65:the characteristics of Life, Mind and Spirit :::
The characteristic energy of bodily Life is not so much in progress as in persistence, not so much in individual self-enlargement as in self-repetition. There is, indeed, in physical Nature a progression from type to type, from the vegetable to the animal, from the animal to man; for even in inanimate Matter Mind is at work. But once a type is marked off physically, the chief immediate preoccupation of the terrestrial Mother seems to be to keep it in being by a constant reproduction. For Life always seeks immortality; but since individual form is impermanent and only the idea of a form is permanent in the consciousness that creates the universe, -for there it does not perish,- such constant reproduction is the only possible material immortality. Self-preservation, self-repetition, self-multiplication are necessarily, then, the predominant instincts of all material existence.
The characteristic energy of pure Mind is change and the more it acquires elevation and organisation, the more this law of Mind assumes the aspect of a continual enlargement, improvement and better arrangement of its gains and so of a continual passage from a smaller and simpler to a larger and more complex perfection. For Mind, unlike bodily life, is infinite in its field, elastic in its expansion, easily variable in its formations. Change, then, self-enlargement and self-improvement are its proper instincts. Its faith is perfectibility, its watchword is progress.
The characteristic law of Spirit is self-existent perfection and immutable infinity. It possesses always and in its own right the immortality which is the aim of Life and the perfection which is the goal of Mind. The attainment of the eternal and the realisation of that which is the same in all things and beyond all things, equally blissful in universe and outside it, untouched by the imperfections and limitations of the forms and activities in which it dwells, are the glory of the spiritual life.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Introduction - The Conditions Of the Synthesis, The Threefold Life,#KEYS |
66:As Korzybski and the general semanticists have pointed out, our words, symbols, signs, thoughts and ideas are merely maps of reality, not reality itself, because "the map is not the territory." The word "water" won't satisfy your thirst.
But we live in the world of maps and words as if it were the real world. Following in the footsteps of Adam, we have become totally lost in a world of purely fantasy maps and boundaries. And these illusory boundaries, with the opposites they create, have become our impassioned battles.
Most of our "problems of living," then, are based on the illusion that the opposites can and should be separated and isolated from one anotheR But since all opposites are actually aspects of one underlying reality, this is like trying to totally separate the two ends of a single rubber band. All you can do is pull harder and harder-until something violently snaps. Thus we might be able to understand that, in all the mystical traditions the world over, one who sees through the illusion of the opposites is called "liberated." Because he is "freed from the pairs" of opposites, he is freed in this life from the fundamentally nonsensical problems and conflicts involved in the war of opposites. He no longer manipulates the opposites one against the other in his search for peace, but instead transcends them both. Not good vs. evil but beyond good and evil. Not life against death but a center of awareness that transcends both. The point is not to separate the opposites and make "positive progress," but rather to unify and harmonize the opposites, both positive and negative, by discovering a ground which transcends and encompasses them both. And that ground, as we will soon see, is unity consciousness itself. In the meantime, let us note, as does the Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita, that liberation is not freedom from the negative, but freedom from the pairs altogether:
Content with getting what arrives of itself
Passed beyond the pairs, free from envy,
Not attached to success nor failure,
Even acting, he is not bound.
He is to be recognized as eternally free
Who neither loathes nor craves;
For he that is freed from the pairs,
Is easily freed from conflict.
~ Ken Wilber, No Boundary,#KEYS |
67:34
D: What are the eight limbs of knowledge (jnana ashtanga)?
M: The eight limbs are those which have been already mentioned, viz., yama, niyama etc., but differently defined:
(1) Yama: This is controlling the aggregate of sense-organs, realizing the defects that are present in the world consisting of the body, etc.
(2) Niyama: This is maintaining a stream of mental modes that relate to the Self and rejecting the contrary modes. In other words, it means love that arises uninterruptedly for the Supreme Self.
(3) Asana: That with the help of which constant meditation on Brahman is made possible with ease is asana.
(4) Pranayama: Rechaka (exhalation) is removing the two unreal aspects of name and form from the objects constituting the world, the body etc., puraka (inhalation) is grasping the three real aspects, existence, consciousness and bliss, which are constant in those objects, and kumbhaka is retaining those aspects thus grasped.
(5) Pratyahara: This is preventing name and form which have been removed from re-entering the mind.
(6) Dharana: This is making the mind stay in the Heart, without straying outward, and realizing that one is the Self itself which is Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.
(7) Dhyana: This is meditation of the form 'I am only pure consciousness'. That is, after leaving aside the body which consists of five sheaths, one enquires 'Who am I?', and as a result of that, one stays as 'I' which shines as the Self.
(8) Samadhi: When the 'I-manifestation' also ceases, there is (subtle) direct experience. This is samadhi.
For pranayama, etc., detailed here, the disciplines such as asana, etc., mentioned in connection with yoga are not necessary.
The limbs of knowledge may be practised at all places and at all times. Of yoga and knowledge, one may follow whichever is pleasing to one, or both, according to circumstances. The great teachers say that forgetfulness is the root of all evil, and is death for those who seek release,10 so one should rest the mind in one's Self and should never forget the Self: this is the aim. If the mind is controlled, all else can be controlled. The distinction between yoga with eight limbs and knowledge with eight limbs has been set forth elaborately in the sacred texts; so only the substance of this teaching has been given here. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Self-Enquiry, 34,#KEYS |
68:higher mind or late vision logic ::: Even more rare, found stably in less than 1% of the population and even more emergent is the turquoise altitude.
Cognition at Turquoise is called late vision-logic or cross-paradigmatic and features the ability to connect meta-systems or paradigms, with other meta-systems. This is the realm of coordinating principles. Which are unified systems of systems of abstraction to other principles. ... Aurobindo indian sage and philosopher offers a more first-person account of turquoise which he called higher-mind, a unitarian sense of being with a powerful multiple dynamism capable of formation of a multitude of aspects of knowledge, ways of action, forms and significances of becoming of all of which a spontaneous inherient knowledge.
Self-sense at turquoise is called Construct-aware and is the first stage of Cook-Greuter's extension of Loveigers work on ego-development. The Construct-aware stage sees individuals for the first time as exploring more and more complex thought-structures with awareness of the automatic nature of human map making and absurdities which unbridaled complexity and logical argumentation can lead. Individuals at this stage begin to see their ego as a central point of reference and therefore a limit to growth. They also struggle to balance unique self-expressions and their concurrent sense of importance, the imperical and intuitive knowledge that there is no fundamental subject-object separation and the budding awareness of self-identity as temporary which leads to a decreased ego-desire to create a stable self-identity. Turquoise individuals are keenly aware of the interplay between awareness, thought, action and effects. They seek personal and spiritual transformation and hold a complex matrix of self-identifications, the adequecy of which they increasingly call into question. Much of this already points to Turquoise values which embrace holistic and intuitive thinking and alignment to universal order in a conscious fashion.
Faith at Turquoise is called Universalising and can generate faith compositions in which conceptions of Ultimate Reality start to include all beings. Individuals at Turquoise faith dedicate themselves to transformation of present reality in the direction of transcendent actuality. Both of these are preludes to the coming of Third Tier. ~ Essential Integral, L4.1-54, Higher Mind,#KEYS |
69:The poet-seer sees differently, thinks in another way, voices himself in quite another manner than the philosopher or the prophet. The prophet announces the Truth as the Word, the Law or the command of the Eternal, he is the giver of the message; the poet shows us Truth in its power of beauty, in its symbol or image, or reveals it to us in the workings of Nature or in the workings of life, and when he has done that, his whole work is done; he need not be its explicit spokesman or its official messenger. The philosopher's business is to discriminate Truth and put its parts and aspects into intellectual relation with each other; the poet's is to seize and embody aspects of Truth in their living relations, or rather - for that is too philosophical a language - to see her features and, excited by the vision, create in the beauty of her image.
No doubt, the prophet may have in him a poet who breaks out often into speech and surrounds with the vivid atmosphere of life the directness of his message; he may follow up his injunction "Take no thought for the morrow," by a revealing image of the beauty of the truth he enounces, in the life of Nature, in the figure of the lily, or link it to human life by apologue and parable. The philosopher may bring in the aid of colour and image to give some relief and hue to his dry light of reason and water his arid path of abstractions with some healing dew of poetry. But these are ornaments and not the substance of his work; and if the philosopher makes his thought substance of poetry, he ceases to be a philosophic thinker and becomes a poet-seer of Truth. Thus the more rigid metaphysicians are perhaps right in denying to Nietzsche the name of philosopher; for Nietzsche does not think, but always sees, turbidly or clearly, rightly or distortedly, but with the eye of the seer rather than with the brain of the thinker. On the other hand we may get great poetry which is full of a prophetic enthusiasm of utterance or is largely or even wholly philosophic in its matter; but this prophetic poetry gives us no direct message, only a mass of sublime inspirations of thought and image, and this philosophic poetry is poetry and lives as poetry only in so far as it departs from the method, the expression, the way of seeing proper to the philosophic mind. It must be vision pouring itself into thought-images and not thought trying to observe truth and distinguish its province and bounds and fences.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry,#KEYS |
70:
Are not offering and surrender to the Divine the same thing?
They are two aspects of the same thing, but not altogether the same. One is more active than the other. They do not belong to quite the same plane of existence.
For example, you have decided to offer your life to the Divine, you take that decision. But all of a sudden, something altogether unpleasant, unexpected happens to you and your first movement is to react and protest. Yet you have made the offering, you have said once for all: "My life belongs to the Divine", and then suddenly an extremely unpleasant incident happens (that can happen) and there is something in you that reacts, that does not want it. But here, if you want to be truly logical with your offering, you must bring forward this unpleasant incident, make an offering of it to the Divine, telling him very sincerely: "Let Your will be done; if You have decided it that way, it will be that way." And this must be a willing and spontaneous adhesion. So it is very difficult.
Even for the smallest thing, something that is not in keeping with what you expected, what you have worked for, instead of an opposite reaction coming in - spontaneously, irresistibly, you draw back: "No, not that" - if you have made a complete surrender, a total surrender, well, it does not happen like that: you are as quiet, as peaceful, as calm in one case as in the other. And perhaps you had the notion that it would be better if it happened in a certain way, but if it happens differently, you find that this also is all right. You might have, for example, worked very hard to do a certain thing, so that something might happen, you might have given much time, much of your energy, much of your will, and all that not for your own sake, but, say, for the divine work (that is the offering); now suppose that after having taken all this trouble, done all this work, made all these efforts, it all goes just the other way round, it does not succeed. If you are truly surrendered, you say: "It is good, it is all good, it is all right; I did what I could, as well as I could, now it is not my decision, it is the decision of the Divine, I accept entirely what He decides." On the other hand, if you do not have this deep and spontaneous surrender, you tell yourself: "How is it? I took so much trouble to do a thing which is not for a selfish purpose, which is for the Divine Work, and this is the result, it is not successful!" Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, it is like that.
True surrender is a very difficult thing.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1953, 52,#KEYS |
71:Why do we forget things?
Ah! I suppose there are several reasons. First, because one makes use of the memory to remember. Memory is a mental instrument and depends on the formation of the brain. Your brain is constantly growing, unless it begins to degenerate, but still its growth can continue for a very, very long time, much longer than that of the body. And in this growth, necessarily some things will take the place of others. And as the mental instrument develops, things which have served their term or the transitory moment in the development may be wiped out to give place to the result. So the result of all that you knew is there, living in itself, but the road traversed to reach it may be completely blurred. That is, a good functioning of the memory means remembering only the results so as to be able to have the elements for moving forward and a new construction. That is more important than just retaining things rigidly in the mind.
Now, there is another aspect also. Apart from the mental memory, which is something defective, there are states of consciousness. Each state of consciousness in which one happens to be registers the phenomena of a particular moment, whatever they may be. If your consciousness remains limpid, wide and strong, you can at any moment whatsoever, by concentrating, call into the active consciousness what you did, thought, saw, observed at any time before; all this you can remember by bringing up in yourself the same state of consciousness. And that, that is never forgotten. You could live a thousand years and you would still remember it. Consequently, if you don't want to forget, it must be your consciousness which remembers and not your mental memory. Your mental memory will be wiped out inevitably, get blurred, and new things will take the place of the old ones. But things of which you are conscious you do not forget. You have only to bring up the same state of consciousness again. And thus one can remember circumstances one has lived thousands of years ago, if one knows how to bring up the same state of consciousness. It is in this way that one can remember one's past lives. This never gets blotted out, while you don't have any more the memory of what you have done physically when you were very young. You would be told many things you no longer remember. That gets wiped off immediately. For the brain is constantly changing and certain weaker cells are replaced by others which are much stronger, and by other combinations, other cerebral organisations. And so, what was there before is effaced or deformed.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1954,#KEYS |
72:Vijnana, true ideation, called ritam, truth or vedas, knowledge in the Vedas, acts in human mind by four separate functions; revelation, termed drishti, sight; inspiration termed sruti,hearing; and the two faculties of discernment, smriti, memory,which are intuition, termed ketu, and discrimination, termed daksha, division, or viveka, separation. By drishti we see ourselves the truth face to face, in its own form, nature or self-existence; by sruti we hear the name, sound or word by which the truth is expressed & immediately suggested to the knowledge; by ketu we distinguish a truth presented to us behind a veil whether of result or process, as Newton discovered the law of gravitation hidden behind the fall of the apple; by viveka we distinguish between various truths and are able to put them in their right place, order and relation to each other, or, if presented with mingled truth & error, separate the truth from the falsehood. Agni Jatavedas is termed in the Veda vivichi, he who has the viveka, who separates truth from falsehood; but this is only a special action of the fourth ideal faculty & in its wider scope, it is daksha, that which divides & rightly distributes truth in its multiform aspects. The ensemble of the four faculties is Vedas or divine knowledge. When man is rising out of the limited & error-besieged mental principle, the faculty most useful to him, most indispensable is daksha or viveka. Drishti of Vijnana transmuted into terms of mind has become observation, sruti appears as imagination, intuition as intelligent perception, viveka as reasoning & intellectual judgment and all of these are liable to the constant touch of error. Human buddhi, intellect, is a distorted shadow of the true ideative faculties. As we return from these shadows to their ideal substance viveka or daksha must be our constant companion; for viveka alone can get rid of the habit of mental error, prevent observation being replaced by false illumination, imagination by false inspiration, intelligence by false intuition, judgment & reason by false discernment. The first sign of human advance out of the anritam of mind to the ritam of the ideal faculty is the growing action of a luminous right discernment which fixes instantly on the truth, feels instantly the presence of error. The fullness, the manhana of this viveka is the foundation & safeguard of Ritam or Vedas. The first great movement of Agni Jatavedas is to transform by the divine will in mental activity his lower smoke-covered activity into the bright clearness & fullness of the ideal discernment. Agne adbhuta kratw a dakshasya manhana.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Hymns To The Mystic Fire, 717,#KEYS |
73:The Mahashakti, the universal Mother, works out whatever is transmitted by her transcendent consciousness from the Supreme and enters into the worlds that she has made; her presence fills and supports them with the divine spirit and the divine all-sustaining force and delight without which they could not exist. That which we call Nature or Prakriti is only her most outward executive aspect; she marshals and arranges the harmony of her forces and processes, impels the operations of Nature and moves among them secret or manifest in all that can be seen or experienced or put into motion of life. Each of the worlds is nothing but one play of the Mahashakti of that system of worlds or universe, who is there as the cosmic Soul and Personality of the transcendent Mother. Each is something that she has seen in her vision, gathered into her heart of beauty and power and created in her Ananda.
But there are many planes of her creation, many steps of the Divine Shakti. At the summit of this manifestation of which we are a part there are worlds of infinite existence, consciousness, force and bliss over which the Mother stands as the unveiled eternal Power. All beings there live and move in an ineffable completeness and unalterable oneness, because she carries them safe in her arms for ever. Nearer to us are the worlds of a perfect supramental creation in which the Mother is the supramental Mahashakti, a Power of divine omniscient Will and omnipotent Knowledge always apparent in its unfailing works and spontaneously perfect in every process. There all movements are the steps of the Truth; there all beings are souls and powers and bodies of the divine Light; there all experiences are seas and floods and waves of an intense and absolute Ananda. But here where we dwell are the worlds of the Ignorance, worlds of mind and life and body separated in consciousness from their source, of which this earth is a significant centre and its evolution a crucial process. This too with all its obscurity and struggle and imperfection is upheld by the Universal Mother; this too is impelled and guided to its secret aim by the Mahashakti.
