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Human Progress and Evolution

 Knowledge Base

by Roy Posner and MSS


 

 

 

INTRODUCTION
(top)

 

What is Covered in this Article
This article on Human Progress and evolution covers the following subject matter:

  • what human progress is

  • the various levels (from growth to development to evolution to transformation) in which evolution takes place for individual

  • the planes at which human progress can occur (from physical to spiritual)

  • the causes of the evolution of the human

  • what is humanity's purpose in its evolutionary course

  • what out potential is as a human race

  • what our destiny as a species is

  • how we can consciously evolve ourselves, rather than wait for Nature to do so

  • how we can overcome our limitations of our species to hasten our evolution

 

Introductory Article - Also, please see this article which explains the course of human evolution, including the makeup of the individual person, our current status, and our evolutionary possibilities. The items below are therefore a detailed expansion of what is presented in the article.

 

 

 

DEGREES, PLANES, AND CAUSES OF HUMAN EVOLUTION
 (top)

The Scope of Personal Growth

What Life Brings & Personal Growth

Degrees at which Human Progress Takes Place

Planes at which Progress, Evolution, Transformation Takes Place

Mind is Man's Center of Consciousness Now

What Enables Human Progress, Evolution

Ascent and Descent in Human Evolution
 

The Scope of Personal Growth

Unconscious vs. Conscious Growth and Progress

We can progress and grow unconsciously or consciously in life.

Unconscious growth takes place without our understanding of the process or what path we are on, as we are driven here and there by the slow and painful methods of Nature. We progress through pain and strife; held in the grip of time and space, as difficulty or conflict compels us to move beyond our current inner and outer status.

Conscious growth is to consciously follow a process. It is to be aware of what we want to accomplish -- whether an outer improvement in our lives or an inner rise in consciousness, such as the shedding of a wanting attitude --, gaining the support of our emotions, and carrying it out with determined effort to fulfillment.

With conscious growth, we are not affected by the slow and difficult method of Nature, as our willed effort brings the result, inner or outer, in far less time, with far effort, and with far less strife and struggle.

If we can constantly commit to conscious growth in various facets of our life, then it would be a Marvel to behold, as we would continually rise in consciousness and achievement, while attracting the infinite potentials of life to the here and now.

Moreover, life would continually cooperate with our efforts, as we would attract us an endless stream of good fortune.

 

Seeing Beyond the Impossibilities to the Infinite-Like Possibilities

Our beliefs in what is possible are limited to what our senses perceive are the facts of existence; what we have materially experienced in our lives. Any of that is considered what is possible. Anything beyond that is perceived as an Impossibility. This limited view of reality is garnered through what Sri Aurobindo calls the Material Intellect.

But the truth is infinitely beyond what the outer, material facts indicate, and therefore so are our potentials to progress in life. We therefore somehow need to move to a higher level of mentality beyond this external and surface view to perceive that infinite potential.

The solution is to give up faith in Mind's externalized way of viewing things. We must understand any situation, problem, and perceive the solution at a higher level, using powers of Mind beyond the material view. This requires us to minimally accept being rational in our thinking. Being rational is to accept not just one side of a matter or that which we are prejudiced towards, but the many-sided view of things. Practically it can be practiced by continually looking at things from the other person's point of view; i.e. to step into his shoes and see the world as they see it. That will open us up to many perspectives of any matter.

Openness to all sides of a matter, and persistently seeing things from others' perspectives is a first step to see the Possibilities. Another is to open to the spiritual Force continually, -- before undertaking important acts, to cope with problems, to deal with the current conditions, etc. -- which will over time forge a non-egoistic "witness consciousness" within from which you are more likely to open to others and their points of view, and to perceive high attitudes and values in the world. 

From these approaches, your mind will open and expand beyond your own experiences. New vistas will open up. As a result, the old view of Impossibilities will turn into a new one of infinite-like Possibilities. A New World will appear to your inner vision. You will begin to see the Whole Path, or many paths laid out before you. Then the real journey of Self-Discovery can begin.

 

What Life Brings & Personal Growth

Our Outer Life is a Reflection of Our Inner Being

If we want to know what we are, what we truly believe, and what our attitudes are towards others and life, we need merely look around and consider our outer life conditions -- from our work situation to our personal relationships to the state of our health. The outer circumstance are a perfect mirror of our consciousness and psychological status within. If we want to improve the outer conditions, then we must find and reverse the corresponding wanting inner qualities. If we sincerely make that effort, life will respond rapidly and forcefully with great unprecedented benefit.  

 

Conditions of Our Progress

All that comes our way, including great or small difficulties, are precisely the conditions for our further progress.

 

When Man is Forced to Change

Man does not change unless he is shaken to the core out of his inertia, ignorance, and unconsciousness. Or put another way, life intensely forces Man to change, as he is unwilling to do it himself. 

 

The Greatest Pleasure in Life

The greatest, deepest, most lasting pleasure in life is the feeling that one is growing as a person -- i.e. in Consciousness and Spirit.

 

Evolution through Self, Others

Consciously or unconsciously we evolve through our own individual selves, as well as through our positive or negative association with others.

 

Our Long Road was Necessary, the Shortest Path

Sri Aurobindo tells us that when we look back now after long experience every step, which our common sense considers avoidable, was essential and inevitable.

Thus, the longest route we treaded was the shortest cut we could have chosen. (Karmayogi)

 

Degrees at which Human Progress Takes Place
 (growth, development, evolution, transformation)
 

Unconscious vs. Conscious Growth and Progress

We can progress and grow unconsciously or consciously in life.

Unconscious growth takes place without our understanding of the process or what path we are on, as we are driven here and there by the slow and painful methods of Nature. We progress through pain and strife; held in the grip of time and space, as difficulty or conflict compels us to move beyond our current inner and outer status.

Conscious growth is to consciously follow a process. It is to be aware of what we want to accomplish -- whether an outer improvement in our lives or an inner rise in consciousness, such as the shedding of a wanting attitude --, gaining the support of our emotions, and carrying it out with determined effort to fulfillment.

With conscious growth, we are not affected by the slow and difficult method of Nature, as our willed effort brings the result, inner or outer, in far less time, with far effort, and with far less strife and struggle.

If we can constantly commit to conscious growth in various facets of our life, then it would be a Marvel to behold, as we would continually rise in consciousness and achievement, while attracting the infinite potentials of life to the here and now.

Moreover, life would continually cooperate with our efforts, as we would attract us an endless stream of good fortune.

 

Seeing Beyond the Impossibilities to the Infinite-Like Possibilities

Our beliefs in what is possible are limited to what our senses perceive are the facts of existence; what we have materially experienced in our lives. Any of that is considered what is possible. Anything beyond that is perceived as an Impossibility. This limited view of reality is garnered through what Sri Aurobindo calls the Material Intellect.

But the truth is infinitely beyond what the outer, material facts indicate, and therefore so are our potentials to progress in life. We therefore somehow need to move to a higher level of mentality beyond this external and surface view to perceive that infinite potential.

The solution is to give up faith in Mind's externalized way of viewing things. We must understand any situation, problem, and perceive the solution at a higher level, using powers of Mind beyond the material view. This requires us to minimally accept being rational in our thinking. Being rational is to accept not just one side of a matter or that which we are prejudiced towards, but the many-sided view of things. Practically it can be practiced by continually looking at things from the other person's point of view; i.e. to step into his shoes and see the world as they see it. That will open us up to many perspectives of any matter.

Openness to all sides of a matter, and persistently seeing things from others' perspectives is a first step to see the Possibilities. Another is to open to the spiritual Force continually, -- before undertaking important acts, to cope with problems, to deal with the current conditions, etc. -- which will over time forge a non-egoistic "witness consciousness" within from which you are more likely to open to others and their points of view, and to perceive high attitudes and values in the world. 

From these approaches, your mind will open and expand beyond your own experiences. New vistas will open up. As a result, the old view of Impossibilities will turn into a new one of infinite-like Possibilities. A New World will appear to your inner vision. You will begin to see the Whole Path, or many paths laid out before you. Then the real journey of Self-Discovery can begin.

Four Degrees of Progress for Individual, Business, Society
Growth, development, evolution, and transformation are four degrees of progress for the individual, a business or for society. By growth we generally mean more of the same; development is attainment of something at a higher level; evolution is movement to a higher plane; and transformation is the embodiment into a new status.

Growth, Development, Evolution, and Transformation
We can progress in our lives at the level of growth, development, evolution, and transformation.

Growth in refers to the wanting and attainment of more of the same of what we already have. It is movement and progress but a sideways movement. Development is the wanting and attainment of something different, of something greater than what we currently have or currently are. There is a qualitative difference. It is a movement upwards. Evolution is wanting and the attainment of a whole new plane of existence and consciousness in our lives. It is a movement to another plane higher. Transformation is a movement to a status beyond even our human functioning to a permanent and radically new evolutionary functioning. We are transformed into another type of being.

Growth, Development, Evolution, and Transformation
Personal growth and development are movements toward higher levels of consciousness. Evolution is a great movement to a whole other subplane or plane of existence. Transformation is the changeover from our current human functioning to a higher, supra-human functioning rooted in spirit.

Four Levels of Human Progress

An individual is fortunate if he makes even a modicum of psychological progress in his life. E.g., it is rare indeed for a dull, dim-witted individual develops a new level of mental vibrancy, or a weak individual takes to a modestly higher degree of psychological strength. The same holds true for our own limitations and propensities.

To help us measure our true progress, we can develop a scale that ranges from growth to development to evolution to transformation.

Most of us are fully capable of growing, in the sense that we are obtain to obtain more of what we already have. E.g. an individual, who has a house, builds an add-on facility in the back yard; or a sales person who had 20 individual boutiques as accounts, eventually acquires 40. That type of progress is horizontal, as it is more of the same thing. More knowledge, more money, more relations, more of what we already are capable of.

Development on the other hand is of a higher order. It is more of a vertical progress, where we are able to attain some quality of being, capacity, or level of achievement that we did not have before. E.g., the sales person who had 20 boutique accounts has developed a new ability that has enabled him to attract a chain of stores as clients, which is a new type of account. Perhaps he has acquired greater psychological toughness, or developed a new level of interpersonal skills that made this higher order achievement possible.

Most of us have made some progress along these lines, though not very often. Our attainments are mostly of more of what we already had, i.e. horizontal growth, instead of the movement to another plane as in vertical development.

There are also a few who don’t even have the aspiration for minimal progress at the same level. Such an attitude will often lead to regression in life.  

Above development is an even greater form of progress. It is human evolution. When a weak person becomes a strong person, that is evolution. When an uneducated dolt becomes a well-read expert in a field, there is certainly evolution there. It is in essence a movement and progress to an entirely new plane of being.

When a wildly emotional person becomes a psychologically stable and reasonable individual, they move from the lower vital plane to a higher, mental one. It is an evolutionary movement. If that same person goes further and is able to maintain a constant level of calm and peace within, then that individual has even attained a modicum of spiritual evolution.

