Negative Expressions

There are endless ways we can express ourselves negatively. In this regard, there are several things to keep in mind:

(1) Negative expression tends to attracts corresponding negative conditions, sooner or later.

(2) If we identify a negative expression and withhold it, positive conditions will quickly present themselves.

(3) If we make the effort to change an ongoing fundamental negative quality in our being, life will respond with resounding good fortune. Often it will occur instantaneously.

Controlling Negative Expressions from the Yogic and Human Perspective

For the yogi (who practices conscious evolution) the control of negative expressions such as anger of fear goes from the outer surface to the inner, psychological, i.e. attitude, peace, calm, and then penetrates to the subconscious, which avoids even the sudden, gush of negative emotion that can rise from the unconscious. Most humans are lucky if the outer surface is consciously controlled. So the question is at what level we want to control the wanting qualities? There is a range from the surface to the deepest depths. It is our choice.

Permanently Reversing a Negative

Every negative outcome that crosses your path has a corresponding wanting quality within you. Reverse that inner behavior, and the outer negative will quickly dissipate, or even change to a powerful positive. Reverse it fully, through sincere commitment for change, and by offering it to the spiritual Force, and it will never occur again.

Our Willingness to Change

Anyone who finds in himself the force of will that will now regret emotionally his earlier follies or sins has before him the whole world waiting for his conquest. This is the shortest cut He [Sri Aurobindo] offers us. (Karmayogi)

Decrease in Energies Due to Negative Emotions

Negative thoughts and emotions drain your energy; not necessarily at that moment, in fact, it can increase it in the very short term; but thereafter the net effect is a definitive decrease. It is important to note that a sudden deficit of energy will tend to attract sudden negative circumstance.

Catching and Halting Our Obsessions

Catch and check the negative repeating loop of mental and emotional obsessions your experience every hour of every day. We each have a number of unique ones! Taking that tact will calm the nerves, avoid draining our energies, which will prevent us from attracting any unnecessary negative outcomes. 

The Negativity in Our Essential Nature
-What is our essential nature? We are divided beings who need to find their wholeness. And we need to discover the methods that will enable us move us toward that wholeness.

-Why is our nature divided? All sentient beings are born of the division and duality of creation. The Absolute, the Omnipresent Reality, in order to extend its Spiritual essence and delight into ultimate quantities and diversities of forms, enabled a universe of divided forms and beings. In order to extend spirit and delight, the Absolute, i.e. God manifested a universe of forms into which that spirit and delight could flow in ever new and dynamic ways. In order to create the greatest quantity and variety of these forms, they were created flawed and incomplete.

How does our divided nature express practically in our being? We need to overcome that which is divided and dual in our own nature. We need to overcome our limiting habits, attitudes, opinions, judgments, behaviors, and false actions. We need to overcome our physical, vital, and mental deficiencies, including our dead habits, our fixidity, our unchanging nature in the physical; our blind passions, desires, negative emotions, ego and separateness in the vital/emotional center; and our vast ignorance, our partial understandings, limited perceptions, and false observations and conclusions of the mind.

Achieving by Raising Our Strength Overcoming Our Negative Qualities
It is commonly said we do not know our weakness. That is a great truth. I have been insisting that we do not know our strength. Should a man know his strength and be willing to build on it, we see he rises like a meteor. Now greater heights call him. It is then one needs to know the other side of his character. A man who develops his strength rises to the maximum his own circumstances permit.

When he looks at his weaknesses and removes them, the present circumstances change and new favourable circumstances arise.

The second half, to remove one's weakness, is harder but more rewarding, especially as it sets no limits. It actually removes ALL limits or barriers to one's growth.

One suggestion to mitigate its bitterness is to observe someone close to us - a brother, a friend, a partner - as we know him inside out. Also, he is one whose defects we are acutely aware of. Once we know it in all the details, we can safely assume that ALL those traits are in us. A spiritual rule says the outer fully reflects the inner. Those who are with us are with us because they have exactly the same qualities that we do. If your partner is one who has a mannerism, and you are sure you have no such mannerism at all, please scratch the surface and you will find that mannerism would have become a mental habit that inhibits your larger mental potentials.

I these ways an individual's rise has no limits.

