TERMS STARTING WITH
because ::: conj. --> By or for the cause that; on this account that; for the reason that.
In order that; that.
because of the chanting of the lords of shouting,
Because Maz or Mez in the word Mazda can also be another way of pronouncing myth, Mazda can mean that which is created by Mez, by the hidden truth. Then Ahura-Mazda would mean the life-bearer who is created by the hidden truth.
Because nature is repetitive throughout, these Grand Masters are correspondentially related to the highest three of the four lower manifested planes of the seven planes of cosmic consciousness, in which exist the sevenfold manifested cosmos, the solar system, and the seven sacred planets. Specifically with reference to the seven globes of our earth-chain, Blavatsky gives these in the Chaldean Qabbalistic system as: 1) Archetypal World; 2) Intellectual or Creative World; and 3) Substantial or Formative World (SD 1:200). The lowest of the seven cosmic planes is the plane of our physical earth, which is the focus, result, and outermost expression of the energies and forces of the three higher planes. Thus our physical earth, as also physical man, are each the Temple, planned and built by the Three Grand Masters, according to the pattern which David has “by the spirit,” the divine plan which is hidden in the heart of everything that is. In accordance with this divine plan all evolution proceeds by the progressive manifestation of the divine life and the cosmic and human spiritual energies, powers, and faculties, evolving and unfolding from within, until at last the building of the Temple shall be completed and adorned as a fit and worthy habitation of the inner god.
Because of the function of the human organs of generation, even from ancient times these organs were considered with reverential awe as being the representatives of the creative or productive abstract forces of nature; and so greatly was the creative function held among the ancients that marriage and its functions were invariably considered to be a religious rite. Hence the presence of zachar or sacr in such words as sacrament and sacrifice, always with the religious meaning, has prevailed to our own days. The archaic symbology of the separation of the sexes was represented by a horizontal line, crossed by a perpendicular, surrounded by a circle: with the Hebrews, however, this became degraded into the purely phallic meaning of the sacr and n’cabvah (zachar and neqebah).
Because of their lofty position, they are identified with the universal intelligence, as its immediate vehicles or channels. Thus they are not only the channels but the imbodiments of karma, and therefore not only the interpreters or agents of karma, but the recorders or scribes upwards into cosmic ideation of whatever takes place on lower planes. Their function is thus dual: imbodiments, channels, or interpreters of karma to be worked out in the universe in which the lipikas function, and thus agents of cosmic ideation; and second, as the scribes or recorders of the innumerably multitudinous karmic records of the beings below themselves.
Because of the successive divisions into septenary units, it is at times difficult to determine just what subrace may be intended by a writer, and careful study is needed. The length of a subrace is given as approximately 210,000 years (SD 2:435) — and here no qualifying adjective appears to define which subrace is intended; on the same page the present European race is referred to as a family race of approximately 30,000 years.
Because self-destruction, so called, is always wrong, and an unwarrantable and violent interference with the orderly processes of nature, the act is bound to bring disharmony and trouble for all concerned. But in laying down general laws we must always allow for specific instances, for there is no dogmatic hard-and-fast rule in these matters. Suicides among themselves differ enormously as between the cowardly and selfish act of an evil person, the uncontrolled act of the insane, and the utterly mistaken but perhaps even compassionate act of one who thinks that by suicide he can aid others. These extremes are simply enormous, and nature which in its actions is perfect justice, albeit automatic, watches over and protects, as far as natural laws permit, these last cases of sincere but erroneous belief or thought, born of ignorance. We dare not judge in default of full knowledge of the karmic heritage, or the deeper causes which culminated in the act.
Because the difference between phenomenological pure psychology and transcendental phenomenology depends on a difference in attitude towards "the same" subject matter, their contents are widely analogous. Husserl maintained, however, that genuine philosophy is possible only as transcendental phenomenology, because it alone is knowledge of that non-worldly nucleus of subjectivity in which everything intendable as immanent or as transcendent is constituted (produced, generated) as an essentially intentional object. As envisaged in the Ideen and later works, phenomenological analysis is chiefly "transcendental-constitutional" analysis of the subjective structures in which the concrete individual world is built up as an intersubjectively valid transcendent sense for transcendental subjectivity. In the course of such analysis, every legitimate philosophical problem must find its definitive solution. From the transcendental-phenomenological standpoint, however, one traditional problem, namely the relation between what are essentially objects of consciousness and "things-in-themselves" that are not essentially objects of consciousness, is seen to be spurious. On the one hand, it is evidently false that all directly presented objects of consciousness are immanent in the mind, on the other hand, the concept of an entity that is not an intentionally constituted object of transcendental consciousness is evidently self-contradictory. This is the central thesis of what Husserl called his "transcendental-phenomenological idealism."
Because the lokas are more particularly the spheres of spiritual and intellectual character, and the talas the spheres of vehicular or more substantial character, it has been customary in Indian literature to speak of the lokas as heavens and the talas as hells — neither heavens nor hells bearing the shades of meaning attached to them in Christian theology. Every substantial globe is considered a hell; our own earth, for instance, bhurloka-patala, is so considered. All these talas are in the last analysis rising or descending realms forming the astral light which is not one sole restricted realm or sphere.
Because this second Koryo canon was renowned throughout East Asia for its scholarly accuracy, it was used as the basis of the modern Japanese TAISHo SHINSHu DAIZoKYo ("New Edition of the Buddhist Canon Compiled during the Taisho Reign Era"), edited by TAKAKUSU JUNJIRo and Watanabe Kaikyoku, published using movable-type printing between 1924 and 1935, which has become the standard reference source for East Asian Buddhist materials. See also DAZANGJING.
TERMS ANYWHERE
1. Appearing sad or lonely because deserted or abandoned. 2. Forsaken or deprived.
1. Lacking education or knowledge. 2. Unaware because of a lack of relevant information or knowledge.
ABOVE-HEAD CENTRE. ::: Above the head extends the higher consciousness centre, sahasradala padma, the thousandpetalled lotus, commanding the higher thinking mind and the illumined mind and opening upwards to the intuition and overmind. The sahasradala centralises spiritual mind, higher mind, intuitive mind and acts as a receiving station for the intuition proper and overmind.
It is the seventh and highest centre. Usually those who take the centres in the body only count six centres, the sahasrāra being excluded. It is sometimes or by some identified with the brain, but that is an error; the brain is only a channel of communication situated between the thousand-petalled and the forehead centre. The former is sometimes called the void centre, śūnya, either because it is not in the body, but in the apparent void above or because rising above the head one enters first into the silence of the self or spiritual being.
Wide Crown centre.
abranchiata ::: n. pl. --> A group of annelids, so called because the species composing it have no special organs of respiration.
Absolute ::: Sri Aurobindo: “We mean by the Absolute something greater than ourselves, greater than the cosmos which we live in, the supreme reality of that transcendent Being which we call God, something without which all that we see or are conscious of as existing, could not have been, could not for a moment remain in existence. Indian thought calls it Brahman, European thought the Absolute because it is a self-existent which is absolved of all bondage to relativities . . . The Absolute is for us the Ineffable.” The Life Divine
acephala ::: n. pl. --> That division of the Mollusca which includes the bivalve shells, like the clams and oysters; -- so called because they have no evident head. Formerly the group included the Tunicata, Brachiopoda, and sometimes the Bryozoa. See Mollusca.
actinium ::: n. --> A supposed metal, said by Phipson to be contained in commercial zinc; -- so called because certain of its compounds are darkened by exposure to light.
ACTION. ::: If a man is spiritual and has gone beyond the vital and mind, he does not need to be always “doing” something. The self or spirit has the joy of its own existence. It is free to do nothing and free to do everything - but not because it is bound to action and unable to exist without it.
To be able to work with full energy is necessary, but to be able not to work is also necessary.
Action in sādhanā ::: The feeling that all one does is from the Divine, that all action is the Mother’s is a necessary step in experience but one cannot remain in it ; one has to go further. Those can remain in it who do not want to change the nature, but only to have the experience of the Truth behind it. Your action is according to universal Nature and in that again it is according to your individual nature, and all Nature is a force put out by the Divine Mother for the action of the universe. But as things are it is an action of the Ignorance and the ego; while what we want is an action of the divine Truth unveiled and undeformed by the Ignorance and the ego.
The aim of the sadhana is to become a conscious and perfect instrument instead of one that is unconscious and therefore imperfect. One can be a conscious and perfect instrument only when one is no longer acting in obedience to the ignorant push of the lower nature but in surrender to the Mother and aware of her higher Force acting within oneself.
ADESA. ::: Impulsion; inner command. The Divine speaks to us in many ways and it is not always the imperative ādeśa that comes. When it does, it is clear and irresistible, the mind has to obey and there is no question possible, even if what comes is contrary to the preconceived ideas of the mental intelligence. But more often what is said is an intuition or even less, a mere indication, which the mind may not follow because it is not impressed with its imperative necessity. It is something offered but not imposed, perhaps something not even offered but only suggested from the Truth above.
Afterwards all gets surcharged with the spiritual consciousness and there is an automatic right perception and right action of the different parts because they are controlled entirely from above and do not falsify or resist or confuse its dictates.
agnosticism ::: n. --> That doctrine which, professing ignorance, neither asserts nor denies.
The doctrine that the existence of a personal Deity, an unseen world, etc., can be neither proved nor disproved, because of the necessary limits of the human mind (as sometimes charged upon Hamilton and Mansel), or because of the insufficiency of the evidence furnished by physical and physical data, to warrant a positive conclusion (as taught by the school of Herbert Spencer); -- opposed
"All depends on the meaning you attach to words used; it is a matter of nomenclature. Ordinarily, one says a man has intellect if he can think well; the nature and process and field of the thought do not matter. If you take intellect in that sense, then you can say that intellect has different strata, and Ford belongs to one stratum of intellect, Einstein to another — Ford has a practical and executive business intellect, Einstein a scientific discovering and theorising intellect. But Ford too in his own field theorises, invents, discovers. Yet would you call Ford an intellectual or a man of intellect? I would prefer to use for the general faculty of mind the word intelligence. Ford has a great and forceful practical intelligence, keen, quick, successful, dynamic. He has a brain that can deal with thoughts also, but even there his drive is towards practicality. He believes in rebirth (metempsychosis), for instance, not for any philosophic reason, but because it explains life as a school of experience in which one gathers more and more experience and develops by it. Einstein has, on the other hand, a great discovering scientific intellect, not, like Marconi, a powerful practical inventive intelligence for the application of scientific discovery. All men have, of course, an ‘intellect" of a kind; all, for instance, can discuss and debate (for which you say rightly intellect is needed); but it is only when one rises to the realm of ideas and moves freely in it that you say, ‘This man has an intellect".” Letters on Yoga
“All depends on the meaning you attach to words used; it is a matter of nomenclature. Ordinarily, one says a man has intellect if he can think well; the nature and process and field of the thought do not matter. If you take intellect in that sense, then you can say that intellect has different strata, and Ford belongs to one stratum of intellect, Einstein to another—Ford has a practical and executive business intellect, Einstein a scientific discovering and theorising intellect. But Ford too in his own field theorises, invents, discovers. Yet would you call Ford an intellectual or a man of intellect? I would prefer to use for the general faculty of mind the word intelligence. Ford has a great and forceful practical intelligence, keen, quick, successful, dynamic. He has a brain that can deal with thoughts also, but even there his drive is towards practicality. He believes in rebirth (metempsychosis), for instance, not for any philosophic reason, but because it explains life as a school of experience in which one gathers more and more experience and develops by it. Einstein has, on the other hand, a great discovering scientific intellect, not, like Marconi, a powerful practical inventive intelligence for the application of scientific discovery. All men have, of course, an ‘intellect’ of a kind; all, for instance, can discuss and debate (for which you say rightly intellect is needed); but it is only when one rises to the realm of ideas and moves freely in it that you say, ‘This man has an intellect’.” Letters on Yoga
::: "All existence is a manifestation of God because He is the only existence . . . .” Essays on the Gita
All forces that want to cover the consciousness rise up to do it by environing and acting on the mind centres if they can — environing because otherwise the covering is not complete.
Amal: “The phrase refers to the hostile forces, the powerful vital beings whose work is to block the Divine influx and deceive human beings. They are called ‘iron lords’ not only because they are powerful but also because they are unchangeable. As far as I understand Sri Aurobindo, the hostile forces cannot be converted: they have to be destroyed in relation to the earth. They cannot be mended; they are to be ended.”
Amal: “The phrase strikes me as referring to the psychic being because in the preceding line the ‘Grandeur’ is called ‘a seer, a strong creator’ and is said to be ‘within’. But I am not quite sure, because the ‘Grandeur’ is said to ‘brood upon your days’, suggesting that it is above and not within. Perhaps two different though allied powers are suggested: the inner soul and the Spirit or the Atman which is one ultimately with Brahman.”
Amal: “The phrase ‘the Book of Bliss’ is a reference to the plane of Ananda which is beyond-behind the plane of the Supermind. I have equated ‘beyond’ to ‘behind’ because there is nothing higher than the Supermind. Through Supermind comes the disclosure of the supreme Ananda which may be called its inmost self.”
Amal: “The subtle powers behind the surface reality were met by him because of the inner and higher consciousness he acquired, a consciousness by which he was open to a god-knowledge and a world-knowledge coming to him from above and from within.”**
amphidromical ::: a. --> Pertaining to an Attic festival at the naming of a child; -- so called because the friends of the parents carried the child around the hearth and then named it.
amphirhina ::: n. pl. --> A name applied to the elasmobranch fishes, because the nasal sac is double.
analogy ::: n. --> A resemblance of relations; an agreement or likeness between things in some circumstances or effects, when the things are otherwise entirely different. Thus, learning enlightens the mind, because it is to the mind what light is to the eye, enabling it to discover things before hidden.
A relation or correspondence in function, between organs or parts which are decidedly different.
Proportion; equality of ratios.
— and allowed by the Divine because that is part of the soul's training and helps it to know itself, its powers and the limita- tions it has to outgrow.
And do you want to know why he is always represented as a child? It is because he is in constant progression. To the extent that the world is perfected, his play is also perfected — what was the play of yesterday will no longer be the play of tomorrow; his play will become more and more harmonious, benign and joyful to the extent that the world becomes capable of responding to it and enjoying it with the Divine.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
And do you want to know why he is always represented as a child? It is because he is in constant progression. To the extent that the world is perfected, his play is also perfected—what was the play of yesterday will no longer be the play of tomorrow; his play will become more and more harmonious, benign and joyful to the extent that the world becomes capable of responding to it and enjoying it with the Divine.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
“An eternal infinite self-existence is the supreme reality, but the supreme transcendent eternal Being, Self and Spirit,—an infinite Person, we may say, because his being is the essence and source of all personality,—is the reality and meaning of self-existence: so too the cosmic Self, Spirit, Being, Person is the reality and meaning of cosmic existence; the same Self, Spirit, Being or Person manifesting its multiplicity is the reality and meaning of individual existence.” The Life Divine
"An evolution of innate and latent but as yet unevolved powers of consciousness is not considered admissible by the modern mind, because these exceed our present formulation of Nature and, to our ignorant preconceptions founded on a limited experience, they seem to belong to the supernatural, to the miraculous and occult; for they surpass the known action of material Energy which is now ordinarily accepted as the sole cause and mode of things and the sole instrumentation of the World-Force.” The Life Divine
“An evolution of innate and latent but as yet unevolved powers of consciousness is not considered admissible by the modern mind, because these exceed our present formulation of Nature and, to our ignorant preconceptions founded on a limited experience, they seem to belong to the supernatural, to the miraculous and occult; for they surpass the known action of material Energy which is now ordinarily accepted as the sole cause and mode of things and the sole instrumentation of the World-Force.” The Life Divine
anhydride ::: n. --> An oxide of a nonmetallic body or an organic radical, capable of forming an acid by uniting with the elements of water; -- so called because it may be formed from an acid by the abstraction of water.
Another cause of these alternations, when one is receiving, is the nature's need of closing *up to assimilate. It can take per- haps a great deal, but while the experience is going on it cannot absorb properly what h brings, so it closes do^vn for assimila- tion. A third cause comes in the period of transformation, — one part of the nature changes and one feels for a time as if there had been a complete and permanent change. But one is disappointed to find it cease and a period of barrenness or lowered consciousness follow. This is because another part of the cons- ciousness comes up for change and a period of preparation and veiled working follows which seems to he one of uoeolightenment or worse. These things alarm, disappoint or perplex the eager- ness and impatience of the sadhaka ; but if one takes them quietly and knows how to use them or adopt the right attitude, one can make these unenlightened periods also a part of the conscious sadhana.
antozone ::: n. --> A compound formerly supposed to be modification of oxygen, but now known to be hydrogen dioxide; -- so called because apparently antagonistic to ozone, converting it into ordinary oxygen.
anxious ::: full of mental distress or uneasiness because of fear of danger or misfortune; greatly worried.
a person whose back is humped in a convex position because of abnormal spinal curvature.
arena ::: n. --> The area in the central part of an amphitheater, in which the gladiators fought and other shows were exhibited; -- so called because it was covered with sand.
Any place of public contest or exertion; any sphere of action; as, the arenaof debate; the arena of life.
"Sand" or "gravel" in the kidneys.
arthrostraca ::: n. pl. --> One of the larger divisions of Crustacea, so called because the thorax and abdomen are both segmented; Tetradecapoda. It includes the Amphipoda and Isopoda.
assets ::: n. pl. --> Property of a deceased person, subject by law to the payment of his debts and legacies; -- called assets because sufficient to render the executor or administrator liable to the creditors and legatees, so far as such goods or estate may extend.
Effects of an insolvent debtor or bankrupt, applicable to the payment of debts.
The entire property of all sorts, belonging to a person, a corporation, or an estate; as, the assets of a merchant or a
ASSIMILATION. ::: There has to be a period of assimilation. When the being is unconscious, the assimilation goes on behind the veil or below the surface and meanwhile the surface consciousness sees only dullness and the loss of what it had got; but when one is conscious, then one can see the assimilation going on and one sees that nothing is lost, it is only a quiet settling in of what has come down.
To remain quiet for a time after the descent of Force is the best way of assimilating it.
There are always pauses of preparation and assimilation between two movements.
The periods of assimilation continue till all that has to be done is fundamentally done. Only they have a different character in the later stages of sadhana. If they cease altogether at an early stage, it is because all that the nature was capable of has been done and that would mean it was not capable of much.
As Sri Aurobindo once wrote to Dilip Kumar Roy, (I paraphrase) ‘ The earth is a conscious being and the world is only the form it takes to manifest.’ This statement of the Avatar, predating the GAIA theory by many years and far surpassing it in its infinite scope, promises an earth returned to beauty to manifest, unknown to man, an inconceivable perfection. I once wrote to Mother with a question about what would happen to plants and flowers in the New Creation. Her reply filled me with joy and gratitude for She said that the flowers would be among the first to change (be transformed) because their entire life is an aspiration for light. Imagine the beauty to come with flowers brilliant with the Divine Light, colours such as never seen before, fragrances that can transofrm suffering and sorrow into a life free of pain and filled with joy.
“As to the two lines with ‘no man’s land’ there can be no capital in the first line because there it is a description while the capital is needed in the other line, because the phrase has acquired there the force of a name or appellation. I am not sure about the hyphen; it could be put but the no hyphen might be better as it suggests that no one in particular has as yet got possession.” Letters on Savitri.
At a certain stage attacks fall heavily on the body because the opposing forces find it more difficult than before to upset the mind and vital directly, so they fall on the physical in the hope that that will do the trick, the physical bemg most vulnerable.
atom ::: “In the very atom there is a subconscious will and desire which must also be present in all atomic aggregates because they are present in the Force which constitutes the atom.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
::: ". . . a true occultism means no more than a research into supraphysical realities and an unveiling of the hidden laws of being and Nature, of all that is not obvious on the surface. It attempts the discovery of the secret laws of mind and mental energy, the secret laws of life and life-energy, the secret laws of the subtle-physical and its energies, — all that Nature has not put into visible operation on the surface; it pursues also the application of these hidden truths and powers of Nature so as to extend the mastery of the human spirit beyond the ordinary operations of mind, the ordinary operations of life, the ordinary operations of our physical existence. In the spiritual domain which is occult to the surface mind in so far as it passes beyond normal and enters into supernormal experience, there is possible not only the discovery of the self and spirit, but the discovery of the uplifting, informing and guiding light of spiritual consciousness and the power of the spirit, the spiritual way of knowledge, the spiritual way of action. To know these things and to bring their truths and forces into the life of humanity is a necessary part of its evolution. Science itself is in its own way an occultism; for it brings to light the formulas which Nature has hidden and it uses its knowledge to set free operations of her energies which she has not included in her ordinary operations and to organise and place at the service of man her occult powers and processes, a vast system of physical magic, — for there is and can be no other magic than the utilisation of secret truths of being, secret powers and processes of Nature. It may even be found that a supraphysical knowledge is necessary for the completion of physical knowledge, because the processes of physical Nature have behind them a supraphysical factor, a power and action mental, vital or spiritual which is not tangible to any outer means of knowledge.” The Life Divine
“… a true occultism means no more than a research into supraphysical realities and an unveiling of the hidden laws of being and Nature, of all that is not obvious on the surface. It attempts the discovery of the secret laws of mind and mental energy, the secret laws of life and life-energy, the secret laws of the subtle-physical and its energies,—all that Nature has not put into visible operation on the surface; it pursues also the application of these hidden truths and powers of Nature so as to extend the mastery of the human spirit beyond the ordinary operations of mind, the ordinary operations of life, the ordinary operations of our physical existence. In the spiritual domain which is occult to the surface mind in so far as it passes beyond normal and enters into supernormal experience, there is possible not only the discovery of the self and spirit, but the discovery of the uplifting, informing and guiding light of spiritual consciousness and the power of the spirit, the spiritual way of knowledge, the spiritual way of action. To know these things and to bring their truths and forces into the life of humanity is a necessary part of its evolution. Science itself is in its own way an occultism; for it brings to light the formulas which Nature has hidden and it uses its knowledge to set free operations of her energies which she has not included in her ordinary operations and to organise and place at the service of man her occult powers and processes, a vast system of physical magic,—for there is and can be no other magic than the utilisation of secret truths of being, secret powers and processes of Nature. It may even be found that a supraphysical knowledge is necessary for the completion of physical knowledge, because the processes of physical Nature have behind them a supraphysical factor, a power and action mental, vital or spiritual which is not tangible to any outer means of knowledge.” The Life Divine
babylonian ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the real or to the mystical Babylon, or to the ancient kingdom of Babylonia; Chaldean. ::: n. --> An inhabitant of Babylonia (which included Chaldea); a Chaldean.
An astrologer; -- so called because the Chaldeans were
backstaff ::: n. --> An instrument formerly used for taking the altitude of the heavenly bodies, but now superseded by the quadrant and sextant; -- so called because the observer turned his back to the body observed.
baltimore oriole ::: --> A common American bird (Icterus galbula), named after Lord Baltimore, because its colors (black and orange red) are like those of his coat of arms; -- called also golden robin.
baptize ::: v. t. --> To administer the sacrament of baptism to.
To christen ( because a name is given to infants at their baptism); to give a name to; to name.
To sanctify; to consecrate.
bay ::: the position or stand of an animal or fugitive that is forced to turn and resist pursuers because it is no longer possible to flee. (preceded by at).
because ::: conj. --> By or for the cause that; on this account that; for the reason that.
In order that; that.
beambird ::: n. --> A small European flycatcher (Muscicapa gricola), so called because it often nests on a beam in a building.
bench ::: n. --> A long seat, differing from a stool in its greater length.
A long table at which mechanics and other work; as, a carpenter&
berylloid ::: n. --> A solid consisting of a double twelve-sided pyramid; -- so called because the planes of this form occur on crystals of beryl.
bisilicate ::: n. --> A salt of metasilicic acid; -- so called because the ratio of the oxygen of the silica to the oxygen of the base is as two to one. The bisilicates include many of the most common and important minerals.
bitter spar ::: --> A common name of dolomite; -- so called because it contains magnesia, the soluble salts of which are bitter. See Dolomite.
boomer ::: n. --> One who, or that which, booms.
A North American rodent, so named because it is said to make a booming noise. See Sewellel.
A large male kangaroo.
One who works up a "boom".
brass ::: n. --> An alloy (usually yellow) of copper and zinc, in variable proportion, but often containing two parts of copper to one part of zinc. It sometimes contains tin, and rarely other metals.
A journal bearing, so called because frequently made of brass. A brass is often lined with a softer metal, when the latter is generally called a white metal lining. See Axle box, Journal Box, and Bearing.
Coin made of copper, brass, or bronze.
breakdown ::: n. --> The act or result of breaking down, as of a carriage; downfall.
A noisy, rapid, shuffling dance engaged in competitively by a number of persons or pairs in succession, as among the colored people of the Southern United States, and so called, perhaps, because the exercise is continued until most of those who take part in it break down.
Any rude, noisy dance performed by shuffling the feet,
broom ::: n. --> A plant having twigs suitable for making brooms to sweep with when bound together; esp., the Cytisus scoparius of Western Europe, which is a low shrub with long, straight, green, angular branches, minute leaves, and large yellow flowers.
An implement for sweeping floors, etc., commonly made of the panicles or tops of broom corn, bound together or attached to a long wooden handle; -- so called because originally made of the twigs of the broom.
bunodonts ::: n. pl. --> A division of the herbivorous mammals including the hogs and hippopotami; -- so called because the teeth are tuberculated. html{color:
But at first there is a difficulty in keeping it intact when there is the contact wth others because the consciousness has the habit of running outwards in speech or external interchange or else coming down to the normal fevel. One must therefore be very careful until it is fixed ; once fixed it usually defends itself, for all outer contacts become surface things to a consciousness full of the higher peace.
butlerage ::: n. --> A duty of two shillings on every tun of wine imported into England by merchant strangers; -- so called because paid to the king&
“But more powerful still is the giving up of the fruit of one’s works, because that immediately destroys all causes of disturbance and brings and preserves automatically an inner calm and peace, and calm and peace are the foundation on which all else becomes perfect and secure in possession by the tranquil spirit.” Essays on the Gita
cadilesker ::: n. --> A chief judge in the Turkish empire, so named originally because his jurisdiction extended to the cases of soldiers, who are now tried only by their own officers.
calm ::: n. 1. Serenity; tranquillity; peace. 2. Nearly or completely motionless as a condition of no wind. Calm, Calm"s, calms, calmness. adj. 3. Not excited or agitated; composed; tranquil; 4. Without rough motion; still or nearly still. calmer, calm-lipped, stone-calm. *adv. calmly.
Sri Aurobindo: "Calm is a still unmoved condition which no disturbance can affect — it is a less negative condition than quiet.” Letters on Yoga*
"Calm is a positive tranquillity which can exist in spite of superficial disturbances.” *Letters on Yoga
"Calm is a strong and positive quietude, firm and solid — ordinary quietude is mere negation, simply the absence of disturbance.” *Letters on Yoga
"But more powerful still is the giving up of the fruit of one"s works, because that immediately destroys all causes of disturbance and brings and preserves automatically an inner calm and peace, and calm and peace are the foundation on which all else becomes perfect and secure in possession by the tranquil spirit.” Essays on the Gita
The Mother: "Calm is self-possessed strength, quiet and conscious energy, mastery of the impulses, control over the unconscious reflexes.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 14*.
candlemas ::: n. --> The second day of February, on which is celebrated the feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary; -- so called because the candles for the altar or other sacred uses are blessed on that day.
cane ::: n. --> A name given to several peculiar palms, species of Calamus and Daemanorops, having very long, smooth flexible stems, commonly called rattans.
Any plant with long, hard, elastic stems, as reeds and bamboos of many kinds; also, the sugar cane.
Stems of other plants are sometimes called canes; as, the canes of a raspberry.
A walking stick; a staff; -- so called because originally
caoutchouc ::: n. --> A tenacious, elastic, gummy substance obtained from the milky sap of several plants of tropical South America (esp. the euphorbiaceous tree Siphonia elastica or Hevea caoutchouc), Asia, and Africa. Being impermeable to liquids and gases, and not readly affected by exposure to air, acids, and alkalies, it is used, especially when vulcanized, for many purposes in the arts and in manufactures. Also called India rubber (because it was first brought from India, and was formerly used chiefly for erasing pencil marks) and gum elastic. See
carpetbag ::: n. --> A portable bag for travelers; -- so called because originally made of carpet.
cathedral ::: n. --> The principal church in a diocese, so called because in it the bishop has his official chair (Cathedra) or throne. ::: a. --> Pertaining to the head church of a diocese; as, a cathedral church; cathedral service.
Emanating from the chair of office, as of a pope or
catmint ::: n. --> A well-know plant of the genus Nepeta (N. Cataria), somewhat like mint, having a string scent, and sometimes used in medicine. It is so called because cats have a peculiar fondness for it.
cent ::: n. --> A hundred; as, ten per cent, the proportion of ten parts in a hundred.
A United States coin, the hundredth part of a dollar, formerly made of copper, now of copper, tin, and zinc.
An old game at cards, supposed to be like piquet; -- so called because 100 points won the game.
cephalata ::: n. pl. --> A large division of Mollusca, including all except the bivalves; -- so called because the head is distinctly developed. See Illustration in Appendix.
chaldean ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to Chaldea. ::: n. --> A native or inhabitant of Chaldea.
A learned man, esp. an astrologer; -- so called among the Eastern nations, because astrology and the kindred arts were much cultivated by the Chaldeans.
chondrostei ::: n. pl. --> An order of fishes, including the sturgeons; -- so named because the skeleton is cartilaginous.
cinnamene ::: n. --> Styrene (which was formerly called cinnamene because obtained from cinnamic acid). See Styrene.
cinquefoil ::: n. --> The name of several different species of the genus Potentilla; -- also called five-finger, because of the resemblance of its leaves to the fingers of the hand.
An ornamental foliation having five points or cups, used in windows, panels, etc.
cittern-head ::: n. --> Blockhead; dunce; -- so called because the handle of a cittern usually ended with a carved head.
clumps ::: n. --> A game in which questions are asked for the purpose of enabling the questioners to discover a word or thing previously selected by two persons who answer the questions; -- so called because the players take sides in two "clumps" or groups, the "clump" which guesses the word winning the game.
cockpit ::: n. --> A pit, or inclosed area, for cockfights.
The Privy Council room at Westminster; -- so called because built on the site of the cockpit of Whitehall palace.
That part of a war vessel appropriated to the wounded during an engagement.
In yachts and other small vessels, a space lower than the rest of the deck, which affords easy access to the cabin.
Complete retirement does not faring the control, only an illusion of a control because the untoward causes are removed for a time. It is a control established while in contact with the outward things that is alone genuine. You must establish that from within by a fixed resolution and practice. Too much mix- ing and too much talk should be avoided, but a complete retire- ment is not the thing.
conch ::: n. --> A name applied to various marine univalve shells; esp. to those of the genus Strombus, which are of large size. S. gigas is the large pink West Indian conch. The large king, queen, and cameo conchs are of the genus Cassis. See Cameo.
In works of art, the shell used by Tritons as a trumpet.
One of the white natives of the Bahama Islands or one of their descendants in the Florida Keys; -- so called from the commonness of the conch there, or because they use it for food.
confine ::: 1. To enclose within bounds, limit, restrict. 2. To shut or keep in; prevent from leaving a place because of imprisonment, illness, discipline, etc. confined.
congiary ::: n. --> A present, as of corn, wine, or oil, made by a Roman emperor to the soldiers or the people; -- so called because measured to each in a congius.
CONTRADICTIONS. ::: Every man is full of contradictions because he is one person, no doubt, but made up of different personalities. So long as one does not aim at unity in a single dominant intention, like that of seeking and self-dedication to the Divine, they get on somehow together, alternating or quar- relling or muddling through or else one taking the lead and compelling the others to take a minor part — but once you try to unite them in one aim, then the trouble becomes evident.
contrite ::: a. --> Thoroughly bruised or broken.
Broken down with grief and penitence; deeply sorrowful for sin because it is displeasing to God; humbly and thoroughly penitent. ::: n. --> A contrite person.
contrition ::: n. --> The act of grinding or ribbing to powder; attrition; friction; rubbing.
The state of being contrite; deep sorrow and repentance for sin, because sin is displeasing to God; humble penitence; through repentance.
cootfoot ::: n. --> The phalarope; -- so called because its toes are like the coot&
copperworm ::: n. --> The teredo; -- so called because it injures the bottoms of vessels, where not protected by copper.
The ringworm.
coquimbite ::: n. --> A mineral consisting principally of sulphate of iron; white copperas; -- so called because found in the province of Coquimbo, Chili.
corticifer ::: n. --> One of the Gorgoniacea; -- so called because the fleshy part surrounds a solid axis, like a bark.
cosmic mind ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Nevertheless, the fact of this intervention from above, the fact that behind all our original thinking or authentic perception of things there is a veiled, a half-veiled or a swift unveiled intuitive element is enough to establish a connection between mind and what is above it; it opens a passage of communication and of entry into the superior spirit-ranges. There is also the reaching out of mind to exceed the personal ego limitation, to see things in a certain impersonality and universality. Impersonality is the first character of cosmic self; universality, non-limitation by the single or limiting point of view, is the character of cosmic perception and knowledge: this tendency is therefore a widening, however rudimentary, of these restricted mind areas towards cosmicity, towards a quality which is the very character of the higher mental planes, — towards that superconscient cosmic Mind which, we have suggested, must in the nature of things be the original mind-action of which ours is only a derivative and inferior process.” *The Life Divine
"If we accept the Vedic image of the Sun of Truth, . . . we may compare the action of the Higher Mind to a composed and steady sunshine, the energy of the Illumined Mind beyond it to an outpouring of massive lightnings of flaming sun-stuff. Still beyond can be met a yet greater power of the Truth-Force, an intimate and exact Truth-vision, Truth-thought, Truth-sense, Truth-feeling, Truth-action, to which we can give in a special sense the name of Intuition; . . . At the source of this Intuition we discover a superconscient cosmic Mind in direct contact with the supramental Truth-Consciousness, an original intensity determinant of all movements below it and all mental energies, — not Mind as we know it, but an Overmind that covers as with the wide wings of some creative Oversoul this whole lower hemisphere of Knowledge-Ignorance, links it with that greater Truth-Consciousness while yet at the same time with its brilliant golden Lid it veils the face of the greater Truth from our sight, intervening with its flood of infinite possibilities as at once an obstacle and a passage in our seeking of the spiritual law of our existence, its highest aim, its secret Reality.” The Life Divine
"There is one cosmic Mind, one cosmic Life, one cosmic Body. All the attempt of man to arrive at universal sympathy, universal love and the understanding and knowledge of the inner soul of other existences is an attempt to beat thin, breach and eventually break down by the power of the enlarging mind and heart the walls of the ego and arrive nearer to a cosmic oneness.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"[The results of the opening to the cosmic Mind:] One is aware of the cosmic Mind and the mental forces that move there and how they work on one"s mind and that of others and one is able to deal with one"s own mind with a greater knowledge and effective power. There are many other results, but this is the fundamental one.” Letters on Yoga
"The cosmic consciousness has many levels — the cosmic physical, the cosmic vital, the cosmic Mind, and above the higher planes of cosmic Mind there is the Intuition and above that the overmind and still above that the supermind where the Transcendental begins. In order to live in the Intuition plane (not merely to receive intuitions), one has to live in the cosmic consciousness because there the cosmic and individual run into each other as it were, and the mental separation between them is already broken down, so nobody can reach there who is still in the separative ego.” Letters on Yoga*
cosmic Self ::: Sri Aurobindo: "When one has the cosmic consciousness, one can feel the cosmic Self as one"s own self, one can feel one with other beings in the cosmos, one can feel all the forces of Nature as moving in oneself, all selves as one"s own self. There is no why except that it is so, since all is the One.” Letters on Yoga (See also Cosmic Spirit)
"Impersonality is the first character of cosmic self; . . . .” *The Life Divine
"An eternal infinite self-existence is the supreme reality, but the supreme transcendent eternal Being, Self and Spirit, — an infinite Person, we may say, because his being is the essence and source of all personality, — is the reality and meaning of self-existence: so too the cosmic Self, Spirit, Being, Person is the reality and meaning of cosmic existence; the same Self, Spirit, Being or Person manifesting its multiplicity is the reality and meaning of individual existence.” The Life Divine
"But this cosmic self is spiritual in essence and in experience; it must not be confused with the collective existence, with any group soul or the life and body of a human society or even of all mankind.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"It is the Cosmic Self and Spirit that is in and behind all things and beings, from which and in which all is manifested in the universe — although it is now a manifestation in the Ignorance.” Letters on Yoga*
coupe ::: n. --> The front compartment of a French diligence; also, the front compartment (usually for three persons) of a car or carriage on British railways.
A four-wheeled close carriage for two persons inside, with an outside seat for the driver; -- so called because giving the appearance of a larger carriage cut off.
coverture ::: n. --> Covering; shelter; defense; hiding.
The condition of a woman during marriage, because she is considered under the cover, influence, power, and protection of her husband, and therefore called a feme covert, or femme couverte.
cowbird ::: n. --> The cow blackbird (Molothrus ater), an American starling. Like the European cuckoo, it builds no nest, but lays its eggs in the nests of other birds; -- so called because frequently associated with cattle.
crinoline ::: n. --> A kind of stiff cloth, used chiefly by women, for underskirts, to expand the gown worn over it; -- so called because originally made of hair.
A lady&
cry ::: 1. To entreat loudly; supplicate. 2. To call loudly; shout. 3. To sob or shed tears because of grief, sorrow, or pain; weep. 4. To utter or shout (words of appeal, exclamation, fear, etc.) 5. To utter a characteristic sound or call. Used of an animal. cries, cried, criedst, criest, crying.
curious ::: 1. Eager to learn more. 2. Arousing interest because of novelty or strangeness.
darter ::: n. --> One who darts, or who throw darts; that which darts.
The snakebird, a water bird of the genus Plotus; -- so called because it darts out its long, snakelike neck at its prey. See Snakebird.
A small fresh-water etheostomoid fish. The group includes numerous genera and species, all of them American. See Etheostomoid.
dayfly ::: n. --> A neuropterous insect of the genus Ephemera and related genera, of many species, and inhabiting fresh water in the larval state; the ephemeral fly; -- so called because it commonly lives but one day in the winged or adult state. See Ephemeral fly, under Ephemeral.
Death is there because the being in the body is not yet deve- loped enough to go on growing in the same body Avithout the need of change and the body itself is not sufficiently conscious.
"Death is there because the being in the body is not yet developed enough to go on growing in the same body without the need of change and the body itself is not sufficiently conscious. If the mind and vital and the body itself were more conscious and plastic, death would not be necessary.” Letters on Yoga
“Death is there because the being in the body is not yet developed enough to go on growing in the same body without the need of change and the body itself is not sufficiently conscious. If the mind and vital and the body itself were more conscious and plastic, death would not be necessary.” Letters on Yoga
defeatist ::: marked by the attitude of one who admits, expects, or no longer resists defeat, as because of a conviction that further struggle or effort is futile.
Defects of others ::: it is the petty ego in each that likes to discover and talk about the defects of others. The ego has no right to judge them, because it has not the right view or the
demantoid ::: n. --> A yellow-green, transparent variety of garnet found in the Urals. It is valued as a gem because of its brilliancy of luster, whence the name.
desert ::: 1. A region so arid because of little rainfall that it supports only sparse and widely spaced vegetation or no vegetation at all. 2. Any area in which few forms of life can exist because of lack of water, permanent frost, or absence of soil. 3. Any place lacking in something; desolate, barren. deserts.
DESERT. ::: The feeling of the desert comes because of the resistance of the vital which wants hfe to be governed by desire.
"Desire is the root of all sorrow, disappointment, affliction, for though it has a feverish joy of pursuit and satisfaction, yet because it is always a straining of the being, it carries into its pursuit and its getting a labour, hunger, struggle, a rapid subjection to fatigue, a sense of limitation, dissatisfaction and early disappointment with all its gains, a ceaseless morbid stimulation, trouble, disquiet, asânti. ” The Synthesis of Yoga
“Desire is the root of all sorrow, disappointment, affliction, for though it has a feverish joy of pursuit and satisfaction, yet because it is always a straining of the being, it carries into its pursuit and its getting a labour, hunger, struggle, a rapid subjection to fatigue, a sense of limitation, dissatisfaction and early disappointment with all its gains, a ceaseless morbid stimulation, trouble, disquiet, asânti.” The Synthesis of Yoga
“… desires come from outside, enter the subconscious vital and rise to the surface. It is only when they rise to the surface and the mind becomes aware of them, that we become conscious of the desire. It seems to us to be our own because we feel it thus rising from the vital into the mind and do not know that it came from outside.” Letters on Yoga
detached ::: 1. Impartial or objective; disinterested; unbiased. 2. Not involved or concerned; aloof. ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Detachment means that one stands back from [imperfections and weakness of the nature, etc.] , does not identify oneself with them or get upset or troubled because they are there, but rather looks on them as something foreign to one"s true consciousness and true self, rejects them and calls in the Mother"s Force into these movements to eliminate them and bring the true consciousness and its movements there.” Letters on Yoga
detached ::: “Detachment means that one stands back from [imperfections and weakness of the nature, etc.] , does not identify oneself with them or get upset or troubled because they are there, but rather looks on them as something foreign to one’s true consciousness and true self, rejects them and calls in the Mother’s Force into these movements to eliminate them and bring the true consciousness and its movements there.” Letters on Yoga
diapason ::: n. --> The octave, or interval which includes all the tones of the diatonic scale.
Concord, as of notes an octave apart; harmony.
The entire compass of tones.
A standard of pitch; a tuning fork; as, the French normal diapason.
One of certain stops in the organ, so called because they extend through the scale of the instrument. They are of several kinds,
digit ::: n. --> One of the terminal divisions of a limb appendage; a finger or toe.
A finger&
dimethyl ::: n. --> Ethane; -- sometimes so called because regarded as consisting of two methyl radicals. See Ethane.
diprotodon ::: n. --> An extinct Quaternary marsupial from Australia, about as large as the hippopotamus; -- so named because of its two large front teeth. See Illustration in Appendix.
::: "Discoveries will be made that thin the walls between soul and matter; attempts there will be to extend exact knowledge into the psychological and psychic realms with a realisation of the truth that these have laws of their own which are other than the physical, but not the less laws because they escape the external senses and are infinitely plastic and subtle.” The Human Cycle, etc.
“Discoveries will be made that thin the walls between soul and matter; attempts there will be to extend exact knowledge into the psychological and psychic realms with a realisation of the truth that these have laws of their own which are other than the physical, but not the less laws because they escape the external senses and are infinitely plastic and subtle.” The Human Cycle, etc.
diurna ::: n. pl. --> A division of Lepidoptera, including the butterflies; -- so called because they fly only in the daytime.
DIVINE AND FORM. ::: The personal realisation of the Divine may be sometimes with Form, sometimes without Form. Without Form, it is the Presence of the living Divine Person, felt in everything. With Form, it comes with the image of the One to whom worship is offered. The Divine can always manifest himself in a form to the Bhakta or seeker. One sees him in the form in which one worships or seeks him or in a form suitable to the Divine Personality who is the object of the adoration. How it manifests depends upon many things and it is too various to be reduced to a single rule. Sometimes it is in the heart that the Presence with the form is seen, sometimes in any of the other centres, sometimes above and guiding from there, sometimes it is seen outside and in front as if an embodied person. Its advantages are an intimate relation and constant guidance or if felt or seen within, a very strong and concrete realisation of the constant Presence. But one must be very sure of the purity of one’s adoration and seekings for the disadvantage of this kind of embodied relation is that other Forces can imitate the Form or counterfeit the voice and the guidance and this gets more force if it is associated with a constructed image which is not the true thing. Several have been misled in this way because pride, vanity or desire was strong in them and robbed them of the fine psychic perception that is not mental.
Divine and receiving the Light and materialising the psychic contact, and so long as it is done in the right spirit and (hey arc used for the true purpose they have their place. It is^ only if they arc misused or the approach is not right because tainted y
Divine, because in the end that enables the sadhaka to bring ou
divine Comedy ::: a stage-play of a light and amusing character, with a happy conclusion to its plot. Its mediaeval use for a narrative poem with an agreeable ending. (Probably taken from Italian; cf. the Divine Comedy, the great tripartite poem of Dante, called by its author La Commedia, because in the conclusion, it is prosperous, pleasant, and desirable.)
divine ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Divine is the Supreme Truth because it is the Supreme Being from whom all have come and in whom all are.” *Letters on Yoga
Divine — that a few can really do, because in practice it turns out that you surrender to the lower nature under pretext of sur- rendering to (he Divine.
Divine ::: “The Divine is the Supreme Truth because it is the Supreme Being from whom all have come and in whom all are.” Letters on Yoga
Do not look up to men because of their riches or allow your- self to be impressed by the show, the power or the influence.
dorhawk ::: n. --> The European goatsucker; -- so called because it eats the dor beetle. See Goatsucker.
dormouse ::: n. --> A small European rodent of the genus Myoxus, of several species. They live in trees and feed on nuts, acorns, etc.; -- so called because they are usually torpid in winter.
DOUBT. ::: Doubt cannot be convinced because by its sery nature it does not want to be convinced.
doubt ::: “Doubt cannot be convinced, because by its very nature it does not want to be convinced; …” Letters on Yoga
DYNAMISM. ::: Dynamism is everywhere, because the Force
dyslysin ::: n. --> A resinous substance formed in the decomposition of cholic acid of bile; -- so called because it is difficult to solve.
ekaboron ::: n. --> The name given by Mendelejeff in accordance with the periodic law, and by prediction, to a hypothetical element then unknown, but since discovered and named scandium; -- so called because it was a missing analogue of the boron group. See Scandium.
ekasilicon ::: n. --> The name of a hypothetical element predicted and afterwards discovered and named germanium; -- so called because it was a missing analogue of the silicon group. See Germanium, and cf. Ekabor.
endorhiza ::: n. --> Any monocotyledonous plant; -- so named because many monocotyledons have an endorhizal embryo.
environment ::: “… we live in a false relation with our environment, because we know neither the universe nor ourselves for what they really are …” The Synthesis of Yoga
eosaurus ::: n. --> An extinct marine reptile from the coal measures of Nova Scotia; -- so named because supposed to be of the earliest known reptiles.
epilepsy ::: n. --> The "falling sickness," so called because the patient falls suddenly to the ground; a disease characterized by paroxysms (or fits) occurring at interval and attended by sudden loss of consciousness, and convulsive motions of the muscles.
equator ::: n. --> The imaginary great circle on the earth&
error ::: “In our world error is continually the handmaid and pathfinder of Truth; for error is really a half-truth that stumbles because of its limitations; often it is Truth that wears a disguise in order to arrive unobserved near to its goal.” The Life Divine
erythrine ::: n. --> A colorless crystalline substance, C20H22O10, extracted from certain lichens, as the various species of Rocella. It is a derivative of orsellinic acid. So called because of certain red compounds derived from it. Called also erythric acid.
See Erythrite, 2.
escapement ::: n. --> The act of escaping; escape.
Way of escape; vent.
The contrivance in a timepiece which connects the train of wheel work with the pendulum or balance, giving to the latter the impulse by which it is kept in vibration; -- so called because it allows a tooth to escape from a pallet at each vibration.
eudiometer ::: n. --> An instrument for the volumetric measurement of gases; -- so named because frequently used to determine the purity of the air.
Even in jest falsehood should be avoided, because it tends to lower the consciousness.
::: "Even Science believes that one day death may be conquered by physical means and its reasonings are perfectly sound. There is no reason why the supramental Force should not do it. Forms on earth do not last (they do in other planes) because these forms are too rigid to grow expressing the progress of the spirit. If they become plastic enough to do that there is no reason why they should not last.” Letters on Yoga
“Even Science believes that one day death may be conquered by physical means and its reasonings are perfectly sound. There is no reason why the supramental Force should not do it. Forms on earth do not last (they do in other planes) because these forms are too rigid to grow expressing the progress of the spirit. If they become plastic enough to do that there is no reason why they should not last.” Letters on Yoga
“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.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"Evolution is an inverse action of the involution: what is an ultimate and last derivation in the involution is the first to appear in the evolution; what was original and primal in the involution is in the evolution the last and supreme emergence.” The Life Divine ::: "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.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
exoptile ::: n. --> A name given by Lestiboudois to dicotyledons; -- so called because the plumule is naked.
explosion ::: n. --> The act of exploding; detonation; a chemical action which causes the sudden formation of a great volume of expanded gas; as, the explosion of gunpowder, of fire damp,etc.
A bursting with violence and loud noise, because of internal pressure; as, the explosion of a gun, a bomb, a steam boiler, etc.
A violent outburst of feeling, manifested by excited language, action, etc.; as, an explosion of wrath.
FAILURE. ::: All who cleave lo the path steadfastly can be sure of their spiritual destiny. If one fails to reach it, it can only be for one of the two reasons, either* because they leave the path or because for some lure of ambition, vanity, desire etc. they go astray from the sincere dependence on the Divine.
faith ::: “Faith is a necessary means for arriving at realisation, because we are ignorant and do not yet know that which we are seeking to realise; faith is indeed knowledge giving the ignorance an intimation of itself previous to its own manifestation, it is the gleam sent before by the yet unrisen Sun. When the Sun shall rise, there will be no longer any need of the gleam.” Letters on Yoga
Faith is a necessary means for arriving at realisation, because we arc ignorant and do not yet know that which we arc seeking to realise ; faith is indeed knowledge giving the ignorance an intimation of itself previous to its own manifestation, it is the gleam sent before by the yet unrisen Sun.
FALL. ::: This lapse happens because there is a defect at the very centre. The intellect has been interested, the heart attracted, the will has strung itself to the effort, but the whole nature has not been taken captive by the Divine. It has only acquiesced
FASTING. ::: Prolonged fasting may lead to an excitation of the nervous being which often brings vivid imaginations and hallucinations that are taken for true experiences ; such fasting h freqiKndy suggestsd by the vital Entities, because it puts the consciousness into an unbalanced state which favours their designs.
fauteuil ::: n. --> An armchair; hence (because the members sit in fauteuils or armchairs), membership in the French Academy.
Chair of a presiding officer.
::: **"Fear is always a feeling to be rejected, because what you fear is just the thing that is likely to come to you: fear attracts the object of fear.” Letters on Yoga*
“Fear is always a feeling to be rejected, because what you fear is just the thing that is likely to come to you: fear attracts the object of fear.” Letters on Yoga
Feet ::: [Tehmi: “In India it is considered that the whole power of the being is focused in the feet. So the feet are touched not only in humility but because all the power of the divinity is concentrated there. When someone touches the feet with the right attitude and devotion a certain power is drawn by the one who touches. So it is a grace by the person who is touched to allow it. Only if one is rooted in the Divine he can allow his feet to be touched.”]
female rhymes ::: --> double rhymes, or rhymes (called in French feminine rhymes because they end in e weak, or feminine) in which two syllables, an accented and an unaccented one, correspond at the end of each line.
fiddler ::: n. --> One who plays on a fiddle or violin.
A burrowing crab of the genus Gelasimus, of many species. The male has one claw very much enlarged, and often holds it in a position similar to that in which a musician holds a fiddle, hence the name; -- called also calling crab, soldier crab, and fighting crab.
The common European sandpiper (Tringoides hypoleucus); -- so called because it continually oscillates its body.
filacer ::: n. --> A former officer in the English Court of Common Pleas; -- so called because he filed the writs on which he made out process.
fishhawk ::: n. --> The osprey (Pandion haliaetus), found both in Europe and America; -- so called because it plunges into the water and seizes fishes in its talons. Called also fishing eagle, and bald buzzard.
fives ::: n. pl. --> A kind of play with a ball against a wall, resembling tennis; -- so named because three fives, or fifteen, are counted to the game. ::: n. --> A disease of the glands under the ear in horses; the vives.
flint glass ::: --> A soft, heavy, brilliant glass, consisting essentially of a silicate of lead and potassium. It is used for tableware, and for optical instruments, as prisms, its density giving a high degree of dispersive power; -- so called, because formerly the silica was obtained from pulverized flints. Called also crystal glass. Cf. Glass.
fluoroid ::: n. --> A tetrahexahedron; -- so called because it is a common form of fluorite.
foam ::: n. --> The white substance, consisting of an aggregation of bubbles, which is formed on the surface of liquids, or in the mouth of an animal, by violent agitation or fermentation; froth; spume; scum; as, the foam of the sea.
To gather foam; to froth; as, the billows foam.
To form foam, or become filled with foam; -- said of a steam boiler when the water is unduly agitated and frothy, as because of chemical action.
fontanel ::: n. --> An issue or artificial ulcer for the discharge of humors from the body.
One of the membranous intervals between the incompleted angles of the parietal and neighboring bones of a fetal or young skull; -- so called because it exhibits a rhythmical pulsation.
forasmuch ::: conj. --> In consideration that; seeing that; since; because that; -- followed by as. See under For, prep.
". . . for doubt is the mind"s persistent assailant.” Letters on Yoga ::: "The enemy of faith is doubt, and yet doubt too is a utility and necessity, because man in his ignorance and in his progressive labour towards knowledge needs to be visited by doubt, otherwise he would remain obstinate in an ignorant belief and limited knowledge and unable to escape from his errors.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
formidable ::: 1. Arousing fear, dread, or alarm. 2. Of discouraging or awesome strength, size, difficulty, etc.; intimidating. 3. Arousing feelings of awe or admiration because of grandeur, strength, etc. 4. Of great strength; forceful; powerful.
"Forms on earth do not last (they do in other planes) because these forms are too rigid to grow expressing the progress of the spirit. If they become plastic enough to do that there is no reason why they should not last.” Letters on Yoga
“Forms on earth do not last (they do in other planes) because these forms are too rigid to grow expressing the progress of the spirit. If they become plastic enough to do that there is no reason why they should not last.” Letters on Yoga
Forms on earth do not last (they do in other planes), because these forms are too rigid to grow expressing the progress of the spirit.
::: "For there seems to be no reason why Life should evolve out of material elements or Mind out of living form, unless we accept the Vedantic solution that Life is already involved in Matter and Mind in Life because in essence Matter is a form of veiled Life, Life a form of veiled Consciousness.” The Life Divine
“For there seems to be no reason why Life should evolve out of material elements or Mind out of living form, unless we accept the Vedantic solution that Life is already involved in Matter and Mind in Life because in essence Matter is a form of veiled Life, Life a form of veiled Consciousness.” The Life Divine
forwhy ::: conj. --> Wherefore; because.
fraunhofer lines ::: --> The lines of the spectrun; especially and properly, the dark lines of the solar spectrum, so called because first accurately observed and interpreted by Fraunhofer, a German physicist.
freestone ::: n. --> A stone composed of sand or grit; -- so called because it is easily cut or wrought. ::: a. --> Having the flesh readily separating from the stone, as in certain kinds of peaches.
FRIENDSHIP. ::: Friendship or affection is not excluded fron the yoga. Friendship with the Divine is a recognised relation in the snd/ianii. Friendships between the sddhakas exist and are encouraged. Only, we seek to found them on a surer basis than that on which the bulk of human friendships are insecurely founded. It is precisely because we hold friendship, brotherhood, love to be sacred things that we want this change. We want them rooted in the soul, founded on the rock of the Divine.
fritillary ::: n. --> A plant with checkered petals, of the genus Fritillaria: the Guinea-hen flower. See Fritillaria.
One of several species of butterflies belonging to Argynnis and allied genera; -- so called because the coloring of their wings resembles that of the common Fritillaria. See Aphrodite.
from any general prohibitory rule. What is forbidden to anyone with a strong spiritual sense is to be a miracle-monger, perform- ing extraordinary ^things for show, for gain, for fame, out ot vanity or pride. It is forbidden to use powers from mere vital motives, to make an Asuric ostentation of them or turn them into a support for arrogance, conceit, ambition or any other of the amiable weaknesses to which human nature is prone. It is because half-baked yogins so often fall into these traps* of the hostile forces that the use of yogic powers is sometimes discou- raged as harmful to the user.
frostfish ::: n. --> The tomcod; -- so called because it is abundant on the New England coast in autumn at about the commencement of frost. See Tomcod.
The smelt.
A name applied in New Zealand to the scabbard fish (Lepidotus) valued as a food fish.
fungia ::: n. --> A genus of simple, stony corals; -- so called because they are usually flat and circular, with radiating plates, like the gills of a mushroom. Some of them are eighteen inches in diameter.
Further, vision is of value because it is often a first key to inner planes of one's own being and one’s own consciousness as distinguished from worlds or planes of the cosmic consciousness.
genesee epoch ::: --> The closing subdivision of the Hamilton period in the American Devonian system; -- so called because the formations of this period crop out in Genesee, New York.
geometrid ::: a. --> Pertaining or belonging to the Geometridae. ::: n. --> One of numerous genera and species of moths, of the family Geometridae; -- so called because their larvae (called loopers, measuring worms, spanworms, and inchworms) creep in a looping manner, as if measuring. Many of the species are injurious to agriculture, as
gin ::: n. --> Against; near by; towards; as, gin night.
A strong alcoholic liquor, distilled from rye and barley, and flavored with juniper berries; -- also called Hollands and Holland gin, because originally, and still very extensively, manufactured in Holland. Common gin is usually flavored with turpentine.
Contrivance; artifice; a trap; a snare.
A machine for raising or moving heavy weights, consisting of a tripod formed of poles united at the top, with a windlass, pulleys,
girondist ::: n. --> A member of the moderate republican party formed in the French legislative assembly in 1791. The Girondists were so called because their leaders were deputies from the department of La Gironde. ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the Girondists.
"God is the one stable and eternal Reality. He is One because there is nothing else, since all existence and non-existence are He. He is stable or unmoving, because motion implies change in Space and change in Time, and He, being beyond Time and Space, is immutable. He possesses eternally in Himself all that is, has been or ever can be, and He therefore does not increase or diminish. He is beyond causality and relativity and therefore there is no change of relations in His being.” The Upanishads
“God is the one stable and eternal Reality. He is One because there is nothing else, since all existence and non-existence are He. He is stable or unmoving, because motion implies change in Space and change in Time, and He, being beyond Time and Space, is immutable. He possesses eternally in Himself all that is, has been or ever can be, and He therefore does not increase or diminish. He is beyond causality and relativity and therefore there is no change of relations in His being.” The Upanishads
granatin ::: n. --> Mannite; -- so called because found in the pomegranate.
grave ::: v. t. --> To clean, as a vessel&
gromwell ::: n. --> A plant of the genus Lithospermum (L. arvense), anciently used, because of its stony pericarp, in the cure of gravel. The German gromwell is the Stellera.
guess warp ::: --> A rope or hawser by which a vessel is towed or warped along; -- so called because it is necessary to guess at the length to be carried in the boat making the attachment to a distant object.
gunstome ::: n. --> A cannon ball; -- so called because originally made of stone. html{color:
gymnoblastea ::: n. pl. --> The Athecata; -- so called because the medusoid buds are not inclosed in a capsule.
gymnogen ::: n. --> One of a class of plants, so called by Lindley, because the ovules are fertilized by direct contact of the pollen. Same as Gymnosperm.
habendum ::: n. --> That part of a deed which follows the part called the premises, and determines the extent of the interest or estate granted; -- so called because it begins with the word Habendum.
hangbird ::: n. --> The Baltimore oriole (Icterus galbula); -- so called because its nest is suspended from the limb of a tree. See Baltimore oriole.
hardly ::: “Your ‘barely enough’, instead of the finer and more suggestive ‘hardly’, falls flat upon my ear; one cannot substitute one word for another in this kind of poetry merely because it means intellectually the same thing; ‘hardly’ is the mot juste in this context and, repetition or not, it must remain unless a word not only juste but inevitable comes to replace it… . On this point I may add that in certain contexts ‘barely’ would be the right word, as for instance, ‘There is barely enough food left for two or three meals’, where ‘hardly’ would be adequate but much less forceful. It is the other way about in this line. Letters on Savitri
heavy spar ::: --> Native barium sulphate or barite, -- so called because of its high specific gravity as compared with other non-metallic minerals.
hecatompedon ::: n. --> A name given to the old Parthenon at Athens, because measuring 100 Greek feet, probably in the width across the stylobate.
hecdecane ::: n. --> A white, semisolid, spermaceti-like hydrocarbon, C16H34, of the paraffin series, found dissolved as an important ingredient of kerosene, and so called because each molecule has sixteen atoms of carbon; -- called also hexadecane.
hematite ::: n. --> An important ore of iron, the sesquioxide, so called because of the red color of the powder. It occurs in splendent rhombohedral crystals, and in massive and earthy forms; -- the last called red ocher. Called also specular iron, oligist iron, rhombohedral iron ore, and bloodstone. See Brown hematite, under Brown.
hendecane ::: n. --> A hydrocarbon, C11H24, of the paraffin series; -- so called because it has eleven atoms of carbon in each molecule. Called also endecane, undecane.
heptane ::: n. --> Any one of several isometric hydrocarbons, C7H16, of the paraffin series (nine are possible, four are known); -- so called because the molecule has seven carbon atoms. Specifically, a colorless liquid, found as a constituent of petroleum, in the tar oil of cannel coal, etc.
heteroscian ::: n. --> One who lives either north or south of the tropics, as contrasted with one who lives on the other side of them; -- so called because at noon the shadows always fall in opposite directions (the one northward, the other southward).
hexane ::: n. --> Any one of five hydrocarbons, C6H14, of the paraffin series. They are colorless, volatile liquids, and are so called because the molecule has six carbon atoms.
hexeikosane ::: n. --> A hydrocarbon, C26H54, resembling paraffine; -- so called because each molecule has twenty-six atoms of carbon.
hicksite ::: n. --> A member or follower of the "liberal" party, headed by Elias Hicks, which, because of a change of views respecting the divinity of Christ and the Atonement, seceded from the conservative portion of the Society of Friends in the United States, in 1827.
history ::: “History teaches us nothing; it is a confused torrent of events and personalities or a kaleidoscope of changing institutions. We do not seize the real sense of all this change and this continual streaming forward of human life in the channels of Time. What we do seize are current or recurrent phenomena, facile generalisations, partial ideas. We talk of democracy, aristocracy and autocracy, collectivism and individualism, imperialism and nationalism, the State and the commune, capitalism and labour; we advance hasty generalisations and make absolute systems which are positively announced today only to be abandoned perforce tomorrow; we espouse causes and ardent enthusiasms whose triumph turns to an early disillusionment and then forsake them for others, perhaps for those that we have taken so much trouble to destroy. For a whole century mankind thirsts and battles after liberty and earns it with a bitter expense of toil, tears and blood; the century that enjoys without having fought for it turns away as from a puerile illusion and is ready to renounce the depreciated gain as the price of some new good. And all this happens because our whole thought and action with regard to our collective life is shallow and empirical; it does not seek for, it does not base itself on a firm, profound and complete knowledge. The moral is not the vanity of human life, of its ardours and enthusiasms and of the ideals it pursues, but the necessity of a wiser, larger, more patient search after its true law and aim.” The Human Cycle etc.
hoecake ::: n. --> A cake of Indian meal, water, and salt, baked before the fire or in the ashes; -- so called because often cooked on a hoe.
HOLOCAUST OF THE DIVINE. ::: The Mother not only governs all from above but she descends into this lesser tnple universe. Impersonally, all things here, even the movements of the Ignorance, are herself in veiled power and her creations in diminished substance, her Nafure-b^y and Nature-force, and they exist because moved by the mysterious fiat of the Supreme to work out something that was fbere «i the possibilities of The Infinite she has consented to the great sacrifice and has put on like a mask the soul and forms of the Ignorance. But personally too she has stooped to descend here into the Darkness that she may lead it to the Light, into the Falsehood and Error that she may convert it to the Truth, into this Death that she may turn it to godlike Life, into this world-pain and its obstinate sorrow assimilate it ; avoid self-dispersion and all externalising of the consciousness.
holocaust ::: “The Mother not only governs all from above but she descends into this lesser triple universe. Impersonally, all things here, even the movements of the Ignorance, are herself in veiled power and her creations in diminished substance, her Nature-body and Nature-force, and they exist because, moved by the mysterious fiat of the Supreme to work out something that was there in the possibilities of the Infinite, she has consented to the great sacrifice and has put on like a mask the soul and forms of the Ignorance. But personally too she has stooped to descend here into the Darkness that she may lead it to the Light, into the Falsehood and Error that she may convert it to the Truth, into this Death that she may turn it to godlike Life, into this world-pain and its obstinate sorrow and suffering that she may end it in the transforming ecstasy of her sublime Ananda. In her deep and great love for her children she has consented to put on herself the cloak of this obscurity, condescended to bear the attacks and torturing influences of the powers of the Darkness and the Falsehood, borne to pass though the portals of the birth that is a death, taken upon herself the pangs and sorrows and sufferings of the creation, since it seemed that thus alone could it be lifted to the Light and Joy and Truth and eternal Life. This is the great sacrifice called sometimes the sacrifice of the Purusha, but much more deeply the holocaust of Prakriti, the sacrifice of the Divine Mother.” The Mother
homoiothermal ::: a. --> Maintaining a uniform temperature; haematothermal; homothermic; -- applied to warm-bodied animals, because they maintain a nearly uniform temperature in spite of the great variations in the surrounding air; in distinct from the cold-blooded (poikilothermal) animals, whose body temperature follows the variations in temperature of the surrounding medium.
honewort ::: n. --> An umbelliferous plant of the genus Sison (S. Amomum); -- so called because used to cure a swelling called a hone.
honiton lace ::: --> A kind of pillow lace, remarkable for the beauty of its figures; -- so called because chiefly made in Honiton, England.
hornbook ::: n. --> The first book for children, or that from which in former times they learned their letters and rudiments; -- so called because a sheet of horn covered the small, thin board of oak, or the slip of paper, on which the alphabet, digits, and often the Lord&
hornpipe ::: n. --> An instrument of music formerly popular in Wales, consisting of a wooden pipe, with holes at intervals. It was so called because the bell at the open end was sometimes made of horn.
A lively tune played on a hornpipe, for dancing; a tune adapted for such playing.
hostler ::: n. --> An innkeeper. [Obs.] See Hosteler.
The person who has the care of horses at an inn or stable; hence, any one who takes care of horses; a groom; -- so called because the innkeeper formerly attended to this duty in person.
The person who takes charge of a locomotive when it is left by the engineer after a trip.
howadji ::: n. --> A traveler.
A merchant; -- so called in the East because merchants were formerly the chief travelers.
HYSTERIA. ::: It is due to a pressure from the vital world and there may be momentary possessions also.
In cases of hysteria usually nothing is gained by humouring or indulgence ; firmness generally pays better, because most often there is something there that wants ito be interesting and get sympathy and have a fuss made over the person. As for the cure, the subjective cause has to be got rid of.
iceland spar ::: --> A transparent variety of calcite, the best of which is obtained in Iceland. It is used for the prisms of the polariscope, because of its strong double refraction. Cf. Calcite.
ideal ::: Madhav: “What is not yet achieved on earth but what must be achieved because it presses for expression from above is cherished in the aspiration and thought of man as an Ideal. It is a truth from the higher regions of existence that seeks to formulate itself in this world. It clothes itself in the form of an Idea, organises itself in the human mind through a series of perceptions and leaps of thought as an Ideal to be realised and goes on exerting pressure on the evolving spirit of man to actualise it in life as a working factor. Progress is effected by these translations of the ideal into the actual.” Readings in Savitri, Vol. III.
If we would understand the difference of this global Overmind Consciousness from our separative and only imperfectly synthetic mental consciousness, we may come near to it if we compare the strictly mental with what would be an overmental view of activities in our material universe. To the Overmind, for example, all religions would be true as developments of the one eternal religion, all philosophies would be valid each in its own field as a statement of its own universe-view from its own angle, all political theories with their practice would be the legitimate working out of an Idea Force with its right to application and practical development in the play of the energies of Nature. In our separative consciousness, imperfectly visited by glimpses of catholicity and universality, these things exist as opposites; each claims to be the truth and taxes the others with error and falsehood, each feels impelled to refute or destroy the others in order that itself alone may be the Truth and live: at best, each must claim to be superior, admit all others only as inferior truth-expressions. An overmental Intelligence would refuse to entertain this conception or this drift to exclusiveness for a moment; it would allow all to live as necessary to the whole or put each in its place in the whole or assign to each its field of realisation or of endeavour. This is because in us consciousness has come down completely into the divisions of the Ignorance; Truth is no longer either an Infinite or a cosmic whole with many possible formulations, but a rigid affirmation holding any other affirmation to be false because different from itself and entrenched in other limits. Our mental consciousness can indeed arrive in its cognition at a considerable approach towards a total comprehensiveness and catholicity, but to organise that in action and life seems to be beyond its power. Evolutionary Mind, manifest in individuals or collectivities, throws up a multiplicity of divergent viewpoints, divergent lines of action and lets them work themselves out side by side or in collision or in a certain intermixture; it can make selective harmonies, but it cannot arrive at the harmonic control of a true totality. Cosmic Mind must have even in the evolutionary Ignorance, like all totalities, such a harmony, if only of arranged accords and discords; there is too in it an underlying dynamism of oneness: but it carries the completeness of these things in its depths, perhaps in a supermind-overmind substratum, but does not impart it to individual Mind in the evolution, does not bring it or has not yet brought it from the depths to the surface. An Overmind world would be a world of harmony; the world of Ignorance in which we live is a world of disharmony and struggle. …
“Ignorance is the consciousness of being in the successions of Time, divided in its knowledge by dwelling in the moment, divided in its conception of self-being by dwelling in the divisions of Space and the relations of circumstance, self-prisoned in the multiple working of the unity. It is called the Ignorance because it has put behind it the knowledge of unity and by that very fact is unable to know truly or completely either itself or the world, either the transcendent or the universal reality.” The Life Divine
ignorance ::: the state or fact of being ignorant; lack of knowledge, learning, information. Ignorance, ignorance"s, Ignorance"s, ignorance", world-ignorance, World-Ignorance.
Sri Aurobindo: "Ignorance is the absence of the divine eye of perception which gives us the sight of the supramental Truth; it is the non-perceiving principle in our consciousness as opposed to the truth-perceiving conscious vision and knowledge.” *The Life Divine
"Ignorance is the consciousness of being in the successions of Time, divided in its knowledge by dwelling in the moment, divided in its conception of self-being by dwelling in the divisions of Space and the relations of circumstance, self-prisoned in the multiple working of the unity. It is called the Ignorance because it has put behind it the knowledge of unity and by that very fact is unable to know truly or completely either itself or the world, either the transcendent or the universal reality.” The Life Divine
"Ignorance means Avidya, the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life that flow from it and all that is natural to the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life. This Ignorance is the result of a movement by which the cosmic Intelligence separated itself from the light of the Supermind (the divine Gnosis) and lost the Truth, — truth of being, truth of divine consciousness, truth of force and action, truth of Ananda. As a result, instead of a world of integral truth and divine harmony created in the light of the divine Gnosis, we have a world founded on the part truths of an inferior cosmic Intelligence in which all is half-truth, half-error. . . . All in the consciousness of this creation is either limited or else perverted by separation from the integral Light; even the Truth it perceives is only a half-knowledge. Therefore it is called the Ignorance.” The Mother
". . . all ignorance is a penumbra which environs an orb of knowledge . . . .”The Life Divine
"This world is not really created by a blind force of Nature: even in the Inconscient the presence of the supreme Truth is at work; there is a seeing Power behind it which acts infallibly and the steps of the Ignorance itself are guided even when they seem to stumble; for what we call the Ignorance is a cloaked Knowledge, a Knowledge at work in a body not its own but moving towards its own supreme self-discovery.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"Knowledge is no doubt the knowledge of the One, the realisation of the Being; Ignorance is a self-oblivion of Being, the experience of separateness in the multiplicity and a dwelling or circling in the ill-understood maze of becomings: . . . .” The Life Divine*
illative ::: a. --> Relating to, dependent on, or denoting, illation; inferential; conclusive; as, an illative consequence or proposition; an illative word, as then, therefore, etc. ::: n. --> An illative particle, as for, because.
impatiens ::: n. --> A genus of plants, several species of which have very beautiful flowers; -- so called because the elastic capsules burst when touched, and scatter the seeds with considerable force. Called also touch-me-not, jewelweed, and snapweed. I. Balsamina (sometimes called lady&
impatient ::: a. --> Not patient; not bearing with composure; intolerant; uneasy; fretful; restless, because of pain, delay, or opposition; eager for change, or for something expected; hasty; passionate; -- often followed by at, for, of, and under.
Not to be borne; unendurable.
Prompted by, or exhibiting, impatience; as, impatient speeches or replies.
incapable ::: a. --> Wanting in ability or qualification for the purpose or end in view; not large enough to contain or hold; deficient in physical strength, mental or moral power, etc.; not capable; as, incapable of holding a certain quantity of liquid; incapable of endurance, of comprehension, of perseverance, of reform, etc.
Not capable of being brought to do or perform, because morally strong or well disposed; -- used with reference to some evil; as, incapable of wrong, dishonesty, or falsehood.
Indefinable. I object to it because my aim is to bring the Divine into life.
Indispensable for a spirtiual realisation. Life therefore has to be accepted as the means of our activity and the dynamic mould into which we have to pour the Divine Existence ; but it can be accepted only because it is a form of a Divine Energy which
INTEGRAL YOGA ::: This yoga accepts the value of cosmic existence and holds it to be a reality; its object is to enter into a higher Truth-Consciousness or Divine Supramental Consciousness in which action and creation are the expression not of ignorance and imperfection, but of the Truth, the Light, the Divine Ānanda. But for that, the surrender of the mortal mind, life and body to the Higher Consciousnessis indispensable, since it is too difficult for the mortal human being to pass by its own effort beyond mind to a Supramental Consciousness in which the dynamism is no longer mental but of quite another power. Only those who can accept the call to such a change should enter into this yoga.
Aim of the Integral Yoga ::: It is not merely to rise out of the ordinary ignorant world-consciousness into the divine consciousness, but to bring the supramental power of that divine consciousness down into the ignorance of mind, life and body, to transform them, to manifest the Divine here and create a divine life in Matter.
Conditions of the Integral Yoga ::: This yoga can only be done to the end by those who are in total earnest about it and ready to abolish their little human ego and its demands in order to find themselves in the Divine. It cannot be done in a spirit of levity or laxity; the work is too high and difficult, the adverse powers in the lower Nature too ready to take advantage of the least sanction or the smallest opening, the aspiration and tapasyā needed too constant and intense.
Method in the Integral Yoga ::: To concentrate, preferably in the heart and call the presence and power of the Mother to take up the being and by the workings of her force transform the consciousness. One can concentrate also in the head or between the eye-brows, but for many this is a too difficult opening. When the mind falls quiet and the concentration becomes strong and the aspiration intense, then there is the beginning of experience. The more the faith, the more rapid the result is likely to be. For the rest one must not depend on one’s own efforts only, but succeed in establishing a contact with the Divine and a receptivity to the Mother’s Power and Presence.
Integral method ::: The method we have to pursue is to put our whole conscious being into relation and contact with the Divine and to call Him in to transform Our entire being into His, so that in a sense God Himself, the real Person in us, becomes the sādhaka of the sādhana* as well as the Master of the Yoga by whom the lower personality is used as the centre of a divine transfiguration and the instrument of its own perfection. In effect, the pressure of the Tapas, the force of consciousness in us dwelling in the Idea of the divine Nature upon that which we are in our entirety, produces its own realisation. The divine and all-knowing and all-effecting descends upon the limited and obscure, progressively illumines and energises the whole lower nature and substitutes its own action for all the terms of the inferior human light and mortal activity.
In psychological fact this method translates itself into the progressive surrender of the ego with its whole field and all its apparatus to the Beyond-ego with its vast and incalculable but always inevitable workings. Certainly, this is no short cut or easy sādhana. It requires a colossal faith, an absolute courage and above all an unflinching patience. For it implies three stages of which only the last can be wholly blissful or rapid, - the attempt of the ego to enter into contact with the Divine, the wide, full and therefore laborious preparation of the whole lower Nature by the divine working to receive and become the higher Nature, and the eventual transformation. In fact, however, the divine strength, often unobserved and behind the veil, substitutes itself for the weakness and supports us through all our failings of faith, courage and patience. It” makes the blind to see and the lame to stride over the hills.” The intellect becomes aware of a Law that beneficently insists and a Succour that upholds; the heart speaks of a Master of all things and Friend of man or a universal Mother who upholds through all stumblings. Therefore this path is at once the most difficult imaginable and yet in comparison with the magnitude of its effort and object, the most easy and sure of all.
There are three outstanding features of this action of the higher when it works integrally on the lower nature. In the first place, it does not act according to a fixed system and succession as in the specialised methods of Yoga, but with a sort of free, scattered and yet gradually intensive and purposeful working determined by the temperament of the individual in whom it operates, the helpful materials which his nature offers and the obstacles which it presents to purification and perfection. In a sense, therefore, each man in this path has his own method of Yoga. Yet are there certain broad lines of working common to all which enable us to construct not indeed a routine system, but yet some kind of Shastra or scientific method of the synthetic Yoga.
Secondly, the process, being integral, accepts our nature such as it stands organised by our past evolution and without rejecting anything essential compels all to undergo a divine change. Everything in us is seized by the hands of a mighty Artificer and transformed into a clear image of that which it now seeks confusedly to present. In that ever-progressive experience we begin to perceive how this lower manifestation is constituted and that everything in it, however seemingly deformed or petty or vile, is the more or less distorted or imperfect figure of some elements or action in the harmony of the divine Nature. We begin to understand what the Vedic Rishis meant when they spoke of the human forefathers fashioning the gods as a smith forges the crude material in his smithy.
Thirdly, the divine Power in us uses all life as the means of this integral Yoga. Every experience and outer contact with our world-environment, however trifling or however disastrous, is used for the work, and every inner experience, even to the most repellent suffering or the most humiliating fall, becomes a step on the path to perfection. And we recognise in ourselves with opened eyes the method of God in the world, His purpose of light in the obscure, of might in the weak and fallen, of delight in what is grievous and miserable. We see the divine method to be the same in the lower and in the higher working; only in the one it is pursued tardily and obscurely through the subconscious in Nature, in the other it becomes swift and selfconscious and the instrument confesses the hand of the Master. All life is a Yoga of Nature seeking to manifest God within itself. Yoga marks the stage at which this effort becomes capable of self-awareness and therefore of right completion in the individual. It is a gathering up and concentration of the movements dispersed and loosely combined in the lower evolution.
Key-methods ::: The way to devotion and surrender. It is the psychic movement that brings the constant and pure devotion and the removal of the ego that makes it possible to surrender.
The way to knowledge. Meditation in the head by which there comes the opening above, the quietude or silence of the mind and the descent of peace etc. of the higher consciousness generally till it envelops the being and fills the body and begins to take up all the movements.
Yoga by works ::: Separation of the Purusha from the Prakriti, the inner silent being from the outer active one, so that one has two consciousnesses or a double consciousness, one behind watching and observing and finally controlling and changing the other which is active in front. The other way of beginning the yoga of works is by doing them for the Divine, for the Mother, and not for oneself, consecrating and dedicating them till one concretely feels the Divine Force taking up the activities and doing them for one.
Object of the Integral Yoga is to enter into and be possessed by the Divine Presence and Consciousness, to love the Divine for the Divine’s sake alone, to be tuned in our nature into the nature of the Divine, and in our will and works and life to be the instrument of the Divine.
Principle of the Integral Yoga ::: The whole principle of Integral Yoga is to give oneself entirely to the Divine alone and to nobody else, and to bring down into ourselves by union with the Divine Mother all the transcendent light, power, wideness, peace, purity, truth-consciousness and Ānanda of the Supramental Divine.
Central purpose of the Integral Yoga ::: Transformation of our superficial, narrow and fragmentary human way of thinking, seeing, feeling and being into a deep and wide spiritual consciousness and an integrated inner and outer existence and of our ordinary human living into the divine way of life.
Fundamental realisations of the Integral Yoga ::: The psychic change so that a complete devotion can be the main motive of the heart and the ruler of thought, life and action in constant union with the Mother and in her Presence. The descent of the Peace, Power, Light etc. of the Higher Consciousness through the head and heart into the whole being, occupying the very cells of the body. The perception of the One and Divine infinitely everywhere, the Mother everywhere and living in that infinite consciousness.
Results ::: First, an integral realisation of Divine Being; not only a realisation of the One in its indistinguishable unity, but also in its multitude of aspects which are also necessary to the complete knowledge of it by the relative consciousness; not only realisation of unity in the Self, but of unity in the infinite diversity of activities, worlds and creatures.
Therefore, also, an integral liberation. Not only the freedom born of unbroken contact of the individual being in all its parts with the Divine, sāyujya mukti, by which it becomes free even in its separation, even in the duality; not only the sālokya mukti by which the whole conscious existence dwells in the same status of being as the Divine, in the state of Sachchidananda ; but also the acquisition of the divine nature by the transformation of this lower being into the human image of the divine, sādharmya mukti, and the complete and final release of all, the liberation of the consciousness from the transitory mould of the ego and its unification with the One Being, universal both in the world and the individual and transcendentally one both in the world and beyond all universe.
By this integral realisation and liberation, the perfect harmony of the results of Knowledge, Love and Works. For there is attained the complete release from ego and identification in being with the One in all and beyond all. But since the attaining consciousness is not limited by its attainment, we win also the unity in Beatitude and the harmonised diversity in Love, so that all relations of the play remain possible to us even while we retain on the heights of our being the eternal oneness with the Beloved. And by a similar wideness, being capable of a freedom in spirit that embraces life and does not depend upon withdrawal from life, we are able to become without egoism, bondage or reaction the channel in our mind and body for a divine action poured out freely upon the world.
The divine existence is of the nature not only of freedom, but of purity, beatitude and perfection. In integral purity which shall enable on the one hand the perfect reflection of the divine Being in ourselves and on the other the perfect outpouring of its Truth and Law in us in the terms of life and through the right functioning of the complex instrument we are in our outer parts, is the condition of an integral liberty. Its result is an integral beatitude, in which there becomes possible at once the Ānanda of all that is in the world seen as symbols of the Divine and the Ānanda of that which is not-world. And it prepares the integral perfection of our humanity as a type of the Divine in the conditions of the human manifestation, a perfection founded on a certain free universality of being, of love and joy, of play of knowledge and of play of will in power and will in unegoistic action. This integrality also can be attained by the integral Yoga.
Sādhanā of the Integral Yoga does not proceed through any set mental teaching or prescribed forms of meditation, mantras or others, but by aspiration, by a self-concentration inwards or upwards, by a self-opening to an Influence, to the Divine Power above us and its workings, to the Divine Presence in the heart and by the rejection of all that is foreign to these things. It is only by faith, aspiration and surrender that this self-opening can come.
The yoga does not proceed by upadeśa but by inner influence.
Integral Yoga and Gita ::: The Gita’s Yoga consists in the offering of one’s work as a sacrifice to the Divine, the conquest of desire, egoless and desireless action, bhakti for the Divine, an entering into the cosmic consciousness, the sense of unity with all creatures, oneness with the Divine. This yoga adds the bringing down of the supramental Light and Force (its ultimate aim) and the transformation of the nature.
Our yoga is not identical with the yoga of the Gita although it contains all that is essential in the Gita’s yoga. In our yoga we begin with the idea, the will, the aspiration of the complete surrender; but at the same time we have to reject the lower nature, deliver our consciousness from it, deliver the self involved in the lower nature by the self rising to freedom in the higher nature. If we do not do this double movement, we are in danger of making a tamasic and therefore unreal surrender, making no effort, no tapas and therefore no progress ; or else we make a rajasic surrender not to the Divine but to some self-made false idea or image of the Divine which masks our rajasic ego or something still worse.
Integral Yoga, Gita and Tantra ::: The Gita follows the Vedantic tradition which leans entirely on the Ishvara aspect of the Divine and speaks little of the Divine Mother because its object is to draw back from world-nature and arrive at the supreme realisation beyond it.
The Tantric tradition leans on the Shakti or Ishvari aspect and makes all depend on the Divine Mother because its object is to possess and dominate the world-nature and arrive at the supreme realisation through it.
This yoga insists on both the aspects; the surrender to the Divine Mother is essential, for without it there is no fulfilment of the object of the yoga.
Integral Yoga and Hatha-Raja Yogas ::: For an integral yoga the special methods of Rajayoga and Hathayoga may be useful at times in certain stages of the progress, but are not indispensable. Their principal aims must be included in the integrality of the yoga; but they can be brought about by other means. For the methods of the integral yoga must be mainly spiritual, and dependence on physical methods or fixed psychic or psychophysical processes on a large scale would be the substitution of a lower for a higher action. Integral Yoga and Kundalini Yoga: There is a feeling of waves surging up, mounting to the head, which brings an outer unconsciousness and an inner waking. It is the ascending of the lower consciousness in the ādhāra to meet the greater consciousness above. It is a movement analogous to that on which so much stress is laid in the Tantric process, the awakening of the Kundalini, the Energy coiled up and latent in the body and its mounting through the spinal cord and the centres (cakras) and the Brahmarandhra to meet the Divine above. In our yoga it is not a specialised process, but a spontaneous upnish of the whole lower consciousness sometimes in currents or waves, sometimes in a less concrete motion, and on the other side a descent of the Divine Consciousness and its Force into the body.
Integral Yoga and other Yogas ::: The old yogas reach Sachchidananda through the spiritualised mind and depart into the eternally static oneness of Sachchidananda or rather pure Sat (Existence), absolute and eternal or else a pure Non-exist- ence, absolute and eternal. Ours having realised Sachchidananda in the spiritualised mind plane proceeds to realise it in the Supramcntal plane.
The suprcfhe supra-cosmic Sachchidananda is above all. Supermind may be described as its power of self-awareness and W’orld- awareness, the world being known as within itself and not out- side. So to live consciously in the supreme Sachchidananda one must pass through the Supermind.
Distinction ::: The realisation of Self and of the Cosmic being (without which the realisation of the Self is incomplete) are essential steps in our yoga ; it is the end of other yogas, but it is, as it were, the beginning of outs, that is to say, the point where its own characteristic realisation can commence.
It is new as compared with the old yogas (1) Because it aims not at a departure out of world and life into Heaven and Nir- vana, but at a change of life and existence, not as something subordinate or incidental, but as a distinct and central object.
If there is a descent in other yogas, yet it is only an incident on the way or resulting from the ascent — the ascent is the real thing. Here the ascent is the first step, but it is a means for the descent. It is the descent of the new coosdousness attain- ed by the ascent that is the stamp and seal of the sadhana. Even the Tantra and Vaishnavism end in the release from life ; here the object is the divine fulfilment of life.
(2) Because the object sought after is not an individual achievement of divine realisation for the sake of the individual, but something to be gained for the earth-consciousness here, a cosmic, not solely a supra-cosmic acbievement. The thing to be gained also is the bringing of a Power of consciousness (the Supramental) not yet organised or active directly in earth-nature, even in the spiritual life, but yet to be organised and made directly active.
(3) Because a method has been preconized for achieving this purpose which is as total and integral as the aim set before it, viz., the total and integral change of the consciousness and nature, taking up old methods, but only as a part action and present aid to others that are distinctive.
Integral Yoga and Patanjali Yoga ::: Cilia is the stuff of mixed mental-vital-physical consciousness out of which arise the movements of thought, emotion, sensation, impulse etc.
It is these that in the Patanjali system have to be stilled altogether so that the consciousness may be immobile and go into Samadhi.
Our yoga has a different function. The movements of the ordinary consciousness have to be quieted and into the quietude there has to be brought down a higher consciousness and its powers which will transform the nature.
intelligence ::: “Intelligence does not depend on the amount one has read, it is a quality of the mind. Study only gives it material for its work as life also does. There are people who do not know how to read and write who are more intelligent than many highly educated people and understand life and things better. On the other hand, a good intelligence can improve itself by reading because it gets more material to work on and grows by exercise and by having a wider range to move in. But book-knowledge by itself is not the real thing, it has to be used as a help to the intelligence but it is often only a help to stupidity or ignorance—ignorance because knowledge of facts is a poor thing if one cannot see their true significance.” Letters on Yoga
"In the spiritual sense, however, sacrifice has a different meaning — it does not so much indicate giving up what is held dear as an offering of oneself, one"s being, one"s mind, heart, will, body, life, actions to the Divine. It has the original sense of ‘making sacred" and is used as an equivalent of the word yajna. When the Gita speaks of the ‘sacrifice of knowledge", it does not mean a giving up of anything, but a turning of the mind towards the Divine in the search for knowledge and an offering of oneself through it. It is in this sense, too, that one speaks of the offering or sacrifice of works. The Mother has written somewhere that the spiritual sacrifice is joyful and not painful in its nature. On the spiritual path, very commonly, if a seeker still feels the old ties and responsibilities strongly he is not asked to sever or leave them, but to let the call in him grow till all within is ready. Many, indeed, come away earlier because they feel that to cut loose is their only chance, and these have to go sometimes through a struggle. But the pain, the struggle, is not the essential character of this spiritual self-offering.” Letters on Yoga
“In the spiritual sense, however, sacrifice has a different meaning—it does not so much indicate giving up what is held dear as an offering of oneself, one’s being, one’s mind, heart, will, body, life, actions to the Divine. It has the original sense of ‘making sacred’ and is used as an equivalent of the word yajna. When the Gita speaks of the ‘sacrifice of knowledge’, it does not mean a giving up of anything, but a turning of the mind towards the Divine in the search for knowledge and an offering of oneself through it. It is in this sense, too, that one speaks of the offering or sacrifice of works. The Mother has written somewhere that the spiritual sacrifice is joyful and not painful in its nature. On the spiritual path, very commonly, if a seeker still feels the old ties and responsibilities strongly he is not asked to sever or leave them, but to let the call in him grow till all within is ready. Many, indeed, come away earlier because they feel that to cut loose is their only chance, and these have to go sometimes through a struggle. But the pain, the struggle, is not the essential character of this spiritual self-offering.” Letters on Yoga
INTOXICANTS. ::: It is the habit in the subconscient material that feels an artificial need created by the past and does not care whether it is harmful or disturbing to the nerves or not. That is the feature of all intoxicants (wine, tobacco, cocaine etc.), people go on even after the deleterious effects have shown themselves and even after all real pleasure in it has ceased because of this artificial need (it is not real). The will has to get hold of this subconscient persistence and dissolve it.
invisible ::: a. --> Incapable of being seen; not perceptible by vision; not visible. ::: n. --> An invisible person or thing; specifically, God, the Supreme Being.
A Rosicrucian; -- so called because avoiding declaration
italic ::: a. --> Relating to Italy or to its people.
Applied especially to a kind of type in which the letters do not stand upright, but slope toward the right; -- so called because dedicated to the States of Italy by the inventor, Aldus Manutius, about the year 1500. ::: n.
It is a wTong attitude to put too much stress either on them or on the difficulties they create, or to distrust the Divine work- ing because of the difficulties one experiences, or to lay too continual an emphasis on the dark side of things. To do this increases the force of the difficulties, gives a heater right of continuance to the imperfections.
"It is because of our experience won at a tremendous price that we can urge upon you and others, ``Take the psychic attitude; follow the straight sunlit path, with the Divine openly or secretly upbearing you — if secretly, he will yet show himself in good time, — do not insist on the hard, hampered, roundabout and difficult journey."" Letters on Yoga
“It is because of our experience won at a tremendous price that we can urge upon you and others, ``Take the psychic attitude; follow the straight sunlit path, with the Divine openly or secretly upbearing you—if secretly, he will yet show himself in good time,—do not insist on the hard, hampered, roundabout and difficult journey.’’ Letters on Yoga
It is not because there is something bad in you that blows fall on you ; blows fall on all human beings because they are full of desire for things that cannot last and they lose them or, even if they get, it brings disappointment and cannot satisfy them.
It is not easy to overcome gloom, depression, grief and suffer- ing, because something in the human vital clings to it and almost needs it as part of the drama of life.
