. It incorporates the essence of my experiences of growth in consciousness for its own self and growth! In other words, our extended souls are also evolving, just as we are, but at another level!

So when the personal evolving soul can no longer find essence of consciousness from that individual for its own growth, it withdraws from that person. That often means we move toward our own end. Then this Psychic Being continues on its journey of progress, either by resting and assimilating its new found essence of experience, or it moves on to other bodies to gain further sustenance from their evolutionary experiences. This process is essentially what we know as “rebirth.”

(pause) So by connecting to our personal evolving soul - also called the Psychic Being – we begin the process of bringing the Divine Spiritual Being -- and its attributes of infinite possibility entering the finite of our existence, timelessness into time, light, peace, truth, knowledge, power, and delight -- into the Becoming of our daily lives.

Bringing the Being into the Becoming, i.e. utilizing the spirit, the Being into the outer activities and unfoldings of our lives, is the central process by which we move toward our ultimate potential in life; which is an infinite potential. Looking at it from another side bringing the Being into the Becoming is the starting point from which we can begin to move from our current human state of pain, division, duality, time, finiteness and limitation to our ultimate evolutionary state of delight, harmony, timelessness, and infinite abundance.

We begin this process of bringing the spiritual Being into the Becomings of our lives by first moving into the depths of our being, away from the surface of life. We move from mind preoccupied with sense data to mind centered in the silence of the depths. Then, if we are lucky, we move further within to the deepest depths where we discover the personal evolving soul.

When we connect to the evolving soul, we enable all of the universal and transcendent forces to enter our individual self, enabling the spirit to flow within and out into the acts of our daily lives. We in essence bring the Being into the Becoming of our daily lives; infusing them with all of the forces, aspects, dimensions, and powers of the Divine Spirit Being.

Growth Online: Very powerful.

(pause) So let’s see if I’ve got it. We move into the depths within, develop an inner poise, discover the silence there. Then, if we are lucky, we go further within and find our evolving souls, and bring in this spiritual power into our daily lives, changing ordinary life into infinite life.

RP: Very nicely put.

(pause) We should however point out that there is a problem in this process; a gap that needs to be filled and overcome.

Growth Online: A gap?

RP: While it may be somewhat challenging to move away from the surface of life to discover the depths within, it is very challenging to move further from this inner poise to make the connection with the personal evolving soul within. There are a very few who have made this connection. It is a rare thing indeed, though I believe it will occur much more frequently in the decades ahead.

Growth Online: Why is it difficult; I mean why is it difficult to bridge this gap?

RP: You know, I’m not sure I can fully answer your question at this point. But I can say this: There is an interim step between these two inner statuses, between an inner poise and the deeper connection to the personal evolving soul. What can facilitate this connection is this: By opening to the Higher Power on a continuous basis we can create a bridge between these two inner states, making it easier for us to make contact with our evolving soul.

Growth Online: Opening to a Higher Power? What do you mean exactly?

(pause) Perhaps you remember in the film Star Wars where Obi Won repeatedly tells Luke Skywalker to open himself to the Force. “Remember, the Force Luke.” When Luke opens to the Force, everything starts going right for him; even for his comrades around him.

When we open to the Force in our own lives everything around suddenly begins to take a turn for the better. For example, if before I meet a client I sit quietly and open to the Force, I will find that the ensuing meeting unfolds swimmingly. Everything works right; there’s even a good chance that I may double or increase by five times the business I originally expected. Or, a problem that we were dealing with will suddenly vanish.

By “consecrating” an act or an event before it occurs, by relating it and offering it to the Divine, we open ourselves to Its Force, which descends into the situation and brings about an astonishing positive response from life. Opening to the Force in our daily activities enables instant positive “life response;” which is in essence instantaneous miraculousness.

Growth Online: You have experienced this?

RP: Yes, many times. And each time it happens it astonishes you. Not to mention that it results in wonderful things occurring around you which you materially and psychologically benefit from.

Growth Online: That sounds wonderful. Could you tell me more? I would like to practice this method of opening to the Force.

RP: You will be dancing on air in delight from the response of such experiences! It is a joy to see life suddenly taking a turn for the better whenever you invoke this Power. It will reorient your view of life. You will sense that there is a power at your disposal that can enable you to become the Master of Life.