The Mother as the Mahashakti of this triple world of the Ignorance stands in an intermediate plane between the supramental Light, the Truth life, the Truth creation which has to be brought down here and this mounting and descending hierarchy of planes of consciousness that like a double ladder lapse into the nescience of Matter and climb back again through the flowering of life and soul and mind into the infinity of the Spirit. Determining all that shall be in this universe and in the terrestrial evolution by what she sees and feels and pours from her, she stands there... ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Mother With Letters On The Mother,#KEYS |
74:The modern distinction is that the poet appeals to the imagination and not to the intellect. But there are many kinds of imagination; the objective imagination which visualises strongly the outward aspects of life and things; the subjective imagination which visualises strongly the mental and emotional impressions they have the power to start in the mind; the imagination which deals in the play of mental fictions and to which we give the name of poetic fancy; the aesthetic imagination which delights in the beauty of words and images for their own sake and sees no farther. All these have their place in poetry, but they only give the poet his materials, they are only the first instruments in the creation of poetic style. The essential poetic imagination does not stop short with even the most subtle reproductions of things external or internal, with the richest or delicatest play of fancy or with the most beautiful colouring of word or image. It is creative, not of either the actual or the fictitious, but of the more and the most real; it sees the spiritual truth of things, - of this truth too there are many gradations, - which may take either the actual or the ideal for its starting-point. The aim of poetry, as of all true art, is neither a photographic or otherwise realistic imitation of Nature, nor a romantic furbishing and painting or idealistic improvement of her image, but an interpretation by the images she herself affords us, not on one but on many planes of her creation, of that which she conceals from us, but is ready, when rightly approached, to reveal.
This is the true, because the highest and essential aim of poetry; but the human mind arrives at it only by a succession of steps, the first of which seems far enough from its object. It begins by stringing its most obvious and external ideas, feelings and sensations of things on a thread of verse in a sufficient language of no very high quality. But even when it gets to a greater adequacy and effectiveness, it is often no more than a vital, an emotional or an intellectual adequacy and effectiveness. There is a strong vital poetry which powerfully appeals to our sensations and our sense of life, like much of Byron or the less inspired mass of the Elizabethan drama; a strong emotional poetry which stirs our feelings and gives us the sense and active image of the passions; a strong intellectual poetry which satisfies our curiosity about life and its mechanism, or deals with its psychological and other "problems", or shapes for us our thoughts in an effective, striking and often quite resistlessly quotable fashion. All this has its pleasures for the mind and the surface soul in us, and it is certainly quite legitimate to enjoy them and to enjoy them strongly and vividly on our way upward; but if we rest content with these only, we shall never get very high up the hill of the Muses.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry,#KEYS |
75:There is one fundamental perception indispensable towards any integral knowledge or many-sided experience of this Infinite. It is to realise the Divine in its essential self and truth unaltered by forms and phenomena. Otherwise we are likely to remain caught in the net of appearances or wander confusedly in a chaotic multitude of cosmic or particular aspects, and if we avoid this confusion, it will be at the price of getting chained to some mental formula or shut up in a limited personal experience. The one secure and all-reconciling truth which is the very foundation of the universe is this that life is the manifestation of an uncreated Self and Spirit, and the key to life's hidden secret is the true relation of this Spirit with its own created existences. There is behind all this life the look of an eternal Being upon its multitudinous becomings; there is around and everywhere in it the envelopment and penetration of a manifestation in time by an unmanifested timeless Eternal. But this knowledge is valueless for Yoga if it is only an intellectual and metaphysical notion void of life and barren of consequence; a mental realisation alone cannot be sufficient for the seeker. For what Yoga searches after is not truth of thought alone or truth of mind alone, but the dynamic truth of a living and revealing spiritual experience. There must awake in us a constant indwelling and enveloping nearness, a vivid perception, a close feeling and communion, a concrete sense and contact of a true and infinite Presence always and everywhere. That Presence must remain with us as the living, pervading Reality in which we and all things exist and move and act, and we must feel it always and everywhere, concrete, visible, inhabiting all things; it must be patent to us as their true Self, tangible as their imperishable Essence, met by us closely as their inmost Spirit. To see, to feel, to sense, to contact in every way and not merely to conceive this Self and Spirit here in all existences and to feel with the same vividness all existences in this Self and Spirit, is the fundamental experience which must englobe all other knowledge. This infinite and eternal Self of things is an omnipresent Reality, one existence everywhere; it is a single unifying presence and not different in different creatures; it can be met, seen or felt in its completeness in each soul or each form in the universe. For its infinity is spiritual and essential and not merely a boundlessness in Space or an endlessness in Time; the Infinite can be felt in an infinitesimal atom or in a second of time as convincingly as in the stretch of the aeons or the stupendous enormity of the intersolar spaces. The knowledge or experience of it can begin anywhere and express itself through anything; for the Divine is in all, and all is the Divine.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Divine Works, The Sacrifice, the Triune Path and the Lord of the Sacrifice,#KEYS |
76:Sweet Mother, there's a flower you have named "The Creative Word".
Yes.
What does that mean?
It is the word which creates.
There are all kinds of old traditions, old Hindu traditions, old Chaldean traditions in which the Divine, in the form of the Creator, that is, in His aspect as Creator, pronounces a word which has the power to create. So it is this... And it is the origin of the mantra. The mantra is the spoken word which has a creative power. An invocation is made and there is an answer to the invocation; or one makes a prayer and the prayer is granted. This is the Word, the Word which, in its sound... it is not only the idea, it is in the sound that there's a power of creation. It is the origin, you see, of the mantra.
In Indian mythology the creator God is Brahma, and I think that it was precisely his power which has been symbolised by this flower, "The Creative Word". And when one is in contact with it, the words spoken have a power of evocation or creation or formation or transformation; the words... sound always has a power; it has much more power than men think. It may be a good power and it may be a bad power. It creates vibrations which have an undeniable effect. It is not so much the idea as the sound; the idea too has its own power, but in its own domain - whereas the sound has a power in the material world.
I think I have explained this to you once; I told you, for example, that words spoken casually, usually without any re- flection and without attaching any importance to them, can be used to do something very good. I think I spoke to you about "Bonjour", "Good Day", didn't I? When people meet and say "Bonjour", they do so mechanically and without thinking. But if you put a will into it, an aspiration to indeed wish someone a good day, well, there is a way of saying "Good Day" which is very effective, much more effective than if simply meeting someone you thought: "Ah! I hope he has a good day", without saying anything. If with this hope in your thought you say to him in a certain way, "Good Day", you make it more concrete and more effective.
It's the same thing, by the way, with curses, or when one gets angry and says bad things to people. This can do them as much harm - more harm sometimes - than if you were to give them a slap. With very sensitive people it can put their stomach out of order or give them palpitation, because you put into it an evil force which has a power of destruction.
It is not at all ineffective to speak. Naturally it depends a great deal on each one's inner power. People who have no strength and no consciousness can't do very much - unless they employ material means. But to the extent that you are strong, especially when you have a powerful vital, you must have a great control on what you say, otherwise you can do much harm. Without wanting to, without knowing it; through ignorance.
Anything? No? Nothing?
Another question?... Everything's over? ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1955, 347-349,#KEYS |
77:The supreme Truth aspect which thus manifests itself to us is an eternal and infinite and absolute self-existence, self-awareness, self-delight of being; this bounds all things and secretly supports and pervades all things. This Self-existence reveals itself again in three terms of its essential nature,-self, conscious being or spirit, and God or the Divine Being. The Indian terms are more satisfactory,-Brahman the Reality is Atman, Purusha, Ishwara; for these terms grew from a root of Intuition and, while they have a comprehensive preciseness, are capable of a plastic application which avoids both vagueness in the use and the rigid snare of a too limiting intellectual concept. The Supreme Brahman is that which in Western metaphysics is called the Absolute: but Brahman is at the same time the omnipresent Reality in which all that is relative exists as its forms or its movements; this is an Absolute which takes all relativities in its embrace. [...] Brahman is the Consciousness that knows itself in all that exists; Brahman is the force that sustains the power of God and Titan and Demon, the Force that acts in man and animal and the forms and energies of Nature; Brahman is the Ananda, the secret Bliss of existence which is the ether of our being and without which none could breathe or live. Brahman is the inner Soul in all; it has taken a form in correspondence with each created form which it inhabits. The Lord of Beings is that which is conscious in the conscious being, but he is also the Conscious in inconscient things, the One who is master and in control of the many that are passive in the hands of Force-Nature. He is the Timeless and Time; He is Space and all that is in Space; He is Causality and the cause and the effect: He is the thinker and his thought, the warrior and his courage, the gambler and his dice-throw. All realities and all aspects and all semblances are the Brahman; Brahman is the Absolute, the Transcendent and incommunicable, the Supracosmic Existence that sustains the cosmos, the Cosmic Self that upholds all beings, but It is too the self of each individual: the soul or psychic entity is an eternal portion of the Ishwara; it is his supreme Nature or Consciousness-Force that has become the living being in a world of living beings. The Brahman alone is, and because of It all are, for all are the Brahman; this Reality is the reality of everything that we see in Self and Nature. Brahman, the Ishwara, is all this by his Yoga-Maya, by the power of his Consciousness-Force put out in self-manifestation: he is the Conscious Being, Soul, Spirit, Purusha, and it is by his Nature, the force of his conscious self-existence that he is all things; he is the Ishwara, the omniscient and omnipotent All-ruler, and it is by his Shakti, his conscious Power, that he manifests himself in Time and governs the universe. These and similar statements taken together are all-comprehensive: it is possible for the mind to cut and select, to build a closed system and explain away all that does not fit within it; but it is on the complete and many-sided statement that we must take our stand if we have to acquire an integral knowledge.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Book 02: The Knowledge and the Ignorance - The Spiritual Evolution, Part I, The Infinite Consciousness and the Ignorance Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti [336-337],#KEYS |
78:The Teachings of Some Modern Indian Yogis
Ramana Maharshi
According to Brunton's description of the sadhana he (Brunton) practised under the Maharshi's instructions,1 it is the Overself one has to seek within, but he describes the Overself in a way that is at once the Psychic Being, the Atman and the Ishwara. So it is a little difficult to know what is the exact reading.
*
The methods described in the account [of Ramana Maharshi's technique of self-realisation] are the well-established methods of Jnanayoga - (1) one-pointed concentration followed by thought-suspension, (2) the method of distinguishing or finding out the true self by separating it from mind, life, body (this I have seen described by him [Brunton] more at length in another book) and coming to the pure I behind; this also can disappear into the Impersonal Self. The usual result is a merging in the Atman or Brahman - which is what one would suppose is meant by the Overself, for it is that which is the real Overself. This Brahman or Atman is everywhere, all is in it, it is in all, but it is in all not as an individual being in each but is the same in all - as the Ether is in all. When the merging into the Overself is complete, there is no ego, no distinguishable I, or any formed separative person or personality. All is ekakara - an indivisible and undistinguishable Oneness either free from all formations or carrying all formations in it without being affected - for one can realise it in either way. There is a realisation in which all beings are moving in the one Self and this Self is there stable in all beings; there is another more complete and thoroughgoing in which not only is it so but all are vividly realised as the Self, the Brahman, the Divine. In the former, it is possible to dismiss all beings as creations of Maya, leaving the one Self alone as true - in the other it is easier to regard them as real manifestations of the Self, not as illusions. But one can also regard all beings as souls, independent realities in an eternal Nature dependent upon the One Divine. These are the characteristic realisations of the Overself familiar to the Vedanta. But on the other hand you say that this Overself is realised by the Maharshi as lodged in the heart-centre, and it is described by Brunton as something concealed which when it manifests appears as the real Thinker, source of all action, but now guiding thought and action in the Truth. Now the first description applies to the Purusha in the heart, described by the Gita as the Ishwara situated in the heart and by the Upanishads as the Purusha Antaratma; the second could apply also to the mental Purusha, manomayah. pran.asarı̄ra neta of the Upanishads, the mental Being or Purusha who leads the life and the body. So your question is one which on the data I cannot easily answer. His Overself may be a combination of all these experiences, without any distinction being made or thought necessary between the various aspects. There are a thousand ways of approaching and realising the Divine and each way has its own experiences which have their own truth and stand really on a basis, one in essence but complex in aspects, common to all, but not expressed in the same way by all. There is not much use in discussing these variations; the important thing is to follow one's own way well and thoroughly. In this Yoga, one can realise the psychic being as a portion of the Divine seated in the heart with the Divine supporting it there - this psychic being takes charge of the sadhana and turns the ......
1 The correspondent sent to Sri Aurobindo two paragraphs from Paul Brunton's book A Message from Arunachala (London: Rider & Co., n.d. [1936], pp. 205 - 7). - Ed. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II,#KEYS |
79:Darkness
I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came and went-and came, and brought no day,
And men forgot their passions in the dread
Of this their desolation; and all hearts
Were chill'd into a selfish prayer for light:
And they did live by watchfires-and the thrones,
The palaces of crowned kings-the huts,
The habitations of all things which dwell,
Were burnt for beacons; cities were consum'd,
And men were gather'd round their blazing homes
To look once more into each other's face;
Happy were those who dwelt within the eye
Of the volcanos, and their mountain-torch:
A fearful hope was all the world contain'd;
Forests were set on fire-but hour by hour
They fell and faded-and the crackling trunks
Extinguish'd with a crash-and all was black.
The brows of men by the despairing light
Wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits
The flashes fell upon them; some lay down
And hid their eyes and wept; and some did rest
Their chins upon their clenched hands, and smil'd;
And others hurried to and fro, and fed
Their funeral piles with fuel, and look'd up
With mad disquietude on the dull sky,
The pall of a past world; and then again
With curses cast them down upon the dust,
And gnash'd their teeth and howl'd: the wild birds shriek'd
And, terrified, did flutter on the ground,
And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes
Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawl'd
And twin'd themselves among the multitude,
Hissing, but stingless-they were slain for food.
And War, which for a moment was no more,
Did glut himself again: a meal was bought
With blood, and each sate sullenly apart
Gorging himself in gloom: no love was left;
All earth was but one thought-and that was death
Immediate and inglorious; and the pang
Of famine fed upon all entrails-men
Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh;
The meagre by the meagre were devour'd,
Even dogs assail'd their masters, all save one,
And he was faithful to a corse, and kept
The birds and beasts and famish'd men at bay,
Till hunger clung them, or the dropping dead
Lur'd their lank jaws; himself sought out no food,
But with a piteous and perpetual moan,
And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand
Which answer'd not with a caress-he died.
The crowd was famish'd by degrees; but two
Of an enormous city did survive,
And they were enemies: they met beside
The dying embers of an altar-place
Where had been heap'd a mass of holy things
For an unholy usage; they rak'd up,
And shivering scrap'd with their cold skeleton hands
The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath
Blew for a little life, and made a flame
Which was a mockery; then they lifted up
Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld
Each other's aspects-saw, and shriek'd, and died-
Even of their mutual hideousness they died,
Unknowing who he was upon whose brow
Famine had written Fiend. The world was void,
The populous and the powerful was a lump,
Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless-
A lump of death-a chaos of hard clay.
The rivers, lakes and ocean all stood still,
And nothing stirr'd within their silent depths;
Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea,
And their masts fell down piecemeal: as they dropp'd
They slept on the abyss without a surge-
The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave,
The moon, their mistress, had expir'd before;
The winds were wither'd in the stagnant air,
And the clouds perish'd; Darkness had no need
Of aid from them-She was the Universe.
~ George Gordon Byron,#KEYS |
80:There's an idea in Christianity of the image of God as a Trinity. There's the element of the Father, there's the element of the Son, and there's the element of the Holy Spirit. It's something like the spirit of tradition, human beings as the living incarnation of that tradition, and the spirit in people that makes relationship with the spirit and individuals possible. I'm going to bounce my way quickly through some of the classical, metaphorical attributes of God, so that we kind of have a cloud of notions about what we're talking about, when we return to Genesis 1 and talk about the God who spoke chaos into Being.
There's a fatherly aspect, so here's what God as a father is like. You can enter into a covenant with it, so you can make a bargain with it. Now, you think about that. Money is like that, because money is a bargain you make with the future. We structured our world so that you can negotiate with the future. I don't think that we would have got to the point where we could do that without having this idea to begin with. You can act as if the future's a reality; there's a spirit of tradition that enables you to act as if the future is something that can be bargained with. That's why you make sacrifices. The sacrifices were acted out for a very long period of time, and now they're psychological. We know that you can sacrifice something valuable in the present and expect that you're negotiating with something that's representing the transcendent future. That's an amazing human discovery. No other creature can do that; to act as if the future is real; to know that you can bargain with reality itself, and that you can do it successfully. It's unbelievable.
It responds to sacrifice. It answers prayers. I'm not saying that any of this is true, by the way. I'm just saying what the cloud of ideas represents. It punishes and rewards. It judges and forgives. It's not nature. One of the things weird about the Judeo-Christian tradition is that God and nature are not the same thing, at all. Whatever God is, partially manifest in this logos, is something that stands outside of nature. I think that's something like consciousness as abstracted from the natural world. It built Eden for mankind and then banished us for disobedience. It's too powerful to be touched. It granted free will. Distance from it is hell. Distance from it is death. It reveals itself in dogma and in mystical experience, and it's the law. That's sort of like the fatherly aspect.