"It is true that metaphors, symbols, images are constant auxiliaries summoned by the mystic for the expression of his experiences: that is inevitable because he has to express, in a language made or at least developed and manipulated by the mind, the phenomena of a consciousness other than the mental and at once more complex and more subtly concrete.” Letters on Yoga*
“It is true that metaphors, symbols, images are constant auxiliaries summoned by the mystic for the expression of his experiences: that is inevitable because he has to express, in a language made or at least developed and manipulated by the mind, the phenomena of a consciousness other than the mental and at once more complex and more subtly concrete.” Letters on Yoga
It reminds me sometimes of that experience Nolini da had near the Samadhi. He saw a figure. It was standing by the Samadhi. It was late at night, the Ashram was empty and he saw a figure that looked exactly like Sri Aurobindo. He was about to fall at his feet when he saw the feet were different. This was actually a force of darkness and it was actually so powerful it was standing near the Samadhi. He stopped. If he had fallen at its feet it would have dragged him down, even someone so conscious. He (Nolini) would not have fallen down because he was always vigilant and that is why he noticed, but someone less conscious, less vigilant might be trapped, thinking ‘I am following the light.’ It is why this happens very often when one thinks one is speaking for God or speaking for the Divine.
jacobin ::: n. --> A Dominican friar; -- so named because, before the French Revolution, that order had a convent in the Rue St. Jacques, Paris.
One of a society of violent agitators in France, during the revolution of 1789, who held secret meetings in the Jacobin convent in the Rue St. Jacques, Paris, and concerted measures to control the proceedings of the National Assembly. Hence: A plotter against an existing government; a turbulent demagogue.
A fancy pigeon, in which the feathers of the neck form a
jejunum ::: n. --> The middle division of the small intestine, between the duodenum and ileum; -- so called because usually found empty after death.
Jhumur: “Anarchs is a strange word here because to me it symbolises rulers, forces that dominate, and yet anarchy is a state where there is no rule. So, the rulers of chaos and disorder. But there is always this core of anarchy which is a form of absolute inconscience, the original inconscience. At a very early level all form of order is a sign of consciousness, organisation, and this is the opposite, the first expression of the Inconscience, the descent into Night which is ruled by all these forces of darkness, the forces that refuse harmony.”
Jhumur: “As if she is the one that guides man to the way of darkness, a kind of force that pulls—because that it is the work of the priest isn’t it, the link between the divine and human. And here it is the priestess who establishes this linkage, a very strong link between the darkness and the weak mortal who is easily led.”
Jhumur: “Awe inspiring fear. It is through fear that these forces rule, not through love, not through grace, not through compassion but through terror. There is a very strong tendency in man to regard these dark forces as superior beings. There has long been a vital attraction for them, devil worship, etc. because they give you power, they seem to give you power, power to the ego and Mother says that power will be one of the last things to accept the change. Man’s lust for power is not easily relinquished– he doesn’t feel like giving that up.”
Jhumur: Here you have the beginnings of the mind opening onto other planes of experience. Because mindhas no experience. This is the kingdom of the greater mind where it opens on to another phase of vision or experience or feeling. The heaven-bird is the feeling of poise that hasn’t taken off. It reminds me that in a certain place, the goal of the mental search is where ultimately the mind abdicates in light and one enters into what Shelley calls ‘thought wildernesses’. Before that concrete abdication there must be some sensation, some feeling of something other that is waiting for us, that has come from elsewhere. The mind has not quite yet abdicated but begins to pursue intuition, perception, feeling.”
Jhumur: “Matter is the rock but it is also the home in which the Eternal has housed himself, so there is a spiritual context as well because in matter there is the Eternal.”
Jhumur: “The gods. From his (Death’s) point of view they are unreal. Because he wants to prove that he is the final arbiter and that all is bound by him, nothing else really matters. At this point in the argument this is what he wants to emphasize, that Savitri must accept her limitations.”
Jhumur: “– There is a very clear pattern, in a way, in the darkness. It follows a certain line of action just like an idea governs a line of action and proceeds expression. Even in the Inconscient there is a force that works itself out. This is also an expression of the supreme force that has involved itself and works its way out in a supremely slow conscious way and knows exactly how it wants to grow, that is why it controls so much of the universe because it has spread itself along very clearly worked out lines.”
Jhumur: “These are the forces that shield, that protect, sun-eyed always representing the supreme, the highest. These forces, these emanations, like the immutable lords, because each of these beings, the Lords, the guardians, the Angels of the Way, all of these are typal beings. They have been put there by the Divine in his plan in order to lead the evolving soul on its way. Here the guardians are protecting, shielding this spirit of the earth. At different stages of the journey you come across different powers.”
Jhumur: “The Supermind. It is always imaged in a fire. The Vedic image is the fire. At the top of the mountain there is a flame because there is the Supermind which is the plane from which the multiplicity emanates. It is a burst of fire like the rays of the sun. It is not simply a ball of light. There are flames, it is a kind of outpouring and it is a force.”
Jhumur: “They are the powers of the guardians of the world of light and it is not easy to enter that world. Here they have given way and let Savitri in. It is revelation, intuition. She has gone beyond the world of mind, therefore topaz, and forced the doors of this world open by the force of revelation, direct experience. This however is all conjecture because it is beyond the range of our experience.”
Jhumur: “They want to enter into a body as they do not have one as yet. The gleam is light. Sri Aurobindo is speaking of the early light, an infant glow of heavens near to morn. It is the beginning of new light where all possibilities of manifestation are still just possibilities, potentialities, and they are waiting to embody themselves, to manifest themselves as if a new dawn brings in new manifestations. Children, because they are still not quite developed, not fully formed in themselves. It is still just a gleam.”
Jhumur: “Throughout Savitri I have noticed all the different times of the day and the position of the sun in relation to the earth. It runs through the book, the symbol dawn, night, not only that but there are different states of illumination, awakening of the consciousness progressively. Sometimes it falls into the darkness, sometimes twilight when one is caught between two states, and at the end it is the everlasting day. So the kingdoms of the rising sun represent states of being where the light is the most important. Mother always says that the sun is the symbol of the supreme truth, the supreme, the supreme wisdom. It is the world where the supreme truth and supreme wisdom rule, govern. Whereas In many other worlds this light gets covered, it gets clouded over but here there are the kingdoms of the rising sun because they are the godheads of the mind and the mind is an instrument of light. But it is a small early instrument, little mind, so it is just rising, it hasn’t come to its full glory. The kingdoms are the planes of consciousness where you have a little light, a little clarity, a little illumination. That is how I understand the main function of the mind, to seek for light. It is an instrument for seeking light although it often dodges light where the perversity comes in.”
Jhumur: “You have the same word in French, capte—like a receiver that catches signals. I believe Sri Aurobindo often uses French words with the French connotation. Particularly I have noticed that sometimes he uses the word amour instead of love. When I asked myself why did he have to use a French word here, perhaps because it was a different kind of love, not the usual, something other. Time’s amour-song he says, and not a love song. There is something different about that song. It is not just a love song. It suggests something other when he uses a word from another language. It is not love that we ordinarily understand, he has added a quality of something special or rare or unusual by utilizing the same word but in another language. It gives it another colour.”
jubilate ::: n. --> The third Sunday after Easter; -- so called because the introit is the 66th Psalm, which, in the Latin version, begins with the words, "Jubilate Deo."
A name of the 100th Psalm; -- so called from its opening word in the Latin version. ::: v. i.
kakaralli ::: n. --> A kind of wood common in Demerara, durable in salt water, because not subject to the depredations of the sea worm and barnacle.
kind ::: 1. A class or group of individual objects, people, animals, etc., of the same nature or character, or classified together because they have traits in common; category. 2. Nature or character as determining likeness or difference between things. 3. One"s family, clan, kin, or kinsfolk. earth-kind, god-kind, self-kind.
kinesodic ::: a. --> Conveying motion; as; kinesodic substance; -- applied esp. to the spinal cord, because it is capable of conveying doth voluntary and reflex motor impulses, without itself being affected by motor impulses applied to it directly.
kipper ::: n. --> A salmon after spawning.
A salmon split open, salted, and dried or smoked; -- so called because salmon after spawning were usually so cured, not being good when fresh. ::: v. t. --> To cure, by splitting, salting, and smoking.
kitcat ::: a. --> Designating a club in London, to which Addison and Steele belonged; -- so called from Christopher Cat, a pastry cook, who served the club with mutton pies.
Designating a canvas used for portraits of a peculiar size, viz., twenty-right or twenty-nine inches by thirty-six; -- so called because that size was adopted by Sir Godfrey Kneller for the portraits he painted of the members of the Kitcat Club.
kneejoint ::: n. --> The joint of the knee.
A toggle joint; -- so called because consisting of two pieces jointed to each other end to end, making an angle like the knee when bent.
Krishna ::: “Krishna is the Eternal’s Personality of Ananda; because [of] him all creation is possible, because of his play, because of his delight, because of his sweetness.” Essays Divine and Human
KRISHNA. ::: The Eternal's Personality of Ananda ; because of him all creation is possible, because of his play, because of hjs delight, because of his sweetness.
kyriological ::: a. --> Serving to denote objects by conventional signs or alphabetical characters; as, the original Greek alphabet of sixteen letters was called kyriologic, because it represented the pure elementary sounds. See Curiologic.
lactone ::: n. --> One of a series of organic compounds, regarded as anhydrides of certain hydroxy acids. In general, they are colorless liquids, having a weak aromatic odor. They are so called because the typical lactone is derived from lactic acid.
LAMENTING AND COMPLAINING. ::: This is a icrapcra- ment which the gods will not help because they know that help is useless, for it will either not be received or will be spilled and wasted ; and all that is rdjasic and asiiric in the world despises and tramples upon this kind of nature.
larvalia ::: n. pl. --> An order of Tunicata, including Appendicularia, and allied genera; -- so called because certain larval features are retained by them through life. Called also Copelata. See Appendicularia.
laurel ::: n. --> An evergreen shrub, of the genus Laurus (L. nobilis), having aromatic leaves of a lanceolate shape, with clusters of small, yellowish white flowers in their axils; -- called also sweet bay.
A crown of laurel; hence, honor; distinction; fame; -- especially in the plural; as, to win laurels.
An English gold coin made in 1619, and so called because the king&
law ::: “… all cosmic and real Law is a thing not imposed from outside, but from within, all development is self-development, all seed and result are seed of a Truth of things and result of that seed determined out of its potentialities. For the same reason no Law is absolute, because only the infinite is absolute, and everything contains within itself endless potentialities quite beyond its determined form and course, which are only determined through a self-limitation by Idea proceeding from an infinite liberty within.” The Life Divine
leonid ::: n. --> One of the shooting stars which constitute the star shower that recurs near the fourteenth of November at intervals of about thirty-three years; -- so called because these shooting stars appear on the heavens to move in lines directed from the constellation Leo.
lethal ::: n. --> One of the higher alcohols of the paraffine series obtained from spermaceti as a white crystalline solid. It is so called because it occurs in the ethereal salt of lauric acid. ::: a. --> Deadly; mortal; fatal.
levulin ::: n. --> A substance resembling dextrin, obtained from the bulbs of the dahlia, the artichoke, and other sources, as a colorless, spongy, amorphous material. It is so called because by decomposition it yields levulose.
levulose ::: n. --> A sirupy variety of sugar, rarely obtained crystallized, occurring widely in honey, ripe fruits, etc., and hence called also fruit sugar. It is called levulose, because it rotates the plane of polarization to the left.
::: "Liberty in one shape or another ranks among the most ancient and certainly among the most difficult aspirations of our race: it arises from a radical instinct of our being and is yet opposed to all our circumstances, it is our eternal good and our condition of perfection, but our temporal being has failed to find its key. That perhaps is because true freedom is only possible if we live in the infinite, live, as the Vedanta bids us, in and from our self-existent being; but our natural and temporal energies seek for it first not in ourselves, but in our external conditions. This great indefinable thing, liberty, is in its highest and ultimate sense a state of being; it is self living in itself and determining by its own energy what is shall be inwardly and, eventually, by the growth of a divine spiritual power within determining too what it shall make of its external circumstances and environment." War and Self-Determination
“Liberty in one shape or another ranks among the most ancient and certainly among the most difficult aspirations of our race: it arises from a radical instinct of our being and is yet opposed to all our circumstances, it is our eternal good and our condition of perfection, but our temporal being has failed to find its key. That perhaps is because true freedom is only possible if we live in the infinite, live, as the Vedanta bids us, in and from our self-existent being; but our natural and temporal energies seek for it first not in ourselves, but in our external conditions. This great indefinable thing, liberty, is in its highest and ultimate sense a state of being; it is self living in itself and determining by its own energy what is shall be inwardly and, eventually, by the growth of a divine spiritual power within determining too what it shall make of its external circumstances and environment.” War and Self-Determination
lombard ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to Lombardy, or the inhabitants of Lombardy. ::: n. --> A native or inhabitant of Lombardy.
A money lender or banker; -- so called because the business of banking was first carried on in London by Lombards.
longmynd rocks ::: --> The sparingly fossiliferous conglomerates, grits, schists, and states of Great Britain, which lie at the base of the Cambrian system; -- so called, because typically developed in the Longmynd Hills, Shropshire.
lopsided ::: a. --> Leaning to one side because of some defect of structure; as, a lopsided ship.
Unbalanced; poorly proportioned; full of idiosyncrasies.
luciferian ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to Lucifer; having the pride of Lucifer; satanic; devilish.
Of or pertaining to the Luciferians or their leader. ::: n. --> One of the followers of Lucifer, bishop of Cagliari, in the fourth century, who separated from the orthodox churches because
lungfish ::: n. --> Any fish belonging to the Dipnoi; -- so called because they have both lungs and gills.
lungwort ::: n. --> An herb of the genus Pulmonaria (P. officinalis), of Europe; -- so called because the spotted appearance of the leaves resembles that of a diseased lung.
Any plant of the genus Mertensia (esp. M. Virginica and M. Sibirica) plants nearly related to Pulmonaria. The American lungwort is Mertensia Virginica, Virginia cowslip.
lycine ::: n. --> A weak base identical with betaine; -- so called because found in the boxthorn (Lycium barbarum). See Betaine.
lyencephala ::: n. pl. --> A group of Mammalia, including the marsupials and monotremes; -- so called because the corpus callosum is rudimentary.
lyrid ::: n. --> One of the group of shooting stars which come into the air in certain years on or about the 19th of April; -- so called because the apparent path among the stars the stars if produced back wards crosses the constellation Lyra.
macassar oil ::: --> A kind of oil formerly used in dressing the hair; -- so called because originally obtained from Macassar, a district of the Island of Celebes. Also, an imitation of the same, of perfumed castor oil and olive oil.
Madhav: “Ambassadors, because they bring a message from the unseen empire of God.” The Book of the Divine Mother
Madhav: “Moment is the sequence of Time. Each moment records what is happening at that point. It relates to the present. The Ray of the Eternal interrupts the movement of Time for a while and lights up things that are not yet manifest. It gives a peep into the future. The Ray of the Eternal is able to do it because the future is already present in the vision of the Eternal.” The Book of the Divine Mother
Madhav: “Rose, here, signifies Divine Love. It is deathless because it is immortal. They are realms of pure Love. Read Sri Aurobindo in his sonnet, Light: . . . in my heart where blooms deathless rose.” The Book of the Divine Mother
Madhav: “The brief perpetual sign refers to the Dawn. Now the dawn is always brief but why is it perpetual? Perpetual because it is constant, it comes again and again. …always at some point on earth there is the break of dawn. That is why it is a perpetual feature of this earth; the dawn recurs again and again.” Sat-Sang Vol. VIII
MADNESS. ::: People go mad because they have a physical predisposition due either to heredity or to some kind of organic cause or secret illness Eke syphilis, the action being often brought up by some psychological factor (ambition turning to megalomania, hypochondria, melancholia etc.). There may be an invasion of an alien Force bringing about the upsetting, but it is not the Divine Force, it is a vital Force that invades. The
magnificat ::: n. --> The song of the Virgin Mary, Luke i. 46; -- so called because it commences with this word in the Vulgate.
malonic ::: a. --> Pertaining to, or designating, an acid produced artifically as a white crystalline substance, CH2.(CO2H)2, and so called because obtained by the oxidation of malic acid.
marseilles ::: n. --> A general term for certain kinds of fabrics, which are formed of two series of threads interlacing each other, thus forming double cloth, quilted in the loom; -- so named because first made in Marseilles, France.
mawmet ::: n. --> A puppet; a doll; originally, an idol, because in the Middle Ages it was generally believed that the Mohammedans worshiped images representing Mohammed.
MECHANICAL MOVEMENTS. ::: They are always more difficult to stop by the mental nail, because they do not In the least depend upon reason or any mental justification but are founded upon association or else a mere mechanical memory
mediant ::: n. --> The third above the keynote; -- so called because it divides the interval between the tonic and dominant into two thirds.
melampyrite ::: n. --> The saccharine substance dulcite; -- so called because found in the leaves of cowwheat (Melampyrum). See Dulcite.
“Mental intelligence thinks out because it is merely a reflecting force of consciousness which does not know, but seeks to know; it follows in Time step by step the working of a knowledge higher than itself, a knowledge that exists always, one and whole, that holds Time in its grasp, that sees past, present and future in a single regard.: The Life Divine
metacetone ::: n. --> A colorless liquid of an agreeable odor, C6H10O, obtained by distilling a mixture of sugar and lime; -- so called because formerly regarded as a polymeric modification of acetone.
metadiscoidal ::: a. --> Discoidal by derivation; -- applied especially to the placenta of man and apes, because it is supposed to have been derived from a diffused placenta.
miller ::: n. --> One who keeps or attends a flour mill or gristmill.
A milling machine.
A moth or lepidopterous insect; -- so called because the wings appear as if covered with white dust or powder, like a miller&
misericordia ::: n. --> An amercement.
A thin-bladed dagger; so called, in the Middle Ages, because used to give the death wound or "mercy" stroke to a fallen adversary.
An indulgence as to food or dress granted to a member of a religious order.
modillion ::: n. --> The enriched block or horizontal bracket generally found under the cornice of the Corinthian and Composite entablature, and sometimes, less ornamented, in the Ionic and other orders; -- so called because of its arrangement at regulated distances.
monitor ::: n. --> One who admonishes; one who warns of faults, informs of duty, or gives advice and instruction by way of reproof or caution.
Hence, specifically, a pupil selected to look to the school in the absence of the instructor, to notice the absence or faults of the scholars, or to instruct a division or class.
Any large Old World lizard of the genus Varanus; esp., the Egyptian species (V. Niloticus), which is useful because it devours the eggs and young of the crocodile. It is sometimes five or six feet long.
moonshiner ::: n. --> A person engaged in illicit distilling; -- so called because the work is largely done at night.
"Moreover we see that this cosmic action or any cosmic action is impossible without the play of an infinite Force of Existence which produces and regulates all these forms and movements; and that Force equally presupposes or is the action of an infinite Consciousness, because it is in its nature a cosmic Will determining all relations and apprehending them by its own mode of awareness, and it could not so determine and apprehend them if there were no comprehensive Consciousness behind that mode of cosmic awareness to originate as well as to hold, fix and reflect through it the relations of Being in the developing formation or becoming of itself which we call a universe.” The Life Divine
“Moreover we see that this cosmic action or any cosmic action is impossible without the play of an infinite Force of Existence which produces and regulates all these forms and movements; and that Force equally presupposes or is the action of an infinite Consciousness, because it is in its nature a cosmic Will determining all relations and apprehending them by its own mode of awareness, and it could not so determine and apprehend them if there were no comprehensive Consciousness behind that mode of cosmic awareness to originate as well as to hold, fix and reflect through it the relations of Being in the developing formation or becoming of itself which we call a universe.” The Life Divine
Name ::: Jhumur: “Hold onto the Name. That is the only power. I remember Mother once told me—because there was a moment when I was attacked by a certain person. She was mad and so had a certain number of people she chose to attack with her vibrations, with her words. If she could she would throw stones. I was very, very young, about 17 or 18. I said, ‘Every time I see her, Mother, I really start to tremble. It has become something so physically terrifying. Once she (the mad person) had thrown a big paperweight, a cement paperweight in the library. It went just past my head, it could have killed me. After that I became really frightened. So Mother told me ‘Nothing will happen to you. Each time you see her just say ‘Ma, Ma, Ma.’ But it was so difficult. Each time I saw her from far I would think, ‘I have to say Ma.’ But when she came close enough I could not say the Name, for a long time, for a very long time. I was so frightened the fear would take the Name away. I knew very well I had to say the Name That is what Mother told me. And one day I could, finally I could and the mad person lost interest in me!”
Name ::: “Name in its deeper sense is not the word by which we describe the object, but the total of power, quality, character of the reality which a form of things embodies and which we try to sum up by a designating sound, a knowable name, Nomen. Nomen in this sense, we might say, is Numen; the secret Names of the Gods are their power, quality, character of being caught up by the consciousness and made conceivable. The Infinite is nameless, but in that namelessness all possible names, Numens of the gods, the names and forms of all realities, are already envisaged and prefigured, because they are there latent and inherent in the All-Existence.” The Life Divine
name ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Name in its deeper sense is not the word by which we describe the object, but the total of power, quality, character of the reality which a form of things embodies and which we try to sum up by a designating sound, a knowable name, Nomen. Nomen in this sense, we might say, is Numen; the secret Names of the Gods are their power, quality, character of being caught up by the consciousness and made conceivable. The Infinite is nameless, but in that namelessness all possible names, Numens of the gods, the names and forms of all realities, are already envisaged and prefigured, because they are there latent and inherent in the All-Existence.” The Life Divine
"Nature, because she is a power of spirit, is essentially qualitative in her action. One may almost say that Nature is only the power in being and the development in action of the infinite qualities of the spirit, . . . .” *The Synthesis of Yoga
“Nature, because she is a power of spirit, is essentially qualitative in her action. One may almost say that Nature is only the power in being and the development in action of the infinite qualities of the spirit, …” The Synthesis of Yoga
noctuid ::: n. --> Any one of numerous moths of the family Noctuidae, or Noctuaelitae, as the cutworm moths, and armyworm moths; -- so called because they fly at night. ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the noctuids, or family Noctuidae.
No-man"s-land. ::: Sri Aurobindo: "As to the two lines with ‘no man"s land" there can be no capital in the first line because there it is a description while the capital is needed in the other line, because the phrase has acquired there the force of a name or appellation. I am not sure about the hyphen; it could be put but the no hyphen might be better as it suggests that no one in particular has as yet got possession.” Letters on Savitri.
nonane ::: n. --> One of a group of metameric hydrocarbons C9H20 of the paraffin series; -- so called because of the nine carbon atoms in the molecule. Normal nonane is a colorless volatile liquid, an ingredient of ordinary kerosene.
nonsuit ::: n. --> A neglect or failure by the plaintiff to follow up his suit; a stopping of the suit; a renunciation or withdrawal of the cause by the plaintiff, either because he is satisfied that he can not support it, or upon the judge&
no why to its action ; it acts in a particular way because it as
occidental ::: a. --> Of, pertaining to, or situated in, the occident, or west; western; -- opposed to oriental; as, occidental climates, or customs; an occidental planet.
Possessing inferior hardness, brilliancy, or beauty; -- used of inferior precious stones and gems, because those found in the Orient are generally superior.
occult ::: “The ancient knowledge in all countries was full of the search after the hidden truths of our being and it created that large field of practice and inquiry which goes in Europe by the name of occultism,—we do not use any corresponding word in the East, because these things do not seem to us so remote, mysterious and abnormal as to the occidental mentality; they are nearer to us and the veil between our normal material life and this larger life is much thinner.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"Of course, that is the real fact — death is only a shedding of the body, not a cessation of the personal existence. A man is not dead because he goes into another country and changes his clothes to suit that climate.” Letters on Yoga
“Of course, that is the real fact—death is only a shedding of the body, not a cessation of the personal existence. A man is not dead because he goes into another country and changes his clothes to suit that climate.” Letters on Yoga
“On the surface of life all appears to be a game of Chance. There is no certainty about any movement; ups and downs, vicissitudes, cataclysms, actions, passions and thoughts crowd in medley and it is impossible to anticipate or regulate them with any definiteness. But a deeper scrutiny reveals a pattern behind all the apparent workings of Chance. What looks like Chance is itself a part of the process; it is called Chance because the particular operation does not take place within the framework of the laws erected by the limited empirical mind; there is really no Chance in the working out of the divine Intention that is this Universe.” Readings in Savitri Vol. III.
opelet ::: n. --> A bright-colored European actinian (Anemonia, / Anthea, sulcata); -- so called because it does not retract its tentacles.
openbill ::: n. --> A bird of the genus Anastomus, allied to the stork; -- so called because the two parts of the bill touch only at the base and tip. One species inhabits India, another Africa. Called also open-beak. See Illust. (m), under Beak.
"Our nature is not only mistaken in will and ignorant in knowledge but weak in power; but the Divine Force is there and will lead us if we trust in it and it will use our deficiencies and our powers for the divine purpose. If we fail in our immediate aim, it is because he has intended the failure; often our failure or ill-result is the right road to a truer issue than an immediate and complete success would have put in our reach. If we suffer, it is because something in us has to be prepared for a rarer possibility of delight. If we stumble, it is to learn in the end the secret of a more perfect walking.” The Synthesis of Yoga
“Our nature is not only mistaken in will and ignorant in knowledge but weak in power; but the Divine Force is there and will lead us if we trust in it and it will use our deficiencies and our powers for the divine purpose. If we fail in our immediate aim, it is because he has intended the failure; often our failure or ill-result is the right road to a truer issue than an immediate and complete success would have put in our reach. If we suffer, it is because something in us has to be prepared for a rarer possibility of delight. If we stumble, it is to learn in the end the secret of a more perfect walking.” The Synthesis of Yoga
Our notion of free will is apt to be tainted with the excessive individualism of the human ego and to assume the figure of an independent will acting on its own isolated account, in a complete liberty without any determination other than its own choice and single unrelated movement. This idea ignores the fact that our natural being is a part of cosmic Nature and our spiritual being exists only by the supreme Transcendence. Our total being can rise out of subjection to fact of present Nature only by an identification with a greater Truth and a greater Nature. The will of the individual, even when completely free, could not act in an isolated independence, because the individual being and nature are included in the universal Being and Nature and dependent on the all-overruling Transcendence. There could indeed be in the ascent a dual line. On one line the being could feel and behave as an independent self-existence uniting itself with its own impersonal Reality; it could, so self-conceived, act with a great force, but either this action would be still within an enlarged frame of its past and present self-formation of power of Nature or else it would be the cosmic or supreme Force that acted in it and there would be no personal initiation of action, no sense therefore of individual free will but only of an impersonal cosmic or supreme Will or Energy at its work. On the other line the being would feel itself a spiritual instrument and so act as a power of the Supreme Being, limited in its workings only by the potencies of the Supernature, which are without bounds or any restriction except its own Truth and self-law, and by the Will in her. But in either case there would be, as the condition of a freedom from the control of a mechanical action of Nature-forces, a submission to a greater conscious Power or an acquiescent unity of the individual being with its intention and movement in his own and in the world’s existence.” The Life Divine
Overmind is a sort of delegation from the Supermind (this is a metaphor only) which supports the present evolutionary uni- verse in which we live here in Matter. Though luminous in itself, it keeps from us the full indivisible Supramental Tight, depends on it indeed, but in receiving it, divides, distributes, breaks it up into separated aspects, powers, multiplicities of all kinds, each of which it is possible by a further diminution of consciousness such as we reach in Mind to regard as the sole or the chief Truth and all the rest as subordinate or contradictor^ to it. But this does not create a disharmony, because the Over- mind has the sense of the Infinite and in the true (not spatial)
"Pain is caused because the physical consciousness in the Ignorance is too limited to bear the touches that come upon it. Otherwise, to cosmic consciousness in its state of complete knowledge and complete experience all touches come as Ananda.” Letters on Yoga
“Pain is caused because the physical consciousness in the Ignorance is too limited to bear the touches that come upon it. Otherwise, to cosmic consciousness in its state of complete knowledge and complete experience all touches come as Ananda.” Letters on Yoga
pamful, first, because it is obscure and docs not understand and, secondly, because there arc parts of it that want to be left to their crude notions and not to change. That is why the inter- vention of a psychic attitude is so heJpfuI. For the psychic has the happy confidence, the ready understanding and response, the spontaneous surrender ; it knows that the touch of the Guru is meant to help and not to hurt, or, like Radha in the poem, that whatever the Beloved does is meant to lead to the Divine
periods ::: rather large intervals of time that are meaningful in the life of a person, in history, etc., because of its particular characteristics.
physical and its energies, — all that Nature has not put into visi- ble operation on the surface ; It pursues also the application of these hidden truths and powers of Nature so as to extend the mastery of the human spirit beyond the ordinary operations of mind, the ordinary operations of life, the ordinary operations of our physical existence. In the spiritual domain, which is occult to the surface mind in so far as it passes beyond normal and enters into supernormal experience, there is possible not only the discovery of the self and spirit, but the discovery of the uplift- ing, informing and guiding light of spiritual consciousness and the power of the spirit, the spiritual way of knowledge, the spiri- tual way of action. To know these things and to bring their truths and forces into the life of humanity is a necessary part of its evolution. Science itself is in Its own way an occultism ; for it brings to light the formulas which Nature has hidden and it uses its knowledge to set free operations of her energies which she has not included in her ordinary operations and to organise and place at the service of man her occult powers and processes, a vast system of physical magic, — for there is and can be no other magic than the utilisation of secret truths of being, secret powers and processes of Nature. It may even be found that a supra- physical knowledge Is necessary for the completion of physical knowledge, because the processes of physical Nature have behind them a supraphysical factor, a power and action mental, vital or spiritual which is not tangible to any outer means of knowledge.
Power a secret spiritual will and soul-faith in us. the dominant hidden force of our nature, is the individual instrument, more nearly in communication with the Supreme, a surer guide and enlightener, could we once get at it and hold it, because pro- founder and more intimately neat to the Identical and Absolute than the surface activities of our thought powers To know that will in ourselves and in the universe and follow it to its divine
presence ::: 1. The state or fact of being present; current existence or occurrence. 2. A divine, spiritual, or supernatural spirit or influence felt or conceived as present. 3. The immediate proximity of someone or something.
Sri Aurobindo: "It is intended by the word Presence to indicate the sense and perception of the Divine as a Being, felt as present in one"s existence and consciousness or in relation with it, without the necessity of any further qualification or description. Thus, of the ‘ineffable Presence" it can only be said that it is there and nothing more can or need be said about it, although at the same time one knows that all is there, personality and impersonality, Power and Light and Ananda and everything else, and that all these flow from that indescribable Presence. The word may be used sometimes in a less absolute sense, but that is always the fundamental significance, — the essential perception of the essential Presence supporting everything else.” *Letters on Yoga
"Beyond mind on spiritual and supramental levels dwells the Presence, the Truth, the Power, the Bliss that can alone deliver us from these illusions, display the Light of which our ideals are tarnished disguises and impose the harmony that shall at once transfigure and reconcile all the parts of our nature.” Essays Divine and Human
"But if we learn to live within, we infallibly awaken to this presence within us which is our more real self, a presence profound, calm, joyous and puissant of which the world is not the master — a presence which, if it is not the Lord Himself, is the radiation of the Lord within.” *The Life Divine
"The true soul secret in us, — subliminal, we have said, but the word is misleading, for this presence is not situated below the threshold of waking mind, but rather burns in the temple of the inmost heart behind the thick screen of an ignorant mind, life and body, not subliminal but behind the veil, — this veiled psychic entity is the flame of the Godhead always alight within us, inextinguishable even by that dense unconsciousness of any spiritual self within which obscures our outward nature. It is a flame born out of the Divine and, luminous inhabitant of the Ignorance, grows in it till it is able to turn it towards the Knowledge. It is the concealed Witness and Control, the hidden Guide, the Daemon of Socrates, the inner light or inner voice of the mystic. It is that which endures and is imperishable in us from birth to birth, untouched by death, decay or corruption, an indestructible spark of the Divine.” *The Life Divine
"If we need any personal and inner witness to this indivisible All-Consciousness behind the ignorance, — all Nature is its external proof, — we can get it with any completeness only in our deeper inner being or larger and higher spiritual state when we draw back behind the veil of our own surface ignorance and come into contact with the divine Idea and Will behind it. Then we see clearly enough that what we have done by ourselves in our ignorance was yet overseen and guided in its result by the invisible Omniscience; we discover a greater working behind our ignorant working and begin to glimpse its purpose in us: then only can we see and know what now we worship in faith, recognise wholly the pure and universal Presence, meet the Lord of all being and all Nature.” *The Life Divine
"The presence of the Spirit is there in every living being, on every level, in all things, and because it is there, the experience of Sachchidananda, of the pure spiritual existence and consciousness, of the delight of a divine presence, closeness, contact can be acquired through the mind or the heart or the life-sense or even through the physical consciousness; if the inner doors are flung sufficiently open, the light from the sanctuary can suffuse the nearest and the farthest chambers of the outer being.” *The Life Divine
"There is a secret divine Will, eternal and infinite, omniscient and omnipotent, that expresses itself in the universality and in each particular of all these apparently temporal and finite inconscient or half-conscient things. This is the Power or Presence meant by the Gita when it speaks of the Lord within the heart of all existences who turns all creatures as if mounted on a machine by the illusion of Nature.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"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.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"One must have faith in the Master of our life and works, even if for a long time He conceals Himself, and then in His own right time He will reveal His Presence.” *Letters on Yoga
"They [the psychic being and the Divine Presence in the heart] are quite different things. The psychic being is one"s own individual soul-being. It is not the Divine, though it has come from the Divine and develops towards the Divine.” *Letters on Yoga
"For it is quietness and inwardness that enable one to feel the Presence.” *Letters on Yoga
"Beyond mind on spiritual and supramental levels dwells the Presence, the Truth, the Power, the Bliss that can alone deliver us from these illusions, display the Light of which our ideals are tarnished disguises and impose the harmony that shall at once transfigure and reconcile all the parts of our nature.” *Essays Divine and Human
The Mother: "For, in human beings, here is a presence, the most marvellous Presence on earth, and except in a few very rare cases which I need not mention here, this presence lies asleep in the heart — not in the physical heart but the psychic centre — of all beings. And when this Splendour is manifested with enough purity, it will awaken in all beings the echo of his Presence.” Words of the Mother, MCW, Vol. 15.
PSYCHO-ANALYSIS AND YOGA. ::: There are many things in the ordinary man of which he is not conscious, because the vital hides them from the mind and gratifies them without the mind realising what is the force that is moving the action — thus things that are done under the plea of altruism, philanthropy, service etc. are largely moved by ego which hides itself behind these justifications ; in yoga the secret motive has to be pulled out from behind the veil, exposed and got rid of. Secondly, some things are suppressed in the ordinary life and remain lying in the nature, suppressed but not eliminated ; they may rise up any day or they may express themselves in various nervous forms or other disorders of the mind or vital or body without it being evident what is the real cause. This has l«cn recently dis- covered by European psychologists and much emphasised, even exaggerated in a new science called psycho-analysis. Here again, tti sadhana one has to become conscious of these suppressed impulses and eliminate them ; that does not mean that they have to be raised up into action but only raised up before the con- sciousness so as to be cleared out of the being.
quest ::: “The quest of man for God, which becomes in the end the most ardent and enthralling of all his quests, begins with his first vague questionings of Nature and a sense of something unseen both in himself and her. Even if, as modern Science insists, religion started from animism, spirit-worship, demon-worship, and the deification of natural forces, these first forms only embody in primitive figures a veiled intuition in the subconscient, an obscure and ignorant feeling of hidden influences and incalculable forces, or a vague sense of being, will, intelligence in what seems to us inconscient, of the invisible behind the visible, of the secretly conscious spirit in things distributing itself in every working of energy. The obscurity and primitive inadequacy of the first perceptions do not detract from the value or the truth of this great quest of the human heart and mind, since all our seekings,—including Science itself,—must start from an obscure and ignorant perception of hidden realities and proceed to the more and more luminous vision of the Truth which at first comes to us masked, draped, veiled by the mists of the Ignorance. Anthropomorphism is an imaged recognition of the truth that man is what he is because God is what He is and that there is one soul and body of things, humanity even in its incompleteness the most complete manifestation yet achieved here and divinity the perfection of what in man is imperfect.” The Life Divine
rarity ::: a rare person or thing, esp. something interesting or valued because it is uncommon.
"Reason is only a messenger, a representative or a shadow of a greater consciousness beyond itself which does not need to reason because it is all and knows all that it is.” The Life Divine
“Reason is only a messenger, a representative or a shadow of a greater consciousness beyond itself which does not need to reason because it is all and knows all that it is.” The Life Divine
Religion does that to man in the name of the Divine, in the name of God. The worst possible evil is enacted and that is because people sincerely believe they are instruments of light when they have actually become instruments of darkness.”
Rishi ::: The spiritual man who can guide human life towards its perfection is typified in the ancient Indian idea of the Rishi, one who has lived fully the life of man and found the word of the supra-intellectual, supramental, spiritual truth. He has risen above these lower limitations and can view all things from above, but also he is in sympathy with their effort and can view them from within; he has the complete inner knowledge and the higher surpassing knowledge. Therefore he can guide the world humanly as God guides it divinely, because like the Divine he is in the life of the world and yet above it.” The Human Cycle
rose ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The rose is among the first of flowers because of the richness of its colour, the intensity of sweetness of its scent and the grace and magnificence of its form.”
rose ::: “The rose is not the only beautiful flower, there are hundreds of others; most flowers are beautiful. There are degrees and kinds of beauty, that is all. The rose is among the first of flowers because of the richness of its colour, the intensity of sweetness of its scent and the grace and magnificence of its form.” Letters on Yoga , Volume—22 , SABCL
"Science is of immense importance not because it discovers the secrets of Nature for the advancement of knowledge, but because it utilises them for the creation of machinery and develops and organises the economic resources of the community.” The Human Cycle etc.
“Science is of immense importance not because it discovers the secrets of Nature for the advancement of knowledge, but because it utilises them for the creation of machinery and develops and organises the economic resources of the community.” The Human Cycle etc.
Seeking for occulf powers is looked on with disfavour for the most part by spiritual teachers in India, because it belongs to the inferior planes and usually pushes the seeker on a path which may lead him very far from the Divine. Especially, a contact mth the forces and beings of the astral (or, as we term it, the vital) plane is attended with great dangers. The beings of this plane are often bosiQc to the true aim of spiritual life and establish contact with the seeker and offer him powers and occult experiences only in order that they may lead him away from the spiritual path or else that they may establish their own control over him or take possession of him for their owm pur- pose. Often, representing themselves as Divine powers they mis- lead, give erring suggestions and impulsions and pervert the inner life. Many are those who, attracted by these powers and beings of the vital plane, bave ended in a definitive spiritual fall or in mental and physical perversion and disorder. One comes ineritably into contact with the vital plane and enters into it in the expansion of consriousness which results from an inner opening, but one ought never to put oneself into the hands of these beings and forces or allow oneself to be led by their sug- gestions and impulsions. This is one of the chief dangers of the spiritual life and to be on one’s guard against it is a necessity for the seeTer if he wishes to arrive at his goal. It is true that many supraphysical or supernonnal powers come with the expansion of the consciousness in the yoga ; to rise out of the body consciousness, to act by subtle means on the supraphysical planes, etc. are natural activities for the yogi- But these powers are not sought after, they come naturally, and they have not the astral character. Also, Aey have to be used on purely spiritual
Self-giving or surrender is demanded because without such a progressive surrender of the being it is quite impossible to get anywhere near the goal. To keep open means to call m the Force to work in you, and if you do not surrender to it, it amounts to not allowing the Force to work in you at all or else only on condition that it will work in the way you want and not in its own way which is the way of the Divine Truth.
“Self-will in thought and action has, we have already seen, to be quite renounced if we would be perfect in the way of divine works; it has equally to be renounced if we are to be perfect in divine knowledge. This self-will means an egoism in the mind which attaches itself to its preferences, its habits, its past or present formations of thought and view and will because it regards them as itself or its own, weaves around them the delicate threads of I-ness’’ andmy-ness’’ and lives in them like a spider in its web. It hates to be disturbed, as a spider hates attack on its web, and feels foreign and unhappy if transplanted to fresh view-points and formations as a spider feels foreign in another web than its own. This attachment must be entirely excised from the mind.” The Synthesis of Yoga
SHANKARA. ::: The Shanlcara knowledge is only one side of the TniUi ; it is the knowledge of the Supreme as realised by the spiritual Mind through the static silence of the pure Exist- ence. It was because he went by this side only 'that Shankara was unable to accept or explain the origin of the universe except as illusion, a creation of Maya. Unless one realises the Supreme on the dynamic as well as the static side, one cannot experience the true ori^n of things and the equal reality of the active
SHEATHS. ::: A term (or bodies because each is superimposed on the other and acts as a covering and can be cast off. You can only distinguish the different sheaths cither by intuition or by experience and then you have established direct knowledge of the different sheaths.
sheath ::: “… sheaths is simply a term for bodies, because each is superimposed on the other and acts as a covering and can be cast off. Thus the physical body itself is called the food sheath and its throwing off is what is called death.” Letters on Yoga
Shruti: “The attraction and glitter of desire, thought perceptions and concepts which hide the direct vision of the truth, the slayer of the truth because it invades life as the apparent truth itself.”
Sleep and the subconscient ::: Sleep because of its subconscient basis usually brings a falling do\vn to a lower level, unless it is a conscious sleep ; to make it more and more conscious is the one permanent remedy ::: but also until that is done, one should always react against this sinking tendency when one wakes and not allow the effect of dull nights to accumulate.
". . . Spirit is a final evolutionary emergence because it is the original involutionary element and factor.” The Life Divine*
“… Spirit is a final evolutionary emergence because it is the original involutionary element and factor.” The Life Divine
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 usual- ly ages to reach abiding results ; but this is because it is in its nature an emergence from ioconscient 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 co- operator, 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, transforma- tion. 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 consersion. quick transformation after transformation, what would seem to our
Spiritual evolution ::: It is a series of ascents from the physical being and consciousness to the vital, the being dominated by the life-self, thence to the menial being realised in the fully deve- loped man and thence into the perfect consciousness which is beyond the mental, into the supramental consciousness and the supramental being, the Truth-Consciousness which is the integral consciousness of the spiritual being. Mind cannot be our last conscious expression because mind is fundamentally an ignorance seeking for knowledge ; it is only the supramental Truth-Cons- ciousness that can bring us the true and whole Self-Knowledge and world-KnowIedge ; it is through that only that we can get to our true being and fulfilment of our spiritual evolution.
"Spirituality respects the freedom of the human soul, because it is itself fulfilled by freedom; and the deepest meaning of freedom is the power to expand and grow towards perfection by the law of one"s own nature, dharma.” The Human Cycle
“Spirituality respects the freedom of the human soul, because it is itself fulfilled by freedom; and the deepest meaning of freedom is the power to expand and grow towards perfection by the law of one’s own nature, dharma.” The Human Cycle
Sri Aurobindo: ". . . all cosmic and real Law is a thing not imposed from outside, but from within, all development is self-development, all seed and result are seed of a Truth of things and result of that seed determined out of its potentialities. For the same reason no Law is absolute, because only the infinite is absolute, and everything contains within itself endless potentialities quite beyond its determined form and course, which are only determined through a self-limitation by Idea proceeding from an infinite liberty within.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: A symbol, as I understand it, is the form on one plane that represents a truth of another. For instance, a flag is the symbol of a nation…. But generally all forms are symbols. This body of ours is a symbol of our real being and everything is a symbol of some higher reality. There are, however, different kinds of symbols: 1. Conventional symbols, such as the Vedic Rishis formed with objects taken from their surroundings. The cow stood for light because the same word `go ‘ meant both ray and cow, and because the cow was their most precious possession which maintained their life and was constantly in danger of being robbed and concealed. But once created, such a symbol becomes alive. The Rishis vitalised it and it became a part of their realisation. It appeared in their visions as an image of spiritual light. The horse also was one of their favourite symbols, and a more easily adaptable one, since its force and energy were quite evident. 2. What we might call Life-symbols, such as are not artificially chosen or mentally interpreted in a conscious deliberate way, but derive naturally from our day-to-day life and grow out of the surroundings which condition our normal path of living. To the ancients the mountain was a symbol of the path of yoga, level above level, peak upon peak. A journey, involving the crossing of rivers and the facing of lurking enemies, both animal and human, conveyed a similar idea. Nowadays I dare say we would liken yoga to a motor-ride or a railway-trip. 3. Symbols that have an inherent appositeness and power of their own. Akasha or etheric space is a symbol of the infinite all-pervading eternal Brahman. In any nationality it would convey the same meaning. Also, the Sun stands universally for the supramental Light, the divine Gnosis. 4.* Mental symbols, instances of which are numbers or alphabets. Once they are accepted, they too become active and may be useful. Thus geometrical figures have been variously interpreted. In my experience the square symbolises the supermind. I cannot say how it came to do so. Somebody or some force may have built it before it came to my mind. Of the triangle, too, there are different explanations. In one position it can symbolise the three lower planes, in another the symbol is of the three higher ones: so both can be combined together in a single sign. The ancients liked to indulge in similar speculations concerning numbers, but their systems were mostly mental. It is no doubt true that supramental realities exist which we translate into mental formulas such as Karma, Psychic evolution, etc. But they are, so to speak, infinite realities which cannot be limited by these symbolic forms, though they may be somewhat expressed by them; they might be expressed as well by other symbols, and the same symbol may also express many different ideas. Letters on Yoga
*Sri Aurobindo: ". . . desires come from outside, enter the subconscious vital and rise to the surface. It is only when they rise to the surface and the mind becomes aware of them, that we become conscious of the desire. It seems to us to be our own because we feel it thus rising from the vital into the mind and do not know that it came from outside.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Doubt cannot be convinced, because by its very nature it does not want to be convinced; . . . .” *Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Faith is a necessary means for arriving at realisation, because we are ignorant and do not yet know that which we are seeking to realise; faith is indeed knowledge giving the ignorance an intimation of itself previous to its own manifestation, it is the gleam sent before by the yet unrisen Sun. When the Sun shall rise, there will be no longer any need of the gleam.” *Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Further, vision is of value because it is often a first key to inner planes of one"s own being and one"s own consciousness as distinguished from worlds or planes of the cosmic consciousness. Yoga-experience often begins with some opening of the third eye in the forehead (the centre of vision in the brows) or with some kind of beginning and extension of subtle seeing which may seem unimportant at first but is the vestibule to deeper experience.” *Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: “Further, vision is of value because it is often a first key to inner planes of one’s own being and one’s own consciousness as distinguished from worlds or planes of the cosmic consciousness. Yoga-experience often begins with some opening of the third eye in the forehead (the centre of vision in the brows) or with some kind of beginning and extension of subtle seeing which may seem unimportant at first but is the vestibule to deeper experience.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "History teaches us nothing; it is a confused torrent of events and personalities or a kaleidoscope of changing institutions. We do not seize the real sense of all this change and this continual streaming forward of human life in the channels of Time. What we do seize are current or recurrent phenomena, facile generalisations, partial ideas. We talk of democracy, aristocracy and autocracy, collectivism and individualism, imperialism and nationalism, the State and the commune, capitalism and labour; we advance hasty generalisations and make absolute systems which are positively announced today only to be abandoned perforce tomorrow; we espouse causes and ardent enthusiasms whose triumph turns to an early disillusionment and then forsake them for others, perhaps for those that we have taken so much trouble to destroy. For a whole century mankind thirsts and battles after liberty and earns it with a bitter expense of toil, tears and blood; the century that enjoys without having fought for it turns away as from a puerile illusion and is ready to renounce the depreciated gain as the price of some new good. And all this happens because our whole thought and action with regard to our collective life is shallow and empirical; it does not seek for, it does not base itself on a firm, profound and complete knowledge. The moral is not the vanity of human life, of its ardours and enthusiasms and of the ideals it pursues, but the necessity of a wiser, larger, more patient search after its true law and aim.” *The Human Cycle etc.
*Sri Aurobindo: "In our world error is continually the handmaid and pathfinder of Truth; for error is really a half-truth that stumbles because of its limitations; often it is Truth that wears a disguise in order to arrive unobserved near to its goal.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "Intelligence does not depend on the amount one has read, it is a quality of the mind. Study only gives it material for its work as life also does. There are people who do not know how to read and write who are more intelligent than many highly educated people and understand life and things better. On the other hand, a good intelligence can improve itself by reading because it gets more material to work on and grows by exercise and by having a wider range to move in. But book-knowledge by itself is not the real thing, it has to be used as a help to the intelligence but it is often only a help to stupidity or ignorance — ignorance because knowledge of facts is a poor thing if one cannot see their true significance.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "In the very atom there is a subconscious will and desire which must also be present in all atomic aggregates because they are present in the Force which constitutes the atom.” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Krishna is the Eternal"s Personality of Ananda; because [of] him all creation is possible, because of his play, because of his delight, because of his sweetness.” *Essays Divine and Human
Sri Aurobindo: “Krishna is the Eternal’s Personality of Ananda; because [of] him all creation is possible, because of his play, because of his delight, because of his sweetness.” Essays Divine and Human
Sri Aurobindo: " Love? It is not Love who meets the burdened great and governs the fate of men! Nor is it Pain. Time also does not do these things — it only provides the field and movement of events. If I had wanted to give a name, I would have done it, but it has purposely to be left nameless because it is indefinable. He may use Love or Pain or Time or any of these powers but is not any of them. You can call him the Master of the Evolution, if you like. Letters of Savitri
Sri Aurobindo: “ Love? It is not Love who meets the burdened great and governs the fate of men! Nor is it Pain. Time also does not do these things—it only provides the field and movement of events. If I had wanted to give a name, I would have done it, but it has purposely to be left nameless because it is indefinable. He may use Love or Pain or Time or any of these powers but is not any of them. You can call him the Master of the Evolution, if you like. Letters of Savitri
Sri Aurobindo: " Mental intelligence thinks out because it is merely a reflecting force of consciousness which does not know, but seeks to know; it follows in Time step by step the working of a knowledge higher than itself, a knowledge that exists always, one and whole, that holds Time in its grasp, that sees past, present and future in a single regard.: The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: ". . . sheaths is simply a term for bodies, because each is superimposed on the other and acts as a covering and can be cast off. Thus the physical body itself is called the food sheath and its throwing off is what is called death.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "The ancient knowledge in all countries was full of the search after the hidden truths of our being and it created that large field of practice and inquiry which goes in Europe by the name of occultism, — we do not use any corresponding word in the East, because these things do not seem to us so remote, mysterious and abnormal as to the occidental mentality; they are nearer to us and the veil between our normal material life and this larger life is much thinner.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "The Mother not only governs all from above but she descends into this lesser triple universe. Impersonally, all things here, even the movements of the Ignorance, are herself in veiled power and her creations in diminished substance, her Nature-body and Nature-force, and they exist because, moved by the mysterious fiat of the Supreme to work out something that was there in the possibilities of the Infinite, she has consented to the great sacrifice and has put on like a mask the soul and forms of the Ignorance. But personally too she has stooped to descend here into the Darkness that she may lead it to the Light, into the Falsehood and Error that she may convert it to the Truth, into this Death that she may turn it to godlike Life, into this world-pain and its obstinate sorrow and suffering that she may end it in the transforming ecstasy of her sublime Ananda. In her deep and great love for her children she has consented to put on herself the cloak of this obscurity, condescended to bear the attacks and torturing influences of the powers of the Darkness and the Falsehood, borne to pass though the portals of the birth that is a death, taken upon herself the pangs and sorrows and sufferings of the creation, since it seemed that thus alone could it be lifted to the Light and Joy and Truth and eternal Life. This is the great sacrifice called sometimes the sacrifice of the Purusha, but much more deeply the holocaust of Prakriti, the sacrifice of the Divine Mother.” The Mother
Sri Aurobindo: "The quest of man for God, which becomes in the end the most ardent and enthralling of all his quests, begins with his first vague questionings of Nature and a sense of something unseen both in himself and her. Even if, as modern Science insists, religion started from animism, spirit-worship, demon-worship, and the deification of natural forces, these first forms only embody in primitive figures a veiled intuition in the subconscient, an obscure and ignorant feeling of hidden influences and incalculable forces, or a vague sense of being, will, intelligence in what seems to us inconscient, of the invisible behind the visible, of the secretly conscious spirit in things distributing itself in every working of energy. The obscurity and primitive inadequacy of the first perceptions do not detract from the value or the truth of this great quest of the human heart and mind, since all our seekings, — including Science itself, — must start from an obscure and ignorant perception of hidden realities and proceed to the more and more luminous vision of the Truth which at first comes to us masked, draped, veiled by the mists of the Ignorance. Anthropomorphism is an imaged recognition of the truth that man is what he is because God is what He is and that there is one soul and body of things, humanity even in its incompleteness the most complete manifestation yet achieved here and divinity the perfection of what in man is imperfect.” The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: ". . . we live in a false relation with our environment, because we know neither the universe nor ourselves for what they really are . . .” The Synthesis of Yoga*
Sri Aurobindo: "We mean by the Absolute something greater than ourselves, greater than the cosmos which we live in, the supreme reality of that transcendent Being which we call God, something without which all that we see or are conscious of as existing, could not have been, could not for a moment remain in existence. Indian thought calls it Brahman, European thought the Absolute because it is a self-existent which is absolved of all bondage to relativities . . . The Absolute is for us the Ineffable.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "What we call unconsciousness is simply other-consciousness; it is the going in of this surface wave of our mental awareness of outer objects into our subliminal self-awareness and into our awareness too of other planes of existence. We are really no more unconscious when we are asleep or stunned or drugged or ``dead"" or in any other state, than when we are plunged in inner thought oblivious of our physical selves and our surroundings. For anyone who has advanced even a little way in Yoga, this is a most elementary proposition and one which offers no difficulty whatever to the thought because it is proved at every point by experience.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Your ‘barely enough", instead of the finer and more suggestive ‘hardly", falls flat upon my ear; one cannot substitute one word for another in this kind of poetry merely because it means intellectually the same thing; ‘hardly" is the mot juste in this context and, repetition or not, it must remain unless a word not only juste but inevitable comes to replace it… . On this point I may add that in certain contexts ‘barely" would be the right word, as for instance, ‘There is barely enough food left for two or three meals", where ‘hardly" would be adequate but much less forceful. It is the other way about in this line. Letters on Savitri
Stales (four) of consciousness ; ■ The waking state is the cons- ciousness of the material universe which we normally possess in this embodied existence dominated by the physical mind. The dream state is a consciousness corresponding to the subtler life- plane and mind-plane behind, which to us, even when we get intimations of them, have not the same concrete reality as the things of the physical existence. The sleep state Is a conscious- ness corresponding to the supraraenta! plane proper to the gnosis, which is teyond our experience because our causal body or envelope of gnosis is not developed in us, its faculties not active, and therefore we are in relation to that plane in a condition of dreamless sleep. The turiya (fourth) beyond is the conscious-
subconscience ::: “Matter, the medium of all this evolution, is seemingly inconscient and inanimate; but it so appears to us only because we are unable to sense consciousness outside a certain limited range, a fixed scale or gamut to which we have access. Below us there are lower ranges to which we are insensible and these we call subconscience or inconscience. Above us are higher ranges which are to our inferior nature an unseizable superconscience.” Essays Divine and Human
subconscience ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Matter, the medium of all this evolution, is seemingly inconscient and inanimate; but it so appears to us only because we are unable to sense consciousness outside a certain limited range, a fixed scale or gamut to which we have access. Below us there are lower ranges to which we are insensible and these we call subconscience or inconscience. Above us are higher ranges which are to our inferior nature an unseizable superconscience.” Essays Divine and Human
subconscient ::: “In our yoga we mean by the subconscient that quite submerged part of our being in which there is no wakingly conscious and coherent thought, will or feeling or organised reaction, but which yet receives obscurely the impressions of all things and stores them up in itself and from it too all sorts of stimuli, of persistent habitual movements, crudely repeated or disguised in strange forms can surge up into dream or into the waking nature. No, subliminal is a general term used for all parts of the being which are not on the waking surface. Subconscient is very often used in the same sense by European psychologists because they do not know the difference. But when I use the word, I mean always what is below the ordinary physical consciousness, not what is behind it. The inner mental, vital, physical, the psychic are not subconscious in this sense, but they can be spoken of as subliminal.” The Synthesis of Yoga.
subconscient ::: Sri Aurobindo: "In our yoga we mean by the subconscient that quite submerged part of our being in which there is no wakingly conscious and coherent thought, will or feeling or organised reaction, but which yet receives obscurely the impressions of all things and stores them up in itself and from it too all sorts of stimuli, of persistent habitual movements, crudely repeated or disguised in strange forms can surge up into dream or into the waking nature. No, subliminal is a general term used for all parts of the being which are not on the waking surface. Subconscient is very often used in the same sense by European psychologists because they do not know the difference. But when I use the word, I mean always what is below the ordinary physical consciousness, not what is behind it. The inner mental, vital, physical, the psychic are not subconscious in this sense, but they can be spoken of as subliminal.” *The Synthesis of Yoga.
"The subconscient is a concealed and unexpressed inarticulate consciousness which works below all our conscious physical activities. Just as what we call the superconscient is really a higher consciousness above from which things descend into the being, so the subconscient is below the body-consciousness and things come up into the physical, the vital and the mind-nature from there.
Just as the higher consciousness is superconscient to us and supports all our spiritual possibilities and nature, so the subconscient is the basis of our material being and supports all that comes up in the physical nature.” Letters on Yoga
"That part of us which we can strictly call subconscient because it is below the level of mind and conscious life, inferior and obscure, covers the purely physical and vital elements of our constitution of bodily being, unmentalised, unobserved by the mind, uncontrolled by it in their action. It can be held to include the dumb occult consciousness, dynamic but not sensed by us, which operates in the cells and nerves and all the corporeal stuff and adjusts their life process and automatic responses. It covers also those lowest functionings of submerged sense-mind which are more operative in the animal and in plant life.” *The Life Divine
"The subconscient is a thing of habits and memories and repeats persistently or whenever it can old suppressed reactions, reflexes, mental, vital or physical responses. It must be trained by a still more persistent insistence of the higher parts of the being to give up its old responses and take on the new and true ones.” Letters on Yoga
"About the subconscient — it is the sub-mental base of the being and is made up of impressions, instincts, habitual movements that are stored there. Whatever movement is impressed in it, it keeps. If one impresses the right movement in it, it will keep and send up that. That is why it has to be cleared of old movements before there can be a permanent and total change in the nature. When the higher consciousness is once established in the waking parts, it goes down into the subconscient and changes that also, makes a bedrock of itself there also.” Letters on Yoga
"The sub-conscious is the evolutionary basis in us, it is not the whole of our hidden nature, nor is it the whole origin of what we are. But things can rise from the subconscient and take shape in the conscious parts and much of our smaller vital and physical instincts, movements, habits, character-forms has this source.” Letters on Yoga
"The subconscient is the support of habitual action — it can support good habits as well as bad.” Letters on Yoga
"For the subconscient is the Inconscient in the process of becoming conscious; it is a support and even a root of our inferior parts of being and their movements.” The Life Divine *subconscient"s.
"Subliminal is a general term used for all parts of the being which are not on the waking surface. Subconscient is very often used in the same sense by European psychologists because they do not know the difference. But when I use the word, I mean always what is below the ordinary physical consciousness, not what is behind it. The inner mental, vital, physical, the psychic are not subconscious in this sense, but they can be spoken of as subliminal.” Letters on Yoga
“Subliminal is a general term used for all parts of the being which are not on the waking surface. Subconscient is very often used in the same sense by European psychologists because they do not know the difference. But when I use the word, I mean always what is below the ordinary physical consciousness, not what is behind it. The inner mental, vital, physical, the psychic are not subconscious in this sense, but they can be spoken of as subliminal.” Letters on Yoga
symbol ::: A symbol, as I understand it, is the form on one plane that represents a truth of another. For instance, a flag is the symbol of a nation…. But generally all forms are symbols. This body of ours is a symbol of our real being and everything is a symbol of some higher reality. There are, however, different kinds of symbols: 1. Conventional symbols, such as the Vedic Rishis formed with objects taken from their surroundings. The cow stood for light because the same word `go ‘ meant both ray and cow, and because the cow was their most precious possession which maintained their life and was constantly in danger of being robbed and concealed. But once created, such a symbol becomes alive. The Rishis vitalised it and it became a part of their realisation. It appeared in their visions as an image of spiritual light. The horse also was one of their favourite symbols, and a more easily adaptable one, since its force and energy were quite evident. 2. What we might call Life-symbols, such as are not artificially chosen or mentally interpreted in a conscious deliberate way, but derive naturally from our day-to-day life and grow out of the surroundings which condition our normal path of living. To the ancients the mountain was a symbol of the path of yoga, level above level, peak upon peak. A journey, involving the crossing of rivers and the facing of lurking enemies, both animal and human, conveyed a similar idea. Nowadays I dare say we would liken yoga to a motor-ride or a railway-trip. 3. Symbols that have an inherent appositeness and power of their own. Akasha or etheric space is a symbol of the infinite all-pervading eternal Brahman. In any nationality it would convey the same meaning. Also, the Sun stands universally for the supramental Light, the divine Gnosis. 4. Mental symbols, instances of which are numbers or alphabets. Once they are accepted, they too become active and may be useful. Thus geometrical figures have been variously interpreted. In my experience the square symbolises the supermind. I cannot say how it came to do so. Somebody or some force may have built it before it came to my mind. Of the triangle, too, there are different explanations. In one position it can symbolise the three lower planes, in another the symbol is of the three higher ones: so both can be combined together in a single sign. The ancients liked to indulge in similar speculations concerning numbers, but their systems were mostly mental. It is no doubt true that supramental realities exist which we translate into mental formulas such as Karma, Psychic evolution, etc. But they are, so to speak, infinite realities which cannot be limited by these symbolic forms, though they may be somewhat expressed by them; they might be expressed as well by other symbols, and the same symbol may also express many different ideas. Letters on Yoga
Talking of an unnecessary character tires (he inner being because the talk comes from (he outer nature while the inner has to supply the energy which it feels squandered away.
Tehmi: “Shiva is called the Nilakanta (Nila=blue, kanta=throat) because he swallowed the poison of the whole world and it stuck in his throat.”
“That part of us which we can strictly call subconscient because it is below the level of mind and conscious life, inferior and obscure, covers the purely physical and vital elements of our constitution of bodily being, unmentalised, unobserved by the mind, uncontrolled by it in their action. It can be held to include the dumb occult consciousness, dynamic but not sensed by us, which operates in the cells and nerves and all the corporeal stuff and adjusts their life process and automatic responses. It covers also those lowest functionings of submerged sense-mind which are more operative in the animal and in plant life.” The Life Divine
"The Adversary will disappear only when he is no longer necessary in the world. And we know very well that he is necessary, as the touch-stone for gold: to know if it is pure. But if one is really sincere, the Adversary can"t even approach him any longer; and he doesn"t try it, because that would be courting his own destruction.” Questions and Answers 1955, MCW Vol. 7.
“The Adversary will disappear only when he is no longer necessary in the world. And we know very well that he is necessary, as the touch-stone for gold: to know if it is pure. But if one is really sincere, the Adversary can’t even approach him any longer; and he doesn’t try it, because that would be courting his own destruction.” Questions and Answers 1955, MCW Vol. 7**
"The animal is satisfied with a modicum of necessity; the gods are content with their splendours. But man cannot rest permanently until he reaches some highest good. He is the greatest of living beings because he is the most discontented, because he feels most the pressure of limitations. He alone, perhaps, is capable of being seized by the divine frenzy for a remote ideal.” The Life Divine
“The animal is satisfied with a modicum of necessity; the gods are content with their splendours. But man cannot rest permanently until he reaches some highest good. He is the greatest of living beings because he is the most discontented, because he feels most the pressure of limitations. He alone, perhaps, is capable of being seized by the divine frenzy for a remote ideal.” The Life Divine
"The Avatar does not come as a thaumaturgic magician, but as the divine leader of humanity and the exemplar of a divine humanity. Even human sorrow and physical suffering he must assume and use so as to show, first, how that suffering may be a means of redemption, — as did Christ, — secondly, to show how, having been assumed by the divine soul in the human nature, it can also be overcome in the same nature, — as did Buddha. The rationalist who would have cried to Christ, ‘If thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross," or points out sagely that the Avatar was not divine because he died and died too by disease, — as a dog dieth, — knows not what he is saying: for he has missed the root of the whole matter. Even, the Avatar of sorrow and suffering must come before there can be the Avatar of divine joy; the human limitation must be assumed in order to show how it can be overcome; and the way and the extent of the overcoming, whether internal only or external also, depends upon the stage of the human advance; it must not be done by a non-human miracle.” Essays on the Gita
“The Avatar does not come as a thaumaturgic magician, but as the divine leader of humanity and the exemplar of a divine humanity. Even human sorrow and physical suffering he must assume and use so as to show, first, how that suffering may be a means of redemption,—as did Christ,—secondly, to show how, having been assumed by the divine soul in the human nature, it can also be overcome in the same nature,—as did Buddha. The rationalist who would have cried to Christ, ‘If thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross,’ or points out sagely that the Avatar was not divine because he died and died too by disease,—as a dog dieth,—knows not what he is saying: for he has missed the root of the whole matter. Even, the Avatar of sorrow and suffering must come before there can be the Avatar of divine joy; the human limitation must be assumed in order to show how it can be overcome; and the way and the extent of the overcoming, whether internal only or external also, depends upon the stage of the human advance; it must not be done by a non-human miracle.” Essays on the Gita
"The colours of the lotuses and the numbers of petals are respectively, from bottom to top: — (1) the Muladhara or physical consciousness centre, four petals, red; (2) the abdominal centre, six petals, deep purple red; (3) the navel centre, ten petals, violet; (4) the heart centre, twelve petals, golden pink; (5) the throat centre, sixteen petals, grey; (6) the forehead centre between the eye-brows, two petals, white; (7) the thousand-petalled lotus above the head, blue with gold light around. The functions are, according to our yoga, — (1) commanding the physical consciousness and the subconscient; (2) commanding the small vital movements, the little greeds, lusts, desires, the small sense-movements; (3) commanding the larger life-forces and the passions and larger desire-movements; (4) commanding the higher emotional being with the psychic deep behind it; (5) commanding expression and all externalisation of the mind movements and mental forces; (6) commanding thought, will, vision; (7) commanding the higher thinking mind and the illumined mind and opening upwards to the intuition and overmind. The seventh is sometimes or by some identified with the brain, but that is an error — the brain is only a channel of communication situated between the thousand-petalled and the forehead centre. The former is sometimes called the void centre, sunya , either because it is not in the body, but in the apparent void above or because rising above the head one enters first into the silence of the self or spiritual being.” Letters on Yoga*
“The colours of the lotuses and the numbers of petals are respectively, from bottom to top:—(1) the Muladhara or physical consciousness centre, four petals, red; (2) the abdominal centre, six petals, deep purple red; (3) the navel centre, ten petals, violet; (4) the heart centre, twelve petals, golden pink; (5) the throat centre, sixteen petals, grey; (6) the forehead centre between the eye-brows, two petals, white; (7) the thousand-petalled lotus above the head, blue with gold light around. The functions are, according to our yoga,—(1) commanding the physical consciousness and the subconscient; (2) commanding the small vital movements, the little greeds, lusts, desires, the small sense-movements; (3) commanding the larger life-forces and the passions and larger desire-movements; (4) commanding the higher emotional being with the psychic deep behind it; (5) commanding expression and all externalisation of the mind movements and mental forces; (6) commanding thought, will, vision; (7) commanding the higher thinking mind and the illumined mind and opening upwards to the intuition and overmind. The seventh is sometimes or by some identified with the brain, but that is an error—the brain is only a channel of communication situated between the thousand-petalled and the forehead centre. The former is sometimes called the void centre, sunya , either because it is not in the body, but in the apparent void above or because rising above the head one enters first into the silence of the self or spiritual being.” Letters on Yoga
“The cosmic consciousness has many levels—the cosmic physical, the cosmic vital, the cosmic Mind, and above the higher planes of cosmic Mind there is the Intuition and above that the overmind and still above that the supermind where the Transcendental begins. In order to live in the Intuition plane (not merely to receive intuitions), one has to live in the cosmic consciousness because there the cosmic and individual run into each other as it were, and the mental separation between them is already broken down, so nobody can reach there who is still in the separative ego.” Letters on Yoga
"The Cross is in Yoga the symbol of the soul & nature in their strong & perfect union, but because of our fall into the impurities of ignorance it has become the symbol of suffering and purification.” Essays Divine and Human*
“The Cross is in Yoga the symbol of the soul & nature in their strong & perfect union, but because of our fall into the impurities of ignorance it has become the symbol of suffering and purification.” Essays Divine and Human
"The Divine is the unborn Eternal who has no origin; there is and can be nothing before him from which he proceeds, because he is one and timeless and absolute.” Essays on the Gita*
"The Divine is the unborn Eternal who has no origin; there is and can be nothing before him from which he proceeds, because he is one and timeless and absolute.” Essays on the Gita
“The Divine is the unborn Eternal who has no origin; there is and can be nothing before him from which he proceeds, because he is one and timeless and absolute.” Essays on the Gita
". . . the ego is the lynch-pin invented to hold together the motion of our wheel of nature. The necessity of centralisation around the ego continues until there is no longer need of any such device or contrivance because there has emerged the true self, the spiritual being, which is at once wheel and motion and that which holds all together, the centre and the circumference.” The Life Divine
“… the ego is the lynch-pin invented to hold together the motion of our wheel of nature. The necessity of centralisation around the ego continues until there is no longer need of any such device or contrivance because there has emerged the true self, the spiritual being, which is at once wheel and motion and that which holds all together, the centre and the circumference.” The Life Divine
“The enemy of faith is doubt, and yet doubt too is a utility and necessity, because man in his ignorance and in his progressive labour towards knowledge needs to be visited by doubt, otherwise he would remain obstinate in an ignorant belief and limited knowledge and unable to escape from his errors.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"The freedom of the Gita is that of the freeman, the true freedom of the birth into the higher nature, self-existent in its divinity. Whatever he does and however he lives, the free soul lives in the Divine; he is the privileged child of the mansion, bâlavat, who cannot err or fall because all he is and does is full of the Perfect, the All-blissful, the All-loving, the All-beautiful. The kingdom which he enjoys, râjyam samrddham, is a sweet and happy dominion of which it may be said, in the pregnant phrase of the Greek thinker, ``The kingdom is of the child."" Essays on the Gita
“The freedom of the Gita is that of the freeman, the true freedom of the birth into the higher nature, self-existent in its divinity. Whatever he does and however he lives, the free soul lives in the Divine; he is the privileged child of the mansion, bâlavat, who cannot err or fall because all he is and does is full of the Perfect, the All-blissful, the All-loving, the All-beautiful. The kingdom which he enjoys, râjyam samrddham, is a sweet and happy dominion of which it may be said, in the pregnant phrase of the Greek thinker, ``The kingdom is of the child.’’ Essays on the Gita
"The ideation of the gnosis is radiating light-stuff of the consciousness of the eternal Existence; each ray is a truth. The will in the gnosis is a conscious force of eternal knowledge; it throws the consciousness and substance of being into infallible forms of truth-power, forms that embody the idea and make it faultlessly effective, and it works out each truth-power and each truth-form spontaneously and rightly according to its nature. Because it carries this creative force of the divine Idea, the Sun, the lord and symbol of the gnosis, is described in the Veda as the Light which is the father of all things, Surya Savitri, the Wisdom-Luminous who is the bringer-out into manifest existence.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
“The ideation of the gnosis is radiating light-stuff of the consciousness of the eternal Existence; each ray is a truth. The will in the gnosis is a conscious force of eternal knowledge; it throws the consciousness and substance of being into infallible forms of truth-power, forms that embody the idea and make it faultlessly effective, and it works out each truth-power and each truth-form spontaneously and rightly according to its nature. Because it carries this creative force of the divine Idea, the Sun, the lord and symbol of the gnosis, is described in the Veda as the Light which is the father of all things, Surya Savitri, the Wisdom-Luminous who is the bringer-out into manifest existence.” The Synthesis of Yoga
The impulse towards Itiya Is a creation of the mind, it is not the sole possible destiny of the soul. When the mind tries to abolish its own Ignorance, it finds no escape from it except by laya, because it supposes that there is no higher principle of cosmic experience beyond itself — beyond itself is only the pure
“The integral Knowledge is something that is already there in the integral Reality: it is not a new or still non-existent thing that has to be created, acquired, learned, invented or built up by the mind; it must rather be discovered or uncovered, it is a Truth that is self-revealed to a spiritual endeavour: for it is there veiled in our deeper and greater self; it is the very stuff of our own spiritual consciousness, and it is by awaking to it even in our surface self that we have to possess it. There is an integral self-knowledge that we have to recover and, because the world-self also is our self, an integral world-knowledge. A knowledge that can be learned or constructed by the mind exists and has its value, but that is not what is meant when we speak of the Knowledge and the Ignorance.” The Life Divine
"The intermediate link exists. We call it the Supermind or the Truth-Consciousness, because it is a principle superior to mentality and exists, acts and proceeds in the fundamental truth and unity of things and not like the mind in their appearances and phenomenal divisions.” The Life Divine
“The intermediate link exists. We call it the Supermind or the Truth-Consciousness, because it is a principle superior to mentality and exists, acts and proceeds in the fundamental truth and unity of things and not like the mind in their appearances and phenomenal divisions.” The Life Divine
::: "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.” The Life Divine*
“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.” The Life Divine
The more complete y-our faith, sincerity and surrender, the more will grace and protection be with you. And when the grace and protection of the Divine Mother arc with you, what is there lliat can touch you or whom need you fear? A little of it even will carry you through all diiliculties, obstacles and dangers ; surrounded by its full presence you can go securely on your way because it is hers, careless of all menace, unaffected by any hostility however powerful, whether from this world or from worlds invisible. Its touch can turn difficulties into oppor- tunities, failure into success and weakness into unfaltering strength. For the grace of the Divine Mother is the sanction of the Supreme and now or tomorrow its ciTect is sure, a thing decreed. Inevitable and irresistible.
The more complete your faith, sincerity and surrender, the mote will grace and protection be with you. And when the grace and protection of the Divine Mother are with you, what is there that can touch you or whom need you fear? A little of it even will carry you through all difficulties, obstacles and dangers ; surrounded by its full presence you can go securely on your way because it is hers, careless of all menace, unaffected by any hostility however powerful, whether from this world or from worlds invisible. Its touch can turn difficulties into oppor- tunities, failure into success and weakness into unfaltering strength.
The Mother: “Krishna represents both the universal Godhead and the immanent Godhead, he whom one can meet within one’s being and in all that constitutes the manifested world. And do you want to know why he is always represented as a child? It is because he is in constant progression. To the extent that the world is perfected, his play is also perfected—what was the play of yesterday will no longer be the play of tomorrow; his play will become more and more harmonious, benign and joyful to the extent that the world becomes capable of responding to it and enjoying it with the Divine.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
::: The Mother: "With the Divine"s Love is the power of Transformation. It has this power because it is for the sake of Transformation that it has given itself to the world and manifested everywhere. Not only into man but into all the atoms of Matter it has infused itself in order to bring the world back to the original Truth. The moment you open to it, you also receive its power of Transformation.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The Mother: “With the Divine’s Love is the power of Transformation. It has this power because it is for the sake of Transformation that it has given itself to the world and manifested everywhere. Not only into man but into all the atoms of Matter it has infused itself in order to bring the world back to the original Truth. The moment you open to it, you also receive its power of Transformation.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
“The presence of the Spirit is there in every living being, on every level, in all things, and because it is there, the experience of Sachchidananda, of the pure spiritual existence and consciousness, of the delight of a divine presence, closeness, contact can be acquired through the mind or the heart or the life-sense or even through the physical consciousness; if the inner doors are flung sufficiently open, the light from the sanctuary can suffuse the nearest and the farthest chambers of the outer being.” The Life Divine
"The real source of knowledge is the Lord in the heart; ‘I am seated in the heart of every man and from me is knowledge," says the Gita; the Scripture is only a verbal form of that inner Veda, of that self-luminous Reality, it is sabdabrahma: the mantra, says the Veda, has risen from the heart, from the secret place where is the seat of the truth, sadanâd rtasya, guhâyâm. That origin is its sanction; but still the infinite Truth is greater than its word. Nor shall you say of any Scripture that it alone is all-sufficient and no other truth can be admitted, as the Vedavadins said of the Veda, nânyad astîti vâdinah. This is a saving and liberating word which must be applied to all the Scriptures of the world. Take all the Scriptures that are or have been, Bible and Koran and the books of the Chinese, Veda and Upanishads and Purana and Tantra and Shastra and the Gita itself and the sayings of thinkers and sages, prophets and Avatars, still you shall not say that there is nothing else or that the truth your intellect cannot find there is not true because you cannot find it there. That is the limited thought of the sectarian or the composite thought of the eclectic religionist, not the untrammelled truth-seeking of the free and illumined mind and God-experienced soul. Heard or unheard before, that always is the truth which is seen by the heart of man in its illumined depths or heard within from the Master of all knowledge, the knower of the eternal Veda.” Essays on the Gita*
“The real source of knowledge is the Lord in the heart; ‘I am seated in the heart of every man and from me is knowledge,’ says the Gita; the Scripture is only a verbal form of that inner Veda, of that self-luminous Reality, it is sabdabrahma: the mantra, says the Veda, has risen from the heart, from the secret place where is the seat of the truth, sadanâd rtasya, guhâyâm. That origin is its sanction; but still the infinite Truth is greater than its word. Nor shall you say of any Scripture that it alone is all-sufficient and no other truth can be admitted, as the Vedavadins said of the Veda, nânyad astîti vâdinah. This is a saving and liberating word which must be applied to all the Scriptures of the world. Take all the Scriptures that are or have been, Bible and Koran and the books of the Chinese, Veda and Upanishads and Purana and Tantra and Shastra and the Gita itself and the sayings of thinkers and sages, prophets and Avatars, still you shall not say that there is nothing else or that the truth your intellect cannot find there is not true because you cannot find it there. That is the limited thought of the sectarian or the composite thought of the eclectic religionist, not the untrammelled truth-seeking of the free and illumined mind and God-experienced soul. Heard or unheard before, that always is the truth which is seen by the heart of man in its illumined depths or heard within from the Master of all knowledge, the knower of the eternal Veda.” Essays on the Gita
“The real source of knowledge is the Lord in the heart; ‘I am seated in the heart of every man and from me is knowledge,’ says the Gita; the Scripture is only a verbal form of that inner Veda, of that self-luminous Reality, it is sabdabrahma: the mantra, says the Veda, has risen from the heart, from the secret place where is the seat of the truth, sadanâdrtasya, guhâyâm. That origin is its sanction; but still the infinite Truth is greater than its word. Nor shall you say of any Scripture that it alone is all-sufficient and no other truth can be admitted, as the Vedavadins said of the Veda, nânyadastîtivâdinah. This is a saving and liberating word which must be applied to all the Scriptures of the world. Take all the Scriptures that are or have been, Bible and Koran and the books of the Chinese, Veda and Upanishads and Purana and Tantra and Shastra and the Gita itself and the sayings of thinkers and sages, prophets and Avatars, still you shall not say that there is nothing else or that the truth your intellect cannot find there is not true because you cannot find it there. That is the limited thought of the sectarian or the composite thought of the eclectic religionist, not the untrammelled truth-seeking of the free and illumined mind and God-experienced soul. Heard or unheard before, that always is the truth which is seen by the heartof man in its illumined depths or heard within from the Master of all knowledge, the knower of the eternal Veda.” Essays on the Gita
The seventh is sometimes or by some identified with the brain, but that is an error ::: the brain is only a channel of communi- cation situated between the*lhousand-petalled and the. fore-head centre. .The former is sometimes called the void centre, sunya, either because it is not -in the body, but in the apparent void above or because rising above the head, one enters first into the silence of the, self or spiritual being. ..
::: "The shoreless stream of idea and thought, imagination and experience, name and form, sensation and vibration sweeps onward for ever, without beginning, without end, rising into view, sinking out of sight; through it the one Intelligence with its million self-expressions pours itself abroad, an ocean with innumerable waves. One particular self-expression may disappear into its source and continent, but that does not and cannot abolish the phenomenal universe. The One is for ever, and the Many are for ever because the One is for ever. So long as there is a sea, there will be waves.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“The shoreless stream of idea and thought, imagination and experience, name and form, sensation and vibration sweeps onward for ever, without beginning, without end, rising into view, sinking out of sight; through it the one Intelligence with its million self-expressions pours itself abroad, an ocean with innumerable waves. One particular self-expression may disappear into its source and continent, but that does not and cannot abolish the phenomenal universe. The One is for ever, and the Many are for ever because the One is for ever. So long as there is a sea, there will be waves.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"The spirit is an essential entity or consciousness which does not need to think or perceive either in the mental or the sensory way, because whatever knowledge it has is direct or essential knowledge.” Letters on Yoga
“The spirit is an essential entity or consciousness which does not need to think or perceive either in the mental or the sensory way, because whatever knowledge it has is direct or essential knowledge.” Letters on Yoga
The spiritual man who can guide human life towards its perfection is typified in the ancient Indian idea of the Rishi, one who has lived fully the life of man and found the word of the supra-intellectual, supramental, spiritual truth. He has risen above these lower limitations and can view all things from above, but also he is in sympathy with their effort and can view them from within; he has the complete inner knowledge and the higher surpassing knowledge. Therefore he can guide the world humanly as God guides it divinely, because like the Divine he is in the life of the world and yet above it.” The Human Cycle*
The spiritual man who can guide human life towards its perfection is typified in the ancient Indian idea of the Rishi, one who has lived fully the life of man and found the word of the supra-intellectual, supramental, spiritual truth. He has risen above these lower limitations and can view all things from above, but also he is in sympathy with their effort and can view them from within; he has the complete inner knowledge and the higher surpassing knowledge. Therefore he can guide the world humanly as God guides it divinely, because like the Divine he is in the life of the world and yet above it.” The Human Cycle
The Supermind 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.
"The Supermind 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.” The Supramental Manifestation
“The Supermind 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.” The Supramental Manifestation
"The surface mental individuality is, in consequence, always ego-centric; even its altruism is an enlargement of its ego: the ego is the lynch-pin invented to hold together the motion of our wheel of nature. The necessity of centralisation around the ego continues until there is no longer need of any such device or contrivance because there has emerged the true self, the spiritual being, which is at once wheel and motion and that which holds all together, the centre and the circumference.” *The Life Divine
“The surface mental individuality is, in consequence, always ego-centric; even its altruism is an enlargement of its ego: the ego is the lynch-pin invented to hold together the motion of our wheel of nature. The necessity of centralisation around the ego continues until there is no longer need of any such device or contrivance because there has emerged the true self, the spiritual being, which is at once wheel and motion and that which holds all together, the centre and the circumference.” The Life Divine
The surrender of the vital is always difficult because of the unwillingness of the forces of the universal vital Ignorance.
The Truth-Consciousness whether above or in the universe by which the Divine knows not only hts own essence and being but his manifestation also. The fundamental character is knowledge by identity, by that the Self is known, the Divine Sachchidananda is known, but also the truth of manifestation is known because this too is That, Mind is an Instrument of the Ignorance trying to know •— Supermind is the Knower possessing Knowledge, because one with it and the known, therefore seeing all things in the light of His own Truth, the light of their true self which is He. U is a dynamic and not only a siatic Power, not only a
The usual rule is that one should not speak of one’s experience to others except of course the Guru while the sadhana is going on because it wastes the experience, there is what they call k4aya • of the tapasyS. It is only long past experiences that they speak of and even that not too freely.
The vita! is the being behind the Force of Life ; in its outer form in the ignorance it generates the desire-soul which governs most men and which they mistake often for the soul. The vital as the desire-soul and desire-nature controls the consciousness to a large extent in most men because men are governed by desire.
The vital as the desire-soul and desire-nature controls the consciousness to a large extent in most men, because men are governed by desire.” Letters on Yoga
"The vital is the. . . being behind the Force of Life; in its outer form in the Ignorance it generates the desire-soul which governs most men and which they mistake often for the real soul. ::: The vital as the desire-soul and desire-nature controls the consciousness to a large extent in most men, because men are governed by desire.” Letters on Yoga
The wall is indeed the wall of the ego which is based on the insistent identification of oneself with the outer personality and its movements. It is that identification which is the key-stone of the limitation and bondage from which the outer being su/Tcrs, prevenUng expansion, self-knowledge, spiritual freedom. But still the wall must not be prematurely broken down, because that may lead to a disruption or confusion or invasion of either part by the movements of the two separated worlds before they are ready to harmonise. A certain separation is necessary for some time after one has become aware of these two parts of the being as existing together. The force of the Yoga must be given time to make the necessary adjustments and openings, and to take the being inward and then from this inward poise to work on the outer nature.
"The word ‘physical mind" is rather ambiguous, because it can mean this externalising Mind and the mental in the physical taken together.” Letters on Yoga*
“The word ‘physical mind’ is rather ambiguous, because it can mean this externalising Mind and the mental in the physical taken together.” Letters on Yoga
::: "This conception of the Person and Personality, if accepted, must modify at the same time our current ideas about the immortality of the soul; for, normally, when we insist on the soul"s undying existence, what is meant is the survival after death of a definite unchanging personality which was and will always remain the same throughout eternity. It is the very imperfect superficial I'' of the moment, evidently regarded by Nature as a temporary form and not worth preservation, for which we demand this stupendous right to survival and immortality. But the demand is extravagant and cannot be conceded; theI"" of the moment can only merit survival if it consents to change, to be no longer itself but something else, greater, better, more luminous in knowledge, more moulded in the image of the eternal inner beauty, more and more progressive towards the divinity of the secret Spirit. It is that secret Spirit or divinity of Self in us which is imperishable, because it is unborn and eternal. The psychic entity within, its representative, the spiritual individual in us, is the Person that we are; but the I'' of this moment, theI"" of this life is only a formation, a temporary personality of this inner Person: it is one step of the many steps of our evolutionary change, and it serves its true purpose only when we pass beyond it to a farther step leading nearer to a higher degree of consciousness and being. It is the inner Person that survives death, even as it pre-exists before birth; for this constant survival is a rendering of the eternity of our timeless Spirit into the terms of Time.” The Life Divine
“This conception of the Person and Personality, if accepted, must modify at the same time our current ideas about the immortality of the soul; for, normally, when we insist on the soul’s undying existence, what is meant is the survival after death of a definite unchanging personality which was and will always remain the same throughout eternity. It is the very imperfect superficial I’’ of the moment, evidently regarded by Nature as a temporary form and not worth preservation, for which we demand this stupendous right to survival and immortality. But the demand is extravagant and cannot be conceded; theI’’ of the moment can only merit survival if it consents to change, to be no longer itself but something else, greater, better, more luminous in knowledge, more moulded in the image of the eternal inner beauty, more and more progressive towards the divinity of the secret Spirit. It is that secret Spirit or divinity of Self in us which is imperishable, because it is unborn and eternal. The psychic entity within, its representative, the spiritual individual in us, is the Person that we are; but the I’’ of this moment, theI’’ of this life is only a formation, a temporary personality of this inner Person: it is one step of the many steps of our evolutionary change, and it serves its true purpose only when we pass beyond it to a farther step leading nearer to a higher degree of consciousness and being. It is the inner Person that survives death, even as it pre-exists before birth; for this constant survival is a rendering of the eternity of our timeless Spirit into the terms of Time.” The Life Divine
"This Divine may lead us often through darkness, because the darkness is there in us and around us, but it is to the Light he is leading and not to anything else.” Letters on Yoga*
“This Divine may lead us often through darkness, because the darkness is there in us and around us, but it is to the Light he is leading and not to anything else.” Letters on Yoga
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 per- ception, from intuition to intuition, from illumination to utter end 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 troth and light. As its know- ledge 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
"Thought is not essential to existence nor its cause, but it is an instrument for becoming; I become what I see in myself. All that thought suggests to me, I can do; all that thought reveals in me, I can become. This should be man"s unshakable faith in himself, because God dwells in him.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“Thought is not essential to existence nor its cause, but it is an instrument for becoming; I become what I see in myself. All that thought suggests to me, I can do; all that thought reveals in me, I can become. This should be man’s unshakable faith in himself, because God dwells in him.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Thoughts are not the essence of mind*bcinc, they arc only an activity of mental nature ; if that activity ceases, what appears then as a tbought-fiee existence that manifests in its place is not a blank or void but something ytry real, substantial, con- crete we may say — a mental being that extends itself widely and can be its own field of existence silent or active as well as the Witness Knower,, Master of that field and its action. Some feel it first as a void but that is because their observ-ation is un- trained and insufficient and loss of activity gives them the sense of blank ; an emptiness tKete is, but it is an emptiness of the ordinary activities, not a blank of eiustencc.
tions; but here there comes in the Overmind law of each Force working out its own possibilities. The natural possibilities of a world in which an original Inconscience and a division of consciousness are the main principles, would be the emergence of Forces of Darkness impelled to maintain the Ignorance by which they live, an ignorant struggle to know originative of falsehood and error, an ignorant struggle to live engendering wrong and evil, an egoistic struggle to enjoy, parent of fragmentary joys and pains and sufferings; these are therefore the inevitable first-imprinted characters, though not the sole possibilities of our evolutionary existence. Still, because the Non-Existence is a concealed Existence, the Inconscience a concealed Consciousness, the insensibility a masked and dormant Ananda, these secret realities must emerge; the hidden Overmind and Supermind too must in the end fulfil themselves in this apparently opposite organisation from a dark Infinite. …
to the psychic. The psychic never feels a sadness from disap- pointed desire, because that is not in its nature ; the sorrow it sometimes feels is when it sees the Divine rejected or the mental, vital, physical in man or in nature turning away from the Truth to follow perversion, darkness or ignorance.
"True sincerity consists in following the way because you cannot do otherwise, in consecrating yourself to the divine life because you cannot do otherwise, in endeavouring to transform your being and emerge into the Light because you cannot do otherwise, because it is the very reason for which you live.” *Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
“True sincerity consists in following the way because you cannot do otherwise, in consecrating yourself to the divine life because you cannot do otherwise, in endeavouring to transform your being and emerge into the Light because you cannot do otherwise, because it is the very reason for which you live.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
Truth-Consciousness which is the integral consciousness of the spiritual being. Mind cannot be our fast conscious expression because mind is fundamentally an isaoionce seeking for know- ledge ; it is only the Supramental Truth-Consciousness that can bring us the true and whole Self-Knowledge and world-know- ledge ; it is through that only that we can get to our true being and fulfilment of our spiritual evolution. '
turbid ::: 1. Not clear or transparent because of stirred-up sediment or the like; clouded; opaque; obscured. 2. In a state of turmoil; muddled. Also fig.
unconsciousness ::: “What we call unconsciousness is simply other-consciousness; it is the going in of this surface wave of our mental awareness of outer objects into our subliminal self-awareness and into our awareness too of other planes of existence. We are really no more unconscious when we are asleep or stunned or drugged or ``dead’’ or in any other state, than when we are plunged in inner thought oblivious of our physical selves and our surroundings. For anyone who has advanced even a little way in Yoga, this is a most elementary proposition and one which offers no difficulty whatever to the thought because it is proved at every point by experience.” The Synthesis of Yoga
unreadable; not legible; impossible or hard to read or decipher because of poor handwriting, faded print, etc.
veldts ::: Jhumur: “Veldts are huge endless grasslands in South Africa, vast empty spaces. Perhaps in the early centuries there was no direction, no path, no clear-cut line…if I follow this path I am going to come out. You get lost. Because destiny is a force that pushes man as long as he doesn’t push destiny. When he becomes supremely conscious he can control his destiny. Otherwise he is at the mercy of all these forces and it is this that creates the whole chain of causality.”
Vital insincerity ::: The thing which enjoys the suffering and wants it is part of the human vital — it is these things that \se describe as the insincerity and pcrs'crsc nrist of the vital, it cries out against sorrow and trouble and accuses the Dirine and life and everybody else of torturing it, but for the most pan the sorrow and the trouble come and remain because the perverse something in the vital wants them ! That element in the vital has lo be got rid of altogether.