As a result of this opening, positive responses from life will come suddenly from seemingly out of nowhere, defying all of our normal notions of cause and effect, and space and time.

People who were sick, whose situation you offered to the Power suddenly become well. Problems offered seem to evaporate and disappear in no time. And in your daily activities, work gets done in half the time; with greater outcomes than you would have ever imagined. Life cooperates everywhere. Life responds positively, instantly, abundantly, and creatively. Life then moves from a finiteness, a space and time-bound existence, to an infinite existence, of infinite results transcending space and time. 

If practiced frequently, consecrating, i.e. offering act to the Higher Power and Force enables a symphony of miraculous amazement.

Growth Online: Still how does opening to the Force close the gap you spoke of earlier.

RP: Yes, our dilemma of bridging the gap between living within and the even deeper personal evolving soul within.

(pause) Well it turns out that this method of offering up activities to the Force before commencing them can be the intermediary movement that fills the gap between the movement within and the connection with our evolving soul.

Growth Online: I don’t understand. How would opening to the Force close that gap?

RP: You know, once again I am in the process of truly understanding why this is the case, but I do sense the deep truth of this fact. Let me try to explain it this way for now.

When you practice consecration, i.e. of offering the situations and circumstances you encounter in life to this Force, which enables this constant positive life response to occur, you are in essence establishing a brief connection with the Divine. Each time you make that connection to the Divine Being and Spirit, you somehow enable a greater opening within yourself to the evolving soul. The path to your psychic being, your evolving soul is somehow cleared, is more “hallowed out.”

Now when you live more in the depths, you are more to cross the gap to your Inner Being, no longer trapped in the passageway between the two worlds. You begin to feel your evolving soul behind the heart. You feel a special presence within that is unmistakably your personal soul space, your True Self, your evolving soul. In that experience you sense your true purpose in life, in being alive.

By opening yourself to the Force, you are not just enabling instantaneous miraculousness in the situations and circumstances of your life around you; there is also this puncturing of the veil that separates your newly established inner poise and the Psychic Being, the personal evolving soul in the deepest depths within. I believe that elements of this Force penetrate within, between these two realms, enabling a widening of the pathway between two. That’s the way I can explain it.

So the more you open to the Force before commencing activities in your life, then the more the Force enables everything to work out perfectly, abundantly, instantly, and miraculously in one’s outer daily existence. And the more we open to that Force, the more It carves a wider opening within, bridging the gap between your inward poise and the Psychic Being, your personal evolving soul in the very depths of your being.

Growth Online: So is that the whole process? Is there more?

RP: Well, then this process builds up its own self-sustaining momentum. You begin to have regular intimations, ongoing experiences of your evolving soul within. And as a result of that continuous contact you experience all of the enormous benefits of connecting to it.

For one, one begins to sense, relate to, and utilize hidden universal forces and powers.

There is also a feeling of deeper connection to the transcendent Divine, that which we normally refer to as God or Brahman.

There also emerges a perception and sense of an inner Oneness and Identity with everything around us, with others and all in the environment. There is also the welling up of a constant feeling of inner joy, and delight of being.

Perhaps most practical there is a sense that your outer life, your consciousness, and actions are being guided from within. Your evolving soul starts becoming your Inner Guide, watching over you, subtlely informing you what to do and what not to do, or what part of your nature is acting falsely or needs improvement.

And finally, the more you are connected to your Inner Being, the more you spontaneously tend to open to the Force before every activity and circumstance of your life. Then that in turn causes vast instantaneous life responses, giving you all its material and psychological results of achievement and success, which gladdens your heart as you experience more delight of being in the discovery of this wonder. Plus the consecration of events to the Force further widens the opening to your evolving soul, enabling you to make an even greater connection to it, which in turn gives you all those benefits in turn, and so on and so forth.

Growth Online: (pause) So do you think we should go out and follow all of these steps as you’ve described?

Well, I would say this for our readers: don’t worry too much about discovering your personal evolving souls at this point. There are exceptions to this of course; e.g. people who are well along the path and are ready to discover and know their True Self right now. But there are only a few in that category. (pause) I don’t know, maybe one can go directly to discovering one’s evolving soul. I suspect that would not be a common situation.

Most people who are reading this article are likely to be at a more fundamental stage of development in their lives. I think they are more likely to be individuals who are ready to change their basic orientation in life by beginning to move their center of awareness away from the surface of life to the depths within.