Knowing yourself is Self-awareness in individual life. Should you try to raise this awareness to realisation, you will be at the top of your society. (MSS, extracted and reorganized)

Overcoming Negatives of the Past

To overcome the negatives of the past one has committed, identify them CLEARLY and then intensely offer them to the Divine, the divine Mother with the inner aspiration that they should never occur again. Your being will be transmuted at that level, depending on your sincerity, receptivity, etc.

If you are unconscious of what they are to begin with, it would be helpful to develop an inner aspiration to become familiar with them. Signs may soon appear giving clues of what they are. As you come to understand them, you can then follow the process above.

It is by the way relatively easy to find out one's wanting inner or outer action of the past by asking those corresponding friends, family, and associates who have been its victims.

Any aspiration to overcome past wrongs or identify them in the first place will evoke life response of some form. It is very helpful to offer it to the Divine, the spiritual Force, the Mother; even ask for Her protection in the process. There will bring great reward, which can even be life changing to the positive.

The Dark, Opposition to Victory Inside You that Represents the Potential of Light, the Victory

You represent a possibility of victory; and you always have in you the opposite of this victory, which is your constant torment. When you see a very black shadow somewhere in you, something truly painful, you can be sure that you also have the corresponding possibility of light. And she added: You have a special goal, a special mission, your own particular realization, and you carry within yourself all the obstacles needed to make this realization perfect. Always you will find that shadow and light go together in you: you have a capacity, you have also the negation of that capacity. And if you discover a very dense and deep-rooted shadow in you, you can be certain there is also a great light somewhere. It is up to you to use the one in order to realize the other. (The Mother)

Negative Influences on Accomplishment
Every accomplishment in life is vulnerable to interference or destruction by negative influences. The higher the accomplishment is with respect to previous levels of achievement, the greater the vulnerability. The character of a negative influence can be seen from the nature of events that occur when its approaches or leaves the atmosphere. 

Here's an example. A man is at a certain level of income. He comes to the possibility of a big work which can lead to a big change in his life. However, his neighbors suddenly become hostile and bullish, which leads to a confrontation, at which he is injured by the neighbor, setting back his ascent to the greater level he aspired for.

Beyond Emotional Pain

Emotional pain is mostly due to the fact that our Ego has been pierced or due to the intensity of our emotional attachments. At one level, emotional pain does not exist at all, but it is simply how we respond due to our limited state of consciousness. In our highest state, there is no pain, instead recognition of the truth and natural order of things. The deeper we live within ourselves, down to the soul or up to the spirit, the less ego there is, the more we are in harmony with life, with others, and therefore  less the emotional pain. There is a life of continuous joy in the face of all things. It takes a long-term inner effort to reach this state, but we can do it progressively.

The Nature of Ego

Ego is the expression of separateness from the world around us. It is a vital movement in which we put our own concerns above those of others. Ego is in fact an outgrowth of the very fact that we are separate, individual physical beings divided materially from what is outside us. That separation is broadened through our mentality which tends to focus us on those things that support own interests and concerns above those of others. Ego is thus a plunge into unconsciousness of separation that has lost the inherent Oneness and Unity of being.

Ego and Negative Response

As soon as one's ego is engaged, negative circumstance arise.

Disharmony, Disorder, and Illness

As soon as you lose that sense of harmony by straining for something or otherwise feeling unbalanced, you invite disorder and/or illness into your being.

Forgetting Problem Attracts Its Negation, Solution

When you are upset by something because it is not working out, one powerful strategy is to completely forget about the issue. Life will quickly neutralize or reverse one's fortunes in that matter to the degree that the attachment is severed.

Impact of Two Negatives Interacting

Two negative interacting accelerate negative outcomes, which ironically is the fastest way for life to evolve, as we tend to learn rapidly and seriously from such intense, difficult experiences.

Evil Doers Will Do a Good Turn

Those who indulge in evil tendencies will be forced by life to do at least one good turn to someone, sometimes to their victims. (Karmayogi)

Small Negative Behaviors Attract Negative Response
Even relatively benign behaviors like sarcasm, skepticism, teasing, not to mention irritation and impatience, can draw out ill fortune, or avoid positive outcomes. To see how subtle it is will be an inner effort of precisions that we can readily see and document from our own experiences. We can see the same in the positive direction. If one can become sensitive to the expressions of others down to this level of subtlety, one can anticipate if not predict future outcomes, which is one path to experience the Marvel.