Vital love ::: It is the ordinary nature of vital love not to last or, if it tries to last, not to satisfy, because it is a passion which Nature has thrown in order to serve a temporary purpose ; it Is good enough therefore for a icmporary purpose and its normal tendency is to wane when It has sufficiently served
waxing moon ::: the moon at any time after new moon and before full moon, so called because its illuminated area is increasing.
"We know the Divine and become the Divine, because we are That already in our secret nature.” The Synthesis of Yoga
“We know the Divine and become the Divine, because we are That already in our secret nature.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"We see that the Absolute, the Self, the Divine, the Spirit, the Being is One; the Transcendental is one, the Cosmic is one: but we see also that beings are many and each has a self, a spirit, a like yet different nature. And since the spirit and essence of things is one, we are obliged to admit that all these many must be that One, and it follows that the One is or has become many; but how can the limited or relative be the Absolute and how can man or beast or bird be the Divine Being? But in erecting this apparent contradiction the mind makes a double error. It is thinking in the terms of the mathematical finite unit which is sole in limitation, the one which is less than two and can become two only by division and fragmentation or by addition and multiplication; but this is an infinite Oneness, it is the essential and infinite Oneness which can contain the hundred and the thousand and the million and billion and trillion. Whatever astronomic or more than astronomic figures you heap and multiply, they cannot overpass or exceed that Oneness; for, in the language of the Upanishad, it moves not, yet is always far in front when you would pursue and seize it. It can be said of it that it would not be the infinite Oneness if it were not capable of an infinite multiplicity; but that does not mean that the One is plural or can be limited or described as the sum of the Many: on the contrary, it can be the infinite Many because it exceeds all limitation or description by multiplicity and exceeds at the same time all limitation by finite conceptual oneness.” The Life Divine
“We see that the Absolute, the Self, the Divine, the Spirit, the Being is One; the Transcendental is one, the Cosmic is one: but we see also that beings are many and each has a self, a spirit, a like yet different nature. And since the spirit and essence of things is one, we are obliged to admit that all these many must be that One, and it follows that the One is or has become many; but how can the limited or relative be the Absolute and how can man or beast or bird be the Divine Being? But in erecting this apparent contradiction the mind makes a double error. It is thinking in the terms of the mathematical finite unit which is sole in limitation, the one which is less than two and can become two only by division and fragmentation or by addition and multiplication; but this is an infinite Oneness, it is the essential and infinite Oneness which can contain the hundred and the thousand and the million and billion and trillion. Whatever astronomic or more than astronomic figures you heap and multiply, they cannot overpass or exceed that Oneness; for, in the language of the Upanishad, it moves not, yet is always far in front when you would pursue and seize it. It can be said of it that it would not be the infinite Oneness if it were not capable of an infinite multiplicity; but that does not mean that the One is plural or can be limited or described as the sum of the Many: on the contrary, it can be the infinite Many because it exceeds all limitation or description by multiplicity and exceeds at the same time all limitation by finite conceptual oneness.” The Life Divine
"We speak of the evolution of Life in Matter, the evolution of Mind in Matter; but evolution is a word which merely states the phenomenon without explaining it. For there seems to be no reason why Life should evolve out of material elements or Mind out of living form, unless we accept the Vedantic solution that Life is already involved in Matter and Mind in Life because in essence Matter is a form of veiled Life, Life a form of veiled Consciousness.” The Life Divine
“We speak of the evolution of Life in Matter, the evolution of Mind in Matter; but evolution is a word which merely states the phenomenon without explaining it. For there seems to be no reason why Life should evolve out of material elements or Mind out of living form, unless we accept the Vedantic solution that Life is already involved in Matter and Mind in Life because in essence Matter is a form of veiled Life, Life a form of veiled Consciousness.” The Life Divine
will, free ::: Sri Aurobindo: Our notion of free will is apt to be tainted with the excessive individualism of the human ego and to assume the figure of an independent will acting on its own isolated account, in a complete liberty without any determination other than its own choice and single unrelated movement. This idea ignores the fact that our natural being is a part of cosmic Nature and our spiritual being exists only by the supreme Transcendence. Our total being can rise out of subjection to fact of present Nature only by an identification with a greater Truth and a greater Nature. The will of the individual, even when completely free, could not act in an isolated independence, because the individual being and nature are included in the universal Being and Nature and dependent on the all-overruling Transcendence. There could indeed be in the ascent a dual line. On one line the being could feel and behave as an independent self-existence uniting itself with its own impersonal Reality; it could, so self-conceived, act with a great force, but either this action would be still within an enlarged frame of its past and present self-formation of power of Nature or else it would be the cosmic or supreme Force that acted in it and there would be no personal initiation of action, no sense therefore of individual free will but only of an impersonal cosmic or supreme Will or Energy at its work. On the other line the being would feel itself a spiritual instrument and so act as a power of the Supreme Being, limited in its workings only by the potencies of the Supernature, which are without bounds or any restriction except its own Truth and self-law, and by the Will in her. But in either case there would be, as the condition of a freedom from the control of a mechanical action of Nature-forces, a submission to a greater conscious Power or an acquiescent unity of the individual being with its intention and movement in his own and in the world"s existence.” *The Life Divine
will, self ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Self-will in thought and action has, we have already seen, to be quite renounced if we would be perfect in the way of divine works; it has equally to be renounced if we are to be perfect in divine knowledge. This self-will means an egoism in the mind which attaches itself to its preferences, its habits, its past or present formations of thought and view and will because it regards them as itself or its own, weaves around them the delicate threads of I-ness'' andmy-ness"" and lives in them like a spider in its web. It hates to be disturbed, as a spider hates attack on its web, and feels foreign and unhappy if transplanted to fresh view-points and formations as a spider feels foreign in another web than its own. This attachment must be entirely excised from the mind.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
wisecraft ::: Jhumur: “– Instead of saying witchcraft he says wisecraft. It is an interesting thing because witch, the word comes from ‘wit’ and that I think originally is the same root as wisdom. It has associations of evil and so here he uses the idea of magic but it is something that is magic beyond our comprehension which it is why it is some kind of wisecraft. It is wisdom beyond our understanding which is what we call ‘magic’.”
without hope because there seems to be no possibility of comfort or success.
world-knowledge ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The integral Knowledge is something that is already there in the integral Reality: it is not a new or still non-existent thing that has to be created, acquired, learned, invented or built up by the mind; it must rather be discovered or uncovered, it is a Truth that is self-revealed to a spiritual endeavour: for it is there veiled in our deeper and greater self; it is the very stuff of our own spiritual consciousness, and it is by awaking to it even in our surface self that we have to possess it. There is an integral self-knowledge that we have to recover and, because the world-self also is our self, an integral world-knowledge. A knowledge that can be learned or constructed by the mind exists and has its value, but that is not what is meant when we speak of the Knowledge and the Ignorance.” *The Life Divine
Yoga has always its difficulties, whatever yoga it be. More- over, it acts in a different way on different seekers. Some have to overcome the difficulties of their nature first before they get any experiences to speak of, others get a splendid beginning and all the difficulties afterwards, others go on for a long time having alternate risings to the top of the wave and then a descent into the gulfs and so on till the difficulty is worked out, others have a smooth path which does not mean that they have no diffi- culties — they have plenty, but they do not care a straw for them, because they feel that the Divine will help them to the goal or that he is with them even when they do not feel him
You have only to remain quiet and firm in your following of the path and your will to go to the end. If you do that circum- stances will in the end be obliged to shape themselves to your will, because it will be the Dirine Will in you.
zero ::: Madhav: “Before existence, non-existence; before being, non-being. Before this manifestation of names and forms came to be, it was all a state of indefiniteness, a featureless Blank, as it were. There was simply the Unmanifest; it was an infinite Zero. But this was not an empty zero. It was contentful, holding in itself potentialities without end, immeasurable. And it was because this Nothing contained all in seed in its bosom that things could at all manifest from it.
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132 Sri Aurobindo
102 The Mother
47 Saint Thomas Aquinas
16 Sri Ramana Maharshi
14 Sri Ramakrishna
11 Ken Wilber
11 Saint Augustine of Hippo
9 Jordan Peterson
8 Tolstoi
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7 Friedrich Nietzsche
6 Jalaluddin Rumi
6 Carl Jung
6 Alfred Korzybski
6 Aleister Crowley
5 Thomas A Kempis
5 Robert Adams
5 Chamtrul Rinpoche
5 Alan Watts
5 Swami Vivekananda
4 Rabindranath Tagore
4 Pablo Neruda
4 Lewis Carroll
4 Joseph Campbell
4 C S Lewis
4 Bertrand Russell
3 Thich Nhat Hanh
3 The Mother
3 Swami Akhandananda
3 Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina
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3 Robert Anton Wilson
3 Mark Twain
3 Leo Tolstoy
3 George Carlin
3 Bill Hicks
3 Athanasius
3 Ibn Arabi
3 Dogen Zenji
2 Yamamoto Tsunetomo
2 Tolstoy
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2 Sri Aurobindo
2 Soren Kierkegaard
2 Shunryu Suzuki
2 Satprem
2 Samael Aun Weor
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2 Saint Hildegard of Bingen
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2 Rene Guenon
2 R Buckminster Fuller
2 Ramesh Balsekar
2 Ralph Waldo Emerson
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2 Peter J Carroll
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1 the last color to stand out was yellow because it is the most vivid of colors. That's why you have the Yellow Cab Company in the United States. At first they thought of making the cars scarlet. Then somebody found out that at night or when there was a fog that yellow stood out in a more vivid way than scarlet. So you have yellow cabs because anybody can pick them out. Now when I began to lose my eyesight
1 Tertullian
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1 SWAMI RAMA
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1 Revelation 21:22
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1 Quodvultdeus
1 Prayer of St. Alphonsus Liguori
1 Pope St. Leo the Great
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1 Pope Leo the Great
1 Pope Francis
1 Pema Chodron
1 Paramahansa Yogananda
1 Owen Barfield 'The Harp & the Camera'
1 Our Lady to Teresa Musco
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1 OReilly Linux System Programming
1 One stanza of love poem
1 once we come up with a solution
1 not because of exploratory or romantic zeal
1 Nirodbaran
1 Nietzsche
1 Niels Bohr
1 Nico Lang
1 Niccolo Machiavelli
1 Neil Gaiman
1 Narada Sutra
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1 Mr. Wednesday in American Gods by Neil Gaiman
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1 Maya Angelou
1 Maximus the Confessor
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1 Marshall McLuhan
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1 Margaret Atwood
1 Marcus Aurelius
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1 Manly P. Hall (The Soul Image as the Immortal Friend March 24
1 Manly P Hall (Resurrection 1964
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1 Malcolm X
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1 Leo the Great
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1 John III. 13
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1 John 20:27-29
1 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1 Jodi Picoult
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1 Jean-Paul Sartre
1 James V. Schall
1 James S A Corey
1 James Lecesne
1 James Clerk Maxwell
1 James Allison
1 it is not as though I had invented it with my mind
1 Immanuel Kant
1 Imam Abu Hanifa
1 Iggy Pop
1 id. 58. 60
1 id. 25. 26
1 https://wiki.auroville.org.in/wiki/Nirodbaran
1 Howard Gardner
1 Holy Saturday: An Ancient Homily
1 Henry Rollins
1 Henri de Lubac
1 he is the great danger
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1 Haemin Sunim
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1 Gregory Nazianzen
1 Goldie Hawn
1 GK Chesterton
1 Giordano Bruno
1 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
1 George MacDonald
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1 Gary Gygax
1 Gabriel García Marquez
1 Franz Kafka
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1 Ezekiel XVIII 27. 28
1 Evagrius Ponticus
1 Eugene Paul Wigner
1 Essential Integral
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1 Dante Alighieri
1 Daniel 12:9-10
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1 But because the inheritance which He promises us is such as many may possess
1 Buddhist Scripture
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1 Bill Purkey
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1 because you have to
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1 awful beyond all
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1 Arthur Schopenhauer
1 Arthur Koestler
1 Apple Inc.
1 A N Wilson
1 Antonio Porchia
1 Anthony de Mello
1 Anon.
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1 Anandamayi Ma
1 al Habib Ali Al Jifri
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1 Plato
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1 2 Timothy 3
1 1Pt 4:13-14).
NEW FULL DB (2.4M)
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4 Voltaire
1:We are, because God is. ~ Emanuel Swedenborg, #KEYS
2:Because we say one thing and do another. ~ 2nd century sermon, #KEYS
3:Music can change the world because it can change people." ~ Bono, #KEYS
4:Because you are alive, everything is possible." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #KEYS
5:Great mystics think alike, because they are of one mind." ~ Anon., #KEYS
6:into its arms because your belief undoes your disbelief. ~ Anne Sexton, #KEYS
7:A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. ~ Oscar Wilde, #KEYS
8:Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh,#KEYS
9:Only a few arrive at nothing, because the way is long. ~ Antonio Porchia, #KEYS
10:Some people read only because they are too lazy to think. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
11:Everything is a grace because everything is God's gift. ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #KEYS
12:I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then. ~ Lewis Carroll, #KEYS
13:It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey.
~ Soren Kierkegaard, [T5],#KEYS
14:All, everything that I understand, I only understand because I love.
~ Leo Tolstoy,#KEYS
15:Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun." ~ Alan Watts, #KEYS
16:When I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew. ~ William Shakespeare, #KEYS
17:Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.
~ Alan Watts,#KEYS
18:People with goals succeed, because they know where they are going.
~ Earl Nightingale,#KEYS
19:I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't, I would die. ~ Isaac Asimov, #KEYS
20:So, I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you. ~ Paulo Coelho, #KEYS
21:I'm afraid I can't explain myself, sir. Because I am not myself, you see? ~ Lewis Carroll, #KEYS
22:Because he is content with himself he doesn't need other's approval. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.30, #KEYS
23:This is what is hardest: to close the open hand because one loves.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
24:A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song. ~ Maya Angelou, #KEYS
25:Why read? Because we are given more than we are. ~ James V. Schall, Another Sort of Learning, #KEYS
26:Love moves without an agenda. It just moves because that is its nature - to move. ~ Adyashanti, #KEYS
27:Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it. ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
28:If someone looks perfect, then that is because you don't know the person very well. ~ Haemin Sunim, #KEYS
29:Until you are happy with who you are, you will never be happy because of what you have." ~ Zig Ziglar, #KEYS
30:We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." ~ George Bernard Shaw, #KEYS
31:I'm not ashamed to dress 'like a woman' because I don't think it's shameful to be a woman.
~ Iggy Pop,#KEYS
32:There is a gentle thought that often springs to life in me, because it speaks of you. ~ Dante Alighieri, #KEYS
33:We use Jesus and not people, because only he will never be without us." ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
34:It's wonderful to know you're aging, because that means you're still on the planet, right?" ~ Goldie Hawn, #KEYS
35:You feel depressed because your faith is lukewarm. You must cultivate self-confidence. ~ Swami Saradananda, #KEYS
36:Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
~ Thomas A Edison,#KEYS
37:The branch might seem like the fruit's origin: In fact, the branch exists because of the fruit. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
38:Because he who obtained knowledge has not returned. ~ Saadi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
39:because I am constantly talking with you. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
40:The sage does not 'know' the Self, because he is the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
41:You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. ~ Dr. Seuss, #KEYS
42:But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, John, 11:10, #KEYS
43:Nothing can set you free, because you are free.
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj,#KEYS
44:If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #KEYS
45:To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson,#KEYS
46:A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something." ~ Plato, #KEYS
47:I had no ambition to be a writer because the books I read were too good, my standards were too high.
~ Haruki Murakami,#KEYS
48:Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
49:Preserve the warmth of the family, because the warmth of the whole world cannot make up for it." ~ Saint Charbel Makhlouf, #KEYS
50:Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
51:Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; truth isn't. ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
52:All divinely inspired Scripture was written because of the Virgin who brought forth God incarnate. ~ Saint Gregory Palamas, #KEYS
53:Do not doubt that mountains walk simply because they may not appear to walk like humans. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
54:Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed." ~ John 20:27-29, #KEYS
55:Love is greater than knowledge...because it is its own end. ~ id. 25. 26, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
56:Truth must be repeated again and again, because error is constantly being preached round about. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
57:Men perish because they cannot join the beginning and the end. ~ Alcineon, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
58:If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are. ~ Saint Teresa of Kolkata, #KEYS
59:If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars." ~ Rabindranath Tagore, #KEYS
60:You can recognize a small truth because its opposite is a falsehood. The opposite of a great truth is another truth. ~ Niels Bohr, #KEYS
61:God is because you are, you are because God is. The two are one. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
62:He kept moving forward, because the Lord was waiting. He kept going, because his brothers and sisters were waiting. ~ Pope Francis, #KEYS
63:Nobody can say, 'there is no hope for me.' because the Divine Grace is there.
~ The Mother, White Roses,#KEYS
64:A man is great not because he hasn't failed; a man is great because failure hasn't stopped him." ~ Confucius, #KEYS
65:... because democracy basically means government by the people, of the people, for the people... but the people are retarded. ~ Osho, #KEYS
66:God didn't add another day to your life because you needed it. He added it because someone out there needs you." ~ Kelly's Treehouse, #KEYS
67:Nothing is lost in the world because the world is enveloped in eternity. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
68:Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.
~ Franz Kafka,#KEYS
69:Divine desperateness is the beginning of spiritual awakening because it gives rise to the aspiration for God-realisation. ~ Meher Baba, #KEYS
70:Mary was the most perfect among the saints only because she was always perfectly united to the will of God." ~ Saint Alphonsus Liguori, #KEYS
71:The new man, reborn and restored to his God by grace, says first of all, Father! because he has now begun to be a son. ~ Saint Cyprian, #KEYS
72:Avoid slander because it is difficult to retract. Avoid offending anyone for to ask forgiveness is not delightful. ~ Saint John Cantius, #KEYS
73:They deem me mad because I will not sell my days for gold; and I deem them mad because they think my days have a price. ~ Khalil Gibran, #KEYS
74:If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are." ~ Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta, #KEYS
75:Since He appears because of Her,
And She exists because of Her Lord,
The two cannot be distinguished at all. ~ Jnaneshwar, Hinduism,#KEYS
76:Heart" is merely another name for the Supreme Spirit, because He is in all hearts. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
77:What do people mean when they say, 'I am not afraid of God because I know He is good'? Have they never even been to a dentist? ~ C S Lewis, #KEYS
78:Don't abandon your friends just because they make mistakes." ~ al Habib Ali Al Jifri, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
79:So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Revelation, 3:16, [NIV], #KEYS
80:You are afraid of surrender because you don't want to lose control. But you never had control; all you had was anxiety. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, #KEYS
81:The discoveries of yesterday are the truisms of tomorrow, because we can add to our knowledge but cannot subtract from it. ~ Arthur Koestler, #KEYS
82:I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. ~ C S Lewis, #KEYS
83:Because others are mean is no reason to be mean yourself. 24 April 1933 ~ The Mother, Some Answers From The Mother, 29, #KEYS
84:Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. ~ Neil Gaiman, #KEYS
85:Many often err and accomplish little or nothing because they try to become learned rather than to live well. ~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, [T5], #KEYS
86:We are to love God for Himself, because of a twofold reason; nothing is more reasonable, nothing more profitable." ~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, #KEYS
87:You don't love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear. ~ Oscar Wilde, #KEYS
88:Heart" is merely another name for the Supreme Spirit, because He [She] is in all hearts. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
89:I love your feet
only because they walked
upon the earth and upon
the wind and upon the waters,
until they found me." ~ Pablo Neruda,#KEYS
90:I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires. ~ Susan B Anthony, #KEYS
91:We know that we have passed from death into life because we love our brothers. ~ John III. 13, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
92:you have come; you must keep on trying to obtain immortality because here as a visitor only you have come." ~ Maghribi, (1350-1407) dervish poet., #KEYS
93:Symbols are powerful because they are the visible signs of invisible realities." ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
94:Daughter, offer everything you have to offer to the Priests, because ... they no longer understand the will of God ..." ~ Our Lady to Teresa Musco , #KEYS
95:If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem.
~ Jiddu Krishnamurti,#KEYS
96:There are people less qualified than you, doing the things that you want to do, simply because they decided to believe in themselves." ~ Bill Purkey, #KEYS
97:It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.
~ Gabriel García Marquez,#KEYS
98:No Law is absolute, because only the infinite is absolute. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Sevenfold Chord of Being, #KEYS
99:People get addicted to feeling offended all the time because it gives them a high; being self-righteous and morally superior feels good. ~ Mark Manson #KEYS
100:A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #KEYS
101:And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its lamp.…" ~ Revelation 21:22, #KEYS
102:The one who reckons himself one with everyone, because he seems to see himself unceasingly in each one, is a monk. ~ Evagrius Ponticus, On Prayer §125, #KEYS
103:Today I escaped from anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions--not outside.
~ Marcus Aurelius, Book 9 Verse 13,#KEYS
104:And all grows beautiful because Thou art. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, The Divine Hearing, #KEYS
105:A writer, or any artist, can't expect to be embraced by the people [but] you just keep doing your work ~ because you have to, because it's your calling., #KEYS
106:No academic ever expects to be taken seriously by more than three other people, because really, we write for three people in our field. ~ Howard Gardner, #KEYS
107:Having realized the Self, nothing remains to be known because it is perfect Bliss, it is the All. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
108:But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. ~ William Butler Yeats,#KEYS
109:Having realized the Self, nothing remains to be known, because it is perfect Bliss, it is the All. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
110:Humility is necessary for the person praying, because he recognizes his neediness ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.83.15)., #KEYS
111:If you are looking for the way by which you should go, take Christ, because he himself is the way. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
112:A witch ought never be frightened in the darkest forest, because she should be sure that the most terrifying thing in the forest was her.
~ Terry Pratchett,#KEYS
113:Because monks come from the midst of purity, they consider as good and pure what does not arouse desire among other people. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
114:Errors are permitted to the mind because they open doors upon truth. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Origin of the Ignorance, #KEYS
115:Choose Love...
Because of the beloved
my heart is happy,
my soul illuminated. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path#KEYS
116:God has mercy because of what is from Him, whereas He punishes because of what is from us ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (DV 28.3)., #KEYS
117:Pray, pray much and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to Hell because they have no one to pray and make sacrifices for them!" ~ Our Lady of Fatima, #KEYS
118:Blessed is the man who knows his own weakness, because this knowledge becomes to him the foundation, root, and beginning of all Goodness. ~ Saint Isaac of Syria, #KEYS
119:INDIA MUST BE REBORN, BECAUSE HER REBIRTH IS DEMANDED BY THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram - I, Bhawani Mandir, #KEYS
120:Whenever you are in awe of an enlightened being, remember to be in awe of your own potential too. Because ultimately there is no difference. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche, #KEYS
121:Commercial enterprises are forbidden to clerics because they unsettle the mind too much ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.40.2)., #KEYS
122:In the dangers of the sea, she comforted the very sailors, assuring them of a safe arrival, because she had been so assured by You in a vision. ~ Saint Augustine, #KEYS
123:Screenplay is the toughest form of writing for me, because you need to be in present tense. You need to be describing things as they occur. ~ Guillermo del Torro, #KEYS
124:The mind is a bundle of thoughts. The thoughts arise because there is the thinker. The thinker is the ego. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
125:If the Angel deigns to come, it will be because you have convinced her, not by your tears, but by your humble resolve to be always beginning: to be a beginner. ~ ?, #KEYS
126:Pain affects us more intensely because it is abnormal to our being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Delight of Existence, The Problem, #KEYS
127:The sins that we do against men come because each one does not respect the Divine Spirit in his like. ~ Tolstoy, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
128:God does not know of Himself what He is because He is not a 'what' [Deus itaque nescit se quid est quia non est quid]. ~ John Scotus Eriugena, Periphyseon II (589b), #KEYS
129:Through their own pride and curiosity, and because I am against them, such men often fall into great emptations and sins. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
130:The absence of intentions, (because there is no one to have them), is true understanding. When no individual exists, what remains is enlightenment. ~ Ramesh Balsekar, #KEYS
131:Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.
~ Homer, The Illiad,#KEYS
132:A lie is sinful not only because it injures one's neighbor, but also because of its deviance ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST. 2-2.110.3)., #KEYS
133:One should rely on love only, because it alone is the base of all strength and all regeneration ~ Antoine the Healer, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
134:Because of that all this exists, but that does not exist because of all this. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Cosmic Consciousness, #KEYS
135:Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because dawn has come." ~ Rabindranath Tagore, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
136:Only a rational creature has the capacity for God because only it can know and love Him explicitly ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (DV 22.2ad5), #KEYS
137:Pollution is nothing but resources we're not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value. ~ R Buckminster Fuller, I Seem To Be A Verb, #KEYS
138:The syllable gu means darkness, the syllable ru, he who dispels them, Because of the power to dispel darkness, the guru is thus named. ~ Advayataraka Upanishad, Verse 16, #KEYS
139:Because a discipline is obtained through doctrine, you must first acquire doctrine ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on Philippians 4)., #KEYS
140:One must bear with everything, because everything is determined by actions (Karmas). Again, our present actions can counteract the effect of past actions. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
141:We are often unable to tell people what they need to know, because they want to know something else, and would therefore only misunderstand what we said. ~ George MacDonald, #KEYS
142:What does stillness mean? It means 'Destroy yourself'; because every name and form is the cause of trouble. 'I-I' is the Self. 'I am this' is the ego. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
143:Faith is more noble than science on the part of the object because its object is the First Truth ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.67.3ad1)., #KEYS
144:I am timeless being. I am free of desire or fear, because I do not remember the past or imagine the future. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
145:Because of his infinite goodness, it is more proper to God to show mercy and to spare than to punish ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.21.2)., #KEYS
146:Because of the Word dwelling in that body, it would remain incorruptible, and all would be freed for ever from corruption by the grace of the resurrection. ~ Saint Athanasius, #KEYS
147:I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride; so I love you because I know no other way. ~ Pablo Neruda, #KEYS
148:A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.
~ Bertrand Russell,#KEYS
149:Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Romans, 10:9, #KEYS
150:Have great confidence in God's goodness and mercy, and He will never abandon you; but don't neglect to embrace His holy cross because of this. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
151:Mother, why do I lose things so often?
Because you do not keep things sufficiently in your consciousness.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
152:The act of being is the most real of things with respect to real effectuation, because what is other than it becomes effectively real through it. ~ Mulla Sadra, Divine Witness, #KEYS
153:For a Jnani, in the world there is fear, because living in the midst of sense-attraction there is fear, though it may be slight. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
154:There are two reasons why one may question something: Some question because of disbelief, as did Zechariah ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Lk 1:18)., #KEYS
155:Adwaita is true, because the Many are only manifestations of the One. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Stress of the Hidden Spirit, #KEYS
156:I love the great scorners because they are the great worshippers, arrows shot by desire towards that other shore. ~ Nietzsche, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
157:You make yourself strong because it's expected of you. You become confident because someone beside you is unsure. You turn into the person others need you to be." ~ Jodi Picoult, #KEYS
158:The European talks of progress because by the aid of a few scientific discoveries, he has established a society which has mistaken comfort for civilization.
~ Benjamin Disraeli,#KEYS
159:Men shed rivers of tears for family, love and riches, but who sheds even a drop because he is not fortunate enough to see the Lord? ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
160:The angel is free because of his knowledge, the beast because of his ignorance. Between the two remains the son of man to struggle. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
161:Why does the devotee take such delight in addressing the Deity as mother? Because the child is free with its mother -- the dearest. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
162:Beloved, believe not every spirit-because many false prophets are gone out into the world. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, 1 John, IV. 1, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
163:The innocent man grieves only for the penalty, yet this pain is more intensified because of his innocence ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.46.6ad5)., #KEYS
164:Cast off hypocrisy. It is because of this that you do not progress. If your devotion is genuine, there is no reason why you should not progress and realize God. ~ Swami Adbhutananda, #KEYS
165:There are only three words which prick me to the core: Guru, Karta (doer of action), and Baba (father), because God is the only Guru. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
166:I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Psalms, 116:1-2, NIV, #KEYS
167:The end is the cause of causes, because it is the cause of the causality in all causes ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (On the Principles of Nature, c. 3)., #KEYS
168:A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #KEYS
169:... Because of this, errors are being spread about in it, and these are often being taught, spread and accepted midst general apathy and indifference." ~ Our Lady to Fr. Stefano Gobbi, #KEYS
170:He is the king of Nature because he alone in the world knows himself...His substance is that of God Himself. ~ The Rose of Bakamate, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
171:An evil prelate should not be honored because of who he is, but because of the one whose position he holds ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Quodlibet 8.4.2)., #KEYS
172:Each form is there because it is an expression of some power of That which inhabits it. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Integral Knowledge, #KEYS
173:The devote Ramprasad called this world a structure of dreams; yet because he loved for the Lord, he was loyal to both God and the world. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
174:We know some things about God through faith which, because of their sublimity, demonstrative reason cannot attain ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ScG 3.40)., #KEYS
175:Everybody acts out a myth, but very few people know what their myth is. And you should know what your myth is because it might be a tragedy and maybe you dont want it to be. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
176:No one can make excuses, because anyone can love God; and he does not ask the soul for more than to love him, because he loves the soul, and it is his love." ~ Blessed Angela of Foligno, #KEYS
177:Conscience is called the law of our understanding because it is a judgment of reason derived from the natural law ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (DV 17.1ad1)., #KEYS
178:We call Gabriel an Archangel, because he announced the Incarnation of the Word to the Virgin, for the belief of all ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ScG 3.80)., #KEYS
179:You can't learn to write in college. It's a very bad place for writers because the teachers always think they know more than you do - and they don't. They have prejudices. ~ Ray Bradbury, #KEYS
180:Absolute completeness is not feasible in the finite because it is alien to the self-conception of the finite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Maya, #KEYS
181:But He is not supremely lovable TO US in this way, because of our appetite's inclination towards visible goods ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.24.2ad2)., #KEYS
182:If the mind is not under control, it is no use living in a cave because the same mind will bring all disturbances there. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. I. 440), #KEYS
183:The new law requires you to keep perpetual sabbath, and you, because you are idle for one day, suppose you are pious, not discerning why this has been commanded you. ~ Saint Justin Martyr, #KEYS
184:Be not taken in the snares of the Prince of death, let him not cast thee to the ground because thou hast been heedless. ~ Buddhist Texts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
185:Our attention must be fixed on the earth because our work is here. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Mother with Letters on The Mother, Some Occult and Spiritual Experiences, #KEYS
186:Do not consider it proof just because it is written in books, for a liar who will deceive with his tongue will not hesitate to do the same with his pen. ~ Maimonides, #KEYS
187:God is in all things through His own essence because His substance is present to all things as the cause of their being ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.8.3)., #KEYS
188:Physics is mathematical not because we know so much about the physical world, but because we know so little; it is only its mathematical properties that we can discover. ~ Bertrand Russell, #KEYS
189:To any artist, worthy of the name, all in nature is beautiful, because his eyes, fearlessly accepting all exterior truth, read there, as in an open book, all the inner truth. ~ Auguste Rodin, #KEYS
190:Behind all eyes I meet Thy secret gaze
And in each voice I hear Thy magic tune: ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Because Thou Art,#KEYS
191:Ministers, doctors and spiritual teachers - if these three speak pleasantly because of fear or desire for profit then the state, body and religion - these three are soon destroyed. ~ Tusidas, #KEYS
192:Never ignore a person who loves you, cares for you, and misses you. Because one day, you might wake up from your sleep and realize that you lost the moon while counting the stars. ~ Nico Lang, #KEYS
193:You should seek the source and merge in it. Because you imagine yourself to be out of it, you raise the question "Where is the source?" ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
194:Games give you a chance to excel, and if you're playing in good company you don't even mind if you lose because you had the enjoyment of the company during the course of the game. ~ Gary Gygax, #KEYS
195:When the sun of the gnosis has risen, doubt itself will pass away because its cause and utility have ended. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Faith and Shakti, #KEYS
196:Bad critics judge a work of art by comparing it to pre-existing theories. They always go wrong when confronted with a masterpiece because masterpieces make their own rules. ~ Robert Anton Wilson, #KEYS
197:Those who have only an unformed faith do not believe in his name because they do not work unto salvation ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on Jn 1, lect. 6)., #KEYS
198:He [the child] does not despise real woods because he has read of enchanted woods: the reading makes all real woods a little enchanted. ~ C S Lewis, "On Three Ways of Writing for Children" (1952), #KEYS
199:Nature creates perfectly because she creates directly out of life and is not intellectually self-conscious. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Form and the Spirit, #KEYS
200:This is good because it bans something I disagree with ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (it would be bad if it was something I agreed with) twitter.com/disclosetv/sta…, #KEYS
201:A lover must embrace willingly all that is difficult and bitter for the sake of the Beloved, and he should not turn away from Him because of adversities. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
202:If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
~ Henry David Thoreau,#KEYS
203:Word-Armor
Forward steps are made by giving up old armor because words are built into you - in the soft typewriter of the womb you do not realize the word-armor you carry. ~ William S Burroughs,#KEYS
204:God cannot make the number four greater than it is, because if it were greater it would no longer be four, but another number ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.25.6)., #KEYS
205:God is a great & cruel Torturer because He loves. You do not understand this, because you have not seen & played with Krishna.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays Divine And Human,#KEYS
206:The reason you want to be better is the reason why you aren't, shall I put it like that? We aren't better because we want to be. Because the road to hell is paved with good intentions. ~ Alan Watts, #KEYS
207:We need more understanding of human nature, because the only danger that exists is man himself ~ he is the great danger, and we are pitifully unaware of it. We know nothing of man ~ far too little., #KEYS
208:Souls that do not aspire are God's failures; but Nature is pleased and loves to multiply them because they assure her of stability and prolong her empire. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #KEYS
209:Spirit is a final evolutionary emergence because it is the original involutionary element and factor. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
210:There is nothing holier in the world than to keep good company, because the good impressions will then tend to come to the surface. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. I. 220), #KEYS
211:Time voyages with Thee upon its prow,—
And all the future's passionate hope is Thou. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Because Thou Art,#KEYS
212:We who are weak and poor ought not to despair because we are fervent at times and at other times cold, for the spirit comes and goes according to His will. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
213:Because you are with other thoughts, you call the continuity of a single thought meditation or dhyana. If that dhyana becomes effortless it will be found to be your real nature. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
214:Our warfare does not make the living dead, but rather makes the dead to live, because it is conducted in the spirit of meekness and humility. I persecute by word, not by acts. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
215:Brahman is willing to be called Vishnu, and yet he is not willing, because he is also Brahma and Maheshwara. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Heraclitus - VI, #KEYS
216:All the sacred Scriptures of the world have become corrupted, but the Ineffable or Absolute has never been corrupted, because no one has ever been able to express It in human speech. ~ Sri Ramakrishna?, #KEYS
217:Man, the mental being, has an imperfect life because mind is not the first and highest power of consciousness of the Being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
218:The good acts we do today, our own progress will show to us tomorrow as an evil, because we shall have acquired a greater light. ~ Antoine the Healer, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
219:We cling to things, people, beliefs, and behaviors not because we love them, but because we are terrified of losing them." ~ Gerald G. May, (1940 - 2005) American Psychiatrist and Theologian, Wikipedia., #KEYS
220:Scripture records her giving birth, and says: She wrapped him in swaddling clothes. Her breasts, which fed him, were called blessed. Sacrifice was offered because the child was her firstborn. ~ Athanasius, #KEYS
221:30. If Will stops and cries Why, invoking Because, then Will stops & does nought.
31. If Power asks why, then is Power weakness. ~ Aleister Crowley, The Book of the Law,#KEYS
222:Human affection is obviously unreliable because it is so much bound up with selfishness and desire. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Human Relations and the Spiritual Life, #KEYS
223:The angel is free because of his knowledge, the beast because of his ignorance. Between the two remains the son of man to struggle." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
224:Pain is caused because the physical consciousness in the Ignorance is too limited to bear the touches that come upon it. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Illness and Health, #KEYS
225:The truly religious man is he, who does not commit any sin even when he is alone, and when no man observes him, because he feels, that God sees him even then. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
226:You must have faith and patience. You have persistently up and doing. What will you gain by dejection and moaning just because you cannot achieve anything with a little effort? ~ Manapurush Swami Shivananda, #KEYS
227:God and the angels have a ready free choice of the will, whereas man suffers difficulty in choosing because of uncertainty and hesitation ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (DV 24.3)., #KEYS
228:Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because dawn has come." ~ Rabindranath Tagore, (1861 - 7 1941), a polymath, poet, musician, and artist from the Indian subcontinent, Wikipedia., #KEYS
229:Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return. And we can. Because the cosmos is also within us. We're made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself. ~ Carl Sagan, #KEYS
230:But because my love is as yet weak and my virtue imperfect, I must be strengthened and comforted by You. Visit me often, therefore, and teach me Your holy discipline. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
231:Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because dawn has come." ~ Rabindranath Tagore, (1861 - 7 1941), a polymath, poet, musician, and artist from the Indian subcontinent, Wikipedia.", #KEYS
232:People who have read a good deal rarely make great discoveries. I do not say this in excuse of laziness, but because invention presupposes an extensive independent contemplation of things. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
233:A man is not a master because he despotically subjects being living at his mercy. He can be called a master who has compassion for all that lives. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
234:Let us fasten our eyes on the blood of Christ and let us realize how precious it is to his Father because it was shed for our salvation and it brought the grace of repentance to the whole world. ~ Clement of Rome, #KEYS
235:Science is a bit like the joke about the drunk who is looking under a lamppost for a key that he has lost on the other side of the street, because that's where the light is. It has no other choice. ~ Noam Chomsky, #KEYS
236:Sometimes doing good to others and even doing good to oneself is amazingly destructive because it's full of conceit. How do you know what's good for other people? How do you know what's good for you? ~ Alan Watts, #KEYS
237:There are some so restless that when they are free from labour they labour all the more, because the more leisure they have for thought, the worse interior turmoil they have to bear. ~ Pope St. Gregory the Great , #KEYS
238:The truth is something that burns - it burns off deadwood, and people don't like having their deadwood burnt off often, because they're 95% deadwood. ~ Jordan Peterson, Joe Rogan Experience #KEYS
239:The Victorian Age, for all its humbug, was a period of rapid progress, because men were dominated by hope rather than fear. If we are again to have progress, we must again be dominated by hope. ~ Bertrand Russell, #KEYS
240:If we are treading the path of light, and if by chance, by mistake, by ignorance, or even by bad habit, we commit mistakes, we will return to the path again, because of the guidance from the unknown. ~ Swami Rama, #KEYS
241:He who meditates well attains power to work more efficiently. He is never tired, because his energy is not mis-spent in any way; he is never annoyed nor worried, he is not attached to anything. ~ Swami Akhandananda, #KEYS
242:Indeed, the more spiritual progress a person makes, so much heavier will he frequently find the cross, because as his love increases, the pain of his exile also increases. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
243:I am so angry with myself because I cannot do what I should like to do, and at such a moment one feels as if one were lying bound hand and foot at the bottom of a deep dark well, utterly helpless. ~ Vincent van Gogh, #KEYS
244:Love is an easier method than the others; because it is self-evident and does not depend on other truths and its nature is peace and supreme felicity. ~ id. 58. 60, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
245:Woe to you experts in the law [nomikois], because you have taken away the key to knowledge [gnosis]. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Luke, 11:52, #KEYS
246:The Alphabet of Physics no less than of Metaphysics, of Physiology no less than of Psychology is an Alphabet of Relations, in which N is N only because M is M and 0, 0. ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Collected Letters 688, #KEYS
247:But others question because of a desire to know, as the Blessed Virgin did when she said to the angel: "How shall this be, since I do not know man?" ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Lk 1:34)., #KEYS
248:The One is for ever, and the Many are for ever because the One is for ever. So long as there is a sea, there will be waves. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Three Purushas, #KEYS
249:To love because it is the nature of love to love is undeniably the highest and the most unselfish manifestation of love that may be seen in the world. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. III. 86), #KEYS
250:At times because of one man's evil, ten thousand people suffer. So you kill that one man to let the tens of thousands live. Here, truly, the blade that deals death becomes the sword that saves lives. ~ Yamamoto Tsunetomo, #KEYS
251:Condemned because they are not understood, they are put to death, but raised to life again. They live in poverty, but enrich many; they are totally destitute, but possess an abundance of everything. ~ Letter to Diognetus, #KEYS
252:God and the human are paradigms of each other, and to the degree that God is humanized in a man because of his love for humanity, so does the human deify itself into God, empoweredby love. ~ Maximus, Amb. 10. 1113B11~ 14, #KEYS
253:Man is condemned to be free. Condemned, because he did not create himself, yet, [he] is free; because, once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. ~ Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Humanism, #KEYS
254:No matter what you experience on the path, never give up. Because all of the buddhas became enlightened for you. They know your potential, and they will not stop helping until you are enlightened too. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche, #KEYS
255:Come together frequently to seek what is useful to your souls, because the whole time of your faith will not help you, if you are not made perfect at the last time. In the last days false prophets will multiply, ~ Didache, #KEYS
256:Do not be discouraged, because, if there is a continuous effort to improve in the soul, in the end the Lord rewards it by making it suddenly blossom in all its virtues as in a flower garden. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina #KEYS
257:It is not because of God's insufficiency that He attributes powers of action to created things, but because of His most perfect fullness, which is sufficient for sharing with all beings. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, a. 10 as 16, #KEYS
258:Man is a microcosm, or a little world, because he is an extract from all the stars and planets of the whole firmament, from the earth and the elements; and so he is their quintessence. ~ Paracelsus, #KEYS
259:When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That's the message he is sending. ~ Thích Nhất Hạnh, #KEYS
260:Your heart is a polished mirror. You must wipe it dean of the veil of dust that has gathered upon it, because it is destined to reflect the light of divine secrets. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #KEYS
261:Horoscopes have no importance for those who take up yoga, because the influence that works through yoga is much more powerful than the influence of the stars.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III,#KEYS
262:Faith is necessary throughout and at every step because it is a needed assent of the soul and without this assent there can be no progress. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Faith and Shakti, #KEYS
263:Realistic art does not and cannot give us a scientifically accurate presentation of life, because Art is not and cannot be Science. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, Poetic Vision and the Mantra, #KEYS
264:A certain kind of Nirvana experience is necessary even for this Yoga. That is, the world must become in a way nothing to you because, as it is constituted, it is a work of ignorance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #KEYS
265:Deathlessness is our real nature, and we falsely ascribe it to the body, imagining that it will live forever and losing sight of what is really immortal, simply because we identify ourselves with the body. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
266:Desiring a state of freedom from desire will not set you free. Nothing can set you free, because you are free. See yourself with desireless clarity, that is all. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
267:Forms on earth do not last (they do in other planes) because these forms are too rigid to grow expressing the progress of the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - I, Transformation and the Body, #KEYS
268:Suicide is merely a frenzied revolt against limitation, a revolt not the less significant because it is without knowledge. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Kena and Other Upanishads, The Philosophy of the Upanishads, #KEYS
269:There is a fullness of superabundant grace by which the Blessed Virgin excels all the saints because of the eminence and abundance of her merits ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on John 1)., #KEYS
270:Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
271:For God, it is the most beautiful and best part of his illustriousness and his glory to be able to create, because it is precisely in that way that we know who and what he is. ~ Cyril of Alexandria, Dialogues on the Trinity 538b, #KEYS
272:God and the human are paradigms of each other, and to the degree that God is humanized in a man because of his love for humanity, so does the human deify itself into God, empowered by love. ~ Maximus the Confessor, Amb. 10.1113b, #KEYS
273:The present is always invisible because it's environmental and saturates the whole field of attention so overwhelmingly; thus everyone but the artist, the man of integral awareness, is alive in an earlier day. ~ Marshall McLuhan, #KEYS
274:If the discontented man were plunged into the joys of heaven, disquietude would still gnaw at his heart, because precisely contentment is not within him. ~ Fo-sho-hing-tsan-king, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
275:Reason that scans and breaks, but cannot build
Or builds in vain because she doubts her work. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Journey in Eternal Night and the Voice of the Darkness,#KEYS
276:There is every reason why the standards in our civilization are so low, because we have "poisoned," in a literal sense of the word, our minds with the physico-chemical effects of wrong ideas. ~ Alfred Korzybski, Manhood of Humanity, #KEYS
277:Samādhi is our natural state of clear self-awareness, because it is a state that the mind enters only by the practice of self-attentiveness: that is, by attending only to 'I'. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
278:The soul fills the body and is contained because it is circumscribable. God fills the world but is not enclosed by the world, because being present everywhere He can nowhere be enclosed. ~ Hugh of Saint Victor, De Tribus Diebus 19.9, #KEYS
279:Why are we all joy when we have done a good action ? Because each good action assures us that our true "I" is not limited to our own person, but exists in all that lives. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
280:Our warfare does not make the living dead, but rather makes the dead to live, because it is conducted in the spirit of meekness and humility. I persecute by word, not by acts. I persecute heresy, not heretics. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
281:The birthday of the Lord is the birthday of peace: for thus says the Apostle, "He is our peace, who made both one"; because whether we are Jew or Gentile, "through Him we have access in one Spirit to the Father." ~ Pope Leo the Great, #KEYS
282:Attempts to wake before our time are often punished, especially by those who love us most. Because they, bless them, are asleep…" ~ R.D. Laing, (1927 - 1989), Scottish psychiatrist who wrote extensively on mental illness, Wikipedia., #KEYS
283:Dear friend, your heart is a polished mirror. You must wipe it clean of the veil of dust that has gathered on it, because it is destined to reflect the light of divine secrets. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #KEYS
284:Do not try. Just Be. One man cannot be like another, because all are beautifully different. You can only 'try' to do spontaneously what you deem to be good, using intuition to decide." ~ Sunyata, a Danish mystic. http://bit.ly/2MabD8D, #KEYS
285:If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrariwise, what it is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be it would. You see? ~ Lewis Carroll, #KEYS
286:Praise is the form of prayer which recognizes most immediately that God is God. It lauds God for his own sake and gives him glory, quite beyond what he does, but simply because He Is. ~ Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2639, #KEYS
287:This light which is in you is "little," because even though you recognize the eternity of the Christ, you do not believe in his death and resurrection ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on John 12)., #KEYS
288:In God there can be no selfishness, because the Three Selves of God are three subsistent relations of selflessness, overflowing and superabounding in joy in the perfection of their gift of their one life to one another. ~ Thomas Merton, #KEYS
289:We can take birth-pangs as meaning anxiety felt over them, that they should be born in Christ; or again, that he is suffering because he sees them surrounded by dangers. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
290:All natures, because they exist and therefore have a mode of their own, a form of their own, and a certain peace within themselves, are certainly good. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, City of God xii.5, #KEYS
291:Esoteric more generally means simply a continuing knowledge of reality which is rejected. That it is esoteric not because it cannot be known but because we refuse to recognize it. Therefore it remains a profound secret.
~ Manly P Hall,#KEYS
292:It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people. ~ Giordano Bruno, #KEYS
293:Let us give up all this foolish talk of doing good to the world. It is not waiting for your or my help; yet we must work and constantly do good, because it is a blessings to ourselves. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
294:The worst thing you can do is to put yourself down. That's blasphemy because you're putting God down. Think of yourself as a higher person, love yourself, worship yourself, bow to yourself. You are greater than you think. ~ Robert Adams, #KEYS
295:As the perfect man speaks so he acts; as he acts, so the perfect man speaks. It is because he speaks as he acts and acts as he speaks that he is called the perfect. ~ Buddhist Scripture, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
296:They, above all, are pre-eminently worthy of the name Angel because they first receive the Divine Light, and through them are transmitted to us the revelations which are above us. ~ Dionysius the Areopagite, The Celestial Hierarchies, IV #KEYS
297:First one sees the Self as objects, then one sees the Self as void, then one sees the Self as Self, only in this last there is no seeing because seeing is being. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Day by Day, 21-7-46, #KEYS
298:If you make much of mind you make much of doubt. People are skeptics. Why? Because they make much of this little mind. But the mind never directs man properly. Go beyond the mind and you will go beyond all doubts. ~ Swami Ramakrishnananda, #KEYS
299:Nothing is impossible in this world. Firm determination, it is said, can move heaven and earth. Things appear far beyond one's power, because one cannot set his heart on any arduous project due to want of strong will. ~ Yamamoto Tsunetomo, #KEYS
300:All the sacred Scriptures of the world have become corrupted, but the Ineffable or Absolute has never been corrupted, because no one has ever been able to express It in human speech. ~ id, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
301:If we love God for what we can get from Him in the world, we really love the world, not God, and we can never be true devotees. The true devotee loves God just for the joy of loving Him, because God is the Beloved. ~ Swami Ramakrishnananda, #KEYS
302:But when I call for a hero, out comes my lazy old self; so I never know who I am, nor how many I am or will be. I'd love to be able to touch a bell and summon the real me, because if I really need myself, I mustn't disappear. ~ Pablo Neruda, #KEYS
303:Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you; to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson,#KEYS
304:On a certain level all knowledge presents itself as a remembering, because all is latent or inherent in the self of supermind. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Supramental Instruments - Thought-Process, #KEYS
305:The Grace is something that pushes you towards the goal to be attained. Do not try to judge it by your mind, you will not get anywhere, because it is something formidable which is not explained through human words or feelings. ~ MOTHER MIRA, #KEYS
306:We live in a false relation with our environment, because we know neither the universe nor ourselves for what they really are. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Synthesis of the Disciplines of Knowledge, #KEYS
307:We need not acquire anything new, only give up false ideas and useless accretions. Instead of doing this, we try to grasp something strange and mysterious because we believe happiness lies elsewhere. This is a mistake. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
308:And this the reason of his high unease,
Because he came from the infinities
To build immortally with mortal things; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, In the Moonlight,#KEYS
309:In material things we see first, and then we taste. But in spiritual things we taste first so that we can see, because no one knows who does not taste. And thus he says first taste, and then see. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, In Psalmos 33:9 (34:8), #KEYS
310:Man finds happiness only in serving his neighbour. And he finds it there because, rendering service to his neighbours, he is in communion with the divine spirit that lives in them. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
311:The devil is said to rejoice most over the sin of lust because it involves the greatest attachment and it is only with difficulty that a man can be torn away from it ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.73.5ad2)., #KEYS
312:When we receive with an entire and perfect resignation the afflictions which God sends us they become for us favors and benefits; because conformity to the will of God is a gain far superior to all temporal advantages. ~ Saint Vincent de Paul, #KEYS
313:Either God or nothing, because all that is not of God is worse than nothing! Remain united with God and love him with all your heart, always remembering that we cannot love him too much nor can we ever love him enough. ~ Saint Francis de Sales, #KEYS
314:It is in fact this egoism, the product of ignorance, that masks our vision of God. Really His glory is present everywhere, but we fail to see Him because we refuse to remove the veil of ignorance that obstructs our vision. ~ Swami Vijnanananda, #KEYS
315:Some reject life because it is tainted with grief and pain, but to the God-lover grief and pain become means of meeting with him, imprints of his pressure. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Mystery of Love, #KEYS
316:He declares that the deserted wife shall have more children than she who has a husband, because faith has now made our people who seemed to have been deserted by God more numerous than those who were thought to possess him. ~ 2nd century sermon, #KEYS
317:Because of Christ's resurrection the thief ascends to paradise, the bodies of the blessed enter the holy city, and the dead are restored to the company of the living. There is an upward movement in the whole of creation. ~ Saint Maximus of Turin, #KEYS
318:O Holy Spirit grant me the gift of prayer. Come into my heart, and [grant] me the strength not to abandon it because I sometimes grow weary of it; And give me the spirit of prayer, the grace to pray continually. ~ Prayer of St. Alphonsus Liguori, #KEYS
319:They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. ~ Saint Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
320:What the members of the body are in the individual being, reasonable beings are in the same way even though separate, because they are formed to cooperate in one common work. ~ Mar-cus Aurelius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
321:In essence, humans need more knowledge than eating and drinking because in a day a person only needs to eat once or twice, while knowledge is needed in every breath he takes." ~ Imam Abu Hanifa, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
322:Let us eat and drink, because tomorrow we shall die - but this is sensuality's cowardly lust for life, that contemptible order of things where one lives in order to eat and drink, instead of eating and drinking in order to live. ~ Soren Kierkegaard, #KEYS
323:The fastest way to quiet the mind is to search for the 'I', because the 'I' is the mind. And when you discover that the 'I' is the Self, there is no more mind. Then you have transcended the mind automatically. That's the easiest way. ~ Robert Adams, #KEYS
324:And all man's ghastly company of fears
Are born of folly that believes this span
Of brittle life can limit immortal man. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, To Weep because a Glorious Sun,#KEYS
325:Tremble, earth, and you who proclaim yourselves as serving Jesus Christ and who, on the inside, only adore yourselves, tremble, for God will hand you over to His enemy, because the holy places are in a state of corruption." ~ Our Lady of La Salette , #KEYS
326:Chance, that vague shadow of an infinite possibility, must be banished from the dictionary of our perceptions; for of chance we can make nothing, because it is nothing. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Karma, #KEYS
327:Who is it that loves and who that suffers? The individual suffers because he perceives duality. It is duality which causes all sorrow and grief. Find the One everywhere and in everything and there will be an end to pain and suffering. ~ Anandamayi Ma, #KEYS
328:Why is intuition superior to reason?
- Because it does not depend upon experience or memory and frequently brings about the solution to our problems by methods concerning which we are in entire ignorance.
~ Charles F Haanel, The Master Key System,#KEYS
329:Nicodemus did not yet have true faith in the resurrection because he brought myrrh and aloes, thinking that the body of Christ would soon corrupt without them ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on John 19, lect. 6)., #KEYS
330:Wherever you are, in whatever station, from there you have to reach sattva in varying degrees because tamas will be reduced only when the mind's agitations, vikshepas are quietened. As agitations quieten, sattva increases slowly. ~ Swami Chinmayananda, #KEYS
331:Always go too far because that is where you will find the truth." ~ Albert Camus, (1913 - 1960) French philosopher, author, and journalist, won the Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44 in 1957, the second youngest recipient in history, Wikipedia., #KEYS
332:Because the sun of knowledge, the chaser of darkness has risen, the Atman shines in the expanse of the Heart as the omnipresent sustainer of all and illumines all. - Adi Sankara ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Atma Bodha, 67, #KEYS
333:Even the feeling of having understood is likely to lead one into a sense of illusion, because the individual thinks he has found something to impart to others, but there is no individual. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
334:My chief reason for choosing Christianity was because the mysteries were incomprehensible. What's the point of revelation if we could figure it out ourselves? If it were wholly comprehensible, then it would just be another philosophy. ~ Mortimer J Adler, #KEYS
335:Unless there is self-effort, nothing can be accomplished. The illumined souls show us the path. Isn't that a great help? But we have to walk it. If you open your hearts to us we can show you the path, because we have walked the path. ~ Swami Turiyananda, #KEYS
336:Accordingly, those who do not come to Christ because of the power they see in him, but because they eat his bread, are not serving Christ but their own stomachs, as we see from Philippians ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (3:19), #KEYS
337:What was born of Mary was human by nature, in accordance with the inspired Scriptures, and the body of the Lord was a true body: It was a true body because it was the same as ours. Mary, you see, is our sister, for we are all born from Adam. ~ Athanasius, #KEYS
338:Already God is near, the Truth is close:
Because the dark atheist body knows him not,
Must the sage deny the Light, the seer his soul? ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real,#KEYS
339:Faith is said to surpass reason, not because there is no act of reason in faith, but because reasoning about faith cannot lead to the sight of those things which are matters of faith ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (DV 14.2ad9)., #KEYS
340:The Magi are the "first-fruits of the Gentiles" that believed in Christ because their faith was a presage of the faith and devotion of the nations who were to come to Christ from afar ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.36.8)., #KEYS
341:Do not ask anything from God because God already knows your needs. There is difference between need, want, wish, and desire. Our days are laden with wants and nights with desires. Thus we remain disturbed all the time and put the blame on God. ~ SWAMI RAMA, #KEYS
342:Don't sit idle simply because your spiritual consciousness has been awakened a little. Go forward. Beyond the forest of sandalwood there are other and more valuable things-silver-mines, gold-mines, and so on. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
343:Each moment, each hour will bring him the vision of a new mystery, because his heart is detached from this as from the other world; an invisible aid guides all his steps and fires his ardour. ~ Baha-ullah, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
344:Everywhere something hinders me from meeting God in my brother because he has shut the doors of his inmost temple and recites the fables of his brother's god or the god of his brother's brother. ~ Emerson, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
345:If, for the Fathers, symbol is a key to sacrament, it is because sacrament is in continuity with the symbolical structure of the world in which "[all sensible creatures are signs of sacred things]." ~ Alexander Schmemann (quoting Aquinas ST III q60 a2 ad1), #KEYS
346:I have chosen the term collective because this part of the unconscious is not individual but universal; in contrast to the personal psyche, it has contents and modes of behaviour that are more or less the same everywhere and in all individuals. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
347:Lion, give me your caresses— My husband and guardian, my spirit magician, My Shu-Sin who gladdens the Wind-God's heart Give me your caresses because you love me." ~ One stanza of love poem, (c. 1980 BC).For poem see, (diff. trans.): http://bit.ly/2qZHBef, #KEYS
348:Our troubles arise not from the failures of our thoughts alone; they arise largely because we have not given leadership to our hearts. We have not given to our souls the power to direct us in the right way of things. ~ Manly P Hall (Resurrection 1964, p.2), #KEYS
349:Some suffer a very burdensome amount of sorrow from adversity, but they are not led astray by it because of the good disposition of their reason. This is due to patience ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on Job, ch. 4)., #KEYS
350:We are neither different nor separate from Consciousness and for that very reason, we cannot 'apprehend' it. Nor can we 'integrate' with it, because we have never been other than it. Consciousness can never be understood in relative terms. ~ Ramesh Balsekar, #KEYS
351:He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
352:You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, James, 4:2-3, #KEYS
353:For those who use their intelligence and their study as a weapon, the Rosary is most effective. Because that apparently monotonous way of beseeching Our Lady as children do their Mother, can destroy every seed of vainglory and pride. ~ Saint Josemaria Escriva, #KEYS
354:One thing, all things: move among and intermingle, without distinction. To live in this realization is to be without anxiety about non-perfection. To live in this faith is the road to non-duality, because the non-dual is one with the trusting mind." ~ Sengcan, #KEYS
355:Since, in the long run, every planetary society will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring ~ not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive., #KEYS
356:Go, Daniel," he said, "because the words are to be kept secret and sealed until the end time. Many shall be refined, purified, and tested, but the wicked shall prove wicked; the wicked shall have no understanding, but those with insight shall. ~ Daniel 12:9-10, #KEYS
357:St. Thomas thinks... that real freedom consists precisely in being moved from within by God, who is not 'another' in any normal sense, precisely because there is no rivalry between the Creator and any of his creatures... ~ James Allison, The Joy of Being Wrong, #KEYS
358:We needed God to take our flesh and die, that we might live. We have died with him, that we may be purified. We have risen again with him, because we have died with him. We have been glorified with him, because we have risen again with him. ~ Gregory Nazianzen, #KEYS
359:You think you are alive because you breathe air? Shame on you, that you are alive in such a limited way. Don't be without Love, so you won't feel dead. Die in Love and stay alive forever. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
360:God has to work in the soul in secret and in darkness because if we fully knew what was happening, and what Mystery, transformation, God and Grace will eventually ask of us, we would either try to take charge or stop the whole process. ~ Saint John of the Cross, #KEYS
361:to treat a human being as an animal - as a mere space-binder - because humans have certain animal propensities, is an error of the same type and grossness as to treat a cube as a surface because it has surface properties. ~ Alfred Korzybski, Manhood of Humanity, #KEYS
362:Christ does not want you to have hatred—or grief, or wrath, or grudge-bearing—toward a man, in any way whatsoever or because of any sort of temporal reality. All four gospels cry aloud this very thing. ~ Saint Maximus the Confessor, Centuries on Charity 4.84, #KEYS
363:Deathlessness is our real nature, and we falsely ascribe it to the body, imagining that it will live for ever and losing sight of what is really immortal, simply because we identify ourselves with the body. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
364:The experience of emptiness is love, because emptiness means 'emptiness of self.' Where there is no self there is no other. . . there is a unity, a communion." ~ Joseph Goldstein, (b. 1944), U.S. vipassana meditation teacher, "The Experience of Insight,", (1987), #KEYS
365:There will be plenty of food in towns and villages, but it will be poisoned. Many will eat because of hunger and die immediately. Those who will fast to the end will survive because the Holy Ghost will save them and they will be close to God..." ~ Mitar Tarabich, #KEYS
366:Beloved, let us give thanks to God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit, because in his great love for us he took pity on us, and when we were dead in our sins he brought us to life with Christ, so that in him we might be a new creation. ~ Leo the Great, #KEYS
367:The Divine is free and not bound by laws of any making, but still he acts by laws and processes because they are the expression of the truth of things. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #KEYS
368:The heavens declare the glory of God… because, for those who understand, God's artistic vision, which is revealed through the heavens' harmonious revolutions, fulfills the same role as God's creative word. ~ Saint Gregory of Nyssa, On the Six Days of Creation 11, #KEYS
369:Your being, Lord, does not desert my being, for I exist only insomuch as you are with me. And since your seeing is your being, therefore, because you regard me, I am, and if you remove your face from me, I will cease to be. ~ Nicholas of Cusa, De Visione Dei, ch. 4, #KEYS
370:Because they want something elaborate and attractive and puzzling, so many religions have come into existence and each of them is so complex and each creed in each religion has its own adherents and antagonists. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
371:He, who meditates well, attains power to work more efficiently. He is never tired, because his energy is not mis-spent in any way: he is never annoyed nor worried, he is not attached to anything. Always be calm, go on working without any fatigue. ~ Swami Akhandananda, #KEYS
372:„We must embrace struggle. Every living thing conforms to it. Everything in nature grows and struggles in its own way, establishing its own identity, insisting on it at all cost, against all resistance." "It is also good to love: because love is difficult." ~ Rilke, #KEYS
373:Children are nowhere taught, in any systematic way, to distinguish true from false, or meaningful from meaningless, statements. Why is this so? Because their elders, even in the democratic countries, do not want them to be given this kind of education. ~ Aldous Huxley, #KEYS
374:In those days Christ was present to the Israelites as he followed them, but he is present to us in a much deeper sense. The Lord was with them because of the favor he showed to Moses; now he is with us, but not simply because of your obedience. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
375:We cling to things, people, beliefs, and behaviors not because we love them, but because we are terrified of losing them." ~ Gerald G. May, (1940-2005) "The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth,", (2005)., #KEYS
376:At this time as a punishment for their sins Christians especially will attempt armed resistance to those who at that time are persecuting ... Because of Michael's help God's faithful children will march under his protection." ~ Saint Hildegard of Bingen, (1098-1179 AD), #KEYS
377:Because there dwelt the Eternal's vast Idea
And his dynamic will in men and things,
So only could the enormous scene begin. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Eternal Day, The Soul's Choice and the Supreme Consummation,#KEYS
378:May our blessed Lord Jesus Christ reign! Gaudeamus omnes; let us all rejoice who are in the service of the Most High, because the great visitation and reformation of the world is approaching when there shall be only one fold and one Shepherd." ~ Saint Francis di Paola., #KEYS
379:One of two things must be done, either surrender because you admit your inability and require a higher power to help you, or investigate the cause of misery by going to the source and merging into the Self. Either way you will be free from misery. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
380:The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast. Its kingdom was plunged into darkness, and people bit their tongues in pain and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and sores. But they did not repent of their works." ~ Revelation 16:10-11, #KEYS
381:Because of us he was deprived of his glory for a little while, the glory that was his as the Father's only-begotten Son, but through the cross this glory is seen to have been restored to him in a certain way in the body that he had assumed. ~ Saint Anastasius of Antioch, #KEYS
382:Because there is Mind behind the universe, it did not originate itself; because God is infinite, not finite, it was not made from pre-existent matter, but out of nothing and out of non-existence absolute and utter God brought it into being through the Word. ~ Athanasius, #KEYS
383:If you react to conditioning, you're causing the condition to inflate. Because by reacting you say, "I want more of that." What you're saying to the world, to the universe, "I want more of that," because the universe accepts the emotion that you give out. ~ Robert Adams, #KEYS
384:O Lord, if I worship You because of Fear of Hell,
then burn me in Hell;
If I worship You because I desire Paradise,
then exclude me from Paradise;
But if I worship You for Yourself alone,
then deny me not your Eternal Beauty ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya,#KEYS
385:Paul says, when Christ who is our life appears, because he is the Author of our life, and because our life consists in knowing and loving him: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Gal 2:20)., #KEYS
386:Reason can accept no convention merely because men are agreed upon it: it has to ask whether they are right in their agreement, whether it is not an inert and false acquiescence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Curve of the Rational Age, #KEYS
387:There is in human nature as such, because it is spiritual, a desire, a natural appetite, a sign of ontological ordination ... which could be satisfied in no way but through the very vision of God, face to face. ~ Henri de Lubac, 'Dsappearance of the Sense of the Sacred', #KEYS
388:You come to see that everything you think you know about yourself, everything you think you know about the world, is based on assumptions, beliefs, and opinions - things you believe because you were taught or told that they were true. ~ Adyashanti, The End of Your World, #KEYS
389:Beatrice is to be loved because she is beautiful; but she is beautiful because there is behind her a many-sided mystery of beauty, to be seen also in the grass and the sea, and even in the dead gods. There is a promise in and yet beyond all such pictures. ~ GK Chesterton, #KEYS
390:Because of our wisdom, we will travel far for love. All movement is a sign of thirst. Most speaking really says "I am hungry to know you." Every desire of your body is holy. Dear one, why wait until you are dying to discover that divine Truth? ~ Hafiz, #KEYS
391:The mind obstructs the innate peace. Our investigation is only in the mind. Investigate the mind; it will disappear. There is no entity by name mind. Because of the emergence of thoughts we surmise something from which they start. That we term mind. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
392:The true believer [mu'min] is not concerned about his sustenance, because of the strength of his faith [iman] and his trusting reliance [ittikal] on his Lord (Almighty and Glorious is He). ~ Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
393:With the littlest ones, I am attaining each day my victory over Satan and his powerful army of evil, over the satanic and masonic forces organized against God, because I am leading my children along the road of heroic faith, of sure hope and of perfect love." ~ Our Lady , #KEYS
394:Do not accept any of my words on faith, believing them just because I said them. Be like an analyst buying gold, who cuts, burns, and critically examines his product for authenticity. Only accept what passes the test by proving useful and beneficial in your life. ~ Buddha, #KEYS
395:He came to heal the broken hearted: to afford a remedy to those that have their heart broken by Satan through sin, because beyond all other things sin lays prostrate human hearts ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Catena Aurea, Gospel of St. Luke)., #KEYS
396:I become what I see in myself. All that thought suggests to me, I can do; all that thought reveals in me, I can become. This should be man's unshakable faith in himself, because God dwells in him.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays In Philosophy And Yoga,#KEYS
397:When one is not understood one should as a rule lower one's voice, because when one really speaks loudly enough & is not heard, it is because people dont want to hear. One had better begin to mutter to oneself, then they get curious. ~ Carl Jung, Zarathustra Seminars, (30), #KEYS
398:Every family has to be traced back to its origins. That is why we can say that all these great churches constitute that one original Church of the apostles; for it is from them that they all come. They are all primitive, all apostolic, because they are all one. ~ Tertullian, #KEYS
399:So the divine light of contemplation, when it beats on the soul, not yet perfectly enlightened, causes spiritual darkness, because it not only surpasses its strength, but because it blinds it and deprives it of its natural perceptions… ~ John of the Cross, Dark Night II.v, #KEYS
400:The Word of God cries out in the most remote solitude of the divine goodness. His cry is the creation of all natures... because through him God the Father has called, that is, created everything that he wanted to come to be. ~ Eriugena, Commentary on the Gospel of John 1.27, #KEYS
401:Thus God, the Absolute, eludes finite beings. Where they desire to name him, because they must, they betray him. But if they keep silent about him, they acquiesce in their own impotence and sin against the other, no less binding, commandment to name him. ~ Theodor W. Adorno, #KEYS
402:Your eyes are blindfolded; because there is the cloud of Maya before you. Your mind is dirty. Wash it, cleanse it - this is Sadhana. Faith and conviction of mind will grow according to your surroundings. That is why the company of holy men is necessary. ~ Swami Akhandananda, #KEYS
403:I swear that ever since the first day You brought me back to life,
The day You became my Friend,
I have not slept --
And even if You drive me from your door,
I swear again that we will never be separated--
Because You are alive in my heart. ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya,#KEYS
404:Psychedelics are illegal not because a loving government is concerned that you might jump out of a third story window. Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structure and culturally laid down models of behavior and information processing.
~ Terence McKenna,#KEYS
405:The dying man understands with difficulty what lives, not because his mental faculties are dulled, but because he understands something the living do not and cannot understand, and in this he is entirely absorbed. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
406:There is a great silence on earth today... The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear. ~ Holy Saturday: An Ancient Homily, #KEYS
407:There is no entity by name mind. Because of the emergence of thoughts we surmise something from which they start. That we term mind. When we probe to see what it is, there is nothing like it. After it has vanished, peace will be found to remain eternal. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
408:When we pray we pray not for one but for all people, because we are all one people together. The God of peace and master of concord, who taught that we should be united, wanted one to pray in this manner for all, as he himself bore all in one. ~ Cyprian, On the Lord's Prayer, #KEYS
409:When you go through a hard period, when everything seems to oppose you, ...when you feel you cannot even bear one more minute. Never Give up! Because it is the time and place that the cause will divert. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
410:Why are you afraid, Herod, when you hear of the birth of a king? He does not come to drive you out, but to conquer the devil. But because you do not understand this you are disturbed and in a rage, and to destroy one child whom you seek, you show your cruelty. ~ Quodvultdeus, #KEYS
411:Déjà vu is more than just that fleeting moment of surprise, instantly forgotten because we never bother with things that make no sense. It show that time doesn't pass. It's a leap into something we have already experienced and that is being repeated.
~ Paulo Coelho, Aleph,#KEYS
412:Many times we despise someone without any reason. Why? Simply, because that person personifies some errors that we carry well hidden within and we do not like that person exhibiting them. In fact, deep within us, we carry the errors that we blame others for. ~ Samael Aun Weor, #KEYS
413:Once you discover your true spiritual nature, you'll stop worrying about where you're going and when you're going to get there because you will have finally arrived. Welcome to where you've always been." ~ Sri Gawn Tu Fahr, (Jean-Pierre Gregoire) "Love's True Home.,", (2010)., #KEYS
414:Real enlightenment is always with you, so there is no need for you to stick to it or even think about it. Because it is always with you, difficulty itself is enlightenment. Your busy life itself is enlightened activity. ." ~ Shunryu Suzuki, (1904-1971), Zen master, Wikipedia., #KEYS
415:To reach back and help, and expect neither reward nor even thanks. To reach back and help, because that is what spiritual beings do." ~ Brian L. Weiss, (b. 1944) an American psychiatrist, hypnotherapist, and author who specializes in so-called past life regression, Wikipedia., #KEYS
416:Every maker of video games knows something that the makers of curriculum don't seem to understand. You'll never see a video game being advertised as being easy. Kids who do not like school will tell you it's not because it's too hard. It's because it's--boring ~ Seymour Papert, #KEYS
417:God's ineffable name, which is of supreme mystery... is said to be ineffable because it is the enfolding of all vocalization, as being the Fount of every effable word, in the sense that the Ineffable shines forth, as Cause, in every effable word. ~ Nicholas of Cusa, De Genesi 4, #KEYS
418:Love is sufficient of itself, it gives pleasure by itself and because of itself. It is its own merit, its own reward. Love looks for no cause outside itself, no effect beyond itself. Its profit lies in its practice. I love because I love, I love that I may love. ~ Saint Bernard, #KEYS
419:The fear that impermanence awakens in us, that nothing is real and nothing lasts, is, we come to discover, our greatest friend because it drives us to ask: If everything dies & changes, then what is really true?" ~ Sogyal Rinpoche, "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying", (1994), #KEYS
420:The Saviour instilled and taught this, that they who wished to follow Him should deny themselves, and count the loss of temporal things as light in the hope of things eternal; because he alone could save his soul that did not fear to lose it for Christ. ~ Pope St. Leo the Great, #KEYS
421:Be courageous and do not think so much of yourself. It is because you make your little ego the centre of your preoccupation that you are sad and unsatisfied. To forget oneself is the great remedy for all ills.
~ The Mother, Some Answers From The Mother,#KEYS
422:He [man] is the greatest of living beings because he is the most discontented, because he feels most the pressure of limitations. He alone, perhaps, is capable of being seized by the divine frenzy for a remote ideal.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,#KEYS
423:Imagination is living, perspective is only 'lifelike'. It used to be said that the camera cannot lie. But in fact it always does lie. Just because it looks only in that immediate way, the camera looks always at and never into what it sees. ~ Owen Barfield 'The Harp & the Camera', #KEYS
424:Mary and Joseph needed to be instructed concerning Christ's birth before He was born, because of their duty to show reverence to the child conceived in the uterus, and to serve Him even before He was born ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.36.2ad2)., #KEYS
425:[Moderns] condemn without a hearing something they are not capable of experiencing even as 'poetry' any more.... So Paul Tillich dismisses in the most peremptory way the theme of the virgin birth because of what he calls 'the inadequacy of its internal symbolism.' ~ René Girard, #KEYS
426:[T]he archaic understanding of the presuppositions of life… are the order and harmony of beauty. The cosmos exists not because it represents an objective something but because it constitutes a how, a mode of harmony and decorum. ~ Christos Yannaras, The Schism in Philosophy, 5, #KEYS
427:A self-willed man cannot be grateful—because when he gets what he wants he gives all the credit for it to his own will, and when he gets what he does not want he resents it badly and throws all the blame on whomever he considers responsible, God, man or Nature. ~ The Mother, WTM #KEYS
428:How do you know what's good for you? If you say you want to improve then you ought to know what's good for you, but obviously you don't because if you did then you would be improved. So, we don't know. We do not really know how to interfere with the way the world is. ~ Alan Watts, #KEYS
429:Once you were a child. Once you knew what inquiry was for. There was a time when you asked questions because you wanted answers, and were glad when you had found them. Become a child again, even now... You have gone wrong. Thirst was made for water; inquiry for truth. ~ C S Lewis, #KEYS
430:Parents sometimes when they have gotten one, or two, or three children, fear to give birth to any more, lest they reduce the rest to beggary. ~ But because the inheritance which He promises us is such as many may possess, He called into His brotherhood the peoples of the nations., #KEYS
431:Sometimes I would like to cry. I close my eyes. Why weren't we designed so that we can close our ears as well? (Perhaps because we would never open them.) Is there some way that I could accelerate my evolution and develop earlids?" ~ Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, #KEYS
432:We have been to the moon, we have charted the depths of the ocean & the heart of the atom, but we have a fear of looking inward to ourselves because we sense that is where all the contradictions flow together." ~ T. McKenna, (1946 - 2000) American ethnobotanist, mystic,Wikipedia., #KEYS
433:Whenever the state... becomes a tyranny, lying and falsehood grow proportionately [and] truth is deprived of its value; it ceases to be the norm and is replaced by success. Why? Because it is through truth that the person is reassured of his dignity and freedom. ~ Romano Guardini, #KEYS
434:When you find yourself tensing because of pain, carefully examine the quality of unpleasantness, the quality of painfulness. Become mindful of that feeling and the mind will naturally come to a state of balance." ~ Joseph Goldstein, (b. 1944), "The Experience of Insight,", (1987), #KEYS
435:Because we find that love is work enough for us, we don't take the time to categorize what we are doing as either "contemplation" or "action." We find that prayer is action and that action is prayer. It seems to us that truly loving action is filled with light. ~ Madeline Delbrêl, #KEYS
436:'I've got to solve this problem.' As if 'I' is somebody important. 'I' doesn't exist. If 'I' doesn't exist neither does your problem. You know by now that your problem exists because you believe in your 'I'. When you realize 'I' does not exist everything disappears. ~ Robert Adams, #KEYS
437:Rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you ~ 1Pt 4:13-14)., #KEYS
438:The creatures of the sense world signify the invisible attributes of God, partly because God is the origin, exemplar, and end of every creature, and every effect is the sign of its cause, the exemplification of its exemplar, and the path to the end, to which leads… ~ Bonaventure, #KEYS
439:The wicked have called unto them death by their works and their words; they have taken death for their friend and have been consumed, they have made alliance with him, because of such companionship they were worthy. ~ Wisdom I 16, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
440:Whenever your thoughts dwell on the past, do not become angry with yourself. Leave them alone. Do not observe them. Do not watch them. Do not be the witness to them. Just leave them alone. They will disappear of their own volition, because they never existed. ~ Robert Adams, T 191, #KEYS
441:You see many stars in the sky at night, but not when the sun rises. Can you therefore say that there are no stars in the heavens during the day? Because you cannot find God in the days of your ignorance, say not that there is no God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
442:In Christ Abrahams posterity is blessed because in him the whole world receives the adoption of sons, and in him the patriarch becomes the father of all nations through the birth, not from human stock but by faith, of the descendants that were promised to him. ~ Saint Leo the Great, #KEYS
443:It was necessary for Christ to suffer: it was impossible for his passion not to have happened. He said so himself when he called his companions dull and slow to believe because they failed to recognise that he had to suffer and so enter into his glory. ~ Saint Anastasius of Antioch, #KEYS
444:The five daily prayers are supposed to purify us, but it doesn't do so with many of us because we treat it like a burden to be lifted off our shoulders, not a gift that we are presenting to our God. ~ Shaykh Muhammad Al-Yaqoubi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
445:You must feel that the person who blames you is yourself & the person who praises you is also yourself. You won't lose your good qualities just because somebody speaks ill of you. So let them criticize. I shall remain undisturbed by the praise or blame of others ~ Swami Turiyananda, #KEYS
446:Because of Michael's help God's faithful children will march under his protection. They will decimate their foes and achieve victory through God's power…As a result of this a large number of heathens will join Christians in true faith ..." ~ Saint Hildegard of Bingen, (1098- 1179), #KEYS
447:Tell me, you whom my soul loves. This is how I address you, because your true name is above all other names; it is unutterable and incomprehensible to all rational creatures. And so the name I use for you is simply the statement of my soul's love for you.... ~ Saint Gregory of Nyssa, #KEYS
448:Truth, then, has arisen from the earth: Christ who said, I am the Truth, was born of the Virgin. And justice looked down from heaven: because believing in this new-born child, man is justified not by himself but by God. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
449:I am with you because I am you or you are me.
I am with you, that signifies a world of things, because I am with you on all levels, on all planes, from the supreme consciousness down to my most physical consciousness. ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother I, [T4],#KEYS
450:The knowledge of the saints is more excellent than the knowledge of the wayfarer, and yet faith is more properly said of the wayfarer's knowledge, because the word "faith" denotes an imperfection of knowledge ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.174.2ad3)., #KEYS
451:And He *said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Matthew, 17:20 #KEYS
452:To slander is to speak ill of an absent person in order to blacken his good name. Now it is a very grave matter to blacken a man's good name, because of all temporal things a man's good name seems the most precious ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.73.2)., #KEYS
453:You see many stars in the sky at night, but not when the sun rises. Can you therefore say that there are no stars in the heavens during the day? O man, because you cannot find God in the days of your ignorance, say not that there is no God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
454:We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours. ~ John of Salisbury, Metalogicon, #KEYS
455:We are weighed down in soul and body by sloth and indolence, an disinclined to make an effort because, in fact, this price of effort, even for our good, is a part of the penalty we must pay for sin ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, The City of God, 22.22)., #KEYS
456:The Lord is with you" are the most praise-laden words that the Angel could have uttered; and, hence, he so profoundly reverenced the Blessed Virgin because she is the Mother of the Lord and Our Lady ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (On the Angelic Salutation a. 1)., #KEYS
457:In every way evil company should be abandoned, because it gives occasion to passion, wrath, folly, dissipation, loss of decision, loss of energy. These propensities are at first a bubbling froth, but they become as if oceans. ~ Narada Sutra, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
458:And so because I too am, why am I asking you to come into me, who would not be unless you were in me? I am not hell, after all; and yet even in hell, you are present; for if I descend into hell, you are there ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, Confessions 1.2)., #KEYS
459:If you can remember that all beings have buddha nature, it will help you cultivate equanimity, because it will feel like everybody is your family. The greater your equanimity, the greater your love and compassion towards them, no matter who they are, or what they have done. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche, #KEYS
460:We need to be in the open mode when pondering a problem ~ but! ~ once we come up with a solution, we must then switch to the closed mode to implement it. Because once we've made a decision, we are efficient only if we go through with it decisively, undistracted by doubts about its correctness., #KEYS
461:All the miseries of men are caused not by bad harvests, conflagrations, brigands, but simply because they live in discord. They are in discord because they do not believe in the voice of love who lives in them and calls them to union. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
462:The human intellect is too much afraid of error precisely because it is too much attached to a premature sense of certitude and a too hasty eagerness for positive finality in what it seems to seize of knowledge. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Faith and Shakti, #KEYS
463:The human race has been weakened by means of all those bad habits, and the worst of all of them is to deny breastfeeding the child. In the name of the truth, this seems terrible, monstrous. Ancient people were very strong because their mothers did not deny breastfeeding them... ~ Samael Aun Weor #KEYS
464:We die for the reason that we are subject to death by a necessary law of nature, or in consequence of some violence done to us. But Christ did not die because of any necessity. He gave up His life by His power and His own will ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (CT 1.230)., #KEYS
465:He cried out, saying, "Lazarus, come out." Christ called him by his proper name because such was the power of his voice that all the dead would have been awakened if he had not limited it to one by mentioning his name ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (In John 11 lect. 6)., #KEYS
466:By an increase in anger, warfare arises. By an increase of greed, famine arises. By an increase of stupidity, pestilence arises. Because these three calamities occur, the people's earthly desires grow all the more intense, and their false views thrive and multiply. ~ Nichiren, #KEYS
467:If we fail in our immediate aim, it is because he has intended the failure; often our failure or ill-result is the right road to a truer issue than an immediate and complete success would have put in our reach. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Master of the Work, #KEYS
468:People keep busy because they find it difficult to bear their own consciousness. They look for various forms of entertainment to escape from themselves. The greatest challenge lies in looking at oneself - by being "alone" with oneself. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
469:The sin of unbelief, which fundamentally severs a man from the unity of the Church, simply speaking, makes him to be utterly unfit for receiving this sacrament of the Eucharist because it is the sacrament of the Church's unity ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.80.5ad2)., #KEYS
470:In created and changeable things, what is not said according to substance, must, by necessary alternative, be said according to accident. . . . But in God nothing is said to be according to accident, because in him nothing is changeable. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
471:For you, the world is weird because if you're not bored with it you're at odds with it. For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must assume responsibility for being here in this marvelous time. ~ Carlos Castaneda, #KEYS
472:Hope is referred to as a helmet because, as a helmet is on the head, so the head of the moral virtues is the end, and hope is concerned with this end. So he states: "And take unto you the helmet of salvation" ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on Ephesians 6, lect. 4)., #KEYS
473:You see many stars in the sky at night, but not when the sun rises. Can you therefore say that there are no stars in the heavens during the day? Because you cannot find God in the days of your ignorance, say not that there is no God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, Sayings of Ramakrishna, #KEYS
474:The work of eternity is the world, which has not been produced once for all but is always produced by eternity. Thus it will never perish, for eternity is imperishable, and nothing is lost in the world because the world is enveloped in eternity. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
475:Impenetrable, a mystery recondite
Is the vast plan of which we are a part;
Its harmonies are discords to our view
Because we know not the great theme they serve. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.05,#KEYS
476:Force yourself to study and your depression will go away. Can you imagine a student in college coming and telling his teacher, Sir, I didn't do my homework today because I felt depressed? Surely the teacher would punish him most severely.
~ The Mother, More Answers From The Mother,#KEYS
477:The finite is a frontal aspect and a self-determination of the Infinite; no finite can exist in itself and by itself, it exists by the Infinite and because it is of one essence with the Infinite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #KEYS
478:There are five ways in which men are different. The first way is by sex, which Paul excludes when he says, there cannot be male and female, because men and women do not differ in mind, but in their physical sex ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on Colossians 3, lect. 2)., #KEYS
479:You will not let yourself be found by the proud... Many true statements do they [the philosophers] make about creation, but they do not find the Truth who is artificer of creation because they do not seek him with reverence. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, Confessions. 5.3,5, #KEYS
480:Love hinders death. Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #KEYS
481:We call it the Supermind or the Truth-Consciousness, because it is a principle superior to mentality and exists, acts and proceeds in the fundamental truth and unity of things and not like the mind in their appearances and phenomenal divisions.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, 153,#KEYS
482:And by the words, "God saw that it was good," it is sufficiently intimated that God made what was made not from any necessity, nor for the sake of supplying any want, but solely from His own goodness, that is, because it was good. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, City of God xi.24, #KEYS
483:You are asking, "Who am I?" and you are not going to get an answer, because the one who will get the answer is false. You may have an idea, a concept, and you will think you have found yourself, but it is only a concept; you can never see your Self. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
484:Because there are three classes of intellects: one which comprehends by itself; another which appreciates what others comprehend; and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the showing of others; the first is the most excellent, the second is good, the third is useless. ~ Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, #KEYS
485:The Blessed Virgin is said to have merited to bear the Lord of all, not because she merited God to be incarnate, but because she merited, from the grace given to her, that grade of purity and holiness, which suited her to be the Mother of God ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.2.11ad3)., #KEYS
486:Because the Son receives from the Father that the Holy Spirit proceeds from Him, it can be said that the Father spirates the Holy Spirit through the Son, or that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son, which has the same meaning ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.36.3)., #KEYS
487:Correcting oneself is correcting the whole world. The sun is simply bright. It does not correct anyone. Because it shines the whole world is full of light. Transforming yourself is a means of giving light to the whole world. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Living by the Words of Bhagavan, 108, #KEYS
488:Drunk and notorious all year round may the lover be; in a frenzy, spellbound, crazy, let him be, constantly. When sober we are suffering, because of everything… but when we are intoxicated … everything we set free." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, (1207 - 1273), Persian poet, Sufi mystic, Wikipedia., #KEYS
489:To know by itself is not enough, because 'Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin' ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (James 4:17). And so we must act according to virtue ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on Colossians 1:9-14). , #KEYS
490:These words are explained by our oneness with Christ, for he is our head and we are his body. No one ascended into heaven except Christ because we also are Christ: he is the Son of Man by his union with us, and we by our union with him are the sons of God. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
491:It is not that you must be free from the "I-am-the-body" idea first, and then realize the Self. It is definitely the other way round - you cling to the false because you do not know the true. Earnestness, not perfection, is a precondition to self-realization. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
492:The Sruti tells us that it is no use taking refuge in suicide or the shortening of your life, because those who kill themselves instead of finding freedom, plunge by death into a worse prison of darkness - the Asuric worlds enveloped in blind gloom.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad, [121 or 122],#KEYS
493:I'm glad mushrooms are against the law, because I took them one time, and you know what happened to me? I laid in a field of green grass for four hours going, "My God! I love everything." Yeah, now if that isn't a hazard to our country ... how are we gonna justify arms dealing when we realize that we're all one? ~ Bill Hicks, #KEYS
494:If everything that is comprehended by knowledge is rendered finite by the comprehension of the knower, then, in some inexpressible way, all infinity is rendered finite to God because it is certainly not incomprehensible to his knowledge. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, City of God xii.19(18), #KEYS
495:When the wicked turneth away from his wickedness and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Because he considereth and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die. ~ Ezekiel XVIII 27. 28, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
496:Mother, Your Voice said to me, 'The Supermind is coming down in you.' Mother, is it a false voice? Because I know that I am not at all ready for the Supermind.
It is only in mental silence that you can hear the voice without distorting it - be very peaceful.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
497:Happy, inert, he lies beneath her feet:
His breast he offers for her cosmic dance
Of which our lives are the quivering theatre,
And none could bear but for his strength within,
Yet none would leave because of his delight.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Secret Knowledge,#KEYS
498:The life of men is painful only because they do not know that the soul which is in each of us lives in all men. It is thence that comes animosity, that some are rich, others poor, some are masters, others workers, thence that come envy, hatred and all human torments. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
499:Every suffering is a buddha-seed, because suffering impels mortals to seek wisdom. But you can only say that suffering gives rise to buddhahood. You can't say that suffering is buddhahood. Your body and mind are the field. Suffering is the seed, wisdom the sprout, and buddhahood the grain. ~ Bodhidharma, #KEYS
500:My desire and wish is that the things I start with should be so obvious that you wonder why I spend my time stating them. This is what I aim at because the point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it. ~ Bertrand Russell, #KEYS
501:I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close. ~ Pablo Neruda, #KEYS
502:D.: Is God personal?
B.: Yes, He is always the first person, the I, ever standing before you. Because you give precedence to worldly things, God appears to have receded to the background. If you give up all else and seek Him alone, He will remain as the I, the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi,#KEYS
503:But, nevertheless, if there is even the slightest recognition, liberation is easy. Should you ask why this is so-it is because once the awesome, terrifying and fearful appearances arise, the awareness does not have the luxury of distraction. The awareness is one-pointedly concentrated.
~ Karma-glin-pa, The Tibetan Book of the Dead,#KEYS
504:Rather than clothing, it is more important to be similar from the inside, because people can be easily cheated by clothing. You put on a Jubbah & turban, so that people believe you, & then do whatever you want. That is not imitating, it is absolute hypocrisy! ~ Sheikh Mehmet Adil, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
505:Whatever the scientists may come up with, writers and artists will continue to portray altered mental states, simply because few aspects of our nature fascinate people so much. The so-called mad person will always represent a possible future for every member of the audience ~ who knows when such a malady may strike? ~ Margaret Atwood, #KEYS
506:In ancient times, anterior to our history, the temples of the spirit were also outwardly visible; today, because our life has become so unspiritual, they are not to be found in the world visible to external sight; yet they are present spiritually everywhere, and all who seek may find them. ~ Rudolf Steiner, #KEYS
507:But man cannot rest permanently until he reaches some highest good. He is the greatest of living beings because he is the most discontented, because he feels most the pressure of limitations. He alone, perhaps, is capable of being seized by the divine frenzy for a remote ideal.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,#KEYS
508:Because it carries this creative force of the divine Idea, the Sun, the lord and symbol of the gnosis, is described in the Veda as the Light which is the father of all things, Surya Savitri, the Wisdom-Luminous who is the bringer-out into manifest existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, Vijnana or Gnosis, #KEYS
509:There's never been a true war that wasn't fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right. The really dangerous people believe they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do. And that is what makes them dangerous. ~ Mr. Wednesday in American Gods by Neil Gaiman, #KEYS
510:Worthy persons deserve to be called so because they are not carried away by the eight winds: prosperity, decline, disgrace, honor, praise, censure,suffering, and pleasure. They are neither elated by prosperity nor grieved by decline. The heavenly gods will surely protect one who is unbending before the eight winds. ~ Nichiren, #KEYS
511:The soul is the older brother of the personality. It is that which from a somewhat larger perspective is forever ministering without thought of itself, without selfishness, without ulterior motive. It is the true friend, therefore, because it is that which works forever for our good. ~ Manly P. Hall (The Soul Image as the Immortal Friend March 24, 1957) #KEYS
512:True magic therefore is the high knowledge of the more subtle powers that have not yet been acknowledged by science up to this date because the methods of scrutiny that have been applied so far do not suffice for their grasping, understanding and utilization, although the laws of magic are analogous to all official sciences of the world. ~ Franz Bardon, #KEYS
513:There is more spirituality in reason's denial of God than there is in myth's affirmation of God, precisely because there is more depth... even an "atheist" acting from rational-universal compassion is more spiritual than a fundamentalist acting to convert the universe in the name of a mythic-membership god. ~ Ken Wilber, Sex Ecology Spirituality, p. 250, #KEYS
514:God is our wise and perfect friend, because he knows when to smite and when to fondle; when to slay us no less then when to save and to succour... There must be faith in the love and wisdom of God,... working out all for our good even when it is apparently veiled in evil. ~ Sri Aurobindo, 1984 Ashram Diary, July 3 and Augst 22, #KEYS
515:Nobody can give you the true mantra. It's not something that is given: it's something that wells up from within. It must spring from within all of a sudden, spontaneously, like a profound, intense need of your being - then it has power, because it's not something that comes from outside, it's your very own cry.