Finally, the greatest form of progress, even beyond evolution, is human transformation. It normally entails a radical change in our nature. It is not only an evolutionary movement from one plane to a higher plane of being, but the permanent settling there so that the radical change becomes second nature to us. It is virtually unheard of, yet remains a measure of ultimate progress in life. E.g., the once emotional, non-stable person has now progressed to become calm and serene in all aspects of his being, while serving as a beacon of inner peace for others in the world.

Whatever the level of change we seek -- progress, development, evolution, transformation -- the key will be the level of aspiration we bring to bear. If the change we seek is sincere and intense, we will rise up rapidly -- in terms of accomplishment, conscious awareness, and joy in being alive.

 

Human Accomplishment at Various Levels
 Survival -- Living at the survival level one has a conscious or unconscious desire to remain at the current level of achievement in life. There is no attempt to rise above one's current achievement, nor is there an effort to raise one's own personal capacities. There is neither a quantitative expansion at one's current level of life, let alone a qualitative movement to a potential higher level. A real world example of accomplishment at the level of survival is an instructor who has achieved a degree of success that keeps him comfortable, has a defined set of skills, and has no desire, or makes no effort, to acquire more work or perhaps even update his skills to be current to the present needs of his students.

Growth -- Growth, on the other hand, is an expansion of one's current level of achievement. For example improving on a skill, expanding knowledge in a field or another field at the same level, and earning more through greater effort are each expressions of growth. You are accomplishing more, but it is more at the same level. It is a horizontal expansion at the same level of capacity and achievement; i.e. an expansion of one's current level of achievement.  To accomplishment at the level of growth, the instructor would learn the latest versions of the current programs he is teaching, and seek out work with other companies to teach the same things he has been teaching in the past. He would be aspiring for more of the same work.

Development -- Development is an expansion to a higher level of achievement. One may acquire a new or higher level skill, accept and implement a higher personal value, change a negative personal attitude into a positive attitude, acquire a higher order of knowledge, develops a new faith in life, or in general respond from a higher center than one's current level of development and consciousness. These are all expressions of personal development. In all these instances, you are accomplishing at a higher level, not merely more at the same level. Thus, we say that it is a vertical expansion to a new level of capacity and achievement. In our real world example at the level of development our instructor could have an aspiration to teach whole new subjects that are outside of his normal curricula, make contact with new types of clients so he can teach these courses, write a book on the topic of this new area, change a few personal attitudes in his life (such as attitudes towards his superiors), or decide to more fully implement in his work a value that he already cherishes, such as the value that students should come away with real knowledge in his classroom, rather than mere satisfaction of the experience.

Evolution -- Evolution is an elevation of one's being to a whole new higher plane of consciousness and status of being. For example, an emotional individual could shift from the state where his desires and attachments predominate to becoming a person of more refined or higher emotions; or move from being a predominantly emotional person to becoming a more mental and thoughtful person whose life shifts from one of emotional intensity to thoughtfulness. Perhaps the individual rises to acquiring spiritual capacities, such as the ability to experience knowledge as illuminations of light or intuition, or to find his personal evolving soul. In these instances, you are accomplishing from a higher plane of consciousness than you were from before. It is a vertical leap to a new plane of capacity and achievement; an elevation of one's being to a whole new higher plane of consciousness.  In our real world example of accomplishment at the level of evolution, our instructor could change from being a person who competently performs his courses in an orderly and efficient manner to an individual who is passionate about teaching and emotionally involved with his students. He may also develop entirely new theories of instruction based on his new level of consciousness, rather than merely being a teacher of existing ideas. His overall attitudes toward his work has completely changed to the positive. He might move from emotional interaction with students to a true knowledge; even utilizing spiritual methods as a foundation for his work.

Transformation -- At the frontiers of the development of the being is the transformation of the individual to a whole other functioning in life. One can embody a permanent inner change that connects one to the inner, soul being; one can enable a spiritual transformation into the spiritual planes of life above mind; and one can make the ultimate supramental transformation into a whole new type of being, beyond even the human functioning we now witness. As we embody these three transformational frontiers, we open to the infinite potentials of life, where we can thus accomplish infinitely in life.

 

Yoga and Four Levels of Personal Progress
For people in the West, 'Yoga' generally refers to physical movements and exercises that bring one a greater sense of physical and vital well-being. Yoga is far beyond that. It is to consciously develop, evolve, and transform our nature. If the physical movements take us from say a level 1 to a level 2, then dedicating ourselves to a life of conscious progress can take us from 1 to a 5, to a 10, or even to 100.

When a person with substantial skills adds similar ones, or a prosperous individual becomes more prosperous through the same methods, then there is 'growth' - i.e. progress that is more of the same. In this scheme, one rises from a 1 to a 1+ or perhaps a 2. On the other hand, improving several parts of our being is a more formidable change and progress that I call 'development.' E.g., a person giving up a persistent grudge about his difficult station in life, or an individual overcoming a virulent tendency to dominate and oppress others would qualify as development. Another example would be a general practitioning doctor becoming an expert pediatrician, or a lawyer becoming a district attorney or even a judge. In our scheme, that individual would move from a 1 to as far up as a 5 or 10, depending on the nature of the change.*

If growth is more of the same (i.e. horizontal expansion), and development is to make considerable upward progress in one's character, station in life, etc. (i.e. vertical expansion), then evolution is to move to a whole new plane of existence. Evolution can occur consciously through a dedicated commitment to change over the course of one's life -- which is essentially what Yoga is -- or it can occur less decidedly and consciously as a result of conditions that arise in one's life. For example, in the film Educating Rita we see how Rita moves from a rough, street-smart woman to a semi-educated individual in an extraordinarily short period of time. She has essentially evolved a good part of her nature to a new plane of existence -- from a vital-focused individual to a more mental-centric one. Likewise, Eliza Doolittle in Shaw's Pygmalion does the same as she rises from a flower girl who speaks in vulgar tones to a more polished woman who speaks genteelly and with dignity. A degree of evolution has surely occurred in both instances. In Rita and Eliza's case, it occurred semi-consciously, whereas Yoga enables evolution to occur consciously and continuously throughout one's life. Thus, where development is a movement from a 1 to a 5 or even a 10, evolution takes one much further, to perhaps a 20. Conscious or semi-conscious, or even unconsciously enabled, it is a vast leap, ordinarily reserved for a very few in life.

Having identified these levels of progress, one wonders what is it that we actually change in our being when we develop or evolve ourselves. For one, each of us has several major wanting characteristics in our being. Each of these can be overcome through our willful decisions to change. E.g., I can change two of the most untoward parts of my character -- such as a propensity to laziness and pig-headedness -- to the point that I actually become its opposite; in this case, continually hard working and open-minded. Likewise, a disorganized, weak person could become a fully organized individual who continually demonstrates psychological strength in his behavior. In a life of conscious Yoga, one continually attempts to overcome each of our unique limitations of capacity, skill, knowledge, attitude, opinion, belief, etc. To the degree we overcome our limitations, determines whether we are developing or evolving.

Our limitations of character and capacity do not end there however. For even if we were to overcome all of our own unique limitations, there are also wanting qualities that are common to all humanity -- such as our tendency towards anger, hate, fear, desire, jealousy, and many others primal emotions. In addition to these are the limitations of our habitual nature -- including our tendency to go on repeating our old ways avoiding change, continually rejecting the new and the unfamiliar, and an attachment to fixed opinions and beliefs, amongst. Overcoming the limitations of our primal and habitual nature is another goal that can be achieved through a life-long yogic effort.

Beyond development and evolution is the ultimate form of progress -- 'transformation.' Transformation is the changeover from a current human functioning to a higher, supra-human functioning. It is usually enabled by opening to the transformative power of the Spirit. E.g., while a vital/emotional person becoming a rational mental-oriented individual is evolution, transformation would bring about a radical change to the mind itself. Instead of knowing a thing through study, understanding, etc., one could come to know the truth of any subject through descents of intuitions of knowledge. I.e., through a newly formulated spiritualized mind, intuitions of the complete truth of a thing simply descend and appear in our mind without the hard churning of thought. Thus, the mind has been transformed from its usual functioning into its supra-human mental counterpart.

Such radical transformation can take place in the mind, in the psyche, in the emotional/vital centers, in the heart, even in the physical body itself. E.g., one of our other universal limitations concerns our physical body -- including the fact that we experience pain, illness; and that the body withers, decays, and dies. The transformation of the body would overcome this -- as we would live in constant health, and could eventually overcome death itself. That would require the transformation of the physical organs and systems of the body to a new type of functioning, enabling the emergence of a new type of human being. In our scheme of things then, such transformation would be a further exponential change that would take us beyond a 20, up to 100.

At whatever level we make our change -- development, evolution, or transformation -- we can utilize the power of the Spirit to help us along the way. We can offer up to the Divine any aspect of our nature that we wish to change, which will attract its infinite power to aid in the change. From our side we can make every effort to attain the necessary knowledge to understand this process, and make all necessary psychological and behavioral change to overcome the offending parts. It is a life-long endeavor, demanding vigilance, dedication, and sincere effort. It is Yoga in action.

Yogic life culminates when our entire being is surrendered to the Divine Will, Purpose, and Influence. We become in all aspect of our lives -- physical, vital, mental, and spiritual -- instruments of the Higher Functioning. It is the ultimate possibility of human existence, and the culmination of Yoga in life.

*Keep in mind that each number upward is not just an incremental increase, but something akin to an exponential one!

 

Personal Growth vs. Personal Transformation
99% of those on earth can and should grow and develop through the insights and methods of personal growth insights and methods. Permanent transformational change for the individual and all of society is a more dramatic and radical shift to a new functioning above and beyond the current human functioning. It is a "hard-wiring" of our central consciousness and being into something very much different that our current functioning. It is a way of living dramatically different from the way we live now. Perhaps 5% of those who feel they are engaged in personal growth would likely be inclined to take up such a thing; though in the not too distant future those numbers will dramatically rise.

Definition of Evolution
Evolution is the progressive self-manifestation of Nature in man. (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

Definition of Evolution
Evolution is the progressive unfolding of the Being into the Becoming, the spirit into practical life. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Meaning of Transformation
Sri Aurobindo seeks transformation which means our defects are to be changed into their opposite strengths. (MSS)

Biological, Social, and Spiritual Evolution
Take any event, or history or piece of literature and note three levels of evolution that are going on. The evolution of the individual(s), which we can call biological evolution; the evolution of society, which is social evolution; and the evolution of the spirit, of the way the evolutionary Force is manifesting in the situation.