Negative Life Response
Life response is sudden good or ill fortune brought about my a commensurate inner or outer human behavior. negative response occurs because of a negative expression and behavior of the individual.

Small Attitude Cancels Great Opportunity
Many can recall such instances where a small attitude cancelled a great opportunity. (MSS)

Behind Failure to Accomplish

Behind failures lies one invariable reason -- trying to accomplish in the outer field and enjoy what one is not inwardly prepared for. (MSS) 

Variables that Enable Accomplishment vs Failure
Human action, individual character, social character and the character of life combining and interacting generate a set of results. When those results are what the characters themselves would view as positive, we can refer them as examples of accomplishment. When they are negative, we term them failures. (MSS, slightly modified)

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Individuals as well as society achieve only when the strength is Organised to contain the mischief of the negative. (MSS)

Accomplishment as Not Ignorance
An accomplishment [we have made] tells us we are NOT insisting on our Ignorance. (MSS)

Nature vs. Spirit's Way to Overcome Problems, Knots of the Past
Unless one consciously digs them up and holds them up to the descending Light, the problems and knots of the past have to undo themselves by the negative impact of life events. This is Nature's way. The first, the spiritually conscious approach, is preferable, in terms of greater speed, joy, and great results, undoing the burdens of the past ways. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Negative Expressions that Attract Negative Response from Life

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Everyone has a past which is Not an irrevocable bar, but an obstacle to be surmounted. Giving up the past not only is protection in the present but brings further openings. (MSS)

Atmosphere to Accomplish
An individual's ability to accomplish is affected by the social environment and atmosphere -- which includes the capacities, energies, character, and circumstance of the social environment and social institutions he is involved in. When that environment, atmosphere is positive one is more likely to accomplish; when negative, it is less likely

Reversing One's Folly through Spirit
Life tells a man that it is difficult if not impossible to reverse the current plight he finds himself in because of his earlier folly. In Spirit, acts of earlier folly can be reversed through recognition of past error, and a deeply felt emotion of that recognition. The Spirit tells him, ''If you genuinely regret in your emotions the folly of an earlier act, or reverse your past attitudes that led to that folly now in your understanding and feelings, the results of your folly -- such as huge debt, lack of work, failed marriage, etc --  will fully, quickly, and irreversibly dissolve, liberating you forever."  Spirit corrects physical FACTS by the reversal of TRUE feelings deeply realized. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Nature vs. Spirit's Way to Overcome Problems, Knots of the Past
Unless one consciously digs them up and holds them up to the descending Light, the problems and knots of the past have to undo themselves by the negative impact of life events. This is Nature's way. The first, the spiritually conscious approach, is preferable, in terms of greater speed, joy, and great results, undoing the burdens of the past ways. (Paraphrase of MSS)

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Everyone has a past which is Not an irrevocable bar, but an obstacle to be surmounted. Giving up the past not only is protection in the present but brings further openings. (MSS)

On Scarcity
Scarcity is the desire NOT to see the abundance around. (MSS)

Secrecy and Non-Accomplishment
Accomplishment through secrecy is like the illiterate's ambition to be a writer. (MSS

Rising Beyond Ambition
It is clear that accomplishment is highly desirable. It is equally clear that ambition is undesirable. The doubt that is a festering sore in us arises because one goes with the other. When we discourage ambition in us, we lose enthusiasm and our achievements are dwarfed.

Is there a way of doing the right thing and avoiding the wrong motive? Taking complete interest in the subject and losing oneself in it will wean us away from ambitious motives.

It will work for some time. After some time, ambition will rear its head. At such a juncture KNOWLEDGE helps immensely. One must think about this situation. Such a person will realise that 1. Ambition is ruinous, 2. Achievement is eminently possible without ambition. The knowledge that aspiration for a high goal that is not ambitious fulfils itself, is a great spur to progress. Thus ambition is overcome.

Another method often advocated is to compete with oneself - to strive to be better than before. This way one concentrates NOT on the material gain but on the QUALITY of performance.