~ The Mother, 11 May 1963,#KEYS
516:I do not know which of the religious leaders is right, nor is it possible for me to know it with any certainty. But I know pertinently that the best I can do is to develop love in myself and about that it is impossible for me to doubt. I cannot doubt it because in developing my love my happiness increases.- ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
517:One of two things must be done. Either surrender because you admit your inability and require a higher power to help you, or investigate the cause of misery by going to the source and merging into the Self. Either way you will be free from misery. God never forsakes one who has surrendered. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Surpassing Love and Grace, #KEYS
518:It is convenient therefore for the student to express his will by taking Magical Oaths. Since such an oath is irrevocable it should be well considered; and it is better not to take any oath permanently; because with increase of understanding may come a perception of the incompatibility of the lesser oath with the greater.
~ Aleister Crowley,#KEYS
519:The descent of the supramental is an inevitable necessity in the logic of things and is therefore sure. It is because people do not understand what the Supermind is or realise the significance of the emergence of consciousness in a world of inconscient matter that they are unable to realise this inevitability.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - I,#KEYS
520:To be born as a human being is a rare thing, something to be grateful foR But being born as a human being is worthless if you spend your whole life in a mental hospital. It is worthless if you worry about not having money. It is worthless if you become neurotic because you cannot get a prestigious job. It is worthless if you weep because you lose your girlfriend. ~ Kodo Sawaki, #KEYS
521:We know the Divine and become the Divine, because we are That already in our secret nature. All teaching is a revealing, all becoming is an unfolding. Self-attainment is the secret; self-knowledge and an increasing consciousness are the means and the process.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Divine Works, The Four Aids, 54, [T5],#KEYS
522: By the Divine Consciousness we mean the spiritual consciousness to which the Divine alone exists, because all is the Divine and by which one passes beyond the Ignorance and the lower nature into unity with the Divine and the Divine Nature.
Here in the Ignorance we are not aware of the Divine and we obey the lower nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, LOY1,#KEYS
523:I think it's important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy. [With analogy] we are doing this because it's like something else that was done, or it is like what other people are doing. [With first principles] you boil things down to the most fundamental truths ... and then reason up from there. ~ Elon Musk, #KEYS
524:Abraham Maslow said that the fully realized person transcends his local group and identifies with the species. But the election of Ronald Reagan might've been the beginning of my giving up on my species. Because it was absurd. To this day it remains absurd. More than absurd, it was frightening: it represented the rise to supremacy of darkness, the ascendancy of ignorance. ~ George Carlin, #KEYS
525:As the servant and disciple of the Master has no business with pride or egoism because all is done for him from above, so also he has no right to despond because of his personal deficiencies or the stumblings of his nature. For the Force that works in him is impersonal -- or superpersonal-and infinite.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Four Aids, 61,#KEYS
526:First of all, each one has a soul, and secondly, we have the luminously strong sup port of the Mother. It is the nature of the Divine that even if you don't think of Him He thinks of you. It is true, very true; because you are part of the Divine. Only you have to concentrate consciously on that part, that portion; then gradually it will increase. ~ Nolini Kanta Gupta, To Read Sri Aurobindo, #KEYS
527:Man surprised me most about humanity. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #KEYS
528:The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory, is that conspiracy theorists believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is actually chaotic. The truth is that it is not The Iluminati, or The Jewish Banking Conspiracy, or the Gray Alien Theory. The truth is far more frightening - Nobody is in control. The world is rudderless." ~ Alan Moor, #KEYS
529:Mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphorical. It has been well said that mythology is the penultimate truth--penultimate because the ultimate cannot be put into words. It is beyond words. Beyond images, beyond that bounding rim of the Buddhist Wheel of Becoming. Mythology pitches the mind beyond that rim, to what can be known but not told. ~ Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth, #KEYS
530:People say like that [the Transcendent is something beyond Sachchidananda] because the transcendent Absolute is not only what to us is existence but also what to us is non-existence. But there is really no such thing as non-existence. So the Transcendent can be conceived as transcendent Sat, transcendent Chit, transcendent Ananda. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - I, #KEYS
531:He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother, is in the darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is no occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness hath blinded his eyes. ~ John II. 9, 11, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
532:There is an internal war in man between reason and the passions. He could get some peace if he had only reason without passions or only passions without reason, but because he has both, he must be at war, since he cannot have peace with one without being at war with the other. Thus he is always divided and in opposition to himself. ~ Buddhist Texts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
533:One should not think that a religion is true because it is old. On the contrary the more mankind lives, the more the true law of life becomes clear to it. To suppose that in our epoch one must continue to believe what our grandfa thers and ancestors believed is to think that an adult can continue to wear the garments of children ~ Tsen-tse-tsung-yung, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
534:A sage was asked, "What is the most important work? who is the man the most important in life ?" The sage replied, The most important work is to love all men, because that is the life-work of each man. The most important man is the one with whom you have to do at this moment, because you can never know whether you will have to do with another. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
535:... The undivine, therefore, is all that is unwilling to accept the light and force of the Mother. That is why I am always telling you to keep yourself in contact with the Mother and with her Light and Force, because it is only so that you can come out of this confusion and obscurity and receive the Truth that comes from above. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Mother With Letters On The Mother, #KEYS
536:It is now long since Sri Aurobindo has put up everywhere in the Ashram this reminder that you all know: 'Always behave as if the Mother was looking at you, because she is, indeed, always present.' This is not a mere phrase, not simply words, it is a fact. I am with you in a very concrete manner and they who have a subtle vision can see me.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother I, [T0],#KEYS
537:Mother, sometimes when I use my mental will to become aware of Your universal presence and to link myself with You, I feel the peace and assurance of Your touch. Mother, is it true or is it my mental construction?
In this case, it is of no importance, because there are mental constructions which can be true and which lead safely to the experience.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
538:When you fall from the contact, the first and only thing you have to do is to reestablish it - to remain quiet and open yourself. Everything else you must detach yourself from and reject. It is because you listen to ideas and suggestions of all kinds and still attach value to the old kind of "experiences", that you cannot reestablish the contact. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II, [T4], #KEYS
539:We all have the potential to show others love and affection, but as we progress in our materialistic world, these values tend to remain dormant. We can develop them on the basis of common sense, common experience and scientific findings. The response to the recent tragedy in the Philippines is an example of how such values are awakened; people helped simply because others are suffering and in need of support. ~ Dalai Lama, #KEYS
540:Having become a citizen of two worlds, the individual must act accordingly. There can be no backsliding, because the individual must reach a state of certainty before this enlightenment is given that makes it utterly and completely impossible to backslide. He cannot 'get it' and then fail and turn from it. If he turns from it, it means he never had it. If he fails, he fails himself. He cannot fail the infinite. ~ Manly P Hall, #KEYS
541:This has happened and will happen again,' said Euphorbus. 'You are not lighting a pyre, you are lighting a labyrinth of flames. If all the fires I have seen were gathered together here, they would not fit on earth and the angels would be blinded. I have said this many times.' Then he cried out, because the flames had reached him.~ Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths, Selected Stories and Other Writings, #KEYS
542:Because genius is a characteristic of consciousness, genius is also universal. That which is universal is, therefore, theoretically available to every man. The process of creativity and genius are inherent in human consciousness. Inasmuch as every human has within himself the same essence of consciousness, genius is a potential that resides within everyone. It awaits only the right circumstances to express it.
~ David R Hawkins,#KEYS
543:We believe often that the greatest force existent in the world is material force. We so think because our body, whether we will or no, feels always that force. But spiritual force, the force of thought seems to us insignificant and we do not recognise it as a force at all. Nevertheless it is there that true force resides, that which modifies our life and the life of others. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
544:One could understand if men thought themselves unequal because one is stronger, loftier than another or more intelligent or more courageous or wiser or better. But it is not so that men are commonly distinguished from each other. It is deemed that men are not equal because one is called a count and the other a peasant, because one wears rich robes and the other wooden clogs. ~ Tolstoy, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
545:Psychic life in the universe is a work of the divine Grace. Psychic growth is a work of the divine Grace and the ultimate power of the psychic being over the physical-being will also be a result of the divine Grace. And the mind, if it wants to be at all useful, has only to remain very quiet, as quiet as it can, because if it meddles in it, it is sure to spoil everything.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1955,#KEYS
546:The story of Christ, as it has been told, is the concrete and dramatic enactment of the divine sacrifice: the Supreme Lord, who is All-Light, All-Knowledge, All-Power, All-Beauty, All-Love, All-Bliss, accepting to assume human ignorance and suffering in matter, in order to help men to emerge from the falsehood in which they live and because of which they die.
~ The Mother, On Thoughts And Aphorisms, 16 June 1960,#KEYS
547:People use drugs, legal and illegal, because their lives are intolerably painful or dull. They hate their work and find no rest in their leisure. They are estranged from their families and their neighbors. It should tell us something that in healthy societies drug use is celebrative, convivial, and occasional, whereas among us it is lonely, shameful, and addictive. We need drugs, apparently, because we have lost each other. ~ Wendell Berry, #KEYS
548:Some dislike prayer; if they entered deep into their heart, they would find it was pride — worse than that, vanity. And then there are those who have no aspiration, they try and they cannot aspire; it is because they do not have the flame of the will, it is because they do not have the flame of humility. Both are needed. There must be a very great humility and a very great will to change one's Karma. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
549:Although it was unfortunate to get motor neurone disease, I have been very fortunate in almost everything else.
I have been lucky to work in theoretical physics at a fascinating time and it' s one of the few areas in which my disability was not a serious handicap.
It's also important not to become angry, no matter how difficult life may seem because you can lose all hope if you can't laugh at yourself and life in general.
~ Stephen Hawkings,#KEYS
550:The Divine Grace and Power can do anything, but with the full assent of the sadhak.
To learn to give the full assent, is the whole meaning of the sadhana. It may take time either because of ideas in the mind, desires in the vital or inertia in the physical consciousness, but these things have to be and can be removed with the aid or by calling in the action of the Divine Force.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II, [T9],#KEYS
551:The animal is satisfied with a modicum of necessity; the gods are content with their splendours. But man cannot rest permanently until he reaches some highest good. He is the greatest of living beings because he is the most discontented, because he feels most the pressure of limitations. He alone, perhaps, is capable of being seized by the divine frenzy for a remote ideal. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Man in the Universe, #KEYS
552:What are these suggestions that sometimes invade me? Do they not come from outside?
Yes, they do come from outside, from some vital entity that is amusing itself by sending them to you to see how you will receive them. I saw the suggestion passing at the time I gave you the flower. I did not attach any importance to it because it was just foolishness - but I see that you received it.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III,#KEYS
553:Witness means an observer, someone who looks on and does not act himself. So, when the mind is very quiet, one can withdraw a little from circumstances and look at things as though he were a witness, and not participating in the action himself. This gives you a great quietude, and also a very precise sense of the value of things, because it cuts the attachment to action.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1954, 13 October 1954,#KEYS
554:For the time being" here means time itself is being, and all being is time. A golden sixteen-foot body is time; because it is time, there is the radiant illumination of time. Study it as the twelve hours of the present."Three heads and eight arms" is time; because it is time, it is not separate from the twelve hours of the present. ~ Dogen Zenji, Uji - The Time-Being, https://www.thezensite.com/ZenTeachings/Dogen_Teachings/Uji_Welch.htm #KEYS
555:If you examine the highest poetry in the light of common sense, you can only say that it is rubbish; and in actual fact you cannot so examine it at all, because there is something in poetry which is not in the words themselves, which is not in the images suggested by the words 'O windy star blown sideways up the sky!' True poetry is itself a magic spell which is a key to the ineffable. ~ Aleister Crowley, Eight Lectures on Yoga, #KEYS
556:One must have a very clear memory for ideas to really understand what he says.
I am emphasising this because, unless you proceed systematically, you won't derive much benefit from this reading; it will appear to you like a maze where it is very difficult to find one's way.... All the ideas are joined at the centre, and at the circumference they go in altogether different directions. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1957-1958,#KEYS
557:Throughout the past 2500 years, whichever country Buddhism has been taught in, there have always been great yogis. Likewise, sooner or later there will be the great yogis of the West. This is because Buddhism has nothing to do with culture, gender, language, or colour. Buddhism is for all beings throughout time and space. And whoever dedicates their life to putting the teachings into practice will become a great yogi. It is as simple as that. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche, #KEYS
558:If I work I feel all right, but the fatigue comes after that. Why? What to do?
It is because you are receptive to the force when you work and that sustains you. But when you are not under the strain of the work you are less receptive. You must learn to be receptive in all circumstances and always - especially when you take rest - it must not be the 'rest' of inertia but a true rest of receptivity.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
559:I have strayed like a lost sheep seeking outside me that which was within. I have run about the streets and places of the world, this great city, seeking Thee and I have not found Thee because I sought Thee ill and came not to the place where Thou wert. Thou wert within me and I sought thee without; Thou wert near and I sought thee at a distance, and if I had gone where Thou wert, I should immediately have met Thee. ~ id, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
560:One of the things that struck me as near miraculous about music, especially in a rather nihilistic and atheistic society, is that it really does fill the void which was left by the death of God. And it's because you cannot rationally critique music. It speaks to you, it speaks of meaning, and no matter what you say about it, no matter how cynical you are, you cannot put a crowbar underneath that and toss it aside. ~ Jordan Peterson, Drinking from the firehose with Howard Bloom, #KEYS
561:There is no magic drug which will by itself have the required effect. Rather drugs can be used in small doses to heighten the effect of excitation caused by the method already discussed. In all cases a large dose leads to depression, confusion and a general loss of control. Inhibitory drugs must be considered with even more caution because of their inherent danger. They often simply sever the life force and body altogether.
~ Peter J Carroll, Liber Null, Liber LUX, Gnosis [34-35],#KEYS
562:Why does an apple fall when it is ripe? Is it brought down by the force of gravity? Is it because its stalk withers? Because it is dried by the sun, because it grows too heavy, or because the boy standing under the tree wants to eat it? None of these is the cause.... Every action of theirs, that seems to them an act of their own freewill is in the historical sense not free at all but is bound up with the whole course of history and preordained from all eternity.
~ Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,#KEYS
563:You cannot do anything alone. You must put yourself into the hands of the Divine Grace. When you feel lonely, miserable, and upset, at once you should call the Divine Grace and pray sincerely to the Grace to help and to do everything for you, because it is the Divine Grace which can do everything.
If you put everything into the hands of the Divine Grace, and worry less, you will be all right much quicker. 09-03-1957. ~ The Mother, MOTHER YOU SAID SO, BY HUTA (Page no.45),#KEYS
564: uh i didn't so that was a funny story i ended up in the er and then like they were saying you're malnouished because i didn't have time to eat. i forgot to eat. so even when i was sleeping i would turn on the like a ted talks or npr so i can like listen my brain still kept working and even when i was sleeping i would put the books behind my pillow so the like knowledge really going to me i was obsessed i was crazy you were obsessed with yeah i was i was completely obsessed with the learning ~ Yeonmi Park, #KEYS
565:This is how it works. I love the people in my life, and I do for my friends whatever they need me to do for them, again and again, as many times as is necessary. For example, in your case you always forgot who you are and how much you're loved. So what I do for you as your friend is remind you who you are and tell you how much I love you. And this isn't any kind of burden for me, because I love who you are very much. Every time I remind you, I get to remember with you, which is my pleasure. ~ James Lecesne, #KEYS
566:Man is a transitional being, he is not final; for in him and high beyond him ascend the radiant degrees which climb to a divine supermanhood. The step from man towards superman is the next approaching achievement in the earth's evolution. There lies our destiny and the liberating key to our aspiring, but troubled and limited human existence - inevitable because it is at once the intention of the inner Spirit and the logic of Nature's process. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays Divine And Human, #KEYS
567:To me any activity is more important than its cost to me, even if the cost is unreasonable. Money should never be the criterion for such decisions. If we say we can't have something because of its cost, we limit our receptivity to the Grace and hamper its workings. Money is only a medium of exchange, it is all relative and the Divine resources are inexhaustible. Is this attitude a correct one?
You are quite right and I approve of your attitude.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III,#KEYS
568:I have learnt all that was hidden and all that was yet undiscovered because I was taught by wisdom herself that created everything. For there is in her a spirit of intelligence which is holy, unique, multiple in her effects, fine, copious, agile, spotless, dear, soft, friendly to good, penetrant, which nothing can prevent from acting, benevolent, friendly to men, kind, stable, infallible, calm, that achieves all, that sees all, that can comprehend all minds in itself, that is intelligible, pure and subtle. ~ Book of Wisdom, #KEYS
569:Thus, I came to the conclusion that the designer of a new system must not only be the implementor and the first large-scale user; the designer should also write the first user manual. The separation of any of these four components would have hurt TeX significantly. If I had not participated fully in all these activities, literally hundreds of improvements would never have been made, because I would never have thought of them or perceived why they were important. ~ Donald Knuth, The Errors Of TeX, #KEYS
570:What is to be done if a person comes to quarrel because one has accepted in one case and refused in another? What is to be done to avoid such bitterness around one, provoked by repeated refusals?
As for ill-will, jealousy, quarrels and reproaches, one must sincerely be above all that and reply with a benevolent smile to the bitterest words; and unless one is absolutely sure of himself and his reactions, it would be better, as a general rule, to keep silent.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
571:Natural consciousness will prove itself to be only knowledge in principle or not real knowledge. Since, however, it immediately takes itself to be the real and genuine knowledge, this pathway has a negative significance for it; what is a realization of the notion of knowledge means for it rather the ruin and overthrow of itself; for on this road it loses its own truth. Because of that, the road can be looked on as the path of doubt, or more properly a highway of despair. ~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit, #KEYS
572:What is the good of words if they aren't important enough to quarrel over? Why do we choose one word more than another if there isn't any difference between them? If you called a woman a chimpanzee instead of an angel, wouldn't there be a quarrel about a word? If you're not going to argue about words, what are you going to argue about? Are you going to convey your meaning to me by moving your ears? The Church and the heresies always used to fight about words, because they are the only thing worth fighting about. ~ G K Chesterton, #KEYS
573:You are here now, I mean on earth, because you once chose to be - you don't remember it, but I know; that's why you are here. Well, you must stand up to the task. You must make an effort, you must conquer pettiness and limitations, and above all tell the ego: your time is over. We want a race without ego, with the divine consciousness in place of the ego. That's what we want: the divine consciousness, which will enable the race to develop and the superman to be born.
~ The Mother, Agenda Vol 13, Satprem,#KEYS
574:In tonglen practice, when we see or feel suffering, we breathe in with the notion of completely feeling it, accepting it, and owning it. Then we breathe out, radiating compassion, lovingkindness, freshness - anything that encourages relaxation and openness. So you're training in softening, rather than tightening, your heart. In this practice, it's not uncommon to find yourself blocked, because you come face to face with your own fear, resistance, or whatever your personal "stuckness" happens to be at that moment. ~ Pema Chodron, #KEYS
575:True humility is humility before the Divine, that is, a precise, exact, living sense that one is nothing, one can do nothing, understand nothing without the Divine, that even if one is exceptionally intelligent and capable, this is nothing in comparison with the divine Consciousness, and this sense one must always keep, because then one always has the true attitude of receptivity - a humble receptivity that does not put personal pretensions in opposition to the Divine. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1953, #KEYS
576:The sentiment du déjà vu is based, as I have found in a number of cases, on foreknowledge in dreams, but we saw that this foreknowledge can also occur in the waking state. In such cases mere chance becomes highly improbable because the coincidence is known in advance. It thus loses its chance character not only psychologically and subjectively, but objectively too, since the accumulation of details that coincide immeasurably increases the improbability of chance as a determining factor.
~ Carl Jung, An Acasual Connecting Principle,#KEYS
577:All of the various types of teachings and spiritual paths are related to the different capacities of understanding that different individuals have. There does not exist, from an absolute point of view, any teaching which is more perfect or effective than another. A teaching's value lies solely in the inner awakening which an individual can arrive at through it. If a person benefits from a given teaching, for that person that teaching is the supreme path, because it is suited to his or her nature and capacities. ~ Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, #KEYS
578:MAGIC is the Highest, most Absolute, and most Divine Knowledge of Natural Philosophy, advanced in its works and wonderful operations by a right understanding of the inward and occult virtue of things; so that true Agents 2 being applied to proper Patients, 3 strange and admirable effects will thereby be produced. Whence magicians are profound and diligent searchers into Nature; they, because of their skill, know how to anticipate an effort, 4 the which to the vulgar shall seem to be a miracle.
~ King Solomon, Lesser Key Of The Goetia,#KEYS
579:The presence of the Spirit is there in every living being, on every level, in all things, and because it is there, the experience of Sachchidananda, of the pure spiritual existence and consciousness, of the delight of a divine presence, closeness, contact can be acquired through the mind or the heart or the life-sense or even through the physical consciousness; if the inner doors are flung sufficiently open, the light from the sanctuary can suffuse the nearest and the farthest chambers of the outer being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine #KEYS
580:To read Savitri is to witness a tremendous adventure in the interior realms; to witness and participate in a multidimensional quest. Because Savitri is cast in the mould of epic poetry or mahakavya, the requisite state of mind is one of openness and humility, similar to that of prayer. Each word and each phrase should ring in a 'solitude and an immensity', be heard in the 'listening spaces of the soul' and the 'inner acoustic space', and be seized by the deeper self when the mantric evocations come into effect. ~ Murali Sivaramakrishnan, #KEYS
581:The true occultist wants nothing but wisdom. When Solomon raised his hands to his God, Jehovah spoke from the heavens asking him what he would have, and he answered, "God give me the gift of wisdom." Jehovah asked him if there were not other things he desired, but Solomon answered, "No, only wisdom." And God told Solomon that because he had asked only for wisdom that all the other things should be added unto him and that from this day to the end of the world there would never be another king so rich, so great, or so blest. ~ Manly P Hall, #KEYS
582:That all opposites-such as mass and energy, subject and object, life and death-are so much each other that they are perfectly inseparable, still strikes most of us as hard to believe. But this is only because we accept as real the boundary line between the opposites. It is, recall, the boundaries themselves which create the seeming existence of separate opposites. To put it plainly, to say that 'ultimate reality is a unity of opposites' is actually to say that in ultimate reality there are no boundaries. Anywhere.
~ Ken Wilber, No Boundary,#KEYS
583:Don't appeal to mercy to God the Father up in the sky, little man, because he's not at home and never was at home, and couldn't care less. What you do with yourself, whether you are happy or unhappy-- live or die-- is strictly your business and the universe doesn't care. In fact you may be the universe and the only cause of all your troubles. But, at best, the most you can hope for is comradeship with comrades no more divine (or just as divine) as you are. So quit sniveling and face up to it-- 'Thou art God!'
~ Robert Heinlein, Oct. 21, 1960.,#KEYS
584:the one thing needful :::
It is the lesson of life that always in this world everything fails a man - only the Divine does not fail him, if he turns entirely towards the Divine. It is not because there is something bad in you that blows fall on you - blows fall on all human beings because they are full of desire for things that cannot last and they lose them or, even if they get, it brings disappointment and cannot satisfy them. To turn to the Divine is the only truth in life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - IV,#KEYS
585:To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one's self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived~this is to have succeeded. ~ Bessie Anderson Stanley, #KEYS
586:Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. ~ Apple Inc., #KEYS
587:To learn how to will is a very important thing. And to will truly, you must first unify your being. ... And when you have a will, you will be able to say, say to the Divine: I want what You want. But not before that . Because in order to want what the Divine wants, you must have a will, otherwise you can will nothing at all. You would like to. You would like it very much. You would very much like to want what the Divine wants to do. You dont possess a will to give to Him and to put at His service.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1954,#KEYS
588:The only way out of your difficulty is to find the psychic being and to live entirely in its consciousness. Life upon earth as it is now is full of miseries and any sensitive heart is full of sorrow because of that. To get in contact with the Divine Consciousness and to live in its mercy, its strength and its light is the only truly effective way to get out of this difficulty and suffering and by uniting with the psychic we can obtain this condition. My help and blessings are with you for this purpose.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
589:It hurts to let go. Sometimes it seems the harder you try to hold on to something or someone the more it wants to get away. You feel like some kind of criminal for having felt, for having wanted. For having wanted to be wanted. It confuses you, because you think that your feelings were wrong and it makes you feel so small because it's so hard to keep it inside when you let it out and it doesn't come back. You're left so alone that you can't explain. Damn, there's nothing like that, is there? I've been there and you have too. You're nodding your head. ~ Henry Rollins, #KEYS
590:Money, after all, is an abstract artifact, like language - merely symbolized by the paper or coin or whatever. If you can fully grasp its abstractedness, especially in the computer age, it becomes quite clear that no group can monopolize this abstraction, except through a series of swindle. If the usurers had been bolder, they might have monopolized language as well as currency, and people would be saying we can't write more books because we don't have enough words, the way they now say we can't build starships, because we don't have enough money. ~ Robert Anton Wilson, #KEYS
591:I have learnt all that was hidden and all that was yet undiscovered because I was taught by wisdom herself that created everything. For there is in her a spirit of intelligence which is holy, unique, multiple in her effects, fine, copious, agile, spotless, dear, soft, friendly to good, penetrant, which nothing can prevent from acting, benevolent, friendly to men, kind, stable, infallible, calm, that achieves all, that sees all, that can comprehend all minds in itself, that is intelligible, pure and subtle. ~ Book of Wisdom, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
592:The Prophet related that when Allah loves the voice of His slave when he makes supplication to Him, He delays the answer to his supplication so that the slave will repeat the supplication.
This comes from His love for the slave, not because He has turned away from him. For that reason, the Prophet mentioned the name of the Wise, and the Wise is the one who puts everything in its proper place, and who does not turn away from the qualities which their realities necessitate and demand; so the Wise is the One who knows the order of things. ~ Ibn Arabi,#KEYS
593:17. Freedom to Live:The hero is the champion of things becoming, not of things become, because he is. "Before Abraham was, I AM." He does not mistake apparent changelessness in time for the permanence of Being, nor is he fearful of the next moment (or of the 'other thing'), as destroying the permanent with its change. 'Nothing retains its own form; but Nature, the greater renewer, ever makes up forms from forms. Be sure that nothing perishes in the whole universe; it does but vary and renew its form.' Thus the next moment is permitted to come to pass. ~ Joseph Campbell, #KEYS
594:God is the one goal of all our passions and emotions. If you want to be angry, be angry with Him. Chide your Beloved, chide your Friend. Whom else can you safely chide? Mortal man will not patiently put up with your anger; there will be a reaction. If you are angry with me I am sure quickly to react, because I cannot patiently put up with your anger. Say unto the Beloved, "Why do You not come to me; why do You leave me thus alone?" Where is there any enjoyment but in Him? What enjoyment can there be in little clods of earth? ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
595:Masturbation is not the happiest form of sexuality, but the most advisable for him who wants to be alone and think. I detect the aroma of this pleasant vice in most philosophers, and a happily married logicians is almost a contradiction in terms. So many sages have regarded Woman as temptress because fornication often leads to marriage, which usually leads to children, which always leads to a respectable job and pretending to believe the idiocies your neighbors believe. The hypocrisy of the sages has been to conceal their timid onanism and call it celibacy. ~ Robert Anton Wilson, #KEYS
596:To merely gaze upon the images of alchemy, is to in a sense, enter into a kind of psychoanalytical process because what alchemy was, and I should stress this or the rap makes no sense at all alchemy was not the vulgar pursuit of the transmutation of lesser metals into gold or silver. That was the charlatan's game played in every market in Europe for centuries among the simple people. Alchemy is the body of symbols and of literature that accreted around the effort to extract a universal medicine out of Nature for the transformation of societies and human beings. ~ Terence McKenna, #KEYS
597:But you must remember one thing. One cannot see God sporting as man unless one has had the vision of Him. Do you know the sign of one who has God-vision? Such a man acquires the nature of a child. Why a child? Because God is like a child. So he who sees God becomes like a child.
God-vision is necessary. Now the question is, how can one get it? Intense renunciation is the means. A man should have such intense yearning for God that he can say, 'O Father of the universe, am I outside Your universe? Won't You be kind to me, You wretch? ~ Sri Ramakrishna,#KEYS
598:That all-pervading Beauty is not an exercise in creative imagination. It is the actual structure of the universe. That all-pervading Beauty is in truth the very nature of the Kosmos right now. It is not something you have to imagine, because it is the actual structure of perception in all domains. If you remain in the eye of Spirit, every object is an object of radiant Beauty. If the doors of perception are cleansed, the entire Kosmos is your lost and found Beloved, the Original Face of primordial Beauty, forever,and forever, and endlessly forever. ~ Ken Wilber, The Eye Of Spirit, p. 138, #KEYS
599:That's a very, very strange thing. It's one of the most unsettling things about the psychoanalytic theories. The psychoanalytic theories are something like, 'you're a loose collection of living subpersonalities, each with its own set of motivations, perceptions, emotions, and rationales, and you have limited control over that.' You're like a plurality of internal personalities that's loosely linked into a unity. You know that, because you can't control yourself very well-which is one of Jung's objections to Nietzsche's idea that we can create our own values. ~ Jordan Peterson, Biblical Series, 1, #KEYS
600:Perfection is one way to approach the Divine; Unity is another. But Perfection is a global approach: all is there and all is as it should be-that is to say, the perfect expression of the Divine (you can't even say 'of His Will,' because that still implies something apart, something emanating from Him!).
It could be put like this (but it brings it down considerably): He is what He is and exactly as He wants to be. The 'exactly as He wants to be' takes us down quite a few steps, but it still gives an idea of what I mean by 'perfection'!
~ The Mother, Agenda Vol 02, Satprem,#KEYS
601:... What you should do, is always to reject the lower experiences and concentrate on a fixed and quiet aspiration towards the one thing needed, the Light, the Calm, the Peace, the Devotion that you felt for two or three days. It is because you get interested in the lower vital experiences and in observing and thinking about them that they take hold, and then comes the absence of the Contact and the confusion. You have surely had enough of this kind of experience already and should make up your mind to steadily reject it when it comes.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II,#KEYS
602:The connection between you and the Mother is there and has always existed. Inside it is very evident and, when you are in the psychic condition, that which is inside begins to work. It is only the physical mind that suggests the idea to the contrary because outward circumstances are still inharmonious and unfavourable. Do not allow these suggestions to sway you. Seek the connection within you in your psychic being; then even through the outward circumstances it will shine out and change all into oneness.
5 June 1936 ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Mother With Letters On The Mother,#KEYS
603:If something wrong happens, at once repeat my name- "Ma" "Ma" ..... Indeed it is like a meditation. Whenever you repeat the name of the Divine, you must always feel that the Divine is in your heart -- there you can feel sweetness and peace. No doubt, sometimes you do not feel the Divine's presence and peace, it is because your consciousness is entangled in the mind full of illusions. But you must understand that the hostile forces are false and the divine Forces are true. You must also develop your consciousness towards the divine Light. ~ The Mother, MOTHER YOU SAID SO....., Huta, #KEYS
604:The reason why you do not touch fire is because you know that it will cause you to suffer. Likewise, if you truly understand karma, you will not commit a single negative action, because unless that negative karma is purified, you know that it will eventually ripen into suffering.
You might forget this natural process, or you might not believe in it, because the ripening does not always happen immediately. But your karma will follow you like your shadow, that gets closer and closer without you realising, until you are eventually touched by it. Please, I urge you to always remember this. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche,#KEYS
605:Television, radio, and all the sources of amusement and information that surround us in our daily lives are also artificial props. They can give us the impression that our minds are active, because we are required to react to stimuli from the outside. But the power of those external stimuli to keep us going is limited. They are like drugs. We grow used to them, and we continuously need more and more of them. Eventually, they have little or no effect. Then, if we lack resources within ourselves, we cease to grow intellectually, morally, and spiritually. And we we cease to grow, we begin to die. ~ Mortimer J Adler, #KEYS
606:Destroy the ego by seeking its identity.
Because the ego is no entity
it will automatically vanish
and Reality will shine forth by itself.
This is the direct method.
Whereas all other methods are done,
only retaining the ego.
In those paths there arise so many doubts
and the eternal question remains to be tackled finally.
But in this method
the final question is the only one
and it is raised from the very beginning.
No sadhanas are necessary
for engaging in this quest. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talk 146#KEYS
607:And yet, and yet... Denying temporal succession, denying the self, denying the astronomical universe, are apparent desperations and secret consolations. Our destiny ... is not frightful by being unreal; it is frightful because it is irreversible and iron-clad. Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire. The world, unfortunately, is real; I, unfortunately, am Borges.~ Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths, Selected Stories and Other Writings, #KEYS
608:People pontificate, Suicide is selfishness. Career churchmen like Pater go a step further and call in a cowardly assault on the living. Oafs argue this specious line for varying reason: to evade fingers of blame, to impress one's audience with one's mental fiber, to vent anger, or just because one lacks the necessary suffering to sympathize. Cowardice is nothing to do with it - suicide takes considerable courage. Japanese have the right idea. No, what's selfish is to demand another to endure an intolerable existence, just to spare families, friends, and enemies a bit of soul-searching.
~ David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas,#KEYS
609:This light of history is pitiless; it has a strange and divine quality that, luminous as it is, and precisely because it is luminous, often casts a shadow just where we saw a radiance; out of the same man it makes two different phantoms, and the one attacks and punishes the other, the darkness of the despot struggles with the splendor of the captain. Hence a truer measure in the final judgment of the nations. Babylon violated diminishes Alexander; Rome enslaved diminishes Caesar; massacred Jerusalem diminishes Titus. Tyranny follows the tyrant. Woe to the man who leaves behind a shadow that bears his form. ~ Vicktor Hugo, #KEYS
610:It will generally be found that, as soon as the terrors of life reach the point at which they outweigh the terrors of death, a man will put an end to his life. But the terrors of death offer considerable resistance; they stand like a sentinel at the gate leading out of this world. Perhaps there is no man alive who would not have already put an end to his life, if this end had been of a purely negative character, a sudden stoppage of existence. There is something positive about it; it is the destruction of the body; and a man shrinks from that, because his body is the manifestation of the will to live. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #KEYS
611:The other day I happened to be reading a careful, interesting account of the state of British higher education. The government is a kind of market-oriented government and they came out with an official paper, a 'White Paper' saying that it is not the responsibility of the state to support any institution that can't survive in the market. So, if Oxford is teaching philosophy, the arts, Greek history, medieval history, and so on, and they can't sell it on the market, why should they be supported? Because life consists only of what you can sell in the market and get back, nothing else. That is a real pathology. ~ Noam Chomsky, #KEYS
612:The One whom we adore as the Mother is the divine Conscious Force that dominates all existence, one and yet so many-sided that to follow her movement is impossible even for the quickest mind and for the freest and most vast intelligence. The Mother is the consciousness and force of the Supreme and far above all she creates. But something of her ways can be seen and felt through her embodiments and the more seizable because more defined and limited temperament and action of the goddess forms in whom she consents to be manifest to her creatures. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Mother With Letters On The Mother, [T4], #KEYS
613:The simple fact is that we live in a world of conflict and opposites because we live in a world of boundaries. Since every boundary line is also a battle line, here is the human predicament: the firmer one's boundaries, the more entrenched are one's battles. The more I hold onto pleasure, the more I necessarily fear pain. The more I pursue goodness, the more I am obsessed with evil. The more I seek success, the more I must dread failure. The harder I cling to life, the more terrifying death becomes. The more I value anything, the more obsessed I become with its loss. Most of our problems, in other words, are problems of boundaries ~ ?, #KEYS
614:Krishna represents both the universal Godhead and the immanent Godhead, he whom one can meet within one's being and in all that constitutes the manifested world.
And do you want to know why he is always represented as a child? It is because he is in constant progression. To the extent that the world is perfected, his play is also perfected - what was the play of yesterday will no longer be the play of tomorrow; his play will become more and more harmonious, benign and joyful to the extent that the world becomes capable of responding to it and enjoying it with the Divine.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III, 33,#KEYS
615:Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels' hierarchies?
And even if one of them pressed me suddenly against his heart:
I would be consumed in that overwhelming existence.
For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, which we are still just able to endure,
And we are so awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us.
Every angel is terrifying.
And so I hold myself back and swallow the call-note of my dark sobbing.
Ah, whom can we ever turn to in our need?
Not angels, not humans, and already the knowing animals are aware
That we are not really at home in our interpreted world. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke,#KEYS
616:There are only three fundamental obstacles that can stand in the way: (1) Absence of faith or insufficient faith. (2) Egoism - the mind clinging to its own ideas, the vital preferring its own desires to a true surrender, the physical adhering to its own habits. (3) Some inertia or fundamental resistance in the consciousness, not willing to change because it is too much of an effort or because it does not want to believe in its own capacity or the power of the Divine - or for some other more subconscient reason. You have to see for yourself which of these it is.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - III, Difficulties of the Path,#KEYS
617:What Brahman is cannot be described in words. Somebody once said that everything in the world has been made impure, like food that has touched the tongue, and that Brahman alone remains undefiled. The meaning is this: All scriptures and holy books — the Vedas, the Puranas, the Tantras, and so forth — may be said to have been defiled because their contents have been uttered by the tongues of men; but what Brahman is no tongue has yet been able to describe. Therefore Brahman is still undefiled. One cannot describe in words the joy of play and communion with Satchidananda. He alone knows, who has realized it. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
618:How to open to the Mother? The following are the means:
(1) To remember You constantly or from time to time--
Good.
(2) By taking Your name through Japa [mantra; repeating the Mother's name]--
Helpful.
(3) With the help of meditation--
More difficult if one has not the habit of meditation.
(4) By conversation about You with those who love and respect You--
Risky because, when talking, often some nonsense or at least some useless things can be said.
(5) By reading Your books--
Good.
(6) By spending time in thoughts of You--
Very good.
(7) By sincere prayers--
Good. ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
619:Indeed, some of the problems commonly engaging the attention of philosophical thought appear to be deprived, not only of all importance, but of any meaning as well; a host of problems arise resting solely upon some ambiguity or upon a confusion of points of view, problems that only exist in fact because they are badly expressed, and that normally should not arise at all. In most cases therefore, it would in itself be sufficient to set these problems forth correctly in order to cause them to disappear, were it not that philosophy has an interest in keeping them alive, since it thrives largely upon ambiguities. ~ Rene Guenon, Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines, #KEYS
620:All literature consists of whatever the writer thinks is cool. The reader will like the book to the degree that he agrees with the writer about what's cool. And that works all the way from the external trappings to the level of metaphor, subtext, and the way one uses words. In other words, I happen not to think that full-plate armor and great big honking greatswords are cool. I don't like 'em. I like cloaks and rapiers. So I write stories with a lot of cloaks and rapiers in 'em, 'cause that's cool. Guys who like military hardware, who think advanced military hardware is cool, are not gonna jump all over my books, because they have other ideas about what's cool. ~ Stephen Brust, #KEYS
621:The first proof of ignorance is selfishness, which includes what we term self-centeredness. To be selfish is to violate the basic principles of our kind. Yet, for ages the majority of mortals have considered selfishness a virtue. Those who are selfish then reveal a further degree of benightedness because those who are ignorant and selfish are also possessive. The desire to control, own, accumulate, and overshadow, is a common fault. It is unfortunately true that a common fault does not become a virtue merely because it is frequently indulged. If men were not selfish and possessive, there would be slight cause for war, crime, and poverty. ~ Manly P Hall, (HORIZON Summer 1955, p.6), #KEYS
622:There is a period, more or less prolonged, of internal effort and struggle in which the individual will has to reject the darkness and distortions of the lower nature and to put itself resolutely or vehemently on the side of the divine Light. The mental energies, the heart's emotions, the vital desires, the very physical being have to be compelled into the right attitude or trained to admit and answer to the right influences. It is only then, only when this has been truly done, that the surrender of the lower to the higher can be effected, because the sacrifice has become acceptable.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Four Aids, 61, [T0],#KEYS
623:Although there is a difference of procedure between a Shaman of the Tungas and a Catholic prelate of Europe or between a coarse and sensual Vogul and a Puritan Independent of Connecticut, there is no difference in the principle of their creeds; for they all belong to the same category of people whose religion consists not in becoming better, but in believing in and carrying out certain arbitrary regulations. Only those who believe that the worship of God consists in aspiring to a better life differ from the first because they recognize quite another and certainly a loftier principle uniting all men of good faith in an invisible temple which alone can be the universal temple. ~ Immanuel Kant, #KEYS
624:The person who has allowed himself to develop certain mental habits finds that attitudes can be just as much addiction as narcotics. Someone who would not under any conditions become an alcoholic can become so completely sickened by his own habitual negative thinking, that many people around him wish he would become alcoholic as the lesser of two evils. It is hard to cure an alcoholic, although Alcoholics Anonymous can do it sometimes; but the individual who falls too deeply into some of the traps of his own thinking is practically incurable because he has warped all perspective and has no real desire to make any change in himself. ~ Manly P Hall, (Change Yourself and You Change All 1969, p.7), #KEYS
625:And so, please practice! Please let that be your guide. And I believe that you will find, if your practice matures, that Spirit will reach down and bless your every word and deed, and you will be taken quite beyond yourself, and the Divine will blaze with the light of a thousand suns, and glories upon glories will be given unto you, and you will in every way be home. And then, despite all your excuses and all your objections, you will find the obligation to communicate your vision. And precisely because of that, you and I will find each other. And that will be the real return of Spirit to itself. ~ Ken Wilber, Interview, Bodhisattvas will have to turn to politics, Interview with Frank Visser, 1995, #KEYS
626:Now is the time to get serious about living your ideals. How long can you afford to put off who you really want to be? Your nobler self cannot wait any longer. Put your principles into practice - now. Stop the excuses and the procrastination. This is your life! You aren't a child anymore. The sooner you set yourself to your spiritual program, the happier you will be. The longer you wait, the more you'll be vulnerable to mediocrity and feel filled with shame and regret, because you know you are capable of better. From this instant on, vow to stop disappointing yourself. Separate yourself from the mob. Decide to be extraordinary and do what you need to do - now.
~ Epictetus,#KEYS
627:
Sweet Mother, You have written: So long as you have to renounce anything, you are not on this path. But doesn't all renunciation begin when one is on the path?
What I call being on the path is being in a state of consciousness in which only union with the Divine has any value - this union is the only thing worth living, the sole object of aspiration. Everything else has lost all value and is not worth seeking, so there is no longer any question of renouncing it because it is no longer an object of desire. As long as union with the Divine is not the thing for which one lives, one is not yet on the path. 21 April 1965
~ The Mother, Some Answers From The Mother,#KEYS
628:Vainly the sands of Time have been strewn with the ruins of empires,
Signs that the gods had left, but in vain. For they look for a nation,
One that can conquer itself having conquered the world, but they find none. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems: Ilion
Self-conquest
When one conquers a difficulty or goes forward, it creates a right current in the atmosphere. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV: The Right Attitude towards Difficulties
Self-Conquest
Self-denial is a necessary discipline for the soul of man, because his heart is ignorantly attached. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Renunciation,#KEYS
629:Your time is your life, and your life is your capital: by it you make your trade, and by it you will reach the eternal bounties in the proximity of Allah. Every single breath of yours is a priceless jewel, because it is irreplaceable; once it is gone, there is no return for it. So do not be like fools who rejoice each day as their wealth increases while their lives decrease. What good is there in wealth that increases while one's lifespan decreases?
Do not rejoice except in an increase of knowledge or an increase of good works. Truly they are your two friends who will accompany you in your grave, when your spouse, your wealth, your children, and your friends will remain behind. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali?,#KEYS
630:The Names of Allah are endless because they are known by what comes from them, and what comes from them is endless, even though they can be traced back to the limited roots which are the matrices of the Names or the presences of the Names. In reality, there is but one of the Names or the presences of the Names. In reality, there is but One Reality which assumes all these relations and aspects which are designated by the Divine Names. The Reality grants that each of the Names, which manifest themselves without end, has a reality by which it is distinguished from another Name. It is that reality by which it is distinguished which is the Name itself - not that which it shares. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
631:Mother, if there is a part in one's nature that does not open, what is the method of aspiring so that this part may open?
You may aspire that this part may open - let the part that is open aspire for the other to open. It will open after a certain time; one must continue, persist. That is the only thing to do. There is something that does not want it, an acute resistance there, which does not want it. It is like a stubborn child: "I don't want it, I shall remain what I am, I won't move."... It does not say, "I am pleased with myself", because it does not dare. But the truth is it is quite self-satisfied, it does not budge. ~ The Mother, Question and Answers, Volume-6, page no.116),#KEYS
632:The ego cannot see where it is being led; it revolts against the leading, loses confidence, loses courage. These failings would not matter; for the divine Guide within is not offended by our revolt, not discouraged by our want of faith or repelled by our weakness; he has the entire love of the mother and the entire patience of the teacher. But by withdrawing our assent from the guidance we lose the consciousness, though not all the actuality-not, in any case, the eventuality -of its benefit. And we withdraw our assent because we fail to distinguish our higher Self from the lower through which he is preparing his self-revelation.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Four Aids, 64,#KEYS
633:Although, with insight and good will, the shadow can to some extent be assimilated into the conscious personality, experience shows that there are certain features which offer the most obstinate resistance to moral control and prove almost impossible to influence. These resistances are usually bound up with projections, which are not recognized as such, and their recognition is a moral achievement beyond the ordinary. While some traits peculiar to the shadow can be recognized without too much difficulty as one's personal qualities, in this case both insight and good will are unavailing because the cause of the emotion appears to lie, beyond all possibility of doubt, in the other person. ~ Carl Jung, CW 9ii, par. 16., #KEYS
634:t is not for nothing that our age calls for the redeemer personality, for the one who can emancipate himself from the inescapable grip of the collective and save at least his own soul, who lights a beacon of hope for others, proclaiming that here is at least one man who has succeeded in extricating himself from that fatal identity with the group psyche. For the group, because of its unconsciousness, has no freedom of choice, so psychic activity runs on in it like an uncontrolled law of nature. There is thus set going a chain reaction that comes to a stop only in catastrophe. The people always long for a hero, a slayer of dragons, when they feel the danger of psychic forces: hence the cry for personality. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
635:The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses. The press is so powerful in its image-making role, it can make the criminal look like he's a the victim and make the victim look like he's the criminal. This is the press, an irresponsible press. It will make the criminal look like he's the victim and make the victim look like he's the criminal. If you aren't careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. ... This is sort of a propaganda tactic that I would call psychological warfare. ~ Malcolm X, #KEYS
636:Every painful event contains in itself a seed of growth and liberation. In the light of this truth return to your life now and take a look at one or another of the events that you are not grateful for, and see if you can discover the potential for growth that they contain which you were unaware of and therefore failed to benefit from. Now think of some recent event that caused you pain, that produced negative feelings in you. Whoever or whatever caused those feelings was your teacher, because they revealed so much to you about yourself that you probably did not know. And they offered you an invitation and a challenge to self-understanding, self-discovery, and therefore to growth and life and freedom. ~ Anthony de Mello, #KEYS
637:Did you know that when a guy comes, he comes 200 million sperm? And you're trying to tell me that your child is special because one out of 200 million -- that load! we're talking one load! -- connected. Gee, what are the fucking odds? 200 million; you know what that means? I have wiped civilizations off my chest with a gray gym sock. That is special. Entire nations have flaked and crusted in the hair around my navel! That is special. And I want you to remember that, you two egg-carrying beings out there, with that holier-than-thou "we have the gift of life" attitude. I've tossed universes...in my underpants...while napping! Boom! A milky way shoots into my jockey shorts, "Aaaah, what's for fucking breakfast? ~ Bill Hicks, #KEYS
638:Out of all the sciences... the ancients, in their studies, especially selected seven to be mastered by those who were to be educated. These seven they considered so to excel all the rest in usefulness that anyone who had been thoroughly schooled in them might afterward come to knowledge of the others by his own inquiry and effort rather than by listening to a teacher. For these, one might say, constitute the best instruments, the best rudiments, by which the way is prepared for the mind's complete knowledge of philosophic truth. Therefore they are called by the name trivium and quadrivium, because by them, as by certain ways (viae), a quick mind enters into the secret places of wisdom. ~ Hugh of Saint Victor, Didascalicon, #KEYS
639:If a division of works has to be made, it is between those that are nearest to the heart of the sacred flame and those that are least touched or illumined by it because they are more at a distance, or between the fuel that burns strongly or brightly and the logs that if too thickly heaped on the altar may impede the ardour of the fire by their damp, heavy and diffused abundance. But otherwise, apart from this division, all activities of knowledge that seek after or express Truth are in themselves rightful materials for a complete offering ; none ought necessarily to be excluded from the wide framework of the divine life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Ascent of the Sacrifice - 1, 141, #KEYS
640:The Kingdom is most powerful where we least expect to find it. God does not take away our problems and trials but rather joins us in them. Such is the profound meaning of the incarnation: God becoming a human being. The Kingdom will manifest itself, not because of our efforts to keep trying, even when all effort seems hopeless, but because God loves us so much that God won't be able to stand seeing us struggle and always failing. God will do the impossible. He will give us a new attitude toward suffering. Such is the heart of the Christian ascesis, or self-discipline, and the mystery of transformation. It is the meaning of the Gospel as Therese perceived it. ~ Thomas Keating, St. Therese of Lisieux: A Transformation in Christ, #KEYS
641:The dream is evidently an indication of the difficulty you are experiencing. The sea is the sea of the vital nature whose flood is pursuing you (desires are the sea water) on your road of sadhana.
The Mother is there in your heart but sleeping - i.e. her power has not become conscious in your inner consciousness because she is surrounded by the thin curtain of skin (the obscurity of the physical nature). It is this (it is not thick any longer but still effective to veil her from you) which has to go so that she may awake. It is a matter of persistence in the will and the endeavour - the response from within, the awaking of the Mother in the heart will come. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - III,#KEYS
642:Although there is a difference of procedure between a Shaman of the Tungas and a Catholic prelate of Europe or between a coarse and sensual Vogul and a Puritan Independent of Connecticut, there is no difference in the principle of their creeds; for they all belong to the same category of people whose religion consists not in becoming better, but in believing in and carrying out certain arbitrary regulations. Only those who believe that the worship of God consists in aspiring to a better life differ from the first because they recognize quite another and certainly a loftier principle uniting all men of good faith in an invisible temple which alone can be the universal temple. ~ Kant, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
643:Theres another class of people and I would say this is one of the pathologies of being creative so if your a high open person and you have all those things its not going to be enough. you are going to have to pick another domain where you are working on something positive and revolutiony because like the creative impulse for someone who is open we know it is a fundamental personallity dimension, ... and if the ones who are high in openness arent doing something creative they are like dead sticks adn cant live properly. And I think those are the people who benefit particularly from depth psychological approaches, especially Jungian approaches. ~ Jordan Peterson, 015 Maps of Meaning 4: Narrative, Neuropsychology & Mythology II / Part 1, #KEYS
644:2. What should be the object or ideas for meditation?
Whatever is most consonant with your nature and highest aspirations. But if you ask me for an absolute answer, then I must say that Brahman is always the best object for meditation or contemplation and the idea on which the mind should fix is that of God in all, all in God and all as God. It does not matter essentially whether it is the Impersonal or the Personal God, or subjectively, the One Self. But this is the idea I have found the best, because it is the highest and embraces all other truths, whether truths of this world or of the other worlds or beyond all phenomenal existence, - 'All this is the Brahman.'
~ Sri Aurobindo, Autobiographical Notes,#KEYS
645:Where can you find anyone who steals because his karma is deep or his sins heavy? Stealing is the karma, stealing is the sin! If it weren't for stealing, that sin and karma couldn't exist. Whether you steal or whether you don't depends on the present state of your own mind, not on your past karma. And what I'm telling you now doesn't go only for stealing. Generally speaking, all delusions are just the same as stealing. Whether you're going to be deluded or you're not going to, all depends on the present state of your own mind. When you're deluded, you're an unenlightened being; when you're not deluded, you're a buddha. There's no special shortcut to being a buddha beyond this. Isn't it so? Everyone, realize this conclusively!" ~ Bankei, #KEYS
646:Attacks from adverse forces are inevitable: you have to take them as tests on your way and go courageously through the ordeal. The struggle may be hard, but when you come out of it, you have gained something, you have advanced a step. There is even a necessity for the existence of the hostile forces. They make your determination stronger, your aspiration clearer.
"It is true, however, that they exist because you gave them reason to exist. So long as there is something in you which answers to them, their intervention is perfectly legitimate. If nothing in you responded, if they had no hold upon any part of your nature, they would retire and leave you.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1929-1931, (5 May 1929),#KEYS
647:Happy is the man who can recognize in the work of to-day a connected portion of the work of life and an embodiment of the work of Eternity. The foundations of his confidence are unchangeable, for he has been made a partaker of Infinity. He strenuously works out his daily enterprises because the present is given him for a possession.
Thus ought man to be an impersonation of the divine process of nature, and to show forth the union of the infinite with the finite, not slighting his temporal existence, remembering that in it only is individual action possible, nor yet shutting out from his view that which is eternal, knowing that Time is a mystery which man cannot endure to contemplate until eternal Truth enlighten it. ~ James Clerk Maxwell,#KEYS
648:Lila is by no means the last word. Passing through all these states, I said to the Divine Mother: 'Mother, in these states there is separation. Give me a state where there is no separation.' Then I remained for some time absorbed in the Indivisible Satchidananda. I removed the pictures of the gods and goddesses from my room. I began to perceive God in all beings. Formal worship dropped away. You see that bel-tree. I used to go there to pluck its leaves. One day, as I plucked a leaf, a bit of the bark came off. I round the tree full of Consciousness. I felt grieved because I had hurt the tree. One day I tried to pluck some durva grass, but I found I couldn't do it very well. Then I forced myself to pluck it. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
649:Here's what I think, Mr. Wind-Up Bird, said May Kasahara. Everybody's born with some different thing at the core of their existence. And that thing, whatever it is, becomes like a heat source that runs each person from the inside. I have one too, of course. Like everybody else. But sometimes it gets out of hand. It swells or shrinks inside me, and it shakes me up. What I'd really like to do is find a way to communicate that feeling to another person. But I can't seem to do it. They just don't get it. Of course, the problem could be that I'm not explaining it very well, but I think it's because they're not listening very well. They pretend to be listening, but they're not, really. So I get worked up sometimes, and I do some crazy things. ~ Haruki Murakami - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, #KEYS
650:The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them -- words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller but for want of an understanding ear. ~ Stephen King, #KEYS
651:Because Thou Art :::
Because Thou art All-beauty and All-bliss,
My soul blind and enamoured yearns for Thee;
It bears thy mystic touch in all that is
And thrills with the burden of that ecstasy.
Behind all eyes I meet Thy secret gaze
And in each voice I hear Thy magic tune:
Thy sweetness haunts my heart through Nature's ways
Nowhere it beats now from Thy snare immune.
It loves Thy body in all living things;
Thy joy is there in every leaf and stone:
The moments bring thee on their fiery wings;
Sight's endless artistry is Thou alone.
Time voyages with Thee upon its prow
And all the futures passionate hope is Thou.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems,#KEYS
652:When we are concentrated in mental movements or intellectual pursuits, why do we sometimes forget or lose touch with the Divine?
You lose it because your consciousness is still divided. The Divine has not settled in your mind; you are not wholly consecrated to the Divine Life. Otherwise you could concentrate to any extent upon such things and still you would have the sense of being helped and supported by the Divine. In all pursuits, intellectual or active, your one motto should be, Remember and Offer. Let whatever you do be done as an offering to the Divine. And this too will be an excellent discipline for you; it will prevent you from doing many foolish and useless things.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1929-1931, [T0],#KEYS
653:Sweet Mother,
One day in class you said, with your hands wide open, that we should give you everything, even our defects and vices and all the dirt in us. Is this the only way to get rid of them, and how can one do it?
One keeps one's defects because one hangs on to them as if they were something precious; one clings to one's vices as one clings to a part of one's body, and pulling out a bad habit hurts as much as pulling out a tooth. That is why one does not progress.
Whereas if one generously makes an offering of one's defect, vice or bad habit, then one has the joy of making an offering and one receives in exchange the force to replace what has been given, by a better and truer vibration. 13 June 1960 ~ The Mother, Some Answers From The Mother,#KEYS
654:The surest way towards this integral fulfilment is to find the Master of the secret who dwells within us, open ourselves constantly to the divine Power which is also the divine Wisdom and Love and trust to it to effect the conversion. But it is difficult for the egoistic consciousness to do this at all at the beginning. And, if done at all, it is still difficult to do it perfectly and in every strand of our nature. It is difficult at first because our egoistic habits of thought, of sensation, of feeling block up the avenues by which we can arrive at the perception that is needed. It is difficult afterwards because the faith, the surrender, the courage requisite in this path are not easy to the ego-clouded soul.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, [63] [T7],#KEYS
655:What is surrender?
It means that one gives oneself entirely to the Divine.
Yes, and then what happens? If you give yourself entirely to the Divine, it is He who does the Yoga, it is no longer you; hence this is not very difficult; while if you do tapasya, it is you yourself who do the yoga and you carry its whole responsibility—it is there the danger lies. But there are people who prefer to have the whole responsibility, with its dangers, because they have a very independent spirit. They are not perhaps in a great hurry—if they need several lives to succeed, it does not matter to them. But there are others who want to go quicker and be more sure of reaching the goal; well, these give over the whole responsibility to the Divine. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1950-1951,#KEYS
656:We should do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian Darwinian theory he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors. The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living.
~ R Buckminster Fuller,#KEYS
657:so you distill these stories great authors distill stories and we have soties that are very very very old they are usually religious stories they could be fairy tales because some people ahve traced fairy tales back 10 000 years ... a story that has been told for 10000 years is a funny kind of story its like people have remembered it and obviously modified it, like a game of telephone that has gone on for generations and all that is left is what people remember and maybe they remember whats important, because you tend to remember what's important and its not necessarily the case that you know what the hell it means ... and you dont genereally know what a book that you read means not if its profound it means more than you can understand because otherwise why read it? ~ Jordan Peterson, Maps of Meaning 2017 - 1, #KEYS
658:Why does one feel afraid?
I suppose it is because one is egoistic.
There are three reasons. First, an excessive concern about one's security. Next, what one does not know always gives an uneasy feeling which is translated in the consciousness by fear. And above all, one doesn't have the habit of a spontaneous trust in the Divine. If you look into things sufficiently deeply, this is the true reason. There are people who do not even know that That exists, but one could tell them in other words, 'You have no faith in your destiny' or 'You know nothing about Grace' - anything whatever, you may put it as you like, but the root of the matter is a lack of trust. If one always had the feeling that it is the best that happens in all circumstances, one would not be afraid
~ The Mother,#KEYS
659:It marshals a vast amount of scientific evidence, from physics to biology, and offers extensive arguments, all geared to objectively proving the holistic nature of the universe. It fails to see that if we take a bunch of egos with atomistic concepts and teach them that the universe is holistic, all we will actually get is a bunch of egos with holistic concepts. Precisely because this monological approach, with its unskillful interpretation of an otherwise genuine intuition, ignores or neglects the "I" and the "we" dimensions, it doesn't understand very well the exact nature of the inner transformations that are necessary in the first place in order to be able to find an identity that embraces the manifest All. Talk about the All as much as we want, nothing fundamentally changes. ~ Ken Wilber, Sex Ecology Spirituality, #KEYS
660:Why level downward to our dullest perception always, and praise that as common sense? The commonest sense is the sense of men asleep, which they express by snoring. Sometimes we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half witted with the half-witted, because we appreciate only a third part of their wit. Some would find fault with the morning-red, if they ever got up early enough. "They pretend," as I hear, "that the verses of Kabir have four different senses; illusion, spirit, intellect, and the exoteric doctrine of the Vedas;" but in this part of the world it is considered a ground for complaint if a man's writings admit of more than one interpretation. While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally? ~ Henry David Thoreau, #KEYS
661:So, it is a basic function of education to help you to find out what you really love to do, so that you can give your whole mind and heart to it, because that creates human dignity, that sweeps away mediocrity, the petty bourgeois mentality. That is why it is very important to have the right teachers, the right atmosphere, so that you will grow up with the love which expresses itself in what you are doing. Without this love your examinations, your knowledge, your capacities, your position and possessions are just ashes, they have no meaning; without this love your actions are going to bring more wars, more hatred, more mischief and destruction. All this may mean nothing to you, because outwardly you are still very young, but I hope it will mean something to your teachers-and also to you, somewhere inside. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #KEYS
662:There is a way to escape the inference of superluminal speeds and spooky action at a distance. But it involves absolutedeterminism in the universe, the complete absence of free will. Suppose the world is super-deterministic, with not just inanimate nature running on behind-the-scenes clockwork, but with our behavior, including our belief that we are free to choose to do one experiment rather than another, absolutely predetermined, including the 'decision' by the experimenter to carry out one set of measurements rather than another, the difficulty disappears. There is no need for a faster-than-light signal to tell particle Awhat measurement has been carried out on particle B, because the universe, including particle A, already 'knows' what that measurement, and its outcome, will be.
~ John Stewart Bell, 1985 BBC Radio Interview,#KEYS
663:The most spiritual men, as the strongest, find their happiness where others would find their downfall: in the labyrinth, in hardness towards oneself and others, in experiment; their delight lies in self-mastery: asceticism is with them nature, need, instinct. The difficult task they consider a privilege; to play with burdens that crush others, a recreation... Knowledge - a form of asceticism. - They are the most venerable kind of man: that does not exclude their being the cheerfullest, the kindliest. They rule not because they want to but because they are; they are not free to be second. - The second type: they are the guardians of the law, the keepers of order and security; they are the noble warriors, with the king above all as the highest formula of warrior, judge, and upholder of the law. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist, #KEYS
664:Because children have abounding vitality,
because they are in spirit fierce and free,
therefore they want things repeated and unchanged.
They always say, "Do it again";
and the grown-up person does it again
until he is nearly dead.
For grown-up people are not strong enough
to exult in monotony.
But perhaps God is strong enough
to exult in monotony.
It is possible that God says every morning,
"Do it again"
to the sun; and every evening,
"Do it again" to the moon.
It may not be automatic necessity
that makes all daisies alike;
it may be that God makes every daisy separately,
but has never got tired of making them.
It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy;
for we have sinned and grown old,
and our Father is younger than we."
~ G K Chesterton, Orthodoxy,#KEYS
665:I have read your account of your sadhana. There is nothing to say, I think, - for it is all right - except that the most important thing for you is to develop the psychic fire in the heart and the aspiration for the psychic being to come forward as the leader of the sadhana. When the psychic does so, it will show you the 'undetected ego-knots' of which you speak and loosen them or burn them in the psychic fire. This psychic development and the psychic change of mind, vital and physical consciousness is of the utmost importance because it makes safe and easy the descent of the higher consciousness and the spiritual transformation without which the supramental must always remain far distant. Powers etc. have their place, but a very minor one so long as this is not done.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - III,#KEYS
666:Seek ye first the kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness, and all other things shall be added unto you." The alchemist, therefore is assured that if he achieved the inner mystery, the fulfillment of the outer part will be inevitable. But practically every charlatan in alchemy has determined primarily to achieve the physical purpose first. His primary interest has been to make gold, or perhaps one of the other aspects of it, such as a medicine against illness. He has wanted the physical effect first but because the physical effect was not intended to be first, when he starts to study and explore the various texts, he comes upon a dilemma, HIS OWN INTERNAL RESOURCES CANNOT DISCOVER THE CORRECT INSTRUCTIONS. The words may be there but the meaning eludes him because the meaning is not part of his own present spiritual integrity. ~ Manly P Hall, #KEYS
667:The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. ~ Robert Frost,#KEYS
668:It is the Divine in the inconscient who aspires for the Divine in the consciousness. That is to say, without the Divine there would be no aspiration; without the consciousness hidden in the inconscient, there would be no possibility of changing the inconscience to consciousness. But because at the very heart of the inconscient there is the divine Consciousness, you aspire, and necessarily - this is what he says - automatically, mechanically, the sacrifice is made. And this is why when one says, "It is not you who aspire, it is the Divine, it is not you who make progress, it is the Divine, it is not you who are conscious, it is the Divine" - these are not mere words, it is a fact. And it is simply your ignorance and your unconsciousness which prevent you from realising it. (Meditation) ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1956, #KEYS
669:The more complete your faith, sincerity and surrender, the more will grace and protection be with you. And when the grace and protection of the Divine Mother are with you, what is there that can touch you or whom need you fear? A little of it even will carry you through all difficulties, obstacles and dangers, surrounded by its full presence you can go securely on your way because it is hers, careless of all menace, unaffected by any hostility however powerful, whether from this world or from worlds invisible. Its touch can turn difficulties into opportunities, failure into success and weakness into unfaltering strength. For the grace of the Divine Mother is the sanction of the Supreme and now or tomorrow its effect is sure, a thing decreed, inevitable and irresistible.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Mother With Letters On The Mother,#KEYS
670:PURANI: There was some effort. Only, you can say that the effort was negligible in proportion to the success.
SRI AUROBINDO: It is not a question of proportion. One may have put in a great deal of effort and yet there could be no result because there was not a complete and total sincerity. On the other hand, when the result comes with little effort it is because the whole being has responded-- and Grace found it possible to act. All the same, effort is a contributory factor. Sometimes one goes on making an effort with no result or even the condition becomes worse. And when one has given it up, one finds suddenly that the result has come. It may be that the effort was keeping up the resistance too. And when the effort is given up, the resistance says, "This fellow has given up effort. What is the use of resisting anymore?" ( Laughter ) ~ Nirodbaran, TALKS WITH SRI AUROBINDO VOLUME 1, 405,#KEYS
671:The only truth in your other experience - which, you say, seems at the time so true to you, - is that it is hopeless for you or anyone to get out of the inferior consciousness by your or his unaided effort. That is why when you sink into this inferior consciousness, everything seems hopeless to you, because you lose hold for a time of the true consciousness. But the suggestion is untrue, because you have an opening to the Divine and are not bound to remain in the inferior consciousness. When you are in the true consciousness, then you see that everything can be done, even if at present only a slight beginning has been made; but a beginning is enough, once the Force, the Power is there. For the truth is that it can do everything and only time and the soul's aspiration are needed for the entire change and the soul's fulfilment. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - IV, #KEYS
672:Then the matter is as we have confirmed. So know that you are imagination and that which you perceive and of which you say, "It is not me" is also imagination. All of existence is imagination within imagination. True existence is Allah, the Real, in particular in respect to essence and source, not in respect to His Names, because the Names have two meanings. One meaning is His source which is the same as the "Named", and the other meaning is what it indicates and that by which the Name is separate from this other Name, and so distinct. The Ever-Forgiving is separate from the Manifest and the Hidden, and the First is distinct from the Last. Thus it is clear to you that each Name is the same as the other Name, and yet it is not the other Name. Inasmuch as the Name is the same, it is the Real, and inasmuch as it is not it, it is the imaginary Real which we discussed. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
673:In medieval times, the learned man, the teacher was a servant of God wholly, and of God only. His freedom was sanctioned by an authority more than human...The academy was regarded almost as a part of the natural and unalterable order of things. ... They were Guardians of the Word, fulfilling a sacred function and so secure in their right. Far from repressing free discussion, this "framework of certain key assumptions of Christian doctrine" encouraged disputation of a heat and intensity almost unknown in universities nowadays. ...They were free from external interference and free from a stifling internal conformity because the whole purpose of the universities was the search after an enduring truth, besides which worldly aggrandizement was as nothing. They were free because they agreed on this one thing if, on nothing else, fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. ~ Russell Kirk, Academic Freedom: An Essay in Definition, #KEYS
674: If everything depends on the Divine intervention, then man is only a puppet and there is no use of sadhana, and there are no conditions, no law of things - therefore no universe, but only the Divine rolling things about at his pleasure. No doubt in the last resort all can be said to be the Divine cosmic working, but it is through persons, through forces that it works - under the conditions of Nature. Special intervention there can be and is, but all cannot be special intervention.
The Divine Grace and Power can do everything, but with the full assent of the sadhak. To learn to give that full assent is the whole meaning of the sadhana. It may take time either because of ideas in the mind, desires in the vital or inertia in the physical consciousness, but these things have to be and can be removed with the aid or by calling in the action of the Divine Force. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga II, 1.4.01,#KEYS
675:Prudence and Balance
Vigilance: indispensable for all true progress.
*
In each human being there is a beast crouching ready to manifest at the slightest unwatchfulness. The only remedy is a constant vigilance. 18 August 1954
*
Prudence: very useful for weakness because weakness needs prudence; strength does not need it.
*
Common sense: it is very practical and avoids any mistakes, but it lacks light.
*
Sobriety has never done harm to anyone.
** *
Equanimity: immutable peace and calm.
*
In the deep peace of equanimity the love will grow to its full
blossoming in a sense of pure and constant unity. 5 October 1934
*
All mischief comes from a lack of balance.
So, let us keep our balance carefully, always, in all circumstances. 10 August 1954
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Perfect balance: one of the most important conditions of a growing peace. ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
676:10 You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance,
11 persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.
12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
13 while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it,
15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. ~ 2 Timothy 3#KEYS
677:10.: I do not know whether I have put this clearly; self-knowledge is of such consequence that I would not have you careless of it, though you may be lifted to heaven in prayer, because while on earth nothing is more needful than humility. Therefore, I repeat, not only a good way, but the best of all ways, is to endeavour to enter first by the room where humility is practised, which is far better than at once rushing on to the others. This is the right road;-if we know how easy and safe it is to walk by it, why ask for wings with which to fly? Let us rather try to learn how to advance quickly. I believe we shall never learn to know ourselves except by endeavouring to know God, for, beholding His greatness we are struck by our own baseness, His purity shows our foulness, and by meditating on His humility we find how very far we are from being humble. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle, 1.02, #KEYS
678:And the first of the adepts covered His shame with a cloth, walking backwards, and was white. And the second of the adepts covered his shame with a cloth, walking sideways, and was yellow. And the third of the adepts made a mock of His nakedness, walking forwards, and was black. And these are the three great schools of the Magi, who are also the three Magi that journeyed unto Bethlehem; and because thou hast not wisdom, thou shalt not know which school prevaileth, or if the three schools be not one.*
* This doctrine of the Three Schools is of extreme interest. Roughly, it may be said that the White is the Pure Mystic, whose attitude to God is one of reverence. The Yellow School conceals the Mysteries indeed, but examines them as it goes along. The Black School is that of pure Scepticism. We are now ready to study the philosophical bases of these three Schools.
~ Aleister Crowley, Magick Without Tears?, 43?,#KEYS
679:People have to start educating themselves more in the faith. It is not enough just to go to mass anymore. You can't do that... We don't live at a time in which one can spiritually survive and be intellectually not very good. Maybe a few older ladies who have the extraordinary graces can get away with it. But modernism is such a toxic heresy that [you need] a lot of educational background--which you should work on anyway, because everybody has an obligation to continue educating themselves according to their state in life... They need to be reading more. They can listen to interviews and podcasts, that's fine. But at some point you've got to encounter the books. You've got to start reading them and educating yourself and getting a deeper understanding of the faith so that when you hear the nonsense from the secular media, [and even] from members of the magisterium now, you can keep your focus. ~ Reverend Chad Ripperger, transcribed from interview with Taylor Marshall, #KEYS
680:Gradually a separation took place among the schools of the Mysteries. The zeal of the priests to spread their doctrines in many cases apparently exceeded their intelligence. As a result, many were allowed to enter the temples before they had really prepared themselves for the wisdom they were to receive. The result was that these untutored minds, slowly gaining positions of authority, became at last incapable of maintaining the institution because they were unable to contact the spiritual powers behind the material enterprise. So the Mystery Schools vanished. The spiritual hierarchy, served through all generations by a limited number of true and devoted followers, withdrew from the world; while the colossal material organizations, having no longer any contact with the divine source, wandered in circles, daily becoming more involved in the rituals and symbols which they had lost the power of interpreting. ~ Manly P Hall, What the Ancient Wisdom Expects of Its Disciples, #KEYS
681:55: A similar rejection is a necessary self-restraint and a spiritual discipline for the immature seeker, since such powers may be a great, even a deadly peril; for their supernormality may easily feed in him an abnormal exaggeration of the ego. Power in itself may be dreaded as a temptation by the aspirant to perfection, because power can abase as well as elevate; nothing is more liable to misuse. But when new capacities come as an inevitable result of the growth into a greater consciousness and a greater life and that growth is part of the very aim of the spiritual being within us, this bar does not operate; for a growth of the being into supernature and its life in supernature cannot take place or cannot be complete without bringing with it a greater power of consciousness and a greater power of life and the spontaneous development of an instrumentation of knowledge and force normal to that supernature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, 2.08, #KEYS
682:This now leads us to elucidate more precisely the error of the idea that the majority should make the law, because, even though this idea must remain theoretical - since it does not correspond to an effective reality - it is necessary to explain how it has taken root in the modern outlook, to which of its tendencies it corresponds, and which of them - at least in appearance - it satisfies. Its most obvious flaw is the one we have just mentioned: the opinion of the majority cannot be anything but an expression of incompetence, whether this be due to lack of intelligence or to ignorance pure and simple; certain observations of 'mass psychology' might be quoted here, in particular the widely known fact that the aggregate of mental reactions aroused among the component individuals of a crowd crystallizes into a sort of general psychosis whose level is not merely not that of the average, but actually that of the lowest elements present. ~ Rene Guenon, The Crisis of the Modern World, #KEYS
683:You must ask yourself, if for 10 years if you didnt avoid doing what you knew you needed to do, by your own definitions right, within the value structure that you've created to the degree that youve done that, what would you be like? Well you know there are remarkable people who come into the world from time to time and there are people who do find out over decades long periods what they could be like if they were who they were if they said... if they spoke their being forward, and theyd get stronger and stronger. you do not know the limits to that, we do not know the limits to that and so you could say well in part perhaps the reason that you're suffering unbearably can be left at your feet because you are not everything you could be and you know it. and of course thats a terrible thing to admit and its a terrible thing to consider but theres real promise in it. perhaps theres another way you could look at the world and another way you could act in the world. .. Imagine many people did that. ~ Jordan Peterson, #KEYS
684:Ah, yeah. We're gonna go to Mars. And then of course we're gonna colonize deep space. With our microwave hot dogs and plastic vomit, fake dog shit and cinnamon dental floss, lemon-scented toilet paper and sneakers with lights in the heels. And all these other impressive things we've done down here. But let me ask you this: what are we gonna tell the intergalactic council of ministers the first time one of our teenage mothers throws their newborn baby into a dumpster? How are we gonna explain that to the space people? How are we gonna let them know that our ambassador was only late for the meeting because his breakfast was cold and he had to spend half an hour punching his wife around the kitchen? And what are they gonna think when they find out, its just a local custom, that over 80 million women in the Third world have had their clitorises forcibly removed in order to reduce their sexual pleasure so they won't cheat on their husbands? Can't you just sense how eager the rest of the universe is for us to show up? ~ George Carlin, #KEYS
685:In the terrestrial formulation of Knowledge and Power, this correlation is not altogether apparent because there consciousness itself is concealed in an original Inconscience and the natural strength and rhythm of its powers in their emergence are diminished and disturbed by the discordances and the veils of the Ignorance. The Inconscient there is the original, potent and automatically effective Force, the conscious mind is only a small labouring agent; but that is because the conscious mind in us has a limited individual action and the Inconscient is an immense action of a universal concealed Consciousness: the cosmic Force, masked as a material Energy, hides from our view by its insistent materiality of process the occult fact that the working of the Inconscient is really the expression of a vast universal Life, a veiled universal Mind, a hooded Gnosis, and without these origins of itself it could have no power of action, no organising coherence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, 2.28 - The Divine Life, #KEYS
686:When I began to lose my sight, the last color I saw, or the last color, rather, that stood out, because of course now I know that your coat is not the same color as this table or of the woodwork behind you~the last color to stand out was yellow because it is the most vivid of colors. That's why you have the Yellow Cab Company in the United States. At first they thought of making the cars scarlet. Then somebody found out that at night or when there was a fog that yellow stood out in a more vivid way than scarlet. So you have yellow cabs because anybody can pick them out. Now when I began to lose my eyesight, when the world began to fade away from me, there was a time among my friends… well they made, they poked fun at me because I was always wearing yellow neckties. Then they thought I really liked yellow, although it really was too glaring. I said, 'Yes, to you, but not to me, because it is the only color I can see, practically!' I live in a gray world, rather like the silver-screen world. But yellow stands out. ~ Jorge Luis Borges, #KEYS
687:The magic in a word remains magic even if it is not understood, and loses none of its power. Poems may be understandable or they may not, but they must be good, and they must be real.
From the examples of the algebraic signs on the walls of Kovalevskaia's nursery that had such a decisive influence on the child's fate, and from the example of spells, it is clear we cannot demand of all language: "be easy to understand, like the sign in the street." The speech of higher intelligence, even when it is not understandable, falls like seed into the fertile soil of the soul and only much later, in mysterious ways, does it bring forth its shoots. Does the earth understand the writing of the seeds a farmer scatters on its surface? No. But the grain still ripens in autumn, in response to those seeds. In any case, I certainly do not maintain that every incomprehensible piece of writing is beautiful. I mean only that we must not reject a piece of writing simply because it is incomprehensible to a particular group of readers. ~ Velimir Khlebnikov,#KEYS
688:there is a special personal tie between you and me, between all who have turned to the teaching of Sri Aurobindo and myself, - and, it is well understood, distance does not count here, you may be in France, you may be at the other end of the world or in Pondicherry, this tie is always true and living. And each time there comes a call, each time there is a need for me to know so that I may send out a force, an inspiration, a protection or any other thing, a sort of message comes to me all of a sudden and I do the needful. These communications reach me evidently at any moment, and you must have seen me more than once stop suddenly in the middle of a sentence or work; it is because something comes to me, a communication and I concentrate. With those whom I have accepted as disciples, to whom I have said Yes, there is more than a tie, there is an emanation of me. This emanation warns me whenever it is necessary and tells me what is happening. Indeed I receive intimations constantly
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother I,#KEYS
689:We already saw that in evolution each of these structures emerges as a substitute gratification, and is abandoned when it ceases to gratify. And we can see now that each of them emerges as a substitute in evolution because each was created as substitute in involution. The self can climb back up this involved chain of substitutes only by tasting them, finding them lacking, accepting their death, and thus transcending them (all of which the self in involution refused to do). But the self will evolve up the chain of being only to the point at which it will accept the substitute gratifications as satisfactory (bodily substitutes, or mental substitutes, or subtle ones, or causal ones). At that particular level, its incest settles in, it accepts its substitutes as real, its Eros wins out over Thanatos, it will not undergo the separation anxiety of transcending and dying to that level, and so evolution stops cold (for this lifetime). The self has, in this life, gotten as close as it can to the Source (while still imagining it is the Source)
~ Ken Wilber, The Atman Project,#KEYS
690:This life is what you make it. No matter what, you're going to mess up sometimes, it's a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you're going to mess it up. Girls will be your friends - they'll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, some go. The ones that stay with you through everything - they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them. Also remember, sisters make the best friends in the world. As for lovers, well, they'll come and go too. And baby, I hate to say it, most of them - actually pretty much all of them are going to break your heart, but you can't give up because if you give up, you'll never find your soulmate. You'll never find that half who makes you whole and that goes for everything. Just because you fail once, doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will, sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about. ~ Marilyn Monroe, #KEYS
691:There are two Paths to the Innermost: the Way of the Mystic, which is the way of devotion and meditation, a solitary and subjective path; and the way of the occultist, which is the way of the intellect, of concentration, and of trained will; upon this path the co-operation of fellow workers is required, firstly for the exchange of knowledge, and secondly because ritual magic plays an important part in this work, and for this the assistance of several is needed in most of the greater operations. The mystic derives his knowledge through the direct communion of his higher self with the Higher Powers; to him the wisdom of the occultist is foolishness, for his mind does not work in that way; but, on the other hand, to a more intellectual and extrovert type, the method of the mystic is impossible until long training has enabled him to transcend the planes of form. We must therefore recognize these two distinct types among those who seek the Way of Initiation, and remember that there is a path for each. ~ Dion Fortune, Esoteric Orders and Their Work and The Training and Work of the Initiate, #KEYS
692:There is nothing unintelligible in what I say about strength and Grace. Strength has a value for spiritual realisation, but to say that it can be done by strength only and by no other means is a violent exaggeration. Grace is not an invention, it is a face of spiritual experience. Many who would be considered as mere nothings by the wise and strong have attained by Grace; illiterate, without mental power or training, without "strength" of character or will, they have yet aspired and suddenly or rapidly grown into spiritual realisation, because they had faith or because they were sincere. ...
Strength, if it is spiritual, is a power for spiritual realisation; a greater power is sincerity; the greatest power of all is Grace. I have said times without number that if a man is sincere, he will go through in spite of long delay and overwhelming difficulties. I have repeatedly spoken of the Divine Grace. I have referred any number of times to the line of the Gita:
"I will deliver thee from all sin and evil, do not grieve." ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II,#KEYS
693:
But why does the Divine want to manifest Himself on earth in this chaos?
Because this is why He has created the earth, not for any other motive; the earth is He Himself in a deformation and He wants to establish it back again in its truth. Earth is not something separated from Him and alien to Him. It is a deformation of Himself which must once again become what it was in its essence, that is, the Divine.
Then why is He a stranger to us?
But He is not a stranger, my child. You fancy that He is a stranger, but He is not, not in the least. He is the essence of your being - not at all alien. You may not know Him, but He is not a stranger; He is the very essence of your being. Without the Divine you would not exist. Without the Divine you could not exist even for the millionth part of a second. Only, because you live in a kind of false illusion and deformation, you are not conscious. You are not conscious of yourself, you are conscious of something which you think to be yourself, but which isn't you.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1955,#KEYS
694:It is a fact always known to all yogis and occultists since the beginning of time, in Europe and Africa as in India, that wherever yoga or Yajna is done, there the hostile Forces gather together to stop it by any means. It is known that there is a lower nature and a higher spiritual nature - it is known that they pull different ways and the lower is strongest at first and the higher afterwards. It is known that the hostile Forces take advantage of the movements of the lower nature and try to spoil through them, smash or retard the siddhi. It has been said as long ago as the Upanishads (hard is the path to tread, sharp like a razor's edge); it was said later by Christ 'hard is the way and narrow the gate by which one enters into the kingdom of heaven' and also 'many are called, few chosen' - because of these difficulties. But it has also always been known that those who are sincere and faithful in heart and remain so and those who rely on the Divine will arrive in spite of all difficulties, stumbles or falls.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - III, Opposition of the Hostile Forces - I,#KEYS
695:Sails across the sea of life in the twinkling of an eye.' One attains the vision of God if Mahamaya steps aside from the door. Mahamaya's grace is necessary: hence the worship of Sakti. You see, God is near us, but it is not possible to know Him because Mahamaya stands between. Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita were walking along. Rama walked ahead, Sita in the middle, and Lakshmana last. Lakshmana was only two and a half cubits away from Rama, but he couldn't see Rama because Sita - Mahamaya - was in the way.
"While worshipping God, one should assume a definite attitude. I have three attitudes: the attitude of a child, the attitude or a maidservant, and the attitude of a friend. For a long time I regarded myself as a maidservant and a woman companion of God; at that time I used to wear skirts and ornaments, like a woman. The attitude of a child is very good.
"The attitude of a 'hero' is not good. Some people cherish it. They regard themselves as Purusha and woman as Prakriti; they want to propitiate woman through intercourse with her. But this method often causes disaster. ~ Sri Ramakrishna,#KEYS
696:So the devotion must be accompanied by another movement, that is, gratitude. This feeling of gratitude that the Divine exists, this gratefulness, full of wonder, that truly fills your heart with a sublime delight, because the Divine exists, because there is something in the universe that is the Divine, and there is not merely the monstrosity that we see—because there is the Divine, because the Divine is there.
And each time any least thing puts you in contact with this sublime reality of the Divine existence, your heart is filled with so intense and wonderful a delight, such gratefulness as is of all things the most delectable in taste.
Nothing can give you a delight equal to that of gratitude. You hear a bird singing, you see a flower, you look at a child, you witness an act of generosity, you read a beautiful sentence, you stand before a sunset, it does not matter what the thing is— all on a sudden it comes upon you, a kind of emotion, but so deep, so intense, because the world manifests the Divine, because there is something behind the world which is the Divine. ~ The Mother,#KEYS
697:[...]For these are aspects of the Divine Nature, powers of it, states of his being, - but the Divine Himself is something absolute, someone self-existent, not limited by his aspects, - wonderful and ineffable, not existing by them, but they exist because of Him. It follows that if he attracts by his aspects, all the more he can attract by his very absolute selfness which is sweeter, mightier, profounder than any aspect. His peace, rapture, light, freedom, beauty are marvellous and ineffable, because he is himself magically, mysteriously, transcendently marvellous and ineffable. He can then be sought after for his wonderful and ineffable self and not only for the sake of one aspect of another of his. The only thing needed for that is, first, to arrive at a point when the psychic being feels this pull of the Divine in himself and, secondly, to arrive at the point when the mind, vital and each thing else begins to feel too that that was what it was wanting and the surface hunt after Ananda or what else was only an excuse for drawing the nature towards that supreme magnet. ...
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II,#KEYS
698:O soul, it is too early to rejoice!
Thou hast reached the boundless silence of the Self,
Thou hast leaped into a glad divine abyss;
But where hast thou thrown Self's mission and Self's power?
On what dead bank on the Eternal's road?
One was within thee who was self and world,
What hast thou done for his purpose in the stars?
Escape brings not the victory and the crown!
Something thou cam'st to do from the Unknown,
But nothing is finished and the world goes on
Because only half God's cosmic work is done.
Only the everlasting No has neared
And stared into thy eyes and killed thy heart:
But where is the Lover's everlasting Yes,
And immortality in the secret heart,
The voice that chants to the creator Fire,
The symbolled OM, the great assenting Word,
The bridge between the rapture and the calm,
The passion and the beauty of the Bride,
The chamber where the glorious enemies kiss,
The smile that saves, the golden peak of things?
This too is Truth at the mystic fount of Life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Adoration of the Divine Mother,#KEYS
699:It has been argued that this is no relation peculiar to the constitution of humanity and its outlook upon an objective world, but the very nature of existence itself; all phenomenal existence consists of an observing consciousness and an active objectivity, and the Action cannot proceed without the Witness because the universe exists only in or for the consciousness that observes and has no independent reality. It has been argued in reply that the material universe enjoys an eternal self-existence: it was here before life and mind made their appearance; it will survive after they have disappeared and no longer trouble with their transient strivings and limited thoughts the eternal and inconscient rhythm of the suns. The difference, so metaphysical in appearance, is yet of the utmost practical import, for it determines the whole outlook of man upon life, the goal that he shall assign for his efforts and the field in which he shall circumscribe his energies. For it raises the question of the reality of cosmic existence and, more important still, the question of the value of human life.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, 23,#KEYS
700:The so-called 'psychotically depressed' person who tries to kill herself doesn't do so out of quote 'hopelessness' or any abstract conviction that life's assets and debits do not square. And surely not because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom Its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise. Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e. the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fire's flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It's not desiring the fall; it's terror of the flames. And yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling 'Don't!' and 'Hang on!', can understand the jump. Not really. You'd have to have personally been trapped and felt flames to really understand a terror way beyond falling.
~ David Foster Wallace,#KEYS
701:Supermind is the dynamic form of satcitananda (being-consciousness-bliss), and the necessary conduit, mediator or linkage between satcitananda and the manifest creation. (Life Divine Book I, ch.14-16) ... Supermind is spiritual consciousness acting as a self-luminous knowledge, will, sense, aesthesis, energy, self-creative and unveiling power of its own delight and being. Mind is the action of the same powers, but limited and only very indirectly and partially illumined. Supermind lives in unity though it plays with diversity; mind lives in a separative action of diversity, though it may open to unity. Mind is not only capable of ignorance, but, because it acts always partially and by limitation, it works characteristically as a power of ignorance : it may even and it does forget itself in a complete inconscience, or nescience, awaken from it to the ignorance of a partial knowledge and move from the ignorance towards a complete knowledge, -- that is its natural action in the human being, -- but it can never have by itself a complete knowledge.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Psychology of Self-Perfection, 625,#KEYS
702:You should not be tilted sideways, backwards, or forwards. You should be sitting straight up as if you were supporting the sky with your head. This is not just form or breathing. It expresses the key point of Buddhism. It is a perfect expression of your Buddha nature. If you want true understanding of Buddhism, you should practice this way.
These forms are not a means of obtaining the right state of mind. To take this posture itself is the purpose of our practice. When you have this posture, you have the right state of mind, so there is no need to try to attain some special state.
When you try to attain something, your mind starts to wander about somewhere else. When you do not try to attain anything, you have your own body and mind right here. A Zen master would say, "Kill the Buddha!" Kill the Buddha if the Buddha exists somewhere else. Kill the Buddha, because you should resume your own Buddha nature. Doing something is expressing our own nature. We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves. This is the fundamental teaching expressed in the forms we observe. ~ Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind Beginners Mind,#KEYS
703: The fourth group: Saraswati, the wealth of the fullest inspiration of the complete Truth, signifies speedy and rhythmic truth. She is the divine hearing. No doubt, we see and meet the Truth with our divine vision, but to make, the Truth active and dynamic and fill the creation with the power of Truth we needs must take the help of divine hearing. As the truth possesses a form, even so it has a name. It is precisely because of form and name that the truth becomes concrete. The form of truth is Visible in the divine vision, the name of truth in the divine hearing. Saraswati gives the divine name and Ila gives the divine form to the truth. Under the inspiration of Saraswati the truth casts aside all untruths. Hence she is called Pavaka(the Purifier). Above the mind there abides the vast ocean of Truth. We have neither any knowledge nor any experience of it. In a sense, we are quite unconscious of it. Saraswati raises the intelligence into the vast ocean of Truth and purifies it Afterwards she brings it down to our understanding. She manifests the complete knowledge in all its facets and make them living. ~ Nolini Kanta Gupta, 08, 36.08 - A Commentary on the First Six Suktas of Rigveda, #KEYS
704:The Transcendent Mother and the Higher Hemisphere
"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."1 The Transcendent Mother thus stands above the Ananda plane.There are then four steps of the Divine Shakti:
(1) The Transcendent Mahashakti who stands above the Ananda plane and who bears the Supreme Divine in her eternal consciousness.
(2) The Mahashakti immanent in the worlds of SatChit-Ananda where all beings live and move in an ineffable completeness.
(3) The Supramental Mahashakti immanent in the worlds of Supermind.
(4) The Cosmic Mahashakti immanent in the lower hemisphere.