The son-like aspect. It speaks chaos into order. It slays dragons and feeds people with the remains. It finds gold. It rescues virgins. It is the body and blood of Christ. It is a tragic victim, scapegoat, and eternally triumphant redeemer simultaneously. It cares for the outcast. It dies and is reborn. It is the king of kings and hero of heroes. It's not the state, but is both the fulfillment and critic of the state. It dwells in the perfect house. It is aiming at paradise or heaven. It can rescue from hell. It cares for the outcast. It is the foundation and the cornerstone that was rejected. It is the spirit of the law.
The spirit-like aspect. It's akin to the human soul. It's the prophetic voice. It's the still, small voice of conscience. It's the spoken truth. It's called forth by music. It is the enemy of deceit, arrogance, and resentment. It is the water of life. It burns without consuming. It's a blinding light.
That's a very well-developed set of poetic metaphors. These are all...what would you say...glimpses of the transcendent ideal. That's the right way of thinking about it. They're glimpses of the transcendent ideal, and all of them have a specific meaning. In part, what we're going to do is go over that meaning, as we continue with this series. What we've got now is a brief description, at least, of what this is. ~ Jordan Peterson, Biblical Series, 1,#KEYS |
81:STAGE TWO: THE CHONYID
The Chonyid is the period of the appearance of the peaceful and wrathful deities-that is to say, the subtle realm, the Sambhogakaya. When the Clear Light of the causal realm is resisted and contracted against, then that Reality is transformed into the primordial seed forms of the peaceful deities (ishtadevas of the subtle sphere), and these in turn, if resisted and denied, are transformed into the wrathful deities.
The peaceful deities appear first: through seven successive substages, there appear various forms of the tathagatas, dakinis, and vidyadharas, all accompanied by the most dazzlingly brilliant colors and aweinspiring suprahuman sounds. One after another, the divine visions, lights, and subtle luminous sounds cascade through awareness. They are presented, given, to the individual openly, freely, fully, and completely: visions of God in almost painful intensity and brilliance.
How the individual handles these divine visions and sounds (nada) is of the utmost significance, because each divine scenario is accompanied by a much less intense vision, by a region of relative dullness and blunted illuminations. These concomitant dull and blunted visions represent the first glimmerings of the world of samsara, of the six realms of egoic grasping, of the dim world of duality and fragmentation and primitive forms of low-level unity.
According to the Thotrol. most individuals simply recoil in the face of these divine illuminations- they contract into less intense and more manageable forms of experience. Fleeing divine illumination, they glide towards the fragmented-and thus less intense-realm of duality and multiplicity. But it's not just that they recoil against divinity-it is that they are attracted to the lower realms, drawn to them, and find satisfaction in them. The Thotrol says they are actually "attracted to the impure lights." As we have put it, these lower realms are substitute gratifications. The individual thinks that they are just what he wants, these lower realms of denseness. But just because these realms are indeed dimmer and less intense, they eventually prove to be worlds without bliss, without illumination, shot through with pain and suffering. How ironic: as a substitute for God, individuals create and latch onto Hell, known as samsara, maya, dismay. In Christian theology it is said that the flames of Hell are God's love (Agape) denied.
Thus the message is repeated over and over again in the Chonyid stage: abide in the lights of the Five Wisdoms and subtle tathagatas, look not at the duller lights of samsara. of the six realms, of safe illusions and egoic dullness. As but one example:
Thereupon, because of the power of bad karma, the glorious blue light of the Wisdom of the Dharmadhatu will produce in thee fear and terror, and thou wilt wish to flee from it. Thou wilt begat a fondness for the dull white light of the devas [one of the lower realms].
At this stage, thou must not be awed by the divine blue light which will appear shining, dazzling, and glorious; and be not startled by it. That is the light of the Tathagata called the Light of the Wisdom of the Dharmadhatu.
Be not fond of the dull white light of the devas. Be not attached to it; be not weak. If thou be attached to it, thou wilt wander into the abodes of the devas and be drawn into the whirl of the Six Lokas.
The point is this: ''If thou are frightened by the pure radiances of Wisdom and attracted by the impure lights of the Six Lokas [lower realms], then thou wilt assume a body in any of the Six Lokas and suffer samsaric miseries; and thou wilt never be emancipated from the Ocean of Samsara, wherein thou wilt be whirled round and round and made to taste the sufferings thereof."
But here is what is happening: in effect, we are seeing the primal and original form of the Atman project in its negative and contracting aspects. In this second stage (the Chonyid), there is already some sort of boundary in awareness, there is already some sort of subject-object duality superimposed upon the original Wholeness and Oneness of the Chikhai Dharmakaya. So now there is boundary-and wherever there is boundary, there is the Atman project. ~ Ken Wilber, The Atman Project, 129,#KEYS |
82:What are these operations? They are not mere psychological self-analysis and self-observation. Such analysis, such observation are, like the process of right thought, of immense value and practically indispensable. They may even, if rightly pursued, lead to a right thought of considerable power and effectivity. Like intellectual discrimination by the process of meditative thought they will have an effect of purification; they will lead to self-knowledge of a certain kind and to the setting right of the disorders of the soul and the heart and even of the disorders of the understanding. Self-knowledge of all kinds is on the straight path to the knowledge of the real Self. The Upanishad tells us that the Self-existent has so set the doors of the soul that they turn outwards and most men look outward into the appearances of things; only the rare soul that is ripe for a calm thought and steady wisdom turns its eye inward, sees the Self and attains to immortality. To this turning of the eye inward psychological self-observation and analysis is a great and effective introduction.We can look into the inward of ourselves more easily than we can look into the inward of things external to us because there, in things outside us, we are in the first place embarrassed by the form and secondly we have no natural previous experience of that in them which is other than their physical substance. A purified or tranquillised mind may reflect or a powerful concentration may discover God in the world, the Self in Nature even before it is realised in ourselves, but this is rare and difficult. (2) And it is only in ourselves that we can observe and know the process of the Self in its becoming and follow the process by which it draws back into self-being. Therefore the ancient counsel, know thyself, will always stand as the first word that directs us towards the knowledge. Still, psychological self-knowledge is only the experience of the modes of the Self, it is not the realisation of the Self in its pure being.
The status of knowledge, then, which Yoga envisages is not merely an intellectual conception or clear discrimination of the truth, nor is it an enlightened psychological experience of the modes of our being. It is a "realisation", in the full sense of the word; it is the making real to ourselves and in ourselves of the Self, the transcendent and universal Divine, and it is the subsequent impossibility of viewing the modes of being except in the light of that Self and in their true aspect as its flux of becoming under the psychical and physical conditions of our world-existence. This realisation consists of three successive movements, internal vision, complete internal experience and identity.
This internal vision, dr.s.t.i, the power so highly valued by the ancient sages, the power which made a man a Rishi or Kavi and no longer a mere thinker, is a sort of light in the soul by which things unseen become as evident and real to it-to the soul and not merely to the intellect-as do things seen to the physical eye. In the physical world there are always two forms of knowledge, the direct and the indirect, pratyaks.a, of that which is present to the eyes, and paroks.a, of that which is remote from and beyond our vision. When the object is beyond our vision, we are necessarily obliged to arrive at an idea of it by inference, imagination, analogy, by hearing the descriptions of others who have seen it or by studying pictorial or other representations of it if these are available. By putting together all these aids we can indeed arrive at a more or less adequate idea or suggestive image of the object, but we do not realise the thing itself; it is not yet to us the grasped reality, but only our conceptual representation of a reality. But once we have seen it with the eyes,-for no other sense is adequate,-we possess, we realise; it is there secure in our satisfied being, part of ourselves in knowledge. Precisely the same rule holds good of psychical things and of he Self. We may hear clear and luminous teachings about the Self from philosophers or teachers or from ancient writings; we may by thought, inference, imagination, analogy or by any other available means attempt to form a mental figure or conception of it; we may hold firmly that conception in our mind and fix it by an entire and exclusive concentration;3 but we have not yet realised it, we have not seen God. It is only when after long and persistent concentration or by other means the veil of the mind is rent or swept aside, only when a flood of light breaks over the awakened mentality, jyotirmaya brahman, and conception gives place to a knowledge-vision in which the Self is as present, real, concrete as a physical object to the physical eye, that we possess in knowledge; for we have seen. After that revelation, whatever fadings of the light, whatever periods of darkness may afflict the soul, it can never irretrievably lose what it has once held. The experience is inevitably renewed and must become more frequent till it is constant; when and how soon depends on the devotion and persistence with which we insist on the path and besiege by our will or our love the hidden Deity.
(2) And it is only in ourselves that we can observe and know the 2 In one respect, however, it is easier, because in external things we are not so much hampered by the sense of the limited ego as in ourselves; one obstacle to the realisation of God is therefore removed.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Status of Knowledge,#KEYS |
83:Education
THE EDUCATION of a human being should begin at birth and continue throughout his life.
Indeed, if we want this education to have its maximum result, it should begin even before birth; in this case it is the mother herself who proceeds with this education by means of a twofold action: first, upon herself for her own improvement, and secondly, upon the child whom she is forming physically. For it is certain that the nature of the child to be born depends very much upon the mother who forms it, upon her aspiration and will as well as upon the material surroundings in which she lives. To see that her thoughts are always beautiful and pure, her feelings always noble and fine, her material surroundings as harmonious as possible and full of a great simplicity - this is the part of education which should apply to the mother herself. And if she has in addition a conscious and definite will to form the child according to the highest ideal she can conceive, then the very best conditions will be realised so that the child can come into the world with his utmost potentialities. How many difficult efforts and useless complications would be avoided in this way!
Education to be complete must have five principal aspects corresponding to the five principal activities of the human being: the physical, the vital, the mental, the psychic and the spiritual. Usually, these phases of education follow chronologically the growth of the individual; this, however, does not mean that one of them should replace another, but that all must continue, completing one another until the end of his life.
We propose to study these five aspects of education one by one and also their interrelationships. But before we enter into the details of the subject, I wish to make a recommendation to parents. Most parents, for various reasons, give very little thought to the true education which should be imparted to children. When they have brought a child into the world, provided him with food, satisfied his various material needs and looked after his health more or less carefully, they think they have fully discharged their duty. Later on, they will send him to school and hand over to the teachers the responsibility for his education.
There are other parents who know that their children must be educated and who try to do what they can. But very few, even among those who are most serious and sincere, know that the first thing to do, in order to be able to educate a child, is to educate oneself, to become conscious and master of oneself so that one never sets a bad example to one's child. For it is above all through example that education becomes effective. To speak good words and to give wise advice to a child has very little effect if one does not oneself give him an example of what one teaches. Sincerity, honesty, straightforwardness, courage, disinterestedness, unselfishness, patience, endurance, perseverance, peace, calm, self-control are all things that are taught infinitely better by example than by beautiful speeches. Parents, have a high ideal and always act in accordance with it and you will see that little by little your child will reflect this ideal in himself and spontaneously manifest the qualities you would like to see expressed in his nature. Quite naturally a child has respect and admiration for his parents; unless they are quite unworthy, they will always appear to their child as demigods whom he will try to imitate as best he can.
With very few exceptions, parents are not aware of the disastrous influence that their own defects, impulses, weaknesses and lack of self-control have on their children. If you wish to be respected by a child, have respect for yourself and be worthy of respect at every moment. Never be authoritarian, despotic, impatient or ill-tempered. When your child asks you a question, do not give him a stupid or silly answer under the pretext that he cannot understand you. You can always make yourself understood if you take enough trouble; and in spite of the popular saying that it is not always good to tell the truth, I affirm that it is always good to tell the truth, but that the art consists in telling it in such a way as to make it accessible to the mind of the hearer. In early life, until he is twelve or fourteen, the child's mind is hardly open to abstract notions and general ideas. And yet you can train it to understand these things by using concrete images, symbols or parables. Up to quite an advanced age and for some who mentally always remain children, a narrative, a story, a tale well told teach much more than any number of theoretical explanations.
Another pitfall to avoid: do not scold your child without good reason and only when it is quite indispensable. A child who is too often scolded gets hardened to rebuke and no longer attaches much importance to words or severity of tone. And above all, take good care never to scold him for a fault which you yourself commit. Children are very keen and clear-sighted observers; they soon find out your weaknesses and note them without pity.
When a child has done something wrong, see that he confesses it to you spontaneously and frankly; and when he has confessed, with kindness and affection make him understand what was wrong in his movement so that he will not repeat it, but never scold him; a fault confessed must always be forgiven. You should not allow any fear to come between you and your child; fear is a pernicious means of education: it invariably gives birth to deceit and lying. Only a discerning affection that is firm yet gentle and an adequate practical knowledge will create the bonds of trust that are indispensable for you to be able to educate your child effectively. And do not forget that you have to control yourself constantly in order to be equal to your task and truly fulfil the duty which you owe your child by the mere fact of having brought him into the world.
Bulletin, February 1951
~ The Mother, On Education, #KEYS |
84:The Supermind [Supramental consciousness] is in its very essence a truth-consciousness, a consciousness always free from the Ignorance which is the foundation of our present natural or evolutionary existence and from which nature in us is trying to arrive at self-knowledge and world-knowledge and a right consciousness and the right use of our existence in the universe. The Supermind, because it is a truth-consciousness, has this knowledge inherent in it and this power of true existence; its course is straight and can go direct to its aim, its field is wide and can even be made illimitable. This is because its very nature is knowledge: it has not to acquire knowledge but possesses it in its own right; its steps are not from nescience or ignorance into some imperfect light, but from truth to greater truth, from right perception to deeper perception, from intuition to intuition, from illumination to utter and boundless luminousness, from growing widenesses to the utter vasts and to very infinitude. On its summits it possesses the divine omniscience and omnipotence, but even in an evolutionary movement of its own graded self-manifestation by which it would eventually reveal its own highest heights, it must be in its very nature essentially free from ignorance and error: it starts from truth and light and moves always in truth and light. As its knowledge is always true, so too its will is always true; it does not fumble in its handling of things or stumble in its paces. In the Supermind feeling and emotion do not depart from their truth, make no slips or mistakes, do not swerve from the right and the real, cannot misuse beauty and delight or twist away from a divine rectitude. In the Supermind sense cannot mislead or deviate into the grossnesses which are here its natural imperfections and the cause of reproach, distrust and misuse by our ignorance. Even an incomplete statement made by the Supermind is a truth leading to a further truth, its incomplete action a step towards completeness. All the life and action and leading of the Supermind is guarded in its very nature from the falsehoods and uncertainties that are our lot; it moves in safety towards its perfection. Once the truth-consciousness was established here on its own sure foundation, the evolution of divine life would be a progress in felicity, a march through light to Ananda. Supermind is an eternal reality of the divine Being and the divine Nature. In its own plane it already and always exists and possesses its own essential law of being; it has not to be created or to emerge or evolve into existence out of involution in Matter or out of non-existence, as it might seem to the view of mind which itself seems to its own view to have so emerged from life and Matter or to have evolved out of an involution in life and Matter. The nature of Supermind is always the same, a being of knowledge, proceeding from truth to truth, creating or rather manifesting what has to be manifested by the power of a pre-existent knowledge, not by hazard but by a self-existent destiny in the being itself, a necessity of the thing in itself and therefore inevitable. Its -manifestation of the divine life will also be inevitable; its own life on its own plane is divine and, if Supermind descends upon the earth, it will bring necessarily the divine life with it and establish it here. Supermind is the grade of existence beyond mind, life and Matter and, as mind, life and Matter have manifested on the earth, so too must Supermind in the inevitable course of things manifest in this world of Matter. In fact, a supermind is already here but it is involved, concealed behind this manifest mind, life and Matter and not yet acting overtly or in its own power: if it acts, it is through these inferior powers and modified by their characters and so not yet recognisable. It is only by the approach and arrival of the descending Supermind that it can be liberated upon earth and reveal itself in the action of our material, vital and mental parts so that these lower powers can become portions of a total divinised activity of our whole being: it is that that will bring to us a completely realised divinity or the divine life. It is indeed so that life and mind involved in Matter have realised themselves here; for only what is involved can evolve, otherwise there could be no emergence. The manifestation of a supramental truth-consciousness is therefore the capital reality that will make the divine life possible. It is when all the movements of thought, impulse and action are governed and directed by a self-existent and luminously automatic truth-consciousness and our whole nature comes to be constituted by it and made of its stuff that the life divine will be complete and absolute. Even as it is, in reality though not in the appearance of things, it is a secret self-existent knowledge and truth that is working to manifest itself in the creation here. The Divine is already there immanent within us, ourselves are that in our inmost reality and it is this reality that we have to manifest; it is that which constitutes the urge towards the divine living and makes necessary the creation of the life divine even in this material existence. A manifestation of the Supermind and its truth-consciousness is then inevitable; it must happen in this world sooner or lateR But it has two aspects, a descent from above, an ascent from below, a self-revelation of the Spirit, an evolution in Nature. The ascent is necessarily an effort, a working of Nature, an urge or nisus on her side to raise her lower parts by an evolutionary or revolutionary change, conversion or transformation into the divine reality and it may happen by a process and progress or by a rapid miracle. The descent or self-revelation of the Spirit is an act of the supreme Reality from above which makes the realisation possible and it can appear either as the divine aid which brings about the fulfilment of the progress and process or as the sanction of the miracle. Evolution, as we see it in this world, is a slow and difficult process and, indeed, needs usually ages to reach abiding results; but this is because it is in its nature an emergence from inconscient beginnings, a start from nescience and a working in the ignorance of natural beings by what seems to be an unconscious force. There can be, on the contrary, an evolution in the light and no longer in the darkness, in which the evolving being is a conscious participant and cooperator, and this is precisely what must take place here. Even in the effort and progress from the Ignorance to Knowledge this must be in part if not wholly the endeavour to be made on the heights of the nature, and it must be wholly that in the final movement towards the spiritual change, realisation, transformation. It must be still more so when there is a transition across the dividing line between the Ignorance and the Knowledge and the evolution is from knowledge to greater knowledge, from consciousness to greater consciousness, from being to greater being. There is then no longer any necessity for the slow pace of the ordinary evolution; there can be rapid conversion, quick transformation after transformation, what would seem to our normal present mind a succession of miracles. An evolution on the supramental levels could well be of that nature; it could be equally, if the being so chose, a more leisurely passage of one supramental state or condition of things to something beyond but still supramental, from level to divine level, a building up of divine gradations, a free growth to the supreme Supermind or beyond it to yet undreamed levels of being, consciousness and Ananda.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, 558,#KEYS |
85:How to Meditate
Deep meditation is a mental procedure that utilizes the nature of the mind to systematically bring the mind to rest. If the mind is given the opportunity, it will go to rest with no effort. That is how the mind works.