This will enable a greater centerdness and calm. It’s a movement that will help you move away from your ego, that “I” sense, your sense of separateness from others, which essentially translates into one’s preoccupation and selfishness.

Connecting within will enable you to have a deeper sense of what is unfolding around you at any moment in time. From that inner poise you will be far more in tune with others, with the environment, to the moment-to-moment unfoldings of life. This will enable you to have better ongoing understanding and knowledge, which will enable you to develop keener insights into what is happening around you. As a result, you will make better decision; you will take actions that are based on truth, which means they are far more likely to end in success and achievement. In other words, you will have the inner poise that can enable vast knowledge, accomplishment, and happiness in your daily life.

Going within in essence enables you to begin to really realize the principle of the “practical concept of infinity;” that all of the infinite potentials of life can be made real, can be embodied by you in your life as a practical reality. Infinite abundance and success and joy can really happen. By going to the depths, we begin to move from what we perceived as a finite life to the real experience of an infinite life, as infinite abundance, prosperity, achievement, success, and joy. It just starts happening, and there is nothing more real than when it happens to you!

Growth Online: Well that sounds like a good starting point for our readers. So how would we proceed?

RP: Here’s one idea. Say two or three times a day stop what you are doing, and withdraw your attention from the surface actions, feelings thoughts, and intensities; and experience the serenity and calm within. Withdraw your concentration from the intensity and allure of the surface until you meet the serenity of your calm inner self. You will know when you have reached that point, as the surface becomes barely audible, somewhat “out there,” and the inner stillness becomes your essential reality.

Now after a few moments in this state begin work, and notice the inner poise you are now bringing to things. Be observant of the new perceptions you have, and note those benefits.

Try two or three rounds of this a day. Also, at the end of the day consider the benefits derived, such as having been more calm in your interaction, how you were better able to perceive the unfoldings around you, how you made better decisions, take right actions, and so forth.

Over time make this your fundamental daily reality. Watch as all sorts of good things start happening to you, as you make this fundamental shift in your daily poise in your daily existence. It will be a never ending wonder to behold. And you will become much more successful and happy as a result, making the infinite potential of life a practical reality.

(pause) By the way, we call this method of focusing within “concentration,” or rather an “all-inclusive concentration.” The terminology is not important. Discovering this inner poise to live your daily life from a higher consciousness is all that matters.

Growth Online: I think I want to try it out myself!

(pause) But don’t things like meditation and prayer do the same things, have the same affect?

RP: Although you can move within by other means, such as by prayer or meditation, I think concentration may be an easier thing to do for most people. I think it’s a more appropriate and practical approach to take in the course of one’s busy day. I think it establishes a solid base of inner orientation and calm.

(pause) Then there is the opening to the Force. Once you start to experience that inner poise, you can begin to experiment by opening yourself to the Force at key periods in the day, such as before important events. I really believe that this inner poise enables you to more readily keep up the offering of activities to the Force and Divine Will, and receiving all of its enormous benefit of life response. Otherwise, if you don’t have the inner orientation, you tend to slide back and forget for long periods of time to open to the Force, causing you to miss all of its fantastic life response benefits!

So we can start by beginning to develop the inner orientation.

(pause) On the other hand, it wouldn’t hurt to experiment, even today, and open yourself to the Force a few times before important events, even if you haven’t yet established the inner connection. I did it many years that way and got the results.

But again, over time, as a result of the missing inner orientation, you will lose the focus to keep it the offering to the Force.

I have done periodic consecration and opening to the Force for years. But I had done it erratically, which means I received its amazing results and benefits only on occasion. And I believe that’s the case because I had never really established a solid inner poise that would support constant opening to the Force. If an inner poise is established within, then you almost always remember to consecrate; whereas if you live on the surface, you simply forget as you get caught up in clamor of the activities of the outer life.

Growth Online: So going within must be the foundation for opening to the Force.

RP: Yes.

(pause) I just had this thought, though it’s a little off the track. When you go within you are not just living in the within but you are also are containing the without.

Growth Online: I don’t follow.

RP: What I mean is that well -- we know now that there is an inner life one can live as we’ve just described; that is, we know we can have an inner orientation by going to this within. We also know that there is the outer life outside yourself, which we consumes 99% of human attention. 