To consecrate the goal to the Spirit is a spiritual method. Then our ego is replaced by the Spirit. Ambition in the lexicon of Spirit transforms itself into aspiration. (MSS, slightly reorganized)

On Humility
-Humility is the inner knowledge that MAN is a trifle before the world, Nature or God.
-As we invoke the Spirit, so we can acquire humility.
-Humility must be acquired as inner character for it to be of value in Spirit. It is not enough it is exhibited as outer behaviour. The moment one becomes truly humble inside, life with its abundance rushes towards him. (MSS) 

Definition (of the Opposites) of Generosity & Meanness
Meanness is an attitude of asking another to do what we cannot. We can construct a definition of generosity based on it. To give another man, without his asking, what he cannot accomplish by his best efforts can be defined as generosity. Even that generosity when it is tinged with ego is impermissible or at least will be a lever for him to hurt you. The opposite of generosity is meanness. (MSS, somewhat modified)

Your Choice of Temperament, Attitudes to Exercise that Enables Success or Failure
-Those who prosper will look at the world from their highest responsibilities. Those who refuse to prosper will always attribute their failure to external circumstances.
-The capacity to complain against everyone and everything keeps the other where he was forty years ago.
-Choose the RIGHT, the GOOD, the PLEASANT, the VALUABLE and that is the ladder for progress.
-If you complain, whine, bark, are lazy, compete or ascribe your failure to others, you constantly slide down.
-Evil, meanness, deceit, violence, cruelty, tyranny, falsehood, MONEY VALUE, mercenary attitude, short temper, greed, demand, desire, craving, suspicious nature, doubt, sloth, etc. have never paid social dividends.
-In the end, these are aspects of your temperament that you choose to exercise.
(MSS, modified)

Good Will Towards those With Ill Will Can Ruin One
A servant girl was good at heart. Hers was pure goodness. Her mother and brothers turned against her, teased her, punished her, tyrannised her, and wanted to ruin her. The atmosphere of Grace where she worked effectively protected her against the ordeal of tyranny. Grace gave her a great marriage and wealth. Now the family woos her. One of her well-wishers advised her to help her family rise as a gesture of good will, little realising that ill will served by Good will would ruin her completely. Not only that, the family would enjoy trampling her under their feet when she fell. Family affection in the presence of active ill will is a sure self-poisoning. It is a dangerous experiment. Society lauds it. Spiritual experience warns against it. (MSS)

The Positive Value of the Negative Person
As long as you avoid a bad person, your inner knowledge keeps the inner ignorance at arm's length. Avoidance is austerity; acceptance is prosperity. Ignorance does not transform into knowledge as long as we avoid it or avoid the person in our life who represents that ignorance. He is there for us to make a progress. When we make that progress, mysteriously he vanishes. He tells us by his jealousy that there is jealousy in us. We are not aware of it, or we are unwilling to concede it. That is the positive value of a negative person. The moment we recognise it and exhibit a willingness to give up the bad trait, that man disappears. (MSS)

An example: Yes, a friend of mine had that precise experience.

She had an abusive boss, who for several years made life intolerable for her (and several others). She made the brave effort to look at it from the point of view of her own attitudes. She decided not be mad at him. In that sense, she was giving up her own limited sensitivities. Sometime later, he not only was nice to her, but after Christmas that year had left the company.

Misc.

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When one forces an initiative, it will backfire. E.g. Mrs. Bennett in Pride and Prejudice tried to meddle in a situation and it only leads to her failure.

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A person can be effective when he tries something in his own plane. But if you try something at a higher plane it won't work. E.g. Mrs. Bennett in Pride and Prejudice tries to influence Mr. Bingley who is in a higher sphere, and her plans do not work.

Ultimately what accomplishes is authority whatever the context is.

Problems Solved by Releasing Emotion
If you have a difficult problem, release the negative emotion inside you, and turn it into thought or even non-thought. Life will respond positively in kind by reversing the difficulty.

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Sexual experiences are often followed by losses of money, small accidents, and other negative experiences. The intensity depletes the energy in the being. When energy is reduced, negative life response can occur.

Negative vs. Ferment Atmospheres
How to distinguish between a negative atmosphere, and one of great ferment and turmoil, when initiating a significant undertaking? Perhaps in the former the negative atmosphere disturbs, whereas in the later we can identify with the emerging positive.