Indeed, effort is opposed to the natural process of deep meditation. The mind always seeks the path of least resistance to express itself. Most of the time this is by making more and more thoughts. But it is also possible to create a situation in the mind that turns the path of least resistance into one leading to fewer and fewer thoughts. And, very soon, no thoughts at all. This is done by using a particular thought in a particular way. The thought is called a mantra.
For our practice of deep meditation, we will use the thought - I AM. This will be our mantra.
It is for the sound that we will use I AM, not for the meaning of it.
The meaning has an obvious significance in English, and I AM has a religious meaning in the English Bible as well. But we will not use I AM for the meaning - only for the sound. We can also spell it AYAM. No meaning there, is there? Only the sound. That is what we want. If your first language is not English, you may spell the sound phonetically in your own language if you wish. No matter how we spell it, it will be the same sound. The power of the sound ...I AM... is great when thought inside. But only if we use a particular procedure. Knowing this procedure is the key to successful meditation. It is very simple. So simple that we will devote many pages here to discussing how to keep it simple, because we all have a tendency to make things more complicated. Maintaining simplicity is the key to right meditation.
Here is the procedure of deep meditation: While sitting comfortably with eyes closed, we'll just relax. We will notice thoughts, streams of thoughts. That is fine. We just let them go by without minding them. After about a minute, we gently introduce the mantra, ...I AM...
We think the mantra in a repetition very easily inside. The speed of repetition may vary, and we do not mind it. We do not intone the mantra out loud. We do not deliberately locate the mantra in any particular part of the body. Whenever we realize we are not thinking the mantra inside anymore, we come back to it easily. This may happen many times in a sitting, or only once or twice. It doesn't matter. We follow this procedure of easily coming back to the mantra when we realize we are off it for the predetermined time of our meditation session. That's it.
Very simple.
Typically, the way we will find ourselves off the mantra will be in a stream of other thoughts. This is normal. The mind is a thought machine, remember? Making thoughts is what it does. But, if we are meditating, as soon as we realize we are off into a stream of thoughts, no matter how mundane or profound, we just easily go back to the mantra.
Like that. We don't make a struggle of it. The idea is not that we have to be on the mantra all the time. That is not the objective. The objective is to easily go back to it when we realize we are off it. We just favor the mantra with our attention when we notice we are not thinking it. If we are back into a stream of other thoughts five seconds later, we don't try and force the thoughts out. Thoughts are a normal part of the deep meditation process. We just ease back to the mantra again. We favor it.
Deep meditation is a going toward, not a pushing away from. We do that every single time with the mantra when we realize we are off it - just easily favoring it. It is a gentle persuasion. No struggle. No fuss. No iron willpower or mental heroics are necessary for this practice. All such efforts are away from the simplicity of deep meditation and will reduce its effectiveness.
As we do this simple process of deep meditation, we will at some point notice a change in the character of our inner experience. The mantra may become very refined and fuzzy. This is normal. It is perfectly all right to think the mantra in a very refined and fuzzy way if this is the easiest. It should always be easy - never a struggle. Other times, we may lose track of where we are for a while, having no mantra, or stream of thoughts either. This is fine too. When we realize we have been off somewhere, we just ease back to the mantra again. If we have been very settled with the mantra being barely recognizable, we can go back to that fuzzy level of it, if it is the easiest. As the mantra refines, we are riding it inward with our attention to progressively deeper levels of inner silence in the mind. So it is normal for the mantra to become very faint and fuzzy. We cannot force this to happen. It will happen naturally as our nervous system goes through its many cycles ofinner purification stimulated by deep meditation. When the mantra refines, we just go with it. And when the mantra does not refine, we just be with it at whatever level is easy. No struggle. There is no objective to attain, except to continue the simple procedure we are describing here.
When and Where to Meditate
How long and how often do we meditate? For most people, twenty minutes is the best duration for a meditation session. It is done twice per day, once before the morning meal and day's activity, and then again before the evening meal and evening's activity.
Try to avoid meditating right after eating or right before bed.
Before meal and activity is the ideal time. It will be most effective and refreshing then. Deep meditation is a preparation for activity, and our results over time will be best if we are active between our meditation sessions. Also, meditation is not a substitute for sleep. The ideal situation is a good balance between meditation, daily activity and normal sleep at night. If we do this, our inner experience will grow naturally over time, and our outer life will become enriched by our growing inner silence.
A word on how to sit in meditation: The first priority is comfort. It is not desirable to sit in a way that distracts us from the easy procedure of meditation. So sitting in a comfortable chair with back support is a good way to meditate. Later on, or if we are already familiar, there can be an advantage to sitting with legs crossed, also with back support. But always with comfort and least distraction being the priority. If, for whatever reason, crossed legs are not feasible for us, we will do just fine meditating in our comfortable chair. There will be no loss of the benefits.
Due to commitments we may have, the ideal routine of meditation sessions will not always be possible. That is okay. Do the best you can and do not stress over it. Due to circumstances beyond our control, sometimes the only time we will have to meditate will be right after a meal, or even later in the evening near bedtime. If meditating at these times causes a little disruption in our system, we will know it soon enough and make the necessary adjustments. The main thing is that we do our best to do two meditations every day, even if it is only a short session between our commitments. Later on, we will look at the options we have to make adjustments to address varying outer circumstances, as well as inner experiences that can come up.
Before we go on, you should try a meditation. Find a comfortable place to sit where you are not likely to be interrupted and do a short meditation, say ten minutes, and see how it goes. It is a toe in the water.
Make sure to take a couple of minutes at the end sitting easily without doing the procedure of meditation. Then open your eyes slowly. Then read on here.
As you will see, the simple procedure of deep meditation and it's resulting experiences will raise some questions. We will cover many of them here.
So, now we will move into the practical aspects of deep meditation - your own experiences and initial symptoms of the growth of your own inner silence. ~ Yogani, Deep Meditation,#KEYS |
86:
Can a Yogi attain to a state of consciousness in which he can know all things, answer all questions, relating even to abstruse scientific problems, such as, for example, the theory of relativity?
Theoretically and in principle it is not impossible for a Yogi to know everything; all depends upon the Yogi.
But there is knowledge and knowledge. The Yogi does not know in the way of the mind. He does not know everything in the sense that he has access to all possible information or because he contains all the facts of the universe in his mind or because his consciousness is a sort of miraculous encyclopaedia. He knows by his capacity for a containing or dynamic identity with things and persons and forces. Or he knows because he lives in a plane of consciousness or is in contact with a consciousness in which there is the truth and the knowledge.
If you are in the true consciousness, the knowledge you have will also be of the truth. Then, too, you can know directly, by being one with what you know. If a problem is put before you, if you are asked what is to be done in a particular matter, you can then, by looking with enough attention and concentration, receive spontaneously the required knowledge and the true answer. It is not by any careful application of theory that you reach the knowledge or by working it out through a mental process. The scientific mind needs these methods to come to its conclusions. But the Yogi's knowledge is direct and immediate; it is not deductive. If an engineer has to find out the exact position for the building of an arch, the line of its curve and the size of its opening, he does it by calculation, collating and deducing from his information and data. But a Yogi needs none of these things; he looks, has the vision of the thing, sees that it is to be done in this way and not in another, and this seeing is his knowledge.
Although it may be true in a general way and in a certain sense that a Yogi can know all things and can answer all questions from his own field of vision and consciousness, yet it does not follow that there are no questions whatever of any kind to which he would not or could not answer. A Yogi who has the direct knowledge, the knowledge of the true truth of things, would not care or perhaps would find it difficult to answer questions that belong entirely to the domain of human mental constructions. It may be, he could not or would not wish to solve problems and difficulties you might put to him which touch only the illusion of things and their appearances. The working of his knowledge is not in the mind. If you put him some silly mental query of that character, he probably would not answer. The very common conception that you can put any ignorant question to him as to some super-schoolmaster or demand from him any kind of information past, present or future and that he is bound to answer, is a foolish idea. It is as inept as the expectation from the spiritual man of feats and miracles that would satisfy the vulgar external mind and leave it gaping with wonder.
Moreover, the term "Yogi" is very vague and wide. There are many types of Yogis, many lines or ranges of spiritual or occult endeavour and different heights of achievement, there are some whose powers do not extend beyond the mental level; there are others who have gone beyond it. Everything depends on the field or nature of their effort, the height to which they have arrived, the consciousness with which they have contact or into which they enter.
Do not scientists go sometimes beyond the mental plane? It is said that Einstein found his theory of relativity not through any process of reasoning, but through some kind of sudden inspiration. Has that inspiration anything to do with the Supermind?
The scientist who gets an inspiration revealing to him a new truth, receives it from the intuitive mind. The knowledge comes as a direct perception in the higher mental plane illumined by some other light still farther above. But all that has nothing to do with the action of Supermind and this higher mental level is far removed from the supramental plane. Men are too easily inclined to believe that they have climbed into regions quite divine when they have only gone above the average level. There are many stages between the ordinary human mind and the Supermind, many grades and many intervening planes. If an ordinary man were to get into direct contact even with one of these intermediate planes, he would be dazzled and blinded, would be crushed under the weight of the sense of immensity or would lose his balance; and yet it is not the Supermind.
Behind the common idea that a Yogi can know all things and answer all questions is the actual fact that there is a plane in the mind where the memory of everything is stored and remains always in existence. All mental movements that belong to the life of the earth are memorised and registered in this plane. Those who are capable of going there and care to take the trouble, can read in it and learn anything they choose. But this region must not be mistaken for the supramental levels. And yet to reach even there you must be able to silence the movements of the material or physical mind; you must be able to leave aside all your sensations and put a stop to your ordinary mental movements, whatever they are; you must get out of the vital; you must become free from the slavery of the body. Then only you can enter into that region and see. But if you are sufficiently interested to make this effort, you can arrive there and read what is written in the earth's memory.
Thus, if you go deep into silence, you can reach a level of consciousness on which it is not impossible for you to receive answers to all your questions. And if there is one who is consciously open to the plenary truth of the supermind, in constant contact with it, he can certainly answer any question that is worth an answer from the supramental Light. The queries put must come from some sense of the truth and reality behind things. There are many questions and much debated problems that are cobwebs woven of mere mental abstractions or move on the illusory surface of things. These do not pertain to real knowledge; they are a deformation of knowledge, their very substance is of the ignorance. Certainly the supramental knowledge may give an answer, its own answer, to the problems set by the mind's ignorance; but it is likely that it would not be at all satisfactory or perhaps even intelligible to those who ask from the mental level. You must not expect the supramental to work in the way of the mind or demand that the knowledge in truth should be capable of being pieced together with the half-knowledge in ignorance. The scheme of the mind is one thing, but Supermind is quite another and it would no longer be supramental if it adapted itself to the exigencies of the mental scheme. The two are incommensurable and cannot be put together.
When the consciousness has attained to supramental joys, does it no longer take interest in the things of the mind?
The supramental does not take interest in mental things in the same way as the mind. It takes its own interest in all the movements of the universe, but it is from a different point of view and with a different vision. The world presents to it an entirely different appearance; there is a reversal of outlook and everything is seen from there as other than what it seems to the mind and often even the opposite. Things have another meaning; their aspect, their motion and process, everything about them, are watched with other eyes. Everything here is followed by the supermind; the mind movements and not less the vital, the material movements, all the play of the universe have for it a very deep interest, but of another kind. It is about the same difference as that between the interest taken in a puppet-play by one who holds the strings and knows what the puppets are to do and the will that moves them and that they can do only what it moves them to do, and the interest taken by another who observes the play but sees only what is happening from moment to moment and knows nothing else. The one who follows the play and is outside its secret has a stronger, an eager and passionate interest in what will happen and he gives an excited attention to its unforeseen or dramatic events; the other, who holds the strings and moves the show, is unmoved and tranquil. There is a certain intensity of interest which comes from ignorance and is bound up with illusion, and that must disappear when you are out of the ignorance. The interest that human beings take in things founds itself on the illusion; if that were removed, they would have no interest at all in the play; they would find it dry and dull. That is why all this ignorance, all this illusion has lasted so long; it is because men like it, because they cling to it and its peculiar kind of appeal that it endures.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1929-1931, 93?
,#KEYS |
87:The Science of Living
To know oneself and to control oneself
AN AIMLESS life is always a miserable life.
Every one of you should have an aim. But do not forget that on the quality of your aim will depend the quality of your life.
Your aim should be high and wide, generous and disinterested; this will make your life precious to yourself and to others.
But whatever your ideal, it cannot be perfectly realised unless you have realised perfection in yourself.
To work for your perfection, the first step is to become conscious of yourself, of the different parts of your being and their respective activities. You must learn to distinguish these different parts one from another, so that you may become clearly aware of the origin of the movements that occur in you, the many impulses, reactions and conflicting wills that drive you to action. It is an assiduous study which demands much perseverance and sincerity. For man's nature, especially his mental nature, has a spontaneous tendency to give a favourable explanation for everything he thinks, feels, says and does. It is only by observing these movements with great care, by bringing them, as it were, before the tribunal of our highest ideal, with a sincere will to submit to its judgment, that we can hope to form in ourselves a discernment that never errs. For if we truly want to progress and acquire the capacity of knowing the truth of our being, that is to say, what we are truly created for, what we can call our mission upon earth, then we must, in a very regular and constant manner, reject from us or eliminate in us whatever contradicts the truth of our existence, whatever is opposed to it. In this way, little by little, all the parts, all the elements of our being can be organised into a homogeneous whole around our psychic centre. This work of unification requires much time to be brought to some degree of perfection. Therefore, in order to accomplish it, we must arm ourselves with patience and endurance, with a determination to prolong our life as long as necessary for the success of our endeavour.
As you pursue this labour of purification and unification, you must at the same time take great care to perfect the external and instrumental part of your being. When the higher truth manifests, it must find in you a mind that is supple and rich enough to be able to give the idea that seeks to express itself a form of thought which preserves its force and clarity. This thought, again, when it seeks to clothe itself in words, must find in you a sufficient power of expression so that the words reveal the thought and do not deform it. And the formula in which you embody the truth should be manifested in all your feelings, all your acts of will, all your actions, in all the movements of your being. Finally, these movements themselves should, by constant effort, attain their highest perfection.
All this can be realised by means of a fourfold discipline, the general outline of which is given here. The four aspects of the discipline do not exclude each other, and can be followed at the same time; indeed, this is preferable. The starting-point is what can be called the psychic discipline. We give the name "psychic" to the psychological centre of our being, the seat within us of the highest truth of our existence, that which can know this truth and set it in movement. It is therefore of capital importance to become conscious of its presence in us, to concentrate on this presence until it becomes a living fact for us and we can identify ourselves with it.
In various times and places many methods have been prescribed for attaining this perception and ultimately achieving this identification. Some methods are psychological, some religious, some even mechanical. In reality, everyone has to find the one which suits him best, and if one has an ardent and steadfast aspiration, a persistent and dynamic will, one is sure to meet, in one way or another - outwardly through reading and study, inwardly through concentration, meditation, revelation and experience - the help one needs to reach the goal. Only one thing is absolutely indispensable: the will to discover and to realise. This discovery and realisation should be the primary preoccupation of our being, the pearl of great price which we must acquire at any cost. Whatever you do, whatever your occupations and activities, the will to find the truth of your being and to unite with it must be always living and present behind all that you do, all that you feel, all that you think.