Well, when we go within we come to see that the outer life is really contained within our inner life and existence! That from this inner poise we have discussed we gain control of the outer life from within ourselves. That the inner can control the outer, whereas when we are only living on the surface, in the outer, we have no real control of the outer.

So from a poise centered in the inner we can truly control the outer!

(pause) Maybe we can go a step further and say that the inner actually contains the outer! That the whole universe exists within ourselves when we move into the depths! That we can change anything outside us by moving to the depths inside us because in that state the inner actually contains the outer. Quite a notion!

Growth Online: (!!)

 RP: (pause) Did you know that we are also universal being?

Growth Online: We’re universal beings?

RP: The inner containing the outer is an experience and realization that we find to be literally true as we move further along on the spiritual path. We learn that we are not only individual beings, but we are also universal beings. We can not only can discover our own evolving soul, our individual True Self, but we can come in contact with our Universal Self.  

If the discovery of our True Individual Self gives us mastery over life -- enables us to become masters over our own individual lives -- then discovering the True Universal Self enables us to become masters of the universe.

We can not only have higher perceptions of our immediate environment by knowing our own true self, and then use the Force to optimize and bring in the infinite possibilities into our lives, but we can have higher perceptions of all things around us, extending to the collective, to society, to the universe, and then use the Force to bring about positive outcomes for others, for the collective, for society, the world, and the universe.

E.g. we can change the outcomes of events in the world.

If the inner poise can enable the control of the outer to the point of all of the outer including the world and the universe, then maybe we can say that when we are in the higher consciousness within that when we are in the inner consciousness we are containing the outer. Which means that the universe can somehow be contained within ourselves! 

This is parallel to the Divine itself. If God or Brahman or the Absolute, whatever you wish to call the Divine, contains both Its own divine spiritual self as well as the universe it enabled, then maybe we are also destined to contain both our own selves and the environment and collective and universe we live in.

In this way we embody God in ourselves, we become God like.

And that’s because God intended it to be this way in the first way. He wanted the forms that were created, that is, us to be like Him in new dynamic ways. He wanted us to have the power over all of life, which we can begin by becoming Self actualized, and continue when we embrace the universe from within ourselves.

Our ultimate infinite potential is to have the universe at our disposal within so that we can aid in its own evolution. We are then on this earth not only to be realized individual beings, but to become realized universal beings.

Growth Online: This is a most amazing idea!

(long pause) So are we coming up with a kind of formula for connecting to the spirit?

RP: You could say that.

(pause) Concentrate your focus away from the surface of life and move to the depths within. A new inner poise, as well as a calm and peace will gradually get established. Once it is established, consistently consecrate act, events, and situation by opening to the Force, which will enable abundant life response around you, leading to accelerated results, achievement, and success.

This will amaze you, and greatly energize you. It will also have the effect of opening the pathways to the deepest parts, the Inner Being, the True Self, the evolving soul. Then if you are lucky, you will actually move through this wider opening within and really experience the Inner Being, the personal evolving soul on a more continuous basis, which is, in essence, the first great opening and stage for an individual on the road to one’s ultimate evolutionary possibility. 

Growth Online: Only the first stage?!?

RP: Yes, what we can become is far beyond even these lofty, though very practical possibilities! We can arrive at even higher vistas of experience and realization. We can embark on an even greater journey of discovery where we can rise to the peaks of our ultimate evolutionary possibility.

Growth Online: Which is?

RP: Well, the next stage beyond these methods of concentration, consecration and personal soul discovery and all of its astounding benefits, is an even greater status where we can learn to surrender our very being and purpose to the Divine Will and Purpose.

Needless to say this will radically change the orientation of our lives; a change from a me-centric existence to a Divine-centric existence. Our very purpose in life, all of our actions in life would be surrendered to the spiritual reality and its purpose.

This would certainly be a dramatic reorientation of our lives.

Growth Online: (looking a bit overwhelmed)

RP: Hey, it’s not so disorienting as it might sound! In fact, it is beautiful, uplifting, and endlessly miraculous to follow the purpose and will that is emerging from the Divine Spirit over time. I myself would like to know more of this in my own lifetime.

So beyond living in the depths, consecrating events to the Force, and finding one’s evolving soul, surrendering one’s entire life and purpose to the Divine Will and Purpose, and the vast benefits that come from that (which for now we will have to leave for another discussion), is a next milestone on the road to our ultimate evolutionary possibilities.

