Well Of Perception

 

 

 

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Aurobindo on human relationships in Yoga 007 It is certainly easier to have friendship between man and man or between woman and woman than between man and woman, because there the sexual intrusion is normally absent. In a friendship between man and woman the sexual turn can at any moment come in a subtle or in a direct way and produce per-turbations. But there is no impossibility of friendship between man and woman pure of this element; such friendships can exist and have always existed. All that is needed is that the lower vital should not look in at the back door or be permitted to enter. There is often a harmony between a masculine and a feminine nature, an attraction or an affinity which rests on something other than any open or covert lower vital (sexual) basis - it de-pends sometimes predominantly on the mental or the psychic or on the higher vital, sometimes on a mixture of these for its sub-stance. In such a case friendship is natural and there is little chance of other elements coming in to pull it downwards or break it. It is also a mistake to think that the vital alone has warmth and the psychic is something frigid without any flame in it. A clear limpid goodwill is a very good and desirable thing. But that is not what is meant by psychic love. Love is love and not merely goodwill. Psychic love can have a warmth and a flame as intense and more intense than the vital, only it is a pure fire, not dependent on the satisfaction of ego-desire or on the eating up of the fuel it embraces. It is a white flame, not a red one; but white heat is not inferior to the red variety in its ardour. It is true that the psychic love does not usually get its full play in human rela-tions and human nature; it finds the fullness of its fire and ecstasy more easily when it is lifted towards the Divine. In the human relationships the psychic love gets mixed up with other elements which seek at once to use it and overshadow it. It gets an outlet for its own full intensities only at rare moments. Otherwise it comes in only as an element, but even so it contributes all the higher things in a love fundamentally vital - all the finer sweet-ness, tenderness, fidelity, self-giving, self-sacrifice, reachings of soul to soul, idealising sublimations that lift up human love beyond itself, come from the psychic. If it could dominate and govern and transmute the other elements, mental, vital, physical, of human love, then love could be on the earth some reflection or preparation of the real thing, an integral union of the soul and its instruments in a dual life. But even some imperfect appear-ance of that is rare.The normal thing is in yoga for the entire flame of the nature to turn towards the Divine and the rest must wait for the true basis: to build higher things on the sand and mire of the ordinary consciousness is not safe. That does not necessarily exclude friendships or comradeships, but these must be subordinate altogether to the central fire. If anyone makes meanwhile the relation with the Divine his one absorbing aim, that is quite natural and gives the full force to the sadhana. Psychic love finds itself wholly when it is the radiation of the diviner consciousness for which we are seeking; till then it is difficult for it to put out its undimmed integral self and figure. P.S Mind, vital, physical are properly instruments for the soul and spirit; when they work for themselves then they produce ignorant and imperfect things - if they can be made into conscious instruments of the psychic and the spirit, then they get their own diviner fulfilment; that is the idea contained in what we call transformation in this yoga.
Paul Solomon Source Reading #575 True success and achievement is to bring happiness & reflection of the divine to all those that you touch. Do not be influenced by that which men count as valuable or successful or as achievement.That person is successful who causes happiness, who causes pleasure and a reflection of the divine in the lives of those he touches. If there is never the accomplishment by an individual such as the expression of building of a talent or the accumulation of money or a recognisable accomplishment of any kind in a life, yet that soul provides happiness and fosters growth spiritually in those about, bringing pleasure into the life of others and ease in communications , then that one has succeeded at the level of the soul. There are those on your plane who will make a great mark in history and become known.There are those who will develop talents and abilities recognisable to others on your plane, and yet not a shred of evidence of that accomplishment will be found on these records of karma and soul growth. For it is not that men recognise as accomplishment that is recorded here or set down as achievement of a soul. But the human being who causes the son or daughter, the husband, the wife, the neighbour to have a little more light, a little more pleasure, love, energy, happiness with which to accomplish his day to day living is the the human being who has lifted himself & the race a little closer to God

The 'Wheel Of Truth' Simon Bigwood Questions are spokes and hubs the answers, the spokes too long , the hubs too small. The 'Wheel of Truth' is not so easy, one nasty bump and it will fall. Let's limit the questions and spread the answers until our wheel is strong and true.Then we can mount the chariot of wisedom without the fear of falling through.

Do we want to wake up?Do you want to dream and make money or do you want to wake up ? Ask for example these few simple questions about the world:<1> What is wood made of ?The Answer is Carbon.<2>What is Carbon made of?The Answer is Atoms.<3>What are Atoms made of.The answer is we do not really know. So after a few simple questions the reassuring, knowable,measurable world disappears into the unknown, the immeasurable,the infinite.For some people the infinite and unknown are disturbing and these people devote their lives to measurable goals.One of these measurable goals is money and possessions. The more material things we have the more we can measure and be measured and what is infinite and threatening can be disguised by a material facade.So do we want to dream and make money or do we want to wake up?