Overcoming Ego Movements
Watch yourself when you are making the effort to a higher consciousness at a meeting or social gathering; your ego will bull through the proceedings and try to assert. It is a poison that tries to mingle with one's inner life, tingeing your relationship with the outer crowd. It's influence can begin to be overcome by a movement within away from surface living, and be permanently overcome by a concerted effort to find one's personal evolving soul within.

Secrecy & Accomplishment
Secrecy is an essential capacity for accomplishment, yet uncalled for secrecy cancels work. (MSS)

Vedanta's Five Reasons for Human Suffering
There are five reasons why human beings suffer, according to Vedanta. These are the five kleshas on which Buddhism drew for the Four Noble Truths. First, they do not know who they are. Second, they grasp, hold on, cling to that which is impermanent, transient, intangible, ephemeral, dreamlike, which has no real existence. Third, they are afraid of, run from that which is transient, intangible, insubstantial, dreamlike, ephemeral, which has no real existence. Fourth, they identify with the false self, a moment-by-moment fabrication, which is a figment of the imagination, they sacrifice their souls, their spirits for a false identity. Fifth, they are afraid of death, of the unknown. And then Vedanta says, all those five reasons are contained in the first. (Deepak Chopra, somewhat modified)

Overcoming Our Negativities to Make Rapid Progress and Attract Sudden Good Fortune
-Out of creation comes divided ignorant forms. Man shares that propensity of matter. It has led to all of his wanting psychological conditions. There are a number that stand out. Each can be overcome when one perceives the problem, and then makes the concerted effort to change it.
-As man evolves in consciousness, his negative propensities are overcome.
-Each individual has his unique set of wanting qualities. If he overcomes several of them, he evolves rapidly in life.
-Life progresses through the conflict and dualities of Nature. It is with the contradiction of the realities of life and the wanting qualities we embody. Through difficulty we slowly overcome several wanting qualities. If we do it consciously we can make rapid progress in no time, and life will constantly be bringing us good fortune.

Achieving by Raising Our Strength Overcoming Our Negative Qualities
It is commonly said we do not know our weakness. That is a great truth. I have been insisting that we do not know our strength. Should a man know his strength and be willing to build on it, we see he rises like a meteor. Now greater heights call him. It is then one needs to know the other side of his character. A man who develops his strength rises to the maximum his own circumstances permit.

When he looks at his weaknesses and removes them, the present circumstances change and new favourable circumstances arise.

The second half, to remove one's weakness, is harder but more rewarding, especially as it sets no limits. It actually removes ALL limits or barriers to one's growth.

One suggestion to mitigate its bitterness is to observe someone close to us - a brother, a friend, a partner - as we know him inside out. Also, he is one whose defects we are acutely aware of. Once we know it in all the details, we can safely assume that ALL those traits are in us. A spiritual rule says the outer fully reflects the inner. Those who are with us are with us because they have exactly the same qualities that we do. If your partner is one who has a mannerism, and you are sure you have no such mannerism at all, please scratch the surface and you will find that mannerism would have become a mental habit that inhibits your larger mental potentials.

I these ways an individual's rise has no limits.

Knowing yourself is Self-awareness in individual life. Should you try to raise this awareness to realisation, you will be at the top of your society. (MSS, extracted and reorganized)

Man's Self-Deception Has Negative Consequences; It is Not Star-Crossed
Man successfully deceives others. He is a cheat. People are cautious about him. What about one who deceives his own self? People believe him and at times of crisis, his true colours come out. Actions, especially the results of action are the touchstone. He who deceives himself destroys himself fully. Sitting for long hours at the reading table or the writing desk does not mean he is reading or working. If a student is under the illusion of consummate self-deception that he is sincerely reading by sitting at his desk for long hours, the exams and his scores will reveal the truth. At these moments such people say, "I am star-crossed." He is NOT star-crossed. He is not responsible even to himself. This is a pitiable case. There are others in an office who are universally known to be polite, diligent, dutiful, and hard working. They have a finer discrimination. They know their own interest different from the duty to the office. (MSS)

When Capable Men Fail & How to Overcome
-When capable men fail in life, it is due to neglect or dissipation.

-Capable men in life or business choosing a negative alternative meet with failure.