Growth Online: Is there more?

RP: Yes, further out on this journey of discovery to our infinite possibilities, we begin to experience vast descents of light and intuitions and revelations of knowledge and truths from the highest spiritual planes. Because we are opening to the Force through consecrated acts, because we are centered now in the psychic being, and derive its benefits, and because we have a new orientation of our lives surrendered to the Divine Will and Purpose, the Divine Force and Power now streams down into us direct from the spiritual heights, transforming all of the parts of our nature. The descent of this force enters and transforms our minds, our vital/emotional centers, and even our physical bodies.

For example, consider the effect on our mind and thinking. As a result of the descent of the Force into our being we begin to have knowledge of that which is the object of our mental inquiry without the necessity of hard thinking. The knowledge we are trying to apprehend just appears in our minds as descents of light and intuition of knowledge. This is a descent of the spiritual force through the realms of spiritual mind into mind proper.

Beyond that we have intimations of a truth consciousness, what we call the “supramental” consciousness. In that stage when we need to know something we just know; without any prior knowledge of the object of inquiry.

Also, when we need to know that something, we are able to know the whole thing just from the part we are presented with. As if I could know the Declaration of Independence of the US by just knowing the first paragraph, or the nature of a person from a short conversation, or fully understand the physical makeup of the known universe from one single aspect or part or principle of the makeup of the universe.

In essence, we are able to see each thing in relationship to its source object, to see parts in terms of the whole, and the whole in its myriad of parts.  This is a perception and sensation of the harmony, unity, oneness, and integrality off all things.

In this state we also experience the inherent unity of things that seem to be in conflict, because we know the object that they are both striving for. E.g. if two sides are in conflict we see the utility of their conflict, and the outcome because we know the unity that is trying to emerge foe each individual side, as well as the higher harmony that is trying to emerge for the two sides in their contradictory collaboration..

Everything in life is seen in its inherent and emerging unity. For example, negatives are seen in a positive light. We see that conflicting parties are at a deeper level acting as complementary partners.

Also, our knowledge of a thing and the will to accomplish a thing are unified and fused. That which we have knowledge about we also have the will to obtain. We have simultaneously the right knowledge of a thing and the will to attain it, where as now the knowledge and will are not in sync, in harmony. That is, we don’t necessarily want to do and accomplish that which we know; or we might have the will to do something but not have the right knowledge for it to be carried out properly. In the supramental consciousness the knowledge and the will are simultaneous and one. They are fused. Will and energy are there when knowledge is there, and vice versa. This truly enables infinite, ultimate possibilities of accomplishment, of achievement and success.

These truth consciousness experiences are needless to say a little hard to explain! Yet this possibility is there available to us at the frontiers of consciousness.

Growth Online: Anything else?

RP: Yes, further still we can open to this supreme truth consciousness so that it can descend fully into all planes of our beings; not only into our minds, into the realm of thinking and knowledge, but into our psychological, emotional, and physical makeup, transforming these limited, divided, current human functionings into their corresponding divine functionings.

By a complete surrender and opening to this Force not only is the mind infused with truth consciousness we have just discussed, but our emotions are moved from their current rather base expressions to higher, more refined expressions. At its highest point the emotions are infused with divine emotions, such as intense gratitude, and supreme love for all and for the Divine.  Also, in this process the emotions are filled with the joy and delight of being. Delight is enabled by the emotional energy that is released by experiencing all of the wonders we have outlines so far. 

Even our bodies can begin to change because of the descent of the Spiritual Force.

Growth Online: Our bodies begin to change?

RP: Yes. The very cells of our body can be infused will the light and force of the Spiritual Power descending into us.

For example, we begin to develop inner, subtle capacities of the five senses; as the very cells of our bodies are infused with the light of the Force.  We develop a subtle sight and vision, and subtle hearing. E.g. when we look at a book or at others, we see a special light or aura or something that makes that sentence or person stand out from everything else, indicating perhaps that that thing demands a special attention. This is a subtle sight that can help us in understanding and decision making. 

In fact, all of the five senses can begin to develop these subtle capacities.

