the stumbling mystic God shall grow up . . . while the wise men talk and sleep.
No More Divisions ~ by ned on March 25, 2007.
Truth cannot be formulated in words, but it can be lived provided one is pure and plastic enough.– The Mother
What the new consciousness wants (it is on this that it insists) is: no more divisions.– The Mother
What the new consciousness wants (it is on this that it insists) is: no more divisions.– The Mother
These two quotes from Mirra are for me pivotal to the integral yoga. The first statement indicates that Truth is not something that can be reduced to an intellectual construct or mantra that is to be chanted or preached to anyone. It is a concrete transformative Reality that one can only live integrally. Every intellectual or mental description of this Reality will always be partial (this does not mean one should not try to systematize knowledge or truth, just that one needs to remember that all intellectual systems and syntheses are by their very nature transitory and temporary). The second statement refers to what Mother and Aurobindo considered the consciousness that would set off the next stage in the evolution of the universe, a singularity. I confess that I do not understand this very much myself, but from my own experiences in which my consciousness has expanded somewhat (though only temporarily), I do now think that our terrestrial divided consciousness is a very inferior mode of being compared to the state of unity that some people have attained with the universe.
I will elaborate on these topics more as I continue to write about my personal journey. For now I merely want to note one thing: that it is possible to turn the most sublime truths into tools of division by reducing them to mere intellectual constructs, rather than actually carrying out the difficult process of self-transformation and surrender to what is.
For example, Ken Wilber, the latter-day bridge-builder between the worlds of exoteric and esoteric knowledge, and the popularizer of the term “integral” (though not in the Aurobindoan sense), has built up elaborate colour-coding and labeling systems to identify people at different stages along the spiritual path. I can understand the need for a psychological typology, but one would always have to keep in mind that no typology is every applicable across the board, nor is any typology final. Moreover, every individual is unique, and every group, however apparently ignorant, could have something to teach us regardless. The subject of a spiritual hierarchy is a very subtle topic indeed, because the sage does not see the world in terms of dualities, so hierarchy and equality are, from the sage’s perspective, totally consistent with each other. As Sri Aurobindo writes:
I heard a fool discoursing utter folly and wondered what God meant by it; then I considered and saw a distorted mask of truth and wisdom.
When thou callest another a fool, as thou must, sometimes, yet do not forget that thou thyself hast been the supreme fool in humanity.
The consistency of equality and hierarchy in the spiritual worldview is a difficult topic to write about and perhaps I will devote another post to this after giving it more thought. But the point I was trying to make in this post was that people who reduce spiritual to a set of mental formulas become stuck in just another fundamentalist religion. Wilberian integral philosophy is a clear example of this, and most people within that movement use his labels and his typologies to put down and denigrate other people with different belief systems. To me it just looks like an excuse to not take a closer look at someone.
According to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, often an honest atheist or a courageous agnostic is much closer to Godhood than a loud devotee, whose proclamations of faith are merely a mask for his or her intellectual and spiritual laziness. In other words, appearances are misleading, and labels are inherently prejudicial and divisive. Therefore, one must tread very carefully and never, ever pass judgment, which is just egoic...The task at hand is the annulment of one’s ego-mind so that all that remains is the Divine. This means no longer holding on to any fixed mental formulas or labels at all. In other words, true faith is beyond belief. It is not a change of mind, not a mere intellectual change. It is a change of consciousness entirely. It is transformative.
What, then, are the indicators that one is making progress on the spiritual path? In my experience, the only thing that really shows one is making progress is when one starts to lose their personal preferences and personal agendas, and starts accepting others more and more as they are. One starts to unconditionally accept what is. One is less jarred by the happenings in one’s surroundings. One reacts less. One loses their resentment and anger towards other beings. The look turns more and more inward: one takes responsibility for their inner state and stops blaming others for it. Increasingly, one responds equally to all beings and all phenomena. When everything one is and does is consecrated to the Divine, the distinction between the agreeable and the disagreeable starts to blur. At the summit of this, there is no distinction at all, and one feels neither pleasure nor pain, but a synthesis of both, that Sri Aurobindo calls “a purely fiercer form of Delight.”
I will elaborate on these topics more as I continue to write about my personal journey. For now I merely want to note one thing: that it is possible to turn the most sublime truths into tools of division by reducing them to mere intellectual constructs, rather than actually carrying out the difficult process of self-transformation and surrender to what is.
For example, Ken Wilber, the latter-day bridge-builder between the worlds of exoteric and esoteric knowledge, and the popularizer of the term “integral” (though not in the Aurobindoan sense), has built up elaborate colour-coding and labeling systems to identify people at different stages along the spiritual path. I can understand the need for a psychological typology, but one would always have to keep in mind that no typology is every applicable across the board, nor is any typology final. Moreover, every individual is unique, and every group, however apparently ignorant, could have something to teach us regardless. The subject of a spiritual hierarchy is a very subtle topic indeed, because the sage does not see the world in terms of dualities, so hierarchy and equality are, from the sage’s perspective, totally consistent with each other. As Sri Aurobindo writes:
I heard a fool discoursing utter folly and wondered what God meant by it; then I considered and saw a distorted mask of truth and wisdom.
When thou callest another a fool, as thou must, sometimes, yet do not forget that thou thyself hast been the supreme fool in humanity.
The consistency of equality and hierarchy in the spiritual worldview is a difficult topic to write about and perhaps I will devote another post to this after giving it more thought. But the point I was trying to make in this post was that people who reduce spiritual to a set of mental formulas become stuck in just another fundamentalist religion. Wilberian integral philosophy is a clear example of this, and most people within that movement use his labels and his typologies to put down and denigrate other people with different belief systems. To me it just looks like an excuse to not take a closer look at someone.
According to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, often an honest atheist or a courageous agnostic is much closer to Godhood than a loud devotee, whose proclamations of faith are merely a mask for his or her intellectual and spiritual laziness. In other words, appearances are misleading, and labels are inherently prejudicial and divisive. Therefore, one must tread very carefully and never, ever pass judgment, which is just egoic...The task at hand is the annulment of one’s ego-mind so that all that remains is the Divine. This means no longer holding on to any fixed mental formulas or labels at all. In other words, true faith is beyond belief. It is not a change of mind, not a mere intellectual change. It is a change of consciousness entirely. It is transformative.
What, then, are the indicators that one is making progress on the spiritual path? In my experience, the only thing that really shows one is making progress is when one starts to lose their personal preferences and personal agendas, and starts accepting others more and more as they are. One starts to unconditionally accept what is. One is less jarred by the happenings in one’s surroundings. One reacts less. One loses their resentment and anger towards other beings. The look turns more and more inward: one takes responsibility for their inner state and stops blaming others for it. Increasingly, one responds equally to all beings and all phenomena. When everything one is and does is consecrated to the Divine, the distinction between the agreeable and the disagreeable starts to blur. At the summit of this, there is no distinction at all, and one feels neither pleasure nor pain, but a synthesis of both, that Sri Aurobindo calls “a purely fiercer form of Delight.”
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