Yes; that is all right. One speaks often however of all above the lower hemisphere as part of the transcendence. This is because the Supermind and Ananda are not manifested in our universe at present, but are planes above it. For us the higher hemisphere is pr [para], the Supreme Transcendence is prA(pr [paratpara]. The Sanskrit terms are here clearer than the English.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Mother With Letters On The Mother, Three Aspects of the Mother, 52,#KEYS
705:I've never been lonely. I've been in a room ~ I've felt suicidal. I've been depressed. I've felt awful ~ awful beyond all ~ but I never felt that one other person could enter that room and cure what was bothering me...or that any number of people could enter that room. In other words, loneliness is something I've never been bothered with because I've always had this terrible itch for solitude. It's being at a party, or at a stadium full of people cheering for something, that I might feel loneliness. I'll quote Ibsen, The strongest men are the most alone. I've never thought, Well, some beautiful blonde will come in here and give me a fuck-job, rub my balls, and I'll feel good. No, that won't help. You know the typical crowd, Wow, it's Friday night, what are you going to do? Just sit there? Well, yeah. Because there's nothing out there. It's stupidity. Stupid people mingling with stupid people. Let them stupidify themselves. I've never been bothered with the need to rush out into the night. I hid in bars, because I didn't want to hide in factories. That's all. Sorry for all the millions, but I've never been lonely. I like myself. I'm the best form of entertainment I have. Let's drink more wine! ~ Charles Bukowski, #KEYS
706:God reveals himself everywhere, beneath our groping efforts, as a universal milieu, only because he is the ultimate point upon which all realities converge. Each element of the world, whatever it may be, only subsists, hic et nunc, in the manner of a cone whose generatrices meet in God who draws them together-(meeting at .the term of their individual perfection and at the term of the general perfection of the world which contains them). It follows that all created things, every one of them, cannot be looked at, in their nature and action, without the same reality being found in their innermost being-like sunlight in the fragments of a broken mirror-one beneath its multiplicity, unattainable beneath its proximity, and spiritual beneath its materiality. No object can influence us by its essence without our being touched by the radiance of the focus of the universe. Our minds are incapable of grasping a reality, our hearts and hands of seizing the essentially desirable in it, without our being compelled by the very structure of things to go back to the first source of its perfections. This focus, this source, is thus everywhere. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Divine Milieu, #KEYS
707:To us poetry is a revel of intellect and fancy, imagination a plaything and caterer for our amusement, our entertainer, the nautch-girl of the mind. But to the men of old the poet was a seer, a revealer of hidden truths, imagination no dancing courtesan but a priestess in God's house commissioned not to spin fictions but to image difficult and hidden truths; even the metaphor or simile in the Vedic style is used with a serious purpose and expected to convey a reality, not to suggest a pleasing artifice of thought. The image was to these seers a revelative symbol of the unrevealed and it was used because it could hint luminously to the mind what the precise intellectual word, apt only for logical or practical thought or to express the physical and the superficial, could not at all hope to manifest. To them this symbol of the Creator's body was more than an image, it expressed a divine reality. Human society was for them an attempt to express in life the cosmic Purusha who has expressed himself otherwise in the material and the supraphysical universe. Man and the cosmos are both of them symbols and expressions of the same hidden Reality.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, Chapter 1, The Cycle of Society,#KEYS
708:Anyway, in instances of this kind, I think it is people's faith, above all, which saves them. When they have performed their little ceremony properly, they feel confident, "Oh! now it will be over, for she is satisfied." And because they feel confident, it helps them to react and the illness disappears. I have seen this very often in the street. There might be a small hostile entity there, but these are very insignificant things.
In other cases, in some temples, there are vital beings who are more or less powerful and have made their home there. But what Sri Aurobindo means here is that there is nothing, not even the most anti-divine force, which in its origin is not the Supreme Divine. So, necessarily, everything goes back to Him, consciously or unconsciously. In the consciousness of the one who makes the offering it does not go to the Divine: it goes to the greater or smaller demon to whom he turns. But through everything, through the wood of the idol or even the ill-will of the vital adversary, ultimately, all returns to the Divine, since all comes from Him. Only, the one who has made the offering or the sacrifice receives but in proportion to his own consciousness... ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1956,#KEYS
709:
Mother, you told us one day that all that happens to us has been decided in advance. What does that mean?
This is but a way of speaking. This happens because to express a thing I can't be saying all the words at the same time, can I? I am obliged to say them one after another. Otherwise, if all the words were spoken at the same time, it would make a big noise and nobody would understand anything! Well, when you try to explain the universe, you do as you would when you speak. You say one thing after another, but to tell the truth, you must say everything at one go. Now, how can that be done?... Indeed, since you repeat it to me, it is very likely that I must have said that somewhere.... I must have said the contrary also! But if you put it in this way, that everything that happens has been decided in advance, then with the consciousness of time that you have now, it is as if you said: yesterday it was decided what would happen today; and this year it is decided what will happen next year. It is in this way that the thing is translated in your consciousness - naturally, because it is thus that we see, think, understand and above all speak and express ourselves. But it is not like that. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1953,#KEYS
710:Considered from this point of view, the fact that some of the theories which we know to be false give such amazingly accurate results is an adverse factor. Had we somewhat less knowledge, the group of phenomena which these "false" theories explain would appear to us to be large enough to "prove" these theories. However, these theories are considered to be "false" by us just for the reason that they are, in ultimate analysis, incompatible with more encompassing pictures and, if sufficiently many such false theories are discovered, they are bound to prove also to be in conflict with each other. Similarly, it is possible that the theories, which we consider to be "proved" by a number of numerical agreements which appears to be large enough for us, are false because they are in conflict with a possible more encompassing theory which is beyond our means of discovery. If this were true, we would have to expect conflicts between our theories as soon as their number grows beyond a certain point and as soon as they cover a sufficiently large number of groups of phenomena. In contrast to the article of faith of the theoretical physicist mentioned before, this is the nightmare of the theorist. ~ Eugene Paul Wigner, The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences, #KEYS
711:There are beings in the spiritual realms for whom anxiety and fear emanating from human beings offer welcome food. When humans have no anxiety and fear, then these creatures starve. People not yet sufficiently convinced of this statement could understand it to be meant comparatively only. But for those who are familiar with this phenomenon, it is a reality. If fear and anxiety radiates from people and they break out in panic, then these creatures find welcome nutrition and they become more and more powerful. These beings are hostile towards humanity. Everything that feeds on negative feelings, on anxiety, fear and superstition, despair or doubt, are in reality hostile forces in supersensible worlds, launching cruel attacks on human beings, while they are being fed. Therefore, it is above all necessary to begin with that the person who enters the spiritual world overcomes fear, feelings of helplessness, despair and anxiety. But these are exactly the feelings that belong to contemporary culture and materialism; because it estranges people from the spiritual world, it is especially suited to evoke hopelessness and fear of the unknown in people, thereby calling up the above mentioned hostile forces against them. ~ Rudolf Steiner, #KEYS
712:Aspiration in everyone, no matter who it is, has the same power But the effect of this aspiration is different. For aspiration is aspiration: if you have aspiration, in itself it has a power. Only, this aspiration calls down an answer, and this answer, the effect, which is the result of the aspiration, depends upon each one, for it depends upon his receptivity. I know many people of this kind: they say, "Oh! but I aspire all the time and still I receive nothing." It is impossible that they should receive nothing, in the sense that the answer is sure to come. But it is they who do not receive. The answer comes but they are not receptive, so they receive nothing.. . . When you have an aspiration, a very active aspiration, your aspiration is going to do its work. It is going to call down the answer to what you aspire foR But if, later, you begin to think of something else or are not attentive or receptive, you do not even notice that your aspiration has received an answer. This happens very frequently. So people tell you: "I aspire and I don't receive anything, I get no answer!" Yes, you do have an answer but you are not aware of it, because you continue to be active in this way, like a mill turning all the time. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1954, #KEYS
713:
Sweet Mother, is the physical mind the same as the mechanical mind?
Almost. You see, there is just a little difference, but not much. The mechanical mind is still more stupid than the physical mind. The physical mind is what we spoke about one day, that which is never sure of anything.
I told you the story of the closed door, you remember. Well, that is the nature of the physical mind. The mechanical mind is at a lower level still, because it doesn't even listen to the possibility of a convincing reason, and this happens to everyone.
Usually we don't let it function, but it comes along repeating the same things, absolutely mechanically, without rhyme or reason, just like that. When some craze or other takes hold of it, it goes... For example, you see, if it fancies counting: "One, two, three, four", then it will go on: "One, two, three, four; one, two, three, four." And you may think of all kinds of things, but it goes on: "One, two, three, four", like that... (Mother laughs.) Or it catches hold of three words, four words and repeats them and goes on repeating them; and unless one turns away with a certain violence and punches it soundly, telling it, "Keep quiet!", it continues in this way, indefinitely. ~ The Mother,#KEYS
714:By lie I mean : wishing not to see something that one does see; wishing not to see something as one sees it.
Whether the lie takes place before witnesses or without witnesses does not matter. The most common lie is that with which one lies to oneself; lying to others is, relatively, an exception.
Now this wishing-not-to-see what one does see, this wishing-not-to-see as one sees, is almost the first conclition for all who are party in any sense: of necessity, the party man becomes a liar. Gennan historiography, for example, is convinced that Rome represented des potism and that the Germanic tribes brought the spirit of freedom into the world. What is the difference be tween this conviction and a lie? May one still be sur· prised when all parties, as well as the Gennan his torians, instinctively employ the big words of morality, that morality almost continues to exist because the party man of every description needs it at every moment? "This is our conviction: we confess it before all the world, we live and die for it. Respect for all who have convictions!" I have heard that sort of thing even out of the mouths of anti-Semites. On the contrary, gentlemen! An anti-Semite certainly is not any more decent because he lies as a matter of principle. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, The Anti-Christ,#KEYS
715:If we are religious-minded, perhaps we will see the gods who inhabit this world. Beings, forces, sounds, lights, and rhythms are just so many true forms of the same indefinable, but not unknowable, Essence we call God; we have spoken of God, and made temples, laws or poems to try to capture the one little pulsation filling us with sunshine, but it is free as the wind on foam-flecked shores. We may also enter the world of music, which in fact is not different from the others but a special extension of this same, great inexpressible Vibration. If once, only once, even for a few moments in a lifetime, we can hear that Music, that Joy singing above, we will know what Beethoven and Bach heard; we will know what God is because we will have heard God. We will probably not say anything grandiose; we will just know that That exists, whereupon all the suffering in the world will seem redeemed.
At the extreme summit of the overmind, there only remain great waves of multi-hued light, says the Mother, the play of spiritual forces, which later translate - sometimes much later - into new ideas, social changes, or earthly events, after crossing one by one all the layers of consciousness and suffering a considerable distortion and loss of light...
~ Satprem, Sri Aurobindo Or The Adventure Of Consciousness,#KEYS
716:understanding fails when pulled down by lower movements ::: By the understanding we mean that which at once perceives, judges and discriminates, the true reason of the human beingnot subservient to the senses, to desire or to the blind force of habit, but working in its own right for mastery, for knowledge. Certainly, the reason of man as he is at present does not even at its best act entirely in this free and sovereign fashion; but so far as it fails, it fails because it is still mixed with the lower half-animal action, because it is impure and constantly hampered and pulled down from its characteristic action. In its purity it should not be involved in these lower movements, but stand back from the object, and observe disinterestedly, put it in its right place in the whole by force of comparison, contrast, analogy, reason from its rightly observed data by deduction, induction, inference and holding all its gains in memory and supplementing them by a chastened and rightly-guided imagination view all in the light of a trained and disciplined judgment. Such is the pure intellectual understanding of which disinterested observation, judgment and reasoning are the law and characterising action.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Knowledge, The Purified Understanding,#KEYS
717:Because I have called, and ye refused . . . I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you." "For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them."
Time Jesum transeuntem et non revertentem: "Dread the passage of Jesus, for he does not return."
The myths and folk tales of the whole world make clear that the refusal is essentially a refusal to give up what one takes to be one's own interest. The future is regarded not in terms of an unremitting series of deaths and births, but as though one's present system of ideals, virtues, goals, and advantages were to be fixed and made secure. King Minos retained the divine bull, when the sacrifice would have signified submission to the will of the god of his society; for he preferred what he conceived to be his economic advantage. Thus he failed to advance into the liferole that he had assumed-and we have seen with what calamitous effect. The divinity itself became his terror; for, obviously, if one is oneself one's god, then God himself, the will of God, the power that would destroy one's egocentric system, becomes a monster. ~ Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces,#KEYS
718:For this is the other face of the psychic: not only is it joy and sweetness, but also quiet strength, as if it were forever above every possible tragedy - an invulnerable master. In this case, too, the details of a scene can be indelibly engraved. But what passes on to the next life is not so much the details as the essence of the scene: we will be struck by certain repetitive patterns of events or deadlocked situations that have an air of déjà vu and seem surrounded by an aura of fatality - for what has not been overcome in the past returns again and again, each time with a slightly different appearance, but basically always identical, until we confront the old knot and untie it. Such is the law of inner progress. Generally, however, the memory of actual physical circumstances does not remain, because, although our small surface consciousness makes much of them, they are, after all, of little significance. There is even a spontaneous mechanism that erases the profusion of useless past memories, just as those of the present life soon become eradicated. If we glance behind us, without thinking, what is actually left of our present life? A nebulous mass with perhaps two or three outstanding images; all the rest is blotted out. This is likewise the case for the soul and its past lives.
~ Satprem, Sri Aurobindo Or The Adventure Of Consciousness,#KEYS
719:JOSH
hmm. its so upsetting.. it seems like the book is a perfect symbol for something terribly wrong. I constantly avoid anything Donald Trump related because I find him so repulsive its upsetting. like its too disgusting of a corruption and i just avoid it. but maybe this book is a lukewarm symbol so I can learn to move towards and fight such darknesses.. I dont know.. so upsetting.
and people buy into such double-thought inconscience? I cant even comprehend how this can be like this. I guess its like I turn away from disgust it allows people to turn away from reason through that infantile pre-rational regression or something. I mean we all want safety but..
the book itself goes against itself from the title.. like its bashing the left for wanting to divide america but thats what the book is doing by attacking them. so I guess if people cant catch the deception from the title they wont catch it in the book? ayah
ALAN
Yeah it's the whole white male fragility persecution envy trip. Donny Jnr was so triggered he had to write a whole book (I pity the ghostwriter).
And yes it is upsetting, we live in a world where the Lord of Falsehood is on the ascendant, through instruments like Trump, Koch, and Murdoch. Some people are particularly susceptible, others are immune. This is the battle for the Earth ~ M Alan Kazlev, Facebook,#KEYS
720:Supermind and the human mind are a number of ranges, planes or layers of consciousness - one can regard it in various ways - in which the element or substance of mind and consequently its movements also become more and more illumined and powerful and wide. The Overmind is the highest of these ranges; it is full of lights and powers; but from the point of view of what is above it, it is the line of the soul's turning away from the complete and indivisible knowledge and its descent towards the Ignorance. For although it draws from the Truth, it is here that begins the separation of aspects of the Truth, the forces and their working out as if they were independent truths and this is a process that ends, as one descends to ordinary Mind, Life and Matter, in a complete division, fragmentation, separation from the indivisible Truth above. There is no longer the essential, total, perfectly harmonising and unifying knowledge, or rather knowledge for ever harmonious because for ever one, which is the character of Supermind. In the Supermind mental divisions and oppositions cease, the problems created by our dividing and fragmenting mind disappear and Truth is seen as a luminous whole. In the Overmind there is not yet the actual fall into Ignorance, but the first step is taken which will make the fall inevitable. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - I, #KEYS
721:Sometimes when an adverse force attacks us and we come out successful, why are we attacked once again by the same force?
Because something was left inside. We have said that the force can attack only when there is something which responds in the nature - however slight it may be. There is a kind of affinity, something corresponding, there is a disorder or an imperfection which attracts the adverse force by responding to it. So, if the attack comes, you must keep perfectly quiet and send it back, but it does not necessarily follow that you have got rid of that small part in you which allows the attack to come.
You have something in you which attracts this force; take, for example (it is one of the most frequent things), the force of depression, that kind of attack of a wave of depression that falls upon you: you lose confidence, you lose hope, you have the feeling you will never be able to do anything, you are cast down.
It means there is in your vital being something which is naturally egoistic, surely a little vain, which needs encouragement to remain in a good state. So it is like a little signal for those forces which intimates to them: "You can come, the door is open." But there is another part in the being that was watching when these forces arrived; instead of allowing them to enter, the part which... ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1953,#KEYS
722:The Particular Necessity for Practice
The second part discusses "the particular necessity for practice."
Through the power of the yoga of speech, the stains that obscure the mind are removed. Once this happens, speech reaches its full potential. It is like discovering the true nature of your speech for the very first time.
To activate the yoga of speech, summon the primordial wisdom deities by calling their names. Just as calling someone's name naturally causes that person to draw closer to you, in the same way calling the wisdom deities by name brings them nearer to you.
They come to see what you want.
This does not mean the wisdom deities will not come if you do not call them. They could come even if you did not call their names.
You call their names-which is what you are doing when you recite mantras-because their names express their actual nature. A quote from the Dorje Kur (rDo rje gur) scripture reads: "To directly perceive the buddhas, bodhisattvas, dakinis and your own consort, get their attention by calling their names and invite them to come." Reciting the deity's name over and over purifies obscurations of speech and establishes the cause of vajra speech.
This cause produces the condition that averts adverse conditions.
The speech of the wisdom deities and your own speech will become the same-vajra speech. ~ Gyatrul Rinpoche, Generating the Deity,#KEYS
723:keep faith :::
We must have faith that always what is for the best happens. We may for the moment not consider it as the best because we are ignorant and also blind, because we do not see the consequences of things and what will happen later. But we must keep the faith that if it is like that, if we rely on the Divine, if we give Him the full charge of ourselves, if we let Him decide everything for us, well, we must know that it is always what is best for us that happens. This is an absolute fact. To the extent to which you surrender, the best happens to you. This may not be in conformity with what you would like, your preferences or desire, because these things are blind: it is the best from thespiritual point of view, the best for your progress, your development, your spiritual growth, your true life. It is always that. And you must keep this faith, because faith is the expression of a trust in the Divine and the full self-giving you make to the Divine. And when you make it, it is something absolutely marvellous. That's a fact, these are not just words, you understand, it is a fact. When you look back, all kinds of things which you did not understand when they happened to you, you realise as just the thing which was necessary in order to compel you to make the needed progress. Always, without exception. It is our blindness which prevents us from seeing it. ~ The Mother,#KEYS
724:I examined the poets, and I look on them as people whose talent overawes both themselves and others, people who present themselves as wise men and are taken as such, when they are nothing of the sort.
From poets, I moved to artists. No one was more ignorant about the arts than I; no one was more convinced that artists possessed really beautiful secrets. However, I noticed that their condition was no better than that of the poets and that both of them have the same misconceptions. Because the most skillful among them excel in their specialty, they look upon themselves as the wisest of men. In my eyes, this presumption completely tarnished their knowledge. As a result, putting myself in the place of the oracle and asking myself what I would prefer to be - what I was or what they were, to know what they have learned or to know that I know nothing - I replied to myself and to the god: I wish to remain who I am.
We do not know - neither the sophists, nor the orators, nor the artists, nor I- what the True, the Good, and the Beautiful are. But there is this difference between us: although these people know nothing, they all believe they know something; whereas, I, if I know nothing, at least have no doubts about it. As a result, all this superiority in wisdom which the oracle has attributed to me reduces itself to the single point that I am strongly convinced that I am ignorant of what I do not know. ~ Socrates,#KEYS
725:Shouldn't we consider in every nation major changes in the traditional ways of doing things, a fundamental restructuring of economic political social and religious institutions. We've reached a point where there can be no more special interests or special cases, nuclear arms threaten every person on the Earth. Fundamental changes in society are sometimes labelled impractical or contrary to human nature, as if nuclear war were practical or as if there's only one human nature. But fundamental changes can clearly be made, we're surrounded by them. In the last two centuries abject slavery which was with us for thousands of years has almost entirely been eliminated in a stirring worldwide revolution. Women, systematically mistreated for millennia are gradually gaining the political and economic power traditionally denied them and some wars of aggression have recently been stopped or curtailed because of a revulsion felt by the people in the aggressor nations. The old appeals to racial sexual religious chauvinism and to rabid nationalist fervor are beginning not to work. A new consciousness is developing which sees the earth as a single organism and recognizes that an organism at war with itself is doomed. We are one planet. One of the great revelations of the age of space exploration is the image of the earth finite and lonely, somehow vulnerable, bearing the entire human species through the oceans of space and time. ~ Carl Sagan, #KEYS
726:The supramental memory is different from the mental, not a storing up of past knowledge and experience, but an abiding presence of knowledge that can be brought forward or, more characteristically, offers itself, when it is needed: it is not dependent on attention or on conscious reception, for the things of the past not known actually or not observed can be called up from latency by an action which is yet essentially a remembrance. Especially on a certain level all knowledge presents itself as a remembering, because all is latent or inherent in the self of supermind. The future like the past presents itself to knowledge in the supermind as a memory of the preknown. The imagination transformed in the supermind acts on one side as a power of true image and symbol, always all image or index of some value or significance or other truth of being, on the other as an inspiration or interpretative seeing of possibilities and potentialities not less true than actual or realised things. These are put in their place either by an attendant intuitive or interpretative judgment or by one inherent in the vision of the image, symbol or potentiality, or by a supereminent revelation of that which is behind the image or symbol or which determines the potential and the actual and their relations and, it may be, overrides and overpasses them, imposing ultimate truths and supreme certitudes.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#KEYS
727:38 - Strange! The Germans have disproved the existence of Christ; yet his crucifixion remains still a greater historic fact than the death of Caesar. - Sri Aurobindo.
To what plane of consciousness did Christ belong?
In the Essays on the Gita Sri Aurobindo mentions the names of three Avatars, and Christ is one of them. An Avatar is an emanation of the Supreme Lord who assumes a human body on earth.
I heard Sri Aurobindo himself say that Christ was an emanation of the Lord's aspect of love.
The death of Caesar marked a decisive change in the history of Rome and the countries dependent on her. It was therefore an important event in the history of Europe.
But the death of Christ was the starting-point of a new stage in the evolution of human civilisation. This is why Sri Aurobindo tells us that the death of Christ was of greater historical significance, that is to say, it has had greater historical consequences than the death of Caesar. The story of Christ, as it has been told, is the concrete and dramatic enactment of the divine sacrifice: the Supreme Lord, who is All-Light, All-Knowledge, All-Power, All-Beauty, All-Love, All-Bliss, accepting to assume human ignorance and suffering in matter, in order to help men to emerge from the falsehood in which they live and because of which they die.
16 June 1960 ~ The Mother, On Thoughts And Aphorisms, volume-10, page no.61-62),#KEYS
728:Listen to Erwin Schroedinger,the Nobel Prize-winning cofounder of quantum mechanics,and how can I convince you that he means this literally?Consciousness is a singular of which the plural is unknown.It is not possible that this unity of knowledge,feelings,and choice which you call your own should have sprung into being from nothingness at a given moment not so long ago;rather,this knowledge,feeling, and choice are essentially eternal and unchangeable and numerically one in all people,nay in all sensitive beings.The conditions for your existence are almost as old as rocks.For thousands of years men have striven and suffered and begotten and women have brought in pain.A hundred years ago (there's the test),another man sat on this spot;like you he gazed with awe and yearning in his heart at the dying light on the glaciers. Like you he was begotten of man and born of woman.He felt pain and brief joy as you do.Was he someone else? Was it not you yourself?WAS IT NOT YOU,YOURSELF? Are you not humanity itself? Do you not touch all things human,because you are it's only Witness? Do you not therefore love the world,and love all people,and love the Kosmos,because you are its only Self? Do you not weep when one person is hurt,do you not cry when one child goes hungry,do you not scream when one soul is tortured? You know you suffer when others suffer.You already know this! "Was it someone else? Was it not you yourself?" ~ Ken Wilber, One Taste, p. 342-343, #KEYS
729:Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn't something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn't get in, and walk through it, step by step. There's no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That's the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine.
An you really will have to make it through that violent, metaphysical, symbolic storm. No matter how metaphysical or symbolic it might be, make no mistake about it: it will cut through flesh like a thousand razor blades. People will bleed there, and you will bleed too. Hot, red blood. You'll catch that blood in your hands, your own blood and the blood of others.
And once the storm is over you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really oveR But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about.~ Haruki Murakami,#KEYS
730:
Mother, in your symbol the twelve petals signify the twelve inner planes, don't they?
It signifies anything one wants, you see. Twelve: that's the number of Aditi, of Mahashakti. So it applies to everything; all her action has twelve aspects. There are also her twelve virtues, her twelve powers, her twelve aspects, and then her twelve planes of manifestation and many other things that are twelve; and the symbol, the number twelve is in itself a symbol. It is the symbol of manifestation, double perfection, in essence and in manifestation, in the creation.
What are the twelve aspects, Sweet Mother?
Ah, my child, I have described this somewhere, but I don't remember now. For it is always a choice, you see; according to what one wants to say, one can choose these twelve aspects or twelve others, or give them different names. The same aspect can be named in different ways. This does not have the fixity of a mental theory. (Silence)
According to the angle from which one sees the creation, one day I may describe twelve aspects to you; and then another day, because I have shifted my centre of observation, I may describe twelve others, and they will be equally true.
(To Vishwanath) Is it the wind that's producing this storm? It is very good for a dramatic stage-effect.... The traitor is approaching in the night... yes? We are waiting for some terrible deed....
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1954, 395,#KEYS
731:
If one is too serious in yoga, doesn't one become obsessed by the difficulty of the task?
There is a limit to be kept!... But if one chooses one's obsession well, it may be very useful because it is no longer quite an obsession. For example, one has decided to find the Divine within oneself, and constantly, in every circumstance, whatever happens or whatever one may do, one concentrates in order to enter into contact with the inner Divine. Naturally, first one must have that little thing Sri Aurobindo speaks about, that "lesser truth" which consists in knowing that there is a Divine within one (this is a very good example of the "lesser truth") and once one is sure of it and has the aspiration to find it, if that aspiration becomes constant and the effort to realise it becomes constant, in the eyes of others it looks like an obsession, but this kind of obsession is not bad. It becomes bad only if one loses one's balance. But it must be made quite clear that those who lose their balance with that obsession are only those who were quite ready to lose their balance; any circumstance whatever would have produced the same result and made them lose their balance - it is a defect in the mental structure, it is not the fault of the obsession. And naturally, he who changes a desire into an obsession would be sure to go straight towards imbalance. That is why I say it is important to know the object of the obsession. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1950-1951,#KEYS
732:Here the formula of the supreme knowledge comes to our help; we have nothing to do in our essential standpoint with these distinctions, for there is no I nor thou, but only one divine Self equal in all embodiments, equal in the individual and the group, and to realise that, to express that, to serve that, to fulfil that is all that matters. Self-satisfaction and altruism, enjoyment and indifference are not the essential thing. If the realisation, fulfilment, service of the one Self demands from us an action that seems to others self-service or self-assertion in the egoistic sense or seems egoistic enjoyment and self-indulgence, that action we must do; we must be governed by the guide within rather than by the opinions of men. The influence of the environment works often with great subtlety; we prefer and put on almost unconsciously the garb which will look best in the eye that regards us from outside and we allow a veil to drop over the eye within; we are impelled to drape ourselves in the vow of poverty, or in the garb of service, or in outward proofs of indifference and renunciation and a spotless sainthood because that is what tradition and opinion demand of us and so we can make best an impression on our environment. But all this is vanity and delusion. We may be called upon to assume these things, for that may be the uniform of our service; but equally it may not. The eye of man outside matters nothing; the eye within is all.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#KEYS
733:The scientists, all of them, have their duties no doubt, but they do not fully use their education if they do not try to broaden their sense of responsibility toward all mankind instead of closing themselves up in a narrow specialization where they find their pleasure. Neither engineers nor other scientific men have any right to prefer their own personal peace to the happiness of mankind; their place and their duty are in the front line of struggling humanity, not in the unperturbed ranks of those who keep themselves aloof from life. If they are indifferent, or discouraged because they feel or think that they know that the situation is hopeless, it may be proved that undue pessimism is as dangerous a "religion" as any other blind creed. Indeed there is very little difference in kind between the medieval fanaticism of the "holy inquisition," and modern intolerance toward new ideas. All kinds of intellect must get together, for as long as we presuppose the situation to be hopeless, the situation will indeed be hopeless. The spirit of Human Engineering does not know the word "hopeless"; for engineers know that wrong methods are alone responsible for disastrous results, and that every situation can be successfully handled by the use of proper means. The task of engineering science is not only to know but to know how. Most of the scientists and engineers do not yet realize that their united judgment would be invincible; no system or class would care to disregard it. ~ Alfred Korzybski, Manhood of Humanity, #KEYS
734:So," she said. "I've been thinking of it as a computing problem. If the virus or nanomachine or protomolecule or whatever was designed, it has a purpose, right?"
"Definitely," Holden said.
"And it seems like it's trying to do something-something complex. It doesn't make sense to go to all that trouble just to kill people. Those changes it makes look intentional, just... not complete, to me."
"I can see that," Holden said. Alex and Amos nodded along with him but stayed quiet.
"So maybe the issue is that the protomolecule isn't smart enough yet. You can compress a lot of data down pretty small, but unless it's a quantum computer, processing takes space. The easiest way to get that processing in tiny machines is through distribution. Maybe the protomolecule isn't finishing its job because it just isn't smart enough to. Yet."
"Not enough of them," Alex said.
"Right," Naomi said, dropping the towel into a bin under the sink. "So you give them a lot of biomass to work with, and see what it is they are ultimately made to do."
"According to that guy in the video, they were made to hijack life on Earth and wipe us out," Miller said.
"And that," Holden said, "is why Eros is perfect. Lots of biomass in a vacuum-sealed test tube. And if it gets out of hand, there's already a war going on. A lot of ships and missiles can be used for nuking Eros into glass if the threat seems real. Nothing to make us forget our differences like a new player butting in." ~ James S A Corey, Leviathan Wakes,#KEYS
735:
Mother, aren't these entities afraid of you?
Ah, my child, terribly afraid! (Laughter) All those which are ill-willed try to hide, and usually do you know what they do? They gather together behind the head of the one who comes (laughter) in order not to be seen. But this is useless, because, just think, I have the capacity to see through. (Laughter) Otherwise - they always do this, instinctively. When they can manage to get in, they try to get in. But then... I intervene with greater force, because that is nasty. These are people who have the instinct to hide, you see. So I pursue them, there inside. With others very little is needed, very little; but there are some - there are such people, you know, they themselves have told me - when they are about to come to me, it is as though there were something which pulled them back, which told them: "No, no, no, it's not worthwhile, why go there? There are so many people for Mother to see, why add one more?" And they draw back, like that, so that they don't come. So I always tell them what it is: 'It would be better not to listen to that, for it's not something with a very good conscience.' Some people cannot bear it. There have been instances like this, of people who were obliged to run away, because they themselves were too attached to their own formations and did not want to get rid of them. Naturally there is only one way, to run away!
There we are! We shall stop now for today.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1954,#KEYS
736:People think of education as something that they can finish. And what's more, when they finish, it's a rite of passage. You're finished with school. You're no more a child, and therefore anything that reminds you of school - reading books, having ideas, asking questions - that's kid's stuff. Now you're an adult, you don't do that sort of thing any more.
You have everybody looking forward to no longer learning, and you make them ashamed afterward of going back to learning. If you have a system of education using computers, then anyone, any age, can learn by himself, can continue to be interested. If you enjoy learning, there's no reason why you should stop at a given age. People don't stop things they enjoy doing just because they reach a certain age.
What's exciting is the actual process of broadening yourself, of knowing there's now a little extra facet of the universe you know about and can think about and can understand. It seems to me that when it's time to die, there would be a certain pleasure in thinking that you had utilized your life well, learned as much as you could, gathered in as much as possible of the universe, and enjoyed it. There's only this one universe and only this one lifetime to try to grasp it. And while it is inconceivable that anyone can grasp more than a tiny portion of it, at least you can do that much. What a tragedy just to pass through and get nothing out of it. ~ Isaac Asimov, Carl Freedman - Conversations with Isaac Asimov-University Press of Mississippi (2005).pdf,#KEYS
737:I have written a short sentence which will appear in the Bulletin, the next Bulletin. It goes something like this (I dont remember the words exactly now): If you say to the Divine with conviction, I want only You, the Divine will arrange all the circumstances in such a way as to compel you to be sincere.1 Something in the being I want only You. the aspiration and then one wants a hundred odd things all the time, isnt that so? At times something comes, just usually to disturb everythingit stands in the way and prevents you from realising your aspiration. Well, the Divine will come without showing Himself, without your seeing Him, without your having any inkling of it, and He will arrange all the circumstances in such a way that everything that prevents you from belonging solely to the Divine will be removed from your path, inevitably. Then when all is removed, you begin to howl and complain; but later, if you are sincere and look at yourself straight in the eye you have said to the Lord, you have said, I want only You. He will remain close to you, all the rest will go away. This is indeed a higher Grace. Only, you must say this with conviction. I dont even mean that you must say it integrally, because if one says it integrally, the work is done. What is necessary is that one part of the being, indeed the central will, says it with conviction: I want only You. Even once, and it suffices: all that takes more or less long, sometimes it stretches over years, but one reaches the goal. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1954, 1954-06-16, #KEYS
738:Sadhaka of Integral Yoga
The difficulty of harmonising the divine life with human living, of being in God and yet living in man is the very difficulty that he is set here to solve and not to shun. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga: Renunciation
Sadhaka Of Integral yoga
Personal salvation he does not seek except as a necessity for the human fulfilment and because he who is himself in bonds cannot easily free others,—though to God nothing is impossible. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga: Renunciation
Sadhaka Of Integral Yoga
For a heaven of personal joys he has no hankerings even as a hell of personal sufferings has for him no terrors. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga: Renunciation
Sadhaka of Integral Yoga
If there is an opposition between the spiritual life and that of the world, it is that gulf which he is here to bridge, that opposition which he is here to change into a harmony. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga: Renunciation
Sadhaka Of Integral yoga
If the world is ruled by the flesh and the devil, all the more reason that the children of Immortality should be here to conquer it for God and the Spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga: Renunciation
Sadhaka of Integral yoga
To give oneself is the secret of sadhana, not to demand and acquire a thing. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Mother with Letters on The Mother, The Mother's Love,#KEYS
739:John Ruskin did not go to school. Nor did Queen Victoria, nor John Stuart Mill, George Eliot or Harriet Martineau. It would be absurd to suggest that Disraeli, Dickens, Newman or Darwin, to name four very different figures, who attended various schools for short spells in their boyhood, owed very much to their schooling. Had they been born in a later generation, school would have loomed much larger in their psychological stories, if only because they would have spent so much longer there, and found themselves preparing for public examinations. It is hard not to feel that a strong 'syllabus', or a school ethos, might have cramped the style of all four and that in their different ways - Disraeli, comparatively rich, anarchically foppish, indiscriminately bookish; Darwin, considered a dunce, but clearly - as he excitedly learned to shoot, to fish and to bird-watch - beginning his revolutionary relationship with the natural world; Newman, imagining himself an angel; Dickens, escaping the ignominy of his circumstances through theatrical and comedic internalized role-play - they were lucky to have been born before the Age of Control. For the well-meaning educational reforms of the 1860s were the ultimate extension of those Benthamite exercises in control which had begun in the 1820s and 1830s. Having exercised their sway over the poor, the criminals, the agricultural and industrial classes, the civil service and - this was next - the military, the controllers had turned to the last free spirits left, the last potential anarchists: the children. ~ A N Wilson, #KEYS
740:On a thousand bridges and paths they shall throng to the future, and ever more war and inequality shall divide them: thus does my great love make me speak.
In their hostilities they shall become inventors of images and ghosts, and with their images and ghosts they shall yet fight the highest fight against one another. Good and evil, and rich and poor, and high and low, and all the names of values-arms shall they be and clattering signs that life must overcome itself again and again.
Life wants to build itself up into the heights with pillars and steps; it wants to look into vast distances and out toward stirring beauties: therefore it requires height. And because it requires height, it requires steps and contradiction among the steps and the climbers.
Life wants to climb and to overcome itself climbing.
And behold, my friends: here where the tarantula has its hole, the ruins of an ancient temple rise; behold it with enlightened eyes Verily, the man who once piled his thoughts to the sky in these stones-he, like the wisest, knew the secret of all life. That struggle and inequality are present even in beauty, and also war for power and more power: that is what he teaches us here in the plainest parable. How divinely vault and arches break through each other in a wrestling match; how they strive against each other with light and shade, the godlike strivers-with such assurance and beauty let us be enemies too, my friends Let us strive against one another like gods. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, trans. Fred Kaufmann,#KEYS
741:The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it's very brightly colored, and it's very loud, and it's fun for a while. Many people have been on the ride a long time, and they begin to wonder, "Hey, is this real, or is this just a ride?" And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and say, "Hey, don't worry; don't be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride." And we ... kill those people. "Shut him up! I've got a lot invested in this ride, shut him up! Look at my furrows of worry, look at my big bank account, and my family. This has to be real." It's just a ride. But we always kill the good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok ... But it doesn't matter, because it's just a ride. And we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money. Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one. Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace. ~ Bill Hicks, #KEYS
742:How can faith be increased?
Through aspiration, I suppose. Some have it spontaneously... You see, it is difficult to pray if one doesn't have faith, but if one can make prayer a means of increasing one's faith, or aspiring, having an aspiration, having an aspiration to have faith... Most of these qualities require an effort. If one does not have a thing and wants to have it, well, it needs great, great, great sustained efforts, a constant aspiration, an unflagging will, a sincerity at each moment; then one is sure, it will come one day - it can come in a second. There are people who have it, and then they have contrary movements which come and attack. These people, if their will is sincere, can shield their faith, repel the attacks. There are others who cultivate doubt because it is a kind of dilettantism - that, there's nothing more dangerous than that. It is as though one were letting the worm into the fruit: it eventually eats it up completely. This means that when a movement of this sort comes - it usually comes first into the mind - the first thing to do is to be very determined and refuse it. Surely one must not enjoy looking on just to see what is going to happen; that kind of curiosity is terribly dangerous.
It is perhaps more difficult for intellectuals to have faith than for those who are simple, sincere, who are straightforward, without intellectual complications. But I think that if an intellectual person has faith, then that becomes very powerful, a very powerful thing which can truly work miracles. ~ The Mother, Question and Answers, Volume-6, page no.121),#KEYS
743:subtle ::: In Vedanta (Mandukya Upanishad and later teachings - e.g. Advaita - based on it) "subtle" is used to designate the "dream state" of consciousness, and in Advaita this also includes the Prana, Manas, and Vijnana koshas (= the vehicles of vital force, mind, and higher consciousness) re-interpreted from of the Taittiriya Upanishad.
In Tibetan and Tantric Buddhism it refers to an intermediate grade between the "gross" and "very subtle" "minds" and "winds" (vayu = prana).
The Sukshma Sthula or Subtle Body is one of the seven principles of man in Blavatskian Theosophy; it is also called the "astral body" (this has little similarity with the astral body of Out of Body experience, because it cannot move far from the gross physical vehicle, it seems to correspond to what Robert Monroe calls the "second body", and identified with the Double or Ka
In Sant Mat / Radhasoami cosmology - the Anda (Cosmic Egg) / Sahans-dal Kanwal (Crown Chakra) is sometimes called the Subtle; hence Subtle = Astral
The term Subtle Physical is used somewhat generically by Sri Aurobindo (in Letters on Yoga) to refer to a wider reality behind the external physical.
Ken Wilber uses the term Subtle to indicate the yogic and mystic holonic-evolutionary level intermediate between "Psychic" (in his series = Nature Mysticism) and "Causal" (=Realisation"); it includes many psychic and occult experiences and can be considered as pertaining to the Subtle as defined here (although it also includes other realities and experiences that might also be interpreted as "Inner Gross" - e.g. Kundalini as a classic example). ~ M Alan Kazlev, Kheper, planes/subtle,#KEYS
744:Instruction about Sadhana to a disciple:
Disciple: What is the nature of realisation in this yoga?
Sri Aurobindo: In this yoga we want to bring down the Truth-consciousness into the whole being - no part being left out. This can be done by the Higher Power itself. What you have to do is to open yourself to it.
Disciple: As the Higher Power is there why does it not work in all men - consciously?
Sri Aurobindo: Because man, at present, is shut up in his mental being, his vital nature and physical consciousness and their limitations. You have to open yourself. By an opening I mean an aspiration in the heart for the coming down of the Power that is above, and a will in the Mind, or above the Mind, open to it.
The first thing this working of the Higher Power does is to establish Shanti - peace - in all the parts of the being and an opening above. This peace is not mere mental Shanti, it is full of power and, whatever action takes place in it, Samata, equality, is its basis and the Shanti and Samata are never disturbed. What comes from Above is peace, power and joy. It also brings about changes in various parts of our nature so that they can bear the pressure of the Higher Power.
Knowledge also progressively develops showing all in our being that is to be thrown out and what is to be retained. In fact, knowledge and guidance both come and you have constantly to consent to the guidance. The progress may be more in one direction than in another. But it is the Higher Power that works. The rest is a matter of experience and the movement of the Shakti. ~ Sri Aurobindo, EVENING TALKS WITH SRI AUROBINDO, RECORDED BY A B PURANI (28-09-1923),#KEYS
745:The second condition of consciousness is potential only to the human being and gained by an inner enlightening and transformation of the mind of ignorance; it is that in which the mind seeks for its source of knowledge rather within than without and becomes to its own feeling and self-experience, by whatever means, a mind, not of original ignorance, but of self-forgetful knowledge. This mind is conscious that the knowledge of all things is hidden within it or at least somewhere in the being, but as if veiled and forgotten, and the knowledge comes to it not as a thing acquired from outside, but always secretly there and now remembered and known at once to be true, - each thing in its own place, degree, manner and measure. This is its attitude to knowledge even when the occasion of knowing is some external experience, sign or indication, because that is to it only the occasion and its reliance for the truth of the knowledge is not on the external indication or evidence but on the inner confirming witness. The true mind is the universal within us and the individual is only a projection on the surface, and therefore this second state of consciousness we have either when the individual mind goes more and more inward and is always consciously or subconsciously near and sensitive to the touches of the universal mentality in which all is contained, received, capable of being made manifest, or, still more powerfully, when we live in the consciousness of universal mind with the personal mentality only as a projection, a marking board or a communicating switch on the surface. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Towards the Supramental Time Vision, 887, #KEYS
746:For invincible reasons of homogeneity and coherence, the fibers of cosmogenesis require to be prolonged in ourselves far more deeply than flesh and bone. We are not being tossed about and drawn along in the vital current merely by the material surface of our being. But like a subtle fluid, space-time, having drowned our bodies, penetrates our soul. It fills it and impregnates it. It mingles with its powers, until the soul soon no longer knows how to distinguish space-time from its own thoughts. Nothing can escape this flux any longer, for those who know how to see, even though it were the summit of our being, because it can only be defined in terms of increases of consciousness. For is not the very act by which the fine point of our mind penetrates the absolute a phenomenon of emergence? In short, recognized at first in a single point of things, then inevitably having spread to the whole of the inorganic and organic volume of matter, whether we like it or not evolution is now starting to invade the psychic zones of the world.... The human discovers that, in the striking words of Julian Huxley, we are nothing else than evolution become conscious of itself. It seems to me that until it is established in this perspective, the modern mind...will always be restless. For it is on this summit and this summit alone that a resting place and illumination await us.... All evolution becomes conscious of itself deep within us.... Not only do we read the secret of its movements in our slightest acts, but to a fundamental extent we hold it in our own hands: responsible for its past and its future. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man, #KEYS
747:You say that you feel you have returned to your old life and that you have fallen from that state of spiritual consciousness in which you remained for some time. And you ask whether it comes from the fact that Sri Aurobindo and myself have withdrawn our protection and our help because you had been unable to fulfil your promise.
It is a mistake to think that anything at all has been withdrawn by us. Our help and our protection are with you as always, but it would be more correct to say that both your inability to feel our help and your inability to keep your promise are the simultaneous effects of the same cause.
Remember what I wrote to you when you went to Calcutta to fetch your family: do not let any influence come in between you and the Divine. You did not pay sufficient attention to this warning: you have allowed an influence to interfere strongly between you and your spiritual life; your devotion and your faith have been seriously shaken by this. As a consequence, you became afraid and you did not find the same joy in your offering to the Divine Cause; and also, quite naturally, you fell back into your ordinary consciousness and your old life.
You are quite right, nevertheless, not to let yourself be discouraged. Whatever the fall, it is always possible not only to get up again but also to rise higher and to reach the goal. Only a strong aspiration and a constant will are needed.
You have to take a firm resolution to let nothing interfere with your ascent towards the Divine Realisation. And then the success is certain.
Be assured of our unfailing help and protection. 3 February 1931 ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother - I,#KEYS
748:But in the integral conception the Conscious Soul is the Lord, the Nature-Soul is his executive Energy. Purusha is of the nature of Sat, the being of conscious self-existence pure and infinite; Shakti or Prakriti is of the nature of Chit, - it is power of the Purusha's self-conscious existence, pure and infinite. The relation of the two exists between the poles of rest and action. When the Energy is absorbed in the bliss of conscious self-existence, there is rest; when thePurusha pours itself out in the action of its Energy, there is action, creation and the enjoyment or Ananda of becoming. But if Ananda is the creator and begetter of all becoming, its method is Tapas or force of the Purusha's consciousness dwelling upon its own infinite potentiality in existence and producing from it truths of conception or real Ideas, vijnana, which, proceedingfrom an omniscient and omnipotent Self-existence, have the surety of their own fulfilment and contain in themselves the nature and law of their own becoming in the terms of mind, life and matter. The eventual omnipotence of Tapas and the infallible fulfilment of the Idea are the very foundation of all Yoga. In man we render these terms by Will and Faith, - a will that is eventually self-effective because it is of the substance of Knowledge and a faith that is the reflex in the lower consciousness of a Truth or real Idea yet unrealised in the manifestation. It is this self-certainty of the Idea which is meant by the Gita when it says, yo yac-chraddhah sa eva sah, 'whatever is a man's faith or the sure Idea in him, that he becomes.'
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Conditions of the Synthesis, The Synthesis of the Systems, 43,#KEYS
749:
Why do some children take interest in things only when there is some excitement?
They are tamasic. It is due to the large proportion of tamas in their nature. The more tamasic one is, the more does one need something violent and exciting circumstances. When the physical is tamasic, unless one eats spices and highly flavoured food, one does not feel nourished. And yet these are poisons. They act exactly like poison on the nerves. They do not nourish. But it is because people are tamasic, because their body's consciousness is not sufficiently developed. Well, mentally it is the same thing, vitally the same thing. If they are tamasic, they always need new excitements, dramas, murders, suicides, etc. to feel anything at all, otherwise.... And there is nothing, nothing that makes one more wicked and cruel than tamas. For it is this need of excitement which shakes you up a little, makes you come out of yourself. And one must also learn, there, to distinguish between those who are exclusively tamasic and those who are mixed, and those who are struggling within themselves with their different parts. One can, one must know in what proportion their nature is constituted, so as to be able to insist at need on one thing or another. Some people constantly need a whipping from life in order to move, otherwise they would spend their time sleeping. Others, on the contrary, need soothing things, silence, a retreat in the country-side - all things that do a lot of good but which must disappear as soon as one needs to make an effort for progress or to realise something or struggle against a defect, conquer an obstacle.... It is complicated, don't you think so? ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1953,#KEYS
750:...that personality, like consciousness, life, soul is not a brief-lived stranger in an impersonal Eternity, but contains the very meaning of existence. This fine flower of the cosmic Energy carries in it a forecast of the aim and a hint of the very motive of the universal labour. As an occult vision opens in him, he becomes aware of worlds behind in which consciousness and personality hold an enormous place and assume a premier value; even here in the material world to this occult vision the inconscience of Matter fills with a secret pervading consciousness, its inanimation harbours a vibrant life, its mechanism is the device of an indwelling Intelligence, God and soul are everywhere. Above all stands an infinite conscious Being who is variously self-expressed in all these worlds; impersonality is only a first means of that expression. It is a field of principles and forces, an equal basis of manifestation; but these forces express themselves through beings, have conscious spirits at their head and are the emanation of a One Conscious Being who is their sorce. A multiple innumberable personality expressing that One is the very sense and central aim of the manifestation and if now personality seems to be narrow, fragmentary, restrictive, it is only because it has not opened to its source or flowered into its own divine truth and fullness packing itself with the universal and the infinite. Thus the world-creation is no more an illusion, a fortuitous mechanism, a play that need not have happened, a flux without consequence; it is an intimate dynamism of the conscious and living Eternal.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Divine Works, The Sacrifice and the Lord of the Sacrifice, 127,#KEYS
751:The whole crux and difficulty of human life lies here. Man is this mental being, this mental consciousness working as mental force, aware in a way of the universal force and life of which he is part but, because he has not knowledge of its universality or even of the totality of his own being, unable to deal either with life in general or with his own life in a really effective and victorious movement of mastery. He seeks to know Matter in order to be master of the material environment, to know Life in order to be master of the vital existence, to know Mind in order to be master of the great obscure movement of mentality in which he is not only a jet of light of self-consciousness like the animal, but also more and more a flame of growing knowledge. Thus he seeks to know himself in order to be master of himself, to know the world in order to be master of the world. This is the urge of Existence in him, the necessity of the Consciousness he is, the impulsion of the Force that is his life, the secret will of Sachchidananda appearing as the individual in a world in which He expresses and yet seems to deny Himself. To find the conditions under which this inner impulsion is satisfied is the problem man must strive always to resolve and to that he is compelled by the very nature of his own existence and by the Deity seated within him; and until the problem is solved, the impulse satisfied, the human race cannot rest from its labour. Either man must fulfil himself by satisfying the Divine within him or he must produce out of himself a new and greater being who will be more capable of satisfying it. He must either himself become a divine humanity or give place to Superman.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,#KEYS
752:[the first aid, shastra, the lotus of the eternal knowledge:]
The supreme Shastra of the Integral Yoga is the eternal Veda secret in the heart of every thinking and living being. The lotus of the eternal knowledge and the eternal perfection is a bud closed and folded up within us. It opens swiftly or gradually, petal by petal, through successive realisations, once the mind of man begins to turn towards the Eternal, once his heart, no longer compressed and confined by attachment to finite appearances, becomes enamoured, in whatever degree, of the Infinite. All life, all thought, all energising of the faculties, all experiences passive or active, become thenceforward so many shocks which disintegrate the teguments of the soul and remove the obstacles to the inevitable efflorescence. He who chooses the Infinite has been chosen by the Infinite. He has received the divine touch without which there is no awakening, no opening of the spirit; but once it is received, attainment is sure, whether conquered swiftly in the course of one human life or pursued patiently through many stadia of the cycle of existence in the manifested universe.
Nothing can be taught to the mind which is not already concealed as potential knowledge in the unfolding soul of the creature. So also all perfection of which the outer man is capable, is only a realising of the eternal perfection of the Spirit within him. We know the Divine and become the Divine, because we are That already in our secret nature. All teaching is a revealing, all becoming is an unfolding. Self-attainment is the secret; self-knowledge and an increasing consciousness are the means and the process.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Four Aids [53] [T1],#KEYS
753:Humanity is a peculiar class of life which, in some degree, determines its own destinies; therefore in practical life words and ideas become facts-facts, moreover, which bring about important practical consequences. For instance, many millions of human beings have defined a stroke of lightning as being the "punishment of God" of evil men; other millions have defined it as a "natural, casual, periodical phenomenon"; yet other millions have defined it as an "electric spark." What has been the result of these "non-important" definitions in practical life? In the case of the first definition, when lightning struck a house, the population naturally made no attempt to save the house or anything in it, because to do so would be against the "definition" which proclaims the phenomenon to be a "punishment for evil," any attempt to prevent or check the destruction would be an impious act; the sinner would be guilty of "resisting the supreme law" and would deserve to be punished by death.
Now in the second instance, a stricken building is treated just as any tree overturned by storm; the people save what they can and try to extinguish the fire. In both instances, the behavior of the populace is the same in one respect; if caught in the open by a storm they take refuge under a tree-a means of safety involving maximum danger but the people do not know it.
Now in the third instance, in which the population have a scientifically correct definition of lightning, they provide their houses with lightning rods; and if they are caught by a storm in the open they neither run nor hide under a tree; but when the storm is directly over their heads, they put themselves in a position of minimum exposure by lying flat on the ground until the storm has passed. ~ Alfred Korzybski, Manhood of Humanity,#KEYS
754:Here lies the whole importance of the part of the Yoga of Knowledge which we are now considering, the knowledges of those essential principles of Being, those essential modes of self-existence on which the absolute Divine has based its self-manifestation. If the truth of our being is an infinite unity in which alone there is perfect wideness, light, knowledge, power, bliss, and if all our subjection to darkness, ignorance, weakness, sorrow, limitation comes of our viewing existence as a clash of infinitely multiple separate existences, then obviously it is the most practical and concrete and utilitarian as well as the most lofty and philosophical wisdom to find a means by which we can get away from the error and learn to live in the truth. So also, if that One is in its nature a freedom from bondage to this play of qualities which constitute our psychology and if from subjection to that play are born the struggle and discord in which we live, floundering eternally between the two poles of good and evil, virtue and sin, satisfaction and failure, joy and grief, pleasure and pain, then to get beyond the qualities and take our foundation in the settled peace of that which is always beyond them is the only practical wisdom. If attachment to mutable personality is the cause of our self-ignorance, of our discord and quarrel with ourself and with life and with others, and if there is an impersonal One in which no such discord and ignorance and vain and noisy effort exist because it is in eternal identity and harmony with itself, then to arrive in our souls at that impersonality and untroubled oneness of being is the one line and object of human effort to which our reason can consent to give the name of practicality.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#KEYS
755:Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a great ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy - ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness--that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what--at last--I have found.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me. ~ Bertrand Russell,#KEYS
756:THE PSYCHOLOGY OF YOGA
Initial Definitions and Descriptions
Yoga has four powers and objects, purity, liberty, beatitude and perfection. Whosoever has consummated these four mightinesses in the being of the transcendental, universal, lilamaya and individual God is the complete and absolute Yogin.
All manifestations of God are manifestations of the absolute Parabrahman.
The Absolute Parabrahman is unknowable to us, not because It is the nothingness of all that we are, for rather whatever we are in truth or in seeming is nothing but Parabrahman, but because It is pre-existent & supra-existent to even the highest & purest methods and the most potent & illimitable instruments of which soul in the body is capable.
In Parabrahman knowledge ceases to be knowledge and becomes an inexpressible identity. Become Parabrahman, if thou wilt and if That will suffer thee, but strive not to know It; for thou shalt not succeed with these instruments and in this body.
In reality thou art Parabrahman already and ever wast and ever will be. To become Parabrahman in any other sense, thou must depart utterly out of world manifestation and out even of world transcendence.
Why shouldst thou hunger after departure from manifestation as if the world were an evil? Has not That manifested itself in thee & in the world and art thou wiser & purer & better than the Absolute, O mind-deceived soul in the mortal? When That withdraws thee, then thy going hence is inevitable; until Its force is laid on thee, thy going is impossible, cry thy mind never so fiercely & wailingly for departure. Therefore neither desire nor shun the world, but seek the bliss & purity & freedom & greatness of God in whatsoever state or experience or environment.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays Divine And Human,#KEYS
757:What your reasoning ignores is that which is absolute or tends towards the absolute in man and his seeking as well as in the Divine - something not to be explained by mental reasoning or vital motive. A motive, but a motive of the soul, not of vital desire; a reason not of the mind, but of the self and spirit. An asking too, but the asking that is the soul's inherent aspiration, not a vital longing. That is what comes up when there is the sheer self-giving, when "I seek you for this, I seek you for that" changes to a sheer "I seek you for you." It is that marvellous and ineffable absolute in the Divine that Krishnaprem means when he says, "Not knowledge nor this nor that, but Krishna."
The pull of that is indeed a categorical imperative, the self in us drawn to the Divine because of the imperative call of its greater Self, the soul ineffably drawn towards the object of its adoration, because it cannot be otherwise, because it is it and He is He. That is all about it.
I have written all that only to explain what we mean whenwe speak of seeking the Divine for himself and not for anything else - so far as it is explicable. Explicable or not, it is one of the most dominant facts of spiritual experience. The call to selfgiving is only an expression of this fact. But this does not mean that I object to your asking for Ananda. Ask for that by all means, so long as to ask for it is a need of any part of your being - for these are the things that lead on towards the Divine so long as the absolute inner call that is there all the time does not push itself to the surface. But it is really that that has drawn from the beginning and is there behind - it is the categorical spiritual imperative, the absolute need of the soul for the Divine. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II, Seeking the Divine,#KEYS
758:Hence, it's obvious to see why in AA the community is so important; we are powerless over ourselves. Since we don't have immediate awareness of the Higher Power and how it works, we need to be constantly reminded of our commitment to freedom and liberation. The old patterns are so seductive that as they go off, they set off the association of ideas and the desire to give in to our addiction with an enormous force that we can't handle. The renewal of defeat often leads to despair. At the same time, it's a source of hope for those who have a spiritual view of the process. Because it reminds us that we have to renew once again our total dependence on the Higher Power. This is not just a notional acknowledgment of our need. We feel it from the very depths of our being. Something in us causes our whole being to cry out, "Help!" That's when the steps begin to work. And that, I might add, is when the spiritual journey begins to work. A lot of activities that people in that category regard as spiritual are not communicating to them experientially their profound dependence on the grace of God to go anywhere with their spiritual practices or observances. That's why religious practice can be so ineffective. The real spiritual journey depends on our acknowledging the unmanageability of our lives. The love of God or the Higher Power is what heals us. Nobody becomes a full human being without love. It brings to life people who are most damaged. The steps are really an engagement in an ever-deepening relationship with God. Divine love picks us up when we sincerely believe nobody else will. We then begin to experience freedom, peace, calm, equanimity, and liberation from cravings for what we have come to know are damaging-cravings that cannot bring happiness, but at best only momentary relief that makes the real problem worse. ~ Thomas Keating, Divine Therapy and Addiction, #KEYS
759:There is the one door in us that sometimes swings open upon the splendour of a truth beyond and, before it shuts again, allows a ray to touch us, - a luminous intimation which, if we have the strength and firmness, we may hold to in our faith and make a starting-point for another play of consciousness than that of the sense-mind, for the play of Intuition. For if we examine carefully, we shall find that Intuition is our first teacher. Intuition always stands veiled behind our mental operations. Intuition brings to man those brilliant messages from the Unknown which are the beginning of his higher knowledge. Reason only comes in afterwards to see what profit it can have of the shining harvest. Intuition gives us that idea of something behind and beyond all that we know and seem to be which pursues man always in contradiction of his lower reason and all his normal experience and impels him to formulate that formless perception in the more positive ideas of God, Immortality, Heaven and the rest by which we strive to express it to the mind. For Intuition is as strong as Nature herself from whose very soul it has sprung and cares nothing for the contradictions of reason or the denials of experience. It knows what is because it is, because itself it is of that and has come from that, and will not yield it to the judgment of what merely becomes and appears. What the Intuition tells us of, is not so much Existence as the Existent, for it proceeds from that one point of light in us which gives it its advantage, that sometimes opened door in our own self-awareness. Ancient Vedanta seized this message of the Intuition and formulated it in the three great declarations of the Upanishads, I am He, Thou art That, O Swetaketu, All this is the Brahman; this Self is the Brahman.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Methods of Vedantic Knowledge,#KEYS
760:There is a story I would like to tell you about a woman who practices the invocation of the Buddha Amitabha's name. She is very tough, and she practices the invocation three times daily, using a wooden drum and a bell, reciting, "Namo Amitabha Buddha" for one hour each time. When she arrives at one thousand times, she invites the bell to sound. (In Vietnamese, we don't say "strike" or "hit" a bell.) Although she has been doing this for ten years, her personality has not changed. She is still quite mean, shouting at people all the time.
A friend wanted to teach her a lesson, so one afternoon when she had just lit the incense, invited the bell to sound three times, and was beginning to recite "Namo Amitabha Buddha," he came to her door, and said, "Mrs. Nguyen, Mrs. Nguyen!" She found it very annoying because this was her time of practice, but he just stood at the front gate shouting her name. She said to herself, "I have to struggle against my anger, so I will ignore that," and she went on, "Namo Amitabha Buddha, Namo Amitabha Buddha."
The gentleman continued to shout her name, and her anger became more and more oppressive. She struggled against it, wondering, "Should I stop my recitation and go and give him a piece of my mind?" But she continued chanting, and she struggled very hard. Fire mounted in her, but she still tried to chant "Namo Amitabha Buddha." The gentleman knew it, and he continued to shout, "Mrs. Nguyen! Mrs. Nguyen!"
She could not bear it any longer. She threw away the bell and the drum. She slammed the door, went out to the gate and said, "Why, why do you behave like that? Why do you call my name hundreds of times like that?" The gentleman smiled at her and said, "I just called your name for ten minutes, and you are so angry. You have been calling the Buddha's name for ten years. Think how angry he must be! ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,#KEYS
761:To analyse the classes of life we have to consider two very different kinds of phenomena: the one embraced under the collective name-Inorganic chemistry-the other under the collective nameOrganic chemistry, or the chemistry of hydro-carbons. These divisions are made because of the peculiar properties of the elements chiefly involved in the second class. The properties of matter are so distributed among the elements that three of them- Oxygen, Hydrogen, and Carbon-possess an ensemble of unique characteristics. The number of reactions in inorganic chemistry are relatively few, but in organic chemistry-in the chemistry of these three elements the number of different compounds is practically unlimited. Up to 1910, we knew of more than 79 elements of which the whole number of reactions amounted to only a few hundreds, but among the remaining three elements-Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen-the reactions were known to be practically unlimited in number and possibilities; this fact must have very far reaching consequences. As far as energies are concerned, we have to take them as nature reveals them to us. Here more than ever, mathematical thinking is essential and will help enormously. The reactions in inorganic chemistry always involve the phenomenon of heat, sometimes light, and in some instances an unusual energy is produced called electricity. Until now, the radioactive elements represent a group too insufficiently known for an enlargement here upon this subject.
The organic compounds being unlimited in number and possibilities and with their unique characteristics, represent of course, a different class of phenomena, but being, at the same time, chemical they include the basic chemical phenomena involved in all chemical reactions, but being unique in many other respects, they also have an infinitely vast field of unique characteristics. ~ Alfred Korzybski, Manhood of Humanity, 53,#KEYS
762:principle of Yogic methods :::
Yogic methods have something of the same relation to the customary psychological workings of man as has the scientific handling of the force of electricity or of steam to their normal operations in Nature. And they, too, like the operations of Science, are formed upon a knowledge developed and confirmed by regular experiment, practical analysis and constant result. All Rajayoga, for instance, depends on this perception and experience that our inner elements, combinations, functions, forces can be separated or dissolved, can be new-combined and set to novel and formerly impossible workings or can be transformed and resolved into a new general synthesis by fixed internal processes. Hathayoga similarly depends on this perception and experience that the vital forces and function to which our life is normally subjected and whose ordinary operations seem set and indispensable, can be mastered and the operations changed or suspended with results that would otherwise be impossible and that seem miraculous to those who have not seized the raionale of their process. And if in some other of its forms this character of Yoga is less apparent, because they are more intuitive and less mechanical, nearer, like the Yoga of Devotion, to a supernal ecstasy or, like the Yoga of Knowledge, to a supernal infinity of consciousness and being, yet they too start from the use of some principal faculty in us by ways and for ends not contemplated in its everyday spontaneous workings. All methods grouped under the common name of Yoga are special psychological processes founded on a fixed truth of Nature and developing, out of normal functions, powers and results which were always latent but which her ordinary movements do not easily or do not often manifest.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Introduction - The Conditions of the Synthesis, Life and Yoga,#KEYS
763:When, in last week's aphorism, Sri Aurobindo opposed - as one might say - "knowledge" to "Wisdom", he was speaking of knowledge as it is lived in the average human consciousness, the knowledge which is obtained through effort and mental development, whereas here, on the contrary, the knowledge he speaks of is the essential Knowledge, the supramental divine Knowledge, Knowledge by identity. And this is why he describes it here as "vast and eternal", which clearly indicates that it is not human knowledge as we normally understand it.
Many people have asked why Sri Aurobindo said that the river is "slender". This is an expressive image which creates a striking contrast between the immensity of the divine, supramental Knowledge - the origin of this inspiration, which is infinite - and what a human mind can perceive of it and receive from it.
Even when you are in contact with these domains, the portion, so to say, which you perceive, is minimal, slender. It is like a tiny little stream or a few falling drops and these drops are so pure, so brilliant, so complete in themselves, that they give you the sense of a marvellous inspiration, the impression that you have reached infinite domains and risen very high above the ordinary human condition. And yet this is nothing in comparison with what is still to be perceived.
I have also been asked if the psychic being or psychic consciousness is the medium through which the inspiration is perceived.
Generally, yes. The first contact you have with higher regions is a psychic one. Certainly, before an inner psychic opening is achieved, it is difficult to have these inspirations. It can happen as an exception and under exceptional conditions as a grace, but the true contact comes through the psychic; because the psychic consciousness is certainly the medium with the greatest affinity with the divine Truth. ~ The Mother, On Thoughts And Aphorisms,#KEYS
764:A distinction has to be firmly seized in our consciousness, the capital distinction between mechanical Nature and the free Lord of Nature, between the Ishwara or single luminous divine Will and the many executive modes and forces of the universe. Nature, - not as she is in her divine Truth, the conscious Power of the Eternal, but as she appears to us in the Ignorance, - is executive Force, mechanical in her steps, not consciously intelligent to our experience of her, although all her works are instinct with an absolute intelligence. Not in herself master, she is full of a self-aware Power which has an infinite mastery and, because of this Power driving her, she rules all and exactly fulfils the work intended in her by the Ishwara. Not enjoying but enjoyed, she bears in herself the burden of all enjoyments. Nature as Prakriti is an inertly active Force, - for she works out a movement imposed upon her; but within her is One that knows,
- some Entity sits there that is aware of all her motion and process. Prakriti works containing the knowledge, the mastery, the delight of the Purusha, the Being associated with her or seated within her; but she can participate in them only by subjection and reflection of that which fills her. Purusha knows and is still and inactive; he contains the action of Prakriti within his consciousness and knowledge and enjoys it. He gives the sanction to Prakriti's works and she works out what is sanctioned by him for his pleasure. Purusha himself does not execute; he maintains Prakriti in her action and allows her to express in energy and process and formed result what he perceives in his knowledge. This is the distinction made by the Sankhyas; and although it is not all the true truth, not in any way the highest truth either of Purusha or of Prakriti, still it is a valid and indispensable practical knowledge in the lower hemisphere of existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#KEYS
765:A distinction has to be firmly seized in our consciousness, the capital distinction between mechanical Nature and the free Lord of Nature, between the Ishwara or single luminous divine Will and the many executive modes and forces of the universe. Nature, - not as she is in her divine Truth, the conscious Power of the Eternal, but as she appears to us in the Ignorance, - is executive Force, mechanical in her steps, not consciously intelligent to our experience of her, although all her works are instinct with an absolute intelligence. Not in herself master, she is full of a self-aware Power which has an infinite mastery and, because of this Power driving her, she rules all and exactly fulfils the work intended in her by the Ishwara. Not enjoying but enjoyed, she bears in herself the burden of all enjoyments. Nature as Prakriti is an inertly active Force, - for she works out a movement imposed upon her; but within her is One that knows, - some Entity sits there that is aware of all her motion and process. Prakriti works containing the knowledge, the mastery, the delight of the Purusha, the Being associated with her or seated within her; but she can participate in them only by subjection and reflection of that which fills her. Purusha knows and is still and inactive; he contains the action of Prakriti within his consciousness and knowledge and enjoys it. He gives the sanction to Prakriti's works and she works out what is sanctioned by him for his pleasure. Purusha himself does not execute; he maintains Prakriti in her action and allows her to express in energy and process and formed result what he perceives in his knowledge. This is the distinction made by the Sankhyas; and although it is not all the true truth, not in any way the highest truth either of Purusha or of Prakriti, still it is a valid and indispensable practical knowledge in the lower hemisphere of existence.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Self-Surrender in Works,#KEYS
766:A supreme divine Love is a creative Power and, even though it can exist in itself silent and unchangeable, yet rejoices in external form and expression and is not condemned to be a speechless and bodiless godhead. It has even been said that creation itself was an act of love or at least the building up of a field in which Divine Love could devise its symbols and fulfil itself in act of mutuality and self-giving, and, if not the initial nature of creation, this may well be its ultimate object and motive. It does not so appear now because, even if a Divine Love is there in the world upholding all this evolution of creatures, yet the stuff of life and its action is made up of an egoistic formation, a division, a struggle of life and consciousness to exist and survive in an apparently indifferent, inclement or even hostile world of inanimate and inconscient Matter. In the confusion and obscurity of this struggle all are thrown against each other with a will in each to assert its own existence first and foremost and only secondarily to assert itself in others and very partially for others; for even man's altruism remains essentially egoistic and must be so till the soul finds the secret of the divine Oneness. It is to discover that at its supreme source, to bring it from within and to radiate it out up to the extreme confines of life that is turned the effort of the Yoga. All action, all creation must be turned into a form, a symbol of the cult, the adoration, the sacrifice; it must carry something that makes it bear in it the stamp of a dedication, a reception and translation of the Divine Consciousness, a service of the Beloved, a self-giving, a surrender. This has to be done wherever possible in the outward body and form of the act; it must be done always in its inward emotion and an intentsity that shows it to be an outflow from the soul towards the Eternal.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Ascent of the Sacrifice - 2, 164,#KEYS
767:I have already told you this several times. When you are in a particular set of circumstances and certain events take place, these events often oppose your desire or what seems best to you, and often you happen to regret this and say to yourself, "Ah! how good it would have been if it were otherwise, if it had been like this or like that", for little things and big things.... Then years pass by, events are unfolded; you progress, become more conscious, understand better, and when you look back, you notice―first with astonishment, then later with a smile―that those very circumstances which seemed to you quite disastrous or unfavourable, were exactly the best thing that could have happened to you to make you progress as you should have. And if you are the least bit wise you tell yourself, "Truly, the divine Grace is infinite."
So, when this sort of thing has happened to you a number of times, you begin to understand that in spite of the blindness of man and deceptive appearances, the Grace is at work everywhere, so that at every moment it is the best possible thing that happens in the state the world is in at that moment. It is because our vision is limited or even because we are blinded by our own preferences that we cannot discern that things are like this.
But when one begins to see it, one enters upon a state of wonder which nothing can describe. For behind the appearances one perceives this Grace―infinite, wonderful, all-powerful―which knows all, organises all, arranges all, and leads us, whether we like it or not, whether we know it or not, towards the supreme goal, that is, union with the Divine, the awareness of the Godhead and union with Him.
Then one lives in the Action and Presence of the Grace a life full of joy, of wonder, with the feeling of a marvellous strength, and at the same time with a trust so calm, so complete, that nothing can shake it any longer. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1956, 8 August 1956,#KEYS
768:True love has no need of reciprocation; there can be no reciprocation because there is only one Love, the Love, which has no other aim than to love. It is in the world of division that one feels the need of reciprocation - because one lives in the illusion of the multiplicity of Love; but in fact there is only One Love and it is always this sole love which, so to say, responds to itself. 19 April 1967
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Indeed, there is only one Love, universal and eternal, as there is only one Consciousness, universal and eternal.
All the apparent differences are colorations given by individualisation and personification. But these alterations are purely superficial. And the "nature" of Love, as of Consciousness, is unalterable. 20 April 1967
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When one has found divine Love, it is the Divine that one loves in all beings. There is no longer any division. 1 May 1967
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Once one has found divine Love, all other loves, which are nothing but disguises, can lose their deformities and become pure - then it is the Divine that one loves in everyone and everything. 6 May 1967
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True love, that which fulfils and illumines, is not the love one receives but the love one gives.
And the supreme Love is a love without any definite object - the love which loves because it cannot do other than to love. 15 May 1968
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There is only one love - the Divine's Love; and without that Love there would be no creation. All exists because of that Love and it is when we try to find our own love which does not exist that we do not feel the Love, the only Love, the Divine's Love which permeates all existence. 5 March 1970
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When the psychic loves it loves with the Divine Love.
When you love, you love with the Divine's love diminished and distorted by your ego, but in its essence still the Divine's love.
It is for the facility of the language that you say the love of this one or that one, but it is all the same one Love manifested ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
769:
Should not one be born with a great aspiration?
No, aspiration is a thing to be developed, educated, like all activities of the being. One may be born with a very slight aspiration and develop it so much that it becomes very great. One may be born with a very small will and develop it and make it strong. It is a ridiculous idea to believe that things come to you like that, through a sort of grace, that if you are not given aspiration, you don't have it - this is not true. It is precisely upon this that Sri Aurobindo has insisted in his letter and in the passage I am going to read to you in a minute. He says you must choose, and the choice is constantly put before you and constantly you must choose, and if you do not choose, well, you will not be able to advance. You must choose; there is no "force like that" which chooses for you, or chance or luck or fate - this is not true. Your will is free, it is deliberately left free and you have to choose. It is you who decide whether to seek the Light or not, whether to be the servitor of the Truth or not - it is you. Or whether to have an aspiration or not, it is you who choose. And even when you are told, "Make your surrender total and the work will be done for you", it is quite all right, but to make your surrender total, every day and at every moment you must choose to make your surrender total, otherwise you will not do it, it will not get done by itself. It is you who must want to do it. When it is done, all goes well, when you have the Knowledge also, all goes well, and when you are identified with the Divine, all goes even better, but till then you must will, choose and decide. Don't go to sleep lazily, saying, "Oh! The work will be done for me, I have nothing to do but let myself glide along with the stream." Besides, it is not true, the work is not done by itself, because if the least little thing thwarts your little will, it says, "No, not that!..." Then?
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1950-1951,#KEYS
770:middle vision logic or paradigmatic ::: (1:25) Cognition is described as middle-vision logic, or paradigmatic in that it is capable of co-ordinating the relations between systems of systems, unifying them into principled frameworks or paradigms. This is an operation on meta-systems and allows for the view described above, a view of human development itself. Self-sense at teal is called Autonomous or Strategist and is characterized by the emergent capacity to acknowledge and cope with inner conflicts in needs, ... and values. All of which are part of a multifacted and complex world. Teal sees our need for autonomy and autonomy itself as limited because emotional interdependence is inevitable. The contradictory aspects of self are weaved into an identity that is whole, integrated and commited to generating a fulfilling life.
Additionally, Teal allows individuals to link theory and practice, perceive dynamic systems interactions, recognize and strive for higher principles, understand the social construction of reality, handle paradox and complexity, create positive-sum games and seek feedback from others as a vital source for growth. Values embrace magnificence of existence, flexibility, spontaneioty, functionality, the integration of differences into interdependent systems and complimenting natural egalitarianism with natural ranking. Needs shift to self-actualization, and morality is in both terms of universal ethical principles and recognition of the developmental relativity of those universals. Teal is the first wave that is truly able to see the limitations of orange and green morality, it is able to uphold the paradox of universalism and relativism. Teal in its decision making process is able to see ... deep and surface features of morality and is able to take into consideration both those values when engaging in moral action. Currently Teal is quite rare, embraced by 2-5% of the north american and european population according to sociological research. ~ Essential Integral, L4.1-53, Middle Vision Logic,#KEYS
771:Why are some people intelligent and others not? Why can some people do certain things while others can't?"
It is as though you asked why everybody was not the same! Then it would mean that there would only be one single thing, one single thing indefinitely repeated which would constitute the whole universe.... I don't know, but it seems to me that it wouldn't be worth the trouble having a universe for that, it would be enough to have just one thing!
But the moment one admits the principle of multiplicity and that no two things are alike in the universe, how can you ask why they are not the same! It is just because they are not, because no two things are alike.
Behind that there is something else which one is not conscious of, but which is very simple and very childish. It is this: "Since there is an infinite diversity, since some people are of one kind and others of a lesser kind, well" - here of course one doesn't say this to oneself but it is there, hidden in the depths of the being, in the depths of the ego - "why am I not of the best kind?" There we are. In fact it amounts to complaining that perhaps one is not of the best kind! If you look attentively at questions like this: "Why do some have much and others little?" "Why are some wise and not others? Why are some intelligent and not others?" etc., behind that there is "Why don't I have all that can be had and why am I not all that one can be?..." Naturally, one doesn't say this to oneself, because one would feel ridiculous, but it is there.
There then. Now has anyone anything to add to what we have just said?... Have you all understood quite well? Everything I have said? Nobody wants to say...
(A teacher) Our daily routine seems a little "impossible" to us.
Well, wait a century or two and it will become possible! (Laughter)
You are told that today's impossibility is the possibility of tomorrow - but these are very great tomorrows! ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers, Volume-8, page no. 387-388,#KEYS
772:the spiritual force behind adoration :::
All love, indeed, that is adoration has a spiritual force behind it, and even when it is offered ignorantly and to a limited object, something of that splendor appears through the poverty of the rite and the smallness of its issues. For love that is worship is at once an aspiration and a preparation: it can bring even within its small limits in the Ignorance a glimpse of a still more or less blind and partial but surprising realisation; for there are moments when it is not we but the One who loves and is loved in us, and even a human passion can be uplifted and glorified by a slight glimpse of this infinite Love and Lover. It is for this reason that the worship of the god, the worship of the idol, the human magnet or ideal are not to be despised; for these are steps through which the human race moves towards that blissful passion and ecstasy of the Infinite which, even in limiting it, they yet represent for our imperfect vision when we have still to use the inferior steps Nature has hewn for our feet and admit the stages of our progress. Certain idolatries are indispensable for the development of our emotional being, nor will the man who knows be hasty at any time to shatter this image unless he can replace it in the heart of the worshipper by the Reality it figures. Moreover, they have this power because there is always something in them that is greater than their forms and, even when we reach the supreme worship, that abides and becomes a prolongation of it or a part of its catholic wholeness. our knowledge is still imperfect in us, love incomplete if even when we know That which surpasses all forms and manifestations, we cannot still accept the Divine in creature and object, in man, in the kind, in the animal, in the tree, in the flower, in the work of our hands, in the Nature-Force which is then no longer to us the blind action of a material machinery but a face and power of the universal Shakti: for in these things too is the presence of the Eternal.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Ascent of the Sacrifice - 2, The Works of Love - The Works of Life, 159,#KEYS
773:It is not very easy for the customary mind of man, always attached to its past and present associations, to conceive of an existence still human, yet radically changed in what are now our fixed circumstances.We are in respect to our possible higher evolution much in the position of the original Ape of the Darwinian theory. It would have been impossible for that Ape leading his instinctive arboreal life in primeval forests to conceive that there would be one day an animal on the earth who would use a new faculty called reason upon the materials of his inner and outer existence, who would dominate by that power his instincts and habits, change the circumstances of his physical life, build for himself houses of stone, manipulate Nature's forces, sail the seas, ride the air, develop codes of conduct, evolve conscious methods for his mental and spiritual development. And if such a conception had been possible for the Ape-mind, it would still have been difficult for him to imagine that by any progress of Nature or long effort of Will and tendency he himself could develop into that animal. Man, because he has acquired reason and still more because he has indulged his power of imagination and intuition, is able to conceive an existence higher than his own and even to envisage his personal elevation beyond his present state into that existence. His idea of the supreme state is an absolute of all that is positive to his own concepts and desirable to his own instinctive aspiration,-Knowledge without its negative shadow of error, Bliss without its negation in experience of suffering, Power without its constant denial by incapacity, purity and plenitude of being without the opposing sense of defect and limitation. It is so that he conceives his gods; it is so that he constructs his heavens. But it is not so that his reason conceives of a possible earth and a possible humanity. His dream of God and Heaven is really a dream of his own perfection; but he finds the same difficulty in accepting its practical realisation here for his ultimate aim as would the ancestral Ape if called upon to believe in himself as the future Man. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Ego and the Dualities, #KEYS
774:For centuries and centuries humanity has waited for this time. It is come. But it is difficult.
I don't simply tell you we are here upon earth to rest and enjoy ourselves, now is not the time for that. We are here..... to prepare the way for the new creation.
The body has some difficulty, so I can't be active, alas. It is not because I am old, I am not old, I am younger than most of you. If I am here inactive, it is because the body has given itself definitely to prepare the transformation. But the consciousness is clear and we are here to work - rest and enjoyment will come afterwards. Let us do our work here.
So I have called you to tell you that. Take what you can, do what you can, my help will be with you. All sincere effort will be helped to the maximum.
It is the hour to be the heroic. Heroism is not what it is said to be; it is to become wholly unified - and the Divine help will always be with those who have resolved to be heroic in full sincerity.
There!
You are here at this moment that is to say upon earth, because you chose it at one time - you do not remember it any more, but I know it - that is why you are here. Well, you must rise to the height of the task. You must strive, you must conquer all weakness and limitations; above all you must tell your ego: "Your hour is gone." We want a race that has no ego, that has in place of the ego the Divine Consciousness. It is that which we want: the Divine Consciousness which will allow the race to develop itself and the Supramental being to take birth.
If you believe that I am here because I am bound - it is not true. I am not bound, I am here because my body has been given for the first attempt at transformation. Sri Aurobindo told me so. Well, I am doing it. I do not wish anyone to do it for me because.... Because it is not very pleasant, but I do it willingly because of the result; everybody will be able to benefit from it. I ask only one thing: do not listen to the ego.
If there is in your hearts a sincere Yes, you will satisfy me completely. I do not need words, I need the sincere adhesion of your hearts. That's all. ~ The Mother, (This talk was given by the Mother on April 2,1972,#KEYS
775:And therefore, all of those for whom authentic transformation has deeply unseated their souls must, I believe, wrestle with the profound moral obligation to shout form the heart-perhaps quietly and gently, with tears of reluctance; perhaps with fierce fire and angry wisdom; perhaps with slow and careful analysis; perhaps by unshakable public example-but authentically always and absolutely carries a a demand and duty: you must speak out, to the best of your ability, and shake the spiritual tree, and shine your headlights into the eyes of the complacent. You must let that radical realization rumble through your veins and rattle those around you.
Alas, if you fail to do so, you are betraying your own authenticity. You are hiding your true estate. You don't want to upset others because you don't want to upset your self. You are acting in bad faith, the taste of a bad infinity.
Because, you see, the alarming fact is that any realization of depth carries a terrible burden: those who are allowed to see are simultaneously saddled with the obligation to communicate that vision in no uncertain terms: that is the bargain. You were allowed to see the truth under the agreement that you would communicate it to others (that is the ultimate meaning of the bodhisattva vow). And therefore, if you have seen, you simply must speak out. Speak out with compassion, or speak out with angry wisdom, or speak out with skillful means, but speak out you must.
And this is truly a terrible burden, a horrible burden, because in any case there is no room for timidity. The fact that you might be wrong is simply no excuse: You might be right in your communication, and you might be wrong, but that doesn't matter. What does matter, as Kierkegaard so rudely reminded us, is that only by investing and speaking your vision with passion, can the truth, one way or another, finally penetrate the reluctance of the world. If you are right, or if you are wrong, it is only your passion that will force either to be discovered. It is your duty to promote that discovery-either way-and therefore it is your duty to speak your truth with whatever passion and courage you can find in your heart. You must shout, in whatever way you can. ~ Ken Wilber, One Taste,#KEYS
776: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
777:But usually the representative influence occupies a much larger place in the life of the sadhaka. If the Yoga is guided by a received written Shastra, - some Word from the past which embodies the experience of former Yogins, - it may be practised either by personal effort alone or with the aid of a Guru. The spiritual knowledge is then gained through meditation on the truths that are taught and it is made living and conscious by their realisation in the personal experience; the Yoga proceeds by the results of prescribed methods taught in a Scripture or a tradition and reinforced and illumined by the instructions of the Master. This is a narrower practice, but safe and effective within its limits, because it follows a well-beaten track to a long familiar goal.
For the sadhaka of the integral Yoga it is necessary to remember that no written Shastra, however great its authority or however large its spirit, can be more than a partial expression of the eternal Knowledge. He will use, but never bind himself even by the greatest Scripture. Where the Scripture is profound, wide, catholic, it may exercise upon him an influence for the highest good and of incalculable importance. It may be associated in his experience with his awakening to crowning verities and his realisation of the highest experiences. His Yoga may be governed for a long time by one Scripture or by several successively, - if it is in the line of the great Hindu tradition, by the Gita, for example, the Upanishads, the Veda. Or it may be a good part of his development to include in its material a richly varied experience of the truths of many Scriptures and make the future opulent with all that is best in the past. But in the end he must take his station, or better still, if he can, always and from the beginning he must live in his own soul beyond the limitations of the word that he uses. The Gita itself thus declares that the Yogin in his progress must pass beyond the written Truth, - sabdabrahmativartate - beyond all that he has heard and all that he has yet to hear, - srotavyasya srutasya ca. For he is not the sadhaka of a book or of many books; he is a sadhaka of the Infinite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Four Aids,#KEYS
778:Many Blows are Needed:
Mother, even when one tries to think that one is powerless, there is something which believes one is powerful. So?
Ah, yes, ah yes! Ah, it is very difficult to be sincere.... That is why blows multiply and sometimes become terrible, because that's the only thing which breaks your stupidity. This is the justification of calamities. Only when you are in an acutely painful situation and indeed before something that affects you deeply, then that makes the stupidity melt away a little. But as you say, even when there is something that melts, there is still a little something which remains inside. And that is why it lasts so long... How many blows are needed in life for one to know to the very depths that one is nothing, that one can do nothing, that one does not exist, that one is nothing, that there is no entity without the divine Consciousness and the Grace. From the moment one knows it, it is over; all difficulties have gone. When one knows it integrally and there is nothing which resists... but till that moment... And it takes very long.
Why doesn't the blow come all at once?
Because that would kill you. For if the blow is strong enough to cure you, it would simply crush you, it would reduce you to pulp. It is only by proceeding little by little, little by little, very gradually, that you can continue to exist. Naturally this depends on the inner strength, the inner sincerity, and on the capacity for progress, for profiting by experience and, as I said a while ago, on not forgetting. If one is lucky enough not to forget, then one goes much faster. One can go very fast. And if at the same time one has that inner moral strength which, when the red-hot iron is at hand, does not extinguish it by trying to pour water over it, but instead goes to the very core of the abscess, then in this case things go very fast also. But not many people are strong enough for this. On the contrary, they very quickly do this (gesture), like this, like this, in order to hide, to hide from themselves. How many pretty little explanations one gives oneself, how many excuses one piles up for all the foolishnesses one has committed.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1954,#KEYS
779:I know perfectly well that pain and suffering and struggle and excesses of despair are natural - though not inevitable - on the way, - not because they are helps, but because they are imposed on us by the darkness of this human nature out of which we have to struggle into the Light. . . .
The dark path is there and there are many who make like the Christians a gospel of spiritual suffering; many hold it to be the unavoidable price of victory. It may be so under certain circumstances, as it has been in so many lives at least at the beginning, or one may choose to make it so. But then the price has to be paid with resignation, fortitude or a tenacious resilience. I admit that if borne in that way the attacks of the Dark Forces or the ordeals they impose have a meaning. After each victory gained over them, there is then a sensible advance; often they seem to show us the difficulties in ourselves which we have to overcome and to say, "Here you must conquer us and here."
But all the same it is a too dark and difficult way which nobody should follow on whom the necessity does not lie.
In any case one thing can never help and that is to despond always and say, "I am unfit; I am not meant for the Yoga." And worse still are these perilous mental formations such as you are always accepting that you must fare like X (one whose difficulty of exaggerated ambition was quite different from yours) and that you have only six years etc. These are clear formations of the Dark Forces seeking not only to sterilise your aspiration but to lead you away and so prevent your sharing in the fruit of the victory hereafter. I do not know what Krishnaprem has said but his injunction, if you have rightly understood it, is one that cannot stand as valid, since so many have done Yoga relying on tapasya or anything else but not confident of any Divine Grace. It is not that, but the soul's demand for a higher Truth or a higher life that is indispensable. Where that is, the Divine Grace whether believed in or not, will intervene. If you believe, that hastens and facilitates things; if you cannot yet believe, still the soul's aspiration will justify itself with whatever difficulty and struggle. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - IV,#KEYS
780:If we analyse the classes of life, we readily find that there are three cardinal classes which are radically distinct in function. A short analysis will disclose to us that, though minerals have various activities, they are not "living." The plants have a very definite and well known function-the transformation of solar energy into organic chemical energy. They are a class of life which appropriates one kind of energy, converts it into another kind and stores it up; in that sense they are a kind of storage battery for the solar energy; and so I define THE PLANTS AS THE CHEMISTRY-BINDING class of life.
The animals use the highly dynamic products of the chemistry-binding class-the plants-as food, and those products-the results of plant-transformation-undergo in animals a further transformation into yet higher forms; and the animals are correspondingly a more dynamic class of life; their energy is kinetic; they have a remarkable freedom and power which the plants do not possess-I mean the freedom and faculty to move about in space; and so I define ANIMALS AS THE SPACE-BINDING CLASS OF LIFE.
And now what shall we say of human beings? What is to be our definition of Man? Like the animals, human beings do indeed possess the space-binding capacity but, over and above that, human beings possess a most remarkable capacity which is entirely peculiar to them-I mean the capacity to summarise, digest and appropriate the labors and experiences of the past; I mean the capacity to use the fruits of past labors and experiences as intellectual or spiritual capital for developments in the present; I mean the capacity to employ as instruments of increasing power the accumulated achievements of the all-precious lives of the past generations spent in trial and error, trial and success; I mean the capacity of human beings to conduct their lives in the ever increasing light of inherited wisdom; I mean the capacity in virtue of which man is at once the heritor of the by-gone ages and the trustee of posterity. And because humanity is just this magnificent natural agency by which the past lives in the present and the present for the future, I define HUMANITY, in the universal tongue of mathematics and mechanics, to be the TIME-BINDING CLASS OF LIFE. ~ Alfred Korzybski, Manhood of Humanity,#KEYS
781:Are there no false visions?
There are what in appearance are false visions. There are, for instance, hundreds or thousands of people who say that they have seen the Christ. Of that number those who have actually seen Him are perhaps less than a dozen, and even with them there is much to say about what they have seen. What the others saw may be an emanation; or it may be a thought or even an image remembered by the mind. There are, too, those who are strong believers in the Christ and have had a vision of some Force or Being or some remembered image that is very luminous and makes upon them a strong impression. They have seen something which they feel belongs to another world, to a supernatural order, and it has created in them an emotion of fear, awe or joy; and as they believe in the Christ, they can think of nothing else and say it is He. But the same vision or experience if it comes to one who believes in the Hindu, the Mohammedan or some other religion, will take a different name and form. The thing seen or experienced may be fundamentally the same, but it is formulated differently according to the different make-up of the apprehending mind. It is only those that can go beyond beliefs and faiths and myths and traditions who are able to say what it really is; but these are few, very few. You must be free from every mental construction, you must divest yourself of all that is merely local or temporal, before you can know what you have seen.
Spiritual experience means the contact with the Divine in oneself (or without, which comes to the same thing in that domain). And it is an experience identical everywhere in all countries, among all peoples and even in all ages. If you meet the Divine, you meet it always and everywhere in the same way. Difference comes in because between the experience and its formulation there is almost an abyss. Directly you have spiritual experience, which takes place always in the inner consciousness, it is translated into your external consciousness and defined there in one way or another according to your education, your faith, your mental predisposition. There is only one truth, one reality; but the forms through which it may be expressed are many. 21 April 1929 ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1929-1931,#KEYS
782:One thing is needful. -- To "give style" to one's character-- a great and rare art! It is practiced by those who survey all the strengths and weaknesses of their nature and then fit them into an artistic plan until every one of them appears as art and reason and even weaknesses delight the eye. Here a large mass of second nature has been added; there a piece of original nature has been removed -- both times through long practice and daily work at it. Here the ugly that could not be removed is concealed; there it has been reinterpreted and made sublime. Much that is vague and resisted shaping has been saved and exploited for distant views; it is meant to beckon toward the far and immeasurable. In the end, when the work is finished, it becomes evident how the constraint of a single taste governed and formed everything large and small. Whether this taste was good or bad is less important than one might suppose, if only it was a single taste!
It will be the strong and domineering natures that enjoy their finest gaiety in such constraint and perfection under a law of their own; the passion of their tremendous will relaxes in the face of all stylized nature, of all conquered and serving nature. Even when they have to build palaces and design gardens they demur at giving nature freedom.