There is even the real possibility of a very pronounced physical transformation of the components of the body. For example, there could be a change in the makeup of the muscles, tissues, and organs of the body. We might see the very structure of nerves, of lungs, of digestive systems, and the heart begin to change and evolve into a corresponding higher functioning. Some of these components may even disappear. E.g. centers of procreation and digestion may be eliminated replaced by something else as we are able to replace the crude digestive and elimination system and the way we breathe by a higher synthetic functioning that we are not aware of today.

Any of this and more is very possible as we move toward our higher functioning enabling the Divine Force and Light to descend into our being.

In other words, there is the real possibility of a change from our current human makeup and functioning to something more subtle, perhaps even radically different, in the future.

All is possible when we are infused with the infinitely creative force of the Divine Spirit.

(pause) Eventually this individual can become the ultimate evolutionary personality and being. He become a transformed gnostic individual, filled with the Divine aspects and powers, living life for a Divine Purpose and Unfolding in creation. He acts with a spiritual orientation and purpose, bringing this spirit to bear in all activities in life. He is infinitely creative, dynamic, releasing the infinite potential of life into every moment by bringing the Being, the Spirit into the Becoming of every moment of our existence.

Then if a number of such divine-like humans emerge, there is the possibility of the development of a community of such individuals, living within the greater community of society. Such individuals may come together to help form a new social and collective order and existence, culminating in the possibility of the emergence of a divine life on earth.

We hope to address these more advanced stages of potential human evolution in further discussions on the emerging power of spirit in life. We obviously have a lot of work to do still at the beginning stages! These later stages are obviously for the ultimate pioneers of consciousness, of which there now are very few, if any; perhaps a handful.

Growth Online:  Sounds wonderful, Roy. Thank you for this enlightening discussion.

RP: Thank you. And I hope those in our reading audience can take some initial steps to move to the depths within, and to open to the Force before undertaking an activity in their life. It is the starting point of great discovery, and thus the experience of great delight and joy in living.

 