Development and Injustice
Development removes injustice at its roots. (MSS)

TO BE CATEGORIZED

 

Transformation

Transformation

Transformation is nothing but changing the darkness in our being to one of light. It is the Knowledge in the place of ignorance, Truth in the place of falsehood, Ananda in the place of pain and suffering. In other words, all eight aspects of Soul to be regained from the changed opposites that we are involved in right now. (MSS)

Comment: There are 8 or a dozen spiritual aspects. They are Peace, Harmony, Truth, Knowledge, Goodness, Beauty, Delight, Love, Timelessness, and Infinity. Man is a work in progress, moving from the opposite of these toward them. This process of progress attains its ultimate status as Transformation.

E.g. through perpetual self-givingness toward others, I move from my current, limited consciousness to Goodness; even Harmony and Love. The result is a fourth aspect still - Delight of being (Ananda).

All spiritual techniques, including Non-reaction and Consecration (opening to the spiritual Force) will move us from our current status to the embodiment and fulfillment of these (and other) cardinal spiritual qualities.

Transformation means they are fully ingrained in our being, which we spontaneously express, like the way we breathe in an out the air that is in the atmosphere.

 

Transformation that Is Upward, Evolution; Not Downward, Involution

Transformation is not a very rigid tough thing to do. The shift, required in each place, need to be made in our consciousness is called transformation. The shift should be an upward movement. If it goes downwards to emotional or body's habitual impulses, it is in the nature of involution. (MSS)

 

Transformation from Emotion to Mind to Supermind

Transformation of emotion's limitations made mind possible in the human beings. Transformation of mind's limitations will make the super mind possible in the human beings. (MSS)

 

Transformation of Physical Consciousness, Subconscious

Overcoming Limits of Physical Consciousness

The limits of the physical consciousness requires the working of the Divine Force to transform it. Our own will, even spiritual aspiration will be hard pressed to change it. The Force has to penetrate its limitations, including the Subconscious that is behind it; that is the source of rigidity, fixidity, and intransigence. This requires sincere sadhana through yogic commitment. Short of that we can call in Her Force as much as possible to change our habits. Garry asks us to take the smallest habit and try to do it in a different way, which energizes the being and evokes response.

 

Overcoming the Infirmities of Old Age through the Spiritual Force

The physical transformation is the most difficult of all the planes, as it is rooted in the nescience, the fixidity, and unchangability of matter.

Mother worked hard to bring the Force into the mind of the cells to change their programming. She succeeded only in part, though miraculously she overcame nearly every illness that came her way (which were of an astounding variety).

I would think that there are certain illnesses we can overcome beginning with such things as colds and viruses. We can develop an inner power and open to Her Force to keep these at bay, so they don't penetrate the subtle, outer sheath of the physical, as Sri Aurobindo used to say. Not panicking and giving in to the subconscious when illness first rises is a start.

However, when the illnesses are bound more to the functionings of the physical organs and such, the power of the Force needs to be great, and one needs be a pure, divine instrument for there to be an effect.

Still Karmayogi indicates that we should now be able to live as long as Mother did (94) if we are receptive. Overcoming the decay of the body is at an entirely other level, requiring complete surrender to the Force at every point.

We should keep in mind that Mother was also already transformed at the mental and vital level, and was ready to make the physical change, for her body to be supramentalized. We are hardly at that state minimum state of developed consciousness in mind and vital, though we can certainly develop ourselves to move in that direction.

The elderly and the infirm have plenty of time to change their mental and vital nature, paving the way to a certain new level of physical change. It would seem like suffering in old age can be dramatically reduced, and there can be a more comfortable, energetic, and serene life in the waning years through a psychic and supramental Force opening.

Ultimately Mother aspired for the arrival of the New Body, the supramental being who does not suffer, does not have physical ailments, and can live as long as one wishes to. This being has no or far fewer organs in the first place however, and is thus immune from decay, as there is nothing to wither. All organs, such as lungs and digestion are replaced with centers of consciousness.

We can connect the two extremes, and make experiment in our own lives. Total Surrender, Faith, and Positive feeling are the best conditions for taking to this physical adventure in consciousness.

 

 

Planes at which Progress, Evolution, Transformation Takes Place
(Physical, Vital, Mental, and Spiritual Levels)

Progress at Four Planes of Our Being -Physical, Vital, Mental, and Spiritual
 Growth, development, evolution, and transformation can occur at the physical the vital/emotional, the psychological, and the mental levels of our being; even at he spiritual level. E.g. at the physical level from illness to health, at the vital/emotional level we can progress from weakness to strength, at the mental level from limited knowledge to great knowledge, at the spiritual level from self-involved to gratitude and self-givingness.

Evolution of the Individual Among the Planes of Consciousness
The planes that go from matter to vital to mind to spiritual mind to supermind is the vertical scale of consciousness. The movement from the surface of life to the depths of life within culminating in connection to the psychic being, the persona soul is the horizontal scale of consciousness. When we evolve, we move up among the planes in the vertical scale and move deeper within on the horizontal scale. The future evolutionary spiritual being will have reached and embodied the greatest heights of the vertical, and the greatest depths of the horizontal.

Personal Development at Different Planes
Personal development [which is above growth but below human evolution and transformation -editor] can take place on several planes - physical, social, psychological, mental, spiritual.

  • Acquiring a physical skill is physical development.
  • Acquiring a higher, more positive behavior and attitude toward life, work or others is social development for the individual.
  • Vital development releases greater energy and leads to greater expansion and enjoyment.
  • Acquiring a higher level of mental comprehension is mental development. Greater knowledge is mental development.
  • Becoming a more serious, or more organized or more honest person are instances of psychological development.
  • Acquisition of a higher consciousness is spiritual development. (MSS)

Maximum Personal Growth and the Psychic Being
Maximum [personal] growth occurs when development of the parts is in a balanced manner that achieves and maintains a harmony of the personality and when it is integrated around a central organizing principle, the psychic [the personal evolving soul]. (MSS)

Also See Thoughts on the Vertical (Matter to Spirit) and Horizontal Scale (Outer to Inner) of Human Consciousness

 

 

Mind is Man's Center of Consciousness Now

Man has Moved Toward Mental-Based Life
A thousand years ago man was physical. His life was elementary. He survived. Today he has multiplied his comforts, enjoyment, reach, mastery a hundred or even a thousand-fold. The progress in one millennium has been phenomenal. This occurred because man moved from being physical to being mental. Though he has not yet acquired a fully formed mental life, a rational life, certainly he has moved away from the physical to the vital life. Both body and vitality accept the guidance of the mind, at least in material matters. Thus, we can say that man today is mental. (MSS)

 

Development of and Outgrowing the Vital Life of Man
Man started on earth with a physical life. He built his house with his own hands and therefore cherished it with a fine sentiment of attachment. He was attached to his wife, children and parents.

The attachment ennobled him. He was proud. With the passage of time, his emotions developed and presently he lives by his mind. The mental progress will be impeded if he does not wean himself away from his vital physical attachments. The course of life breaks those attachments and helps him progress in the mental plane. (MSS)

How Mind Eventually Came to Lead in Human Evolution
When the Mind thinks, the body acts. The act yields results. This is not how Man has created our civilisation. He worked, and so his body learnt. That alone was the route Man knew in earlier millennia. As years passed, the human mind awoke. It began to think. The thinking of the Mind that was awake inspired the Mind. One man's thinking provoked an opposition from other men. The collective killed the pioneering thinker, offering him hemlock or throwing him behind bars. When everyone saw the sun going around the earth, one man's mind understanding that the sun does not go around the earth but the earth goes around the sun, landed in jail. His mind awoke and saw, but it remained in his mind. (MSS)

 

 

What Enables Human Progress, Evolution

The Triple Compulsion of Evolution

Normally we think of evolution as a material or scientific process. What is perceptible to sense is considered the driving force of progress in the universe. And yet we must consider other realms, forces, and powers of consciousness beyond the material. From an analysis of Sri Aurobindo's' great work 'The Life Divine," at least three movements can be observed in the universal process of creation and evolution. There is a triple compulsion driving forces and forms forward, including we humans, toward progress, evolution, and transformation.

(1) First, there is an involved consciousness within that wants to come out, compelling evolution of that entity. E.g. in the animated form, there is hidden, deeply embedded within, a level of mentality seeking to emerge. Likewise, life force seeks to emerge from matter; and spirit from mentality. In other words, each planes contain the seed of all the planes above it, and there is a compulsion to come out. It is the Divine plan within all forms.

(2) Second, when the consciousness of that thing or being is saturated at its current level, it rises to the next. E.g. a person who has had powerful life experiences begins to develop a level of mental understanding of life. Or when the mental person sees into the true nature of life, saturating his understanding, he is compelled to explore the realms of the spirit. (When mental Greece did not mature this way, her great civilization disappeared in a few centuries.)

(3) Third, there is a constant descent from the higher planes into the object. Thus, when an individual becomes more mental, there is a descent of force and knowledge from the universal planes of Mind. Or when a spiritual individual moves to his inner being and True Self, there is a descent of knowledge through intuition and revelation. Or more broadly, when Man emerged from the animal there was a descent of mental consciousness from the universal plane of Mind.

Thus, the compulsion towards evolution is a product of the involutionary seed, the evolutionary emergence of the form, and the descent from the superconscient planes. These movements are described in great detail in seer and sage Sri Aurobindo's spiritual opus, 'The Life Divine.'

Naturally, this triple compulsion towards progress, evolution, and transformation goes far beyond the material view of scientific, which focuses on genes, mutations, and other changes in form as the essential evolutionary determinants. Science looks to the measurable, the visible, and the material to explain the process of creation. It does not perceive the psychological processes of evolution, nor does it acknowledge that the invisible is what compels the visible. 

Material-oriented science tells us that mutations in genes causes animal and human life to change. But they have it backwards, for it is changes in consciousness that alter the physical. E.g. when we move to a higher level of awareness, our physical bodies are effected, as there is a change in molecules, enzymes; even our genetic and cellular makeup. When we rise in consciousness, higher emotional, mental, and spiritual status emerges, depending on our starting point. Even our physical bodies can be transfigured this way. E.g. those of a higher consciousness have the ability to live years if not decades longer. It can one day become a path of willed immortality. The key there will be to bring to bear the power of the Spiritual Force  to transmute the programming in our cells that have accepted suffering and death over thousands of generations.

 

Keys to Personal Growth
The keys to our personal growth are overcoming -- our limiting attitudes, our harsh judgments and opinions, our wonton emotions and passions, and our fixed, rigid physical aspects, including our habits and reflexive reactions.

Key Points on What Enables our Personal Growth, Evolution, and Transformation
An individual's growth and development is predominantly dependent on his or her -- level of organization, personal attitudes, level of skills, ability to garner knowledge, psychological strength, direction in life, personal values, goodness and givingness, level of energy, and true desire in career. It would also help to know the keys to accomplishment in life, and what a human being is truly made up of and what we are evolving towards.