To complement this movement of inner discovery, it would be good not to neglect the development of the mind. For the mental instrument can equally be a great help or a great hindrance. In its natural state the human mind is always limited in its vision, narrow in its understanding, rigid in its conceptions, and a constant effort is therefore needed to widen it, to make it more supple and profound. So it is very necessary to consider everything from as many points of view as possible. Towards this end, there is an exercise which gives great suppleness and elevation to the thought. It is as follows: a clearly formulated thesis is set; against it is opposed its antithesis, formulated with the same precision. Then by careful reflection the problem must be widened or transcended until a synthesis is found which unites the two contraries in a larger, higher and more comprehensive idea.
Many other exercises of the same kind can be undertaken; some have a beneficial effect on the character and so possess a double advantage: that of educating the mind and that of establishing control over the feelings and their consequences. For example, you must never allow your mind to judge things and people, for the mind is not an instrument of knowledge; it is incapable of finding knowledge, but it must be moved by knowledge. Knowledge belongs to a much higher domain than that of the human mind, far above the region of pure ideas. The mind has to be silent and attentive to receive knowledge from above and manifest it. For it is an instrument of formation, of organisation and action, and it is in these functions that it attains its full value and real usefulness.
There is another practice which can be very helpful to the progress of the consciousness. Whenever there is a disagreement on any matter, such as a decision to be taken, or an action to be carried out, one must never remain closed up in one's own conception or point of view. On the contrary, one must make an effort to understand the other's point of view, to put oneself in his place and, instead of quarrelling or even fighting, find the solution which can reasonably satisfy both parties; there always is one for men of goodwill.
Here we must mention the discipline of the vital. The vital being in us is the seat of impulses and desires, of enthusiasm and violence, of dynamic energy and desperate depressions, of passions and revolts. It can set everything in motion, build and realise; but it can also destroy and mar everything. Thus it may be the most difficult part to discipline in the human being. It is a long and exacting labour requiring great patience and perfect sincerity, for without sincerity you will deceive yourself from the very outset, and all endeavour for progress will be in vain. With the collaboration of the vital no realisation seems impossible, no transformation impracticable. But the difficulty lies in securing this constant collaboration. The vital is a good worker, but most often it seeks its own satisfaction. If that is refused, totally or even partially, the vital gets vexed, sulks and goes on strike. Its energy disappears more or less completely and in its place leaves disgust for people and things, discouragement or revolt, depression and dissatisfaction. At such moments it is good to remain quiet and refuse to act; for these are the times when one does stupid things and in a few moments one can destroy or spoil the progress that has been made during months of regular effort. These crises are shorter and less dangerous for those who have established a contact with their psychic being which is sufficient to keep alive in them the flame of aspiration and the consciousness of the ideal to be realised. They can, with the help of this consciousness, deal with their vital as one deals with a rebellious child, with patience and perseverance, showing it the truth and light, endeavouring to convince it and awaken in it the goodwill which has been veiled for a time. By means of such patient intervention each crisis can be turned into a new progress, into one more step towards the goal. Progress may be slow, relapses may be frequent, but if a courageous will is maintained, one is sure to triumph one day and see all difficulties melt and vanish before the radiance of the truth-consciousness.
Lastly, by means of a rational and discerning physical education, we must make our body strong and supple enough to become a fit instrument in the material world for the truth-force which wants to manifest through us.
In fact, the body must not rule, it must obey. By its very nature it is a docile and faithful servant. Unfortunately, it rarely has the capacity of discernment it ought to have with regard to its masters, the mind and the vital. It obeys them blindly, at the cost of its own well-being. The mind with its dogmas, its rigid and arbitrary principles, the vital with its passions, its excesses and dissipations soon destroy the natural balance of the body and create in it fatigue, exhaustion and disease. It must be freed from this tyranny and this can be done only through a constant union with the psychic centre of the being. The body has a wonderful capacity of adaptation and endurance. It is able to do so many more things than one usually imagines. If, instead of the ignorant and despotic masters that now govern it, it is ruled by the central truth of the being, you will be amazed at what it is capable of doing. Calm and quiet, strong and poised, at every minute it will be able to put forth the effort that is demanded of it, for it will have learnt to find rest in action and to recuperate, through contact with the universal forces, the energies it expends consciously and usefully. In this sound and balanced life a new harmony will manifest in the body, reflecting the harmony of the higher regions, which will give it perfect proportions and ideal beauty of form. And this harmony will be progressive, for the truth of the being is never static; it is a perpetual unfolding of a growing perfection that is more and more total and comprehensive. As soon as the body has learnt to follow this movement of progressive harmony, it will be possible for it to escape, through a continuous process of transformation, from the necessity of disintegration and destruction. Thus the irrevocable law of death will no longer have any reason to exist.
When we reach this degree of perfection which is our goal, we shall perceive that the truth we seek is made up of four major aspects: Love, Knowledge, Power and Beauty. These four attributes of the Truth will express themselves spontaneously in our being. The psychic will be the vehicle of true and pure love, the mind will be the vehicle of infallible knowledge, the vital will manifest an invincible power and strength and the body will be the expression of a perfect beauty and harmony.
Bulletin, November 1950
~ The Mother, On Education, #KEYS |
88:Mental Education
OF ALL lines of education, mental education is the most widely known and practised, yet except in a few rare cases there are gaps which make it something very incomplete and in the end quite insufficient.
Generally speaking, schooling is considered to be all the mental education that is necessary. And when a child has been made to undergo, for a number of years, a methodical training which is more like cramming than true schooling, it is considered that whatever is necessary for his mental development has been done. Nothing of the kind. Even conceding that the training is given with due measure and discrimination and does not permanently damage the brain, it cannot impart to the human mind the faculties it needs to become a good and useful instrument. The schooling that is usually given can, at the most, serve as a system of gymnastics to increase the suppleness of the brain. From this standpoint, each branch of human learning represents a special kind of mental gymnastics, and the verbal formulations given to these various branches each constitute a special and well-defined language.
A true mental education, which will prepare man for a higher life, has five principal phases. Normally these phases follow one after another, but in exceptional individuals they may alternate or even proceed simultaneously. These five phases, in brief, are:
(1) Development of the power of concentration, the capacity of attention.
(2) Development of the capacities of expansion, widening, complexity and richness.
(3) Organisation of one's ideas around a central idea, a higher ideal or a supremely luminous idea that will serve as a guide in life.
(4) Thought-control, rejection of undesirable thoughts, to become able to think only what one wants and when one wants.
(5) Development of mental silence, perfect calm and a more and more total receptivity to inspirations coming from the higher regions of the being.
It is not possible to give here all the details concerning the methods to be employed in the application of these five phases of education to different individuals. Still, a few explanations on points of detail can be given.
Undeniably, what most impedes mental progress in children is the constant dispersion of their thoughts. Their thoughts flutter hither and thither like butterflies and they have to make a great effort to fix them. Yet this capacity is latent in them, for when you succeed in arousing their interest, they are capable of a good deal of attention. By his ingenuity, therefore, the educator will gradually help the child to become capable of a sustained effort of attention and a faculty of more and more complete absorption in the work in hand. All methods that can develop this faculty of attention from games to rewards are good and can all be utilised according to the need and the circumstances. But it is the psychological action that is most important and the sovereign method is to arouse in the child an interest in what you want to teach him, a liking for work, a will to progress. To love to learn is the most precious gift that one can give to a child: to love to learn always and everywhere, so that all circumstances, all happenings in life may be constantly renewed opportunities for learning more and always more.
For that, to attention and concentration should be added observation, precise recording and faithfulness of memory. This faculty of observation can be developed by varied and spontaneous exercises, making use of every opportunity that presents itself to keep the child's thought wakeful, alert and prompt. The growth of the understanding should be stressed much more than that of memory. One knows well only what one has understood. Things learnt by heart, mechanically, fade away little by little and finally disappear; what is understood is never forgotten. Moreover, you must never refuse to explain to a child the how and the why of things. If you cannot do it yourself, you must direct the child to those who are qualified to answer or point out to him some books that deal with the question. In this way you will progressively awaken in the child the taste for true study and the habit of making a persistent effort to know.
This will bring us quite naturally to the second phase of development in which the mind should be widened and enriched.
You will gradually show the child that everything can become an interesting subject for study if it is approached in the right way. The life of every day, of every moment, is the best school of all, varied, complex, full of unexpected experiences, problems to be solved, clear and striking examples and obvious consequences. It is so easy to arouse healthy curiosity in children, if you answer with intelligence and clarity the numerous questions they ask. An interesting reply to one readily brings others in its train and so the attentive child learns without effort much more than he usually does in the classroom. By a choice made with care and insight, you should also teach him to enjoy good reading-matter which is both instructive and attractive. Do not be afraid of anything that awakens and pleases his imagination; imagination develops the creative mental faculty and through it study becomes living and the mind develops in joy.
In order to increase the suppleness and comprehensiveness of his mind, one should see not only that he studies many varied topics, but above all that a single subject is approached in various ways, so that the child understands in a practical manner that there are many ways of facing the same intellectual problem, of considering it and solving it. This will remove all rigidity from his brain and at the same time it will make his thinking richer and more supple and prepare it for a more complex and comprehensive synthesis. In this way also the child will be imbued with the sense of the extreme relativity of mental learning and, little by little, an aspiration for a truer source of knowledge will awaken in him.
Indeed, as the child grows older and progresses in his studies, his mind too ripens and becomes more and more capable of forming general ideas, and with them almost always comes a need for certitude, for a knowledge that is stable enough to form the basis of a mental construction which will permit all the diverse and scattered and often contradictory ideas accumulated in his brain to be organised and put in order. This ordering is indeed very necessary if one is to avoid chaos in one's thoughts. All contradictions can be transformed into complements, but for that one must discover the higher idea that will have the power to bring them harmoniously together. It is always good to consider every problem from all possible standpoints so as to avoid partiality and exclusiveness; but if the thought is to be active and creative, it must, in every case, be the natural and logical synthesis of all the points of view adopted. And if you want to make the totality of your thoughts into a dynamic and constructive force, you must also take great care as to the choice of the central idea of your mental synthesis; for upon that will depend the value of this synthesis. The higher and larger the central idea and the more universal it is, rising above time and space, the more numerous and the more complex will be the ideas, notions and thoughts which it will be able to organise and harmonise.
It goes without saying that this work of organisation cannot be done once and for all. The mind, if it is to keep its vigour and youth, must progress constantly, revise its notions in the light of new knowledge, enlarge its frame-work to include fresh notions and constantly reclassify and reorganise its thoughts, so that each of them may find its true place in relation to the others and the whole remain harmonious and orderly.
All that has just been said concerns the speculative mind, the mind that learns. But learning is only one aspect of mental activity; the other, which is at least equally important, is the constructive faculty, the capacity to form and thus prepare action. This very important part of mental activity has rarely been the subject of any special study or discipline. Only those who want, for some reason, to exercise a strict control over their mental activities think of observing and disciplining this faculty of formation; and as soon as they try it, they have to face difficulties so great that they appear almost insurmountable.
And yet control over this formative activity of the mind is one of the most important aspects of self-education; one can say that without it no mental mastery is possible. As far as study is concerned, all ideas are acceptable and should be included in the synthesis, whose very function is to become more and more rich and complex; but where action is concerned, it is just the opposite. The ideas that are accepted for translation into action should be strictly controlled and only those that agree with the general trend of the central idea forming the basis of the mental synthesis should be permitted to express themselves in action. This means that every thought entering the mental consciousness should be set before the central idea; if it finds a logical place among the thoughts already grouped, it will be admitted into the synthesis; if not, it will be rejected so that it can have no influence on the action. This work of mental purification should be done very regularly in order to secure a complete control over one's actions.
For this purpose, it is good to set apart some time every day when one can quietly go over one's thoughts and put one's synthesis in order. Once the habit is acquired, you can maintain control over your thoughts even during work and action, allowing only those which are useful for what you are doing to come to the surface. Particularly, if you have continued to cultivate the power of concentration and attention, only the thoughts that are needed will be allowed to enter the active external consciousness and they then become all the more dynamic and effective. And if, in the intensity of concentration, it becomes necessary not to think at all, all mental vibration can be stilled and an almost total silence secured. In this silence one can gradually open to the higher regions of the mind and learn to record the inspirations that come from there.
But even before reaching this point, silence in itself is supremely useful, because in most people who have a somewhat developed and active mind, the mind is never at rest. During the day, its activity is kept under a certain control, but at night, during the sleep of the body, the control of the waking state is almost completely removed and the mind indulges in activities which are sometimes excessive and often incoherent. This creates a great stress which leads to fatigue and the diminution of the intellectual faculties.
The fact is that like all the other parts of the human being, the mind too needs rest and it will not have this rest unless we know how to provide it. The art of resting one's mind is something to be acquired. Changing one's mental activity is certainly one way of resting; but the greatest possible rest is silence. And as far as the mental faculties are concerned a few minutes passed in the calm of silence are a more effective rest than hours of sleep.
When one has learned to silence the mind at will and to concentrate it in receptive silence, then there will be no problem that cannot be solved, no mental difficulty whose solution cannot be found. When it is agitated, thought becomes confused and impotent; in an attentive tranquillity, the light can manifest itself and open up new horizons to man's capacity. Bulletin, November 1951
~ The Mother, On Education,#KEYS |
| 89:Working of Magick Art the changed aspect of the world whose culmination is the keeping of the oath "I will interpret every phenomenon as a particular dealing of God with my soul" was present with me. This aspect is difficult to describe; one is indifferent to everything and yet interested in it. The meaning of things is lost, pending the inception of their Spiritual Meaning; just as, on putting one's eye to the microscope, the drop of water on the slide is gone, and a world of life discovered, though the real import of that world is not apprehended, until one's knowledge becomes far greater than a single glance can make it. ~ Aleister Crowley #KEYS |
| 90: The purpose of creation, is lila. The concept of lila escapes all the traditional difficulties in assigning purpose to the creator. Lila is a purpose-less purpose, a natural outflow, a spontaneous self-manifestation of the Divine. The concept of lila, again, emphasizes the role of delight in creation. The concept of Prakriti and Maya fail to explain the bliss aspect of Divine. If the world is manifestation of the Force of Satcitananda, the deployment of its existence and consciousness, its purpose can be nothing but delight. This is the meaning of delight. Lila, the play, the child’s joy, the poet’s joy, the actor’s joy, the mechanician’s joy of the soul of things eternally young, perpetually inexhaustible, creating and recreating Himself in Himself for the sheer bliss of that self-creation, of that self-representation, Himself the play, Himself the player, Himself the playground ~ Sri Aurobindo, Philosophy of Social Development, pp-39-40 #KEYS |
91:Bildung. SIMPOL. Intellectual Deep Web/Syntheism. Critical Realism/Bhaskar. Some of the Bennett strains of the Gurdjieff Work. Lots of the Andrew Cohen people. Utok/Henriques. Lots of the Gebserians. Spiral dynamics. The Almaas community.