Conversely, it is the weak characters without power over themselves that hate the constraint of style. They feel that if this bitter and evil constraint were imposed upon them they would be demeaned; they become slaves as soon as they serve; they hate to serve. Such spirits -- and they may be of the first rank -- are always out to shape and interpret their environment as free nature: wild, arbitrary, fantastic, disorderly, and surprising. And they are well advised because it is only in this way that they can give pleasure to themselves. For one thing is needful: that a human being should attain satisfaction with himself, whether it be by means of this or that poetry or art; only then is a human being at all tolerable to behold. Whoever is dissatisfied with himself is continually ready for revenge, and we others will be his victims, if only by having to endure his ugly sight. For the sight of what is ugly makes one bad and gloomy. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, mod trans. Walter Kaufmann,#KEYS
783:And for the same reason, because that which we are seeking through beauty is in the end that which we are seeking through religion, the Absolute, the Divine. The search for beauty is only in its beginning a satisfaction in the beauty of form, the beauty which appeals to the physical senses and the vital impressions, impulsions, desires. It is only in the middle a satisfaction in the beauty of the ideas seized, the emotions aroused, the perception of perfect process and harmonious combination. Behind them the soul of beauty in us desires the contact, the revelation, the uplifting delight of an absolute beauty in all things which it feels to be present, but which neither the senses and instincts by themselves can give, though they may be its channels, - for it is suprasensuous, - nor the reason and intelligence, though they too are a channel, - for it is suprarational, supra-intellectual, - but to which through all these veils the soul itself seeks to arrive. When it can get the touch of this universal, absolute beauty, this soul of beauty, this sense of its revelation in any slightest or greatest thing, the beauty of a flower, a form, the beauty and power of a character, an action, an event, a human life, an idea, a stroke of the brush or the chisel or a scintillation of the mind, the colours of a sunset or the grandeur of the tempest, it is then that the sense of beauty in us is really, powerfully, entirely satisfied. It is in truth seeking, as in religion, for the Divine, the All-Beautiful in man, in nature, in life, in thought, in art; for God is Beauty and Delight hidden in the variation of his masks and forms. When, fulfilled in our growing sense and knowledge of beauty and delight in beauty and our power for beauty, we are able to identify ourselves in soul with this Absolute and Divine in all the forms and activities of the world and shape an image of our inner and our outer life in the highest image we can perceive and embody of the All-Beautiful, then the aesthetic being in us who was born for this end, has fulfilled himself and risen to his divine consummation. To find highest beauty is to find God; to reveal, to embody, to create, as we say, highest beauty is to bring out of our souls the living image and power of God. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, 144, #KEYS
784:There I waited day and night for the voice of God within me, to know what He had to say to me, to learn what I had to do. In this seclusion the earliest realisation, the first lesson came to me. I remembered then that a month or more before my arrest, a call had come to me to put aside all activity, to go in seclusion and to look into myself, so that I might enter into closer communion with Him. I was weak and could not accept the call. My work was very dear to me and in the pride of my heart I thought that unless I was there, it would suffer or even fail and cease; therefore I would not leave it. It seemed to me that He spoke to me again and said, The bonds you had not the strength to break, I have broken for you, because it is not my will nor was it ever my intention that that should continue. I have had another thing for you to do and it is for that I have brought you here, to teach you what you could not learn for yourself and to train you for my work. Then He placed the Gita in my hands. His strength entered into me and I was able to do the sadhana of the Gita. I was not only to understand intellectually but to realise what Sri Krishna demanded of Arjuna and what He demands of those who aspire to do His work, to be free from repulsion and desire, to do work for Him without the demand for fruit, to renounce self-will and become a passive and faithful instrument in His hands, to have an equal heart for high and low, friend and opponent, success andfailure, yet not to do His work negligently. I realised what the Hindu religion meant. We speak often of the Hindureligion, of the Sanatan Dharma, but few of us really know what that religion is. Other religions are preponderatingly religions of faith and profession, but the Sanatan Dharma is life itself; it is a thing that has not so much to be believed as lived. This is the Dharma that for the salvation of humanity was cherished in the seclusion of this peninsula from of old. It is to give this religion that India is rising. She does not rise as other countries do, for self or when she is strong, to trample on the weak. She is rising to shed the eternal light entrusted to her over the world. India has always existed for humanity and not for herself and it is for humanity and not for herself that she must be great.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Karmayogin,#KEYS
785:I have seen the truth; I have seen and I know that people can be beautiful and happy without losing the power of living on earth. I will not and cannot believe that evil is the normal condition of mankind. And it is just this faith of mine that they laugh at. But how can I help believing it? I have seen the truth ~ it is not as though I had invented it with my mind, I have seen it, seen it, and the living image of it has filled my soul for ever. I have seen it in such full perfection that I cannot believe that it is impossible for people to have it. And so how can I go wrong? I shall make some slips no doubt, and shall perhaps talk in second-hand language, but not for long: the living image of what I saw will always be with me and will always correct and guide me. Oh, I am full of courage and freshness, and I will go on and on if it were for a thousand years! Do you know, at first I meant to conceal the fact that I corrupted them, but that was a mistake ~ that was my first mistake! But truth whispered to me that I was lying, and preserved me and corrected me. But how establish paradise ~ I don't know, because I do not know how to put it into words. After my dream I lost command of words. All the chief words, anyway, the most necessary ones. But never mind, I shall go and I shall keep talking, I won't leave off, for anyway I have seen it with my own eyes, though I cannot describe what I saw. But the scoffers do not understand that. It was a dream, they say, delirium, hallucination. Oh! As though that meant so much! And they are so proud! A dream! What is a dream? And is not our life a dream? I will say more. Suppose that this paradise will never come to pass (that I understand), yet I shall go on preaching it. And yet how simple it is: in one day, in one hour everything could be arranged at once! The chief thing is to love others like yourself, that's the chief thing, and that's everything; nothing else is wanted ~ you will find out at once how to arrange it all. And yet it's an old truth which has been told and retold a billion times ~ but it has not formed part of our lives! The consciousness of life is higher than life, the knowledge of the laws of happiness is higher than happiness ~ that is what one must contend against. And I shall. If only everyone wants it, it can be arranged at once. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky in The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, #KEYS
786:Now I have taught you about Immortal Man and have loosed the bonds of the robbers from him. I have broken the gates of the pitiless ones in their presence. I have humiliated their malicious intent, and they all have been shamed and have risen from their ignorance. Because of this, then, I came here, that they might be joined with that Spirit and Breath, [III continues:] and might from two become one, just as from the first, that you might yield much fruit and go up to Him Who Is from the Beginning, in ineffable joy and glory and honor and grace of the Father of the Universe.
"Whoever, then, knows the Father in pure knowledge will depart to the Father and repose in Unbegotten Father. But whoever knows him defectively will depart to the defect and the rest of the Eighth. Now whoever knows Immortal Spirit of Light in silence, through reflecting and consent in the truth, let him bring me signs of the Invisible One, and he will become a light in the Spirit of Silence. Whoever knows Son of Man in knowledge and love, let him bring me a sign of Son of Man, that he might depart to the dwelling-places with those in the Eighth.
"Behold, I have revealed to you the name of the Perfect One, the whole will of the Mother of the Holy Angels, that the masculine multitude may be completed here, that there might appear in the aeons, the infinities and those that came to be in the untraceable wealth of the Great Invisible Spirit, that they all might take from his goodness, even the wealth of their rest that has no kingdom over it. I came from First Who Was Sent, that I might reveal to you Him Who Is from the Beginning, because of the arrogance of Arch-Begetter and his angels, since they say about themselves that they are gods. And I came to remove them from their blindness, that I might tell everyone about the God who is above the universe. Therefore, tread upon their graves, humiliate their malicious intent, and break their yoke and arouse my own. I have given you authority over all things as Sons of Light, that you might tread upon their power with your feet."
These are the things the blessed Savior said, and he disappeared from them. Then all the disciples were in great, ineffable joy in the spirit from that day on. And his disciples began to preach the Gospel of God, the eternal, imperishable spirit. Amen.
~ The Sophia of Jesus, (excerpt), The Nag Hamadi Library,#KEYS
787:But this is not always the manner of the commencement. The sadhaka is often led gradually and there is a long space between the first turning of the mind and the full assent of the nature to the thing towards which it turns. There may at first be only a vivid intellectual interest, a forcible attraction towards the idea and some imperfect form of practice. Or perhaps there is an effort not favoured by the whole nature, a decision or a turn imposed by an intellectual influence or dictated by personal affection and admiration for someone who is himself consecrated and devoted to the Highest. In such cases, a long period of preparation may be necessary before there comes the irrevocable consecration; and in some instances it may not come. There may be some advance, there may be a strong effort, even much purification and many experiences other than those that are central or supreme; but the life will either be spent in preparation or, a certain stage having been reached, the mind pushed by an insufficient driving-force may rest content at the limit of the effort possible to it. Or there may even be a recoil to the lower life, - what is called in the ordinary parlance of Yoga a fall from the path. This lapse happens because there is a defect at the very centre. The intellect has been interested, the heart attracted, the will has strung itself to the effort, but the whole nature has not been taken captive by the Divine. It has only acquiesced in the interest, the attraction or the endeavour. There has been an experiment, perhaps even an eager experiment, but not a total self-giving to an imperative need of the soul or to an unforsakable ideal. Even such imperfect Yoga has not been wasted; for no upward effort is made in vain. Even if it fails in the present or arrives only at some preparatory stage or preliminary realisation, it has yet determined the soul's future.
But if we desire to make the most of the opportunity that this life gives us, if we wish to respond adequately to the call we have received and to attain to the goal we have glimpsed, not merely advance a little towards it, it is essential that there should be an entire self-giving. The secret of success in Yoga is to regard it not as one of the aims to be pursued in life, but as the one and only aim, not as an important part of life, but as the whole of life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Self-Consecration,#KEYS
788:Imperial Maheshwari is seated in the wideness above the thinking mind and will and sublimates and greatens them into wisdom and largeness or floods with a splendour beyond them. For she is the mighty and wise One who opens us to supramental infinities and the cosmic vastness, to the grandeur of the supreme Light, to a treasure-house of miraculous knowledge, to the measureless movement of the Mother's eternal forces. Tranquil is she and wonderful, great and calm for ever. Nothing can move her because all wisdom is in her; nothing is hidden from her that she chooses to know; she comprehends all things and all beings and their nature and what moves them and the law of the world and its times and how all was and is and must be. A strength is in her that meets everything and masters and none can prevail in the end against her vast intangible wisdom and high tranquil power. Equal, patient, unalterable in her will she deals with men according to their nature and with things and happenings according to their Force and truth that is in them. Partiality she has none, but she follows the decrees of the Supreme and some she raises up and some she casts down or puts away into the darkness. To the wise she gives a greater and more luminous wisdom; those that have vision she admits to her counsels; on the hostile she imposes the consequence of their hostility; the ignorant and foolish she leads them according to their blindness. In each man she answers and handles the different elements of his nature according to their need and their urge and the return they call for, puts on them the required pressure or leaves them to their cherished liberty to prosper in the ways of the Ignorance or to perish. For she is above all, bound by nothing, attached to nothing in the universe. Yet she has more than any other the heart of the universal Mother. For her compassion is endless and inexhaustible; all are to her eyes her children and portions of the One, even the Asura and Rakshasa and Pisacha and those that are revolted and hostile. Even her rejections are only a postponement, even her punishments are a grace. But her compassion does not blind her wisdom or turn her action from the course decreed; for the Truth of things is her one concern, knowledge her centre of power and to build our soul and our nature into the divine Truth her mission and her labour.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Mother With Letters On The Mother, [39],#KEYS
789:Fundamentally, whatever be the path one follows - whe- ther the path of surrender, consecration, knowledge-if one wants it to be perfect, it is always equally difficult, and there is but one way, one only, I know of only one: that is perfect sincerity, but perfect sincerity!
Do you know what perfect sincerity is?...
Never to try to deceive oneself, never let any part of the being try to find out a way of convincing the others, never to explain favourably what one does in order to have an excuse for what one wants to do, never to close one's eyes when something is unpleasant, never to let anything pass, telling oneself, "That is not important, next time it will be better."
Oh! It is very difficult. Just try for one hour and you will see how very difficult it is. Only one hour, to be totally, absolutely sincere. To let nothing pass. That is, all one does, all one feels, all one thinks, all one wants, is exclusively the Divine.
"I want nothing but the Divine, I think of nothing but the Divine, I do nothing but what will lead me to the Divine, I love nothing but the Divine."
Try - try, just to see, try for half an hour, you will see how difficult it is! And during that time take great care that there isn't a part of the vital or a part of the mind or a part of the physical being nicely hidden there, at the back, so that you don't see it (Mother hides her hands behind her back) and don't notice that it is not collaborating - sitting quietly there so that you don't unearth it... it says nothing, but it does not change, it hides itself. How many such parts! How many parts hide themselves! You put them in your pocket because you don't want to see them or else they get behind your back and sit there well-hidden, right in the middle of your back, so as not to be seen. When you go there with your torch - your torch of sincerity - you ferret out all the corners, everywhere, all the small corners which do not consent, the things which say "No" or those which do not move: "I am not going to budge. I am glued to this place of mine and nothing will make me move."... You have a torch there with you, and you flash it upon the thing, upon everything. You will see there are many of them there, behind your back, well stuck.
Try, just for an hour, try!
No more questions?
Nobody has anything to say? Then, au revoir, my children! ~ The Mother, Question and Answers, Volume-6, page no.132-133),#KEYS
790:Satya Sattva - "Sri Yukteswar's intuition was penetrating; heedless of remarks, he often replied to one's unexpressed thoughts. The words a person uses, and the actual thoughts behind them, may be poles apart. 'By calmness,' my guru said, 'try to feel the thoughts behind the confusion of men's verbiage.' [...]
Many teachers talked of miracles but could manifest nothing. Sri Yukteswar seldom mentioned the subtle laws but secretly operated them at will. 'A man of realization doesn't perform any miracle until he receives an inward sanction', master explained. 'God does not wish the secrets of His creation revealed promiscuously. Also, every individual in the world has an inalienable right to his free will. A saint will not encroach on that independence.'
The silence habitual to Sri Yukteswar was caused by his deep perceptions of the Infinite. [...] Because of my guru's unspectacular guise, only a few of his contemporaries recognized him as a superman. The adage: 'He is a fool that cannot conceal his wisdom,' could never be applied to my profound and quiet master. Though born a mortal like all others, Sri Yukteswar achieved identity with the Ruler of time and space. Master found no insuperable obstacles to the mergence of human and Divine. No such barrier exists, I came to understand. [...]
Though my guru's undissembling speech prevented a large following during his years on Earth, nevertheless, through an ever-growing number of sincere students of his teachings, his spirit lives on in the world today. [...]
The disclosures of the Divine insight are often painful to worldly ears. Master was not popular with superficial students. The wise, always few in number, deeply revered him. I daresay Sri Yukteswar would have been the most sought-after guru in India had his speech not been so candid and so censorious. [...]
He added, 'You will go to foreign lands, where blunt assaults on the ego are not appreciated. A teacher could not spread India's message in the West without an ample fund of accommodative patience and forbearance.' [...]
I am immeasurably grateful for the humbling blows he dealt my vanity. I sometimes felt that, metaphorically, he was discovering and uprooting every diseased tooth in my jaw. The hard core of egotism is difficult to dislodge except rudely. With its departure, the Divine finds at last un unobstructed channel. In vain It seeks to percolate through flinty hearts of selfishness. ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi,#KEYS
791:Daemons
A daemon is a process that runs in the background, not connecting to any controlling terminal. Daemons are normally started at boot time, are run as root or some
other special user (such as apache or postfix), and handle system-level tasks. As a
convention, the name of a daemon often ends in d (as in crond and sshd), but this is
not required, or even universal.
The name derives from Maxwell's demon, an 1867 thought experiment by the physicist James Maxwell. Daemons are also supernatural beings in Greek mythology,
existing somewhere between humans and the gods and gifted with powers and divine
knowledge. Unlike the demons of Judeo-Christian lore, the Greek daemon need not
be evil. Indeed, the daemons of mythology tended to be aides to the gods, performing
tasks that the denizens of Mount Olympus found themselves unwilling to do-much
as Unix daemons perform tasks that foreground users would rather avoid.
A daemon has two general requirements: it must run as a child of init, and it must
not be connected to a terminal.
In general, a program performs the following steps to become a daemon:
1. Call fork( ). This creates a new process, which will become the daemon.
2. In the parent, call exit( ). This ensures that the original parent (the daemon's
grandparent) is satisfied that its child terminated, that the daemon's parent is no
longer running, and that the daemon is not a process group leader. This last
point is a requirement for the successful completion of the next step.
3. Call setsid( ), giving the daemon a new process group and session, both of
which have it as leader. This also ensures that the process has no associated controlling terminal (as the process just created a new session, and will not assign
one).
4. Change the working directory to the root directory via chdir( ). This is done
because the inherited working directory can be anywhere on the filesystem. Daemons tend to run for the duration of the system's uptime, and you don't want to
keep some random directory open, and thus prevent an administrator from
unmounting the filesystem containing that directory.
5. Close all file descriptors. You do not want to inherit open file descriptors, and,
unaware, hold them open.
6. Open file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 (standard in, standard out, and standard error)
and redirect them to /dev/null.
Following these rules, here is a program that daemonizes itself:
~ OReilly Linux System Programming,#KEYS
792:It is your birthday tomorrow?
Yes, Mother.
How old will you be?
Twenty-six, Mother.
I shall see you tomorrow and give you something special. You will see, I am not speaking of anything material- that, I shall give you a card and all that- but of something...You will see, tomorrow, now go home and prepare yourself quietly so that you may be ready to receive it.
Yes, Mother.
You know, my child, what "Bonne Fete" signifies, that is, the birthday we wish here?
Like that, I know what it means, Mother, but not the special significance you want to tell me.
Yes, it is truly a special day in one's life. It is one of those days in the year when the Supreme descends into us- or when we are face to face with the Eternal- one of those days when our soul comes in contact with the Eternal and, if we remain a little conscious, we can feel His Presence within us. If we make a little effort on this day, we accomplish the work of many lives as in a lightning flash. That is why I give so much importance to the birthday- because what one gains in one day is truly something incomparable. And it is for this that I also work to open the consciousness a little towards what is above so that one may come before the Eternal. My child, it is a very, very special day, for it is the day of decision, the day one can unite with the Supreme Consciousness. For the Lord lifts us on this day to the highest region possible so that our soul which is a portion of that Eternal Flame, may be united and identified with its Origin.
This day is truly an opportunity in life. One is so open and so receptive that one can assimilate all that is given. I can do many things, that is why it is important.
It is one of those days when the Lord Himself opens the doors wide for us. It is as though He were inviting us to rekindle more powerfully the flame of aspiration. It is one of those days which He gives us. We too, by our personal effort, could attain to this, but it would be long, hard and not so easy. And this- this is a real chance in life- the day of Grace.
It is an occult phenomenon that occurs invariably, without our knowledge, on this particular day of the year. The soul leaves behind the body and journeys up and up till it merges into the Source in order to replenish itself and absorb from the Supreme Its Power, Light and Ananda and comes down charged for a whole year to pass. Then again and again... it continues like this year after year. ~ The Mother, Sweet Mother, Mona Sarkar,#KEYS
793:The Song Of Food And Dwelling :::
I bow down at the feet of the wish-fulfilling Guru.
Pray vouchsafe me your grace in bestowing beneficial food,
Pray make me realize my own body as the house of Buddha,
Pray grant me this knowledge.
I built the house through fear,
The house of Sunyata, the void nature of being;
Now I have no fear of its collapsing.
I, the Yogi with the wish-fulfilling gem,
Feel happiness and joy where'er I stay.
Because of the fear of cold, I sought for clothes;
The clothing I found is the Ah Shea Vital Heat.
Now I have no fear of coldness.
Because of the fear of poverty, I sought for riches;
The riches I found are the inexhaustible Seven Holy Jewels.
Now I have no fear of poverty.
Because of the fear of hunger, I sought for food;
The food I found is the Samadhi of Suchness.
Now I have no fear of hunger.
Because of the fear of thirst, I sought for drink;
The heavenly drink I found is the wine of mindfulness.
Now I have no fear of thirst.
Because of the fear of loneliness, I searched for a friend;
The friend I found is the bliss of perpetual Sunyata.
Now I have no fear of loneliness.
Because of the fear of going astray,
I sought for the right path to follow.
The wide path I found is the Path of Two-in-One.
Now I do not fear to lose my way.
I am a yogi with all desirable possessions,
A man always happy where'er he stays.
Here at Yolmo Tagpu Senge Tson,
The tigress howling with a pathetic, trembling cry,
Reminds me that her helpless cubs are innocently playing.
I cannot help but feel a great compassion for them,
I cannot help but practice more diligently,
I cannot help but augment thus my Bodhi-Mind.
The touching cry of the monkey,
So impressive and so moving,
Cannot help but raise in me deep pity.
The little monkey's chattering is amusing and pathetic;
As I hear it, I cannot but think of it with compassion.
The voice of the cuckoo is so moving,
And so tuneful is the lark's sweet singing,
That when I hear them I cannot help but listen
When I listen to them,
I cannot help but shed tears.
The varied cries and cawings of the crow,
Are a good and helpful friend unto the yogi.
Even without a single friend,
To remain here is a pleasure.
With joy flowing from my heart, I sing this happy song;
May the dark shadow of all men's sorrows
Be dispelled by my joyful singing. ~ Jetsun Milarepa,#KEYS
794:Thus the eternal paradox and eternal truth of a divine life in an animal body, an immortal aspiration or reality inhabiting a mortal tenement, a single and universal consciousness representing itself in limited minds and divided egos, a transcendent, indefinable, timeless and spaceless Being who alone renders time and space and cosmos possible, and in all these the higher truth realisable by the lower term, justify themselves to the deliberate reason as well as to the persistent instinct or intuition of mankind. Attempts are sometimes made to have done finally with questionings which have so often been declared insoluble by logical thought and to persuade men to limit their mental activities to the practical and immediate problems of their material existence in the universe; but such evasions are never permanent in their effect. Mankind returns from them with a more vehement impulse of inquiry or a more violent hunger for an immediate solution. By that hunger mysticism profits and new religions arise to replace the old that have been destroyed or stripped of significance by a scepticism which itself could not satisfy because, although its business was inquiry, it was unwilling sufficiently to inquire. The attempt to deny or stifle a truth because it is yet obscure in its outward workings and too often represented by obscurantist superstition or a crude faith, is itself a kind of obscurantism. The will to escape from a cosmic necessity because it is arduous, difficult to justify by immediate tangible results, slow in regulating its operations, must turn out eventually to have been no acceptance of the truth of Nature but a revolt against the secret, mightier will of the great Mother. It is better and more rational to accept what she will not allow us as a race to reject and lift it from the sphere of blind instinct, obscure intuition and random aspiration into the light of reason and an instructed and consciously self-guiding will. And if there is any higher light of illumined intuition or self-revealing truth which is now in man either obstructed and inoperative or works with intermittent glancings as if from behind a veil or with occasional displays as of the northern lights in our material skies, then there also we need not fear to aspire. For it is likely that such is the next higher state of consciousness of which Mind is only a form and veil, and through the splendours of that light may lie the path of our progressive self-enlargement into whatever highest state is humanity's ultimate resting-place. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Human Aspiration, #KEYS
795:The fundamental nature of this supermind is that, all its knowledge is originally a knowledge by identity and oneness and even when it makes numberless apparent divisions and discriminating modifications in itself, still all the knowledge that operates in its workings even in these divisions, is founded upon and sustained and lit and guided by this perfect knowledge by identity and oneness. The Spirit is one everywhere and it knows all things as itself and in itself, so sees them always and therefore knows them intimately, completely, in their reality as well as their appearance, in their truth, their law, the entire spirit and sense and figure of their nature and their workings. When it sees anything as an object of knowledge, it yet sees it as itself and in itself, and not as a thing other than or divided from it about which therefore it would at first be ignorant of the nature, constitution and workings and have to learn about them, as the mind is at first ignorant of its object and has to learn about it because the mind is separated from its object and regards and senses and meets it as something other than itself and external to its own being. ..... This is the second character of the supreme supermind that its knowledge is a real because a total knowledge. It has in the first place a transcendental vision and sees the universe not only in the universal terms, but in its right relation to the supreme and eternal reality from which it proceeds and of which it is an expression. It knows the spirit and truth and whole sense of the universal expression because it knows all the essentiality and all the infinite reality and all the consequent constant potentiality of that which in part it expresses. It knows rightly the relative because it knows the Absolute and all its absolutes to which the relatives refer back and of which they are the partial or modified or suppressed figures. It is in the second place universal and sees all that is individual in the terms of the universal as well as in its own individual terms and holds all these individual figures in their right and complete relation to the universe. It is in the third place, separately with regard to individual things, total in its view because it knows each in its inmost essence of which all else is the resultant, in its totality which is its complete figure and in its parts and their connections and dependences, -- as well as in its connections with and its dependences upon other things and its nexus with the total implications and the explicits of the universe.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#KEYS
796: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
797:
When one is bored, Mother, does that mean one does not progress?
At that time, yes, certainly without a doubt; not only does one not progress, but one misses an opportunity for progressing. There was a concurrence of circumstances which seemed to you dull, boring, stupid and you were in their midst; well, if you get bored, it means that you yourself are as boring as the circumstances! And that is a clear proof that you are simply not in a state of progress. There is nothing more contrary to the very reason of existence than this passing wave of boredom. If you make a little effort within yourself at that time, if you tell yourself: "Wait a bit, what is it that I should learn? What does all that bring to me so that I may learn something? What progress should I make in overcoming myself? What is the weakness that I must overcome? What is the inertia that I must conquer?" If you say that to yourself, you will see the next minute you are no longer bored. You will immediately get interested and you will make progress! This is a commonplace of consciousness.
And then, you know, most people when they get bored, instead of trying to rise a step higher, descend a step lower, they become still worse than what they were, and they do all the stupid things that others do, go in for all the vulgarities, all the meannesses, everything, in order to amuse themselves. They get intoxicated, take poison, ruin their health, ruin their brain, they utter crudities. They do all that because they are bored. Well, if instead of going down, one had risen up, one would have profited by the circumstances. Instead of profiting, one falls a little lower yet than where one was. When people get a big blow in their life, some misfortune (what men call "misfortune", there are people who do have misfortunes), the first thing they try to do is to forget it - as though one did not forget quickly enough! And to forget, they do anything whatsoever. When there is something painful, they want to distract themselves - what they call distraction, that is, doing stupid things, that is to say, going down in their consciousness, going down a little instead of rising up.... Has something extremely painful happened to you, something very grievous? Do not become stupefied, do not seek forgetfulness, do not go down into the inconscience; you must go to the end and find the light that is behind, the truth, the force and the joy; and for that you must be strong and refuse to slide down. But that we shall see a little later, my children, when you will be a little older. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1953, 50,#KEYS
798:they are acting all the while in the spirit of rajasic ahaṅkara, persuade themselves that God is working through them and they have no part in the action. This is because they are satisfied with the mere intellectual assent to the idea without waiting for the whole system and life to be full of it. A continual remembrance of God in others and renunciation of individual eagerness (spr.ha) are needed and a careful watching of our inner activities until God by the full light of self-knowledge, jñanadı̄pena bhasvata, dispels all further chance of self-delusion. The danger of tamogun.a is twofold, first, when the Purusha thinks, identifying himself with the tamas in him, "I am weak, sinful, miserable, ignorant, good-for-nothing, inferior to this man and inferior to that man, adhama, what will God do through me?" - as if God were limited by the temporary capacities or incapacities of his instruments and it were not true that he can make the dumb to talk and the lame to cross the hills, mūkaṁ karoti vacalaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim, - and again when the sadhak tastes the relief, the tremendous relief of a negative santi and, feeling himself delivered from all troubles and in possession of peace, turns away from life and action and becomes attached to the peace and ease of inaction. Remember always that you too are Brahman and the divine Shakti is working in you; reach out always to the realisation of God's omnipotence and his delight in the Lila. He bids Arjuna work lokasaṅgraharthaya, for keeping the world together, for he does not wish the world to sink back into Prakriti, but insists on your acting as he acts, "These worlds would be overpowered by tamas and sink into Prakriti if I did not do actions." To be attached to inaction is to give up our action not to God but to our tamasic ahaṅkara. The danger of the sattvagun.a is when the sadhak becomes attached to any one-sided conclusion of his reason, to some particular kriya or movement of the sadhana, to the joy of any particular siddhi of the yoga, perhaps the sense of purity or the possession of some particular power or the Ananda of the contact with God or the sense of freedom and hungers after it, becomes attached to that only and would have nothing else. Remember that the yoga is not for yourself; for these things, though they are part of the siddhi, are not the object of the siddhi, for you have decided at the beginning to make no claim upon God but take what he gives you freely and, as for the Ananda, the selfless soul will even forego the joy of God's presence, ... ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #KEYS
799:How can one become conscious of Divine Love and an instrument of its expression?
First, to become conscious of anything whatever, you must will it. And when I say "will it", I don't mean saying one day, "Oh! I would like it very much", then two days later completely forgetting it.
To will it is a constant, sustained, concentrated aspiration, an almost exclusive occupation of the consciousness. This is the first step. There are many others: a very attentive observation, a very persistent analysis, a very keen discernment of what is pure in the movement and what is not. If you have an imaginative faculty, you may try to imagine and see if your imagination tallies with reality. There are people who believe that it is enough to wake up one day in a particular mood and say, "Ah! How I wish to be conscious of divine Love, how I wish to manifest divine Love...." Note, I don't know how many millions of times one feels within a little stirring up of human instinct and imagines that if one had at one's disposal divine Love, great things could be accomplished, and one says, "I am going to try and find divine Love and we shall see the result." This is the worst possible way. Because, before having even touched the very beginning of realisation you have spoilt the result. You must take up your search with a purity of aspiration and surrender which in themselves are already difficult to acquire. You must have worked much on yourself only to be ready to aspire to this Love. If you look at yourself very sincerely, very straight, you will see that as soon as you begin to think of Love it is always your little inner tumult which starts whirling. All that aspires in you wants certain vibrations. It is almost impossible, without being far advanced on the yogic path, to separate the vital essence, the vital vibration from your conception of Love. What I say is founded on an assiduous experience of human beings. Well, for you, in the state in which you are, as you are, if you had a contact with pure divine Love, it would seem to you colder than ice, or so far-off, so high that you would not be able to breathe; it would be like the mountain-top where you would feel frozen and find it difficult to breathe, so very far would it be from what you normally feel. Divine Love, if not clothed with a psychic or vital vibration, is difficult for a human being to perceive. One can have an impression of grace, of a grace which is something so far, so high, so pure, so impersonal that... yes, one can have the feeling of grace, but it is with difficulty that one feels Love.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1950-1951,#KEYS
800:This is true in a general way; when those born scattered over the world at great distances from one another are driven by circumstances or by an impulsion to come and gather here, it is almost always because they have met in one life or another (not all in the same life) and because their psychic being has felt that they belonged to the same family; so they have taken an inner vow to continue to act together and collaborate. That is why even though they are born far from one another, there is something which compels them to come together; it is the psychic being, the psychic consciousness that is behind. And only to the extent the psychic consciousness is strong enough to order and organise the circumstances or the life, that is, strong enough not to allow itself to be opposed by outside forces, outside life movements, can people meet.
It is profoundly true in reality; there are large "families of beings" who work for the same cause, who have gathered in more or less large numbers and who come in groups as it were. It is as though at certain times there were awakenings in the psychic world, as though lots of little sleeping children were being called to wake up: "It is time, quick, quick, go down!" And they hurry down. And sometimes they do not drop at the same place, they are dispersed, yet there is something within which troubles them, pushes them; for one reason or another they are drawn close and that brings them together. But it is something deep in the being, something that is not at all on the surface; otherwise, even if people met they would not perhaps become aware of the bond. People meet and recognise each other only to the extent they become conscious of their psychic being, obey their psychic being, are guided by it; otherwise there is all that comes in to oppose it, all that veils, all that stupefies, all those obstacles to prevent you from finding yourself in your depths and being able to collaborate truly in the work. You are tossed about by the forces of Nature.
There is only one solution, to find your psychic being and once it is found to cling to it desperately, to let it guide you step by step whatever be the obstacle. That is the only solution. All this I did not write but I explained it to that lady. She had put to me the question: "How did I happen to come here?" I told her that it was certainly not for reasons of the external consciousness, it was something in her inner being that had pushed her. Only the awakening was not strong enough to overcome all the rest and she returned to the ordinary life for very ordinary reasons of living. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1953,#KEYS
801:The Examiners
The integral yoga consists of an uninterrupted series of examinations that one has to undergo without any previous warning, thus obliging you to be constantly on the alert and attentive.
Three groups of examiners set us these tests. They appear to have nothing to do with one another, and their methods are so different, sometimes even so apparently contradictory, that it seems as if they could not possibly be leading towards the same goal. Nevertheless, they complement one another, work towards the same end, and are all indispensable to the completeness of the result.
The three types of examination are: those set by the forces of Nature, those set by spiritual and divine forces, and those set by hostile forces. These last are the most deceptive in their appearance and to avoid being caught unawares and unprepared requires a state of constant watchfulness, sincerity and humility.
The most commonplace circumstances, the events of everyday life, the most apparently insignificant people and things all belong to one or other of these three kinds of examiners. In this vast and complex organisation of tests, those events that are generally considered the most important in life are the easiest examinations to undergo, because they find you ready and on your guard. It is easier to stumble over the little stones in your path, because they attract no attention.
Endurance and plasticity, cheerfulness and fearlessness are the qualities specially needed for the examinations of physical nature.
Aspiration, trust, idealism, enthusiasm and generous self-giving, for spiritual examinations.
Vigilance, sincerity and humility for the examinations from hostile forces.
And do not imagine that there are on the one hand people who undergo the examinations and on the other people who set them. Depending on the circumstances and the moment we are all both examiners and examinees, and it may even happen that one is at the same time both examiner and examinee. And the benefit one derives from this depends, both in quality and in quantity, on the intensity of one's aspiration and the awakening of one's consciousness.
To conclude, a final piece of advice: never set yourself up as an examiner. For while it is good to remember constantly that one may be undergoing a very important examination, it is extremely dangerous to imagine that one is responsible for setting examinations for others. That is the open door to the most ridiculous and harmful kinds of vanity. It is the Supreme Wisdom which decides these things, and not the ignorant human will. ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
802:... one of the major personality traits was neuroticism, the tendency to feel negative emotion. He [Jung] never formalized that idea in his thinking. Its a great oversight in some sense because the capacity to experience negative emotion, when thats exaggerated that seems to be the core feature of everything we that we regard as psychopathology. Psychiatric and psychological illness. Not the only thing but its the primary factor. So.
Q: What is the best way to avoid falling back into nihilistic behaviours and thinking?
JBP:Well, a large part of that I would say is habit. The development and maintainance of good practices. Habits. If you find yourself desolute, neurotic, if your thought tends in the nihilistic direction and you tend to fall apart, organizing your life across multiple dimensions is a good antidote its not exactly thinking.
Do you have an intimate relationship? If not then well probably you could use one.
Do you have contact with close family members, siblings, children, parents, or even people who are more distantly related. If not, you probably need that.
Do you see your friends a couple of times a week? And do something social with them?
Do you have a way of productively using your time outside of employment?
Are you employed?
Do you have a good job? Or at least a job that is practically sufficient and enables you to work with people who you like working with? Even if the job itself is mundane or repetitive or difficult sometimes the relationships you establish in an employment situation like that can make the job worthwhile.
Have you regulated your response to temptations? Pornography, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, is that under control?
I would say differentiate the problem. Theres multiple dimensions of attainment, ambition, pleasure, responsibility all of that that make up a life, and to the degree that is it possible you want to optimize your functioning on as many of those dimensions as possible.
You might also organize your schedule to the degree that you have that capacity for discipline.
Do you get enough sleep?
Do you go to bed at a regular time?
Do you get up at a regular time?
Do you eat regularly and appropriately and enought and not too much?
Are your days and your weeks and your months characterized by some tolerable, repeatable structure? That helps you meet your responsibilities but also shields you from uncertainly and chaos and provides you with multiple sources of reward?
Those are all the questions decompose the problem into, the best way of avoiding falling into nihilistic behaviours and thinking. ~ Jordan B. Peterson, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-geMoCsNAw,#KEYS
803:PROTECTION
Going to sleep is a little like dying, a journey taken alone into the unknown. Ordinarily we are not troubled about sleep because we are familiar with it, but think about what it entails. We completely lose ourselves in a void for some period of time, until we arise again in a dream. When we do so, we may have a different identity and a different body. We may be in a strange place, with people we do not know, involved in baffling activities that may seem quite risky.
Just trying to sleep in an unfamiliar place may occasion anxiety. The place may be perfectly secure and comfortable, but we do not sleep as well as we do at home in familiar surroundings. Maybe the energy of the place feels wrong. Or maybe it is only our own insecurity that disturbs us,and even in familiar places we may feel anxious while waiting for sleep to come, or be frightenedby what we dream. When we fall asleep with anxiety, our dreams are mingled with fear and tension, sleep is less restful, and the practice harder to do. So it is a good idea to create a sense of protection before we sleep and to turn our sleeping area into a sacred space.
This is done by imagining protective dakinis all around the sleeping area. Visualize the dakinis as beautiful goddesses, enlightened female beings who are loving, green in color, and powerfully protective. They remain near as you fall asleep and throughout the night, like mothers watching over their child, or guardians surrounding a king or queen. Imagine them everywhere, guarding the doors and the windows, sitting next to you on the bed, walking in the garden or the yard, and so on, until you feel completely protected.
Again, this practice is more than just trying to visualize something: see the dakinis with your mind but also use your imagination to feel their presence. Creating a protective, sacred environment in this way is calming and relaxing and promotes restful sleep. This is how the mystic lives: seeing the magic, changing the environment with the mind, and allowing actions, even actions of the imagination, to have significance.
You can enhance the sense of peace in your sleeping environment by keeping objects of a sacred nature in the bedroom: peaceful, loving images, sacred and religious symbols, and other objects that direct your mind toward the path.
The Mother Tantra tells us that as we prepare for sleep we should maintain awareness of the causes of dream, the object to focus upon, the protectors, and of ourselves. Hold these together inawareness, not as many things, but as a single environment, and this will have a great effect in dream and sleep.
~ Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Yogas Of Dream And Sleep,#KEYS
804:The last sentence: "...in the Truth-Creation the law is that of a constant unfolding without any Pralaya." What is this constant unfolding?
The Truth-Creation... it is the last line? (Mother consults the book) I think we have already spoken about this several times. It has been said that in the process of creation, there is the movement of creation followed by a movement of preservation and ending in a movement of disintegration or destruction; and even it has been repeated very often: "All that begins must end", etc., etc.
In fact in the history of our universe there have been six consecutive periods which began by a creation, were prolonged by a force of preservation and ended by a disintegration, a destruction, a return to the Origin, which is called Pralaya; and that is why this tradition is there. But it has been said that the seventh creation would be a progressive creation, that is, after the starting-point of the creation, instead of its being simply followed by a preservation, it would be followed by a progressive manifestation which would express the Divine more and more completely, so that no disintegration and return to the Origin would be necessary. And it has been announced that the period we are in is precisely the seventh, that is, it would not end by a Pralaya, a return to the Origin, a destruction, a disappearance, but that it would be replaced by a constant progress, because it would be a more and more perfect unfolding of the divine Origin in its creation.
And this is what Sri Aurobindo says. He speaks of a constant unfolding, that is, the Divine manifests more and more completely; more and more perfectly, in a progressive creation. It is the nature of this progression which makes the return to the Origin, the destruction no longer necessary. All that does not progress disappears, and that is why physical bodies die, it's because they are not progressive; they are progressive up to a certain moment, then there they stop and most often they remain stable for a certain time, and then they begin to decline, and then disappear. It's because the physical body, physical matter as it is at present is not plastic enough to be able to progress constantly. But it is not impossible to make it sufficiently plastic for the perfecting of the physical body to be such that it no longer needs disintegration, that is, death.
Only, this cannot be realised except by the descent of the Supermind which is a force higher than all those which have so far manifested and which will give the body a plasticity that will allow it to progress constantly, that is, to follow the divine movement in its unfolding. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1955, 207-209,#KEYS
805:What is the difference between meditation and concentration?
Meditation is a purely mental activity, it interests only the mental being. One can concentrate while meditating but this is a mental concentration; one can get a silence but it is a purely mental silence, and the other parts of the being are kept immobile and inactive so as not to disturb the meditation. You may pass twenty hours of the day in meditation and for the remaining four hours you will be an altogether ordinary man because only the mind has been occupied-the rest of the being, the vital and the physical, is kept under pressure so that it may not disturb. In meditation nothing is directly done for the other parts of the being.
Certainly this indirect action can have an effect, but... I have known in my life people whose capacity for meditation was remarkable but who, when not in meditation, were quite ordinary men, even at times ill-natured people, who would become furious if their meditation was disturbed. For they had learnt to master only their mind, not the rest of their being.
Concentration is a more active state. You may concentrate mentally, you may concentrate vitally, psychically, physically, and you may concentrate integrally. Concentration or the capacity to gather oneself at one point is more difficult than meditation. You may gather together one portion of your being or consciousness or you may gather together the whole of your consciousness or even fragments of it, that is, the concentration may be partial, total or integral, and in each case the result will be different.
If you have the capacity to concentrate, your meditation will be more interesting and easieR But one can meditate without concentrating. Many follow a chain of ideas in their meditation - it is meditation, not concentration.
Is it possible to distinguish the moment when one attains perfect concentration from the moment when, starting from this concentration, one opens oneself to the universal Energy?
Yes. You concentrate on something or simply you gather yourself together as much as is possible for you and when you attain a kind of perfection in concentration, if you can sustain this perfection for a sufficiently long time, then a door opens and you pass beyond the limit of your ordinary consciousness-you enter into a deeper and higher knowledge. Or you go within. Then you may experience a kind of dazzling light, an inner wonder, a beatitude, a complete knowledge, a total silence. There are, of course, many possibilities but the phenomenon is always the same.
To have this experience all depends upon your capacity to maintain your concentration sufficiently long at its highest point of perfection. ~ The Mother,#KEYS
806:10000 :::
The Only Way Out:
... Once you have no more desires, no more attachments, once you have given up all necessity of receiving a reward from human beings, whoever they are - knowing that the only reward that is worth getting is the one that comes from the Supreme and that never fails - once you give up attachment to all exterior beings and things, you at once feel in your heart this Presence, this Force, this Grace that is always with you. And there is no other remedy. It's the only remedy, for everybody without exception. To all those who suffer, for the same thing that has to be said: all suffering is the sign that the surrender is not total. Then, when you feel in you a 'bang' like that, instead of saying, 'Oh, this is bad' or 'This circumstance is difficult,' you say, 'My surrender is not perfect.' Then it's all right. And then you feel the Grace that helps you and leads you, and you go on. And one day you emerge into that peace that nothing can trouble.
You answer to all the contrary forces, the contrary movements, the attacks, the misunderstandings, the bad wills, with the same smile that comes from full confidence in the Divine Grace. And that is the only way out, there is no other.
But where to get such a strength?
Within you. The Divine Presence is in you. It is in you. You look for it outside; look inside. It is in you. The Presence is there. You want the appreciation of others to get strength - you will never get it. The strength is in you. If you want, you can aspire for what seems to you the supreme goal, supreme light, supreme knowledge, supreme love. But it is in you - otherwise you would never be able to contact it. If you go deep enough inside you, you will find it there, like a flame that is always burning straight up. And don't believe that it is difficult to do. It is because the look is always turned outside that you don't feel the Presence. But if, instead of looking outside for support, you concentrate and you pray - inside, to the supreme knowledge - to know at each moment what is to be done, the way to do it, and if you give all you are, all you do in order to acquire perfection, you will feel that the support is always there, always guiding, showing the way. And if there is a difficulty, then instead of wanting to fight, you hand it over, hand it over to the supreme wisdom to deal with it - to deal with all the bad wills, all the misunderstandings, all the bad reactions. If you surrender completely, it is no more your concern: it's the concern of the Supreme who takes it up and knows better than anybody else what is to be done. That is the only way out, only way out. There, my child
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III, [T1],#KEYS
807: Ekajaṭī or Ekajaṭā, (Sanskrit: "One Plait Woman"; Wylie: ral gcig ma: one who has one knot of hair),[1] also known as Māhacīnatārā,[2] is one of the 21 Taras. Ekajati is, along with Palden Lhamo deity, one of the most powerful and fierce goddesses of Vajrayana Buddhist mythology.[1][3] According to Tibetan legends, her right eye was pierced by the tantric master Padmasambhava so that she could much more effectively help him subjugate Tibetan demons.
Ekajati is also known as "Blue Tara", Vajra Tara or "Ugra Tara".[1][3] She is generally considered one of the three principal protectors of the Nyingma school along with Rāhula and Vajrasādhu (Wylie: rdo rje legs pa).
Often Ekajati appears as liberator in the mandala of the Green Tara. Along with that, her ascribed powers are removing the fear of enemies, spreading joy, and removing personal hindrances on the path to enlightenment.
Ekajati is the protector of secret mantras and "as the mother of the mothers of all the Buddhas" represents the ultimate unity. As such, her own mantra is also secret. She is the most important protector of the Vajrayana teachings, especially the Inner Tantras and termas. As the protector of mantra, she supports the practitioner in deciphering symbolic dakini codes and properly determines appropriate times and circumstances for revealing tantric teachings. Because she completely realizes the texts and mantras under her care, she reminds the practitioner of their preciousness and secrecy.[4] Düsum Khyenpa, 1st Karmapa Lama meditated upon her in early childhood.
According to Namkhai Norbu, Ekajati is the principal guardian of the Dzogchen teachings and is "a personification of the essentially non-dual nature of primordial energy."[5]
Dzogchen is the most closely guarded teaching in Tibetan Buddhism, of which Ekajati is a main guardian as mentioned above. It is said that Sri Singha (Sanskrit: Śrī Siṃha) himself entrusted the "Heart Essence" (Wylie: snying thig) teachings to her care. To the great master Longchenpa, who initiated the dissemination of certain Dzogchen teachings, Ekajati offered uncharacteristically personal guidance. In his thirty-second year, Ekajati appeared to Longchenpa, supervising every ritual detail of the Heart Essence of the Dakinis empowerment, insisting on the use of a peacock feather and removing unnecessary basin. When Longchenpa performed the ritual, she nodded her head in approval but corrected his pronunciation. When he recited the mantra, Ekajati admonished him, saying, "Imitate me," and sang it in a strange, harmonious melody in the dakini's language. Later she appeared at the gathering and joyously danced, proclaiming the approval of Padmasambhava and the dakinis.[6] ~ Wikipedia,#KEYS
808:
Sweet Mother, can the psychic express itself without the mind, the vital and the physical?
It expresses itself constantly without them. Only, in order that the ordinary human being may perceive it, it has to express itself through them, because the ordinary human being is not in direct contact with the psychic. If it was in direct contact with the psychic it would be psychic in its manifestation - and all would be truly well. But as it is not in contact with the psychic it doesn't even know what it is, it wonders all bewildered what kind of a being it can be; so to reach this ordinary human consciousness it must use ordinary means, that is, go through the mind, the vital and the physical.
One of them may be skipped but surely not the last, otherwise one is no longer conscious of anything at all. The ordinary human being is conscious only in his physical being, and only in relatively rare moments is he conscious of his mind, just a little more frequently of his vital, but all this is mixed up in his consciousness, so much so that he would be quite unable to say "This movement comes from the mind, this from the vital, this from the physical." This already asks for a considerable development in order to be able to distinguish within oneself the source of the different movements one has. And it is so mixed that even when one tries, at the beginning it is very difficult to classify and separate one thing from another.
It is as when one works with colours, takes three or four or five different colours and puts them in the same water and beats them up together, it makes a grey, indistinct and incomprehensi- ble mixture, you see, and one can't say which is red, which blue, which green, which yellow; it is something dirty, lots of colours mixed. So first of all one must do this little work of separating the red, blue, yellow, green - putting them like this, each in its corner. It is not at all easy.
I have met people who used to think themselves extremely intelligent, by the way, who thought they knew a lot, and when I spoke to them about the different parts of the being they looked at me like this (gesture) and asked me, "But what are you speaking about?" They did not understand at all. I am speaking of people who have the reputation of being intelligent. They don't understand at all. For them it is just the consciousness; it is the consciousness-"It is my consciousness" and then there is the neighbour's consciousness; and again there are things which do not have any consciousness. And then I asked them whether animals had a consciousness; so they began to scratch their heads and said, "Perhaps it is we who put our consciousness in the animal when we look at it," like that...
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1955,#KEYS
809: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
810:
Sweet Mother, is there a spiritual being in everybody?
That depends on what we call "being". If for "being" we substitute "presence", yes, there is a spiritual presence in everyone. If we call "being" an organised entity, fully conscious of itself, independent, and having the power of asserting itself and ruling the rest of the nature - no! The possibility of this independent and all-powerful being is in everybody, but the realisation is the result of long efforts which sometimes extend over many lives.
In everyone, even at the very beginning, this spiritual presence, this inner light is there.... In fact, it is everywhere. I have seen it many a time in certain animals. It is like a shining point which is the basis of a certain control and protection, something which, even in half-consciousness, makes possible a certain harmony with the rest of creation so that irreparable catastrophes may not be constant and general. Without this presence the disorder created by the violences and passions of the vital would be so great that at any moment they could bring about a general catastrophe, a sort of total destruction which would prevent the progress of Nature. That presence, that spiritual light - which could almost be called a spiritual consciousness - is within each being and all things, and because of it, in spite of all discordance, all passion, all violence, there is a minimum of general harmony which allows Nature's work to be accomplished.
And this presence becomes quite obvious in the human being, even the most rudimentary. Even in the most monstrous human being, in one who gives the impression of being an incarnation of a devil or a monster, there is something within exercising a sort of irresistible control - even in the worst, some things are impossible. And without this presence, if the being were controlled exclusively by the adverse forces, the forces of the vital, this impossibility would not exist.
Each time a wave of these monstrous adverse forces sweeps over the earth, one feels that nothing can ever stop the disorder and horror from spreading, and always, at a certain time, unexpectedly and inexplicably a control intervenes, and the wave is arrested, the catastrophe is not total. And this is because of the Presence, the supreme Presence, in matter.
But only in a few exceptional beings and after a long, very long work of preparation extending over many, many lives does this Presence change into a conscious, independent, fully organised being, all-powerful master of his dwelling-place, conscious enough, powerful enough, to be able to control not only this dwelling but what surrounds it and in a field of radiation and action that is more and more extensive... and effective.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1957-1958, 339-340,#KEYS
811:If we look at this picture of the Self-Existence and its works as a unitary unlimited whole of vision, it stands together and imposes itself by its convincing totality: but to the analysis of the logical intellect it offers an abundance of difficulties, such as all attempts to erect a logical system out of a perception of an illimitable Existence must necessarily create; for any such endeavour must either effect consistency by an arbitrary sectioning of the complex truth of things or else by its comprehensiveness become logically untenable. For we see that the Indeterminable determines itself as infinite and finite, the Immutable admits a constant mutability and endless differences, the One becomes an innumerable multitude, the Impersonal creates or supports personality, is itself a Person; the Self has a nature and is yet other than its nature; Being turns into becoming and yet it is always itself and other than its becomings; the Universal individualises itself and the Individual universalises himself; Brahman is at once void of qualities and capable of infinite qualities, the Lord and Doer of works, yet a non-doer and a silent witness of the workings of Nature. If we look carefully at these workings of Nature, once we put aside the veil of familiarity and our unthinking acquiescence in the process of things as natural because so they always happen, we discover that all she does in whole or in parts is a miracle, an act of some incomprehensible magic. The being of the Self-existence and the world that has appeared in it are, each of them and both together, a suprarational mystery. There seems to us to be a reason in things because the processes of the physical finite are consistent to our view and their law determinable, but this reason in things, when closely examined, seems to stumble at every moment against the irrational or infrarational and the suprarational: the consistency, the determinability of process seems to lessen rather than increase as we pass from matter to life and from life to mentality; if the finite consents to some extent to look as if it were rational, the infinitesimal refuses to be bound by the same laws and the infinite is unseizable. As for the action of the universe and its significance, it escapes us altogether; if Self, God or Spirit there be, his dealings with the world and us are incomprehensible, offer no clue that we can follow. God and Nature and even ourselves move in a mysterious way which is only partially and at points intelligible, but as a whole escapes our comprehension. All the works of Maya look like the production of a suprarational magical Power which arranges things according to its wisdom or its phantasy, but a wisdom which is not ours and a phantasy which baffles our imagination. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, 2.02, #KEYS
812:Mother, suffering comes from ignorance and pain, but what is the nature of the suffering and pain the Divine Mother feels for her children-the Divine Mother in Savitri?
It is because she participates in their nature. She has descended upon earth to participate in their nature. Because if she did not participate in their nature, she could not lead them farther. If she remained in her supreme consciousness where there is no suffering, in her supreme knowledge and consciousness, she could not have any contact with human beings. And it is for this that she is obliged to take on the human consciousness and form, it is to be able to enter into contact with them. Only, she does not forget: she has adopted their consciousness but she remains in relation with her own real, supreme consciousness. And thus, by joining the two, she can make those who are in that other consciousness progress. But if she did not adopt their consciousness, if she did not suffer with their sorrow, she could not help them. Hers is not a suffering of ignorance: it is a suffering through identity. It is because she has accepted to have the same vibrations as they, in order to be able to enter into contact with them and pull them out of the state they are in. If she did not enter into contact with them, she would not be felt at all or no one could bear her radiance.... This has been said in all kinds of forms, in all kinds of religions, and they have spoken very often of the divine Sacrifice, but from a certain point of view it is true. It is a voluntary sacrifice, but it is true: giving up a state of perfect consciousness, perfect bliss, perfect power in order to accept the state of ignorance of the outer world so as to pull it out of that ignorance. If this state were not accepted, there would be no contact with it. No relation would be possible. And this is the reason of the incarnations. Otherwise, there would be no necessity. If the divine consciousness and divine force could work directly from the place or state of their perfection, if they could work directly on matter and transform it, there would be no need to take a body like man's. It would have been enough to act from the world of Truth with the perfect consciousness and upon consciousness. In fact that acts perhaps but so slowly that when there is this effort to make the world progress, make it go forward more rapidly, well, it is necessary to take on human nature. By taking the human body, one is obliged to take on human nature, partially. Only, instead of losing one's consciousness and losing contact with the Truth, one keeps this consciousness and this Truth, and it is by joining the two that one can create exactly this kind of alchemy of transformation. But if one did not touch matter, one could do nothing for it. ~ The Mother, Question And Answers,#KEYS
813:O Death, thou lookst on an unfinished world
Assailed by thee and of its road unsure,
Peopled by imperfect minds and ignorant lives,
And sayest God is not and all is vain.
How shall the child already be the man?
Because he is infant, shall he never grow?
Because he is ignorant, shall he never learn?
In a small fragile seed a great tree lurks,
In a tiny gene a thinking being is shut;
A little element in a little sperm,
It grows and is a conqueror and a sage.
Then wilt thou spew out, Death, God's mystic truth,
Deny the occult spiritual miracle?
Still wilt thou say there is no spirit, no God?
A mute material Nature wakes and sees;
She has invented speech, unveiled a will.
Something there waits beyond towards which she strives,
Something surrounds her into which she grows:
To uncover the spirit, to change back into God,
To exceed herself is her transcendent task.
In God concealed the world began to be,
Tardily it travels towards manifest God:
Our imperfection towards perfection toils,
The body is the chrysalis of a soul:
The infinite holds the finite in its arms,
Time travels towards revealed eternity.
A miracle structure of the eternal Mage,
Matter its mystery hides from its own eyes,
A scripture written out in cryptic signs,
An occult document of the All-Wonderful's art.
All here bears witness to his secret might,
In all we feel his presence and his power.
A blaze of his sovereign glory is the sun,
A glory is the gold and glimmering moon,
A glory is his dream of purple sky.
A march of his greatness are the wheeling stars.
His laughter of beauty breaks out in green trees,
His moments of beauty triumph in a flower;
The blue sea's chant, the rivulet's wandering voice
Are murmurs falling from the Eternal's harp.
This world is God fulfilled in outwardness.
His ways challenge our reason and our sense;
By blind brute movements of an ignorant Force,
By means we slight as small, obscure or base,
A greatness founded upon little things,
He has built a world in the unknowing Void.
His forms he has massed from infinitesimal dust;
His marvels are built from insignificant things.
If mind is crippled, life untaught and crude,
If brutal masks are there and evil acts,
They are incidents of his vast and varied plot,
His great and dangerous drama's needed steps;
He makes with these and all his passion-play,
A play and yet no play but the deep scheme
Of a transcendent Wisdom finding ways
To meet her Lord in the shadow and the Night:
Above her is the vigil of the stars;
Watched by a solitary Infinitude
She embodies in dumb Matter the Divine,
In symbol minds and lives the Absolute.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Debate of Love and Death,#KEYS
814:What do we understand by the term "chance"? Chance can only be the opposite of order and harmony. There is only one true harmony and that is the supramental - the reign of Truth, the expression of the Divine Law. In the Supermind, therefore, chance has no place. But in the lower Nature the supreme Truth is obscured: hence there is an absence of that divine unity of purpose and action which alone can constitute order. Lacking this unity, the domain of lower Nature is governed by what we may call chance - that is to say, it is a field in which various conflicting forces intermix, having no single definite aim. Whatever arises out of such a rushing together of forces is a result of confusion, dissonance and falsehood - a product of chance. Chance is not merely a conception to cover our ignorance of the causes at work; it is a description of the uncertain mele ́e of the lower Nature which lacks the calm one-pointedness of the divine Truth. The world has forgotten its divine origin and become an arena of egoistic energies; but it is still possible for it to open to the Truth, call it down by its aspiration and bring about a change in the whirl of chance. What men regard as a mechanical sequence of events, owing to their own mental associations, experiences and generalisations, is really manipulated by subtle agencies each of which tries to get its own will done. The world has got so subjected to these undivine agencies that the victory of the Truth cannot be won except by fighting for it. It has no right to it: it has to gain it by disowning the falsehood and the perversion, an important part of which is the facile notion that, since all things owe their final origin to the Divine, all their immediate activities also proceed directly from it. The fact is that here in the lower Nature the Divine is veiled by a cosmic Ignorance and what takes place does not proceed directly from the divine knowledge. That everything is equally the will of God is a very convenient suggestion of the hostile influences which would have the creation stick as tightly as possible to the disorder and ugliness to which it has been reduced. So what is to be done, you ask? Well, call down the Light, open yourselves to the power of Transformation. Innumerable times the divine peace has been given to you and as often you have lost it - because something in you refuses to surrender its petty egoistic routine. If you are not always vigilant, your nature will return to its old unregenerate habits even after it has been filled with the descending Truth. It is the struggle between the old and the new that forms the crux of the Yoga; but if you are bent on being faithful to the supreme Law and Order revealed to you, the parts of your being belonging to the domain of chance will, however slowly, be converted and divinised. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1929-1931, #KEYS
815:Sri Aurobindo tells us that surrender is the first and absolute condition for doing the yoga. Therefore it is not merely one of the required qualities, it is the very first indispensable attitude for commencing the yoga.
If you are not decided to make a total surrender, you cannot begin. But to make your surrender total, all the other qualities are necessary: sincerity, faith, devotion and aspiration.
And I add another one : endurance. Because if you are not able to face difficulties without getting discouraged, without giving up under the pretext that it is too difficult, if you are not able to receive blows and continue all the same, to "pocket" them, as it is said,—you receive blows because of your defects : you put them into your pocket and continue to march on without faltering; if you cannot do that with endurance, you will not go very far; at the first turning, when you lose sight of the little habitual life, you despair and give up the game.
The most material form of endurance is perseverance. Unless you are resolved to begin the same thing over again a thousand times if needed, you will arrive nowhere.
People come to me in despair : "But I thought it had been done, and I have to begin again !" And if they are told, "But it is nothing, you have to begin probably a hundred times, two hundred times, a thousand times", they lose all courage.
You take one step forward and you believe you are solid, but there will be always something that will bring about the same difficulty a little farther ahead.
You believe you have solved the problem, but will have to solve it again, it will present itself with just a little difference in its appearance, but it will be the same problem.
Thus there are people who have a fine experience and they exclaim, "Now, it is done !" Then things settle down, begin to fade, go behind a veil, and all on a sudden, something quite unexpected, a thing absolutely commonplace, that appears to be of no interest at all, comes before them and closes up the road. Then you lament: "Of what use is this progress that I have made, if I am to begin again !
Why is it so? I made an effort, I succeeded, I arrived at something and now it is as if I had done nothing. It is hopeless". This is because there is still the "I" and this "I" has no endurance.
If you have endurance, you say : "All right, I will begin again and again as long as necessary, a thousand times, ten thousand times, a million times, if necessary, but I will go to the end and nothing can stop me on the way".
That is very necessary.
Now, to sum up, we will put at the head of our list surrender. That is to say, we accept the fact that one must, in order to do the integral yoga, take the resolution of surrendering oneself wholly to the Divine. There is no other way, it is the way. ~ The Mother,#KEYS
816:How can one awaken his Yoga-shakti?
It depends on this: when one thinks that it is the most important thing in his life. That's all.
Some people sit in meditation, concentrate on the base of the vertebral column and want it very much to awake, but that's not enough. It is when truly it becomes the most important thing in one's life, when all the rest seems to have lost all taste, all interest, all importance, when one feels within that one is born for this, that one is here upon earth for this, and that it is the only thing that truly counts, then that's enough.
One can concentrate on the different centres; but sometimes one concentrates for so long, with so much effort, and has no result. And then one day something shakes you, you feel that you are going to lose your footing, you have to cling on to something; then you cling within yourself to the idea of union with the Divine, the idea of the divine Presence, the idea of the transformation of the consciousness, and you aspire, you want, you try to organise your feelings, movements, impulses around this. And it comes.
Some people have recommended all kinds of methods; probably these were methods which had succeeded in their case; but to tell the truth, one must find one's own method, it is only after having done the thing that one knows how it should be done, not before.
If one knows it beforehand, one makes a mental construction and risks greatly living in his mental construction, which is an illusion; because when the mind builds certain conditions and then they are realised, there are many chances of there being mostly pure mental construction which is not the experience itself but its image. So for all these truly spiritual experiences I think it is wiser to have them before knowing them. If one knows them, one imitates them, one doesn't have them, one imagines oneself having them; whereas if one knows nothing - how things are and how they ought to happen, what should happen and how it will come about - if one knows nothing about all this, then by keeping very still and making a kind of inner sorting out within one's being, one can suddenly have the experience, and then later knows what one has had. It is over, and one knows how it has to be done when one has done it - afterwards. Like that it is sure.
One may obviously make use of his imagination, imagine the Kundalini and try to pull it upwards. But one can also tell himself tales like this. I have had so many instances of people who described their experiences to me exactly as they are described in books, knowing all the words and putting down all the details, and then I asked them just a little question like that, casually: that if they had had the experience they should have known or felt a certain thing, and as this was not in the books, they could not answer.~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1955, 211-212,#KEYS
817: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
818:Zarathustra, however, looked at the people and wondered. Then he spoke thus: Man is a rope stretched between animal and overman - a rope over an abyss. A dangerous crossing, a dangerous on-the-way, a dangerous looking back, a dangerous trembling and stopping. What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal: what can be loved in man is that he is an over-going and a down-going. I love those who know not how to live except as down-goers, for they are the over-goers. I love the great despisers, because they are the great reverers, and arrows of longing for the other shore. I love those who do not first seek a reason beyond the stars for going down and being sacrifices, but sacrifice themselves to the earth, that the earth of the overman may some day arrive. I love him who lives in order to know, and seeks to know in order that the overman may someday live. Thus he seeks his own down-going. I love him who works and invents, that he may build a house for the overman, and prepare for him earth, animal, and plant: for thus he seeks his own down-going. I love him who loves his virtue: for virtue is the will to down-going, and an arrow of longing. I love him who reserves no drop of spirit for himself, but wants to be entirely the spirit of his virtue: thus he walks as spirit over the bridge. I love him who makes his virtue his addiction and destiny: thus, for the sake of his virtue, he is willing to live on, or live no more. I love him who does not desire too many virtues. One virtue is more of a virtue than two, because it is more of a knot for ones destiny to cling to. I love him whose soul squanders itself, who wants no thanks and gives none back: for he always gives, and desires not to preserve himself. I love him who is ashamed when the dice fall in his favor, and who then asks: Am I a dishonest player? - for he is willing to perish. I love him who scatters golden words in front of his deeds, and always does more than he promises: for he seeks his own down-going. I love him who justifies those people of the future, and redeems those of the past: for he is willing to perish by those of the present. I love him who chastens his God, because he loves his God: for he must perish by the wrath of his God. I love him whose soul is deep even in being wounded, and may perish from a small experience: thus goes he gladly over the bridge. I love him whose soul is so overfull that he forgets himself, and all things are in him: thus all things become his down-going. I love him who is of a free spirit and a free heart: thus is his head only the entrails of his heart; his heart, however, drives him to go down. I love all who are like heavy drops falling one by one out of the dark cloud that hangs over man: they herald the coming of the lightning, and perish as heralds. Behold, I am a herald of the lightning, and a heavy drop out of the cloud: the lightning, however, is called overman.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra,#KEYS
819:Our culture, the laws of our culture, are predicated on the idea that people are conscious. People have experience; people make decisions, and can be held responsible for them. There's a free will element to it. You can debate all that philosophically, and fine, but the point is that that is how we act, and that is the idea that our legal system is predicated on. There's something deep about it, because you're subject to the law, but the law is also limited by you, which is to say that in a well-functioning, properly-grounded democratic system, you have intrinsic value. That's the source of your rights. Even if you're a murderer, we have to say the law can only go so far because there's something about you that's divine.
Well, what does that mean? Partly it means that there's something about you that's conscious and capable of communicating, like you're a whole world unto yourself. You have that to contribute to everyone else, and that's valuable. You can learn new things, transform the structure of society, and invent a new way of dealing with the world. You're capable of all that. It's an intrinsic part of you, and that's associated with the idea that there's something about the logos that is necessary for the absolute chaos of the reality beyond experience to manifest itself as reality. That's an amazing idea because it gives consciousness a constitutive role in the cosmos. You can debate that, but you can't just bloody well brush it off. First of all, we are the most complicated things there are, that we know of, by a massive amount. We're so complicated that it's unbelievable. So there's a lot of cosmos out there, but there's a lot of cosmos in here, too, and which one is greater is by no means obvious, unless you use something trivial, like relative size, which really isn't a very sophisticated approach.
Whatever it is that is you has this capacity to experience reality and to transform it, which is a very strange thing. You can conceptualize the future in your imagination, and then you can work and make that manifest-participate in the process of creation. That's one way of thinking about it. That's why I think Genesis 1 relates the idea that human beings are made in the image of the divine-men and women, which is interesting, because feminists are always criticizing Christianity as being inexorably patriarchal. Of course, they criticize everything like that, so it's hardly a stroke of bloody brilliance. But I think it's an absolute miracle that right at the beginning of the document it says straightforwardly, with no hesitation whatsoever, that the divine spark which we're associating with the word, that brings forth Being, is manifest in men and women equally. That's a very cool thing. You got to think, like I said, do you actually take that seriously? Well, what you got to ask is what happens if you don't take it seriously, right? Read Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. That's the best investigation into that tactic that's ever been produced. ~ Jordan Peterson, Biblical Series, 1,#KEYS
820: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
821:SLEIGHT OF MIND IN ILLUMINATION
Only those forms of illumination which lead to useful behaviour changes deserve to be known as such. When I hear the word "spirituality", I tend to reach for a loaded wand. Most professionally spiritual people are vile and untrustworthy when off duty, simply because their beliefs conflict with basic drives and only manage to distort their natural behaviour temporarily. The demons then come screaming up out of the cellar at unexpected moments.
When selecting objectives for illumination, the magician should choose forms of self improvement which can be precisely specified and measured and which effect changes of behaviour in his entire existence. Invocation is the main tool in illumination, although enchantment where spells are cast upon oneselves and divination to seek objectives for illumination may also find some application.
Evocation can sometimes be used with care, but there is no point in simply creating an entity that is the repository of what one wishes were true for oneself in general. This is a frequent mistake in religion. Forms of worship which create only entities in the subconscious are inferior to more wholehearted worship, which, at its best, is pure invocation. The Jesuits "Imitation of Christ" is more effective than merely praying to Jesus for example.
Illumination proceeds in the same general manner as invocation, except that the magician is striving to effect specific changes to his everyday behaviour, rather than to create enhanced facilities that can be drawn upon for particular purposes. The basic technique remains the same, the required beliefs are identified and then implanted in the subconscious by ritual or other acts. Such acts force the subconscious acquisition of the beliefs they imply.
Modest and realistic objectives are preferable to grandiose schemes in illumination.
One modifies the behaviour and beliefs of others by beginning with only the most trivial demands. The same applies to oneselves. The magician should beware of implanting beliefs whose expression cannot be sustained by the human body or the environment. For example it is possible to implant the belief that flight can be achieved without an aircraft. However it has rarely proved possible to implant this belief deeply enough to ensure that such flights were not of exceedingly short duration. Nevertheless such feats as fire-walking and obliviousness to extreme pain are sometimes achieved by this mechanism.
The sleight of mind which implants belief through ritual action is more powerful than any other weapon that humanity possesses, yet its influence is so pervasive that we seldom notice it. It makes religions, wars, cults and cultures possible. It has killed countless millions and created our personal and social realities. Those who understand how to use it on others can be messiahs or dictators, depending on their degree of personal myopia. Those who understand how to apply it to themselves have a jewel beyond price if they use it wisely; otherwise they tend to rapidly invoke their own Nemesis with it. ~ Peter J Carroll, Liber Kaos,#KEYS
822:Something happened to you before you were born, and this is what it was:
STAGE ONE: THE CHIKHAI
The events of the 49-day Bardo period are divided into three major stages, the Chikhai, the Chonyid, and the Sidpa (in that order). Immediately following physical death, the soul enters the Chikhai, which is simply the state of the immaculate and luminous Dharmakaya, the ultimate Consciousness, the BrahmanAtman. This ultimate state is given, as a gift, to all individuals: they are plunged straight into ultimate reality and exist as the ultimate Dharmakaya. "At this moment," says the Bardo Thotrol, "the first glimpsing of the Bardo of the Clear Light of Reality, which is the Infallible Mind of the Dharmakaya, is experienced by all sentient beings.''110 Or, to put it a different way, the Thotrol tells us that "Thine own consciousness, shining, void, and inseparable from the Great Body of Radiance, hath no birth, nor death, and is the Immutable Light-Buddha Amitabha. Knowing this is sufficient. Recognizing the voidness of thine own intellect to be Buddhahood ... is to keep thyself in the Divine Mind."110 In short, immediately following physical death, the soul is absorbed in and as the ultimate-causal body (if we may treat them together).
Interspersed with this brief summary of the Bardo Thotrol, I will add my commentaries on involution and on the nature of the Atman project in involution. And we begin by noting that at the start of the Bardo experience, the soul is elevated to the utter heights of Being, to the ultimate state of Oneness-that is, he starts his Bardo career at the top. But, at the top is usually not where he remains, and the Thotrol tells us why. In Evans-Wentz's words, "In the realm of the Clear Light [the highest Chikhai stage] the mentality of a person . . . momentarily enjoys a condition of balance, of perfect equilibrium, and of [ultimate] oneness. Owing to unfamiliarity with such a state, which is an ecstatic state of non-ego, of [causal] consciousness, the . . . average human being lacks the power to function in it; karmic propensities becloud the consciousness-principle with thoughts of personality, of individualized being, of dualism, and, losing equilibrium, the consciousness-principle falls away from the Clear Light."
The soul falls away from the ultimate Oneness because "karmic propensities cloud consciousness"-"karmic propensities'' means seeking, grasping, desiring; means, in fact, Eros. And as this Erosseeking develops, the state of perfect Oneness starts to "break down" (illusorily). Or, from a different angle, because the individual cannot stand the intensity of pure Oneness ("owing to unfamiliarity with such a state"), he contracts away from it, tries to ''dilute it," tries to extricate himself from Perfect Intensity in Atman. Contracting in the face of infinity, he turns instead to forms of seeking, desire, karma, and grasping, trying to "search out" a state of equilibrium. Contraction and Eros-these karmic propensities couple and conspire to drive the soul away from pure consciousness and downwards into multiplicity, into less intense and less real states of being. ~ Ken Wilber, The Atman Project,#KEYS
823:28 August 1957
Mother, Sri Aurobindo says here: "Whether the whole of humanity would be touched [by the Supramental influence] or only a part of it ready for the change would depend on what was intended or possible in the continued order of the universe."
The Supramental Manifestation, SABCL, Vol. 16, p. 56
What is meant by "what was intended or possible"? The two things are different. So far you have said that if humanity changes, if it wants to participate in the new birth...
It is the same thing. But when you look at an object on a certain plane, you see it horizontally, and when you look at the same object from another plane, you see it vertically. (Mother shows the cover and the back of her book.) So, if one looks from above, one says "intended"; if one looks from below, one says "possible".... But it is absolutely the same thing, only the point of view is different.
But in that case, it is not our incapacity or lack of will to change that makes any difference.
We have already said this many a time. If you remain in a consciousness which functions mentally, even if it is the highest mind, you have the notion of an absolute determinism of cause and effect and feel that things are what they are because they are what they are and cannot be otherwise.
It is only when you come out of the mental consciousness completely and enter a higher perception of things - which you may call spiritual or divine - that you suddenly find yourself in a state of perfect freedom where everything is possible.
(Silence)
Those who have contacted that state or lived in it, even if only for a moment, try to describe it as a feeling of an absolute Will in action, which immediately gives to the human mentality the feeling of being arbitrary. And because of that distortion there arises the idea - which I might call traditional - of a supreme and arbitrary God, which is something most unacceptable to every enlightened mind. I suppose that this experience badly expressed is at the origin of this notion. And in fact it is incorrect to express it as an absolute Will: it is very, very, very different. It is something else altogether. For, what man understands by "Will" is a decision that is taken and carried out. We are obliged to use the word "will", but in its truth the Will acting in the universe is neither a choice nor a decision that is taken. What seems to me the closest expression is "vision". Things are because they are seen. But of course "seen", not seen as we see with these eyes.
(Mother touches her eyes...) All the same, it is the nearest thing.
It is a vision - a vision unfolding itself.
The universe becomes objective as it is progressively seen.
And that is why Sri Aurobindo has said "intended or possible". It is neither one nor the other. All that can be said is a distortion.
(Silence)
Objectivisation - universal objectivisation - is something like a projection in space and time, like a living image of what is from all eternity. And as the image is gradually projected on the screen of time and space, it becomes objective:
The Supreme contemplating His own Image.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1957-1958,#KEYS
824:Apotheosis ::: One of the most powerful and beloved of the Bodhisattvas of the Mahayana Buddhism of Tibet, China, and Japan is the Lotus Bearer, Avalokiteshvara, "The Lord Looking Down in Pity," so called because he regards with compassion all sentient creatures suffering the evils of existence. To him goes the millionfold repeated prayer of the prayer wheels and temple gongs of Tibet: Om mani padme hum, "The jewel is in the lotus." To him go perhaps more prayers per minute than to any single divinity known to man; for when, during his final life on earth as a human being, he shattered for himself the bounds of the last threshold (which moment opened to him the timelessness of the void beyond the frustrating mirage-enigmas of the named and bounded cosmos), he paused: he made a vow that before entering the void he would bring all creatures without exception to enlightenment; and since then he has permeated the whole texture of existence with the divine grace of his assisting presence, so that the least prayer addressed to him, throughout the vast spiritual empire of the Buddha, is graciously heard. Under differing forms he traverses the ten thousand worlds, and appears in the hour of need and prayer. He reveals himself in human form with two arms, in superhuman forms with four arms, or with six, or twelve, or a thousand, and he holds in one of his left hands the lotus of the world.
Like the Buddha himself, this godlike being is a pattern of the divine state to which the human hero attains who has gone beyond the last terrors of ignorance. "When the envelopment of consciousness has been annihilated, then he becomes free of all fear, beyond the reach of change." This is the release potential within us all, and which anyone can attain-through herohood; for, as we read: "All things are Buddha-things"; or again (and this is the other way of making the same statement) : "All beings are without self."
The world is filled and illumined by, but does not hold, the Bodhisattva ("he whose being is enlightenment"); rather, it is he who holds the world, the lotus. Pain and pleasure do not enclose him, he encloses them-and with profound repose. And since he is what all of us may be, his presence, his image, the mere naming of him, helps. "He wears a garland of eight thousand rays, in which is seen fully reflected a state of perfect beauty.
The color of his body is purple gold. His palms have the mixed color of five hundred lotuses, while each finger tip has eighty-four thousand signet-marks, and each mark eighty-four thousand colors; each color has eighty-four thousand rays which are soft and mild and shine over all things that exist. With these jewel hands he draws and embraces all beings. The halo surrounding his head is studded with five hundred Buddhas, miraculously transformed, each attended by five hundred Bodhisattvas, who are attended, in turn, by numberless gods. And when he puts his feet down to the ground, the flowers of diamonds and jewels that are scattered cover everything in all directions. The color of his face is gold. While in his towering crown of gems stands a Buddha, two hundred and fifty miles high." - Amitayur-Dhyana Sutra, 19; ibid., pp. 182-183. ~ Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Apotheosis,#KEYS
825:Sweet Mother, here it is written: "It is part of the foundation of Yoga to become conscious of the great complexity of our nature, see the different forces that move it and get over it a control of directing knowledge." Are these forces different for each person?
Yes. The composition is completely different, otherwise everybody would be the same. There are not two beings with an identical combination; between the different parts of the being and the composition of these parts the proportion is different in each individual. There are people, primitive men, people like the yet undeveloped races or the degenerated ones whose combinations are fairly simple; they are still complicated, but comparatively simple. And there are people absolutely at the top of the human ladder, the e ́lite of humanity; their combinations become so complicated that a very special discernment is needed to find the relations between all these things.
There are beings who carry in themselves thousands of different personalities, and then each one has its own rhythm and alternation, and there is a kind of combination; sometimes there are inner conflicts, and there is a play of activities which are rhythmic and with alternations of certain parts which come to the front and then go back and again come to the front. But when one takes all that, it makes such complicated combinations that some people truly find it difficult to understand what is going on in themselves; and yet these are the ones most capable of a complete, coordinated, conscious, organised action; but their organisation is infinitely more complicated than that of primitive or undeveloped men who have two or three impulses and four or five ideas, and who can arrange all this very easily in themselves and seem to be very co-ordinated and logical because there is not very much to organise. But there are people truly like a multitude, and so that gives them a plasticity, a fluidity of action and an extraordinary complexity of perception, and these people are capable of understanding a considerable number of things, as though they had at their disposal a veritable army which they move according to circumstance and need; and all this is inside them. So when these people, with the help of yoga, the discipline of yoga, succeed in centralising all these beings around the central light of the divine Presence, they become powerful entities, precisely because of their complexity. So long as this is not organised they often give the impression of an incoherence, they are almost incomprehensible, one can't manage to understand why they are like that, they are so complex. But when they have organised all these beings, that is, put each one in its place around the divine centre, then truly they are terrific, for they have the capacity of understanding almost everything and doing almost everything because of the multitude of entities they contain, of which they are constituted. And the nearer one is to the top of the ladder, the more it is like that, and consequently the more difficult it is to organise one's being; because when you have about a dozen elements, you can quickly compass and organise them, but when you have thousands of them, it is difficult. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1955, 215-216,#KEYS
826:Evil
Hasten towards the good, leave behind all evil thoughts, for to do good without enthusiasm is to have a mind which delights in evil.
If one does an evil action, he should not persist in it, he should not delight in it. For full of suffering is the accumulation of evil.
If one does a good action, he should persist in it and take delight in it. Full of happiness is the accumulation of good.
As long as his evil action has not yet ripened, an evildoer may experience contentment. But when it ripens, the wrong-doer knows unhappiness.
As long as his good action has not yet ripened, one who does good may experience unhappiness. But when it ripens, the good man knows happiness.
Do not treat evil lightly, saying, "That will not touch me." A jar is filled drop by drop; even so the fool fills himself little by little with wickedness.
Do not treat good lightly, saying, "That will not touch me." A jar is filled drop by drop; even so the sage fills himself little by little with goodness.
The merchant who is carrying many precious goods and who has but few companions, avoids dangerous roads; and a man who loves his life is wary of poison. Even so should one act regarding evil.
A hand that has no wound can carry poison with impunity; act likewise, for evil cannot touch the righteous man.
If you offend one who is pure, innocent and defenceless, the insult will fall back on you, as if you threw dust against the wind.
Some are reborn here on earth, evil-doers go to the worlds of Niraya,1 the just go to the heavenly worlds, but those who have freed themselves from all desire attain Nirvana.
Neither in the skies, nor in the depths of the ocean, nor in the rocky caves, nowhere upon earth does there exist a place where a man can find refuge from his evil actions.
Neither in the skies, nor in the depths of the ocean, nor in the rocky caves, nowhere upon earth does there exist a place where a man can hide from death.
People have the habit of dealing lightly with thoughts that come. And the atmosphere is full of thoughts of all kinds which do not in fact belong to anybody in particular, which move perpetually from one person to another, very freely, much too freely, because there are very few people who can keep their thoughts under control.
When you take up the Buddhist discipline to learn how to control your thoughts, you make very interesting discoveries. You try to observe your thoughts. Instead of letting them pass freely, sometimes even letting them enter your head and establish themselves in a quite inopportune way, you look at them, observe them and you realise with stupefaction that in the space of a few seconds there passes through the head a series of absolutely improbable thoughts that are altogether harmful.
...?
Conversion of the aim of life from the ego to the Divine: instead of seeking one's own satisfaction, to have the service of the Divine as the aim of life.
*
What you must know is exactly the thing you want to do in life. The time needed to learn it does not matter at all. For those who wish to live according to Truth, there is always something to learn and some progress to make. 2 October 1969 ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1929-1931,#KEYS
827:But still the greater and wider the moving idea-force behind the consecration, the better for the seeker; his attainment is likely to be fuller and more ample. If we are to attempt an integral Yoga, it will be as well to start with an idea of the Divine that is itself integral. There should be an aspiration in the heart wide enough for a realisation without any narrow limits. Not only should we avoid a sectarian religious outlook, but also all onesided philosophical conceptions which try to shut up the Ineffable in a restricting mental formula. The dynamic conception or impelling sense with which our Yoga can best set out would be naturally the idea, the sense of a conscious all-embracing but all-exceeding Infinite. Our uplook must be to a free, all-powerful, perfect and blissful One and Oneness in which all beings move and live and through which all can meet and become one. This Eternal will be at once personal and impersonal in his self-revelation and touch upon the soul. He is personal because he is the conscious Divine, the infinite Person who casts some broken reflection of himself in the myriad divine and undivine personalities of the universe. He is impersonal because he appears to us as an infinite Existence, Consciousness and Ananda and because he is the fount, base and constituent of all existences and all energies, -the very material of our being and mind and life and body, our spirit and our matter. The thought, concentrating on him, must not merely understand in an intellectual form that he exists, or conceive of him as an abstraction, a logical necessity; it must become a seeing thought able to meet him here as the Inhabitant in all, realise him in ourselves, watch and take hold on the movement of his forces. He is the one Existence: he is the original and universal Delight that constitutes all things and exceeds them: he is the one infinite Consciousness that composes all consciousnesses and informs all their movements; he is the one illimitable Being who sustains all action and experience; his will guides the evolution of things towards their yet unrealised but inevitable aim and plenitude. To him the heart can consecrate itself, approach him as the supreme Beloved, beat and move in him as in a universal sweetness of Love and a living sea of Delight. For his is the secret Joy that supports the soul in all its experiences and maintains even the errant ego in its ordeals and struggles till all sorrow and suffering shall cease. His is the Love and the Bliss of the infinite divine Lover who is drawing all things by their own path towards his happy oneness. On him the Will can unalterably fix as the invisible Power that guides and fulfils it and as the source of its strength. In the impersonality this actuating Power is a self-illumined Force that contains all results and calmly works until it accomplishes, in the personality an all wise and omnipotent Master of the Yoga whom nothing can prevent from leading it to its goal. This is the faith with which the seeker has to begin his seeking and endeavour; for in all his effort here, but most of all in his effort towards the Unseen, mental man must perforce proceed by faith. When the realisation comes, the faith divinely fulfilled and completed will be transformed into an eternal flame of knowledge.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Self-Consecration [83],#KEYS
828: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
829:Can it be said in justification of one's past that whatever has happened in one's life had to happen?
The Mother: Obviously, what has happened had to happen; it would not have been, if it had not been intended. Even the mistakes that we have committed and the adversities that fell upon us had to be, because there was some necessity in them, some utility for our lives. But in truth these things cannot be explained mentally and should not be. For all that happened was necessary, not for any mental reason, but to lead us to something beyond what the mind imagines. But is there any need to explain after all? The whole universe explains everything at every moment and a particular thing happens because the whole universe is what it is. But this does not mean that we are bound over to a blind acquiescence in Nature's inexorable law. You can accept the past as a settled fact and perceive the necessity in it, and still you can use the experience it gave you to build up the power consciously to guide and shape your present and your future.
Is the time also of an occurrence arranged in the Divine Plan of things?
The Mother: All depends upon the plane from which one sees and speaks. There is a plane of divine consciousness in which all is known absolutely, and the whole plan of things foreseen and predetermined. That way of seeing lives in the highest reaches of the Supramental; it is the Supreme's own vision. But when we do not possess that consciousness, it is useless to speak in terms that hold good only in that region and are not our present effective way of seeing things. For at a lower level of consciousness nothing is realised or fixed beforehand; all is in the process of making. Here there are no settled facts, there is only the play of possibilities; out of the clash of possibilities is realised the thing that has to happen. On this plane we can choose and select; we can refuse one possibility and accept another; we can follow one path, turn away from another. And that we can do, even though what is actually happening may have been foreseen and predetermined in a higher plane.
The Supreme Consciousness knows everything beforehand, because everything is realised there in her eternity. But for the sake of her play and in order to carry out actually on the physical plane what is foreordained in her own supreme self, she moves here upon earth as if she did not know the whole story; she works as if it was a new and untried thread that she was weaving. It is this apparent forgetfulness of her own foreknowledge in the higher consciousness that gives to the individual in the active life of the world his sense of freedom and independence and initiative. These things in him are her pragmatic tools or devices, and it is through this machinery that the movements and issues planned and foreseen elsewhere are realised here.
It may help you to understand if you take the example of an actor. An actor knows the whole part he has to play; he has in his mind the exact sequence of what is to happen on the stage. But when he is on the stage, he has to appear as if he did not know anything; he has to feel and act as if he were experiencing all these things for the first time, as if it was an entirely new world with all its chance events and surprises that was unrolling before his eyes. 28th April ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1929-1931,#KEYS
830:[desire and its divine form:]
Into all our endeavour upward the lower element of desire will at first naturally enter. For what the enlightened will sees as the thing to be done and pursues as the crown to be conquered, what the heart embraces as the one thing delightful, that in us which feels itself limited and opposed and, because it is limited, craves and struggles, will seek with the troubled passion of an egoistic desire. This craving life-force or desire-soul in us has to be accepted at first, but only in order that it may be transformed. Even from the very beginning it has to be taught to renounce all other desires and concentrate itself on the passion for the Divine. This capital point gained, it has to be aught to desire, not for its own separate sake, but for God in the world and for the Divine in ourselves; it has to fix itself upon no personal spiritual gain, though of all possible spiritual gains we are sure, but on the great work to be done in us and others, on the high coming manifestation which is to be the glorious fulfilment of the Divine in the world, on the Truth that has to be sought and lived and enthroned for eveR But last, most difficult for it, more difficult than to seek with the right object, it has to be taught to seek in the right manner; for it must learn to desire, not in its own egoistic way, but in the way of the Divine. It must insist no longer, as the strong separative will always insists, on its own manner of fulfilment, its own dream of possession, its own idea of the right and the desirable; it must yearn to fulfil a larger and greater Will and consent to wait upon a less interested and ignorant guidance. Thus trained, Desire, that great unquiet harasser and troubler of man and cause of every kind of stumbling, will become fit to be transformed into its divine counterpart. For desire and passion too have their divine forms; there is a pure ecstasy of the soul's seeking beyond all craving and grief, there is a Will of Ananda that sits glorified in the possession of the supreme beatitudes.
When once the object of concentration has possessed and is possessed by the three master instruments, the thought, the heart and the will,-a consummation fully possible only when the desire-soul in us has submitted to the Divine Law,-the perfection of mind and life and body can be effectively fulfilled in our transmuted nature. This will be done, not for the personal satisfaction of the ego, but that the whole may constitute a fit temple for the Divine Presence, a faultless instrument for the divine work. For that work can be truly performed only when the instrument, consecrated and perfected, has grown fit for a selfless action,-and that will be when personal desire and egoism are abolished, but not the liberated individual. Even when the little ego has been abolished, the true spiritual Person can still remain and God's will and work and delight in him and the spiritual use of his perfection and fulfilment. Our works will then be divine and done divinely; our mind and life and will, devoted to the Divine, will be used to help fulfil in others and in the world that which has been first realised in ourselves,- all that we can manifest of the embodied Unity, Love, Freedom, Strength, Power, Splendour, immortal Joy which is the goal of the Spirit's terrestrial adventure.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Self-Consecration [83] [T1],#KEYS
831:In our world error is continually the handmaid and pathfinder of Truth; for error is really a half-truth that stumbles because of its limitations; often it is Truth that wears a disguise in order to arrive unobserved near to its goal. Well, if it could always be, as it has been in the great period we are leaving, the faithful handmaid, severe, conscientious, clean-handed, luminous within its limits, a half-truth and not a reckless and presumptuous aberration.
A certain kind of Agnosticism is the final truth of all knowledge. For when we come to the end of whatever path, the universe appears as only a symbol or an appearance of an unknowable Reality which translates itself here into different systems of values, physical values, vital and sensational values, intellectual, ideal and spiritual values. The more That becomes real to us, the more it is seen to be always beyond defining thought and beyond formulating expression. "Mind attains not there, nor speech."3 And yet as it is possible to exaggerate, with the Illusionists, the unreality of the appearance, so it is possible to exaggerate the unknowableness of the Unknowable. When we speak of It as unknowable, we mean, really, that It escapes the grasp of our thought and speech, instruments which proceed always by the sense of difference and express by the way of definition; but if not knowable by thought, It is attainable by a supreme effort of consciousness. There is even a kind of Knowledge which is one with Identity and by which, in a sense, It can be known. Certainly, that Knowledge cannot be reproduced successfully in the terms of thought and speech, but when we have attained to it, the result is a revaluation of That in the symbols of our cosmic consciousness, not only in one but in all the ranges of symbols, which results in a revolution of our internal being and, through the internal, of our external life. Moreover, there is also a kind of Knowledge through which That does reveal itself by all these names and forms of phenomenal existence which to the ordinary intelligence only conceal It. It is this higher but not highest process of Knowledge to which we can attain by passing the limits of the materialistic formula and scrutinising Life, Mind and Supermind in the phenomena that are characteristic of them and not merely in those subordinate movements by which they link themselves to Matter.
The Unknown is not the Unknowable; it need not remain the unknown for us, unless we choose ignorance or persist in our first limitations. For to all things that are not unknowable, all things in the universe, there correspond in that universe faculties which can take cognisance of them, and in man, the microcosm, these faculties are always existent and at a certain stage capable of development. We may choose not to develop them; where they are partially developed, we may discourage and impose on them a kind of atrophy. But, fundamentally, all possible knowledge is knowledge within the power of humanity. And since in man there is the inalienable impulse of Nature towards self-realisation, no struggle of the intellect to limit the action of our capacities within a determined area can for ever prevail. When we have proved Matter and realised its secret capacities, the very knowledge which has found its convenience in that temporary limitation, must cry to us, like the Vedic Restrainers, 'Forth now and push forward also in other fields.'
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,#KEYS
832:But there's a reason. There's a reason. There's a reason for this, there's a reason education sucks, and it's the same reason that it will never, ever, ever be fixed. It's never gonna get any better. Don't look for it. Be happy with what you got. Because the owners of this country don't want that. I'm talking about the real owners now, the real owners, the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the senate, the congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying, lobbying, to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I'll tell you what they don't want: They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them. Thats against their interests. Thats right. They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table to figure out how badly they're getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago. They don't want that. You know what they want? They want obedient workers. Obedient workers. People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork, and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they're coming for your Social Security money. They want your retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and you know something? They'll get it. They'll get it all from you, sooner or later, 'cause they own this fucking place. It's a big club, and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club. And by the way, it's the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head in their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy. The table is tilted folks. The game is rigged, and nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care. Good honest hard-working people -- white collar, blue collar, it doesn't matter what color shirt you have on -- good honest hard-working people continue -- these are people of modest means -- continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who don't give a fuck about them. They don't give a fuck about you. They don't give a fuck about you. They don't care about you at all -- at all -- at all. And nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care. That's what the owners count on; the fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick that's being jammed up their assholes everyday. Because the owners of this country know the truth: it's called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it. ~ George Carlin, #KEYS
833:Sometimes one cannot distinguish adverse forces from other forces.