To further integrate the higher spiritual possibilities in order to evolve or even be transformed as an individual he or she would learn to open to the Force; understand -- the miraculous phenomenon of life response, s, the theory of the creation and evolution of the universe, the spiritual aspects of life, and perceive the ultimate destiny of humanity on earth; learn how to move to the depths within, find one's personal evolving soul, and transform one's self at three levels.

We have a lot of work ahead of us!

Thoughts on What Enables Human Evolution
-Evolution takes place when the current level of existence is so fully organized that it manifests a result as the next highest form of existence.

-The process by which we grow and accomplish in life is a conscious implementation of the method of evolution. First we consciously decide what we want. Then we organize that which we wish to become to its fullness, which enables results to occur, fulfilling our original intent. By following this process we consciously enable evolution to occur.

-Through man's power of thought he is able to consciously will a higher level of functioning, which is brought about when he fully organizes and implements the decision. Since the scope of what he may will is infinite, he has infinite capacity to move evolution along.

-Higher organization of intent enables higher consciousness, which is evolution.

-A significant way of organizing the intent is to enable greater harmony and interrelationship among the constituent parts. Organization, harmony, unity, and oneness is key to progress -- i.e. evolution.

-All of these movements of evolution mirror in the universe the movements of the involution, which is the process by which the universe manifest from a Divine source.

-As we rise in consciousness through evolution, we move towards ultimate consciousness, which is the Omnipresent Divine Reality.

Accelerating Life's Evolutionary Unfolding
Life is a continuing play of evolutionary unfolding. To be aware of this is to participate in that movement mentally; to be emotionally moved by it is to participate it in it vitally; to sense it in the very fiber of one's being is to participate in it physically.

Evolution through Ignorance vs. Knowledge
In ignorance evolution is the discovery of the unknown. In knowledge it is the bringing out of the known. (MSS)

Mental Consciousness Leads Our Evolution
 Humans, through their power of mind, is the first self-conscious being, capable of truly knowing himself. Our ability to know ourselves is accelerating because of the ever increasing utilization of our mental consciousness. Mind can reason and know itself. This self-consciousness leads to being self-aware, aware of one's potential, and having the conceptive power to more one towards one's fulfillment.

Leading by Mind
-In the involutionary descent from spirit to matter, Mind, i.e. the plane of Mind through Knowledge enabled Will and Energy. In our own individual process of growth, i.e. our accomplishment and our ability to create, mind too must lead the vital energies, rather than the reverse (even as it need the vital energies to get the will's sanction, support, and drive). Currently the average man is led by his vital. Being led by mind is his next frontier.

-Now our vital -- i.e. our needs, emotions, and social sense -- lead the willing mind. Thus man is now essentially vital. His further destiny is to become mental-centric, i.e. mind should lead and the vital follow and sanction, whereas now the process is unconsciously the reverse for him.

How We Enable the Evolution
To be conscious of the next stage brings it out in manifestation. (MSS)

 

Ascent and Descent in Human Evolution

Ascent that Enables a Descent
As soon as Man rises to the next level that level partially descends on the previous level.

Ascent and Descent Among the Planes in Human Evolution

  • We know in the ascent man rises from the physical to the Supermind via vital and mental.
  • In the mental range, there are four levels.
  • In the descent, it is the Supramental emerging at each of these levels.
  • Also, as soon as Man rises to the next level that level partially descends on the previous level.
  • For evolution, that descent should saturate the previous level by its energy. (MSS)

 

Ascent and Descent in the Evolutionary Process

Normally when we think about evolution, we imagine a straight line of progress. E.g. in the evolution of the cosmos first we perceive that there was matter, which then evolved animated objects and life forms, and further evolved a mental intelligence culminated in the mind of man. Matter, animated life, and mentality seem to have developed in a linear fashion, with each plane exceeding the previous one.

However, evolution does not merely follow a strict ascending path, but rather allows for reintegration of any progress made back into the lesser planes from which it came. E.g. society evolved from a physical state of life in which people were focused on survival, evolved to vital state in which we were able to have a greater degree fulfillment, human interaction, and association, and evolved further still to a modern mental-based existence based on rational thought, a preponderance of laws, theories, ideals, and knowledge. On closer examination however we see that this highest of mental stages, this rational approach to life, began more 2000 than years ago in ancient Greece, and only in the periods that followed was actually integrated into the day-to-day lives of society.

History reveals that the Romans took the rational thinking ideals of the Greeks, and began to apply it throughout the civilizations it oversaw; using the power of rational and conceptual thought to develop law, rules, and other forms to organize society. After the dormant Dark Ages, the Renaissance appeared where conceptual ideas were applied to art, creativity, beauty, and scientific progress. Rational thought and ideas continued to spring forth through the various social movements that followed, including the Reformation, the Enlightenment, the birth of democracy, and others. Today too we continue this integration into of rational thought and pure thinking into our practical lives that the Greeks introduced to the world so very long ago. In this way, the 2000-year-old ascent to a new level of consciousness and evolution through rational, conceptual, and pure thinking of the Greeks, has taken until today to be integrated throughout all elements of society. Thus, the vast ascent of an evolutionary idea was followed by a vast descent of integration into the details of life.

We see this same movement of ascent and integration (i.e. descent) in our own lives when we consciously set upon to make personal progress. First, we have a vision of what we want to become. This is the idea that we want to realize and bring about. However, the idea gains power to become a living reality only when it is integrated into the details of our lives; i.e. when we develop the strategies and take actions to make that vision come about. E.g. if I develop the idea that I want to increase my income to $100,000 per year, I need to come up with several strategies to make it come about -- such as developing new ways to increase my customer base, and learning new skills to be a more effective salesperson. Then I develop even more specific time-bound actions steps to implement my strategies. When I carry these out the details with a determined and persevering effort, bringing to bear positive attitudes, my vision becomes a living reality. Again, the vision -- which like evolution in society is itself a new progressive movement in my life -- is fulfilled when it is integrated into the details of my life, enabling it to come true. At the point that the integration of the idea is complete, the realization of the goal -- in this case to earn $100,000 per year -- comes about. The ascent that was my vision becomes a living reality through the descent of integration of the details.

Progress is a never-ending possibility. It comes about through vision, energy, capacity, and organization. But the process of progress -- and its two more powerful siblings, evolution and transformation -- take place through a double movement; of ascendance into the new, and a descending movement that brings about its full integration into life.

 

Other

Evolution, Involution, and Darwin
 Darwin understood the physical causes of evolution in animals; even their only partially. He did not understand the subtle causes -- i.e. the psychological and spiritual.

For example, the evolutionary spiritual philosopher Sri Aurobindo says that evolution occurs not only because of a movement to higher consciousness -- e.g. greater thought or insight --, but to the unfolding of a seed of that possibility that is involved in that form. I.e. in a dumb animal is an involved consciousness of mentality, which will only come out through the evolution of that species, which is what happened when higher animals and man evolved from it. This involved seed and capacity is there because the Spirit put it there in its own involutionary descent from the Infinite consciousness, the Divine on its way to creating a universe of forms. All evolution is an unfolding of this intended process.

Thus, evolution is the very essence and will of God, to create ever more conscious beings, reflective of its own Infinite, Divine nature.

Darwin's explanation does not perceive the essential process of creation, therefore his view of evolution is material and mechanistic. Still his was a great breakthrough at its own (limited) level.

On Being Human
 What characterizes being human?
-Non-cannibalistic sympathy that tends to compassion is human.
-Truth, unity, goodness, knowledge, power and Love characterize being human. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Untitled
 The need to think is a transitional phenomenon in human evolution. (Paraphrase of The Mother)

Abridging 30,000 Years of Evolution
Sri Aurobindo believed that we can abridge 30,000 years of human evolution into 300 or even 30 years if we consciously evolve our nature, and aspire for and open to the spiritual Force. In that process we open to the infinite potentials of life; which can enable stunning new developments in technology, in products, in any work, institution, social entity, or field of life. When we bring in the spirit in our lives we literally bring in the same infinite powers that created the universe. By opening to the Force the infinite potential for accomplishment, success, and joy defies our wildest imagination.

Accomplishing Infinitely by Acting on the Universe Contained Inside Ourselves
For 10,000 years we lived our lives based on our perception of physical space and measured time, which the Internet now threatens to abridge to a considerable degree. And yet the deeper inner consciousness of an individual can contain the entire universe within himself at any moment, negating space and time altogether. E.g. he can take actions from those depths, using that Force, enabling life to instantly respond up to an infinite degree from anywhere on earth within seconds. Even the Internet is a scratch of the surface compared to the accomplishment and joy that can emanate from this timeless, spaceless, infinite existence that we can contain from within.

Real Definition of Survival of the Fittest
Survival of the fittest that enables evolution comes from love, commonality, unity, harmony, etc.; not because of selfishness, self protection, self-assertion, and aggressive living of the individual.  (Paraphrase of Sri Aurobindo)

See Growth in Everything
You can take the silliest story, or TV show, or movie, and see wonderful movements of growth, development, and evolution of the characters. Looking at life this way makes everything in it fascinating and energizing! If we can extend this deep mental effort to a wider effort to see the deep purpose in every small thing that is brought to our attention, then life would be a Marvel.

On Being Human
 What characterizes being human?
-Non-cannibalistic sympathy that tends to compassion is human.
-Truth, unity, goodness, knowledge, power and Love characterize being human. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Personal Growth through Social Interaction

  • Normally we think of personal growth as something just that -- an individual process. Here we see that it includes a social process. Through the given realities we come upon, we confront our own limitations.

  • Life itself can be said to be a field intentionally created to further our own advancement.

  • The field of life contains a Force that we are obliged to come in contact with that forces us to change our limited views and capacities.

  • Life wants to progress, and so demands that we do as well.

  • This is an element of the character of the Oneness of life that we are inextricably are a part of.

  • It can be said to be the process by which higher levels of organization is brought to society -- helping perfect it, integrate it, make it truth-filled.

  • The process helps us fulfill our individual purpose, which fulfills the Universal purpose, which in turn fulfills the transcendent purpose.

  • The dance of life that we experience is the expression of the will of the divine.

  • We have free will whether or not to participate.

  • Participation is growth, evolution, and transformation.

  • If we can see our lives from that perspective, we will be more eager to participate in the life-cosmic dance, becoming an instrument of that upward movement.

  • We will also begin to have the Divine view of things. It can be a true glimpse, vision of the nature of Brahman.

 

OUR EVOLUTIONARY PURPOSE, POTENTIAL, DESTINY
 (top)

Our Purpose
 We are here to make ourselves better than who we are.

Fulfilling Our Human Purpose
Humans fulfill the purpose of creation when we find our higher nature; when we perceive spirit in our lives, fulfilling the purpose for which the Divine manifest a universe -- delight of being. 

Ultimate Purpose of Our Existence
The ultimate purpose in life is to discover the delight of being through our higher consciousness; thus fulfilling the purpose for which the Divine manifest a universe of forms; further diffusion and dissemination of the Original Delight into the universe.