-How can a capable man fail in life? If he is negligent or indulges in self-destructive ways, he alone can help himself by turning over a new leaf. (MSS, extracted)

Change the Corresponding Inner Negative to Instantly Change the Outer to the Positive
Life on the outside is a reflection of our inner condition. A negative circumstance on the outside can be reversed by discovering the corresponding wanting element within. As soon as we change it, life responds instantaneously, bringing us good fortune.

Negative Characteristics at Various Planes of Our Being
Our negative characteristics show up from physical to vital to mental planes. E.g. at physical plane we can be unhealthy, stubborn, and unwilling to change. At the vital level we can be jealous, angry, fearful, lust-filled, etc. At the mental level we can be confused, uneducated, and misinformed.

Examples of Negative Attitudes, Habits, Beliefs

An individual -

• is unwilling to take up a work offered to him

• is unwilling to take up exercise for her health when she needs to do so

• is careless about being on time

• has a negative attitude about his work

• has negative feelings to a type of person

• feels that others don't like

• is pig-headed in his opinions

• always tends to blame others, doesn't take responsibility

• is uncaring of their oppressive or bullying ways towards others

• doesn't follow through on what he promises

• is not organized enough to keep his word and intent

• is insensitive to the forcefulness of her words

• doesn't like her boss

• doesn't take responsibility for his children

• harbors a long term hatred

• is careless with money

• is unconscious of the harm he has created for others

• is careless with the objects he borrows

• is unwilling to take up the good advice others offer him

• is untruthful and deceitful

• is callous of the difficulty he creates for others

• is just spoiling to ruin the work for the team

• is rebellious and does not like to work with others

• is unwilling to make the necessary effort

• is unwilling to consider opposing points of views, new ideas

• is unwilling to do a work in a new way

Any attempt to overcome these, rectify them will attract rapid abundant positive response from life.

Offering Wanting Attitudes to the Spirit to evoke Positive Response
We feel that our opinions and attitudes are always right. First of all we have to stop saying this. As long as we feel we are right we are fully identified with our ego. There are no right or wrong attitudes, there are only attitudes that help or hinder our growth. Positive attitudes help our lives expand. Negative attitudes make it contract. We can pray that the negative attitude should change. The attitudes we have created are one of the ways by which the Infinite has become finite. Our job now is to reverse the direction and make the finite Infinite. The way we do that is to reverse our attitudes of which we have thousands. There is a method that can work for all of us. Wherever we feel a strong reaction, without trying to justify it in any way, let us say "I offer this attitude to You, Mother. Let me give it up. Let me make a progress."Call Mother at that point to reverse it, to dissolve that attitude. There is infinite prosperity behind each of our opinions, attitudes and habits. Each time we come forward to give one of them up, we release an enormous energy that translates in our lives as the disappearance of a problem or the sudden appearance of a great opportunity. Surrendering these aspects of our ego is the surest way to invite infinite prosperity into our lives. (Ragini)

Man's Self-Deception Has Negative Consequences; It is Not Star-Crossed
Man successfully deceives others. He is a cheat. People are cautious about him. What about one who deceives his own self? People believe him and at times of crisis, his true colours come out. Actions, especially the results of action are the touchstone. He who deceives himself destroys himself fully. Sitting for long hours at the reading table or the writing desk does not mean he is reading or working. If a student is under the illusion of consummate self-deception that he is sincerely reading by sitting at his desk for long hours, the exams and his scores will reveal the truth. At these moments such people say, "I am star-crossed." He is NOT star-crossed. He is not responsible even to himself. This is a pitiable case. There are others in an office who are universally known to be polite, diligent, dutiful, and hard working. They have a finer discrimination. They know their own interest different from the duty to the office. (MSS)

Achieving by Raising Our Strength Overcoming Our Negative Qualities
It is commonly said we do not know our weakness. That is a great truth. I have been insisting that we do not know our strength. Should a man know his strength and be willing to build on it, we see he rises like a meteor. Now greater heights call him. It is then one needs to know the other side of his character. A man who develops his strength rises to the maximum his own circumstances permit.

When he looks at his weaknesses and removes them, the present circumstances change and new favourable circumstances arise.