MAIN POINTS   NATURE & PURPOSE OF SPIRIT ·          In the deepest recesses of your being within you find spirit. ·          Sri Aurobindo, the Indian sage and seer says that spirituality is an awakening to the inner reality of our being, to a spirit, to the true self, to the soul within, in order that we may be able to enter into contact with the greater Spiritual Reality. ·          Connecting to the Spiritual Reality, the Being is accomplished by establishing a connection within yourself to your deepest parts, to your soul parts. By connecting within, finding the spirit there, the Being within you, enables not only the experience of one’s own soul space but readily connects you with the greater ocean of spirit contained in the Divine reality. ·          The Divine created this universe in the first place, to extend his powers in life so that these spiritual attributes and powers can be utilized by all of the inhabitants of the globe; including Peace, Power, Strength, Delight, Love, Beauty, Knowledge, Truth, and others. MOVING FROM OUR LOWER TO OUR HIGHER NATURE ·          We live for the most part in a lower consciousness, for the most part still tethered to a lower animal existence, far from our potential higher nature which could open to and embody these ultimate divine powers. ·          We are blinded and deceived by our lower nature. We are lost in the fog, inertia, inconscience of a lower consciousness. We live for personal power, for food, for pleasure, for desire, for attachment, for our ego, and predominantly for our own self-interest. We are self-centered and very selfish. Unfortunately, we know no other ways, save for the small moral or religious sense we are provided to keep us on the straight and narrow. There is no objectivity, no true thinking, no sense of an inner way; no or little understanding of the purpose of our existence, or the infinite potentials of life. ·          When we discover our higher nature, when we discover our greater self, there is great discovery. Great discovery produces great delight and joy of being. So, as we discover our higher nature, we experience ever increasing delight and joy of being. ·          The common way we evolve is by Nature forcing us to evolve. That’s a productive way in that Nature does accomplish what it set out to do, which is to enable the forms that are in the universe, the individuals and the society to progress and evolve. And yet Nature’s Way is a slow and painful way, with growth and progress coming through contradiction, conflict, division, and duality. Instead, we can progress, grow, and evolve by becoming more conscious. We can replace Nature’s slow method of progress of contradiction and conflict to a rapid method of progress to even greater harmonies through our higher consciousness.   MOVING WITHIN (Concentration) ·          Only when you have begun to break the never-ending link of our consciousness to the surface of life can we move within.  Only when we are able to move the focus of our thoughts away from the constant input of the five senses to rational thought, or even beyond that to silence in the mind, can we break the connection with the surface.  ·          We begin this process of bringing the spiritual Being into the Becomings of our lives by first moving into the depths of our being, away from the surface of life. We move from mind preoccupied with sense data to mind centered in the silence of the depths. Then we can move further within to the deepest depths where we discover the Inner Being, the personal evolving soul. ·          We move into the depths within, develop an inner poise, discover the silence there. Then, if we are lucky, we go further within and find our evolving souls, and bring in this spiritual power into our daily lives, changing ordinary life into infinite life. ·          Living within you are more in harmony and unity with the environment, with others, with the emerging truths in the atmosphere. ·          Connecting within will enable you to have a deeper sense of what is unfolding around you at any moment in time. From that inner poise you will be far more in tune with others, with the environment, to the moment to moment unfoldings of life. This will enable you to have better ongoing understanding and knowledge, which will enable you to develop keener insights into what is happening around you. As a result, you will make better decision; you will take actions that are based on truth, which means they are far more likely to end in success and achievement. In other words, you will have the inner poise that can enable vast knowledge, accomplishment, and happiness in your daily life. ·          Two or three times a day stop what you are doing, and withdraw your attention from the surface actions, feelings thoughts, and intensities; and experience the serenity and calm within. Withdraw your concentration from the intensity and allure of the surface until you meet the serenity of your calm inner self. You will know when you have reached that point, as the surface becomes barely audible, somewhat “out there,” and the inner stillness becomes your essential reality. Now after a few moments in this state begin work, and notice the inner poise you are now bringing to things. Be observant of the new perceptions you have, and note those benefits. THE PERSONAL EVOLVING SOUL (PSYCHIC BEING, TRUE SELF) ·          Each person has a soul, which we can think of as an inlet of the great ocean of the Divine spirit. The soul is in essence a spark of the Divine in each of us. ·          This soul extends itself to something we call the personal evolving soul, otherwise known as the Psychic Being or the True Self. This personal evolving soul has been moving from one body to the next seeking its own progress and evolution, accumulating experiences along the way to enable its growth. When this personal evolving soul enters or develops in you as an extension of soul, it is seeking yet additional progress through your own growth and progress. ·          When we go into the depths within, and discover our personal evolving soul, we have made the decisive movement that will enable a never-ending progress in life so that we can overcome the divisions and dualities in life; not through the slow and painful method of Nature, but through the power of connecting to our inner spirit, our personal evolving soul, our True Self. ·          The psychic being is our True Self, the personal evolving soul, the Inner Being. ·          Just as the unknowable Divine evolved a Spirit state called the Being, our souls evolve a personal evolving soul called the Inner or Psychic Being. ·          Just as the Divine Being came about from the unknowable Divine in order to begin the process of creating the universe, we can connect with the Inner Being to enable ultimate creative capacities for accomplishment and joy in life. The Divine Being is/was the creator of the infinite universe. We can likewise be the creators of an infinite reality for ourselves and the world. ·          Our purpose is to bring the spirit, the spiritual Being into the Becoming of life. We can begin this process by finding our own spirit, our evolving soul within. CONSECRATION ·          By “consecrating” an act or an event before it occurs, by relating it and offering it to the Divine, we open ourselves to Its Force, which descends into the situation and brings about an astonishing positive response from life. ·          By opening yourself to the Force, you are not just enabling instantaneous miraculousness in the situations and circumstances of your life around you; there is also this puncturing of the veil that separates your newly established inner poise and the Psychic Being, the personal evolving soul in the deepest depths within. Elements of this Force penetrate within, between these two realms, enabling a widening of the pathway between two.   