That happens when one is quite unconscious. There are only two cases when this is possible: you are either very unconscious of the movements of your being - you have not studied, you have not observed, you do not know what is happening within you - or you are absolutely insincere, that is, you play the ostrich in order not to see the reality of things: you hide your head, you hide your observation, your knowledge and you say, "It is not there." But indeed the latter I hope is not in question here. Hence it is simply because one has not the habit of observing oneself that one is so unconscious of what is happening within.
Have you ever practised distinguishing what comes from your mind, what comes from your vital, what comes from your physical?... For it is mixed up; it is mixed up in the outward appearance. If you do not take care to distinguish, it makes a kind of soup, all that together. So it is indistinct and difficult to discoveR But if you observe yourself, after some time you see certain things, you feel them to be there, like that, as though they were in your skin; for some other things you feel you would have to go within yourself to find out from where they come; for other things, you have to go still further inside, or otherwise you have to rise up a little: it comes from unconsciousness. And there are others; then you must go very deep, very deep to find out from where they come. This is just a beginning.
Simply observe. You are in a certain condition, a certain undefinable condition. Then look: "What! how is it I am like that?" You try to see first if you have fever or some other illness; but it is all right, everything is all right, there's neither headache nor fever, the stomach is not protesting, the heart is functioning as it should, indeed, all's well, you are normal. "Why then am I feeling so uneasy?"... So you go a little further within. It depends on cases. Sometimes you find out immediately: yes, there was a little incident which wasn't pleasant, someone said a word that was not happy or one had failed in his task or perhaps did not know one's lesson very well, the teacher had made a remark. At the time, one did not pay attention properly, but later on, it begins to work, leaves a painful impression. That is the second stage. Afterwards, if nothing happened: "All's well, everything is normal, everything usual, I have nothing to note down, nothing has happened: why then do I feel like that?" Now it begins to be interesting, because one must enter much more deeply within oneself. And then it can be all sorts of things: it may be precisely the expression of an attack that is preparing; it may be a little inner anxiety seeking the progress that has to be made; it may be a premonition that there is somewhere in contact with oneself something not altogether harmonious which one has to change: something one must see, discover, change, on which light is to be put, something that is still there, deep down, and which should no longer be there. Then if you look at yourself very carefully, you find out: "There! I am still like that; in that little corner, there is still something of that kind, not clear: a little selfishness, a little ill-will, something refusing to change." So you see it, you take it by the tip of its nose or by the ear and hold it up in full light: "So, you were hiding! you are hiding? But I don't want you any longer." And then it has to go away.
This is a great progress.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1953, 102-104, [T4],#KEYS
834:
Sweet Mother, how can one feel the divine Presence constantly?
Why not?
But how can one do it?
But I am asking why one should not feel it. Instead of asking the question how to feel it, I ask the question: "What do you do that you don't feel it?" There is no reason not to feel the divine Presence. Once you have felt it, even once, you should be capable of feeling it always, for it is there. It is a fact. It is only our ignorance which makes us unaware of it. But if we become conscious, why should we not always be conscious? Why forget something one has learnt? When one has had the experience, why forget it? It is simply a bad habit, that's all.
You see, there is something which is a fact, that's to say, it is. But we are unaware of it and do not know it. But after we become conscious and know it, why should we still forget it? Does it make sense? It's quite simply because we are not convinced that once one has met the Divine one can't forget Him any more. We are, on the contrary, full of stupid ideas which say, "Oh! Yes, it's very well once like that, but the rest of the time it will be as usual." So there is no reason why it may not begin again.
But if we know that... we did not know something, we were ignorant, then the moment we have the knowledge... I am sincerely asking how one can manage to forget. One might not know something, that is a fact; there are countless things one doesn't know. But the moment one knows them, the minute one has the experience, how can one manage to forget? Within yourself you have the divine Presence, you know nothing about it - for all kinds of reasons, but still the chief reason is that you are in a state of ignorance. Yet suddenly, by a clicking of circumstances, you become conscious of this divine Presence, that is, you are before a fact - it is not imagination, it is a fact, it's something which exists. Then how do you manage to forget it once you have known it?
...
It is because something in us, through cowardice or defeatism, accepts this. If one did not accept it, it wouldn't happen.
Even when everything seems to be suddenly darkened, the flame and the Light are always there. And if one doesn't forget them, one has only to put in front of them the part which is dark; there will perhaps be a battle, there will perhaps be a little difficulty, but it will be something quite transitory; never will you lose your footing. That is why it is said - and it is something true - that to sin through ignorance may have fatal consequences, because when one makes mistakes, well, these mistakes have results, that's obvious, and usually external and material results; but that's no great harm, I have already told you this several times. But when one knows what is true, when one has seen and had the experience of the Truth, to accept the sin again, that is, fall back again into ignorance and obscurity - this is indeed an infinitely more serious mistake. It begins to belong to the domain of ill-will. In any case, it is a sign of slackness and weakness. It means that the will is weak.
So your question is put the other way round. Instead of asking yourself how to keep it, you must ask yourself: how does one not keep it? Not having it, is a state which everybody is in before the moment of knowing; not knowing - one is in that state before knowing. But once one knows one cannot forget. And if one forgets, it means that there is something which consents to the forgetting, it means there is an assent somewhere; otherwise one would not forget.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1955, 403,405,406,#KEYS
835:THE WAND
THE Magical Will is in its essence twofold, for it presupposes a beginning and an end; to will to be a thing is to admit that you are not that thing.
Hence to will anything but the supreme thing, is to wander still further from it - any will but that to give up the self to the Beloved is Black Magick - yet this surrender is so simple an act that to our complex minds it is the most difficult of all acts; and hence training is necessary. Further, the Self surrendered must not be less than the All-Self; one must not come before the altar of the Most High with an impure or an imperfect offering. As it is written in Liber LXV, "To await Thee is the end, not the beginning."
This training may lead through all sorts of complications, varying according to the nature of the student, and hence it may be necessary for him at any moment to will all sorts of things which to others might seem unconnected with the goal. Thus it is not "a priori" obvious why a billiard player should need a file.
Since, then, we may want "anything," let us see to it that our will is strong enough to obtain anything we want without loss of time.
It is therefore necessary to develop the will to its highest point, even though the last task but one is the total surrender of this will. Partial surrender of an imperfect will is of no account in Magick.
The will being a lever, a fulcrum is necessary; this fulcrum is the main aspiration of the student to attain. All wills which are not dependent upon this principal will are so many leakages; they are like fat to the athlete.
The majority of the people in this world are ataxic; they cannot coordinate their mental muscles to make a purposed movement. They have no real will, only a set of wishes, many of which contradict others. The victim wobbles from one to the other (and it is no less wobbling because the movements may occasionally be very violent) and at the end of life the movements cancel each other out. Nothing has been achieved; except the one thing of which the victim is not conscious: the destruction of his own character, the confirming of indecision. Such an one is torn limb from limb by Choronzon.
How then is the will to be trained? All these wishes, whims, caprices, inclinations, tendencies, appetites, must be detected, examined, judged by the standard of whether they help or hinder the main purpose, and treated accordingly.
Vigilance and courage are obviously required. I was about to add self-denial, in deference to conventional speech; but how could I call that self-denial which is merely denial of those things which hamper the self? It is not suicide to kill the germs of malaria in one's blood.
Now there are very great difficulties to be overcome in the training of the mind. Perhaps the greatest is forgetfulness, which is probably the worst form of what the Buddhists call ignorance. Special practices for training the memory may be of some use as a preliminary for persons whose memory is naturally poor. In any case the Magical Record prescribed for Probationers of the A.'.A.'. is useful and necessary.
Above all the practices of Liber III must be done again and again, for these practices develop not only vigilance but those inhibiting centres in the brain which are, according to some psychologists, the mainspring of the mechanism by which civilized man has raised himself above the savage.
So far it has been spoken, as it were, in the negative. Aaron's rod has become a serpent, and swallowed the serpents of the other Magicians; it is now necessary to turn it once more into a rod.
~ Aleister Crowley, Liber ABA, Book 4, The Wand,#KEYS
836:We have now completed our view of the path of Knowledge and seen to what it leads. First, the end of Yoga of Knowledge is God-possession, it is to possess God and be possessed by him through consciousness, through identification, through reflection of the divine Reality. But not merely in some abstraction away from our present existence, but here also; therefore to possess the Divine in himself, the Divine in the world, the Divine within, the Divine in all things and all beings. It is to possess oneness with God and through that to possess also oneness with the universal, with the cosmos and all existences; therefore to possess the infinite diversity also in the oneness, but on the basis of oneness and not on the basis of division. It is to possess God in his personality and his impersonality; in his purity free from qualities and in his infinite qualities; in time and beyond time; in his action and in his silence; in the finite and in the infinite. It is to possess him not only in pure self, but in all self; not only in self, but in Nature; not only in spirit, but in supermind, mind, life and body; to possess him with the spirit, with the mind, with the vital and the physical consciousness; and it is again for all these to be possessed by him, so that our whole being is one with him, full of him, governed and driven by him. It is, since God is oneness, for our physical consciousness to be one with the soul and the nature of the material universe; for our life, to be one with all life; for our mind, to be one with the universal mind; for our spirit, to be identified with the universal spirit. It is to merge in him in the absolute and find him in all relations. Secondly, it is to put on the divine being and the divine nature. And since God is Sachchidananda, it is to raise our being into the divine being, our consciousness into the divine consciousness, our energy into the divine energy, our delight of existence into the divine delight of being. And it is not only to lift ourselves into this higher consciousness, but to widen into it in all our being, because it is to be found on all the planes of our existence and in all our members, so that our mental, vital, physical existence shall become full of the divine nature. Our intelligent mentality is to become a play of the divine knowledge-will, our mental soul-life a play of the divine love and delight, our vitality a play of the divine life, our physical being a mould of the divine substance. This God-action in us is to be realised by an opening of ourselves to the divine gnosis and divine Ananda and, in its fullness, by an ascent into and a permanent dwelling in the gnosis and the Ananda. For though we live physically on the material plane and in normal outwardgoing life the mind and soul are preoccupied with material existence, this externality of our being is not a binding limitation. We can raise our internal consciousness from plane to plane of the relations of Purusha with prakriti, and even become, instead of the mental being dominated by the physical soul and nature, the gnostic being or the bliss-self and assume the gnostic or the bliss nature. And by this raising of the inner life we can transform our whole outward-going existence; instead of a life dominated by matter we shall then have a life dominated by spirit with all its circumstances moulded and determined by the purity of being, the consciousness infinite even in the finite, the divine energy, the divine joy and bliss of the spirit.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Integral Knowledge, The Higher and the Lower Knowledge [511] [T1],#KEYS
837:(Nirodbaran:) "It was the first week of January 1930.
At about 3 p.m., I reached Dilip Kumar Roy's place. "Oh, you have come! Let us go," he said, and cutting a rose from his terrace-garden he added, "Offer this to the Mother." When we arrived at the Ashram he left me at the present Reading Room saying, "Wait here." My heart was beating nervously as if I were going to face an examination. A stately chair in the middle of the room attracted momentarily my attention. In a short while the Mother came accompanied by Nolini, Amrita and Dilip. She took her seat in the chair, the others stood by her side. I was dazzled by the sight. Was it a ‘visionary gleam’ or a reality? Nothing like it had I seen before. Her fair complexion, set off by a finely coloured sari and a headband, gave me the impression of a goddess such as we see in pictures or in the idols during the Durga Puja festival. She was all smiles and redolent with grace. I suppose this was the Mahalakshmi smile Sri Aurobindo had spoken of in his book The Mother. She bathed me in the cascade of her smile and heart-melting look. I stood before her, shy and speechless, made more so by the presence of the others who were enjoying the silent sweet spectacle. Minutes passed. Then I offered to her hand my rose and did my pranam at her feet which had gold anklets on them. She stooped and blessed me. On standing up, I got again the same enchanting smile like moonbeams from a magic sky. After a time she said to the others, "He is very shy." "[1]
(Amal Kiran:) "Now to come back to all the people, all – the undamned all who were there in the Ashram. Very soon after my coming Dilip Kumar Roy came with Sahana Devi. They came and settled down. And, soon after that, I saw the face of my friend Nirod. It was of course an unforgettable face. (laughter) I think he had come straight from England or via some place in Bengal, but he carried something of the air of England. (laughter) He had passed out as a doctor at Edinburgh. I saw him, we became friends and we have remained friends ever since. But when he came as a doctor he was not given doctoring work here. As far as I remember he was made the head of a timber godown! (laughter) All sorts of strange jobs were being given to people. Look at the first job I got. The Mother once told me, "I would like you to do some work." I said, "All right, I am prepared to do some work." Then she said,"Will you take charge of our stock of furniture?" (laughter)"[2]
(Amal Kiran:) "To return to my friend Nirod – it was after some time that he got the Dispensary. I don't know whether he wanted it, or liked it or not, but he established his reputation as the frowning physician. (laughter) People used to come to him with a cold and he would stand and glare at them, and say, "What? You have a cold!" Poor people, they would simply shiver (laughter) and this had a very salutary effect because they thought that it was better not to fall ill than face the doctor's drastic disapproval of any kind of illness which would give him any botheration. (laughter) But he did his job all right, and every time he frightened off a patient he went to his room and started trying to write poetry (laughter) – because that, he thought, was his most important job. And, whether he succeeded as a doctor or not, as a poet he has eminently succeeded. Sri Aurobindo has really made him a poet.
The doctoring as well as the poetry was a bond between us, because my father had been a doctor and medicine ran in my blood. We used to discuss medical matters sometimes, but more often the problems and pains of poetry."[3] ~ https://wiki.auroville.org.in/wiki/Nirodbaran#KEYS
838:
Sometimes while reading a text one has ideas, then Sweet Mother, how can one distinguish between the other person's idea and one's own?
Oh! This, this doesn't exist, the other person's idea and one's own idea.
Nobody has ideas of his own: it is an immensity from which one draws according to his personal affinity; ideas are a collective possession, a collective wealth.
Only, there are different stages. So there is the most common level, the one where all our brains bathe; this indeed swarms here, it is the level of "Mr. Everybody". And then there is a level that's slightly higher for people who are called thinkers. And then there are higher levels still - many - some of them are beyond words but they are still domains of ideas. And then there are those capable of shooting right up, catching something which is like a light and making it come down with all its stock of ideas, all its stock of thoughts. An idea from a higher domain if pulled down organises itself and is crystallised in a large number of thoughts which can express that idea differently; and then if you are a writer or a poet or an artist, when you make it come lower down still, you can have all kinds of expressions, extremely varied and choice around a single little idea but one coming from very high above. And when you know how to do this, it teaches you to distinguish between the pure idea and the way of expressing it.
Some people cannot do it in their own head because they have no imagination or faculty for writing, but they can do it through study by reading what others have written. There are, you know, lots of poets, for instance, who have expressed the same idea - the same idea but with such different forms that when one reads many of them it becomes quite interesting to see (for people who love to read and read much). Ah, this idea, that one has said it like this, that other has expressed it like that, another has formulated it in this way, and so on. And so you have a whole stock of expressions which are expressions by different poets of the same single idea up there, above, high above. And you notice that there is an almost essential difference between the pure idea, the typal idea and its formulation in the mental world, even the speculative or artistic mental world. This is a very good thing to do when one loves gymnastics. It is mental gymnastics.
Well, if you want to be truly intelligent, you must know how to do mental gymnastics; as, you see, if you want really to have a fairly strong body you must know how to do physical gymnastics. It is the same thing. People who have never done mental gymnastics have a poor little brain, quite over-simple, and all their life they think like children. One must know how to do this - not take it seriously, in the sense that one shouldn't have convictions, saying, "This idea is true and that is false; this formulation is correct and that one is not and this religion is the true one and that religion is false", and so on and so forth... this, if you enter into it, you become absolutely stupid.
But if you can see all that and, for example, take all the religions, one after another and see how they have expressed the same aspiration of the human being for some Absolute, it becomes very interesting; and then you begin... yes, you begin to be able to juggle with all that. And then when you have mastered it all, you can rise above it and look at all the eternal human discussions with a smile. So there you are master of the thought and can no longer fly into a rage because someone else does not think as you, something that's unfortunately a very common malady here.
Now, there we are. Nobody has any questions, no?
That's enough? Finished! ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1955,#KEYS
839:In the process of this change there must be by the very necessity of the effort two stages of its working. First, there will be the personal endeavour of the human being, as soon as he becomes aware by his soul, mind, heart of this divine possibility and turns towards it as the true object of life, to prepare himself for it and to get rid of all in him that belongs to a lower working, of all that stands in the way of his opening to the spiritual truth and its power, so as to possess by this liberation his spiritual being and turn all his natural movements into free means of its self-expression. It is by this turn that the self-conscious Yoga aware of its aim begins: there is a new awakening and an upward change of the life motive. So long as there is only an intellectual, ethical and other self-training for the now normal purposes of life which does not travel beyond the ordinary circle of working of mind, life and body, we are still only in the obscure and yet unillumined preparatory Yoga of Nature; we are still in pursuit of only an ordinary human perfection. A spiritual desire of the Divine and of the divine perfection, of a unity with him in all our being and a spiritual perfection in all our nature, is the effective sign of this change, the precursory power of a great integral conversion of our being and living. By personal effort a precursory change, a preliminary conversion can be effected; it amounts to a greater or less spiritualising of our mental motives, our character and temperament, and a mastery, stilling or changed action of the vital and physical life. This converted subjectivity can be made the base of some communion or unity of the soul in mind with the Divine and some partial reflection of the divine nature in the mentality of the human being. That is as far as man can go by his unaided or indirectly aided effort, because that is an effort of mind and mind cannot climb beyond itself permanently: at most it arises to a spiritualised and idealised mentality. If it shoots up beyond that border, it loses hold of itself, loses hold of life, and arrives either at a trance of absorption or a passivity. A greater perfection can only be arrived at by a higher power entering in and taking up the whole action of the being. The second stage of this Yoga will therefore be a persistent giving up of all the action of the nature into the hands of this greater Power, a substitution of its influence, possession and working for the personal effort, until the Divine to whom we aspire becomes the direct master of the Yoga and effects the entire spiritual and ideal conversion of the being. Two rules there are that will diminish the difficulty and obviate the danger. One must reject all that comes from the ego, from vital desire, from the mere mind and its presumptuous reasoning incompetence, all that ministers to these agents of the Ignorance. One must learn to hear and follow the voice of the inmost soul, the direction of the Guru, the command of the Master, the working of the Divine Mother. Whoever clings to the desires and weaknesses of the flesh, the cravings and passions of the vital in its turbulent ignorance, the dictates of his personal mind unsilenced and unillumined by a greater knowledge, cannot find the true inner law and is heaping obstacles in the way of the divine fulfilment. Whoever is able to detect and renounce those obscuring agencies and to discern and follow the true Guide within and without will discover the spiritual law and reach the goal of the Yoga. A radical and total change of consciousness is not only the whole meaning but, in an increasing force and by progressive stages, the whole method of the integral Yoga.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Self-Perfection, The Integral Perfection [618],#KEYS
840:The true Mantra must come from within OR it must be given by a Guru
Nobody can give you the true mantra. It's not something that is given; it's something that wells up from within. It must spring from within all of a sudden, spontaneously, like a profound, intense need of your being - then it has power, because it's not something that comes from outside, it's your very own cry.
I saw, in my case, that my mantra has the power of immortality; whatever happens, if it is uttered, it's the Supreme that has the upper hand, it's no longer the lower law. And the words are irrelevant, they may not have any meaning - to someone else, my mantra is meaningless, but to me it's full, packed with meaning. And effective, because it's my cry, the intense aspiration of my whole being.
A mantra given by a guru is only the power to realize the experience of the discoverer of the mantra. The power is automatically there, because the sound contains the experience. I saw that once in Paris, at a time when I knew nothing of India, absolutely nothing, only the usual nonsense. I didn't even know what a mantra was. I had gone to a lecture given by some fellow who was supposed to have practiced "yoga" for a year in the Himalayas and recounted his experience (none too interesting, either). All at once, in the course of his lecture, he uttered the sound OM. And I saw the entire room suddenly fill with light, a golden, vibrating light.... I was probably the only one to notice it. I said to myself, "Well!" Then I didn't give it any more thought, I forgot about the story. But as it happened, the experience recurred in two or three different countries, with different people, and every time there was the sound OM, I would suddenly see the place fill with that same light. So I understood. That sound contains the vibration of thousands and thousands of years of spiritual aspiration - there is in it the entire aspiration of men towards the Supreme. And the power is automatically there, because the experience is there.
It's the same with my mantra. When I wanted to translate the end of my mantra, "Glory to You, O Lord," into Sanskrit, I asked for Nolini's help. He brought his Sanskrit translation, and when he read it to me, I immediately saw that the power was there - not because Nolini put his power into it (!), God knows he had no intention of "giving" me a mantra! But the power was there because my experience was there. We made a few adjustments and modifications, and that's the japa I do now - I do it all the time, while sleeping, while walking, while eating, while working, all the time.[[Mother later clarified: "'Glory to You, O Lord' isn't MY mantra, it's something I ADDED to it - my mantra is something else altogether, that's not it. When I say that my mantra has the power of immortality, I mean the other, the one I don't speak of! I have never given the words.... You see, at the end of my walk, a kind of enthusiasm rises, and with that enthusiasm, the 'Glory to You' came to me, but it's part of the prayer I had written in Prayers and Meditations: 'Glory to You, O Lord, all-triumphant Supreme' etc. (it's a long prayer). It came back suddenly, and as it came back spontaneously, I kept it. Moreover, when Sri Aurobindo read this prayer in Prayers and Meditations, he told me it was very strong. So I added this phrase as a kind of tail to my japa. But 'Glory to You, O Lord' isn't my spontaneous mantra - it came spontaneously, but it was something written very long ago. The two things are different."
And that's how a mantra has life: when it wells up all the time, spontaneously, like the cry of your being - there is no need of effort or concentration: it's your natural cry. Then it has full power, it is alive. It must well up from within.... No guru can give you that. ~ The Mother, Agenda, May 11 1963,#KEYS
841: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
842:The supreme Form is then made visible. It is that of the infinite Godhead whose faces are everywhere and in whom are all the wonders of existence, who multiplies unendingly all the many marvellous revelations of his being, a world-wide Divinity seeing with innumerable eyes, speaking from innumerable mouths, armed for battle with numberless divine uplifted weapons, glorious with divine ornaments of beauty, robed in heavenly raiment of deity, lovely with garlands of divine flowers, fragrant with divine perfumes. Such is the light of this body of God as if a thousand suns had risen at once in heaven. The whole world multitudinously divided and yet unified is visible in the body of the God of Gods. Arjuna sees him, God magnificent and beautiful and terrible, the Lord of souls who has manifested in the glory and greatness of his spirit this wild and monstrous and orderly and wonderful and sweet and terrible world, and overcome with marvel and joy and fear he bows down and adores with words of awe and with clasped hands the tremendous vision. "I see" he cries "all the gods in thy body, O God, and different companies of beings, Brahma the creating lord seated in the Lotus, and the Rishis and the race of the divine Serpents. I see numberless arms and bellies and eyes and faces, I see thy infinite forms on every side, but I see not thy end nor thy middle nor thy beginning, O Lord of the universe, O Form universal. I see thee crowned and with thy mace and thy discus, hard to discern because thou art a luminous mass of energy on all sides of me, an encompassing blaze, a sun-bright fire-bright Immeasurable. Thou art the supreme Immutable whom we have to know, thou art the high foundation and abode of the universe, thou art the imperishable guardian of the eternal laws, thou art the sempiternal soul of existence."
But in the greatness of this vision there is too the terrific image of the Destroyer. This Immeasurable without end or middle or beginning is he in whom all things begin and exist and end.
This Godhead who embraces the worlds with his numberless arms and destroys with his million hands, whose eyes are suns and moons, has a face of blazing fire and is ever burning up the whole universe with the flame of his energy. The form of him is fierce and marvellous and alone it fills all the regions and occupies the whole space between earth and heaven. The companies of the gods enter it, afraid, adoring; the Rishis and the Siddhas crying "May there be peace and weal" praise it with many praises; the eyes of Gods and Titans and Giants are fixed on it in amazement. It has enormous burning eyes; it has mouths that gape to devour, terrible with many tusks of destruction; it has faces like the fires of Death and Time. The kings and the captains and the heroes on both sides of the world-battle are hastening into its tusked and terrible jaws and some are seen with crushed and bleeding heads caught between its teeth of power; the nations are rushing to destruction with helpless speed into its mouths of flame like many rivers hurrying in their course towards the ocean or like moths that cast themselves on a kindled fire. With those burning mouths the Form of Dread is licking all the regions around; the whole world is full of his burning energies and baked in the fierceness of his lustres. The world and its nations are shaken and in anguish with the terror of destruction and Arjuna shares in the trouble and panic around him; troubled and in pain is the soul within him and he finds no peace or gladness. He cries to the dreadful Godhead, "Declare to me who thou art that wearest this form of fierceness. Salutation to thee, O thou great Godhead, turn thy heart to grace. I would know who thou art who wast from the beginning, for I know not the will of thy workings." ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays On The Gita, 2.10_-_The_Vision_of_the_World-Spirit_-_Time_the_Destroyer,#KEYS
843:Allow the Lord to Do Everything :::
Now, when I start looking like this (Mother closes her eyes), two things are there at the same time: this smile, this joy, this laughter are there, and such peace! Such full, luminous, total peace, in which there are no more conflicts, no more contradictions. There are no more conflicts. It is one single luminous harmony - and yet everything we call error, suffering, misery, everything is there. It eliminates nothing. It is another way of seeing.
(long silence)
There can be no doubt that if you sincerely want to get out of it, it is not so difficult after all: you have nothing to do, you only have to allow the Lord to do everything. And He does everything. He does everything. It is so wonderful, so wonderful!
He takes anything, even what we call a very ordinary intelligence and he simply teaches you to put this intelligence aside, to rest: "There, be quiet, don't stir, don't bother me, I don't need you." Then a door opens - you don't even feel that you have to open it; it is wide open, you are tkane over to the other side. All that is done by Someone else, not you. And then the other way becomes impossible.
All this... oh, this tremendous labour of hte mind striving to understand, toiling and giving itself headaches!... It is absolutely useless, absolutely useless, no use at all, it merely increases the confusion.
You are faced with a so-called problem: what should you say, what should you do, how should you act? There is nothing to do, nothing, you only have to say to the Lord, "There, You see, it is like that" - that's all. And then you stay very quiet. And then quite spontaneously, without thinking about it, without reflection, without calculation, nothing, nothing, without the slightest effect - you do what has to be done. That is to say, the Lord does it, it is no longer you. He does it. He arranges the circumstances, He arranges the people, He puts the words into your mouth or your pen - He does everything, everything, everything, everything; you have nothing more to do but allow yourself to live blissfully.
I am more and more convinced that people do not really want it.
But clearing the ground is difficult, the work of clearing the ground before hand.
But you don't even need to do it! He does it for you.
But they are constantly breaking in: the old consciousness, the old thoughts....
Yes, they try to come in again, by habit. You only have to say, "Lord, You see, You see, You see, it is like that" - that's all. "Lord, You see, You see this, You see that, You see this fool" - and it is all over immediately. And it changes automatically, my child, without the slightest effort. Simply to be sincere, that is to say, to truly want everything to be right. You are perfectly conscious that you can do nothing about it, that you have no capacity.... But there is always something that wants to do it by itself; that's the trouble, otherwise...
No, you may be full of an excellent goodwill and then you want to do it. That's what complicated everything. Or else you don't have faith, you believe that the Lord will not be able to do it and that you must do it yourself, because He does not know! (Mother laughs.) This, this kind of stupidity is very common. "How can He see things? We live in a world of Falsehood, how can He see Falsehood and see..." But He sees the thing as it is! Exactly!
I am not speaking of people of no intelligence, I am speaking of people who are intelligent and try - there is a kind of conviction, like that, somewhere, even in people who know that we live in a world of Ignorance and Falsehood and that there is a Lord who is All-Truth. They say, "Precisely because He is All-Truth, He does not understand. (Mother laughs.) He does not understand our falsehood, I must deal with it myself." That is very strong, very common.
Ah! we make complications for nothing. ~ The Mother,#KEYS
844:PRATYAHARA
PRATYAHARA is the first process in the mental part of our task. The previous practices, Asana, Pranayama, Yama, and Niyama, are all acts of the body, while mantra is connected with speech: Pratyahara is purely mental.
And what is Pratyahara? This word is used by different authors in different senses. The same word is employed to designate both the practice and the result. It means for our present purpose a process rather strategical than practical; it is introspection, a sort of general examination of the contents of the mind which we wish to control: Asana having been mastered, all immediate exciting causes have been removed, and we are free to think what we are thinking about.
A very similar experience to that of Asana is in store for us. At first we shall very likely flatter ourselves that our minds are pretty calm; this is a defect of observation. Just as the European standing for the first time on the edge of the desert will see nothing there, while his Arab can tell him the family history of each of the fifty persons in view, because he has learnt how to look, so with practice the thoughts will become more numerous and more insistent.
As soon as the body was accurately observed it was found to be terribly restless and painful; now that we observe the mind it is seen to be more restless and painful still. (See diagram opposite.)
A similar curve might be plotted for the real and apparent painfulness of Asana. Conscious of this fact, we begin to try to control it: "Not quite so many thoughts, please!" "Don't think quite so fast, please!" "No more of that kind of thought, please!" It is only then that we discover that what we thought was a school of playful porpoises is really the convolutions of the sea-serpent. The attempt to repress has the effect of exciting.
When the unsuspecting pupil first approaches his holy but wily Guru, and demands magical powers, that Wise One replies that he will confer them, points out with much caution and secrecy some particular spot on the pupil's body which has never previously attracted his attention, and says: "In order to obtain this magical power which you seek, all that is necessary is to wash seven times in the Ganges during seven days, being particularly careful to avoid thinking of that one spot." Of course the unhappy youth spends a disgusted week in thinking of little else.
It is positively amazing with what persistence a thought, even a whole train of thoughts, returns again and again to the charge. It becomes a positive nightmare. It is intensely annoying, too, to find that one does not become conscious that one has got on to the forbidden subject until one has gone right through with it. However, one continues day after day investigating thoughts and trying to check them; and sooner or later one proceeds to the next stage, Dharana, the attempt to restrain the mind to a single object.
Before we go on to this, however, we must consider what is meant by success in Pratyahara. This is a very extensive subject, and different authors take widely divergent views. One writer means an analysis so acute that every thought is resolved into a number of elements (see "The Psychology of Hashish," Section V, in Equinox II).
Others take the view that success in the practice is something like the experience which Sir Humphrey Davy had as a result of taking nitrous oxide, in which he exclaimed: "The universe is composed exclusively of ideas."
Others say that it gives Hamlet's feeling: "There's nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so," interpreted as literally as was done by Mrs. Eddy.
However, the main point is to acquire some sort of inhibitory power over the thoughts. Fortunately there is an unfailing method of acquiring this power. It is given in Liber III. If Sections 1 and 2 are practised (if necessary with the assistance of another person to aid your vigilance) you will soon be able to master the final section. ~ Aleister Crowley, Liber ABA,#KEYS
845:Sweet Mother, how can we make our resolution very firm?
By wanting it to be very firm! (Laughter)
No, this seems like a joke... but it is absolutely true. One does not want it truly. There is always, if you... It is a lack of sincerity. If you look sincerely, you will see that you have decided that it will be like this, and then, beneath there is something which has not decided at all and is waiting for the second of hesitation in order to rush forward. If you are sincere, if you are sincere and get hold of the part which is hiding, waiting, not showing itself, which knows that there will come a second of indecision when it can rush out and make you do the thing you have decided not to do...
[] But if you really want it, nothing in the world can prevent you from doing what you want. It is because one doesn't know how to will it. It is because one is divided in one's will. If you are not divided in your will, I say that nothing, nobody in the world can make you change your will.
But one doesn't know how to will it. In fact one doesn't even want to. These are velleities: "Well, it is like this.... It would be good if it were like that... yes, it would be better if it were like that... yes, it would be preferable if it were like that." But this is not to will. And always there at the back, hidden somewhere in a corner of the brain, is something which is looking on and saying, "Oh, why should I want that? After all one can as well want the opposite." And to try, you see... Not like that, just wait... But one can always find a thousand excuses to do the opposite. And ah, just a tiny little wavering is enough... pftt... the thing swoops down and there it is. But if one wills, if one really knows that this is the thing, and truly wants this, and if one is oneself entirely concentrated in the will, I say that there is nothing in the world that can prevent one from doing it, from doing it or being obliged to do it. It depends on what it is.
One wants. Yes, one wants, like this (gestures). One wants: "Yes, yes, it would be better if it were like that. Yes, it would be finer also, more elegant."... But, eh, eh, after all one is a weak creature, isn't that so? And then one can always put the blame upon something else: "It is the influence coming from outside, it is all kinds of circumstances."
A breath has passed, you see. You don't know... something... a moment of unconsciousness... "Oh, I was not conscious." You are not conscious because you do not accept... And all this because you don't know how to will.
[] To learn how to will is a very important thing. And to will truly, you must unify your being. In fact, to be a being, one must first unify oneself. If one is pulled by absolutely opposite tendencies, if one spends three-fourths of one's life without being conscious of oneself and the reasons why one does things, is one a real being? One does not exist. One is a mass of influences, movements, forces, actions, reactions, but one is not a being. One begins to become a being when one begins to have a will. And one can't have a will unless one is unified.
And when you have a will, you will be able to say, say to the Divine: "I want what You want." But not before that. Because in order to want what the Divine wants, you must have a will, otherwise you can will nothing at all. You would like to. You would like it very much. You would very much like to want what the Divine wants to do. You don't possess a will to give to Him and to put at His service. Something like that, gelatinous, like jelly-fish... there... a mass of good wills - and I am considering the better side of things and forgetting the bad wills - a mass of good wills, half-conscious and fluctuating....
Ah, that's all, my children. That's enough for today. There we are.
Only, put this into practice; just a little of what I have said, not all, eh, just a very little. There.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1954,#KEYS
846:There is a true movement of the intellect and there is a wrong movement: one helps, the other hinders." Questions and Answers 1929 - 1931 (5 May 1929)
What is the true movement of the intellect?
What exactly do you understand by intellect? Is it a function of the mind or is it a part of the human being? How do you understand it?
A function of the mind.
A function of the mind? Then it is that part of the mind which deals with ideas; is that what you mean?
Not ideas, Mother.
Not ideas? What else, then?
Ideas, but...
There is a part of the mind which receives ideas, ideas that are formed in a higher mind. Still, I don't know, it is a question of definition and one must know what exactly you mean to say.
It is intellect that puts ideas in the form of thoughts, gathering and organising the thoughts at the same time. There are great ideas which lie beyond the ordinary human mentality, which can put on all possible forms. These great ideas tend to descend, they want to manifest themselves in precise forms. These precise forms are the thoughts; and generally it is this, I believe, that is meant by intellect: it is this that gives thought-form to the ideas.
And then, there is also the organisation of the thoughts among themselves. All that has to be put in a certain order, otherwise one becomes incoherent. And after that, there is the putting of these thoughts to use for action; that is still another movement.
To be able to say what the true movement is, one must know first of all which movement is being spoken about. You have a body, well, you don't expect your body to walk on its head or its hands nor to crawl flat on its belly nor indeed that the head should be down and the legs up in the air. You give to each limb a particular occupation which is its own. This appears to you quite natural because that is the habit; otherwise, the very little ones do not know what to do, neither with their legs nor with their hands nor with their heads; it is only little by little that they learn that. Well, it is the same thing with the mind's functions. You must know which part of the mind you are speaking about, what its own function is, and then only can you say what its true movement is and what is not its true movement. For example, for the part which has to receive the master ideas and change them into thought, its true movement is to be open to the master ideas, receive them and change them into as exact, as precise, as expressive a thought as possible. For the part of the mind which has the charge of organising all these thoughts among themselves so that they might form a coherent and classified whole, not a chaos, the true movement is just to make the classification according to a higher logic and in a thoroughly clear, precise and expressive order which may be serviceable each time a thought is referred to, so that one may know where to look for it and not put quite contradictory things together. There are people whose mind does not work like that; all the ideas that come into it, without their being even aware of what the idea is, are translated into confused thoughts which remain in a kind of inner chaos. I have known people who, from the philosophical point of view - although there is nothing philosophical in it - could put side by side the most contradictory things, like ideas of hierarchic order and at the same time ideas of the absolute independence of the individual and of anarchism, and both were accepted with equal sympathy, knocked against each other in the head in the midst of a wild disorder, and these people were not even aware of it!... You know the saying: "A question well put is three-fourths solved." So now, put your question. What do you want to speak about? I am stretching out a helping hand, you have only to catch it. What is it you are speaking about, what is it that you call intellect? Do you know the difference between an idea and a thought?
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1953, 107,#KEYS
847: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
848:All Yoga is a turning of the human mind and the human soul, not yet divine in realisation, but feeling the divine impulse and attraction in it, towards that by which it finds its greater being. Emotionally, the first form which this turning takes must be that of adoration. In ordinary religion this adoration wears the form of external worship and that again develops a most external form of ceremonial worship. This element is ordinarily necessary because the mass of men live in their physical minds, cannot realise anything except by the force of a physical symbol and cannot feel that they are living anything except by the force of a physical action. We might apply here the Tantric gradation of sadhana, which makes the way of the pasu, the herd, the animal or physical being, the lowest stage of its discipline, and say that the purely or predominantly ceremonial adoration is the first step of this lowest part of the way. It is evident that even real religion, - and Yoga is something more than religion, - only begins when this quite outward worship corresponds to something really felt within the mind, some genuine submission, awe or spiritual aspiration, to which it becomes an aid, an outward expression and also a sort of periodical or constant reminder helping to draw back the mind to it from the preoccupations of ordinary life. But so long as it is only an idea of the Godhead to which one renders reverence or homage, we have not yet got to the beginning of Yoga. The aim of Yoga being union, its beginning must always be a seeking after the Divine, a longing after some kind of touch, closeness or possession. When this comes on us, the adoration becomes always primarily an inner worship; we begin to make ourselves a temple of the Divine, our thoughts and feelings a constant prayer of aspiration and seeking, our whole life an external service and worship. It is as this change, this new soul-tendency grows, that the religion of the devotee becomes a Yoga, a growing contact and union. It does not follow that the outward worship will necessarily be dispensed with, but it will increasingly become only a physical expression or outflowing of the inner devotion and adoration, the wave of the soul throwing itself out in speech and symbolic act.
Adoration, before it turns into an element of the deeper Yoga of devotion, a petal of the flower of love, its homage and self-uplifting to its sun, must bring with it, if it is profound, an increasing consecration of the being to the Divine who is adored. And one element of this consecration must be a self-purifying so as to become fit for the divine contact, or for the entrance of the Divine into the temple of our inner being, or for his selfrevelation in the shrine of the heart. This purifying may be ethical in its character, but it will not be merely the moralist's seeking for the right and blameless action or even, when once we reach the stage of Yoga, an obedience to the law of God as revealed in formal religion; but it will be a throwing away, katharsis, of all that conflicts whether with the idea of the Divine in himself or of the Divine in ourselves. In the former case it becomes in habit of feeling and outer act an imitation of the Divine, in the latter a growing into his likeness in our nature. What inner adoration is to ceremonial worship, this growing into the divine likeness is to the outward ethical life. It culminates in a sort of liberation by likeness to the Divine,1 a liberation from our lower nature and a change into the divine nature.
Consecration becomes in its fullness a devoting of all our being to the Divine; therefore also of all our thoughts and our works. Here the Yoga takes into itself the essential elements of the Yoga of works and the Yoga of knowledge, but in its own manner and with its own peculiar spirit. It is a sacrifice of life and works to the Divine, but a sacrifice of love more than a tuning of the will to the divine Will. The bhakta offers up his life and all that he is and all that he has and all that he does to the Divine. This surrender may take the ascetic form, as when he leaves the ordinary life of men and devotes his days solely to prayer ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Way of Devotion, 571 [T1],#KEYS
849:Although a devout student of the Bible, Paracelsus instinctively adopted the broad patterns of essential learning, as these had been clarified by Pythagoras of Samos and Plato of Athens. Being by nature a mystic as well as a scientist, he also revealed a deep regard for the Neoplatonic philosophy as expounded by Plotinus, Iamblichus, and Proclus. Neoplatonism is therefore an invaluable aid to the interpretation of the Paracelsian doctrine.
Paracelsus held that true knowledge is attained in two ways, or rather that the pursuit of knowledge is advanced by a two-fold method, the elements of which are completely interdependent. In our present terminology, we can say that these two parts of method are intuition and experience. To Paracelsus, these could never be divided from each other.
The purpose of intuition is to reveal certain basic ideas which must then be tested and proven by experience. Experience, in turn, not only justifies intuition, but contributes certain additional knowledge by which the impulse to further growth is strengthened and developed. Paracelsus regarded the separation of intuition and experience to be a disaster, leading inevitably to greater error and further disaster. Intuition without experience allows the mind to fall into an abyss of speculation without adequate censorship by practical means. Experience without intuition could never be fruitful because fruitfulness comes not merely from the doing of things, but from the overtones which stimulate creative thought. Further, experience is meaningless unless there is within man the power capable of evaluating happenings and occurrences. The absence of this evaluating factor allows the individual to pass through many kinds of experiences, either misinterpreting them or not inter preting them at all. So Paracelsus attempted to explain intuition and how man is able to apprehend that which is not obvious or apparent. Is it possible to prove beyond doubt that the human being is capable of an inward realization of truths or facts without the assistance of the so-called rational faculty?
According to Paracelsus, intuition was possible because of the existence in nature of a mysterious substance or essence-a universal life force. He gave this many names, but for our purposes, the simplest term will be appropriate. He compared it to light, further reasoning that there are two kinds of light: a visible radiance, which he called brightness, and an invisible radiance, which he called darkness. There is no essential difference between light and darkness. There is a dark light, which appears luminous to the soul but cannot be sensed by the body. There is a visible radiance which seems bright to the senses, but may appear dark to the soul. We must recognize that Paracelsus considered light as pertaining to the nature of being, the total existence from which all separate existences arise. Light not only contains the energy needed to support visible creatures, and the whole broad expanse of creation, but the invisible part of light supports the secret powers and functions of man, particularly intuition. Intuition, therefore, relates to the capacity of the individual to become attuned to the hidden side of life. By light, then, Paracelsus implies much more than the radiance that comes from the sun, a lantern, or a candle. To him, light is the perfect symbol, emblem, or figure of total well-being. Light is the cause of health. Invisible light, no less real if unseen, is the cause of wisdom. As the light of the body gives strength and energy, sustaining growth and development, so the light of the soul bestows understanding, the light of the mind makes wisdom possible, and the light of the spirit confers truth. Therefore, truth, wisdom, understanding, and health are all manifesta tions or revelations ot one virtue or power. What health is to the body, morality is to the emotions, virtue to the soul, wisdom to the mind, and reality to the spirit. This total content of living values is contained in every ray of visible light. This ray is only a manifestation upon one level or plane of the total mystery of life. Therefore, when we look at a thing, we either see its objective, physical form, or we apprehend its inner light Everything that lives, lives in light; everything that has an existence, radiates light. All things derive their life from light, and this light, in its root, is life itself. This, indeed, is the light that lighteth every man who cometh into the world. ~ Manly P Hall, Paracelsus,#KEYS
850:
What is the exact way of feeling that we belong to the Divine and that the Divine is acting in us?
You must not feel with your head (because you may think so, but that's something vague); you must feel with your sense-feeling. Naturally one begins by wanting it with the mind, because that is the first thing that understands. And then one has an aspiration here (pointing to the heart), with a flame which pushes you to realise it. But if you want it to be truly the thing, well, you must feel it.
You are doing something, suppose, for example, you are doing exercises, weight-lifting. Now suddenly without your knowing how it happened, suddenly you have the feeling that there is a force infinitely greater than you, greater, more powerful, a force that does the lifting for you. Your body becomes something almost non-existent and there is this Something that lifts. And then you will see; when that happens to you, you will no longer ask how it should be done, you will know. That does happen.
It depends upon people, depends upon what dominates in their being. Those who think have suddenly the feeling that it is no longer they who think, that there is something which knows much better, sees much more clearly, which is infinitely more luminous, more conscious in them, which organises the thoughts and words; and then they write. But if the experience is complete, it is even no longer they who write, it is that same Thing that takes hold of their hand and makes it write. Well, one knows at that moment that the little physical person is just a tiny insignificant tool trying to remain as quiet as possible in order not to disturb the experience.
Yes, at no cost must the experience be disturbed. If suddenly you say: "Oh, look, how strange it is!"...
How can we reach that state?
Aspire for it, want it. Try to be less and less selfish, but not in the sense of becoming nice to other people or forgetting yourself, not that: have less and less the feeling that you are a person, a separate entity, something existing in itself, isolated from the rest.
And then, above all, above all, it is that inner flame, that aspiration, that need for the light. It is a kind of - how to put it? - luminous enthusiasm that seizes you. It is an irresistible need to melt away, to give oneself, to exist only in the Divine.
At that moment you have the experience of your aspiration.
But that moment should be absolutely sincere and as integral as possible; and all this must occur not only in the head, not only here, but must take place everywhere, in all the cells of the body. The consciousness integrally must have this irresistible need.... The thing lasts for some time, then diminishes, gets extinguished. You cannot keep these things for very long. But then it so happens that a moment later or the next day or some time later, suddenly you have the opposite experience. Instead of feeling this ascent, and all that, this is no longer there and you have the feeling of the Descent, the Answer. And nothing but the Answer exists. Nothing but the divine thought, the divine will, the divine energy, the divine action exists any longer. And you too, you are no longer there.
That is to say, it is the answer to our aspiration. It may happen immediately afterwards - that is very rare but may happen. If you have both simultaneously, then the state is perfect; usually they alternate; they alternate more and more closely until the moment there is a total fusion. Then there is no more distinction. I heard a Sufi mystic, who was besides a great musician, an Indian, saying that for the Sufis there was a state higher than that of adoration and surrender to the Divine, than that of devotion, that this was not the last stage; the last stage of the progress is when there is no longer any distinction; you have no longer this kind of adoration or surrender or consecration; it is a very simple state in which one makes no distinction between the Divine and oneself. They know this. It is even written in their books. It is a commonly known condition in which everything becomes quite simple. There is no longer any difference. There is no longer that kind of ecstatic surrender to "Something" which is beyond you in every way, which you do not understand, which is merely the result of your aspiration, your devotion. There is no difference any longer. When the union is perfect, there is no longer any difference.
Is this the end of self-progress?
There is never any end to progress - never any end, you can never put a full stop there. ~ The Mother,#KEYS
851:The ancient Mesopotamians and the ancient Egyptians had some very interesting, dramatic ideas about that. For example-very briefly-there was a deity known as Marduk. Marduk was a Mesopotamian deity, and imagine this is sort of what happened. As an empire grew out of the post-ice age-15,000 years ago, 10,000 years ago-all these tribes came together. These tribes each had their own deity-their own image of the ideal. But then they started to occupy the same territory. One tribe had God A, and one tribe had God B, and one could wipe the other one out, and then it would just be God A, who wins. That's not so good, because maybe you want to trade with those people, or maybe you don't want to lose half your population in a war. So then you have to have an argument about whose God is going to take priority-which ideal is going to take priority.
What seems to happen is represented in mythology as a battle of the gods in celestial space. From a practical perspective, it's more like an ongoing dialog. You believe this; I believe this. You believe that; I believe this. How are we going to meld that together? You take God A, and you take God B, and maybe what you do is extract God C from them, and you say, 'God C now has the attributes of A and B.' And then some other tribes come in, and C takes them over, too. Take Marduk, for example. He has 50 different names, at least in part, of the subordinate gods-that represented the tribes that came together to make the civilization. That's part of the process by which that abstracted ideal is abstracted. You think, 'this is important, and it works, because your tribe is alive, and so we'll take the best of both, if we can manage it, and extract out something, that's even more abstract, that covers both of us.'
I'll give you a couple of Marduk's interesting features. He has eyes all the way around his head. He's elected by all the other gods to be king God. That's the first thing. That's quite cool. They elect him because they're facing a terrible threat-sort of like a flood and a monster combined. Marduk basically says that, if they elect him top God, he'll go out and stop the flood monster, and they won't all get wiped out. It's a serious threat. It's chaos itself making its comeback. All the gods agree, and Marduk is the new manifestation. He's got eyes all the way around his head, and he speaks magic words. When he fights, he fights this deity called Tiamat. We need to know that, because the word 'Tiamat' is associated with the word 'tehom.' Tehom is the chaos that God makes order out of at the beginning of time in Genesis, so it's linked very tightly to this story. Marduk, with his eyes and his capacity to speak magic words, goes out and confronts Tiamat, who's like this watery sea dragon. It's a classic Saint George story: go out and wreak havoc on the dragon. He cuts her into pieces, and he makes the world out of her pieces. That's the world that human beings live in.
The Mesopotamian emperor acted out Marduk. He was allowed to be emperor insofar as he was a good Marduk. That meant that he had eyes all the way around his head, and he could speak magic; he could speak properly. We are starting to understand, at that point, the essence of leadership. Because what's leadership? It's the capacity to see what the hell's in front of your face, and maybe in every direction, and maybe the capacity to use your language properly to transform chaos into order. God only knows how long it took the Mesopotamians to figure that out. The best they could do was dramatize it, but it's staggeringly brilliant. It's by no means obvious, and this chaos is a very strange thing. This is a chaos that God wrestled with at the beginning of time.
Chaos is half psychological and half real. There's no other way to really describe it. Chaos is what you encounter when you're blown into pieces and thrown into deep confusion-when your world falls apart, when your dreams die, when you're betrayed. It's the chaos that emerges, and the chaos is everything it wants, and it's too much for you. That's for sure. It pulls you down into the underworld, and that's where the dragons are. All you've got at that point is your capacity to bloody well keep your eyes open, and to speak as carefully and as clearly as you can. Maybe, if you're lucky, you'll get through it that way and come out the other side. It's taken people a very long time to figure that out, and it looks, to me, that the idea is erected on the platform of our ancient ancestors, maybe tens of millions of years ago, because we seem to represent that which disturbs us deeply using the same system that we used to represent serpentile, or other, carnivorous predators. ~ Jordan Peterson, Biblical Series, 1,#KEYS
852:GURU YOGA
Guru yoga is an essential practice in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism and Bon. This is true in sutra, tantra, and Dzogchen. It develops the heart connection with the masteR By continually strengthening our devotion, we come to the place of pure devotion in ourselves, which is the unshakeable, powerful base of the practice. The essence of guru yoga is to merge the practitioner's mind with the mind of the master.
What is the true master? It is the formless, fundamental nature of mind, the primordial awareness of the base of everything, but because we exist in dualism, it is helpful for us to visualize this in a form. Doing so makes skillful use of the dualisms of the conceptual mind, to further strengthen devotion and help us stay directed toward practice and the generation of positive qualities.
In the Bon tradition, we often visualize either Tapihritsa* as the master, or the Buddha ShenlaOdker*, who represents the union of all the masters. If you are already a practitioner, you may have another deity to visualize, like Guru Rinpoche or a yidam or dakini. While it is important to work with a lineage with which you have a connection, you should understand that the master you visualize is the embodiment of all the masters with whom you are connected, all the teachers with whom you have studied, all the deities to whom you have commitments. The master in guru yoga is not just one individual, but the essence of enlightenment, the primordial awareness that is your true nature.
The master is also the teacher from whom you receive the teachings. In the Tibetan tradition, we say the master is more important than the Buddha. Why? Because the master is the immediate messenger of the teachings, the one who brings the Buddha's wisdom to the student. Without the master we could not find our way to the Buddha. So we should feel as much devotion to the master as we would to the Buddha if the Buddha suddenly appeared in front of us.
Guru yoga is not just about generating some feeling toward a visualized image. It is done to find the fundamental mind in yourself that is the same as the fundamental mind of all your teachers, and of all the Buddhas and realized beings that have ever lived. When you merge with the guru, you merge with your pristine true nature, which is the real guide and masteR But this should not be an abstract practice. When you do guru yoga, try to feel such intense devotion that the hair stands upon your neck, tears start down your face, and your heart opens and fills with great love. Let yourself merge in union with the guru's mind, which is your enlightened Buddha-nature. This is the way to practice guru yoga.
The Practice
After the nine breaths, still seated in meditation posture, visualize the master above and in front of you. This should not be a flat, two dimensional picture-let a real being exist there, in three dimensions, made of light, pure, and with a strong presence that affects the feeling in your body,your energy, and your mind. Generate strong devotion and reflect on the great gift of the teachings and the tremendous good fortune you enjoy in having made a connection to them. Offer a sincere prayer, asking that your negativities and obscurations be removed, that your positive qualities develop, and that you accomplish dream yoga.
Then imagine receiving blessings from the master in the form of three colored lights that stream from his or her three wisdom doors- of body, speech, and mind-into yours. The lights should be transmitted in the following sequence: White light streams from the master's brow chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your entire body and physical dimension. Then red light streams from the master's throat chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your energetic dimension. Finally, blue light streams from the master's heart chakra into yours, purifying and relaxing your mind.
When the lights enter your body, feel them. Let your body, energy, and mind relax, suffused inwisdom light. Use your imagination to make the blessing real in your full experience, in your body and energy as well as in the images in your mind.
After receiving the blessing, imagine the master dissolving into light that enters your heart and resides there as your innermost essence. Imagine that you dissolve into that light, and remain inpure awareness, rigpa.
There are more elaborate instructions for guru yoga that can involve prostrations, offerings, gestures, mantras, and more complicated visualizations, but the essence of the practice is mingling your mind with the mind of the master, which is pure, non-dual awareness. Guru yoga can be done any time during the day; the more often the better. Many masters say that of all the practices it is guru yoga that is the most important. It confers the blessings of the lineage and can open and soften the heart and quiet the unruly mind. To completely accomplish guru yoga is to accomplish the path.
~ Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Yogas Of Dream And Sleep, [T3],#KEYS
853:
In the lower planes can't one say what will happen at a particular moment?
That depends. On certain planes there are consciousnesses that form, that make formations and try to send them down to earth and manifest them. These are planes where the great forces are at play, forces struggling with each other to organise things in one way or another. On these planes all the possibilities are there, all the possibilities that present themselves but have not yet come to a decision as to which will come down.... Suppose a plane full of the imaginations of people who want certain things to be realised upon earth - they invent a novel, narrate stories, produce all kinds of phenomena; it amuses them very much. It is a plane of form-makers and they are there imagining all kinds of circumstances and events; they play with the forces; they are like the authors of a drama and they prepare everything there and see what is going to happen. All these formations are facing each other; and it is those which are the strongest, the most successful or the most persistent or those that have the advantage of a favourable set of circumstances which dominate. They meet and out of the conflict yet another thing results: you lose one thing and take up another, you make a new combination; and then all of a sudden, you find, pluff! it is coming down. Now, if it comes down with a sufficient force, it sets moving the earth atmosphere and things combine; as for instance, when with your fist you thump the saw-dust, you know surely what happens, don't you? You lift your hand, give a formidable blow: all the dust gets organised around your fist. Well, it is like that. These formations come down into matter with that force, and everything organises itself automatically, mechanically as around the striking fist. And there's your wished object about to be realised, sometimes with small deformations because of the resistance, but it will be realised finally, even as the person narrating the story up above wanted it more or less to be realised. If then you are for some reason or other in the secret of the person who has constructed the story and if you follow the way in which he creates his path to reach down to the earth and if you see how a blow with the fist acts on earthly matter, then you are able to tell what is going to happen, because you have seen it in the world above, and as it takes some time to make the whole journey, you see in advance. And the higher you rise, the more you foresee in advance what is going to happen. And if you pass far beyond, go still farther, then everything is possible.
It is an unfolding that follows a wide road which is for you unknowable; for all will be unfolded in the universe, but in what order and in what way? There are decisions that are taken up there which escape our ordinary consciousness, and so it is very difficult to foresee. But there also, if you enter consciously and if you can be present up there... How shall I explain that to you? All is there, absolute, static, eternal: but all that will be unfolded in the material world, naturally more or less one thing after another; for in the static existence all can be there, but in the becoming all becomes in time, that is, one thing after another. Well, what path will the unfolding follow? Up there is the domain of absolute freedom.... Who says that a sufficiently sincere aspiration, a sufficiently intense prayer is not capable of changing the path of the unfolding?
This means that all is possible.
Now, one must have a sufficient aspiration and a prayer that's sufficiently intense. But that has been given to human nature. It is one of the marvellous gifts of grace given to human nature; only, one does not know how to make use of it. This comes to saying that in spite of the most absolute determinisms in the horizontal line, if one knows how to cross all these horizontal lines and reach the highest Point of consciousness, one is able to make things change, things apparently absolutely determined. So you may call it by any name you like, but it is a kind of combination of an absolute determinism with an absolute freedom. You may pull yourself out of it in any way you like, but it is like that.
I forgot to say in that book (perhaps I did not forget but just felt that it was useless to say it) that all these theories are only theories, that is, mental conceptions which are merely more or less imaged representations of the reality; but it is not the reality at all. When you say "determinism" and when you say "freedom", you say only words and all that is only a very incomplete, very approximate and very weak description of what is in reality within you, around you and everywhere; and to be able to begin to understand what the universe is, you must come out of your mental formulas, otherwise you will never understand anything.
To tell the truth, if you live only a moment, just a tiny moment, of this absolutely sincere aspiration or this sufficiently intense prayer, you will know more things than by meditating for hours.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1953,#KEYS
854: Sri Aurobindo writes here: "...Few and brief in their visits are the Bright Ones who are willing or permitted to succour." Why?
(1 "The Way", Cent. Vol. 17, p. 40.)
One must go and ask them! But there is a conclusion, the last sentences give a very clear explanation. It is said: "Nay, then, is immortality a plaything to be given lightly to a child, or the divine life a prize without effort or the crown for a weakling?" This comes back to the question why the adverse forces have the right to interfere, to harass you. But this is precisely the test necessary for your sincerity. If the way were very easy, everybody would start on the way, and if one could reach the goal without any obstacle and without any effort, everybody would reach the goal, and when one has come to the end, the situation would be the same as when one started, there would be no change. That is, the new world would be exactly what the old has been. It is truly not worth the trouble! Evidently a process of elimination is necessary so that only what is capable of manifesting the new life remains. This is the reason and there is no other, this is the best of reasons. And, you see, it is a tempering, it is the ordeal of fire, only that which can stand it remains absolutely pure; when everything has burnt down, there remains only the little ingot of pure gold. And it is like that. What puts things out very much in all this is the religious idea of fault, sin, redemption. But there is no arbitrary decision! On the contrary, for each one it is the best and most favourable conditions which are given. We were saying the other day that it is only his friends whom God treats with severity; you thought it was a joke, but it is true. It is only to those who are full of hope, who will pass through this purifying flame, that the conditions for attaining the maximum result are given. And the human mind is made in such a way that you may test this; when something extremely unpleasant happens to you, you may tell yourself, "Well, this proves I am worth the trouble of being given this difficulty, this proves there is something in me which can resist the difficulty", and you will notice that instead of tormenting yourself, you rejoice - you will be so happy and so strong that even the most unpleasant things will seem to you quite charming! This is a very easy experiment to make. Whatever the circumstance, if your mind is accustomed to look at it as something favourable, it will no longer be unpleasant for you. This is quite well known; as long as the mind refuses to accept a thing, struggles against it, tries to obstruct it, there are torments, difficulties, storms, inner struggles and all suffering. But the minute the mind says, "Good, this is what has to come, it is thus that it must happen", whatever happens, you are content. There are people who have acquired such control of their mind over their body that they feel nothing; I told you this the other day about certain mystics: if they think the suffering inflicted upon them is going to help them cross the stages in a moment and give them a sort of stepping stone to attain the Realisation, the goal they have put before them, union with the Divine, they no longer feel the suffering at all. Their body is as it were galvanised by the mental conception. This has happened very often, it is a very common experience among those who truly have enthusiasm. And after all, if one must for some reason or other leave one's body and take a new one, is it not better to make of one's death something magnificent, joyful, enthusiastic, than to make it a disgusting defeat? Those who cling on, who try by every possible means to delay the end even by a minute or two, who give you an example of frightful anguish, show that they are not conscious of their soul.... After all, it is perhaps a means, isn't it? One can change this accident into a means; if one is conscious one can make a beautiful thing of it, a very beautiful thing, as of everything. And note, those who do not fear it, who are not anxious, who can die without any sordidness are those who never think about it, who are not haunted all the time by this "horror" facing them which they must escape and which they try to push as far away from them as they can. These, when the occasion comes, can lift their head, smile and say, "Here I am."
It is they who have the will to make the best possible use of their life, it is they who say, "I shall remain here as long as it is necessary, to the last second, and I shall not lose one moment to realise my goal"; these, when the necessity comes, put up the best show. Why? - It is very simple, because they live in their ideal, the truth of their ideal; because that is the real thing for them, the very reason of their being, and in all things they can see this ideal, this reason of existence, and never do they come down into the sordidness of material life.
So, the conclusion:
One must never wish for death.
One must never will to die.
One must never be afraid to die.
And in all circumstances one must will to exceed oneself. ~ The Mother, Question and Answers, Volume-4, page no.353-355,#KEYS
855: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
856:[an Integral conception of the Divine :::
But on that which as yet we know not how shall we concentrate? And yet we cannot know the Divine unless we have achieved this concentration of our being upon him. A concentration which culminates in a living realisation and the constant sense of the presence of the One in ourselves and in all of which we are aware, is what we mean in Yoga by knowledge and the effort after knowledge. It is not enough to devote ourselves by the reading of Scriptures or by the stress of philosophical reasoning to an intellectual understanding of the Divine; for at the end of our long mental labour we might know all that has been said of the Eternal, possess all that can be thought about the Infinite and yet we might not know him at all. This intellectual preparation can indeed be the first stage in a powerful Yoga, but it is not indispensable : it is not a step which all need or can be called upon to take. Yoga would be impossible, except for a very few, if the intellectual figure of knowledge arrived at by the speculative or meditative Reason were its indispensable condition or a binding preliminary. All that the Light from above asks of us that it may begin its work is a call from the soul and a sufficient point of support in the mind. This support can be reached through an insistent idea of the Divine in the thought, a corresponding will in the dynamic parts, an aspiration, a faith, a need in the heart. Any one of these may lead or predominate, if all cannot move in unison or in an equal rhythm. The idea may be and must in the beginning be inadequate; the aspiration may be narrow and imperfect, the faith poorly illumined or even, as not surely founded on the rock of knowledge, fluctuating, uncertain, easily diminished; often even it may be extinguished and need to be lit again with difficulty like a torch in a windy pass. But if once there is a resolute self-consecration from deep within, if there is an awakening to the soul's call, these inadequate things can be a sufficient instrument for the divine purpose. Therefore the wise have always been unwilling to limit man's avenues towards God; they would not shut against his entry even the narrowest portal, the lowest and darkest postern, the humblest wicket-gate. Any name, any form, any symbol, any offering has been held to be sufficient if there is the consecration along with it; for the Divine knows himself in the heart of the seeker and accepts the sacrifice.
But still the greater and wider the moving idea-force behind the consecration, the better for the seeker; his attainment is likely to be fuller and more ample. If we are to attempt an integral Yoga, it will be as well to start with an idea of the Divine that is itself integral. There should be an aspiration in the heart wide enough for a realisation without any narrow limits. Not only should we avoid a sectarian religious outlook, but also all onesided philosophical conceptions which try to shut up the Ineffable in a restricting mental formula. The dynamic conception or impelling sense with which our Yoga can best set out would be naturally the idea, the sense of a conscious all-embracing but all-exceeding Infinite. Our uplook must be to a free, all-powerful, perfect and blissful One and Oneness in which all beings move and live and through which all can meet and become one. This Eternal will be at once personal and impersonal in his self-revelation and touch upon the soul. He is personal because he is the conscious Divine, the infinite Person who casts some broken reflection of himself in the myriad divine and undivine personalities of the universe. He is impersonal because he appears to us as an infinite Existence, Consciousness and Ananda and because he is the fount, base and constituent of all existences and all energies, -the very material of our being and mind and life and body, our spirit and our matter. The thought, concentrating on him, must not merely understand in an intellectual form that he exists, or conceive of him as an abstraction, a logical necessity; it must become a seeing thought able to meet him here as the Inhabitant in all, realise him in ourselves, watch and take hold on the movement of his forces. He is the one Existence: he is the original and universal Delight that constitutes all things and exceeds them: he is the one infinite Consciousness that composes all consciousnesses and informs all their movements; he is the one illimitable Being who sustains all action and experience; his will guides the evolution of things towards their yet unrealised but inevitable aim and plenitude. To him the heart can consecrate itself, approach him as the supreme Beloved, beat and move in him as in a universal sweetness of Love and a living sea of Delight. For his is the secret Joy that supports the soul in all its experiences and maintains even the errant ego in its ordeals and struggles till all sorrow and suffering shall cease. His is the Love and the Bliss of the infinite divine Lover who is drawing all things by their own path towards his happy oneness. On him the Will can unalterably fix as the invisible Power that guides and fulfils it and as the source of its strength. In the impersonality this actuating Power is a self-illumined Force that contains all results and calmly works until it accomplishes, in the personality an all wise and omnipotent Master of the Yoga whom nothing can prevent from leading it to its goal. This is the faith with which the seeker has to begin his seeking and endeavour; for in all his effort here, but most of all in his effort towards the Unseen, mental man must perforce proceed by faith. When the realisation comes, the faith divinely fulfilled and completed will be transformed into an eternal flame of knowledge.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Self-Consecration, 82-83 [T1],#KEYS
857:The Two Paths Of Yoga :::
14 April 1929 - What are the dangers of Yoga? Is it especially dangerous to the people of the West? Someone has said that Yoga may be suitable for the East, but it has the effect of unbalancing the Western mind.
Yoga is not more dangerous to the people of the West than to those of the East. Everything depends upon the spirit with which you approach it. Yoga does become dangerous if you want it for your own sake, to serve a personal end. It is not dangerous, on the contrary, it is safety and security itself, if you go to it with a sense of its sacredness, always remembering that the aim is to find the Divine.
Dangers and difficulties come in when people take up Yoga not for the sake of the Divine, but because they want to acquire power and under the guise of Yoga seek to satisfy some ambition. if you cannot get rid of ambition, do not touch the thing. It is fire that burns.
There are two paths of Yoga, one of tapasya (discipline), and the other of surrender. The path of tapasya is arduous. Here you rely solely upon yourself, you proceed by your own strength. You ascend and achieve according to the measure of your force. There is always the danger of falling down. And once you fall, you lie broken in the abyss and there is hardly a remedy. The other path, the path of surrender, is safe and sure. It is here, however, that the Western people find their difficulty. They have been taught to fear and avoid all that threatens their personal independence. They have imbibed with their mothers' milk the sense of individuality. And surrender means giving up all that. In other words, you may follow, as Ramakrishna says, either the path of the baby monkey or that of the baby cat. The baby monkey holds to its mother in order to be carried about and it must hold firm, otherwise if it loses its grip, it falls. On the other hand, the baby cat does not hold to its mother, but is held by the mother and has no fear nor responsibility; it has nothing to do but to let the mother hold it and cry ma ma.
If you take up this path of surrender fully and sincerely, there is no more danger or serious difficulty. The question is to be sincere. If you are not sincere, do not begin Yoga. If you were dealing in human affairs, then you could resort to deception; but in dealing with the Divine there is no possibility of deception anywhere. You can go on the Path safely when you are candid and open to the core and when your only end is to realise and attain the Divine and to be moved by the Divine. There is another danger; it is in connection with the sex impulses. Yoga in its process of purification will lay bare and throw up all hidden impulses and desires in you. And you must learn not to hide things nor leave them aside, you have to face them and conquer and remould them. The first effect of Yoga, however, is to take away the mental control, and the hungers that lie dormant are suddenly set free, they rush up and invade the being. So long as this mental control has not been replaced by the Divine control, there is a period of transition when your sincerity and surrender will be put to the test. The strength of such impulses as those of sex lies usually in the fact that people take too much notice of them; they protest too vehemently and endeavour to control them by coercion, hold them within and sit upon them. But the more you think of a thing and say, "I don't want it, I don't want it", the more you are bound to it. What you should do is to keep the thing away from you, to dissociate from it, take as little notice of it as possible and, even if you happen to think of it, remain indifferent and unconcerned. The impulses and desires that come up by the pressure of Yoga should be faced in a spirit of detachment and serenity, as something foreign to yourself or belonging to the outside world. They should be offered to the Divine, so that the Divine may take them up and transmute them. If you have once opened yourself to the Divine, if the power of the Divine has once come down into you and yet you try to keep to the old forces, you prepare troubles and difficulties and dangers for yourself. You must be vigilant and see that you do not use the Divine as a cloak for the satisfaction of your desires. There are many self-appointed Masters, who do nothing but that. And then when you are off the straight path and when you have a little knowledge and not much power, it happens that you are seized by beings or entities of a certain type, you become blind instruments in their hands and are devoured by them in the end. Wherever there is pretence, there is danger; you cannot deceive God. Do you come to God saying, "I want union with you" and in your heart meaning "I want powers and enjoyments"? Beware! You are heading straight towards the brink of the precipice. And yet it is so easy to avoid all catastrophe. Become like a child, give yourself up to the Mother, let her carry you, and there is no more danger for you.
This does not mean that you have not to face other kinds of difficulties or that you have not to fight and conquer any obstacles at all. Surrender does not ensure a smooth and unruffled and continuous progression. The reason is that your being is not yet one, nor your surrender absolute and complete. Only a part of you surrenders; and today it is one part and the next day it is another. The whole purpose of the Yoga is to gather all the divergent parts together and forge them into an undivided unity. Till then you cannot hope to be without difficulties - difficulties, for example, like doubt or depression or hesitation. The whole world is full of the poison. You take it in with every breath. If you exchange a few words with an undesirable man or even if such a man merely passes by you, you may catch the contagion from him. It is sufficient for you to come near a place where there is plague in order to be infected with its poison; you need not know at all that it is there. You can lose in a few minutes what it has taken you months to gain. So long as you belong to humanity and so long as you lead the ordinary life, it does not matter much if you mix with the people of the world; but if you want the divine life, you will have to be exceedingly careful about your company and your environment.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1929-1931,#KEYS
858:Depression, unless one has a strong will, suggests, "This is not worth while, one may have to wait a lifetime." As for enthusiasm, it expects to see the vital transformed overnight: "I am not going to have any difficulty henceforth, I am going to advance rapidly on the path of yoga, I am going to gain the divine consciousness without any difficulty." There are some other difficulties.... One needs a little time, much perseverance. So the vital, after a few hours - perhaps a few days, perhaps a few months - says to itself: "We haven't gone very far with our enthusiasm, has anything been really done? Doesn't this movement leave us just where we were, perhaps worse than we were, a little troubled, a little disturbed? Things are no longer what they were, they are not yet what they ought to be. It is very tiresome, what I am doing." And then, if one pushes a little more, here's this gentleman saying, "Ah, no! I have had enough of it, leave me alone. I don't want to move, I shall stay in my corner, I won't trouble you, but don't bother me!" And so one has not gone very much farther than before.
This is one of the big obstacles which must be carefully avoided. As soon as there is the least sign of discontentment, of annoyance, the vital must be spoken to in this way, "My friend, you are going to keep calm, you are going to do what you are asked to do, otherwise you will have to deal with me." And to the other, the enthusiast who says, "Everything must be done now, immediately", your reply is, "Calm yourself a little, your energy is excellent, but it must not be spent in five minutes. We shall need it for a long time, keep it carefully and, as it is wanted, I shall call upon your goodwill. You will show that you are full of goodwill, you will obey, you won't grumble, you will not protest, you will not revolt, you will say 'yes, yes', you will make a little sacrifice when asked, you will say 'yes' wholeheartedly."
So we get started on the path. But the road is very long. Many things happen on the way. Suddenly one thinks one has overcome an obstacle; I say "thinks", because though one has overcome it, it is not totally overcome. I am going to take a very obvious instance, of a very simple observation. Someone has found that his vital is uncontrollable and uncontrolled, that it gets furious for nothing and about nothing. He starts working to teach it not to get carried away, not to flare up, to remain calm and bear the shocks of life without reacting violently. If one does this cheerfully, it goes quite quickly. (Note this well, it is very important: when you have to deal with your vital take care to remain cheerful, otherwise you will get into trouble.) One remains cheerful, that is, when one sees the fury rise, one begins to laugh. Instead of being depressed and saying, "Ah! In spite of all my effort it is beginning all over again", one begins to laugh and says, "Well, well! One hasn't yet seen the end of it. Look now, aren't you ridiculous, you know quite well that you are being ridiculous! Is it worthwhile getting angry?" One gives it this lesson cheerfully. And really, after a while it doesn't get angry again, it is quiet - and one relaxes one's attention. One thinks the difficulty has been overcome, one thinks a result has at last been reached: "My vital does not trouble me any longer, it does not get angry now, everything is going fine." And the next day, one loses one's temper. It is then one must be careful, it is then one must not say, "Here we are, it's no use, I shall never achieve anything, all my efforts are futile; all this is an illusion, it is impossible." On the contrary, one must say, "I wasn't vigilant enough." One must wait long, very long, before one can say, "Ah! It is done and finished." Sometimes one must wait for years, many years....
I am not saying this to discourage you, but to give you patience and perseverance - for there is a moment when you do arrive. And note that the vital is a small part of your being - a very important part, we have said that it is the dynamism, the realising energy, it is very important; but it is only a small part. And the mind!... which goes wandering, which must be pulled back by all the strings to be kept quiet! You think this can be done overnight? And your body?... You have a weakness, a difficulty, sometimes a small chronic illness, nothing much, but still it is a nuisance, isn't it? You want to get rid of it. You make efforts, you concentrate; you work upon it, establish harmony, and you think it is finished, and then.... Take, for instance, people who have the habit of coughing; they can't control themselves or almost can't. It is not serious but it is bothersome, and there seems to be no reason why it should ever stop. Well, one tells oneself, "I am going to control this." One makes an effort - a yogic effort, not a material one - one brings down consciousness, force, and stops the cough. And one thinks, "The body has forgotten how to cough." And it is a great thing when the body has forgotten, truly one can say, "I am cured." But unfortunately it is not always true, for this goes down into the subconscient and, one day, when the balance of forces is not so well established, when the strength is not the same, it begins again. And one laments, "I believed that it was over! I had succeeded and told myself, 'It is true that spiritual power has an action upon the body, it is true that something can be done', and there! it is not true. And yet it was a small thing, and I who want to conquer immortality! How will I succeed?... For years I have been free from this small thing and here it is beginning anew!" It is then that you must be careful. You must arm yourself with an endless patience and endurance. You do a thing once, ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times if necessary, but you do it till it gets done. And not done only here and there, but everywhere and everywhere at the same time. This is the great problem one sets oneself. That is why, to those who come to tell me very light-heartedly, "I want to do yoga", I reply, "Think it over, one may do the yoga for a number of years without noticing the least result. But if you want to do it, you must persist and persist with such a will that you should be ready to do it for ten lifetimes, a hundred lifetimes if necessary, in order to succeed." I do not say it will be like that, but the attitude must be like that. Nothing must discourage you; for there are all the difficulties of ignorance of the different states of being, to which are added the endless malice and the unbounded cunning of the hostile forces in the world.... They are there, do you know why? They have been.... ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1950-1951,#KEYS
859:Attention on Hypnagogic Imagery The most common strategy for inducing WILDs is to fall asleep while focusing on the hypnagogic imagery that accompanies sleep onset. Initially, you are likely to see relatively simple images, flashes of light, geometric patterns, and the like.
Gradually more complicated forms appear: faces, people, and finally entire scenes. 6
The following account of what the Russian philosopher P. D. Ouspensky called "half-dream states" provides a vivid example of what hypnagogic imagery can be like:
I am falling asleep. Golden dots, sparks and tiny stars appear and disappear before my eyes. These sparks and stars gradually merge into a golden net with diagonal meshes which moves slowly and regularly in rhythm with the beating of my heart, which I feel quite distinctly. The next moment the golden net is transformed into rows of brass helmets belonging to Roman soldiers marching along the street below. I hear their measured tread and watch them from the window of a high house in Galata, in Constantinople, in a narrow lane, one end of which leads to the old wharf and the Golden Horn with its ships and steamers and the minarets of Stamboul behind them. I hear their heavy measured tread, and see the sun shining on their helmets. Then suddenly I detach myself from the window sill on which I am lying, and in the same reclining position fly slowly over the lane, over the houses, and then over the Golden Horn in the direction of Stamboul. I smell the sea, feel the wind, the warm sun. This flying gives me a wonderfully pleasant sensation, and I cannot help opening my eyes. 7
Ouspensky's half-dream states developed out of a habit of observing the contents of his mind while falling asleep or in half-sleep after awakening from a dream. He notes that they were much easier to observe in the morning after awakening than before sleep at the beginning of the night and did not occur at all "without definite efforts." 8
Dr. Nathan Rapport, an American psychiatrist, cultivated an approach to lucid dreaming very similar to Ouspensky's: "While in bed awaiting sleep, the experimenter interrupts his thoughts every few minutes with an effort to recall the mental item vanishing before each intrusion that inquisitive attention." 9 This habit is continued sleep itself, with results like the following:
Brilliant lights flashed, and a myriad of sparkles twinkled from a magnificent cut glass chandelier. Interesting as any stage extravaganza were the many quaintly detailed figurines upon a mantel against the distant, paneled wall adorned in rococo.
At the right a merry group of beauties and gallants in the most elegant attire of Victorian England idled away a pleasant occasion. This scene continued for [a] period of I was not aware, before I discovered that it was not reality, but a mental picture and that I was viewing it. Instantly it became an incommunicably beautiful vision. It was with the greatest stealth that my vaguely awakened mind began to peep: for I knew that these glorious shows end abruptly because of such intrusions.
I thought, "Have I here one of those mind pictures that are without motion?" As if in reply, one of the young ladies gracefully waltzed about the room. She returned to the group and immobility, with a smile lighting her pretty face, which was turned over her shoulder toward me. The entire color scheme was unobtrusive despite the kaleidoscopic sparkles of the chandelier, the exquisite blues and creamy pinks of the rich settings and costumes. I felt that only my interest in dreams brought my notice to the tints - delicate, yet all alive as if with inner illumination. 10
Hypnagogic Imagery Technique
1. Relax completely
While lying in bed, gently close your eyes and relax your head, neck, back, arms, and legs. Completely let go of all muscular and mental tension, and breathe slowly and restfully. Enjoy the feeling of relaxation and let go of your thoughts, worries, and concerns. If you have just awakened from sleep, you are probably sufficiently relaxed.
Otherwise, you may use either the progressive relaxation exercise (page 33) or the 61-point relaxation exercise (page 34) to relax more deeply. Let everything wind down,
slower and slower, more and more relaxed, until your mind becomes as serene as the calmest sea.
2. Observe the visual images
Gently focus your attention on the visual images that will gradually appear before your mind's eye. Watch how the images begin and end. Try to observe the images as delicately as possible, allowing them to be passively reflected in your mind as they unfold. Do not attempt to hold onto the images, but instead just watch without attachment or desire for action. While doing this, try to take the perspective of a detached observer as much as possible. At first you will see a sequence of disconnected, fleeting patterns and images. The images will gradually develop into scenes that become more and more complex, finally joining into extended sequences.
3. Enter the dream
When the imagery becomes a moving, vivid scenario, you should allow yourself to be passively drawn into the dream world. Do not try to actively enter the dream scene,
but instead continue to take a detached interest in the imagery. Let your involvement with what is happening draw you into the dream. But be careful of too much involvement and too little attention. Don't forget that you are dreaming now!
Commentary
Probably the most difficult part of this technique to master is entering the dream at Step 3. The challenge is to develop a delicate vigilance, an unobtrusive observer perspective, from which you let yourself be drawn into the dream. As Paul Tholey has emphasized, "It is not desirable to want actively to enter into the scenery,
since such an intention as a rule causes the scenery to disappear." 11 A passive volition similar to that described in the section on autosuggestion in the previous chapter is required: in Tholey's words, "Instead of actively wanting to enter into the scenery, the subject should attempt to let himself be carried into it passively." 12 A Tibetan teacher advises a similar frame of mind: "While delicately observing the mind, lead it gently into the dream state, as though you were leading a child by the hand." 13
Another risk is that, once you have entered into the dream, the world can seem so realistic that it is easy to lose lucidity, as happened in the beginning of Rapport's WILD described above. As insurance in case this happens, Tholey recommends that you resolve to carry out a particular action in the dream, so that if you momentarily lose lucidity, you may remember your intention to carry out the action and thereby regain lucidity.
~ Stephen LaBerge, Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming,#KEYS
860:
Why do we forget our dreams?
Because you do not dream always at the same place. It is not always the same part of your being that dreams and it is not at the same place that you dream. If you were in conscious, direct, continuous communication with all the parts of your being, you would remember all your dreams. But very few parts of the being are in communication.
For example, you have a dream in the subtle physical, that is to say, quite close to the physical. Generally, these dreams occur in the early hours of the morning, that is between four and five o'clock, at the end of the sleep. If you do not make a sudden movement when you wake up, if you remain very quiet, very still and a little attentive - quietly attentive - and concentrated, you will remember them, for the communication between the subtle physical and the physical is established - very rarely is there no communication.
Now, dreams are mostly forgotten because you have a dream while in a certain state and then pass into another. For instance, when you sleep, your body is asleep, your vital is asleep, but your mind is still active. So your mind begins to have dreams, that is, its activity is more or less coordinated, the imagination is very active and you see all kinds of things, take part in extraordinary happenings.... After some time, all that calms down and the mind also begins to doze. The vital that was resting wakes up; it comes out of the body, walks about, goes here and there, does all kinds of things, reacts, sometimes fights, and finally eats. It does all kinds of things. The vital is very adventurous. It watches. When it is heroic it rushes to save people who are in prison or to destroy enemies or it makes wonderful discoveries. But this pushes back the whole mental dream very far behind. It is rubbed off, forgotten: naturally you cannot remember it because the vital dream takes its place. But if you wake up suddenly at that moment, you remember it. There are people who have made the experiment, who have got up at certain fixed hours of the night and when they wake up suddenly, they do remember. You must not move brusquely, but awake in the natural course, then you remember.
After a time, the vital having taken a good stroll, needs to rest also, and so it goes into repose and quietness, quite tired at the end of all kinds of adventures. Then something else wakes up. Let us suppose that it is the subtle physical that goes for a walk. It starts moving and begins wandering, seeing the rooms and... why, this thing that was there, but it has come here and that other thing which was in that room is now in this one, and so on. If you wake up without stirring, you remembeR But this has pushed away far to the back of the consciousness all the stories of the vital. They are forgotten and so you cannot recollect your dreams. But if at the time of waking up you are not in a hurry, you are not obliged to leave your bed, on the contrary you can remain there as long as you wish, you need not even open your eyes; you keep your head exactly where it was and you make yourself like a tranquil mirror within and concentrate there. You catch just a tiny end of the tail of your dream. You catch it and start pulling gently, without stirring in the least. You begin pulling quite gently, and then first one part comes, a little later another. You go backward; the last comes up first. Everything goes backward, slowly, and suddenly the whole dream reappears: "Ah, there! it was like that." Above all, do not jump up, do not stir; you repeat the dream to yourself several times - once, twice - until it becomes clear in all its details. Once that dream is settled, you continue not to stir, you try to go further in, and suddenly you catch the tail of something else. It is more distant, more vague, but you can still seize it. And here also you hang on, get hold of it and pull, and you see that everything changes and you enter another world; all of a sudden you have an extraordinary adventure - it is another dream. You follow the same process. You repeat the dream to yourself once, twice, until you are sure of it. You remain very quiet all the time. Then you begin to penetrate still more deeply into yourself, as though you were going in very far, very far; and again suddenly you see a vague form, you have a feeling, a sensation... like a current of air, a slight breeze, a little breath; and you say, "Well, well...." It takes a form, it becomes clear - and the third category comes. You must have a lot of time, a lot of patience, you must be very quiet in your mind and body, very quiet, and you can tell the story of your whole night from the end right up to the beginning.
Even without doing this exercise which is very long and difficult, in order to recollect a dream, whether it be the last one or the one in the middle that has made a violent impression on your being, you must do what I have said when you wake up: take particular care not even to move your head on the pillow, remain absolutely still and let the dream return.
Some people do not have a passage between one state and another, there is a little gap and so they leap from one to the other; there is no highway passing through all the states of being with no break of the consciousness. A small dark hole, and you do not remember. It is like a precipice across which one has to extend the consciousness. To build a bridge takes a very long time; it takes much longer than building a physical bridge.... Very few people want to and know how to do it. They may have had magnificent activities, they do not remember them or sometimes only the last, the nearest, the most physical activity, with an uncoordinated movement - dreams having no sense.
But there are as many different kinds of nights and sleep as there are different days and activities. There are not many days that are alike, each day is different. The days are not the same, the nights are not the same. You and your friends are doing apparently the same thing, but for each one it is very different. And each one must have his own procedure.
Why are two dreams never alike?
Because all things are different. No two minutes are alike in the universe and it will be so till the end of the universe, no two minutes will ever be alike. And men obstinately want to make rules! One must do this and not that.... Well! we must let people please themselves.
You could have put to me a very interesting question: "Why am I fourteen years old today?" Intelligent people will say: "It is because it is the fourteenth year since you were born." That is the answer of someone who believes himself to be very intelligent. But there is another reason. I shall tell this to you alone.... I have drowned you all sufficiently well! Now you must begin to learn swimming!
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1953, 36?,#KEYS
861:
Mother, when one imagines something, does it not exist?
When you imagine something, it means that you make a mental formation which may be close to the truth or far from the truth - it also depends upon the quality of your formation. You make a mental formation and there are people who have such a power of formation that they succeed in making what they imagine real. There are not many of these but there are some. They imagine something and their formation is so well made and so powerful that it succeeds in being realised. These are creators; there are not many of them but there are some.
If one thinks of someone who doesn't exist or who is dead?
Ah! What do you mean? What have you just said? Someone who doesn't exist or someone who is dead? These are two absolutely different things.
I mean someone who is dead.
Someone who is dead!
If this person has remained in the mental domain, you can find him immediately. Naturally if he is no longer in the mental domain, if he is in the psychic domain, to think of him is not enough. You must know how to go into the psychic domain to find him. But if he has remained in the mental domain and you think of him, you can find him immediately, and not only that, but you can have a mental contact with him and a kind of mental vision of his existence.
The mind has a capacity of vision of its own and it is not the same vision as with these eyes, but it is a vision, it is a perception in forms. But this is not imagination. It has nothing to do with imagination.
Imagination, for instance, is when you begin to picture to yourself an ideal being to whom you apply all your conceptions, and when you tell yourself, "Why, it should be like this, like that, its form should be like this, its thought like that, its character like that," when you see all the details and build up the being. Now, writers do this all the time because when they write a novel, they imagine. There are those who take things from life but there are those who are imaginative, creators; they create a character, a personage and then put him in their book later. This is to imagine. To imagine, for example, a whole concurrence of circumstances, a set of events, this is what I call telling a story to oneself. But it can be put down on paper, and then one becomes a novelist. There are very different kinds of writers. Some imagine everything, some gather all sorts of observations from life and construct their book with them. There are a hundred ways of writing a book. But indeed some writers imagine everything from beginning to end. It all comes out of their head and they construct even their whole story without any support in things physically observed. This truly is imagination. But as I say, if they are very powerful and have a considerable capacity for creation, it is possible that one day or other there will be a physical human being who realises their creation. This too is true.
What do you suppose imagination is, eh? Have you never imagined anything, you?
And what happens?
All that one imagines.
You mean that you imagine something and it happens like that, eh? Or it is in a dream...
What is the function, the use of the imagination?
If one knows how to use it, as I said, one can create for oneself his own inner and outer life; one can build his own existence with his imagination, if one knows how to use it and has a power. In fact it is an elementary way of creating, of forming things in the world. I have always felt that if one didn't have the capacity of imagination he would not make any progress. Your imagination always goes ahead of your life. When you think of yourself, usually you imagine what you want to be, don't you, and this goes ahead, then you follow, then it continues to go ahead and you follow. Imagination opens for you the path of realisation. People who are not imaginative - it is very difficult to make them move; they see just what is there before their nose, they feel just what they are moment by moment and they cannot go forward because they are clamped by the immediate thing. It depends a good deal on what one calls imagination. However...
Men of science must be having imagination!
A lot. Otherwise they would never discover anything. In fact, what is called imagination is a capacity to project oneself outside realised things and towards things realisable, and then to draw them by the projection. One can obviously have progressive and regressive imaginations. There are people who always imagine all the catastrophes possible, and unfortunately they also have the power of making them come. It's like the antennae going into a world that's not yet realised, catching something there and drawing it here. Then naturally it is an addition to the earth atmosphere and these things tend towards manifestation. It is an instrument which can be disciplined, can be used at will; one can discipline it, direct it, orientate it. It is one of the faculties one can develop in himself and render serviceable, that is, use it for definite purposes.
Sweet Mother, can one imagine the Divine and have the contact?
Certainly if you succeed in imagining the Divine you have the contact, and you can have the contact with what you imagine, in any case. In fact it is absolutely impossible to imagine something which doesn't exist somewhere. You cannot imagine anything at all which doesn't exist somewhere. It is possible that it doesn't exist on the earth, it is possible that it's elsewhere, but it is impossible for you to imagine something which is not already contained in principle in the universe; otherwise it could not occur.
Then, Sweet Mother, this means that in the created universe nothing new is added?
In the created universe? Yes. The universe is progressive; we said that constantly things manifest, more and more. But for your imagination to be able to go and seek beyond the manifestation something which will be manifested, well, it may happen, in fact it does - I was going to tell you that it is in this way that some beings can cause considerable progress to be made in the world, because they have the capacity of imagining something that's not yet manifested. But there are not many. One must first be capable of going beyond the manifested universe to be able to imagine something which is not there. There are already many things which can be imagined.
What is our terrestrial world in the universe? A very small thing. Simply to have the capacity of imagining something which does not exist in the terrestrial manifestation is already very difficult, very difficult. For how many billions of years hasn't it existed, this little earth? And there have been no two identical things. That's much. It is very difficult to go out from the earth atmosphere with one's mind; one can, but it is very difficult. And then if one wants to go out, not only from the earth atmosphere but from the universal life!
To be able simply to enter into contact with the life of the earth in its totality from the formation of the earth until now, what can this mean? And then to go beyond this and enter into contact with universal life from its beginnings up to now... and then again to be able to bring something new into the universe, one must go still farther beyond.
Not easy!
That's all?
(To the child) Convinced?