Depends which aspects we're looking at and, obviously, we're only really talking about a fraction of the people in these communities... ~ Layman Pascal, integral global, fb#KEYS |
*** NEWFULLDB 2.4M *** |
1:Rethink every aspect of bureaucracy. ~ Newt Gingrich
#NFDB |
2:By wit we search divine aspect above, ~ Robert Greene
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3:I want to explore every aspect of you. ~ Truth Devour
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4:I want to memorise every aspect of you. ~ Truth Devour
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5:the aspect of a smiling Melanchthon. ~ Charlotte Bront
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6:Destruction is only another aspect of being. ~ Angela Carter
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7:every other aspect of his life. He had the ~ Janet Evanovich
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8:I certainly think I have aspects of Paris in me. ~ Liza Weil
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9:The Masonic aspect of Hollywood is so bizarre. ~ Minnie Driver
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10:this has more aspects than a cat has hair. ~ Robert A Heinlein
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11:Your soul cherishes every aspect of your life. ~ Deepak Chopra
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12:El aspecto que tengo no cambia quién soy. ~ Christopher Paolini
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13:I love England and the historical aspect of it. ~ Dennis Farina
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14:The depression bleeds into all aspects of her life. ~ K Webster
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15:Feel is the most overlooked aspect of game creation; ~ Anonymous
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16:I just like the joyous aspect of playing comedy. ~ Andre Braugher
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17:Masculine and feminine aspects exist in all beings. ~ David Deida
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18:Partying isn't every aspect to my personality. ~ Vinny Guadagnino
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19:The worst aspect of loneliness was the silence. ~ Chuck Palahniuk
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20:Loneliness is an aspect of natural human egotism. ~ Roberto Bola o
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21:There's politics in all aspects of our daily lives. ~ Michael Moore
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22:I love the art of filmmaking very much in all aspects. ~ Derek Magyar
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23:Every work of art depicts an aspect of reality. ~ Friedrich Durrenmatt
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24:I do enjoy the puzzle-solving aspect of making a movie. ~ Duncan Jones
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25:I've always tried to explore the humorous aspects of life. ~ Ted Lange
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26:There certainly are some good aspects to Common Core. ~ Randy Hultgren
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27:... that aspect of being that once was attuned to wonder. ~ Tom Robbins
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28:Games are starting to creep into every aspect of our day. ~ Jesse Schell
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29:Imitation is human intelligence in its most dynamic aspect. ~ Ren Girard
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30:Sexuality is a remarkable aspect of the human condition. ~ Asa Don Brown
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31:Someone calls biography the home aspect of history. ~ Henry Ward Beecher
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32:The cruelest aspect of love...is its inviolable integrity. ~ Rick Yancey
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33:You get a different kick out of all aspects of filmmaking. ~ Guy Ritchie
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34:A right is nothing more than the other aspect of duty. ~ Jean Paul Sartre
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35:Being a Catholic is the most important aspect of my life. ~ Mark Wahlberg
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36:Good character improves every aspect of a person’s life. ~ John C Maxwell
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37:I think being beautiful is only one aspect of your life. ~ Alicia Machado
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38:People need heroes, in music and every aspect of life. ~ Vittorio Grigolo
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39:Healthy choices thread through every aspect of life. ~ Mary Anne Radmacher
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40:Tearing things apart (is) a powerful aspect of human nature. ~ Patti Smith
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41:The most challenging aspect of living is staying in your lane. ~ T F Hodge
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42:An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail. ~ Edwin Land
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43:I find aspects of the industry tedious and hard to manage. ~ Charlie Hunnam
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44:Religion is in every aspect of art, when it's not baroque. ~ Camille Henrot
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45:Basicly I'm in charge of all creative aspects of the show. ~ Craig McCracken
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46:El aspecto más doloroso de los golpes es el insulto que incluyen. ~ Anonymous
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47:Gardening?is one of the most underrated aspects of diplomacy. ~ George P Bush
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48:The key to longevity is to learn every aspect of music that you can. ~ Prince
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49:A riff can take on the aspect of a chorus in a listener's psyche. ~ Jack White
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50:El gobernador era corpulento, macizo, bajo y de aspecto vulgar. ~ Isaac Asimov
#NFDB |
51:I'm not one aspect of the human experience - none of us is. ~ Jennifer Aniston
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52:I really enjoy the social aspects of music as much as anything. ~ Steve Martin
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53:Different people bring out different aspects of ones personality. ~ Trevor Dunn
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54:I am a total loser, in every aspect of my life. I rarely go out. ~ Sean Hannity
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55:One of the great aspects about [Barack Obama] is who he is as a human. ~ Common
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56:The winter will be long and bleak. Nature has a dismal aspect. ~ Charles Nodier
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57:To use the past, he had to save it from aspects of itself. ~ Richard Brookhiser
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58:Una mujer hermosa no lo es por su aspecto, sino por su carácter. ~ David Safier
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59:When designing a kitchen, always keep in mind the social aspect. ~ Michael Mina
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60:all that's best of dark and bright/ meet in her aspect and her eyes ~ Lord Byron
#NFDB |
61:All the gods and goddesses are only varied aspects of the One. ~ Sri Ramakrishna
#NFDB |
62:es imposible hallar al caballo perfecto en todos los aspectos ~ Geoffrey Chaucer
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63:I feel like casting is the most important aspect of making movies. ~ Ben Affleck
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64:It is an aspect of all happiness to suppose that we deserve it. ~ Joseph Joubert
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65:Love is eternal, the aspect may change, but not the essence. ~ Vincent Van Gogh
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66:Mind and matter are two different aspects of one and the same thing. ~ Carl Jung
#NFDB |
67:morality trumps all other aspects of character in importance. ~ Angela Duckworth
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68:One who has conquered every aspect of his pain except the deepest. ~ Mary Balogh
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69:We don't see things in themselves, but only aspects of things. ~ Timothy Ferris
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70:All the gods and goddesses are only varied aspects of the One. ~ Sri Ramakrishna,
#NFDB |
71:As if thought were not our most passionate, our most ardent aspect. ~ Carole Maso
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72:Love is eternal, the aspect may change, but not the essence.
~ Vincent Van Gogh
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73:Madness is my life, the only aspect of living I’ve ever known. ~ Jessica Sorensen
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74:That aspects are within us; and who seems Most kingly is the King. ~ Thomas Hardy
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75:We see, not change of aspect, but change of interpretation. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein
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76:With every breath, the possibility of a new aspect of self arises. ~ Wayne Muller
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77:Behind every aspect of the world is another aspect of the world. ~ Gregory Maguire
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78:Every country has an aspect to it that rubs up people the wrong way. ~ John Bolton
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79:In every aspect of my life, I tend to look for the deeper side. ~ Anoushka Shankar
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80:Mantener el aspecto adecuado ha dejado de resultar glamuroso, ... ~ Gennifer Albin
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81:Time is not an absolute reality but an aspect of our consciousness. ~ Robert Lanza
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82:Everything that I play as an actress is a different aspect of me. ~ Virginia Madsen
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83:like every other aspect of our psychology, motivation is biological. ~ John J Ratey
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84:Self confidence plays an important part in every aspect of man's life. ~ Dalai Lama
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85:That's the worst aspect of being a writer: managing plausibility. ~ Chuck Palahniuk
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86:The ancillary aspect of every British city now is the council estate. ~ V S Naipaul
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87:Artists probably should have some impenetrable aspects of themselves. ~ Simon Callow
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88:To many men, moderate success is only another aspect of failure. ~ Charles Tomlinson
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89:Whatever aspect of life you apply it to, making change takes courage. ~ Gloria Feldt
#NFDB |
90:Becoming a mother doesn't always change every aspect of your personality. ~ Anna Torv
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91:En muchos aspectos el amor más insensato es el amor más verdadero. ~ Patrick Rothfuss
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92:The most damaging aspect of contemporary living is short-term thinking. ~ Rick Warren
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93:The negotiations must address all aspects, both peace and withdrawal. ~ Yitzhak Rabin
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94:Virtue in its grandest aspect is neither more nor less than following reason. ~ Laozi
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95:When three persons work together, each can be the teacher in some aspects ~ Confucius
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96:feelings are one of the most inconsistent aspects of the human person. ~ Matthew Kelly
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97:I like to act. Every other aspect of show business I find uninteresting. ~ J K Simmons
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98:No aspect of our contemporary lives has been untouched by women's work. ~ Dyllan McGee
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99:spiritual formation is a matter of reworking all aspects of the self. ~ Dallas Willard
#NFDB |
100:The central aspect of worship is the feeling of being at one with God. ~ Baal Shem Tov
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101:You want to have stability in the commercial aspect of your operation. ~ Andrew Taylor
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102:Freedom from clinging allows us bring love into all aspects of our life. ~ Gil Fronsdal
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103:I always felt there was kind of a millennial aspect to The Sex Pistols. ~ Julien Temple
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104:I like to explore a lot of textural, arrangement aspects in the studio. ~ David Sylvian
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105:por primera vez, era su padre quien tenía aspecto de temerla a ella. ~ Stephanie Garber
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106:Suffering has its beneficial aspects. It can be an excellent teacher. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
#NFDB |
107:two aspects of a virus in action: transmissibility and virulence. These ~ David Quammen
#NFDB |
108:Are you interested in robotics, Mr. Byerley?” “Only in the legal aspects. ~ Isaac Asimov
#NFDB |
109:don’t we all choose to live in the dump in certain aspects of our lives? ~ Camron Wright
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110:I love being a Mum, but it’s still the most terrifying aspect of my life. ~ Kelly Rimmer
#NFDB |
111:And all that 's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes ~ Lord Byron
#NFDB |
112:I love art and I think I was destined to end up in some aspect of the arts. ~ Ken Baumann
#NFDB |
113:I'm really not into the educational aspect of performing. It's not in me. ~ Dave Lombardo
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114:I think the inner and outer aspects of the self together make one person. ~ Mamoru Hosoda
#NFDB |
115:I think you kind of lose the human aspect when you make things too perfect. ~ Jenny Lewis
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116:On the road, as in many other aspects of Indian life, Might is Right. ~ William Dalrymple
#NFDB |
117:Preparing mentally takes more out of you than the physical aspect of it. ~ Summer Sanders
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118:There are many aspects to success; material wealth is only one component. ~ Deepak Chopra
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119:Things mortal change their aspect daily; they are nothing but a lie. ~ Hermes: On Rebirth
#NFDB |
120:Usually monsters are some aspect of human behavior or humanity at large. ~ Frank Spotnitz
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121:Discipline is a vital aspect of growth, but of equal importance is praise. ~ Asa Don Brown
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122:El tiempo nos impulsa hacia delante o hacia atrás y va alterando nuestro aspecto. ~ Yu Hua
#NFDB |
123:If death had only negative aspects, dying would be an unmanageable action. ~ Emil M Cioran
#NFDB |
124:Of all aspects of social misery nothing is so heartbreaking as unemployment. ~ Jane Addams
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125:Past and future are two aspects of the same coin. The name of the coin is mind. ~ Rajneesh
#NFDB |
126:Profit is the most global aspect of a business, and it is cross-functional. ~ Carlos Ghosn
#NFDB |
127:The ecological thought affects all aspects of life, culture, and society. ~ Timothy Morton
#NFDB |
128:The single most important aspect of coaching is running effective practices ~ Bobby Knight
#NFDB |
129:Wealth is measured by the level of experience in all aspects of life ~ Henry David Thoreau
#NFDB |
130:Happiness can be woven into every aspect of life once you make new choices. ~ Deepak Chopra
#NFDB |
131:In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work ~ Sol LeWitt
#NFDB |
132:Muslim societies must leave behind these dual aspects: secularism/Islamism. ~ Tariq Ramadan
#NFDB |
133:The most scandalous aspect of any scandal is that one gets used to it. ~ Simone de Beauvoir
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134:The spiritual self is the deepest, most integrated aspect of who we are. ~ Marya Hornbacher
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135:When we embrace every aspect of ourselves with unconditional love – we heal. ~ Heidi DuPree
#NFDB |
136:Anyone could identify with the human aspect of the characters. ~ Gilberto Hernandez Guerrero
#NFDB |
137:Because of this erotic bond, the earth becomes luxuriant in its every aspect. ~ Thomas Berry
#NFDB |
138:But, if there's any aspect of my career that needs attention, it's writing. ~ Bobby McFerrin
#NFDB |
139:I am a great realist in all aspects of life. Whatever I can do ... here it is. ~ Olga Korbut
#NFDB |
140:Music has completely taken over every aspect of my life and ruined everything. ~ Wes Borland
#NFDB |
141:One who explores and knows all aspects of his life, is called self-realized. ~ Jaggi Vasudev
#NFDB |
142:Every aspect of Obamacare is an affront to the very founding of this country. ~ Rush Limbaugh
#NFDB |
143:In choosing a colour one must realize that it changes in different aspects. ~ Nancy Lancaster
#NFDB |
144:Theatre demands different muscles and different aspects of one's personality. ~ Victor Garber
#NFDB |
145:There were some films I refused because the feminist aspect was a bit wonky. ~ Julie Christie
#NFDB |
146:They were so in love with the world, and so disappointed in every aspect of it. ~ Dave Eggers
#NFDB |
147:Two aspects to the relative world: relaxation and time management. ~ Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
#NFDB |
148:Don't hesitate to learn the most painful aspects of our history, understand it. ~ Maya Angelou
#NFDB |
149:Human-caused climate change threatens almost every aspect of human existence. ~ Alan Lowenthal
#NFDB |
150:I have a particular dislike for children's films. I'm way past the novelty aspect. ~ Nick Cave
#NFDB |
151:I love every aspect of being a woman. I believe you should celebrate who you are. ~ Eva Mendes
#NFDB |
152:I take improv classes. Improv is something I can use in any aspect of life. ~ Vinny Guadagnino
#NFDB |
153:Speech is a very important aspect of being human. A whisper doesn't cut it. ~ James Earl Jones
#NFDB |
154:The person you call an enemy is an exaggerated aspect of your own shadow self. ~ Deepak Chopra
#NFDB |
155:There are many aspects to directing that have a romantic place in people's minds. ~ Adam McKay
#NFDB |
156:To me, body and mind are different aspects of specific biological processes. ~ Antonio Damasio
#NFDB |
157:Within any important issue, there are always aspects no one wishes to discuss. ~ George Orwell
#NFDB |
158:Demanding immediate results is an aspect of unsteadiness of mind or laziness. ~ Matthieu Ricard
#NFDB |
159:I have always been attracted to the bleaker aspects of life. I love drama. ~ Marianne Faithfull
#NFDB |
160:So curiosity, I think, is a really important aspect of staying young or youthful. ~ Goldie Hawn
#NFDB |
161:The whole vanity aspect of building up different muscles - I have no interest. ~ Andrew Lincoln
#NFDB |
162:We are all continually embarking on first drafts, in every aspect of our lives. ~ Jules Feiffer
#NFDB |
163:We choose to forget aspects of ourselves and then we forget that we've forgotten. ~ Debbie Ford
#NFDB |
164:Delete, delete, delete and at the end find the ‘core aspect of the design’ ~ Achille Castiglioni
#NFDB |
165:Every aspect of human technology has a dark side, including the bow and arrow. ~ Margaret Atwood
#NFDB |
166:I like superheroes. I like the drama of it, the stirring, larger-than-life aspect. ~ Kurt Busiek
#NFDB |
167:In love's God-like breathing, there's the innermost aspect of the universe. ~ Alexander Scriabin
#NFDB |
168:I shall tell him that being partly invisible is merely a small aspect of my charm. ~ Colm T ib n
#NFDB |
169:It's easy to get distracted by the vaudevillian aspects of the healthcare debate. ~ Carl Hiaasen
#NFDB |
170:The live aspect is so thrilling, I get nervous again. It's like going on stage. ~ Allison Janney
#NFDB |
171:The shared secret and the shared denial are the most horrible aspects of incest. ~ John Bradshaw
#NFDB |
172:those who judge must take all aspects of an individual's personality into account. ~ Azar Nafisi
#NFDB |
173:As with all other aspects of fiction, the key to writing good dialogue is honesty. ~ Stephen King
#NFDB |
174:A thousand aspects point back to the One. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Debate of Love and Death,
#NFDB |
175:His whole aspect was that of a man who has unexpectedly been struck by lightning. ~ P G Wodehouse
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176:If you hanker after accomplishment, you will aspect raw eggs and faultfinders. ~ Carrie Underwood
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177:I have a hard time picturing several aspects of the modern world without Luther. ~ Martin E Marty
#NFDB |
178:Intelligence is that aspect of human cognition that we haven't managed to emulate yet. ~ Rob Lowe
#NFDB |
179:Knowledge of every aspect of human life, physical and spiritual is plentiful today. ~ Ted Andrews
#NFDB |
180:The idea is that awe all have a shadow, which comprises denied aspects of the self. ~ Lauren Kate
#NFDB |
181:The insights of science have enriched many aspects of my own Buddhist worldview. ~ Dalai Lama XIV
#NFDB |
182:The most important aspect of being on a spiritual path may be to just keep moving. ~ Pema Chodron
#NFDB |
183:We are not responding to this instant if we are judging any aspect of it. ~ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
#NFDB |
184:Each person you meet
is an aspect of yourself,
clamoring for love. ~ Eric Micha el Leventhal
#NFDB |
185:Technical knowledge has now become an integral aspect of the Iranian psyche. ~ Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
#NFDB |
186:Your attitude colors every aspect of your life. It is like the mind's paintbrush. ~ John C Maxwell
#NFDB |
187:Your attitude colors every aspect of your life. It is like the mind’s paintbrush. ~ John C Maxwell
#NFDB |
188:He highlighted the aspects of his course that would help parents survive and thrive ~ Donald Miller
#NFDB |
189:It takes a truly dedicated person to see opportunities in every aspect
of life ~ Shannon Kaiser
#NFDB |
190:Judging from the molten aspect of the diarrhea, it’d probably been something Mexican, ~ Bryan Smith
#NFDB |
191:One of the best aspects of health care reform is it starts to emphasize prevention. ~ Anne Wojcicki
#NFDB |
192:Poverty, when it is voluntary, is never despicable, but takes an heroical aspect. ~ William Hazlitt
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193:The ability to make and keep promises is the key aspect to trust in a relationship. ~ Robert Cheeke
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194:There's a strong aspect of Buddhism which is geared towards ending all fertility. ~ Quentin S Crisp
#NFDB |
195:The things she thinks are her flaws are the very aspects of her that I adore most. ~ Laurelin Paige
#NFDB |
196:the transformational aspect of Jesus’ message starts right here—with you and me. ~ Benjamin L Corey
#NFDB |
197:Closure is a preposterous concept worthy of the worst aspects of American daytime TV. ~ James Ellroy
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198:I didn't write about aspects of my public life because that's a small part of my life. ~ Patti Smith
#NFDB |
199:My own view is that Buddhism must abandon many aspects of the Abhidharma cosmology. ~ Dalai Lama XIV
#NFDB |
200:The most difficult aspect of moving on is accepting that the other person already did. ~ Faraaz Kazi
#NFDB |
201:The relational aspect of all things is the music that sets life and the universe dancing. ~ Dee Hock
#NFDB |
202:We are all a part of a culture of violence that dominates every aspect of our lives. ~ Bryant McGill
#NFDB |
203:All science is static in the sense that it describes the unchanging aspects of things. ~ Frank Knight
#NFDB |
204:La timidez es únicamente efecto de una sensación de inferioridad en uno u otro aspecto. ~ Jane Austen
#NFDB |
205:Obesity affects every aspect of a people's lives, from health to relationships. ~ Jane Velez Mitchell
#NFDB |
206:We are aspects of Divinity, in the process of knowing ourselves experientially. ~ Neale Donald Walsch
#NFDB |
207:What you might see as depravity is, to me, just another aspect of the human condition. ~ Asia Argento
#NFDB |
208:But the aspect of secrets is they leak out. If they didn't leak, they wouldn't be interesting. ~ CLAMP
#NFDB |
209:He could not bear to part with his paintings because they were an aspect of his being. ~ Peter Ackroyd
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210:He’s the man equivalent of a gun to the head, except without the fear for my life aspect. ~ Penny Reid
#NFDB |
211:I call the light and high aspects of my being spirit and the dark and heavy aspects soul. ~ Dalai Lama
#NFDB |
212:I definitely find the technical aspects of post-production generally quite overwhelming. ~ Jenni Olson
#NFDB |
213:I didn't get into making music for the fame aspect. There are people who do desire that. ~ Sheryl Crow
#NFDB |
214:In the real life-process, willing, feeling, and thinking are only different aspects. ~ Wilhelm Dilthey
#NFDB |
215:I think the whole aspect of social networking is vulgar and repulsive in a lot of ways. ~ Trent Reznor
#NFDB |
216:Love and respect are the most important aspects of parenting, and of all relationships. ~ Jodie Foster
#NFDB |
217:Research for this book has made me aware of aspects of Christianity I find disturbing. ~ Elaine Pagels
#NFDB |
218:A curious aspect of the theory of evolution is that everybody thinks he understands it. ~ Jacques Monod
#NFDB |
219:I kind of like the ping-pong coach aspect; it somehow fits, and I don't know how. ~ Jeffrey Dean Morgan
#NFDB |
220:Men at an earlier age, get the feminine aspects of them wrung out in a variety of ways. ~ Peter Buffett
#NFDB |
221:Pleasure and pain are only aspects of the mind. Our essential nature is happiness ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi
#NFDB |
222:The most desirable aspects of the Law of the Sea Treaty pertain to navigational rights. ~ Frank Gaffney
#NFDB |
223:The outstanding doctor constantly emphasized the humanitarian aspect of medical care. ~ Benjamin Carson
#NFDB |
224:This verse made me realize that I've divorced an entire aspect of my life from God: eating ~ Matt Cohen
#NFDB |
225:You can dramatize your ideas in business or in any other aspect of your life. It’s easy ~ Dale Carnegie
#NFDB |
226:Are there quantitative aspects to the phenomena of war that can be counted? Evidently! ~ Pitirim Sorokin
#NFDB |
227:Art has the ability to redeem life by finding beauty even in the worst aspect of things. ~ Roger Scruton
#NFDB |
228:E Serguei Sergueievitch fez barba e bigode: e tinha agora o aspecto de um perfeito idiota. ~ Andrei Bely
#NFDB |
229:I came to consider the instinct as nothing more than the "motor aspect of pleasure."