PRACTICAL CONCEPT OF INFINITY ·          This principle essentially means that you can accomplish and succeed in life to literally an infinite degree if you make contact with and then open yourself to the spiritual powers of the Divine Reality. ·          Going within in essence enables you to begin to really realize the principle of the “practical concept of infinity;” that all of the infinite potentials of life can be made real, can be embodied by you in your life as a practical reality. Infinite abundance and success and joy can really happen. By going to the depths, we begin to move from what we perceived as a finite life to the real experience of an infinite life, as infinite abundance, prosperity, achievement, success, and joy. THE UNIVERSE CONTAINED WITHIN THAT WE CAN MOVE ·          When we go within we come to see that the outer life is really contained within our inner life and existence. That from this inner poise we gain control of the outer life from within ourselves. That the inner can control the outer, whereas when we are only living on the surface, in the outer, we have no real control of the outer. ·          The inner containing the outer is an experience and realization that we find to be literally true as we move further along on the spiritual path. We learn that we are not only individual beings, but we are also universal beings. We can not only can discover our own evolving soul, our individual True Self, but we can come in contact with our Universal Self. If the discovery of our True Individual Self gives us mastery over life -- enables us to become masters over our own individual lives -- then discovering the True Universal Self enables us to become masters of the universe. We can not only have higher perceptions of our immediate environment by knowing our own true self, and then use the Force to optimize and bring in the infinite possibilities into our lives, but we can have higher perceptions of all things around us, extending to the collective, to society, to the universe, and then use the Force to bring about positive outcomes for others, for the collective, for society, the world, and the universe. FORMULA OF DISCOVERING THE SPIRIT WITHIN ·          Concentrate your focus away from the surface of life and move to the depths within. A new inner poise, as well as a calm and peace will gradually get established. Once it is established, consistently consecrate act, events, and situation by opening to the Force, which will enable abundant life response around you, leading to accelerated results, achievement, and success. This will amaze you, and greatly energize you. It will also have the effect of opening the pathways to the deepest parts, the Inner Being, the True Self, the evolving soul. Then if you are lucky, you will actually move through this wider opening within and really experience the Inner Being, the personal evolving soul on a more continuous basis, which is, in essence, the first great opening and stage for an individual on the road to one’s ultimate evolutionary possibility.  BEYOND TO THE FRONTIERS OF CONSCIOUSNESS ·          Surrender -- The next stage is to surrender our very being and essence to the Divine Will and Purpose. This will radically change the orientation of our lives; a change from a me-centric existence to a Divine-centric existence. Our very purpose in life, all of our actions in life would be surrendered to the spiritual reality and its purpose. ·          Descents of Knowledge -- Further out on this journey of discovery to our infinite possibilities, we begin to experience vast descents of light and intuitions and revelations of knowledge and truths from the highest spiritual planes. Because we are opening to the Force through consecrated acts, because we are centered now in the psychic being, and derive its benefits, and because we have a new orientation of our lives surrendered to the Divine Will and Purpose, the Divine Force and Power now streams down into us direct from the spiritual heights, transforming all of the parts of our nature. The descent of this force enters and transforms our minds, our vital/emotional centers, and even our physical bodies. ·          Truth Consciousness and Knowledge -- Beyond that we have intimations of a truth consciousness, what we call the supramental consciousness. In that stage when we need to know something we just know it from within. ·          Truth Consciousness Action on Planes of Our Being  -- Further still we can open to this supreme truth consciousness so that it can descend fully into all planes of our beings; not only into our minds, into the realm of thinking and knowledge, but into our psychological, emotional, and physical makeup, transforming these limited, divided, current human functionings into their corresponding divine functionings. By a complete surrender and opening to this Force not only is the mind infused with truth consciousness we have just discussed, but our emotions are moved from their lower expressions to a higher, more refined expressions. At its highest point the emotions are infused with divine emotions, such as intense gratitude, and supreme love for all and for the Divine.  Also, in this process the emotions are filled with the joy and delight of being. Delight is enabled by the emotional energy that is released by experiencing all of the wonders we have outlines of far.  Even our bodies begin to change because of the descent of the Spiritual Force. ·          New Evolutionary Being -- Eventually this individual can become the ultimate evolutionary personality and being. He become a transformed gnostic individual, filled with the Divine aspects and powers, living life for a Divine Purpose and Unfolding in creation. He acts with a spiritual orientation and purpose, bringing this spirit to bear in all activities in life. He is infinitely creative, dynamic, releasing the infinite potential of life into every moment by bringing he Being, the Spirit into the Becoming of every moment of our existence. ·          New Collective Divine Life on Earth -- If a number of such divine-like humans emerge, then there is the possibility of the development of a community of such individuals, living within the greater community of society. Such individuals may come together to help form a new social and collective order and existence, culminating in the possibility of the emergence of a divine life on earth.

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Additional Information and Resources

• For more on opening to the Force, click here.

• For more on "Life Response," click here.

• For more on the personal evolving soul, click here.

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