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1955, [T1],#KEYS
862:This, in short, is the demand made on us, that we should turn our whole life into a conscious sacrifice. Every moment and every movement of our being is to be resolved into a continuous and a devoted self-giving to the Eternal. All our actions, not less the smallest and most ordinary and trifling than the greatest and most uncommon and noble, must be performed as consecrated acts. Our individualised nature must live in the single consciousness of an inner and outer movement dedicated to Something that is beyond us and greater than our ego. No matter what the gift or to whom it is presented by us, there must be a consciousness in the act that we are presenting it to the one divine Being in all beings. Our commonest or most grossly material actions must assume this sublimated character; when we eat, we should be conscious that we are giving our food to that Presence in us; it must be a sacred offering in a temple and the sense of a mere physical need or self-gratification must pass away from us. In any great labour, in any high discipline, in any difficult or noble enterprise, whether undertaken for ourselves, for others or for the race, it will no longer be possible to stop short at the idea of the race, of ourselves or of others. The thing we are doing must be consciously offered as a sacrifice of works, not to these, but either through them or directly to the One Godhead; the Divine Inhabitant who was hidden by these figures must be no longer hidden but ever present to our soul, our mind, our sense. The workings and results of our acts must be put in the hands of that One in the feeling that that Presence is the Infinite and Most High by whom alone our labour and our aspiration are possible. For in his being all takes place; for him all labour and aspiration are taken from us by Nature and offered on his altar. Even in those things in which Nature is herself very plainly the worker and we only the witnesses of her working and its containers and supporters, there should be the same constant memory and insistent consciousness of a work and of its divine Master. Our very inspiration and respiration, our very heart-beats can and must be made conscious in us as the living rhythm of the universal sacrifice.
It is clear that a conception of this kind and its effective practice must carry in them three results that are of a central importance for our spiritual ideal. It is evident, to begin with, that, even if such a discipline is begun without devotion, it leads straight and inevitably towards the highest devotion possible; for it must deepen naturally into the completest adoration imaginable, the most profound God-love. There is bound up with it a growing sense of the Divine in all things, a deepening communion with the Divine in all our thought, will and action and at every moment of our lives, a more and more moved consecration to the Divine of the totality of our being. Now these implications of the Yoga of works are also of the very essence of an integral and absolute Bhakti. The seeker who puts them into living practice makes in himself continually a constant, active and effective representation of the very spirit of self-devotion, and it is inevitable that out of it there should emerge the most engrossing worship of the Highest to whom is given this service. An absorbing love for the Divine Presence to whom he feels an always more intimate closeness, grows upon the consecrated worker. And with it is born or in it is contained a universal love too for all these beings, living forms and creatures that are habitations of the Divine - not the brief restless grasping emotions of division, but the settled selfless love that is the deeper vibration of oneness. In all the seeker begins to meet the one Object of his adoration and service. The way of works turns by this road of sacrifice to meet the path of Devotion; it can be itself a devotion as complete, as absorbing, as integral as any the desire of the heart can ask for or the passion of the mind can imagine.
Next, the practice of this Yoga demands a constant inward remembrance of the one central liberating knowledge, and a constant active externalising of it in works comes in too to intensify the remembrance. In all is the one Self, the one Divine is all; all are in the Divine, all are the Divine and there is nothing else in the universe, - this thought or this faith is the whole background until it becomes the whole substance of the consciousness of the worker. A memory, a self-dynamising meditation of this kind, must and does in its end turn into a profound and uninterrupted vision and a vivid and all-embracing consciousness of that which we so powerfully remember or on which we so constantly meditate. For it compels a constant reference at each moment to the Origin of all being and will and action and there is at once an embracing and exceeding of all particular forms and appearances in That which is their cause and upholder. This way cannot go to its end without a seeing vivid and vital, as concrete in its way as physical sight, of the works of the universal Spirit everywhere. On its summits it rises into a constant living and thinking and willing and acting in the presence of the Supramental, the Transcendent. Whatever we see and hear, whatever we touch and sense, all of which we are conscious, has to be known and felt by us as That which we worship and serve; all has to be turned into an image of the Divinity, perceived as a dwelling-place of his Godhead, enveloped with the eternal Omnipresence. In its close, if not long before it, this way of works turns by communion with the Divine Presence, Will and Force into a way of Knowledge more complete and integral than any the mere creature intelligence can construct or the search of the intellect can discover.
Lastly, the practice of this Yoga of sacrifice compels us to renounce all the inner supports of egoism, casting them out of our mind and will and actions, and to eliminate its seed, its presence, its influence out of our nature. All must be done for the Divine; all must be directed towards the Divine. Nothing must be attempted for ourselves as a separate existence; nothing done for others, whether neighbours, friends, family, country or mankind or other creatures merely because they are connected with our personal life and thought and sentiment or because the ego takes a preferential interest in their welfare. In this way of doing and seeing all works and all life become only a daily dynamic worship and service of the Divine in the unbounded temple of his own vast cosmic existence. Life becomes more and more the sacrifice of the eternal in the individual constantly self-offered to the eternal Transcendence. It is offered in the wide sacrificial ground of the field of the eternal cosmic Spirit; and the Force too that offers it is the eternal Force, the omnipresent Mother. Therefore is this way a way of union and communion by acts and by the spirit and knowledge in the act as complete and integral as any our Godward will can hope for or our soul's strength execute.
It has all the power of a way of works integral and absolute, but because of its law of sacrifice and self-giving to the Divine Self and Master, it is accompanied on its one side by the whole power of the path of Love and on the other by the whole power of the path of Knowledge. At its end all these three divine Powers work together, fused, united, completed, perfected by each other.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Divine Works, The Sacrifice, the Triune Path and the Lord of the Sacrifice [111-114],#KEYS
863: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
864: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
865:Chapter 18 - Trapped in a Dream
(A guy is playing a pinball machine, seemingly the same guy who rode with him in the back of the boat car. This part is played by Richard Linklater, aka, the director.)
Hey, man.
Hey.
Weren't you in a boat car? You know, the guy, the guy with the hat? He gave me a ride in his car, or boat thing, and you were in the back seat with me?
I mean, I'm not saying that you don't know what you're talking about, but I don't know what you're talking about.
No, you see, you guys let me off at this really specific spot that you gave him directions to let me off at, I get out, and end up getting hit by a car, but then, I just woke up because I was dreaming, and later than that, I found out that I was still dreaming, dreaming that I'd woken up.
Oh yeah, those are called false awakenings. I used to have those all the time.
Yeah, but I'm still in it now. I, I can't get out of it. It's been going on forever, I keep waking up, but, but I'm just waking up into another dream. I'm starting to get creeped out, too. Like I'm talking to dead people. This woman on TV's telling me about how death is this dreamtime that exists outside of life. I mean, (desperate sigh) I'm starting to think that I'm dead.
I'm gonna tell you about a dream I once had. I know that's, when someone says that, then usually you're in for a very boring next few minutes, and you might be, but it sounds like, you know, what else are you going to do, right? Anyway, I read this essay by Philip K. Dick.
What, you read it in your dream?
No, no. I read it before the dream. It was the preamble to the dream. It was about that book, um Flow My Tears the Policeman Said. You know that one?
Uh, yeah yeah, he won an award for that one.
Right, right. That's the one he wrote really fast. It just like flowed right out of him. He felt he was sort of channeling it, or something. But anyway, about four years after it was published, he was at this party, and he met this woman who had the same name as the woman character in the book. And she had a boyfriend with the same name as the boyfriend character in the book, and she was having an affair with this guy, the chief of police, and he had the same name as the chief of police in his book. So she's telling him all of this stuff from her life, and everything she's saying is right out of his book. So that's totally freaking him out, but, what can he do?
And then shortly after that, he was going to mail a letter, and he saw this kind of, um, you know, dangerous, shady looking guy standing by his car, but instead of avoiding him, which he says he would have usually done, he just walked right up to him and said, "Can I help you?" And the guy said, "Yeah. I, I ran out of gas." So he pulls out his wallet, and he hands him some money, which he says he never would have done, and then he gets home and thinks, wait a second, this guy, you know, he can't get to a gas station, he's out of gas. So he gets back in his car, he goes and finds the guy, takes him to the gas station, and as he's pulling up at the gas station, he realizes, "Hey, this is in my book too. This exact station, this exact guy. Everything."
So this whole episode is kind of creepy, right? And he's telling his priest about it, you know, describing how he wrote this book, and then four years later all these things happened to him. And as he's telling it to him, the priest says, "That's the Book of Acts. You're describing the Book of Acts." And he's like, "I've never read the Book of Acts." So he, you know, goes home and reads the Book of Acts, and it's like uncanny. Even the characters' names are the same as in the Bible. And the Book of Acts takes place in 50 A.D., when it was written, supposedly. So Philip K. Dick had this theory that time was an illusion and that we were all actually in 50 A.D., and the reason he had written this book was that he had somehow momentarily punctured through this illusion, this veil of time, and what he had seen there was what was going on in the Book of Acts.
And he was really into Gnosticism, and this idea that this demiurge, or demon, had created this illusion of time to make us forget that Christ was about to return, and the kingdom of God was about to arrive. And that we're all in 50 A.D., and there's someone trying to make us forget that God is imminent. And that's what time is. That's what all of history is. It's just this kind of continuous, you know, daydream, or distraction.
And so I read that, and I was like, well that's weird. And than that night I had a dream and there was this guy in the dream who was supposed to be a psychic. But I was skeptical. I was like, you know, he's not really a psychic, you know I'm thinking to myself. And then suddenly I start floating, like levitating, up to the ceiling. And as I almost go through the roof, I'm like, "Okay, Mr. Psychic. I believe you. You're a psychic. Put me down please." And I float down, and as my feet touch the ground, the psychic turns into this woman in a green dress. And this woman is Lady Gregory.
Now Lady Gregory was Yeats' patron, this, you know, Irish person. And though I'd never seen her image, I was just sure that this was the face of Lady Gregory. So we're walking along, and Lady Gregory turns to me and says, "Let me explain to you the nature of the universe. Now Philip K. Dick is right about time, but he's wrong that it's 50 A.D. Actually, there's only one instant, and it's right now, and it's eternity. And it's an instant in which God is posing a question, and that question is basically, 'Do you want to, you know, be one with eternity? Do you want to be in heaven?' And we're all saying, 'No thank you. Not just yet.' And so time is actually just this constant saying 'No' to God's invitation. I mean that's what time is. I mean, and it's no more 50 A.D. than it's two thousand and one. And there's just this one instant, and that's what we're always in."
And then she tells me that actually this is the narrative of everyone's life. That, you know, behind the phenomenal difference, there is but one story, and that's the story of moving from the "no" to the "yes." All of life is like, "No thank you. No thank you. No thank you." then ultimately it's, "Yes, I give in. Yes, I accept. Yes, I embrace." I mean, that's the journey. I mean, everyone gets to the "yes" in the end, right?
Right.
So we continue walking, and my dog runs over to me. And so I'm petting him, really happy to see him, you know, he's been dead for years. So I'm petting him and I realize there's this kind of gross oozing stuff coming out of his stomach. And I look over at Lady Gregory, and she sort of coughs. She's like [cough] [cough] "Oh, excuse me." And there's vomit, like dribbling down her chin, and it smells really bad. And I think, "Well, wait a second, that's not just the smell of vomit," which is, doesn't smell very good, "that's the smell of like dead person vomit." You know, so it's like doubly foul. And then I realize I'm actually in the land of the dead, and everyone around me is dead. My dog had been dead for over ten years, Lady Gregory had been dead a lot longer than that. When I finally woke up, I was like, whoa, that wasn't a dream, that was a visitation to this real place, the land of the dead.
So what happened? I mean how did you finally get out of it?
Oh man. It was just like one of those like life altering experiences. I mean I could never really look at the world the same way again, after that.
Yeah, but I mean like how did you, how did you finally get out of the dream? See, that's my problem. I'm like trapped. I keep, I keep thinking that I'm waking up, but I'm still in a dream. It seems like it's going on forever. I can't get out of it, and I want to wake up for real. How do you really wake up?
I don't know, I don't know. I'm not very good at that anymore. But, um, if that's what you're thinking, I mean you, you probably should. I mean, you know if you can wake up, you should, because you know someday, you know, you won't be able to. So just, um ... But it's easy. You know. Just, just wake up. ~ Waking Life,#KEYS
866:Intuition And The Value Of Concentration :::
Mother, how can the faculty of intuition be developed?
... There are different kinds of intuition, and we carry these capacities within us. They are always active to some extent but we don't notice them because we don't pay enough attention to what is going on in us. Behind the emotions, deep within the being, in a consciousness seated somewhere near the level of the solar plexus, there is a sort of prescience, a kind of capacity for foresight, but not in the form of ideas: rather in the form of feelings, almost a perception of sensations. For instance, when one is going to decide to do something, there is sometimes a kind of uneasiness or inner refusal, and usually, if one listens to this deeper indication, one realises that it was justified. In other cases there is something that urges, indicates, insists - I am not speaking of impulses, you understand, of all the movements which come from the vital and much lower still - indications which are behind the feelings, which come from the affective part of the being; there too one can receive a fairly sure indication of the thing to be done. These are forms of intuition or of a higher instinct which can be cultivated by observation and also by studying the results. Naturally, it must be done very sincerely, objectively, without prejudice. If one wants to see things in a particular way and at the same time practise this observation, it is all useless. One must do it as if one were looking at what is happening from outside oneself, in someone else. It is one form of intuition and perhaps the first one that usually manifests. There is also another form but that one is much more difficult to observe because for those who are accustomed to think, to act by reason - not by impulse but by reason - to reflect before doing anything, there is an extremely swift process from cause to effect in the half-conscious thought which prevents you from seeing the line, the whole line of reasoning and so you don't think that it is a chain of reasoning, and that is quite deceptive. You have the impression of an intuition but it is not an intuition, it is an extremely rapid subconscious reasoning, which takes up a problem and goes straight to the conclusions. This must not be mistaken for intuition. In the ordinary functioning of the brain, intuition is something which suddenly falls like a drop of light. If one has the faculty, the beginning of a faculty of mental vision, it gives the impression of something coming from outside or above, like a little impact of a drop of light in the brain, absolutely independent of all reasoning. This is perceived more easily when one is able to silence one's mind, hold it still and attentive, arresting its usual functioning, as if the mind were changed into a kind of mirror turned towards a higher faculty in a sustained and silent attention. That too one can learn to do. One must learn to do it, it is a necessary discipline.
When you have a question to solve, whatever it may be, usually you concentrate your attention here (pointing between the eyebrows), at the centre just above the eyes, the centre of the conscious will. But then if you do that, you cannot be in contact with intuition. You can be in contact with the source of the will, of effort, even of a certain kind of knowledge, but in the outer, almost material field; whereas, if you want to contact the intuition, you must keep this (Mother indicates the forehead) completely immobile. Active thought must be stopped as far as possible and the entire mental faculty must form - at the top of the head and a little further above if possible - a kind of mirror, very quiet, very still, turned upwards, in silent, very concentrated attention. If you succeed, you can - perhaps not immediately - but you can have the perception of the drops of light falling upon the mirror from a still unknown region and expressing themselves as a conscious thought which has no connection with all the rest of your thought since you have been able to keep it silent. That is the real beginning of the intellectual intuition.
It is a discipline to be followed. For a long time one may try and not succeed, but as soon as one succeeds in making a mirror, still and attentive, one always obtains a result, not necessarily with a precise form of thought but always with the sensations of a light coming from above. And then, if one can receive this light coming from above without entering immediately into a whirl of activity, receive it in calm and silence and let it penetrate deep into the being, then after a while it expresses itself either as a luminous thought or as a very precise indication here (Mother indicates the heart), in this other centre.
Naturally, first these two faculties must be developed; then, as soon as there is any result, one must observe the result, as I said, and see the connection with what is happening, the consequences: see, observe very attentively what has come in, what may have caused a distortion, what one has added by way of more or less conscious reasoning or the intervention of a lower will, also more or less conscious; and it is by a very deep study - indeed, almost of every moment, in any case daily and very frequent - that one succeeds in developing one's intuition. It takes a long time. It takes a long time and there are ambushes: one can deceive oneself, take for intuitions subconscious wills which try to manifest, indications given by impulses one has refused to receive openly, indeed all sorts of difficulties. One must be prepared for that. But if one persists, one is sure to succeed.
And there comes a time when one feels a kind of inner guidance, something which is leading one very perceptibly in all that one does. But then, for the guidance to have its maximum power, one must naturally add to it a conscious surrender: one must be sincerely determined to follow the indication given by the higher force. If one does that, then... one saves years of study, one can seize the result extremely rapidly. If one also does that, the result comes very rapidly. But for that, it must be done with sincerity and... a kind of inner spontaneity. If one wants to try without this surrender, one may succeed - as one can also succeed in developing one's personal will and making it into a very considerable power - but that takes a very long time and one meets many obstacles and the result is very precarious; one must be very persistent, obstinate, persevering, and one is sure to succeed, but only after a great labour.
Make your surrender with a sincere, complete self-giving, and you will go ahead at full speed, you will go much faster - but you must not do this calculatingly, for that spoils everything! (Silence) Moreover, whatever you may want to do in life, one thing is absolutely indispensable and at the basis of everything, the capacity of concentrating the attention. If you are able to gather together the rays of attention and consciousness on one point and can maintain this concentration with a persistent will, nothing can resist it - whatever it may be, from the most material physical development to the highest spiritual one. But this discipline must be followed in a constant and, it may be said, imperturbable way; not that you should always be concentrated on the same thing - that's not what I mean, I mean learning to concentrate.
And materially, for studies, sports, all physical or mental development, it is absolutely indispensable. And the value of an individual is proportionate to the value of his attention.
And from the spiritual point of view it is still more important.
There is no spiritual obstacle which can resist a penetrating power of concentration. For instance, the discovery of the psychic being, union with the inner Divine, opening to the higher spheres, all can be obtained by an intense and obstinate power of concentration - but one must learn how to do it. There is nothing in the human or even in the superhuman field, to which the power of concentration is not the key. You can be the best athlete, you can be the best student, you can be an artistic, literary or scientific genius, you can be the greatest saint with that faculty. And everyone has in himself a tiny little beginning of it - it is given to everybody, but people do not cultivate it.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1957-1958,#KEYS
867:
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
868:
The whole question.
The whole question? And now, do you understand?... Not quite? I told you that you did not understand because it was muddled up; in one question three different ideas were included. So naturally it created a confusion. But taken separately they are what I explained to you just now, most probably; that is to say, one has this altogether ignorant and obliterated consciousness and is convinced that he is the cause and effect, the origin and result of himself, separate from all others, separate with a limited power to act upon others and a little greater capacity to be set in movement by others or to react to others' influence. That is how people think usually, something like that, isn't that so? How do you feel, you? What effect do you have upon yourself? And you? And you?... You have never thought about it? You have never looked into yourself to see what effect you exercise upon yourself? Never thought over it? No? How do you feel? Nobody will tell me? Come, you tell me that. Never tried to understand how you feel? Yes? No? How strange! Never sought to understand how, for example, decisions take place in you? From where do they come? What makes you decide one thing rather than another? And what is the relation between a decision of yours and your action? And to what extent do you have the freedom of choice between one thing and another? And how far do you feel you are able to, you are free to do this or that or that other or nothing at all?... You have pondered over that? Yes? Is there any one among the students who has thought over it? No? Nobody put the question to himself? You? You?...
Even if one thinks over it, perhaps one is not able to answer!
One cannot explain?
No.
It is difficult to explain? Even this simple little thing, to see where in your consciousness the wills that come from outside meet your will (which you call yours, which comes from within), at what place the two join together and to what extent the one from outside acts upon that from within and the one from within acts upon that from outside? You have never tried to find this out? It has never seemed to you unbearable that a will from outside should have an action upon your will? No?
I do not know.
Oh! I am putting very difficult problems! But, my children, I was preoccupied with that when I was a child of five!... So I thought you must have been preoccupied with it since a long time. In oneself, there are contradictory wills. Yes, many. That is one of the very first discoveries. There is one part which wants things this way; and then at another moment, another way, and a third time, one wants still another thing! Besides, there is even this: something that wants and another which says no. So? But it is exactly that which has to be found if you wish in the least to organise yourself. Why not project yourself upon a screen, as in the cinema, and then look at yourself moving on it? How interesting it is!
This is the first step.
You project yourself on the screen and then observe and see all that is moving there and how it moves and what happens. You make a little diagram, it becomes so interesting then. And then, after a while, when you are quite accustomed to seeing, you can go one step further and take a decision. Or even a still greater step: you organise - arrange, take up all that, put each thing in its place, organise in such a way that you begin to have a straight movement with an inner meaning. And then you become conscious of your direction and are able to say: "Very well, it will be thus; my life will develop in that way, because that is the logic of my being. Now, I have arranged all that within me, each thing has been put in its place, and so naturally a central orientation is forming. I am following this orientation. One step more and I know what will happen to me for I myself am deciding it...." I do not know, I am telling you this; to me it seemed terribly interesting, the most interesting thing in the world. There was nothing, no other thing that interested me more than that.
This happened to me.... I was five or six or seven years old (at seven the thing became quite serious) and I had a father who loved the circus, and he came and told me: "Come with me, I am going to the circus on Sunday." I said: "No, I am doing something much more interesting than going to the circus!" Or again, young friends invited me to attend a meeting where we were to play together, enjoy together: "No, I enjoy here much more...." And it was quite sincere. It was not a pose: for me, it was like this, it was true. There was nothing in the world more enjoyable than that.
And I am so convinced that anybody who does it in that way, with the same freshness and sincerity, will obtain most interesting results.... To put all that on a screen in front of yourself and look at what is happening. And the first step is to know all that is happening and then you must not try to shut your eyes when something does not appear pleasant to you! You must keep them wide open and put each thing in that way before the screen. Then you make quite an interesting discovery. And then the next step is to start telling yourself: "Since all that is happening within me, why should I not put this thing in this way and then that thing in that way and then this other in this way and thus wouldn't I be doing something logical that has a meaning? Why should I not remove that thing which stands obstructing the way, these conflicting wills? Why? And what does that represent in the being? Why is it there? If it were put there, would it not help instead of harming me?" And so on.
And little by little, little by little, you see clearer and then you see why you are made like that, what is the thing you have got to do - that for which you are born. And then, quite naturally, since all is organised for this thing to happen, the path becomes straight and you can say beforehand: "It is in this way that it will happen." And when things come from outside to try and upset all that, you are able to say: "No, I accept this, for it helps; I reject that, for that harms." And then, after a few years, you curb yourself as you curb a horse: you do whatever you like, in the way you like and you go wherever you like.
It seems to me this is worth the trouble. I believe it is the most interesting thing.
...
You must have a great deal of sincerity, a little courage and perseverance and then a sort of mental curiosity, you understand, curious, seeking to know, interested, wanting to learn. To love to learn: that, one must have in one's nature. To find it impossible to stand before something grey, all hazy, in which nothing is seen clearly and which gives you quite an unpleasant feeling, for you do not know where you begin and where you end, what is yours and what is not yours and what is settled and what is not settled - what is this pulp-like thing you call yourself in which things get intermingled and act upon one another without even your being aware of it? You ask yourself: "But why have I done this?" You know nothing about it. "And why have I felt that?" You don't know that, either. And then, you are thrown into a world outside that is only fog and you are thrown into a world inside that is also for you another kind of fog, still more impenetrable, in which you live, like a cork thrown upon the waters and the waves carry it away or cast it into the air, and it drops and rolls on. That is quite an unpleasant state. I do not know, but to me it appears unpleasant.
To see clearly, to see one's way, where one is going, why one is going there, how one is to go there and what one is going to do and what is the kind of relation with others... But that is a problem so wonderfully interesting - it is interesting - and you can always discover things every minute! One's work is never finished.
There is a time, there is a certain state of consciousness when you have the feeling that you are in that condition with all the weight of the world lying heavy upon you and besides you are going in blinkers and do not know where you are going, but there is something which is pushing you. And that is truly a very unpleasant condition. And there is another moment when one draws oneself up and is able to see what is there above, and one becomes it; then one looks at the world as though from the top of a very very high mountain and one sees all that is happening below; then one can choose one's way and follow it. That is a more pleasant condition. This then is truly the truth, you are upon earth for that, surely. All individual beings and all the little concentrations of consciousness were created to do this work. It is the very reason for existence: to be able to become fully conscious of a certain sum of vibrations representing an individual being and put order there and find one's way and follow it.
And so, as men do not know it and do not do it, life comes and gives them a blow here: "Oh! that hurts", then a blow there: "Ah! that's hurting me." And the thing goes on like that and all the time it is like that. And all the time they are getting pain somewhere. They suffer, they cry, they groan. But it is simply due to that reason, there is no other: it is that they have not done that little work. If, when they were quite young, there had been someone to teach them to do the work and they had done it without losing time, they could have gone through life gloriously and instead of suffering they would have been all-powerful masters of their destiny.
This is not to say that necessarily all things would become pleasant. It is not at all that. But your reaction towards things becomes the true reaction and instead of suffering, you learn; instead of being miserable, you go forward and progress. After all, I believe it is for this that you are here - so that there is someone who can tell you: "There, well, try that. It is worth trying." ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1953, 199,#KEYS
869:[The Gods and Their Worlds]
[...] According to traditions and occult schools, all these zones of realities, these planes of realities have got different names; they have been classified in a different way, but there is an essential analogy, and if you go back far enough into the traditions, you see only the words changing according to the country and the language. Even now, the experiences of Western occultists and those of Eastern occultists offer great similarities. All who set out on the discovery of these invisible worlds and make a report of what they saw, give a very similar description, whether they be from here or there; they use different words, but the experience is very similar and the handling of forces is the same.
This knowledge of the occult worlds is based on the existence of subtle bodies and of subtle worlds corresponding to those bodies. They are what the psychological method calls "states of consciousness", but these states of consciousness really correspond to worlds. The occult procedure consists then in being aware of these various inner states of being or subtle bodies and in becoming sufficiently a master of them so as to be able to go out of them successively, one after another. There is indeed a whole scale of subtleties, increasing or decreasing according to the direction in which you go, and the occult procedure consists in going out of a denser body into a subtler body and so on again, up to the most ethereal regions. You go, by successive exteriorisations, into bodies or worlds more and more subtle. It is somewhat as if every time you passed into another dimension. The fourth dimension of the physicists is nothing but the scientific transcription of an occult knowledge. To give another image, one can say that the physical body is at the centre - it is the most material, the densest and also the smallest - and the inner bodies, more subtle, overflow more and more the central physical body; they pass through it, extending themselves farther and farther, like water evaporating from a porous vase and forming a kind of steam all around. And the greater the subtlety, the more the extension tends to unite with that of the universe: one ends by universalising oneself. And it is altogether a concrete process which gives an objective experience of invisible worlds and even enables one to act in these worlds.
There are, then, only a very small number of people in the West who know that these gods are not merely subjective and imaginary - more or less wildly imaginary - but that they correspond to a universal truth.
All these regions, all these domains are filled with beings who exist, each in its own domain, and if you are awake and conscious on a particular plane - for instance, if on going out of a more material body you awake on some higher plane, you have the same relation with the things and people of that plane as you had with the things and people of the material world. That is to say, there exists an entirely objective relation that has nothing to do with the idea you may have of these things. Naturally, the resemblance is greater and greater as you approach the physical world, the material world, and there even comes a time when the one region has a direct action upon the other. In any case, in what Sri Aurobindo calls the overmental worlds, you will find a concrete reality absolutely independent of your personal experience; you go back there and again find the same things, with the differences that have occurred during your absence. And you have relations with those beings that are identical with the relations you have with physical beings, with this difference that the relation is more plastic, supple and direct - for example, there is the capacity to change the external form, the visible form, according to the inner state you are in. But you can make an appointment with someone and be at the appointed place and find the same being again, with certain differences that have come about during your absence; it is entirely concrete with results entirely concrete.
One must have at least a little of this experience in order to understand these things. Otherwise, those who are convinced that all this is mere human imagination and mental formation, who believe that these gods have such and such a form because men have thought them to be like that, and that they have certain defects and certain qualities because men have thought them to be like that - all those who say that God is made in the image of man and that he exists only in human thought, all these will not understand; to them this will appear absolutely ridiculous, madness. One must have lived a little, touched the subject a little, to know how very concrete the thing is.
Naturally, children know a good deal if they have not been spoilt. There are so many children who return every night to the same place and continue to live the life they have begun there. When these faculties are not spoilt with age, you can keep them with you. At a time when I was especially interested in dreams, I could return exactly to a place and continue a work that I had begun: supervise something, for example, set something in order, a work of organisation or of discovery, of exploration. You go until you reach a certain spot, as you would go in life, then you take a rest, then you return and begin again - you begin the work at the place where you left off and you continue it. And you perceive that there are things which are quite independent of you, in the sense that changes of which you are not at all the author, have taken place automatically during your absence.
But for this, you must live these experiences yourself, you must see them yourself, live them with sufficient sincerity and spontaneity in order to see that they are independent of any mental formation. For you can do the opposite also, and deepen the study of the action of mental formation upon events. This is very interesting, but it is another domain. And this study makes you very careful, very prudent, because you become aware of how far you can delude yourself. So you must study both, the dream and the occult reality, in order to see what is the essential difference between the two. The one depends upon us; the other exists in itself; entirely independent of the thought that we have of it.
When you have worked in that domain, you recognise in fact that once a subject has been studied and something has been learnt mentally, it gives a special colour to the experience; the experience may be quite spontaneous and sincere, but the simple fact that the subject was known and studied lends a particular quality. Whereas if you had learnt nothing about the question, if you knew nothing at all, the transcription would be completely spontaneous and sincere when the experience came; it would be more or less adequate, but it would not be the outcome of a previous mental formation.
Naturally, this occult knowledge or this experience is not very frequent in the world, because in those who do not have a developed inner life, there are veritable gaps between the external consciousness and the inmost consciousness; the linking states of being are missing and they have to be constructed. So when people enter there for the first time, they are bewildered, they have the impression they have fallen into the night, into nothingness, into non-being!
I had a Danish friend, a painter, who was like that. He wanted me to teach him how to go out of the body; he used to have interesting dreams and thought that it would be worth the trouble to go there consciously. So I made him "go out" - but it was a frightful thing! When he was dreaming, a part of his mind still remained conscious, active, and a kind of link existed between this active part and his external being; then he remembered some of his dreams, but it was a very partial phenomenon. And to go out of one's body means to pass gradually through all the states of being, if one does the thing systematically. Well, already in the subtle physical, one is almost de-individualised, and when one goes farther, there remains nothing, for nothing is formed or individualised.
Thus, when people are asked to meditate or told to go within, to enter into themselves, they are in agony - naturally! They have the impression that they are vanishing. And with reason: there is nothing, no consciousness!
These things that appear to us quite natural and evident, are, for people who know nothing, wild imagination. If, for example, you transplant these experiences or this knowledge to the West, well, unless you have been frequenting the circles of occultists, they stare at you with open eyes. And when you have turned your back, they hasten to say, "These people are cranks!" Now to come back to the gods and conclude. It must be said that all those beings who have never had an earthly existence - gods or demons, invisible beings and powers - do not possess what the Divine has put into man: the psychic being. And this psychic being gives to man true love, charity, compassion, a deep kindness, which compensate for all his external defects.
In the gods there is no fault because they live according to their own nature, spontaneously and without constraint: as gods, it is their manner of being. But if you take a higher point of view, if you have a higher vision, a vision of the whole, you see that they lack certain qualities that are exclusively human. By his capacity of love and self-giving, man can have as much power as the gods and even more, when he is not egoistic, when he has surmounted his egoism.
If he fulfils the required condition, man is nearer to the Supreme than the gods are. He can be nearer. He is not so automatically, but he has the power to be so, the potentiality.
If human love manifested itself without mixture, it would be all-powerful. Unfortunately, in human love there is as much love of oneself as of the one loved; it is not a love that makes you forget yourself. - 4 November 1958
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III, 355
,#KEYS
870: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
871:The Supreme Discovery
IF WE want to progress integrally, we must build within our conscious being a strong and pure mental synthesis which can serve us as a protection against temptations from outside, as a landmark to prevent us from going astray, as a beacon to light our way across the moving ocean of life.
Each individual should build up this mental synthesis according to his own tendencies and affinities and aspirations. But if we want it to be truly living and luminous, it must be centred on the idea that is the intellectual representation symbolising That which is at the centre of our being, That which is our life and our light.
This idea, expressed in sublime words, has been taught in various forms by all the great Instructors in all lands and all ages.
The Self of each one and the great universal Self are one. Since all that is exists from all eternity in its essence and principle, why make a distinction between the being and its origin, between ourselves and what we place at the beginning?
The ancient traditions rightly said:
"Our origin and ourselves, our God and ourselves are one."
And this oneness should not be understood merely as a more or less close and intimate relationship of union, but as a true identity.
Thus, when a man who seeks the Divine attempts to reascend by degrees towards the inaccessible, he forgets that all his knowledge and all his intuition cannot take him one step forward in this infinite; neither does he know that what he wants to attain, what he believes to be so far from him, is within him.
For how could he know anything of the origin until he becomes conscious of this origin in himself?
It is by understanding himself, by learning to know himself, that he can make the supreme discovery and cry out in wonder like the patriarch in the Bible, "The house of God is here and I knew it not."
That is why we must express that sublime thought, creatrix of the material worlds, and make known to all the word that fills the heavens and the earth, "I am in all things and all beings."When all shall know this, the promised day of great transfigurations will be at hand. When in each atom of Matter men shall recognise the indwelling thought of God, when in each living creature they shall perceive some hint of a gesture of God, when each man can see God in his brother, then dawn will break, dispelling the darkness, the falsehood, the ignorance, the error and suffering that weigh upon all Nature. For, "all Nature suffers and laments as she awaits the revelation of the Sons of God."
This indeed is the central thought epitomising all others, the thought which should be ever present to our remembrance as the sun that illumines all life.
That is why I remind you of it today. For if we follow our path bearing this thought in our hearts like the rarest jewel, the most precious treasure, if we allow it to do its work of illumination and transfiguration within us, we shall know that it lives in the centre of all beings and all things, and in it we shall feel the marvellous oneness of the universe.
Then we shall understand the vanity and childishness of our meagre satisfactions, our foolish quarrels, our petty passions, our blind indignations. We shall see the dissolution of our little faults, the crumbling of the last entrenchments of our limited personality and our obtuse egoism. We shall feel ourselves being swept along by this sublime current of true spirituality which will deliver us from our narrow limits and bounds.
The individual Self and the universal Self are one; in every world, in every being, in every thing, in every atom is the Divine Presence, and man's mission is to manifest it.
In order to do that, he must become conscious of this Divine Presence within him. Some individuals must undergo a real apprenticeship in order to achieve this: their egoistic being is too all-absorbing, too rigid, too conservative, and their struggles against it are long and painful. Others, on the contrary, who are more impersonal, more plastic, more spiritualised, come easily into contact with the inexhaustible divine source of their being.But let us not forget that they too should devote themselves daily, constantly, to a methodical effort of adaptation and transformation, so that nothing within them may ever again obscure the radiance of that pure light.
But how greatly the standpoint changes once we attain this deeper consciousness! How understanding widens, how compassion grows!
On this a sage has said:
"I would like each one of us to come to the point where he perceives the inner God who dwells even in the vilest of human beings; instead of condemning him we would say, 'Arise, O resplendent Being, thou who art ever pure, who knowest neither birth nor death; arise, Almighty One, and manifest thy nature.'"
Let us live by this beautiful utterance and we shall see everything around us transformed as if by miracle.
This is the attitude of true, conscious and discerning love, the love which knows how to see behind appearances, understand in spite of words, and which, amid all obstacles, is in constant communion with the depths.
What value have our impulses and our desires, our anguish and our violence, our sufferings and our struggles, all these inner vicissitudes unduly dramatised by our unruly imagination - what value do they have before this great, this sublime and divine love bending over us from the innermost depths of our being, bearing with our weaknesses, rectifying our errors, healing our wounds, bathing our whole being with its regenerating streams?
For the inner Godhead never imposes herself, she neither demands nor threatens; she offers and gives herself, conceals and forgets herself in the heart of all beings and things; she never accuses, she neither judges nor curses nor condemns, but works unceasingly to perfect without constraint, to mend without reproach, to encourage without impatience, to enrich each one with all the wealth he can receive; she is the mother whose love bears fruit and nourishes, guards and protects, counsels and consoles; because she understands everything, she can endure everything, excuse and pardon everything, hope and prepare for everything; bearing everything within herself, she owns nothing that does not belong to all, and because she reigns over all, she is the servant of all; that is why all, great and small, who want to be kings with her and gods in her, become, like her, not despots but servitors among their brethren.
How beautiful is this humble role of servant, the role of all who have been revealers and heralds of the God who is within all, of the Divine Love that animates all things....
And until we can follow their example and become true servants even as they, let us allow ourselves to be penetrated and transformed by this Divine Love; let us offer Him, without reserve, this marvellous instrument, our physical organism. He shall make it yield its utmost on every plane of activity.
To achieve this total self-consecration, all means are good, all methods have their value. The one thing needful is to persevere in our will to attain this goal. For then everything we study, every action we perform, every human being we meet, all come to bring us an indication, a help, a light to guide us on the path.
Before I close, I shall add a few pages for those who have already made apparently fruitless efforts, for those who have encountered the pitfalls on the way and seen the measure of their weakness, for those who are in danger of losing their self-confidence and courage. These pages, intended to rekindle hope in the hearts of those who suffer, were written by a spiritual worker at a time when ordeals of every kind were sweeping down on him like purifying flames.
You who are weary, downcast and bruised, you who fall, who think perhaps that you are defeated, hear the voice of a friend. He knows your sorrows, he has shared them, he has suffered like you from the ills of the earth; like you he has crossed many deserts under the burden of the day, he has known thirst and hunger, solitude and abandonment, and the cruellest of all wants, the destitution of the heart. Alas! he has known too the hours of doubt, the errors, the faults, the failings, every weakness.
But he tells you: Courage! Hearken to the lesson that the rising sun brings to the earth with its first rays each morning. It is a lesson of hope, a message of solace.
You who weep, who suffer and tremble, who dare not expect an end to your ills, an issue to your pangs, behold: there is no night without dawn and the day is about to break when darkness is thickest; there is no mist that the sun does not dispel, no cloud that it does not gild, no tear that it will not dry one day, no storm that is not followed by its shining triumphant bow; there is no snow that it does not melt, nor winter that it does not change into radiant spring.
And for you too, there is no affliction which does not bring its measure of glory, no distress which cannot be transformed into joy, nor defeat into victory, nor downfall into higher ascension, nor solitude into radiating centre of life, nor discord into harmony - sometimes it is a misunderstanding between two minds that compels two hearts to open to mutual communion; lastly, there is no infinite weakness that cannot be changed into strength. And it is even in supreme weakness that almightiness chooses to reveal itself!
Listen, my little child, you who today feel so broken, so fallen perhaps, who have nothing left, nothing to cover your misery and foster your pride: never before have you been so great! How close to the summits is he who awakens in the depths, for the deeper the abyss, the more the heights reveal themselves!
Do you not know this, that the most sublime forces of the vasts seek to array themselves in the most opaque veils of Matter? Oh, the sublime nuptials of sovereign love with the obscurest plasticities, of the shadow's yearning with the most royal light!
If ordeal or fault has cast you down, if you have sunk into the nether depths of suffering, do not grieve - for there indeed the divine love and the supreme blessing can reach you! Because you have passed through the crucible of purifying sorrows, the glorious ascents are yours.
You are in the wilderness: then listen to the voices of the silence. The clamour of flattering words and outer applause has gladdened your ears, but the voices of the silence will gladden your soul and awaken within you the echo of the depths, the chant of divine harmonies!
You are walking in the depths of night: then gather the priceless treasures of the night. In bright sunshine, the ways of intelligence are lit, but in the white luminosities of the night lie the hidden paths of perfection, the secret of spiritual riches.
You are being stripped of everything: that is the way towards plenitude. When you have nothing left, everything will be given to you. Because for those who are sincere and true, from the worst always comes the best.
Every grain that is sown in the earth produces a thousand. Every wing-beat of sorrow can be a soaring towards glory.
And when the adversary pursues man relentlessly, everything he does to destroy him only makes him greater.
Hear the story of the worlds, look: the great enemy seems to triumph. He casts the beings of light into the night, and the night is filled with stars. He rages against the cosmic working, he assails the integrity of the empire of the sphere, shatters its harmony, divides and subdivides it, scatters its dust to the four winds of infinity, and lo! the dust is changed into a golden seed, fertilising the infinite and peopling it with worlds which now gravitate around their eternal centre in the larger orbit of space - so that even division creates a richer and deeper unity, and by multiplying the surfaces of the material universe, enlarges the empire that it set out to destroy.
Beautiful indeed was the song of the primordial sphere cradled in the bosom of immensity, but how much more beautiful and triumphant is the symphony of the constellations, the music of the spheres, the immense choir that fills the heavens with an eternal hymn of victory!
Hear again: no state was ever more precarious than that of man when he was separated on earth from his divine origin. Above him stretched the hostile borders of the usurper, and at his horizon's gates watched jailers armed with flaming swords. Then, since he could climb no more to the source of life, the source arose within him; since he could no more receive the light from above, the light shone forth at the very centre of his being; since he could commune no more with the transcendent love, that love offered itself in a holocaust and chose each terrestrial being, each human self as its dwelling-place and sanctuary.
That is how, in this despised and desolate but fruitful and blessed Matter, each atom contains a divine thought, each being carries within him the Divine Inhabitant. And if no being in all the universe is as frail as man, neither is any as divine as he!
In truth, in truth, in humiliation lies the cradle of glory! 28 April 1912 ~ The Mother, Words Of Long Ago, The Supreme Discovery,#KEYS
872:One little picture in this book, the Magic Locket, was drawn by 'Miss Alice Havers.' I did not state this on the title-page, since it seemed only due, to the artist of all these (to my mind) wonderful pictures, that his name should stand there alone.
The descriptions, of Sunday as spent by children of the last generation, are quoted verbatim from a speech made to me by a child-friend and a letter written to me by a lady-friend.
The Chapters, headed 'Fairy Sylvie' and 'Bruno's Revenge,' are a reprint, with a few alterations, of a little fairy-tale which I wrote in the year 1867, at the request of the late Mrs. Gatty, for 'Aunt Judy's Magazine,' which she was then editing.
It was in 1874, I believe, that the idea first occurred to me of making it the nucleus of a longer story.
As the years went on, I jotted down, at odd moments, all sorts of odd ideas, and fragments of dialogue, that occurred to me--who knows how?--with a transitory suddenness that left me no choice but either to record them then and there, or to abandon them to oblivion. Sometimes one could trace to their source these random flashes of thought--as being suggested by the book one was reading, or struck out from the 'flint' of one's own mind by the 'steel' of a friend's chance remark but they had also a way of their own, of occurring, a propos of nothing --specimens of that hopelessly illogical phenomenon, 'an effect without a cause.' Such, for example, was the last line of 'The Hunting of the Snark,' which came into my head (as I have already related in 'The Theatre' for April, 1887) quite suddenly, during a solitary walk: and such, again, have been passages which occurred in dreams, and which I cannot trace to any antecedent cause whatever. There are at least two instances of such dream-suggestions in this book--one, my Lady's remark, 'it often runs in families, just as a love for pastry does', the other, Eric Lindon's badinage about having been in domestic service.
And thus it came to pass that I found myself at last in possession of a huge unwieldy mass of litterature--if the reader will kindly excuse the spelling --which only needed stringing together, upon the thread of a consecutive story, to constitute the book I hoped to write. Only! The task, at first, seemed absolutely hopeless, and gave me a far clearer idea, than I ever had before, of the meaning of the word 'chaos': and I think it must have been ten years, or more, before I had succeeded in classifying these odds-and-ends sufficiently to see what sort of a story they indicated: for the story had to grow out of the incidents, not the incidents out of the story I am telling all this, in no spirit of egoism, but because I really believe that some of my readers will be interested in these details of the 'genesis' of a book, which looks so simple and straight-forward a matter, when completed, that they might suppose it to have been written straight off, page by page, as one would write a letter, beginning at the beginning; and ending at the end.
It is, no doubt, possible to write a story in that way: and, if it be not vanity to say so, I believe that I could, myself,--if I were in the unfortunate position (for I do hold it to be a real misfortune) of being obliged to produce a given amount of fiction in a given time,--that I could 'fulfil my task,' and produce my 'tale of bricks,' as other slaves have done. One thing, at any rate, I could guarantee as to the story so produced--that it should be utterly commonplace, should contain no new ideas whatever, and should be very very weary reading!
This species of literature has received the very appropriate name of 'padding' which might fitly be defined as 'that which all can write and none can read.' That the present volume contains no such writing I dare not avow: sometimes, in order to bring a picture into its proper place, it has been necessary to eke out a page with two or three extra lines : but I can honestly say I have put in no more than I was absolutely compelled to do.
My readers may perhaps like to amuse themselves by trying to detect, in a given passage, the one piece of 'padding' it contains. While arranging the 'slips' into pages, I found that the passage was 3 lines too short. I supplied the deficiency, not by interpolating a word here and a word there, but by writing in 3 consecutive lines. Now can my readers guess which they are?
A harder puzzle if a harder be desired would be to determine, as to the Gardener's Song, in which cases (if any) the stanza was adapted to the surrounding text, and in which (if any) the text was adapted to the stanza.
Perhaps the hardest thing in all literature--at least I have found it so: by no voluntary effort can I accomplish it: I have to take it as it come's is to write anything original. And perhaps the easiest is, when once an original line has been struck out, to follow it up, and to write any amount more to the same tune. I do not know if 'Alice in Wonderland' was an original story--I was, at least, no conscious imitator in writing it--but I do know that, since it came out, something like a dozen storybooks have appeared, on identically the same pattern. The path I timidly explored believing myself to be 'the first that ever burst into that silent sea'--is now a beaten high-road: all the way-side flowers have long ago been trampled into the dust: and it would be courting disaster for me to attempt that style again.
Hence it is that, in 'Sylvie and Bruno,' I have striven with I know not what success to strike out yet another new path: be it bad or good, it is the best I can do. It is written, not for money, and not for fame, but in the hope of supplying, for the children whom I love, some thoughts that may suit those hours of innocent merriment which are the very life of Childhood; and also in the hope of suggesting, to them and to others, some thoughts that may prove, I would fain hope, not wholly out of harmony with the graver cadences of Life.
If I have not already exhausted the patience of my readers, I would like to seize this opportunity perhaps the last I shall have of addressing so many friends at once of putting on record some ideas that have occurred to me, as to books desirable to be written--which I should much like to attempt, but may not ever have the time or power to carry through--in the hope that, if I should fail (and the years are gliding away very fast) to finish the task I have set myself, other hands may take it up.
First, a Child's Bible. The only real essentials of this would be, carefully selected passages, suitable for a child's reading, and pictures. One principle of selection, which I would adopt, would be that Religion should be put before a child as a revelation of love--no need to pain and puzzle the young mind with the history of crime and punishment. (On such a principle I should, for example, omit the history of the Flood.) The supplying of the pictures would involve no great difficulty: no new ones would be needed : hundreds of excellent pictures already exist, the copyright of which has long ago expired, and which simply need photo-zincography, or some similar process, for their successful reproduction. The book should be handy in size with a pretty attractive looking cover--in a clear legible type--and, above all, with abundance of pictures, pictures, pictures!
Secondly, a book of pieces selected from the Bible--not single texts, but passages of from 10 to 20 verses each--to be committed to memory. Such passages would be found useful, to repeat to one's self and to ponder over, on many occasions when reading is difficult, if not impossible: for instance, when lying awake at night--on a railway-journey --when taking a solitary walk-in old age, when eyesight is failing or wholly lost--and, best of all, when illness, while incapacitating us for reading or any other occupation, condemns us to lie awake through many weary silent hours: at such a time how keenly one may realise the truth of David's rapturous cry "O how sweet are thy words unto my throat: yea, sweeter than honey unto my mouth!"
I have said 'passages,' rather than single texts, because we have no means of recalling single texts: memory needs links, and here are none: one may have a hundred texts stored in the memory, and not be able to recall, at will, more than half-a-dozen--and those by mere chance: whereas, once get hold of any portion of a chapter that has been committed to memory, and the whole can be recovered: all hangs together.
Thirdly, a collection of passages, both prose and verse, from books other than the Bible. There is not perhaps much, in what is called 'un-inspired' literature (a misnomer, I hold: if Shakespeare was not inspired, one may well doubt if any man ever was), that will bear the process of being pondered over, a hundred times: still there are such passages--enough, I think, to make a goodly store for the memory.
These two books of sacred, and secular, passages for memory--will serve other good purposes besides merely occupying vacant hours: they will help to keep at bay many anxious thoughts, worrying thoughts, uncharitable thoughts, unholy thoughts. Let me say this, in better words than my own, by copying a passage from that most interesting book, Robertson's Lectures on the Epistles to the Corinthians, Lecture XLIX. "If a man finds himself haunted by evil desires and unholy images, which will generally be at periodical hours, let him commit to memory passages of Scripture, or passages from the best writers in verse or prose. Let him store his mind with these, as safeguards to repeat when he lies awake in some restless night, or when despairing imaginations, or gloomy, suicidal thoughts, beset him. Let these be to him the sword, turning everywhere to keep the way of the Garden of Life from the intrusion of profaner footsteps."
Fourthly, a "Shakespeare" for girls: that is, an edition in which everything, not suitable for the perusal of girls of (say) from 10 to 17, should be omitted. Few children under 10 would be likely to understand or enjoy the greatest of poets: and those, who have passed out of girlhood, may safely be left to read Shakespeare, in any edition, 'expurgated' or not, that they may prefer: but it seems a pity that so many children, in the intermediate stage, should be debarred from a great pleasure for want of an edition suitable to them. Neither Bowdler's, Chambers's, Brandram's, nor Cundell's 'Boudoir' Shakespeare, seems to me to meet the want: they are not sufficiently 'expurgated.' Bowdler's is the most extraordinary of all: looking through it, I am filled with a deep sense of wonder, considering what he has left in, that he should have cut anything out! Besides relentlessly erasing all that is unsuitable on the score of reverence or decency, I should be inclined to omit also all that seems too difficult, or not likely to interest young readers. The resulting book might be slightly fragmentary: but it would be a real treasure to all British maidens who have any taste for poetry.
If it be needful to apologize to any one for the new departure I have taken in this story--by introducing, along with what will, I hope, prove to be acceptable nonsense for children, some of the graver thoughts of human life--it must be to one who has learned the Art of keeping such thoughts wholly at a distance in hours of mirth and careless ease. To him such a mixture will seem, no doubt, ill-judged and repulsive. And that such an Art exists I do not dispute: with youth, good health, and sufficient money, it seems quite possible to lead, for years together, a life of unmixed gaiety--with the exception of one solemn fact, with which we are liable to be confronted at any moment, even in the midst of the most brilliant company or the most sparkling entertainment. A man may fix his own times for admitting serious thought, for attending public worship, for prayer, for reading the Bible: all such matters he can defer to that 'convenient season', which is so apt never to occur at all: but he cannot defer, for one single moment, the necessity of attending to a message, which may come before he has finished reading this page,' this night shalt thy soul be required of thee.'
The ever-present sense of this grim possibility has been, in all ages, 1 an incubus that men have striven to shake off. Few more interesting subjects of enquiry could be found, by a student of history, than the various weapons that have been used against this shadowy foe. Saddest of all must have been the thoughts of those who saw indeed an existence beyond the grave, but an existence far more terrible than annihilation--an existence as filmy, impalpable, all but invisible spectres, drifting about, through endless ages, in a world of shadows, with nothing to do, nothing to hope for, nothing to love! In the midst of the gay verses of that genial 'bon vivant' Horace, there stands one dreary word whose utter sadness goes to one's heart. It is the word 'exilium' in the well-known passage
Omnes eodem cogimur, omnium
Versatur urna serius ocius
Sors exitura et nos in aeternum
Exilium impositura cymbae.
Yes, to him this present life--spite of all its weariness and all its sorrow--was the only life worth having: all else was 'exile'! Does it not seem almost incredible that one, holding such a creed, should ever have smiled?
And many in this day, I fear, even though believing in an existence beyond the grave far more real than Horace ever dreamed of, yet regard it as a sort of 'exile' from all the joys of life, and so adopt Horace's theory, and say 'let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.'
We go to entertainments, such as the theatre--I say 'we', for I also go to the play, whenever I get a chance of seeing a really good one and keep at arm's length, if possible, the thought that we may not return alive. Yet how do you know--dear friend, whose patience has carried you through this garrulous preface that it may not be your lot, when mirth is fastest and most furious, to feel the sharp pang, or the deadly faintness, which heralds the final crisis--to see, with vague wonder, anxious friends bending over you to hear their troubled whispers perhaps yourself to shape the question, with trembling lips, "Is it serious?", and to be told "Yes: the end is near" (and oh, how different all Life will look when those words are said!)--how do you know, I say, that all this may not happen to you, this night?
And dare you, knowing this, say to yourself "Well, perhaps it is an immoral play: perhaps the situations are a little too 'risky', the dialogue a little too strong, the 'business' a little too suggestive.
I don't say that conscience is quite easy: but the piece is so clever, I must see it this once! I'll begin a stricter life to-morrow." To-morrow, and to-morrow, and tomorrow!
"Who sins in hope, who, sinning, says,
'Sorrow for sin God's judgement stays!'
Against God's Spirit he lies; quite stops Mercy with insult; dares, and drops,
Like a scorch'd fly, that spins in vain
Upon the axis of its pain,
Then takes its doom, to limp and crawl,
Blind and forgot, from fall to fall."
Let me pause for a moment to say that I believe this thought, of the possibility of death--if calmly realised, and steadily faced would be one of the best possible tests as to our going to any scene of amusement being right or wrong. If the thought of sudden death acquires, for you, a special horror when imagined as happening in a theatre, then be very sure the theatre is harmful for you, however harmless it may be for others; and that you are incurring a deadly peril in going. Be sure the safest rule is that we should not dare to live in any scene in which we dare not die.
But, once realise what the true object is in life--that it is not pleasure, not knowledge, not even fame itself, 'that last infirmity of noble minds'--but that it is the development of character, the rising to a higher, nobler, purer standard, the building-up of the perfect Man--and then, so long as we feel that this is going on, and will (we trust) go on for evermore, death has for us no terror; it is not a shadow, but a light; not an end, but a beginning!
One other matter may perhaps seem to call for apology--that I should have treated with such entire want of sympathy the British passion for 'Sport', which no doubt has been in by-gone days, and is still, in some forms of it, an excellent school for hardihood and for coolness in moments of danger.
But I am not entirely without sympathy for genuine 'Sport': I can heartily admire the courage of the man who, with severe bodily toil, and at the risk of his life, hunts down some 'man-eating' tiger: and I can heartily sympathize with him when he exults in the glorious excitement of the chase and the hand-to-hand struggle with the monster brought to bay. But I can but look with deep wonder and sorrow on the hunter who, at his ease and in safety, can find pleasure in what involves, for some defenceless creature, wild terror and a death of agony: deeper, if the hunter be one who has pledged himself to preach to men the Religion of universal Love: deepest of all, if it be one of those 'tender and delicate' beings, whose very name serves as a symbol of Love--'thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women'--whose mission here is surely to help and comfort all that are in pain or sorrow!
'Farewell, farewell! but this I tell
To thee, thou Wedding-Guest!
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.' ~ Lewis Carroll, Sylvie and Bruno,#KEYS
*** WISDOM TROVE ***
1:I pray because I can't help myself. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 2:Because of deep love, one is courageous. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 3:I'm single because I was born that way. ~ mae-west, @wisdomtrove 4:Perfect love knows no because ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 5:Because this death release you into real life. ~ mooji, @wisdomtrove 6:One jests because one wants to contemplate. ~ plotinus, @wisdomtrove 7:Because we can imagine, we are free. ~ jean-paul-sartre, @wisdomtrove 8:I am I because my little dog knows me. ~ gertrude-stein, @wisdomtrove 9:I keep on dying, Because I love to live. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 10:I'm delirious because I'm dying so fast. ~ henry-miller, @wisdomtrove 11:There seems no plan because it is all plan. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 12:Everything I know, I know because of love. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 13:Love dies because its birth was an error. ~ susan-sontag, @wisdomtrove 14:We grow old because we stop playing. ~ benjamin-franklin, @wisdomtrove 15:We hate the hawk because he ever lives in battle. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 16:We lost because we told ourselves we lost. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 17:After all, God is God because he remembers. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 18:I love advertising because I love lying. ~ jerry-seinfeld, @wisdomtrove 19:Because I don't believe everything I read. ~ steven-wright, @wisdomtrove 20:God loves you because He has chosen to do so. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 21:We pretend to be strong because we are weak. ~ paulo-coelho, @wisdomtrove 22:I'm doing this because I want to do it better. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 23:Because of Bethlehem, I have a friend in heaven. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 24:If I know what love is, it is because of you. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 25:Money doesn't exist because I don't recognize it. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 26:... there are shadows because there are hills. ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 27:I am what I am because of who we all are. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 28:It's useful because it's beautiful. ~ antoine-de-saint-exupery, @wisdomtrove 29:Love is beyond the mind because it is always new. ~ barry-long, @wisdomtrove 30:Never be disagreeable just because you disagree. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 31:You seek problems because you need their gifts. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 32:God made (human beings) because he loves stories. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 33:I play better tennis because the court is there. ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 34:People hide the truth because they're afraid. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 35:Love is ever new because it never groweth old. ~ saint-augustine, @wisdomtrove 36:I love my love with a b because she is peculiar. ~ gertrude-stein, @wisdomtrove 37:I survived because I was tougher than anybody else. ~ bette-davis, @wisdomtrove 38:You and I are more than you and I because it's we. ~ e-e-cummings, @wisdomtrove 39:Black Girls rock because we have no other choice. ~ lyania-vanzant, @wisdomtrove 40:Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened. ~ dr-seuss, @wisdomtrove 41:I never have lunch because it makes me foggy-headed. ~ dean-koontz, @wisdomtrove 42:pain is absurd because it exists, nothing more. ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 43:Today is a Happy Day because I say it is. ~ jonathan-lockwood-huie, @wisdomtrove 44:Youth is easily deceived, because it is quick to hope. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 45:I am against slavery simply because I dislike slaves. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 46:I know so much about men because I went to night school. ~ mae-west, @wisdomtrove 47:Soccer is popular because stupidity is popular. ~ jorge-luis-borges, @wisdomtrove 48:People generally quarrel because they cannot argue. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 49:Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. ~ aldous-huxley, @wisdomtrove 50:I drink because I wish to multiply my sufferings. ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 51:Stop labeling people just because they're not like you. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 52:We only consult the ear because the heart is wanting. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 53:We read many books, because we cannot know enough people. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 54:We sing because we're happy and happy because we sing ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove 55:Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 56:Do not stop trying just because perfection eludes you. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 57:Don't do it because it's your job, do it because you can. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 58:I don't call myself a poet, because I don't like the word. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 59:If you can't hear me, it's because I'm in parentheses. ~ steven-wright, @wisdomtrove 60:One starts an action simply because one must do something. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 61:The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to. ~ frida-kahlo, @wisdomtrove 62:because the hardest boss a man can ever have is himself. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 63:Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 64:I call it God Light, because it reminds me of heaven. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 65:I drank some boiling water because I wanted to whistle. ~ mitch-hedberg, @wisdomtrove 66:Maybe they invited me because they know I have a tuxedo ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 67:Television is a medium because anything well done is rare. ~ fred-allen, @wisdomtrove 68:The swallow is not ensnared by men because of its gentle nature. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 69:This City is what it is because our citizens are what they are. ~ plato, @wisdomtrove 70:Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove 71:A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 72:Every man is somebody because he is a child of God. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 73:Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 74:Do not blame the food because you have no appetite. ~ rabindranath-tagore, @wisdomtrove 75:He is terribly afraid of dying because he hasn't yet lived. ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove 76:I became a performer because it was what I enjoyed doing. ~ richard-pryor, @wisdomtrove 77:I have decided to be happy because it’s good for one’s health. ~ voltaire, @wisdomtrove 78:Make the world a better place because you have lived in it. ~ edgar-cayce, @wisdomtrove 79:Many Things That Are True Are True Because You Believe Them. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 80:Some people don't do well simply because they don't feel well. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 81:We need beauty because it makes us ache to be worthy of it. ~ mary-oliver, @wisdomtrove 82:we need ghost stories because we, in fact, are the ghosts. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 83:because everybody lies. It's part of living in society . ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 84:Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 85:Deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised. ~ j-r-r-tolkien, @wisdomtrove 86:Little things console us because little things afflict us. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 87:We are what we are because we have been what we have been. ~ sigmund-freud, @wisdomtrove 88:Your requests change history because your prayers change God! ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 89:and he loved her suddenly because she loved him. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 90:Because God is love, He could not completely cast man aside. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 91:Celebrate the cracks, because that's how the light comes in. ~ groucho-marx, @wisdomtrove 92:I drank some boiling water... because I wanted to whistle. ~ mitch-hedberg, @wisdomtrove 93:It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 94:Just because you like my stuff doesn't mean I owe you anything. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 95:Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 96:God does not create poverty; we do, because we do not share. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 97:How much I missed, simply because I was afraid of missing it. ~ paulo-coelho, @wisdomtrove 98:I can read minds. But it's pointless because I'm illiterate. ~ mitch-hedberg, @wisdomtrove 99:My fake plants died because I did not pretend to water them. ~ mitch-hedberg, @wisdomtrove 100:No place is the same because everything is shifting always. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 101:... the plan will happen in spite of us, not because of us. ~ melody-beattie, @wisdomtrove 102:You're never without hope, because you're never without prayer. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 103:You should love everyone because God dwells in all beings. ~ sri-ramakrishna, @wisdomtrove 104:America has never gotten in a war because we were too strong. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 105:I haven't slept for ten days, because that would be too long. ~ mitch-hedberg, @wisdomtrove 106:I hid in bars, because I didn't want to hide in factories. ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 107:I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing. ~ socrates, @wisdomtrove 108:I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong. ~ bertrand-russell, @wisdomtrove 109:Never forget me, because if I thought you would, I'd never leave. ~ a-a-milne, @wisdomtrove 110:The past is always attractive because it is drained of fear. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 111:A little thing comforts us because a little thing afflicts us. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 112:Because when you stop and look around, this life is pretty amazing. ~ dr-seuss, @wisdomtrove 113:Books became my world because the world I was in was very hard. ~ alice-walker, @wisdomtrove 114:Give your best effort, because you are worth your best effort. ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove 115:I don't wear a watch because I want my arms to weigh the same. ~ mitch-hedberg, @wisdomtrove 116:I face my future peacefully and calmly because I know I am enough ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 117:Logic might be unanswerable because it was so absolutely wrong. ~ d-h-lawrence, @wisdomtrove 118:Marvin was humming ironically because he hated humans so much. ~ douglas-adams, @wisdomtrove 119:The tongue must be heavy indeed, because so few people can hold it ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 120:What is divine escapes men's notice because of their incredulity. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 121:Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song? ~ steven-wright, @wisdomtrove 122:Because He reveals Himself in infinite ways and forms — verily, ~ anandamayi-ma, @wisdomtrove 123:Because I survived, I must do everything possible to help others. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 124:Don't take my devils away, because my angels may flee too. ~ rainer-maria-rilke, @wisdomtrove 125:I became interested in folk music because I had to make it somehow. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 126:I haven't slept for 10 days... because that would be too long. ~ mitch-hedberg, @wisdomtrove 127:I like people to be unhappy because I like them to have souls. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 128:I prefer the old theaters because the audience is... trapped. ~ jerry-seinfeld, @wisdomtrove 129:I went back to work because someone had to pay for the groceries. ~ bette-davis, @wisdomtrove 130:Nonsense is so good only because common sense is so limited. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 131:... what I write is smarter than I am. Because I can rewrite it. ~ susan-sontag, @wisdomtrove 132:Why do they call me misanthrope? Because They hate me, not I them. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 133:You can't assert an answer just because it's not something else. ~ isaac-asimov, @wisdomtrove 134:Acting of some actors seems natural, because they have no talent. ~ jules-renard, @wisdomtrove 135:Because it is so unbelievable, the Truth often escapes being known. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 136:Don't live like there's no tomorrow because tomorrow always comes. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 137:Do you know because I tell you so, or do you know, do you know. ~ gertrude-stein, @wisdomtrove 138:I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday. ~ eleanor-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 139:I say, don't try to fight your own battles because God will do it. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 140:Just because it's common sense, doesn't mean it's common practice. ~ will-rogers, @wisdomtrove 141:Many people miss opportunity because it came disguised in overalls. ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 142:Stand up for what you believe in, because you can fall for anything. ~ les-brown, @wisdomtrove 143:We serve life, not because it is broken, but because it is holy. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 144:Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 145:Everyone knows how to love because we are all born with that gift. ~ paulo-coelho, @wisdomtrove 146:He (God) loved us not because we are lovable, but because He is love. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 147:I became a stand-up comedienne because I had a sit-down husband. ~ phyllis-diller, @wisdomtrove 148:I do not in the least object to a sport because it is rough. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 149:One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving. ~ paulo-coelho, @wisdomtrove 150:The tao is made because we walk it,things become what they are called. ~ zhuangzi, @wisdomtrove 151:They do not love one another because they do not love themselves. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 152:When someone leaves, it's because someone else is about to arrive. ~ paulo-coelho, @wisdomtrove 153:Why should a Man be Moral? Because this strengthens his will. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 154:You are what you are today because of the choices you made in the past ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 155:All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 156:All music has political dimensions because it suggests a way of being. ~ brian-eno, @wisdomtrove 157:Death is turning out the lamp because the dawn has appeared. ~ rabindranath-tagore, @wisdomtrove 158:Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 159:Good people end up in Hell because they can't forgive themselves. ~ robin-williams, @wisdomtrove 160:He who does anything because it is the custom, makes no choice. ~ john-stuart-mill, @wisdomtrove 161:I like to serve chocolate cake, because it doesn't show the dirt. ~ phyllis-diller, @wisdomtrove 162:I like vending machines, because snacks are better when they fall. ~ mitch-hedberg, @wisdomtrove 163:I pretend to understand because I don't want anybody to be hurt ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 164:Opportunities will not overlook you because you are wearing overalls. ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 165:Poets aren't very useful Because they aren't consumeful or produceful ~ ogden-nash, @wisdomtrove 166:The greatest sin is to do nothing because you can only do a little. ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 167:The mirror is my best friend because when I cry it never laughs. ~ charlie-chaplan, @wisdomtrove 168:There must be somebody there, because somebody must have said "Nobody. ~ a-a-milne, @wisdomtrove 169:The world is the way the world is because we think that it is so. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 170:We can have more than we've got because we can become more than we are. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 171:Whatever is on your plate got there because you said yes to it. ~ danielle-laporte, @wisdomtrove 172:Because of our routines we forget that life is an ongoing adventure. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 173:Go after what you want as if your life depended on it. Because it Does! ~ les-brown, @wisdomtrove 174:Just because something is easy to measure doesn't mean it's important. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 175:Just because you feel fear doesn't mean you can't do it. Do it afraid ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 176:People with goals succeed because they know where they're going. ~ earl-nightingale, @wisdomtrove 177:The strings to our past are burned because we need a new beginning. ~ caroline-myss, @wisdomtrove 178:Because a truly skeptical position would be a very uncertain one. ~ rupert-sheldrake, @wisdomtrove 179:For dear me, why abandon a belief Merely because it ceases to be true ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 180:God must have loved Afghans because he made them so beautiful. ~ alexander-the-great, @wisdomtrove 181:I'm just so grateful, because to feel this vulnerable means I'm alive. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 182:Is it true that cannibals don't eat clowns because they taste funny? ~ steven-wright, @wisdomtrove 183:It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually. ~ m-scott-peck, @wisdomtrove 184:Make the most of yourself, because that’s all there is of you. ~ ralph-waldo-emerson, @wisdomtrove 185:Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove 186:More men die of worry than of work, because more men worry than work. ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 187:Radio is called a medium because it is rare that anything is well done. ~ fred-allen, @wisdomtrove 188:To call a king "Prince" is pleasing, because it diminishes his rank. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 189:Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears ~ les-brown, @wisdomtrove 190:Because of acid, I now know that butter is way better than margarine. ~ mitch-hedberg, @wisdomtrove 191:Great minds think alike because a greater Mind is thinking through them. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove 192:I can tell you that God is alive because I talked to him this morning. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 193:I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then. ~ lewis-carroll, @wisdomtrove 194:I don't have to look up my family tree, because I know that I'm the sap. ~ fred-allen, @wisdomtrove 195:I love artists, because through art one can express oneself beautifully. ~ meher-baba, @wisdomtrove 196:Love has no resistance. Whatever we do is because we want to do it. ~ don-miguel-ruiz, @wisdomtrove 197:People sometimes fail to live because they are always preparing to live. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove 198:Remember, you are special because I made you. And I don't make mistakes. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 199:This very moment you can drop all problems because they are your creation. ~ rajneesh, @wisdomtrove 200:We need to hear the Gospel every day, because we forget it every day. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 201:You are neither right nor wrong because the crowd disagrees with you. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 202:A meditative mind is at ease because it's not trying to acquire anything. ~ adyashanti, @wisdomtrove 203:And because I love this life, I know I shall love death as well. ~ rabindranath-tagore, @wisdomtrove 204:Can't you enjoy things that are useless, merely because they are beautiful? ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 205:Colonies do not cease to be colonies because they are independent. ~ benjamin-disraeli, @wisdomtrove 206:Crosses only scare vampires away because they're allergic to bullshit. ~ richard-pryor, @wisdomtrove 207:Dogs are better than human beings because they know but do not tell. ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 208:Don't be afraid of change, because it is leading you to a new beginning. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 209:I do but sing because I must; and pipe but as the linnets sing. ~ alfred-lord-tennyson, @wisdomtrove 210:In doing what we ought we deserve no praise, because it is our duty. ~ saint-augustine, @wisdomtrove 211:It is indifferent to me where I begin; because, I’ll be back there again. ~ parmenides, @wisdomtrove 212:I wear a necklace now... because I like to know when I'm upside down. ~ mitch-hedberg, @wisdomtrove 213:There are times when you have to speak because silence is betrayal. ~ ursula-k-le-guin, @wisdomtrove 214:Ultimately, all things are known because you want to believe you know. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 215:Women with pasts interest men because they hope history will repeat itself. ~ mae-west, @wisdomtrove 216:A book is not harmless merely because no one is consciously offended by it. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 217:Awareness is bigger than thinking because it can hold thought as well. ~ jon-kabat-zinn, @wisdomtrove 218:Because fear is insatiable, everything that is insatiable is born of fear. ~ alan-cohen, @wisdomtrove 219:Be humble because until the sun with all its grandeur, let the moon shine. ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 220:Giving is better than receiving because giving starts the receiving process. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 221:I am able to love my God because He gives me freedom to deny Him. ~ rabindranath-tagore, @wisdomtrove 222:I am not a failure if I don't succeed; I am successful because I tried. ~ susan-jeffers, @wisdomtrove 223:I do not love him because he is good, but because he is my child. ~ rabindranath-tagore, @wisdomtrove 224:If you are feeling good , it is because you are thinking good thoughts . ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 225:I hate the French because they are all slaves and wear wooden shoes. ~ oliver-goldsmith, @wisdomtrove 226:I like wearing necklaces, because it lets me know when I'm upside down. ~ mitch-hedberg, @wisdomtrove 227:Just because it may take longer, Doesn't mean your dream won't get done. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 228:Of course, you play the game of life because you got to be incarnated. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 229:There's obviously ... pressure on yields because of the fuel prices. ~ richard-branson, @wisdomtrove 230:You need to get ready because I have explosive blessings coming your way. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 231:And who understands? Not me, because if I did I would forgive it all. ~ ernest-hemingway, @wisdomtrove 232:Because I cannot rely on myself, I rely on Him, twenty-four hours a day. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 233:I always deserve the best treatment because I never put up with any other. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 234:If we succeed without sacrifice, it's because someone sacrificed for us. ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove 235:I put fruit on top of my waffles, because I want something to brush off. ~ mitch-hedberg, @wisdomtrove 236:I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't, I would die. ~ isaac-asimov, @wisdomtrove 237:Man is the highest being in creation, because he attains to freedom. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 238:Men like a ref decision because they just want to get back to the game. ~ jerry-seinfeld, @wisdomtrove 239:Prayer enables us to transform the world because it transforms us. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 240:So, I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you. ~ paulo-coelho, @wisdomtrove 241:The dumbest reason in the world to buy a stock is because it's going up. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 242:The reason most people don’t accomplish much is because they don’t want much. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 243:The reason the way of the transgressor is hard is because it's so crowded. ~ kin-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 244:We are not revived because we sing; we sing because we are revived. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 245:Why should we give God thanks? Because everything we have comes from God. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 246:A change is brought about because ordinary people do extraordinary things. ~ barack-obama, @wisdomtrove 247:Because a man can write great works he is none the less a man. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 248:Because of the dog’s joyfulness, our own is increased. It is no small gift. ~ mary-oliver, @wisdomtrove 249:Don't judge a man by where he is, because you don't know how far he has come. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 250:Give because you love to give - as the flower pours forth its perfume. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 251:God will look to every soul like its first love because He is its first love. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 252:I believe one writes because one has to create a world in which one can live. ~ anais-nin, @wisdomtrove 253:Just because the tide is out, doesn't mean there is less water in the ocean. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 254:Just because you fail once doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything. ~ marilyn-monroe, @wisdomtrove 255:Nothing other people do is because of you. It is because of themselves. ~ don-miguel-ruiz, @wisdomtrove 256:Of all tales 'tis the saddest& 257:One always tends to overpraise a long book, because one has got through it. ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 258:You have to do more than you get paid for because that’s where the fortune is. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 259:You've got to go out on a limb sometimes because that's where the fruit is. ~ will-rogers, @wisdomtrove 260:& 261:Ask for help. Not because you are weak. But because you want to remain strong. ~ les-brown, @wisdomtrove 262:Because I know that time is always time And place is always and only place... ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 263:Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 264:I always invest in companies an idiot could run, because one day one will. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 265:If men live decently it is because discipline saves their very lives for them. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 266:Never regret anything because at one time it was exactly what you wanted. ~ marilyn-monroe, @wisdomtrove 267:Never schedule a board meeting on Wednesday because it kills two weekends. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 268:The strings to our past are burned because we need a new beginning. ~ norman-vincent-peale, @wisdomtrove 269:You are the way you are because that is what you believe about yourself. ~ don-miguel-ruiz, @wisdomtrove 270:God doesn't love me any more or less because I had some work done on my face. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 271:In Buddhism balance is the most difficult thing, because it is overlooked. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 272:It's been a struggle for me because I had a chance to be white and refused. ~ richard-pryor, @wisdomtrove 273:Jacob did not cease to be a Saint because he had to attend to his flocks. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 274:Let's never try to get even with our enemies, because if we do we will hurt ~ dale-carnegie, @wisdomtrove 275:Risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. ~ leo-buscaglia, @wisdomtrove 276:Sometimes God allows us to be tested because He's preparing us for promotion. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 277:The age does not believe in great men, because it does not possess any. ~ benjamin-disraeli, @wisdomtrove 278:The people are hungry: It is because those in authority eat up too much in taxes. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 279:The saints shall persevere in holiness, because God perseveres in grace. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 280:The weak can be terrible because they try furiously to appear strong. ~ rabindranath-tagore, @wisdomtrove 281:Think not because no man sees, such things will remain unseen. ~ henry-wadsworth-longfellow, @wisdomtrove 282:We control matter because we control the mind. Reality is inside the skull. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 283:We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 284:But there is much beauty here, because there is much beauty everywhere. ~ rainer-maria-rilke, @wisdomtrove 285:Holy church-that mother who is also a queen because she is a king's bride. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 286:I'm personally opposed to a deep tan because I like to feel blond all over. ~ marilyn-monroe, @wisdomtrove 287:Just because you couldn't do it yesterday doesn't mean you can't do it today. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 288:Look to the future, because that is where you'll spend the rest of your life. ~ george-burns, @wisdomtrove 289:Love moves without an agenda. It just moves because that is its nature to move. ~ adyashanti, @wisdomtrove 290:Precisely because we cannot predict the moment, we must be ready at all moments. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 291:Shoot for the moon, because even if you miss you miss, you'll land in the stars. ~ les-brown, @wisdomtrove 292:We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 293:A positive attitude will have positive results because attitudes are contagious. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 294:Everyday happiness means you can't wait to come home, because the soup is hot. ~ george-burns, @wisdomtrove 295:God answers our prayers not because we are good, but because He is good. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 296:If there are any tears shed in heaven, it will be because we prayed so little. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 297:I know worrying works, because none of the stuff I worried about ever happened. ~ will-rogers, @wisdomtrove 298:Love, because when you love, you are using the greatest power in the Universe. ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 299:The reason it hurts so much to separate is because our souls are connected. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 300:The team that makes the most mistakes usually wins, because doers make mistakes ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 301:Those who successfully go through tough times do so because they keep insisting. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 302:Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 303:I don't write because there's an audience. I write because there is literature. ~ susan-sontag, @wisdomtrove 304:I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things. ~ antoine-de-saint-exupery, @wisdomtrove 305:If there is a lack in your life it is because there is a lack in your thoughts. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 306:I like the Fed Ex driver because he's a drug dealer and he don't even know it. ~ mitch-hedberg, @wisdomtrove 307:I was deeply unhappy, but I didn't know it because I was so happy all the time. ~ steve-martin, @wisdomtrove 308:Learn to be pleased with everything... because it could always be worse, but isn't! ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 309:Strive for excellence, not perfection, because we don't live in a perfect world. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 310:That's the reason they're called lessons, because they lesson from day to day. ~ lewis-carroll, @wisdomtrove 311:The gems of philosophy are not less precious because they are not understood. ~ giordano-bruno, @wisdomtrove 312:The reason we want to go on and on is because we live in an impoverished present. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove 313:There was no real sense of life because she had nothing to contrast it with. ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove 314:This is a short book because most books about writing are filled with bullshit. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 315:A law is valuable not because it is law, but because there is right in it. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 316:Bobby Kennedy is so concerned with poverty because he didn't have any as a kid. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 317:I live in a peaceful world because I choose to think loving and peaceful thoughts. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 318:I'm a hard act to follow, because when I'm done, I take the microphone with me. ~ mitch-hedberg, @wisdomtrove 319:It is not perceivable, because it is what makes perception possible. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 320:It is precisely because there is nothing within the One that all things are from it. ~ plotinus, @wisdomtrove 321:It's because I like you, I don't want to be with you. It's a complicated emotion. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 322:I will not be afraid because I understand ... And understanding is happiness. ~ arthur-c-carke, @wisdomtrove 323:I would rather be a coward than brave because people hurt you when you are brave. ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 324:Men are not revived because they sing; they sing because they are revived. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 325:Pay attention to where you are going because without meaning you might get nowhere. ~ a-a-milne, @wisdomtrove 326:Plain spoken people get most of the recognition because folks are afraid of them. ~ kin-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 327:Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 328:You can have more, be more and do more because you can change the person you are. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove 329:Because of not daring to be ahead of the world, one becomes the leader of the world. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 330:Because of the movies nobody will believe that it was babies who fought the war. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 331:Because one doesn't like the way things are is no reason to be unjust towards God. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 332:Be grateful for whoever comes, because each guest has been sent as a guide from beyond. ~ rumi, @wisdomtrove 333:Courage is indispensible because in politics not life but the world is at stake. ~ hannah-arendt, @wisdomtrove 334:Do not doubt that mountains walk simply because they may not appear to walk like humans. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove 335:Enjoy the dream. And help everyone else to enjoy it as well, because we are all you. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 336:I look to the future because that's where I'm going to spend the rest of my life. ~ george-burns, @wisdomtrove 337:I'm leaving because the weather is too good. I hate London when it's not raining. ~ groucho-marx, @wisdomtrove 338:It is good to have respect for all beings because who knows what anyone can do? ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 339:I was born because it was a habit in those days, people didn't know anything else. ~ will-rogers, @wisdomtrove 340:Love is the experience of communing as one, which can only arise because we are two. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 341:Marriage is really tough because you have to deal with feelings... and lawyers. ~ richard-pryor, @wisdomtrove 342:Maybe the reason nothing seems to be ‘fixing you’ is because you’re not broken. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 343:Modern toleration is really a tyranny. It is a tyranny because it is a silence. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 344:Most men die from the neck up at age twenty-five because they stop dreaming. ~ benjamin-franklin, @wisdomtrove 345:One time I was forced to go to the doctors because of a sports accident. Herpes. ~ mitch-hedberg, @wisdomtrove 346:Reputation matters so much only because people so seldom think for themselves. ~ alain-de-botton, @wisdomtrove 347:The perverseness of my fate is such that he's not mine because he's mine too much. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 348:We like little children, because they tear out as soon as they get what they want. ~ kin-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 349:You're special-not because of what you have. You're special because of who you are. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 350:All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain? ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove 351:And because I am happy and dance and sing,They think they have done me no injury. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 352:Don't think of God in terms of forms, because forms are limited and God is unlimited. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 353:History often resembles myth, because they are both ultimately of the same stuff. ~ j-r-r-tolkien, @wisdomtrove 354:I cannot smell mothballs because it's so difficult to get their little legs apart. ~ steve-martin, @wisdomtrove 355:If you're certain, you're certainly wrong, because nothing deserves certainty. ~ bertrand-russell, @wisdomtrove 356:I grow to experience greater happiness, not to improve or because I feel incomplete. ~ wayne-dyer, @wisdomtrove 357:It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves. ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove 358:Just because the truth is unpopular doesn't mean that it should not be proclaimed. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 359:Life has to be given a meaning because of the obvious fact that it has no meaning. ~ henry-miller, @wisdomtrove 360:Never take your eyes off the cash flow because it's the life blood of business. ~ richard-branson, @wisdomtrove 361:Non-dual realization cannot be dealt with by the mind because it is beyond the mind. ~ jean-klein, @wisdomtrove 362:Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 363:Symbols are powerful because they are the visible signs of invisible realities. ~ saint-augustine, @wisdomtrove 364:We accept reality so readily - perhaps because we sense that nothing is real. ~ jorge-luis-borges, @wisdomtrove 365:You who suffer because you love, love still more. To die of love, is to live by it. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 366:Because you aren't afraid to kiss the dirt (and consequently dare to climb the sky) ~ e-e-cummings, @wisdomtrove 367:Change is an illusion because we're always at the place where any future can take us. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove 368:Don't give up just because of what someone said. Use it as motivation to push harder. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 369:Golf is so popular simply because it is the best game in the world at which to be bad. ~ a-a-milne, @wisdomtrove 370:I believe our Heavenly Father invented man because he was disappointed in the monkey. ~ mark-twain, @wisdomtrove 371:If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 372:Look for things marked positive to you, like songs, because all dem things are right. ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 373:Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know. ~ aldous-huxley, @wisdomtrove 374:No executive has ever suffered because his subordinates were strong and effective. ~ peter-drucker, @wisdomtrove 375:The best jokes are dangerous, and dangerous because they are in some way truthful. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 376:Treat everyone you meet as if they have infinite value because in God's eyes they do ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 377:True love never has a happy ending, because there is no ending to true love. ~ alexander-the-great, @wisdomtrove 378:We're a nation hungry for more joy: Because we're starving from a lack of gratitude. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 379:When we suffer, it is because of our own acts; God is not to be blamed for it. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 380:You have to have courage to love somebody. Because you risk everything. Everything. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 381:A man is angry at a libel because it is false, but at a satire because it is true. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 382:Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 383:Delusion and weakness produce not one mischief the less, because they are universal. ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 384:did everything I could in my life to be immune to hatred, because hatred is a cancer. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 385:Hey you! I told you to slow that nag down! Because of you, I almost heard the opera! ~ groucho-marx, @wisdomtrove 386:I consider wisdom supernatural because it isn't taught by men but is a gift from God. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 387:If there is unemployment in America, it is because the unemployed do not want to work. ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 388:If you have any image of what the Truth is, slay it immediately because that's not it. ~ adyashanti, @wisdomtrove 389:If you've heard this story before, don't stop me, because I'd like to hear it again. ~ groucho-marx, @wisdomtrove 390:I like to hear a man talk about himself because then I never hear anything, but good. ~ will-rogers, @wisdomtrove 391:I'm into carpooling, because sometimes my car gets hot and needs to refresh itself. ~ mitch-hedberg, @wisdomtrove 392:She loved him not only in spite of but because he himself was incapable of love. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 393:The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live. ~ george-carlin, @wisdomtrove 394:The only reason anyone goes to Broadway is because they can't get work in the movies. ~ bette-davis, @wisdomtrove 395:You are where you are in life because of what you believe is possible for yourself. ~ oprah-winfrey, @wisdomtrove 396:And sometimes you didn't want to know the end‚ ¶ because how could the end be happy? ~ j-r-r-tolkien, @wisdomtrove 397:Bad habits are our enemies because they hinder us from being the person we want to be. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 398:God spares us because He is good, but He could not be good if He were not just. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 399:He appears mad indeed but to a few, because the majority is infected with the same disease. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 400:I believe in the immortality of the soul because I have within me immortal longings. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 401:I bought a seven-dollar pen because I always lose pens and I got sick of not caring. ~ mitch-hedberg, @wisdomtrove 402:If He has said much about prayer, it is because He knows we have much need of it. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 403:I think I love you, Cal." -Abra I'm not good." -Cal Because you're not good." -Abra ~ john-steinbeck, @wisdomtrove 404:It is impossible to design anything that is foolproof because fools are so ingenious. ~ groucho-marx, @wisdomtrove 405:Just because your pain is understandable, doesn't mean your behavior is acceptable. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 406:Kant thought things, not because they were true, but because he was Kant. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 407:Keep smiling, because life is a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about. ~ marilyn-monroe, @wisdomtrove 408:Love is ownership. We own whom we love. The universe is God's because He loves. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 409:Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 410:My brother thinks he's a chicken-We don't talk him out of it because we need the eggs ~ groucho-marx, @wisdomtrove 411:People are always happy where there is love, because their happiness in in themselves. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 412:Serious illness doesn't bother me for long because I am too inhospitable a host. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 413:She was without any power, because she was without any desire of command over herself. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 414:There is no such thing as a lost cause, because there is no such thing as a gained cause ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 415:They call it the Latin Quarter because nobody there is Latin and nobody has a quarter. ~ will-rogers, @wisdomtrove 416:Words exist because of meaning; once you’ve gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. ~ zhuangzi, @wisdomtrove 417:Art lives where absolute freedom is, because where it is not, there can be no creativity. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 418:Christ died for men precisely because men are not worth dying for; to make them worth it. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 419:Critic: One who boasts of being “hard to please” because nobody tries to please him. ~ ambrose-bierce, @wisdomtrove 420:Dreamlining is so named because it applies timelines to what most would consider dreams. ~ tim-ferris, @wisdomtrove 421:It makes me sad because I've never seen such& 422:It's true. I can do anything and do it well because God loves me. It still humbles me. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 423:Just because you've failed once, it doesn't mean you're going to fail at everything. ~ marilyn-monroe, @wisdomtrove 424:Most people fail, not because of lack of desire, but, because of lack of commitment. ~ vince-lombardi, @wisdomtrove 425:Never, ever mistreat someone who loves you. Because you're not entitled to that love. ~ caroline-myss, @wisdomtrove 426:Paradigms are powerful because they create the lens through which we see the world. ~ stephen-r-covey, @wisdomtrove 427:Practice works because practice gives us a chance to relax enough to make smart choices. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 428:Real writers write because they love to write. They don't write for public acclaim. ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove 429:Sing because this is a food our starving world needs. Laugh because that is the purest sound. ~ hafez, @wisdomtrove 430:Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 431:We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share. ~ john-f-kennedy, @wisdomtrove 432:-Why don't you cry again, you little wretch? -Because I'll never cry for you again. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 433:Because God has made us for Himself, our hearts are restless until they rest in Him. ~ saint-augustine, @wisdomtrove 434:Don't do what's right to get something. Do the right thing because it's the right thing. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 435:If God is enough for you, then you'll always have enough, because you'll always have God. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 436:If nothing in this world satisfies me, perhaps it is because I was made for another world. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 437:I got my hair highlighted because I felt some strands were more important than others. ~ mitch-hedberg, @wisdomtrove 438:I know that if I wasn't scared, something's wrong, because the thrill is what's scary. ~ richard-pryor, @wisdomtrove 439:I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best. ~ frida-kahlo, @wisdomtrove 440:I've never had a single moment of depression, because I know my cause will triumph. ~ nelson-mandela, @wisdomtrove 441:Look into your own heart because who looks outside, dreams, but who looks inside awakes. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 442:Many a man has failed because he had his wishbone where his backbone should have been. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 443:Men marry because they are tired, women because they are curious; both are disappointed. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 444:Most good women are hidden treasures who are only safe because nobody looks for them. ~ dorothy-parker, @wisdomtrove 445:Separateness is absolutely necessary, because without it, we wouldn't be conscious at all. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 446:Some dog I got too. We call him Egypt. Because in every room he leaves a pyramid. ~ rodney-dangerfield, @wisdomtrove 447:The greatest of all mistakes is to do nothing because you think you can only do a little. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 448:The Russians love Brooke Shields because her eyebrows remind them of Leonid Brezhnev. ~ robin-williams, @wisdomtrove 449:Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people. ~ giordano-bruno, @wisdomtrove 450:When you find that you're unhappy, know that it's because you're not loving properly. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 451:Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something. ~ plato, @wisdomtrove 452:You need bravery because in the picture of soul, the bravery points are the most beautiful. ~ amit-ray, @wisdomtrove 453:You should invest in a business that even a fool can run, because someday a fool will. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 454:A fly was very close to being called a land, because that's what it does half the time. ~ mitch-hedberg, @wisdomtrove 455:Barnes, it is because I have lived very much that now I can enjoy everything so well ~ ernest-hemingway, @wisdomtrove 456:Because of their enmity you will be left alone. They will cast you out and forsake you. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 457:Buy into a company because you want to own it, not because you want the stock to go up. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 458:Don't change your mind just because people are offended; change your mind if you're wrong. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove 459:Everyone in the South has no time for reading because they are all too busy writing. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 460:God never wrought miracle, to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it. ~ francis-bacon, @wisdomtrove 461:If a statement is untrue, it is not the more respectable because it has been said in Latin. ~ a-a-milne, @wisdomtrove 462:If you haven't met Satan face to face, it's because you are running in the same direction. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 463:It's a certain kind of immortality, because those Disney films do go on and on and on. ~ phyllis-diller, @wisdomtrove 464:just because something is outside of awareness doesn't mean it's outside of control. ~ malcolm-gladwell, @wisdomtrove 465:Just because your doctor has a name for your condition, doesn't mean he knows what it is. ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove 466:Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. ~ anais-nin, @wisdomtrove 467:Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little. ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 468:No; that doesn't interest me.' & 469:The person who gives with a smile is the best giver because God loves a cheerful giver. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 470:They say our mothers really know how to push our buttons - because they installed them ~ robin-williams, @wisdomtrove 471:Those who restrain their desires, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 472:A fly was very close to being called a "land" because that's what it does half the time. ~ mitch-hedberg, @wisdomtrove 473:Because I do not hope to turn again / Because I do not hope / Because I do not hope to turn. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 474:Believe in what you do, because you may have to do it for a long time before it catches on. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 475:Comedy makes you humble. Because there are so many opportunities to miss, and strike out. ~ steve-martin, @wisdomtrove 476:Every time I find myself stressed out, it's because I do things primarily driven by growth. ~ tim-ferris, @wisdomtrove 477:Healing fails to occur because it is much easier to injure another than to heal oneself. ~ vernon-howard, @wisdomtrove 478:I am who I am because the tears of my past have watered the magnificence of my present. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 479:I like quoting Einstein. Know why? Because nobody dares contradict you." Studs Terkel ~ albert-einstein, @wisdomtrove 480:Just because I don't harass it like some peoples us know don't mean I ain't got religion. ~ alice-walker, @wisdomtrove 481:Philosophers are very severe towards other philosophers because they expect too much. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 482:School takes 13 years, because that is how long it takes to break a child's spirit. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 483:That’s why they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it. ~ george-carlin, @wisdomtrove 484:What we most need in our lives, though, is something worth doing, worth it because we care. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 485:Why is it so difficult to find God? Because you're looking for something you've never lost. ~ meher-baba, @wisdomtrove 486:Winning is coming in fourth, exhausted but excited, because you came in fifth last time. ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove 487:2-in-1 is a stupid term, because 1 is not big enough to hold 2. That's why 2 was created. ~ mitch-hedberg, @wisdomtrove 488:A theory should not attempt to explain all the facts, because some of the facts are wrong ~ francis-crick, @wisdomtrove 489:But the law of loving others could not be discovered by reason, because it is unreasonable. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 490:