~ Wilhelm Reich
#NFDB |
230:If you want to reach the infinite, then explore every aspect of the finite. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
#NFDB |
231:I love being in a show. I love the community aspect of it. I like the discipline of it, too. ~ Joel Grey
#NFDB |
232:In one aspect, yes, I believe in ghosts, but we create them. We haunt ourselves. ~ Laurie Halse Anderson
#NFDB |
233:In so far as the mind sees things in their eternal aspect, it participates in eternity. ~ Baruch Spinoza
#NFDB |
234:The brain remembers the emotional component of an experience better than any other aspect. ~ John Medina
#NFDB |
235:Affirmative action is an effort to include every aspect of society in the decision making. ~ Andrew Young
#NFDB |
236:Fiction is ideally suited to re-creating the important emotional aspects of history. ~ Alix Kates Shulman
#NFDB |
237:I'm probably better than I ever was in my career, as far as the mental aspect of the game. ~ Michael Vick
#NFDB |
238:I think the thriller aspect of this film [Fifty Shades Darker] is what excited me most. ~ Bella Heathcote
#NFDB |
239:The true purpose of yoga is to discover that aspect of your being that can never be lost. ~ Deepak Chopra
#NFDB |
240:Well, he's just the same guy who in other aspects of his life would be very late to a trend. ~ Jim Cramer
#NFDB |
241:Why not advance science in its most difficult and vital aspect, the knowledge of the brain? ~ Bram Stoker
#NFDB |
242:Great feelings will often take the aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion. ~ George Eliot
#NFDB |
243:I don't see how sucking the joy out of every aspect of life can be pleasing to anybody's God ~ Kim Edwards
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244:I feel very uneasy with a lot of aspects of the Russian life and the Russian people. ~ Mikhail Baryshnikov
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245:Magick has many aspects, but primarily it acts as a dramatized system of “psychology ~ Robert Anton Wilson
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246:People in the midst of losing their patience are certainly experiencing as aspect of dukkha. ~ Allan Lokos
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247:A true name is bound to your soul, is an aspect of your full being. A true name is true power. ~ A R Kahler
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248:Form is any aspect of a poem that encourages it to stay whole and not drift off into chaos. ~ Billy Collins
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249:I liked being on stage, I just didn't like the theatrical aspect of being in front of people. ~ Patti Smith
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250:I like keeping my mind as far away from money and the material aspects of my job as possible. ~ Miley Cyrus
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251:I'm just a negative person, a deeply negative person. I see the worst aspects of everything. ~ Robert Crumb
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252:I'm not a morose person; it's just that my best songs reflect on the sadder aspects of life. ~ Robert Smith
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253:I think the ordinary is a very under-exploited aspect of our lives because it is so familiar. ~ Martin Parr
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254:I vowed I wouldn’t let a day go past without feeling gratitude for every aspect of my life. ~ Bella Forrest
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255:At the end of it all, it's my little movie library, and you see aspects of me through that. ~ Milla Jovovich
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256:Being gay is just one aspect of my very complicated life. I do not wear it on my sleeve. ~ Patricia Cornwell
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257:My ambition was always to show aspects of daily life as if we were seeing them for the first time. ~ Brassai
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258:The most important aspect of detente today is that there is no ideological detente. ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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259:A crucial aspect of the world that could only be expressed through the medium of music. His ~ Haruki Murakami
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260:An artist recreates those aspects of reality which represent his fundamental view of man's nature. ~ Ayn Rand
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261:Being disabled should not mean being disqualified from having access to every aspect of life. ~ Emma Thompson
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262:I make almost all the decisions on set and have to deal with all the financial aspects. ~ Michel Hazanavicius
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263:I'm having trouble dealing with society."
"What aspect of society?"
"The whole thing. ~ Brandon Stanton
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264:Love opens your heart, trumps fear, and paves the way for healing in all aspects of your life. ~ Lissa Rankin
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265:Your development as a person should coincide with your development in all aspects of your life. ~ Ethan Hawke
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266:As long as you can savor the humorous aspect of misery and misfortune, you can overcome anything. ~ John Candy
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267:Consider the work of Calvary. A perfect work, perfect in every respect, perfect in every aspect ~ Derek Prince
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268:Enacting love was a critical aspect of experiencing love. Devotion and ethics intertwined. ~ Diana Butler Bass
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269:Fear knows no borders, and the terminology of hate has seeped into every aspect of life. ~ Andre Naffis Sahely
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270:I try to use all aspects of media and my gifting and calling to help as many people as I can. ~ DeVon Franklin
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271:reasons they disappear, how they do it, why they do it, and an aspect that often gets forgotten – ~ Tim Weaver
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272:Religious faith is an important aspect of American culture and a fact of American political life. ~ John Rawls
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273:We have to make a sustained effort, again and again, to cultivate the positive aspects within us. ~ Dalai Lama
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274:Your attitude is everything, and it determines how you experience every aspect of your life ~ Gerald Jampolsky
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275:A lot of the aspects of the world of the film are amalgams of things that already exist. ~ Michael Winterbottom
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276:Another curious aspect of the theory of evolution is that everybody thinks he understands it! ~ Richard Dawkins
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277:As for my style, for my vision of the cinema, editing is not simply one aspect; it's the aspect. ~ Orson Welles
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278:Every aspect of life is magnificent and wonderful. It's so important to keep fit and healthy. ~ Richard Branson
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279:Every aspect of our lives is, in a sense, a vote for the kind of world we want to live in. ~ Frances Moore Lapp
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280:Everyone sees other people differently because everyone is projecting aspects of him or her self. ~ Debbie Ford
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281:I hope we can continue to find ways to encourage integrity in all aspects of government operations ~ Ben Carson
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282:I treat both acting and writing as a creation - writing is just another element or aspect of it. ~ Meital Dohan
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283:Lack of love for the vegetative, subtle, cthonic, pagan, and sexy aspect of the world means death. ~ Alan Watts
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284:With fashion, you really need to understand the aspects of construction. Not just design on an iPad. ~ Tim Gunn
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285:Almost all new ideas have a certain aspect of foolishness when they are first produced. ~ Alfred North Whitehead
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286:A taste for the miniature was one aspect of an orderly spirit. Another was a passion for secrets... ~ Ian McEwan
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287:Birth and death are not two different states, but they are different aspects of the same state. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
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288:Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people. ~ Leo Burnett
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289:Eva [Braun] and I were never involved in the financial aspects of where [Adolf] Hitler put her up. ~ Gretl Braun
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290:Every aspect of our lives is, in a sense, a vote for the kind of world we want to live in. ~ Frances Moore Lappe
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291:I always try and do everything I can to the best of my abilities, single aspect has to be perfect. ~ Jeff Dunham
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292:I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn't just one aspect of the game; it is the game. ~ Lou Gerstner
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293:I'm a total control freak and love to participate in the design of every single aspect of life. ~ Drew Barrymore
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294:I woke up, smiling to myself at this dream with its allegorical aspects but with no real meaning. ~ Jean de Berg
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295:Style is about the choices you make to create the aspects of civilization that you wish to uphold. ~ David Bowie
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296:The profound aspect of technology is that once secrets are revealed, the magic doesn't disappear. ~ Ray Kurzweil
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297:There is no point in dwelling on or feeling bad about the aspects of our lives that we can't change. ~ Hal Elrod
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298:two critical aspects of the adaptive response to threat that is basic to human survival. ~ Bessel A van der Kolk
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299:We were wanderers on a prehistoric earth, on an earth that wore the aspect of an unknown planet. ~ Joseph Conrad
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300:When you judge anyone or anything you are ultimately judging another aspect of yourself. ~ Russell Anthony Gibbs
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301:You have to lean into the turn. On every creative aspect, you have to lean into what's working. ~ Billy Lawrence
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302:Forgiveness is an aspect of love that allows us to see life events from the viewpoint of grace. ~ David R Hawkins
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303:I share every aspect of my life with the internet. Whether or not that's a good thing I don't know. ~ Troye Sivan
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304:I've always been drawn to Marilyn Monroe, but certain aspects of her story may be too sad to tell ~ Sherilyn Fenn
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305:Many philosophers also supposed a haptic aspect to emotions, approaching them as a variety of feeling ~ Anonymous
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306:Mars in Aries adds an Amazon warrior, hard-edged, fiery aspect to the most benign character. ~ Hazel Dixon Cooper
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307:Nosotros somos los censores que creemos tener derecho a decidir cómo se debe vivir y con qué aspecto. ~ Anonymous
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308:So many aspects of nature restore the soul, but for me, being on the water is the most cleansing. ~ Ashley Farley
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309:The bill is emblematic of the attempt by the majority party to control every aspect of our lives. ~ Virginia Foxx
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310:The key to attempting to create art in some aspect is also knowing that it will turn some people off. ~ Dane Cook
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311:The third aspect was that Hindu society has always been divided into four main castes—the varnas. ~ Romila Thapar
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312:The Voice has been politically correct in many of its aspects since before that term was ever used. ~ Nat Hentoff
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313:Wealth, in even the most improbable cases, manages to convey the aspect of intelligence. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith
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314:We are all several different people. There are different aspects of our nature that are competing. ~ Harold Ramis
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315:An atheist may be simply one whose faith and love are concentrated on the impersonal aspects of God. ~ Simone Weil
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316:An ideal is merely the projection, on an enormously enlarged scale, of some aspect of personality. ~ Aldous Huxley
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317:God has given us the fascination and mystery of irrational numbers, as one aspect of a rich world ~ Vern Poythress
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318:I love every aspect of the creation of motion pictures and I guess I am committed to it for life. ~ Clint Eastwood
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319:It's a well known thing that ordinary perceptions can have a strange aspect when one is travelling. ~ Kenneth Koch
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320:Jewelry is something that has to do with emotion. That aspect of jewelry really interests me. ~ Ann Demeulemeester
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321:Life is both dreadful and wonderful. To practice meditation is to be in touch with both aspects. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
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322:Most of the misery had been generated by her conventional aspect, and not by her innate sensations. ~ Thomas Hardy
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323:The aspects you are willing to ignore are more important than the aspects you are willing to accept. ~ Erik Naggum
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324:The secretiveness. The stealth. Those were obviously the aspects of cocaine use I was addicted to. ~ George Carlin
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325:What is The Subconscious to every other man, in its creative aspect becomes, for writers, The Muse. ~ Ray Bradbury
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326:Every aspect of life is an experiment that can be better understood if it is perceived in that way. ~ John Brockman
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327:I just want to go for it. In every aspect of my life and careers, I just want to give it all I have. ~ Maika Monroe
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328:Music that touches the transcendental aspect of a human being is reserved for a marginal audience ~ John McLaughlin
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329:(Randle McMurphy) Never before did I realize that mental illness could have the aspect of power, power. ~ Ken Kesey
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330:The Democrats of today, they don't care about the past, other than look at aspects of it they hate. ~ Rush Limbaugh
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331:There are in life as many aspects as attitudes towards it, and aspects change with attitudes. ~ Katherine Mansfield
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332:To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. ~ Carl Jung
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333:But on the other hand I believe I'm a private person too, and I enjoy that aspect of my life as well. ~ Beau Bridges
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334:Don't look for "depth" but instead search for subject aspects which prove the presence of depth. ~ Andreas Feininger
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335:I mean, I’m quite happy. I’m happy in all aspects of my life. I'm very happy in all aspects of my life. ~ John Mayer
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336:I'm going to put every aspect of myself out into the world and try to convey it through photography. ~ Ryan McGinley
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337:"Life is both dreadful and wonderful. To practice meditation is to be in touch with both aspects." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
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338:One aspect we might focus on during this moratorium is an alternative to overly cerebral approaches. ~ Frans de Waal
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339:Our ability to do great things with data will make a real difference in every aspect of our lives. ~ Jennifer Pahlka
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340:There is some truth in everything. Views and opinions are different aspects. Do not quarrel with others. ~ Sivananda
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341:"We have to make a sustained effort, again and again, to cultivate the positive aspects within us." ~ Dalai Lama XIV
#NFDB |
342:Art is a way of taking distance. The pathological or therapeutic aspects exist, but just as catalysts. ~ Sophie Calle
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343:If you choose, you can influence every aspect of your brain, and therefore every aspect of your life. ~ Deepak Chopra
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344:It is the unconscious which chooses what aspect of us will be admitted to official existence. ~ Maurice Merleau Ponty
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345:The most dangerous aspect of religion is its tendency to glorify the absurd and justify the abhorrent. ~ Stifyn Emrys
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346:The true causes are the same ones that invade most aspects of our society—greed and corruption.” It’s ~ Brett Battles
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347:Thinking is no more than a tiny aspect of the totality of consciousness, the totality of who you are. ~ Eckhart Tolle
#NFDB |
348:"To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real." ~ Carl Jung
#NFDB |
349:wealth creation is not an end in and of itself but is a crucial aspect of achieving a purposeful life, ~ Tony Robbins
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350:A "simple aspect of science" may be defined as one which, through good fortune, I happen to understand. ~ Isaac Asimov
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351:Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. ~ Viktor E Frankl
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352:History in its broadest aspect is a record of man's migrations from one environment to another. ~ Ellsworth Huntington
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353:I don't think that players learn how to play any other aspect of the game in high school or college. ~ Oscar Robertson
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354:I enjoy all aspects of singing and I'm luckily given the choice to be part of different styles of music. ~ Bryn Terfel
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355:I like being outside and working with the elements. The elemental aspects of it. The physicality of it. ~ Maggie Smith
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356:I'm not geeky but I have my geeky, corky moments, and then I've got some aspects of cool in me, I guess. ~ Nick Cannon
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357:I was actually really happy with where my game was at. That's probably the most disappointing aspect. ~ Lleyton Hewitt
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358:The most sinister aspect of Jack is his detachment, his ability to distance himself from his feelings. ~ Victor Garber
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359:The news is not a mirror of social conditions, but the report of an aspect that has obtruded itself. ~ Walter Lippmann
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360:There's millions of gods, beta, but all represent aspects of three, and all three are really one"... ~ Sarah Macdonald
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361:Acostúmbrese a no considerar nada por su aspecto, sino por su evidencia. No hay regla mejor que ésta. ~ Charles Dickens
#NFDB |
362:All consciousness comes from the one Consciousness-Knowledge is one aspect of the Divine Consciousness. ~ Sri Aurobindo
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363:Devotion to God is studying him in every aspect; serving God is teaching what you know of Him to others. ~ Reshad Feild
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364:Every aspect of the world today - even politics and international relations - is affected by chemistry. ~ Linus Pauling