Our ultimate mission then can be to rise to our highest level of consciousness, where we not only experience this delight, not only experience the spiritual attributes of love, truth, knowledge, bliss, and power, but where overcome the divisions and dualities of existence, enabling higher harmonies of progress to emerge in the world. In that way we become the instruments of universe's progress and delight of being.

Purpose of Our Lives
The purpose of life, our lives, is to rediscover the power, the Force that created the universe in the first place, and to use that power in our lives to transform ourselves, fulfilling our and the universe's ultimate evolutionary purpose. That purpose is the Delight of existence.

Our Purpose in Life
What is our purpose in life? Our role is to overcome all of the divisions and dualities of creation; to find our whole nature, which enables us to experience the delight of being in the discovery. That is our purpose of our existence, as individuals, and as part of the race of humanity. Our role is to reestablish the perfect harmony, infinite possibility, timelessness, oneness, and bliss and delight that is there in the Creator, in our own being, fulfilling our evolutionary purpose and potential. In that way, we are here to reestablish the attributes of the Divine that created us in our own lives as we move on a path toward our own divine nature.

Our Ultimate Goal in Life
Our goal is to achieve oneness in our being; thereby overcoming our divided nature. In that process we become realized, transformed individuals, experiencing the unending joy and delight of being.

Our Role is to Find Spirit in Life
Our role is to find spirit in life; to find the spiritual Being in ourselves (whose origin is the Divine) in the Becoming, i.e. the activities, actions, circumstances, events, and acts of life. We evolve and evolve life by discovering the Being in the Becoming. In that process we discover the Infinite of the Divine in the finite details of our existence, and the Timelessness of the Divine in the time-bound moments and periods we experience in life.

Purpose of Human Life
The purpose of human life is to become Divine. To have the joy, the delight that we are the Divine. (Paraphrase of The Mother)

Our Divine Power of Creation
The Divine created the universe so that we can create our own universes (i.e. our own reality) in the manner He created His.

Bridging Material Prosperity and Spiritual Realization in the Hour of God
It has been said that the Hour of God is here. On earth it is fulfilled by relating the two ends of Material Prosperity and Spiritual Realization. One person can join these two ends, and through his experience present the Formula of Life for all the world to take up, enabling the rapid fulfillment of this auspicious time for Man. (Paraphrase of MSS)

We are Here for Something More
We are more than survivors, like the amoeba or the insect. We are mental creatures, who need to really understand the world we live in, the life around us. For those who don't care to know about this world in this way, well they can continue to live their amoeba-like, or hive-like existence, untroubled in their secure, protected, and limited worlds. This is not however why we have come this far in our evolution. We came here for something more; for some greater understanding, for some higher degree of self-awareness, for some higher possibility and potentiality than that of our animal ancestors and cousins. We came here to do much better, to go much further, to realize the infinite possibilities and potential of life in our own lives.

Starting Point for Our Evolution
-To evolve we must start form where we are now.
-The starting point for our evolution to our highest nature and ultimate consciousness is from our mentality. Rationality and self-conception start there.

Individual Achieves for Divine Goals, Universal Goals
The individual achieves in the world not just for his own goals, but for the goals of the Divine purpose and the goals and purpose of the universe.

Individual and Universal Consciousness
Our ultimate purpose is to have both the individual and universal consciousness, i.e. to see the world as the Divine sees it. (Paraphrase of The Mother)

New Way of Human Functioning
Eventually the human race will evolve to a new way of functioning, rooted in this truth, Supramental consciousness in all aspects of our being; in our bodies, our emotions, and our minds.

From the Scientific to the Psychological to the Spiritually Perfect Man
At the dawn of a new age of science there is the real possibility that through gene analysis and related techniques we can determine one's tendencies towards illness or even bad behavior. By making necessary adjustments science believes we can in this way create a more perfect man.

But what of the complexity and vast scope of man's inner state, his psychological status, his emotive tendencies, his decisions that lead to his actions and inactions in life? Here too man can control his life; not through science but through higher consciousness. E.g. the individual who is a brute, without values, indiscriminate in his actions can learn to become a more moral man filled with essential human values. Likewise the weak, reluctant, timid individual who still retains his goodness can learn to express that goodness in his strength and through more forceful action in the world. (There are endless permutations of these limitations and their positive reconstitutions.) Such change will have 100 times or more the power and effect on the life of man than the scientific approach. Through this wider and deeper approach man can learn to rise in consciousness to overcome his own unique limiting, wanting propensities in life. In this way we move from the scientist's approach - rooted in its faith in the measurable, verifiable, provable workings of matter - to the vast and complex scope of the real life of the individual.

Further still we can see the inherent limitations that all humans share, and learn to overcome them as well, enabling us to move towards the true Perfect Man. We can learn to recognize the essential limitations of our minds which sees the surface of things and not the deeper meanings, the one shade instead of the myriad of shadings, the error-prone part instead of the many-sided whole of any knowledge and truth. Similarly, we can learn to overcome the mindless passions, emotions, and feelings that drive us this way and that, establishing a truer center of vitality, enabling purer and higher emotions to take their place. Finally, we can learn to overcome our inherent pessimism, inflexibility, and rigidity born of our bodily consciousness, enabling a more dynamic, flexible, optimistic basis of movement and action in life. In such ways we can learn to move our center of being away from the inherent limitations of mind, and emotion, and body to a higher status rooted in a higher consciousness, enabling a truer perfected man to emerge.

Ultimately, we can turn to Spirit itself to help us become more perfect individuals, or rather reach our ultimate possibilities in perfection. Through Spirit we can learn to change our perception of hopelessness and purposefulness and abdication to fate to a spiritual-based faith and belief in a Higher Power and Purpose. We can move from our current reliance and faith in our own capacities in life to a new reliance on the infinite capacities of the Spirit.

Thus we can ultimately learn to change and overcome all wanting aspects of our being; from the physical limitations we are born with that science may recognize, to our limitations of character and capacity, to our inherent physical, vital, and mental limitations, to the ultimate recognition and utilization of Spirit in life, enabling a true, dynamic, creative ever-evolving Perfect Man to emerge in the world.

Untitled
The time of the ego, of a separate personality is over. It is false. Consciousness, action, and individuality is replaced by the Divine. (Paraphrase of The Mother)

INTERVIEW on the Future Evolutionary Individual and Collective Life
In this extensive four-part interview Roy Posner, President of Growth Online, considers what our evolutionary destiny might be; as individuals, and in our collective existence.

The Negative Life that Has Now Become Potential Positive Can Be Invoked through Spirit
Life was NEGATIVE in Shakespeare's time. Therefore, his best works were tragedies. After 1956 when the Supramental Force has descended into the subtle atmosphere of the earth, life has become positive in potential. The positive nature of life is not there on its surface as a Power of Life for us to readily draw upon. One who invokes the Spirit converts the potential into actual power. (MSS, slight modification)

Small Effort, Great Results in The Hour of God
The Mother (of India) has said that this is the hour when man will be vastly rewarded for a tiny effort, as this is the Hour of God. She also said that a small error equally brings a great loss. The atmosphere of the earth is no longer what it was but has become Spiritual. (MSS)

New Supramental Era We Can Pioneer as True Individuals
 It is now the Supramental era that the Grace of the Absolute is everpresent on the universe, searching for right instruments to carry out His will in the world.  By receiving and carrying it out, one becomes  a True individual or pioneer etc. (MSS, paraphrased by Vidya)

Potential of Endless Life through Spirit
Man has prolonged life by his knowledge of physiology and medicine, but has not achieved an endlessness to life. His conquest of pain is great, but it is not complete. Also, he has achieved this mastery over life and pain by the lower forces of Matter - Medicine - not by a superior force.

New Evolutionary Being and Collective Life on Earth
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.

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.

The Coming Super-Revolution in Our Ability to Know
The issue of whether a computer can match the current level of thought of a human being is an intriguing one, yet only touches a fraction of our potential to know and secure knowledge in life.

The real question is not whether a computer can match say 100% what humans are now capable of thinking, but whether through elevation of human consciousness we human beings are capable of knowing and cognizing at 10, 100, or even 1000 times greater the level we do now. This is the real Knowledge Revolution that awaits the world.

It may in fact take 50 to 300 years to reach this capacity, as we move from our productive but narrow focused human logic, which is exclusive, partial, and limited, to higher forms of perception through illumination, intuition, and revelation of knowledge; where we garner the truth of any matter from all sides in a flash. This is an example of a new evolution in human functioning that goes far beyond our current capacity to think and know, let alone the very limited capability of a computer/machine, which merely mimics the current limitations of the mind.

Einstein demonstrated this capacity to instantly know the entirety of a matter for a few seconds when the material formula of life -- E=mc2 -- was revealed to him, changing the world forever. Each of us is capable of opening to that universal Mind power not just for a moment, but ongoing throughout our day, creating 10, 100 or 1000 times greater understanding of any object of inquiry. This is the radical revolution of human perception that awaits us. It is a movement beyond the local domain of limited mental reason to the non-local domain of infinite capacity to perceive every and all sides of a matter or issue in an instant. Though it may strike some as science fiction, this capacity is a living reality, particularly for those who have learned to expand their consciousness beyond the limits of human logic, to spiritualized mind and beyond.

Consider these scenarios:

  • A research project you are working on that you expect will take a month to complete is finished in two days when you suddenly know the answer to that project's most compelling problem in a flash.

  • An email arrives in your inbox with the complete, multi-sided explanation of an issue that you have been grappling with from one partial angle, reducing your workload from 2 weeks to 2 hours.

  • You garner an understanding of a subtle working of life regarding a matter, and as a result, you make the right decision that quickly attracts astonishing results, shortening your effort from months to hours.

These are but a few examples of the future-knowing capacity of humanity; surpassing our current ability by leaps and bounds. It is not merely to use reason to know a thing, but to move into complete identity with its many-sided truth, its totality, and its essence in the blink of an eye. Sounds super-natural? Actually, it is supra-mental, and an indicator of the next stage of human evolution.

To Be Categorized

 

Our Human Potential

Power of One Individual to Affect the Future

"One man can summon the future." (Star Trek)

Comment: Note that each of us can summon the future in our own domain or field. We do that by becoming the true and spiritually-true Individual, which invites intuition, genius, and the catching of an emerging cosmic or social wave.

 

Our Progress

Current Conditions Best for Our Progress

Everything that is occurring to us serves as the very best conditions for our progress.

Also see Thoughts on the Emerging Spirituality in Society

 

Other

Procreation and Immortality
Procreation is an incomplete form of immortality, where part of our physical essence is passed on to our progeny to enable continuance. However, through our insistence on a divine existence, we can secure this immortality in a single body.

A Human Being
The Absolute's first aspect is Being, i.e. Spirit. I am a human, a semi-conscious form inherently of Spirit. This now I don't know; but when I fully do, I will be fully conscious; i.e. I will truly be a human Being.