Two dreams, one reality I see two dreams; a fearful one of thought in isolation from feeling, and an angry one of feeling in isolation from thought.On the one hand, desire is isolated thought and lust is isolated feeling, while, on the other hand, firstly respect is the necessary precondition where excess feeling can be harmoniously integrated with thought, and, secondarily, love is the necessary precondition where excess thought can be harmoniously integrated with feeling. I also see one reality beyond these two dreams, which can be reached by the path of harmoniously integrated feeling and thought. Where people wish to awake from their dreams, love and respect are waxing, while desire and lust are waning. The unenlightened souls follow the endless paths of anger and fear, lust and desire, births and deaths. But those who apply truth to themselves and not to others aspire to openhearted leadership not frightened dictatorship while those who bestow their caring on others and not themselves understand that human duties are far more important than human rights and they place respectful commited following above angry opinionated winging. Leading with an open heart unifies mind and body subjectively, while following the openhearted leader with total commitment creates loyalty which in its turn creates unification of mind and body objectively. Subjective and objective mind and body unification have a constant self-generating mutual exchange and this is the true nature of a loving, powerful, wise & infinite universe.

Aurobindo on human relationships in Yoga 014 But that is the nature of human vital affection, it is all selfishness disguised as love. Sometimes when there is a strong vital passion, need or tie, then the person is ready to do anything to retain the affection of the other. But it is only when the psychic is able to get into the movement that there is real unselfish affection or at least some element of it.The phenomenon of which you speak is normal to human nature. People are drawn together or one is drawn to another by a certain feeling of amnity, of agreement or of attraction between some part of one's own nature and some part of the other's nature. At first this only is felt; one sees all that is good or pleasant to one in the other's nature and even attributes, perhaps, qualities to him that are not there or not so much there as one thinks. But with closer acquaintance other parts of the nature are felt with which one is not in affinity - perhaps there is a clash of ideas or opposition of feelings or conflict of two egos. If there is a strong love or friendship of a lasting character, then one may overcome these difficulties of contact and arrive at a harmonising or ac-commodation; but very often this is not there or the disagree-ment is so acute as to counteract the tendency of accommodation or else the ego gets so hurt as to recoil. Then it is quite possible for one to begin to see too much and exaggerate the faults of the other or to attribute things to him of a bad or unpleasant charac-ter that are not there. The whole view can change, the good feel-ing change into ill-feeling, alienation, even enmity or antipathy. This is always happening in human life. The opposite also happens, but less easily - i.e. the change from ill-feeling to good feeling, from opposition to harmony. But of course ill-opinion or ill-feeling towards a person need not arise from this cause alone. It happens from many causes, instinctive dislike, jealousy, conflicting interests, etc. One must try to look calmly on others, not overstress either virtues or defects, without ill-feeling or misunderstanding or injustice, with a calm mind and vision.
Aurobindo on human relationships in Yoga 001 Human affection is obviously unreliable because it is so much based upon selfishness and desire; it is a flame of the ego some-times turbid and misty, sometimes more clear and brightly coloured - sometimes tamasic based on instinct and habit, sometimes rajasic and fed by passion or the cry for vital inter-change, sometimes more sattwic and trying to be or look to itself disinterested. But fundamentally it depends on a personal need or a return of some kind inward or outward an&when the need is not satisfied or the return ceases or is not given, it most often diminishes or dies or exists only as a tepid or troubled remnant of habit from the past or else turns for satisfaction elsewhere. The more intense it is, the more it is apt to be troubled by tumults, clashes, quarrels, egoistic disturbances of all kinds, selfishness, exactions, lapses even to rage and hatred, ruptures. It is not that these affections cannot last - tamasic instinctive affections last because of habit in spite of everything dividing the persons, e.g. certain family affections; rajasic affections can last sometimes in spite of all disturbances and incompatibilities and furious rup-tures because one has a vital need of the other and clings because of that or because both have that need and are constantly separa-ting to return and returning to separate or proceeding from quar-rel to reconcihation and from reconciliation to quarrel; sattwic affections last very often from duty to the ideal or with some other support though they may lose their keenness or intensity or brightness. But the true reliability is there only when the psychic element in human affections becomes strong enough to colour or dominate the rest. For that reason friendship is or rather can oftenest be the most durable of the human affections because there there is less interference of the vital and even though a flame of the ego it can be a quiet and pure fire giving always its warmth and light. Nevertheless reliable friendship is almost always with a very few; to have a horde of loving, unselfishly faithful friends is a phenomenon so rare that it can be safely taken as an illusion. In any case human affection whatever its value has its place, because through it the psychic being gets the emotional expe-riences it needs until it is ready to piefer the true to the apparent, the perfect to the impcrfect, the divine to the human. As the consciousness has to rise to the higher level so the activities of the heart also have to rise to that higher level and change their basis and character. Yoga is the founding of all life and consciousness in the Divine, so also love and affection must be rooted in the Divine and a spiritual and psychic oncness in the Divine must be their foundation to reach the Divine first leaving other things aside or to seek the Divine alone is the straight road towards that change. That means no attachment it need not mean turning affection into disaffection or chill indifference. But X seems to want to take his vital emotions just as they are tels quels - into the Divine - let him try and don't bother him with criti-cisms and lectures; if it can't be done he will have to find it out for himself.