The second half, to remove one's weakness, is harder but more rewarding, especially as it sets no limits. It actually removes ALL limits or barriers to one's growth.

One suggestion to mitigate its bitterness is to observe someone close to us - a brother, a friend, a partner - as we know him inside out. Also, he is one whose defects we are acutely aware of. Once we know it in all the details, we can safely assume that ALL those traits are in us. A spiritual rule says the outer fully reflects the inner. Those who are with us are with us because they have exactly the same qualities that we do. If your partner is one who has a mannerism, and you are sure you have no such mannerism at all, please scratch the surface and you will find that mannerism would have become a mental habit that inhibits your larger mental potentials.

I these ways an individual's rise has no limits.

Knowing yourself is Self-awareness in individual life. Should you try to raise this awareness to realisation, you will be at the top of your society. (MSS, extracted and reorganized)

One Small Perversity Overcome by Great Men
One who is given to such reading cannot miss this element - the element of conscious endeavour to detach oneself from a small perverse joy - in the lives of great men.
 
Great men are great by birth. The greatness in them is born when the choice is there to deny the impulse of perversity which is hostility to the Divine. (MSS)

Proud of Our Shortcomings
"No," he said proudly, "I never did have much use for these computers." In a thousand different ways we smugly proclaim our ignorance; proud of our shortcoming. And so we stay where we are, in our comfort zone, indulging in our taste of Ignorance.

Thoughts on the Ways We Overcome Our Limitations in Life

TO BE CATEGORIZED

Negative Expressions - General

From Negative Emotions of the Part to the Integral Nature and Whole of Joy

It is easier to complain, to be frustrated, to be depressed than to be happy. All these are partial emotions which we can manage. Joy being a total sensation is more difficult to express. (Sri Karmayogi)

Comment: Yes, it is so very true. Each of these is a spontaneous expression of our unmastered, limited being. It is carried over from our animal nature. Joy requires a control from the mind, or a connection deep into the heart, or opening to the Spirit. It stems from an integral, inner spiritual accomplishment ("sadhana" in the East) that is very different from the spontaneous expressions from our lower emotions. Steady and deep Joy ("ananda" in Sanskrit) is a great achievement of Being over Non-Being. Karmayogi indicates the quickest way to such steady Joy and Bliss is constant self-offering of the details of our lives to the Divine Force (consecration), and unbridled Self-Givingness.

 

Controlling the Negative

Overcoming the Negative

Catching the Micro Negatives and Precision of Consciousness

It is getting to the point where I am catching even the tiniest negative feeling, emotion, thought, action, and halting it in its tracks. It's a micro precision that is a reflection of a certain progressive development in my overall consciousness.

 

Controlling the Vital

Controlling Our Vital Actions by Developing an Inner Life

Q: If we are relating with others and we sense the other person is known to create disharmony etc, can we control our vital through the so called INNER POWER before bursting out with words?

A: The question in essence is how we can most effectively control our vital reactions.

I believe it requires the development of an Inner Life, which is ordinarily attained through lengthy Sadhana. A shortcut is constant Consecration (opening to the spiritual Force, the Divine Mother), which forges an opening to the Depths. Eventually that becomes more fully formed, and as a result one tends not to react to things in life. In other words, constant consecration that matures into Surrender enables us to realize our True Self, and Evolving Soul, which creates instant peace and harmony in all life situations, including our relations with others. The entire process is normally a progressive one that gradually builds in strength and durability over time.

This has the further effect of causing the Mind to expand into its spiritual heights, as deep insight, as illumination and intuition of knowledge, culminating in Truth Consciousness, which Sri Aurobindo also calls Supramental Perception, where one perceives the utility of everything, the unity and oneness of all beyond duality. As a result, one does not view anything in the negative, but embraces it in as a part of the natural unfolding of things; in fact it is recognized as playing a vital role in it. Thus, from the supramental heights, one is bothered by no-one, as each thing, each person, is seen as serving a purpose in the unfolding of the All, of Brahman, the Absolute.

There is also a short answer to the issue of avoiding vital reaction. It is to practice Non-reaction. If in those moments one can also consecrate the awareness of the outer negative, the reactive tendency will arise less in yourself, and arise less on the outside. The long answer I gave above is the Transformative approach to changing the Vital.