The Curious, the Committed, the Transformed in New Age
There are three types of people engaged in the life of the new age. Those who are curious, who believe in the Force and the emergence of a new way, though they live their lives in mostly traditional fashion; those who are deeply committed to their own growth and progress; and those who are doing radical transformational change to be harbingers of a new divine life on earth.

Animal Instinct that Becomes Vital Instinct of Spiritual Sensations in Man
The animal is given unerring instincts at birth. Man is born having given it up and evolved into mind. Now his mental development when completed must regain those vital instincts as higher spiritual sensations through his higher consciousness. (MSS)

 

HUMAN CHOICE, OUR CONSCIOUS CHOICE
 (to progress, move in the right direction)
 (top)
 

 

Our Choice as Ultimate Determinant of What We Can Become

What We Choose to Become
It is what we choose to become that has the greatest influence on our lives.

What We Choose to Become as Ultimate Determinant
It is what we choose to become that is the ultimate determinant of what we can become.

Human Choice as Ultimate Determinant
The ultimate determinant of our lives are the choices we make. It is what we choose to become that has the greatest influence. The more conscious we are, the more we will sense our ultimate purposes; including the evolving soul's purpose and our life purpose. If we are in touch with our deeper self within, down to that evolving Psychic/Soul element, and if we are connected to the greater truths of knowledge above through the spiritualized mind of intuition and revelation, we come in touch with the highest possibilities of what we can become. We can then choose to become those things, fulfilling all purposes -- personal, soul, and cosmic. Thus, human choice made through our highest consciousness an awareness become the ultimate determinant of what we are and who we can become.

On Human Choice

At a well defined moment which arises rarely you can see man taking well defined wrong choices almost willfully, but in a superstitious hope that things would turn out all right. It is here the great significance of human choice arises. (Karmayogi)

Human Choice

  • The human is the infinite in the finite appearance.
  • In any given situation, its range of choice is from the finite to the infinite.
  • Though the human is free to choose, it chooses according to the external circumstances.
  • Those external circumstances can be replaced by internal circumstances.
  • It also chooses from different levels (physical to spiritual).
  • All these choices can be in grades. But they still belong to becoming, Nature, outside, finite.
  • The human can choose compelled neither by the external nor internal circumstances but according to its own light independent of both.
  • Spiritually, that is what is called Human Choice. (MSS)

What We Can Become
-There are many determinants in life of who we are and what we can become -- including our environment, our parents, our genetic inheritance, our character, etc. Ultimately, it is what we choose to become that is the greatest determinant.
-The more conscious we are, the more we tend to determine our own lives, instead of being determined by the exigencies of Nature.

-When Nature determines, it occurs through division and duality, conflict and strife mixed with good fortune.

-Self-determination avoids it. Increasing our consciousness, we avoid problems of Nature enabling our full self-determination of who we are and what we can become.

-By discovering the spirit within and above, we enable the greatest level of awareness and hence self-determination power.
-Regardless of the conditions of life, we can become anything we choose to become, especially when we connect and rise to our highest nature.

Conscious Choice to Grow and Evolve
normally we grow and develop unconsciously in a slow process over the course of our lives (if at all, and some devolve), driven by the forces of Nature, of life. We can however dramatically accelerate that growth process through our conscious choice to take ourselves to higher levels in our lives.

Nature's vs. Self-Directed Tapas

The Sanskrit word "Tapas" roughly translates as "spiritual discipline." For a yogi, it might involve lengthy meditation to connect with the Spirit. For an individual dedicated to personal growth, it might entail learning to be calm in the face of an abusive boss. The intention in both cases is an evolution of consciousness through inner discipline.

There is also the tapas that life forces us into. It is Nature compelling us to take to a certain inner or outer tact to overcome a limitation and bring about our individual progress. In Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Bennet, the father of five daughters, is forced by life into the discipline of not reacting to his vulgar, loud-mouthed, churlish wife. That tapas was the means of his personal progress in life.

In that way, each of us are compelled by Nature to move forward in consciousness; whether it means standing up to an abusive partner; or being a more understanding manager, when one is not normally disposed that way; or being forced to do things we are reluctant to do. It is the Tapas of Nature forced on us, secretly working in our own best interest, so we can overcome personal limitations, enabling is to grow in consciousness.

While, it is certainly in our best interest to embrace the Tapas requirements of Nature, it is better to consciously direct the course of our lives through inner and outer self-discipline. Conscious Tapas can be taken up at two identifiable levels. the first are those methods that will enable us to accomplish more in life and find basic fulfillment in life. Examples of such disciplines are developing our level of knowledge and skills, raising our level of personal organization, taking to greater psychological strength, and ridding ourselves of wanting attitudes and beliefs.

There is also spiritual Tapas, which is mainly for those who have taken to a higher calling in life. Examples of spiritual discipline is moving our center of awareness more inward, practicing non-reaction and remaining absolutely still in the face of difficulty, opening to the spiritual Force, deep meditation and prayer, and many others.

When we practice conscious, self-directed Tapas, we not only evolve our consciousness, and lead more successful and happy lives, but we tend to attract good fortune from the environment. In that way, this form of self-discipline is eminently superior to practicing the Tapas demanded of Nature.

Choice Achieves
It is our choice that achieves.

Human Choice and Accomplishment
The ultimate determinant in human accomplishment is our own true desires and wants. It is our choices that ultimately determines the outcome and real accomplishment in life.

Making the Choice that Accomplishes
The determination of accomplishment is determined by choice; it is made possible by the conscious exercise of choice at every minute. The short term gain vs. long term benefit; the occasion to exert vs. the least line of resistance; the courage to embrace the new vs. the cozy comfort of tradition; the readiness to risk vs. the sense of security, etc. etc. (MSS, modified)

Highest Consciousness/Soul Rather than Nature Determining Our Lives
What determines normally is Nature (Prakriti in the East) -- i.e. by the exigencies of life. It is through pleasure and pain, and all of the other dualities of existence. Its method is slow and difficult. By becoming conscious individuals, we -- not Nature -- determine the conditions of our lives. This is the method of Soul (Purusha in the East), which is above conflict, and where life progresses rapidly and without division and duality. We can choose to live our lives determined by the higher consciousness that enables rapid progress, without conflict, which is through Soul.

One's Revolutionary Change Attracts a One in a Million Mate
In the film My Big Fat Greek Wedding we see a woman consciously transform herself from a homely, bored, non ambitious waitress in her family's restaurant to a vibrant individual looking to learn, grow, and develop a new career. It is a remarkable evolution, as great in its own way to Eliza in Pygmalion. Just as striking is the fact that she attracts an almost perfect man of her dreams, who is not only handsome and intelligent, but is even happily willing to put up with her near impossible family. Such a man is a one in a million dream, which she realizes by a once in a million change and evolution of her being.

The Choice to Relate to Our Highest Consciousness
Fate is real. Free will too is real. How do we reconcile these two seemingly opposite views? Philosophically we can say that the determinism of the Infinite is the utter freedom of the Finite. I.e. though the infinite divine enabled this universe, this world, including the hidden spirit in all things that is there just below our field of awareness in all things seen and unseen, we are free in the finite world we live in to discover it. Man always has the choice to either identify himself with the ego, the limitations of time, the finite possibility in the moment, and the dualities of Nature, including pain and suffering; or he can choose to find his inner self, his soul, his oneness with all, the timelessness of the Being, the infinity in the finite moment, and the Reality of the Being; i.e. the indwelling Spirit that arose from the Divine source, and is the source of fate. It is our choice. Now that the spiritual Force is here, and has descended into the earth's atmosphere, it is easier for us to make this choice. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Who We Are Can Change
Who we are is determined by the poise at which we decide (or not decide) to live our lives. We can choose to change that status at any time. 

Your Belief Ultimately Determines
You are what you believe in. You become that which you believe you can become.

Also See Thoughts on Achieving What You Believe You Can Become

Moving from External Compulsion to Inner Aspiration
To convert the external compulsion of the atmosphere into an inner aspiration for the Marvel is the choice before MAN. (MSS)

Human Choice to Avail of Our Higher Consciousness
-Having minds we can make the conscious choice of whether or not we wish to be more conscious. The choice is ours.

-The Divine is the reality of the spiritual nature of the universe, and we are made of it; yet it is our choice whether we wish to avail of the higher consciousness, of our higher nature.

-Though we can say that it is the Divine that is the ultimate determinant that enabled our existence, we have complete free will to act in the details of life.

Mental Man Enables Capacities of Individuality, Self-development, Spirituality
As man develops greater capacities of mind, he gains a greater power of individuality, a freedom to develop his individual law of being, and ability to perceive that he can be more than his body, emotions, and mind, i.e. develop his spiritual capacities.

Connection Between Divine Intent and Our Intent
The ultimate determinant in the cosmos is the Divine Intent. Through our own conscious choices of who we wish to become, we can collaborate with that Divine Intent, making it our intent.

Free Will and the Divine Determinism
We have ultimate freedom of choice, i.e. free will, within the determination of the Absolute.

See Thoughts on the Determinism of the Absolute and Individual Collaboration

Man's Choice of Simultaneous Time
Nature is in Time, Spirit is in Timelessness. Man alone when he chooses to evolve can move to Simultaneous Time. In Time man enjoys the disharmony of divided consciousness. Above, there is the static perfection. In simultaneous Time, there is dynamic perfection. Man has to choose between dynamic disharmony and dynamic perfection. In terms of life, man has the option of moving from vital success to success of the Spirit. (MSS)

The Determinants of Who We Are and What We Can Become

There are several factors that shape who we are, ranging from outermost influences to the innermost.

One popular notion, which has a degree of truth, is that we are shaped by our environment -- i.e. we are the product of the society we are born into. E.g. if we are born poor with little opportunity to rise, our character is shaped along these lines. Thus, with this influence, we may have little desire to rise up since all seems hopeless. This is perhaps the most outer determinant in shaping who we are and what we can become. 

At the next level "in", it is said that we are shaped by our parents. As they raise us, so we are. It is true that the parental influence is substantial, though I suspect it is more than we believe -- especially from the biased parent's perspective.

At a deeper level still, we are a product of our genetic disposition. This is undoubtedly the case, as when we are born, our lives are already shaped by our inherited character, which shows itself through such aspects of our nature as our psychological strength vs. weakness, intelligence vs. stupidity, aspiration and will vs. dullness, capacity vs. lack of it, and so forth. Of course, that genetic inheritance comes from our ancestors, often our grandparents or other relatives, and not necessarily our parents.

Deeper still we can say that we have come into this life for a purpose, and that is shaping who we are. In other words, we have taken a birth to rise to a higher level. We feel compelled to do certain things in life that almost seem destiny-like. That inner will of our being to move in a certain direction is an even greater determinant of who we are and what we can become. Of course, the more conscious we are, the more we will sense and then fulfill that subtle, driving determinant that wishes to fulfill life's purpose.