Aurobindo on human relationships in Yoga 015/016 Vital love usually takes this course when there is no strong psychic force to correct and uphold it. After the first vital glow is over, the incompatibility of the two egos begins to show itself and there is more and more strain in the relations - for one or both the demands of the other become intolerable to the vital part, there is constant irritation and the claim is felt as a burden and a yoke. Naturally in a life of sadhana there is no room for vital relations - they are a stumbling-block preventing the wholesale turning of the nature towards the Divine. ################################## 016 A quietude in all the parts and an intense aspiration is what came to you. In the inner meditation you felt the contact with the Mother as a result and afterwards your inner being rose up to-wards the planes of peace and wideness and light above and came back to its central place in the heart. The inequality of feelings towards others, liking and dis-liking, is ingrained in the nature of the human vital. This is be-cause some harmonise with one's own vital temperament, others do not; also there is the vital ego which gets displeased when it is hurt or when things do not go or people do not act according to its preferences or its idea of what they should do. In the self above there is a spiritual calm and equality, a goodwill to all or at a certain stage a quiet indifference to all except the Divine; in the psychic there is an equal kindness or love to all funda-mentally, but there may be special relations with one - but the vital is always unequal and full of likes and dislikes. By the sadhana the vital must be quieted down; it must receive from the self above its quiet goodwill and equality to all things and from the psychic its general kindness or love. This will come, but it may take time to come.
The Integration by the Universe of Fire and Water The Universe , like the microcrocosm of the Universe our own human bodies , is neither only an angry burning torch of lust , i.e. ‘The Past’ , an attachment to past sensual experiences and judgement , opinions , a decision not to participate and support and include others with a harmonious glowing warmth and affection which is non-judgemental , nor is it only a fearful rushing torrent ie ‘The Futur ’ a desire to be swept along and to sweep others along to a promised land of safety ,which contains no pure, calm , mirror-like lake ,of self-knowledge , no holy grail , no lady of the lake , no sword of wisedom , no lotus of the heart, no round table , no camelot , and no king Arthur. In this land of safety , the advertised success of a few depends on the insidious control & enslavement of a hidden excluded majority either in the land itself or across the border in a foreign country . No the universe and our human form is the sacred meeting point for past and future.If people protest that they are weak like lambs and desire to be enticed by the mellifluous tones of ‘ The Sirens ’ or interrupt the journey of life by lingering on the island of ‘Calypso’, to suffer shipwreck and piggery , to listen too long and without ‘Viveka’ to the sophists, teachers , and self - appointed gurus etc then the suffering of infinite experience , the life of the cross will show them that they are strong and not lambs but mighty lions. From the depths of despair , from the pitchy black bowels of the earth , or from the most remote and dark corner of a galactic black-hole shall come forth a light , a supernova to match the darkness & go infinitely beyond it . No amount of darkness can extinguish the light of one candle . Fear knocked at the door , faith answered it , and there was no one there . Rely on others only to recover your breath and then launch out again into the jungle like a lion & find and enjoy your own path which will be fresh , vibrant , & exciting & different from day to day and from moment to moment . "Only that which you do for yourself is of value" .In the desperate state of the world today , how should we act ? The answer is clear to go forwards we must also go backwards and with a perception that excludes nothing , neither past nor future success and failure we must contact the minds of past sages who had reached towards or even into a state of enlightenment . These good ‘ Spirits ’ or ‘ Angels ’ stand by the side of all well - intentioned people who lead their lives not only centrifugally with vigorous earnestness but also centripetally with a pure open heart . According to the ancient Delphic Oracle the most important message for mankind is " O Man O Woman Know Thyself ".But the final word nay symbols must go , not to the Delphic Oracle , but to the last two hexagrams of the I Ching No 63 Chi Chi and No 64 Wei Chi ,where respectively ‘ Subjective Truth ’ and ‘Objective Truth ’ are expressed by hexagrams which far from separating actually integrate Fire and Water. These hexagrams have a self - generating mutual exchange which leave neither room for Female Desireful Caring " I’ll care for you but please show me love in return " nor room for Male Lustful Love " I love you but only if you listen to all my many opinions and share your body with me " So the universe and our human form , our mortal coil can lead us towards or even into enlightenment where the dewdrop slips into the shining sea, mind does not move, and the sword of wisedom ,power and beauty is drawn into the lotus of the heart .