#NFDB |
365:I don't function well in certain aspects of society, and you can read into that what you will. ~ James Vincent McMorrow
#NFDB |
366:In all aspects of my life, I try to reduce my impact on the earth - that includes snowboarding, as well. ~ Jeremy Jones
#NFDB |
367:In real life, the hardest aspect of the battle between good and evil is determining which is which. ~ George R R Martin
#NFDB |
368:Talking to God should be part of every aspect of life, in times of peace as well as in every battle. ~ Stormie Omartian
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369:We are never alone. We are all aspects of one great being. No matter how far apart we are, the air links us. ~ Yoko Ono
#NFDB |
370:What are you passionate enough about that you can endure the most disagreeable aspects of the work? ~ Elizabeth Gilbert
#NFDB |
371:When you're so out there in the public eye, people are constantly criticizing every aspect about you. ~ Gwyneth Paltrow
#NFDB |
372:When you’re stuck in a spiral, to change all aspects of the spin you need only to change one thing. ~ Christina Baldwin
#NFDB |
373:Work-life symbiosis is what you achieve when all aspects of your life exist together harmoniously. ~ Erin Rooney Doland
#NFDB |
374:Donald Trump let the American public into every aspect of what it meant to be successful in America. ~ Omarosa Manigault
#NFDB |
375:Finding an aspect of modern life that doesn't incorporate some strand of Bell Labs’ DNA would be difficult ~ Jon Gertner
#NFDB |
376:Finding the physical aspect is important to me because that is often how we read people in everyday life. ~ Henry Cavill
#NFDB |
377:Humility is the most underrated aspect of being an entrepreneur. Once your head gets too big, you’re cooked. ~ Anonymous
#NFDB |
378:I try to live honestly in every aspect of my life, which can make things a bit more complicated, right? ~ Richard Madden
#NFDB |
379:Living Matter Evades the Decay to Equilibrium. ~ Erwin Schrödinger, What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell
#NFDB |
380:My dad was rubbish at all other aspects of his financial life, but he's pretty good at paying the rent. ~ Robert Carlyle
#NFDB |
381:on the higher levels of the spiritual path, celibacy is considered a most important aspect of the training. ~ Ayya Khema
#NFDB |
382:Things happen in front of you. That's perhaps the most wonderful and mysterious aspect of photography. ~ Annie Leibovitz
#NFDB |
383:This is true for every aspect of your life: The more you push against it, the more resistance you create. ~ Wayne W Dyer
#NFDB |
384:We may get to know the world however we choose, it will always keep a day and night aspect. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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385:We often seek the companionship of others who display aspects we've repressed to the depths of our shadow. ~ Lauren Kate
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386:Every aspect of Western culture needs a new code of ethics - a rational ethics - as a precondition of rebirth. ~ Ayn Rand
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387:I learned the most important aspect of a mother’s love was not the intensity but its reliable consistency. ~ Tawni O Dell
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388:Lo importante es venerar la fuerza, el aspecto debe adecuarse a las posibilidades de comprensión de cada uno. ~ Anonymous
#NFDB |
389:One of the most striking aspects of abstract art's appearance is her nakedness, an art stripped bare. ~ Robert Motherwell
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390:There are two aspects of music, Rojer,” Cholls said, “skill and talent. One is learned, the other is not. ~ Peter V Brett
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391:The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. ~ Isaac Asimov
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392:The saddest aspect of society right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. ~ Anonymous
#NFDB |
393:The voice of inner truth says, 'I embrace the unknown because it allows me to see new aspects of myself'. ~ Deepak Chopra
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394:town of River Heights, frequently discussed puzzling aspects of cases with his blond, blue-eyed daughter. ~ Carolyn Keene
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395:Trust is a skill, one that is an aspect of virtually all human practices, cultures, and relationships. ~ Robert C Solomon
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396:you are, and you are very very gifted at all the aspects of the business I don’t care to deal with, and you ~ Donna Tartt
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397:Art is for evoking in our mind the deep sense of reality in its richest aspect. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, The Religion of Man
#NFDB |
398:Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives. ~ William James
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399:It begins with accepting total responsibility for every aspect of your life and refusing to blame anyone else. ~ Hal Elrod
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400:La mayor parte de los filósofos son muy poco filosóficos con respecto a muchos aspectos de la filosofía. ~ Edgar Allan Poe
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401:There are so many aspects to the sport. It never gets boring because you always do something different. ~ Wolfgang Gullich
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402:There is a systematic flocci-nauci-nihili-pilification of all other aspects of existence that angers me. ~ Patrick O Brian
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403:The worse things get, the more onerous they are to put right again. But this applies to every aspect of life. ~ Sara Baume
#NFDB |
404:Though in many of its aspects this visible world seems formed in love, the invisible spheres were formed in fright. ~ Moby
#NFDB |
405:Analog, electronic, whatever it happens to be, I simply love and adore literally every aspect of making music. ~ John Lydon
#NFDB |
406:How many personalities resided in a single body? Was it possible all aspects of a person could be real? ~ Storm Constantine
#NFDB |
407:If I don't have to think about the commercial aspect of it, then I feel like I'm going to make better films. ~ Lynn Shelton
#NFDB |
408:I hate the solo artist aspect of rock-'n'-roll. I don't have enough personality or charisma to be a solo star. ~ Dave Grohl
#NFDB |
409:I think it is important that we rebuild an atmosphere of forgiveness and civility in every aspect of our lives. ~ T D Jakes
#NFDB |
410:...no es por el aspecto de la cara ni por la presteza del cuerpo por lo que se conoce la fuerza del corazón. ~ Jos Saramago
#NFDB |
411:Nonresistance, nonjudgment, and nonattachment are the three aspects of true freedom and enlightened living. ~ Eckhart Tolle
#NFDB |
412:Perhaps the deepest and most devastating aspect of neurotic shame is the rejection of the self by the self. ~ John Bradshaw
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413:Required personal discovery seemed like an oxymoron to Nina, but so did many other aspects of the school. ~ Allegra Goodman
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414:Setting is a major aspect in writing all of my books, both in terms of natural and cultural environments. ~ Nicholas Sparks
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415:There are similarities between business and sport, in the pressures involved and in the fitness aspect too. ~ Peter Shilton
#NFDB |
416:There's definitely a visual aspect and an emotional aspect to a song. And that harks back, for me, to theater. ~ David Cook
#NFDB |
417:We could overcome the baser aspects of our nature... and give this planet the kind of caretakers it deserves. ~ Jon Stewart
#NFDB |
418:Art is just another way to describe and classify reality – its mystical aspects merely a function of ignorance. ~ Neal Asher
#NFDB |
419:If certain aspect needs to be inconsistent, it must better be consistently inconsistent throughout the story. ~ Pawan Mishra
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420:In Buddhist practice, the outward and inward aspects of taking the one seat meet on our meditation cushion. ~ Jack Kornfield
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421:Linguistic sounds, considered as external, physical phenomena have two aspects, the motor and the acoustic. ~ Roman Jakobson
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422:...Mrs. Percy understood that staying beautiful all day long is the most important aspect of being married... ~ Tevin Hansen
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423:One aspect of innovation is inventing new devices; another is inventing popular ways to use these devices. ~ Walter Isaacson
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424:persons, with big wigs many of them and austere aspect, whom I take to be Professors of the Dismal Science… ~ Thomas Carlyle
#NFDB |
425:...pretention is very close to stupidity and that simplicity has a less visible but still gratifying aspect. ~ Marcel Proust
#NFDB |
426:Teen readers can see aspects of themselves in the teen authors, which in a way, validates their experiences. ~ Deborah Reber
#NFDB |
427:The great teachers fill you up with hope and shower you with a thousand reasons to embrace all aspects of life. ~ Pat Conroy
#NFDB |
428:There were far worse strategies in life than to try to make each aspect of one's existence a minor work of art. ~ Pat Conroy
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429:I combine aspects of many styles of music and create my own musical forms by way of electronic instruments. ~ John Frusciante
#NFDB |
430:I like to combine different aspects in my work, to cover different areas, but I do see them as being separate. ~ Bruce Nauman
#NFDB |
431:I love every aspect of show business and that includes both the show part of it and the business part of it. ~ Kristy Swanson
#NFDB |
432:It is our commitment to wholeness that matters, the willingness to unfold in every deep aspect of our being. ~ Jack Kornfield
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433:I usually don't like to talk about money, but I talk about the movie, and the other aspects of directing, etc. ~ Tommy Wiseau
#NFDB |
434:Però aquí la tinc, […] i té l'aspecte de la Margo Roth Spiegelman […]; la noia que era una idea que jo estimava. ~ John Green
#NFDB |
435:Purity is very fragile when it takes physical manifestation. It is very, very strong in its original aspect. ~ Frederick Lenz
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436:[...] siempre lo había visto desde el mismo ángulo, y ahora le descubría aspectos diferentes, casi desconocidos. ~ C sar Aira
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437:The military system of a nation is not an independent section of the social system but an aspect of its totality. ~ Tony Judt
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438:the military system of a nation is not an independent section of the social system but an aspect of its totality. ~ Tony Judt
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439:The purpose of art is to represent the meaning of things. This represents the true reality, not external aspects. ~ Aristotle
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440:There is an art to science, and a science in art; the two are not enemies, but different aspects of the whole. ~ Isaac Asimov
#NFDB |
441:There's some ill planet reigns: I must be patient till the heavens look With an aspect more favourable. ~ William Shakespeare
#NFDB |
442:We have to find a way to make the aspects of capitalism that serve wealthier people serve poorer people as well. ~ Bill Gates
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443:A system is nothing more than the subordination of all aspects of the universe to any one of such aspects. ~ Jorge Luis Borges
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444:A willingness to share our possessions with one another is a very important aspect of true biblical community. ~ Jerry Bridges
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445:I have a bit of a struggle with some aspects of or forms of Buddhism, but Zen I find to be mainly congenial. ~ Quentin S Crisp
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446:It would be most satisfactory if physics and psyche could be seen as complementary aspects of the same reality ~ Wolfgang Paul
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447:Morality therefore emerged as a consequence of certain aspects of human nature in response to social conditions. ~ Matt Ridley
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448:My favorite artist in the world is Michael Jackson, and he revolutionized the music video aspect of music. ~ Chance the Rapper
#NFDB |
449:Physical fitness contributes to all other aspects of personal development and makes for rich and radiant living ~ Hugh B Brown
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450:Actors usually respond to minor aspects of their own character or things that even feel disparate from themselves. ~ Jeff Perry
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451:[Donald] Trump`s business conflicts are big enough and have come up throughout various aspects of this transition. ~ Chuck Todd
#NFDB |
452:Even if we do not always agree on every aspect, nobody should take this as an excuse to declare us as enemies. ~ Vladimir Putin
#NFDB |
453:Life may more than once call upon you to prove Who You Are by demonstrating an aspect of Who You Are Not. ~ Neale Donald Walsch
#NFDB |
454:Perhaps one aspect of arrogance lies in not being willing to accept what life sometimes expects one to accept. ~ Winston Graham
#NFDB |
455:Psychedelics are probably responsible for every aspect of human evolution apart from the decline in bodyhair. ~ Terence McKenna
#NFDB |
456:The front aspect of great thoughts can only be enjoyed by those who stand on the side whence they arrive. ~ Henry David Thoreau
#NFDB |
457:The message is that all things are connected. We have animal aspects, anthropological aspects, plant-animal aspects. ~ John Dee
#NFDB |
458:The most important single aspect of software development is to be clear about what you are trying to build. ~ Bjarne Stroustrup
#NFDB |
459:What you demand from storytelling is a moral - even political - import. I tend to shun that didactic aspect. ~ Aleksandar Hemon
#NFDB |
460:An essential aspect of self-support is to remind yourself that success is not measurable, but a matter of feeling. ~ Eric Maisel
#NFDB |
461:Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people. —Leo Burnett ~ Sophia Amoruso
#NFDB |
462:Films and hotels have many aspects that are the same. For example, there is always a big vision, an idea. ~ Francis Ford Coppola
#NFDB |
463:I am inspired by many mediums and use them to express varied aspects of my philosophies and life observations. ~ Judith Anderson
#NFDB |
464:I didn't go to a conservatoire, and I have certain low opinions of certain aspects of the conservatory experience. ~ Mark Morris
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465:I disapprove of certainties, said Virgil Jones. They limit one's range of vision. Doubt is one aspect of width. ~ Salman Rushdie
#NFDB |
466:I literally felt like a freak, which is another aspect of the role of Sally that I relate to: total outsider. ~ Kristen Johnston
#NFDB |
467:In every aspect of the religious life, American faith has met American culture--and American culture has triumphed. ~ Alan Wolfe
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468:In fact, the class divide in the black community is now seen by some as a permanent aspect of our existence. ~ Henry Louis Gates
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469:I think the darker aspect of my fiction-or anybody's fiction-is by its very nature somehow easier to talk about. ~ Richard Russo
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470:Just because something bears the aspect of the inevitable one should not, therefore, go along willingly with it. ~ Philip K Dick
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471:La mecánica de la mafia Empecemos con un experimento mental: ¿qué aspecto tendría la cultura ideal de una empresa? ~ Peter Thiel
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472:"Life is both dreadful and wonderful. To practice meditation is to be in touch with both aspects." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh #meditation
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473:order to these baffling aspects of behavior in the atomic world, and to build from it a coherent theory. In 1925 ~ Carlo Rovelli
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474:Politicians, they give the visible aspect of the change, but the change, the root, the anchor are in young people. ~ Elie Wiesel
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475:Power is so characteristically calm, that calmness in itself has the aspect of strength. ~ Edward Bulwer Lytton 1st Baron Lytton
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476:Real liberation for men means that they can explore and integrate their feminine aspects of consciousness. ~ Marianne Williamson
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477:The aspect of things that are most important to us are hidden because of their familiarity and simplicity. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein
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478:The logical aspect of your life and the experiential dimension of your life are diametrically opposite to each other. ~ Sadhguru
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479:Thoughts of any aspect of life are more likely to be salient if a contrasting alternative is highly available. ~ Daniel Kahneman
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480:Understanding how to surmount pain, doubt, and failure is an important aspect of the game of winning at life.
~ Chin-Ning Chu,
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481:But a true and accurate measurement of one’s self-worth is how people feel about the negative aspects of themselves ~ Mark Manson
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482:Even Nature is observed to have her playful moods or aspects, of which man sometimes seems to be the sport. ~ Henry David Thoreau
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483:Freedom and constraint are two aspects of the same necessity, which is to be what one is and no other. ~ Antoine de Saint Exupery
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484:It's freeing, to think that there's always an aspect of us outside the grasp of speech, the common stuff of language. ~ Mark Doty
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485:The positive aspect of competition in a business scenario is it helps you to be more alert and innovative. ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
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486:To heal physically, one must heal the emotional aspect of the issue first or it will resurface in another way. ~ Stephen Richards
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487:You always think you can do better. No question about that. In a way, you want to try and do every aspect better. ~ Lionel Wigram
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488:You can't get mad at weather because weather's not about you. Apply that lesson to most other aspects of life. ~ Douglas Coupland
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489:But a true and accurate measurement of one’s self-worth is how people feel about the negative aspects of themselves. ~ Mark Manson
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490:By questioning all the aspects of our business, we continuously inject improvement and innovation into our culture. ~ Michael Dell
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491: From the eternal principles and essences the androgynous creator-gods manifested forth the positive and negative aspects of Being
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492:I have 'the first' attached to my name in a whole lot of different aspects when it comes to the sport of basketball. ~ Lisa Leslie
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493:I'm psychotically involved in every tiny little aspect. That's just the way I've been about everything my whole life. ~ Rob Zombie
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494:The key aspect of an index fund is that many of them, not all of them, but many of them are extremely cheap. ~ William J Bernstein
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495:The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect. ~ Tim Berners Lee
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496:The Web connects us, but the medium also filters out the aspects of humanity that make us interesting and knowable. ~ Michael Lopp
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497:Death is but an aspect of life, and the destruction of one material form is but a prelude to building up of another. ~ Annie Besant
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498:Every outfit carries cultural baggage of some kind. It took me a while to get a handle on this aspect of performance. ~ David Byrne
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499:Ignorance of nature’s ways led people in ancient times to invent gods to lord it over every aspect of human life. ~ Stephen Hawking
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500:Love is the matter of souls....in which body is trivial aspect but the tragic part is that people believe what is seen. ~ Anonymous
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