 

This in turn leads us to an even deeper determinant, our Soul's purpose. The True Self, the Psychic/Soul Being within has given birth in our self so that it can absorb the essence of the growth we make as individuals in life. That would suggest that an element of the Soul too is evolving. It is through our personal growth and successes, it absorbs new aspects that it sought when it entered our body at birth, and thus it evolves. It then withdraws and rests or enters a new individual for further progress. Thus, the Psychic Being is an ultimate inner determinant of what we are and who we can become which is inextricably connected with the subtle, driving life's purpose. (Beyond the inner Psychic/Soul Being as determinant, there is the universal and transcendent spiritual purpose we serve in the cosmic scheme of things; both as an individual and as a member of the human race. I will leave that issue for another time.)

 

And yet, the ultimate determinant of our lives are the choices we make. It is what we choose to become that has the greatest influence. The more conscious we are, the more we will sense our ultimate purposes; including the evolving soul's purpose and our life purpose. If we are in touch with our deeper self within, down to that evolving Psychic/Soul element, and if we are connected to the greater truths of knowledge above through the spiritualized mind of intuition and revelation, we come in touch with the highest possibilities of what we can become. We can then choose to become those things, fulfilling all purposes -- personal, soul, and cosmic. Thus, human choice made through our highest consciousness an awareness become the ultimate determinant of what we are and who we can become.
MSS Articles on Human Choice
 What is a Choice 



Making the Right Choices (at any moment)

Click here to see entries

 


OVERCOMING OUR LIMITATIONS
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Human Traits and Personal Growth

-Each of us are an amalgam of infinite traits. They express positively and negatively. Those who are committed to personal growth consciously or subconsciously accentuate the positive, and recognize and then overcome the negative.

-Personal growth occurs when we overcome our limitations at the physical, vital; and mental levels; elevating them to their highest potential.

 

Scan Yourself & Reverse All Negatives

At any given moment stop and scan yourself to determine what thoughts and feelings are negative, and then do what is necessary to reverse it, either by stilling yourself and making them neutral, or by fully reversing them to the positive. You will feel better, and life will cooperate with you just that much more.

 

Our Inner Reaction to Events is Bulk of Our Real Life

We journey through our day -- including the outer, physical events -- look back on it, and conclude that it is body of our waking time. Yet from a deeper perspective, we see that this event-driven physical life is only fraction of the reality of our day. The bulk consist of our reactions to these circumstance, expressed through our habits, attitudes, and beliefs. In other words, the meaning and determining power of our day is actually 10% the events and circumstance, 90% our response to it. We are normally aware of the former, with little heed paid to the latter. We never question our habits, attitudes, and beliefs relative to any matter. However, we can reverse that by pausing periodically and evaluating our inner, psychological response, and adjusting our point of view and behavior as necessary. It is a sign of a growing individual.

 

Dealing with Our Defects; Not Self-Blaming

Real knowledge does not come from blaming oneself or feeling sorry for oneself. Instead, when we see our defects, we should consciously try to outgrow them.  

 

Overcoming Our Unique Limitation in the World & Its Affect on Others

We each represent a unique limitation, even an impossibility in the world to be solved. To perceive that Limit is to know the aspiration of our Soul, and our Destiny. We can overcome it by changing our nature, and opening to the spiritual Force. If we do, not only will our soul's purpose be fulfilled, not only will we fulfill our destiny, but it will vibrate out and affect others who have similar propensities.

 

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)

3-Pronged Progress
 One must have an unvarying will to acquire what one does not have in one's nature, to know what one does not yet know, to be able to do what one cannot yet do. (The Mother)

Overcoming Our Limitations
For people who wish to grow, minimally we can discover our higher nature by overcoming our limitations; such as our limiting attitudes, opinions, habits, and capacities. We can make this change on our own, through our sincere and persevering effort to change our selves. If we do this, life will respond instantly, abundantly, and miraculously in kind.

Part of Us that Needs to Be Transformed
 In each person there is a part of the personality that needs to be transformed (that the soul seeks to be changed in the life, or if not done in one's life, it waits for the next life). (Paraphrase of The Mother)

'Take Inventory of Yourself' as the First Step to Endless Progress
We are an amalgam of capacities and virtues. Each of us has exemplary, average, and weak parts of our nature and character. Over the course of our lives, we succeed because of our strengths, but are held back because of our weaknesses. We could argue metaphysically that our soul has taken birth in our bodies so that it can advance itself through our growth and development. From the 'negative side,' we progress by turning our negative propensities into positive ones. Those truly on the path of personal growth dedicate their lives to this process.

Though there are dozens if not hundred major and minor endowments, and capacities of our being, we can identify several constellations of traits that will indicate the general state of our strengths and weaknesses in life.  If we identify say one or two of the weaker ones, make the concerted effort to overcome them, not only will we progress, develop, and evolve as individuals, but we will tend to accomplish at far greater levels in life, which will lead to experiences of constant joy and delight in being alive.

Consider the following list, determine which ones are false for you, i.e. where your weaknesses lie, pick out one or two where you can improve yourself, and come up with a plan to overcome them. By doing so, your life will never be the same, as you will quickly move towards the pinnacles of success, become endlessly creative, and feel a constant joy and happiness within. (And your evolving Soul within will become eminently satisfied in what it is drawing from you in its journey thorough multiple births, and space and time.)

  • I am psychologically strong.

  • I am organized in all facets of my being.

  • I have the necessary knowledge and skills to be successful in my work.

  • I am continually self-giving, instead of being selfish.

  •  I really love the work I am doing. I have a passion for it.

  • I have eminently positive attitudes toward everyone, and everything in life.

  • I am willing to give up old repeating habits.

  • I think for myself, and avoid the herd mentality.

  • I am rational, taking in all points of view.

  • I am filled with energy all of the time.

  • I have a deep aspiration to improve myself in life.

  • I work hard, and continually make a persevering effort.

One individual determined that he could be more self-giving, less selfish, and work harder. Another that she was psychologically weak, that she found it difficult to give up old habits, and have an aspiration for something more than what she currently was. When each examined the reasons these were the case, and made the concerted effort to overcome these limiting traits, their lives improved dramatically, even overwhelmingly in short order. Life constantly responded to their efforts with instances of sudden good fortune (i.e. 'life response'). They were able to quickly move to the pinnacles of success, becoming leaders in their fields, and becoming infinitely creative, even genius-like. Their lives were not only then filled with material success, but with constant surges of energy, and a deep contentment and joy within.

It is the power of taking inventory of yourself, and acting on it to attract the infinite potentials of life. 

Bridging the Psychological and Spiritual Gap
In one sense, we look on our lives as a constant 'becoming.' We move from moment to moment, focused on those things coming up, whether it involves dressing for the morning, our next duty at work, an important meeting with a client, a trip across country, a holiday get-together, and so forth. There is a differential in time between the present and the events or activities we perceive coming in the near or distant future. We know it is just a matter of time for that gap to be bridged. It is simply the unfolding of life taking is course.

There is also a differential between what we are now and what we can become in terms of our own inner psychological framework and status. Here, we are not so eager to bridge this gap, as it requires us to change our nature. Actually, we are hardly even aware of the gap in the first place.

Yet, from one point of view, to fill the gap can be said to be the single reason we are here on earth. We each serve a purpose, which requires us to move from what we are to what we need to become. Not merely in terms of more success and achievement, but in terms of a greater consciousness and higher perspective. In addition, there is the perspective from the soul's point of view. It waits on us as well, and hopes we make the necessary effort to fill that gap. When we do, i.e. when we move higher in psychological and spiritual status, our soul -- i.e. our evolving soul -- becomes more satisfied in its appetite to acquire new knowledge in its journey of fulfillment through time. Or, to put it simply, when we grow by overcoming the differential between who we are and what we can become, our evolving soul within is nourished and grows as well. What can be more important in life than the fulfillment of our Truest Nature and Highest Self.

How then do we bridge the gap? We can be practical and note a series of key deficiencies that will help us overcome that psychological and spiritual differential. Very often the single key is a wanting attitude or two -- perhaps toward work, or others, or towards life itself. For example, one person persistently has problems with certain types of people, while maintaining an attitude of slovenliness and disorganization. Another person is egotistical, and does not readily take to be selfless and self-giving behavior. A third is reluctant to take up new opportunities, is persistently late, and is intolerant of new ideas. Each person in this way has a psychological differential between what he is now and what he can become. When that person overcomes the gap, that individual not only progresses rapidly, but so does his evolving soul within, thus serving an ultimate individual purpose.

There is another way to look at the results that come when we overcome the gap between who we are now and what we can become. Life suddenly and abundantly responds with good fortune. At that point where we overcome that wanting attitude, habit, belief, opinion, motive, etc., life immediately moves towards us with better conditions. E.g., when we overcome our distain for several individuals, we are suddenly offered a better paying job; or a six-month back pain suddenly disappears; or a love longed for now shows an interest from their side; a long-term conflict suddenly resolves itself; and so forth. It is a subtle phenomenon of life that occurs just beyond the normal bounds of our awareness. When we make the effort to overcome the gap between who we are and what we should become, life responds with such 'instantaneous miraculousness' -- as the impossible suddenly becomes possible, overcoming traditional views of what is possible, and how space and time function. By bridging the gap, the infinite potentials of life replace the current finite that we are experiencing; and a potential future we could have attained over time moves into the present.

The first step then is to recognize that this differential exists. The second step is to list out the deficiencies between what we are what we can become. The third step is to make the attempt to overcome at least one or two of them. The fourth step is to be sincere in our efforts. The fifth step will be to experience the sudden good fortune that comes our way as a result of making this concerted psychological effort.

In addition to crossing the psychological chasm, we can also bridge the gap between our human selves and our spiritual selves. This is not for everyone, but for those who feel they are inwardly called to do so. One individual feels deeply that he must change from the ordinary propensity towards selfishness, and become selfless and more self-giving. That is a spiritual change. Another person feels compelled to create a deep sense of calm and stillness within so that he can far better meet the exigencies of life in the future. That can mature into the spiritual poise of 'equality' -- where one is immune from the negative and positive intensities of life, which is a spiritual change as well. A third person wishes to move his center of consciousness inward from which he can look out on the world as 'witness,' and thereby be more in tune with the environment. It is the spiritual experience of Oneness with the world and life.

Each individual can formulate his own custom 'spiritual portfolio', and aspire to bridge the gap between his current human functioning and that spiritual functioning. When he makes the effort to do so, not only will he be set firmly on the road to a radically different spirit-oriented existence, but life will respond with good fortune all around him, presenting the world as a Marvel, that he takes deep delight in. For example, one person aspired to bring the spiritual Force into his life. He then opened himself to that Power before engaging in activities, and found that nearly every time life would respond with sudden good fortune. In that way, he has begun to bridge not only the psychological between his current and his future nature, but the spiritual gap as well.

Shedding Lower Consciousness, Attaining Higher Consciousness
To reach the higher consciousness permanently, one must consider the defective part of our nature as a problem and try to get rid of it. Constant awareness of our low consciousness generating constant aspiration for the Divine leads to higher consciousness permanently. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Conscious Evolution Instead of through Difficulties
Watch any film, or read any piece of literature, and you will see one thing. The positive developments are dependent on a developmental or evolutionary leap of one of the characters. In essence the piece of art is really about one or more individual's change for the better, a leap in biological evolution. In some cases there is also social evolution. In tragedy there is assertion at the present level, a stagnation, or a change for the worse, for the individual or the society.

Why go through a lifetime, waiting for the conflict or knot, when one can be conscious now, avoiding all difficulties, and evolving a whole lifetime in a few years or even months!

All life is progressing life, overcoming the current knot and contradiction. That is what we call Nature. Why wait for Her, when we can speed Her up by being conscious?

Statesmanship Compared to Objectivity about One's Self
Analogous to being a statesman, i.e. one who cares for the well-being of society, for the greater good above party prejudices, is to want to improve those aspects of one's self that need improvement, overcoming our own sensitivities, habits, prejudices, wanting attitudes, opinions, et al for the greater good of our evolving self.

Overcoming Our Essential Divided 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.

Overcoming the Limiting Nature of Man
Man is a divided being, experiencing pleasure and pain, falsehood and truth, ignorance and knowledge, reflecting his fundamental inconscience that is there as a result of the divisions and dualities of the cosmos, created as such by a Divine Source, a Being to enable the greatest multiplicity of forms, to enable the greatest delight in the discovery of our true nature. We overcome this through our self-consciousness, and personal development.

Moving from out 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.  

Change to Overcome Bounds of Karma
No Karma need bind him if he is willing to give up those habits through which Karma has a hold on man. (MSS)

Beyond Our Current Sensibilities
The bounds of your current sensitivities are the portals, the entrance ways to your further growth and development.

Our Past that is an Obstacle to be Surmounted
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)

Difficulties Compel Change
Difficulties compel change. (Paraphrase of The Mother)

On Difficulty
Liberation is equality in the face of difficulty. Knowledge is to know the cause of such effects. Power is to purge difficulty in the first place from within.

Growth Through Consciousness or Tragedy
There is something inside us that wants to evolve further. We can thus move to his higher level by being conscious and taking the necessary actions for change, or we can evolve through our difficulties and tragedies. Even that can have the sanction of the inner being, the True Self, the personal evolving soul.

Thoughts on the Variety of Negative Ways Humans Express Themselves

 

To Be Categorized

 

 

Overcoming Our Limitations, Changing Our Nature

Consciously Evoking Luck by Changing Our Limiting Nature

The terminology "Luck," "Life Response," et al comes predominantly from my spiritual teacher Sri Karmayogi of South India, who developed it from his intense study and interpretation of life and the teachings of Sri Aurobindo. I have developed it further in my own way.

As for looking for and finding good luck, it always comes from within. Change something limiting inside, and the outside instantly moves in your favor, i.e. brings good fortune, which is Luck. This is a new perspective in the world that many are starting to grasp.

Or we can say that we currently move the outer from within unconsciously, and we are trying to make it a conscious process. If we do, any and all problems can be solved in an instant, just as the Cold War miraculously ended through one man's initiative, backed by the spiritual Force.

 

Overcoming Our Unique Obstacles in Life

Each of us is given a specific set of obstacles to overcome in life. Often they directly correspond to very specific limitations in our being, such as a wanting attitude or belief. When we identify and overcome it, life lifts us up. We thereby fulfill our life's purpose, both at the individual and collective level. Also, our evolving soul which has incarnated in our being is further nourished, as it continues its journeys through time.

 

MISCELLANEOUS
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Constant One in a Million Results
When one changes, once-in-a-million type responses from life become commonplace. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Supramental Transformation of Body
The supramental transformation of the physical body will come at the latter stages of the overall supramental transformation. The Mother attempted the supramental transformation of her body. Sri Aurobindo said he would return in a supramental body.

100 Ways to Raise One's Consciousness

From Inner Status, One Knows What to Avoid
Our true inner freedom can be measured by the number of pointless, ephemeral, unnecessary, and unworthy things we can walk away from. This inner status gives us a great power of distinction and discrimination.
(Paraphrase and extension of The Daily Guru)

Become Prosperous to Evolve
There are many ways to transform ourselves from our current way of living to something far greater. It is the work of a lifetime for a few, enabling a future human capacity to appear in the present. One relatively easy method is to double or triple one's income, and in that process observe the inner workings of life that enable the greatest efficiencies that bring the infinite into the finite, the future into the present, and the spirit, the being into the Becoming of events in life. In that way one becomes prosperous to help one evolve, and evolves in order to prosper.

Untitled
Impulse is a movement away from mind, and therefore a turn from organization of consciousness. If one is centered within and thereby still, the rational mind can function, enabling organization of our moment-to-moment lives, thereby eliminating irrationality, including impulse.

Become Prosperous to Evolve
There are many ways to transform ourselves from our current way of living to something far greater. It is the work of a lifetime for a few, enabling a future human capacity to appear in the present. One relatively easy method is to double or triple one's income, and in that process observe the inner workings of life that enable the greatest efficiencies that bring the infinite into the finite, the future into the present, and the spirit, the being into the Becoming of events in life. In that way one becomes prosperous to help one evolve, and evolves in order to prosper.

Keys to Success on an Initiative
 Success of an initiative is dependent on one's own real idea, i.e. direction, passion in the purpose behind it, the decision to implement it, and an unending aspiration for its success that never wanes. Along the way the details of its organization, and the attitudes, energy, skills bring it to final manifestation as great achievement.

On Progress
Progress is for the one who goes back to all events of his life and consciously transforms them all. (MSS)

Enabling Unfailing Change
 You can adhere to one or more of the insights presented here and experience a change. But for many if not the overwhelming majority the experience will be absorbed by life very quickly, which indicates that what is ultimately unfailing and necessary is a change in the fundamental way we live our lives. There are insights for these as well.

Fresh Life
Life is fresh only when you are learning, experiencing, and embodying new things.

Untitled
 Allowing Nature to seek her way is physical. Conscious development of the way is mental, and beyond to the spirit.

Learn Truth from Any Moment, Any thing
 If you sincerely want to live according to the Truth, you must know that you can learn from everything and that you have the possibility of making progress at every moment. A great stupidity can often reveal a great light to you, if you know how to see it. (The Mother)

 

 

To Be Categorized

 

 

Spiritual Evolution of Society

Buying, Investing in "Useful, Cosmic Goods"

These acute human limitations like money greed and obsession are at one level sanctioned by the Divine to allow for the multiplicity of possibility from which Higher Values can emerge. Consumer society is the same at the Social level.

The key is for us to make the transition from the lower to the higher.

E.g. as individuals we can each target a specific lower attitude or value that we embody that we want to evolve into higher ones.

At the collective level a consumer society absorbed in buying and possessing can become a Higher Consumer Society that buys into Mother's infinite ways and values.

One application of this is to use our money to do something great; whether to expand the money for the Divine's sake; or use it to create businesses, organizations, etc. in which Her Values can flow throughout the society. As old-time selfish consumers we will now have the instincts to make use of our money to buy or invest in "Useful, Cosmic Goods."

 

Measuring Social Development in terms of Spiritual Aspects

Spiritual Aspects to Measure Value of Developments in Society for the Individual

Value in the society as it effects the individual human can be measured against the spiritual aspects - Peace, Harmony, Truth/Knowledge, Goodness, Beauty, Love, Delight, Timelessness, Infinity, etc.  E.g. the computer has given timelessness (overcoming time) and a degree of truth/knowledge. Education, Internet, etc. bring out their own unique combination of these. Each new development in economics, law, medicine, insurance, finance, business, etc, can be measure against this scale. Things that truly bring these aspects out have great human value.

At another level we can measure it against human (personal and social) values for the same purpose. (Also, how these expressions of values role up into their corresponding spiritual aspects.)

This would be one way to measure non-monetarized developments in society that bring great benefit for the individual.

 

Divine Life on Earth; Our Collaboration with-

The Guarantee of the Supramental/Divine Life and Our Collaboration

Sri Aurobindo indicates that the Supramental, Divine life on earth is absolutely guaranteed. If so, then the key is the degree to which we collaborate in that process; i.e. our level of receptivity to its unfolding. Constant opening to the Spiritual Force will enable us to be a receptacle for the Supreme consciousness and its Intent and Will on earth.

 

Supramental Life

Speeding Up the Evolution to a Supramental Existence

Q: How can we speed up the Evolution to the Supramental Existence?

A: I would think that in practical terms this comes down to our level of Aspiration for this New Life; our Sincerity to see it through, for this divine life to be achieved; the intensity we bring to our efforts to Change our Nature, following Karmayogi's Methods to the nth degree, and opening and surrendering to Mother. In that way, we can see real signs of supramental change in our own lifetime.

 

How Long Will It take for the Supramental Being to Arrive?

The Mother said the change into the Supramental Being would take 30,000 years to occur, but she also said it could happen in 3000 if men practiced His yoga and surrendered to the Force in full. She even said it could happen in 300, or even 30 if the concentrated effort was great enough amongst a group of individuals.

She Herself was close to finding the key to the new supramental being in an exceedingly short period as a result of directing the Force onto her cells. They were beginning to cooperate and give up the notion of death, encouraged to become immortal. She had a number of startling experiences along this line, including once where she appeared to become the supramental being intact in her vision; with no organs, svelte, tall, with an ennobled, illumined head.

Ultimately, in that birth, she was confronted by the reality of how to change this gross substance of the body -- organs, etc. -- to the new substance, and thereby form this new supra-human being.

She also indicated that Sri Aurobindo could suddenly arrive in this new form, in a new birth perhaps in Her lifetime or soon after. But then how can other humans have this capacity?

Still She in this life, and now Both together from the subtle planes have paved the way for others to experiment; and for life to bring forward something new along these lines.

 

 

Human Choice and Spirit

On Choice vs. Fate in Our Lives

[a dialogue between a reader and myself:]

Q: As I look at my life, it appears to have more to do with fate than choices I made. A: We can say that we have free will within the determination of the Divine Intent. Thus, there here is both simultaneously choice and destiny/fate. The more we are conscious, the more free will and destiny coincide, as we tend to choose what our higher nature (and thus the Divine) intends.

If we look back on our lives, we will see that we made choices that propelled us forward; that brought about our progress. Those choices, conscious, semi-conscious, or subconscious were in essence in sync with the Divine Will. The more we evolve ourselves, the more our choices consciously work in tandem with the Divine Intent. We can also make choices that are neutral or in opposition to the aspiration of the Divine. Even these lead to our evolution, but through Nature's slow and difficult ways of contradiction, pain, and suffering.  (2009-2011 Q1)

 

 

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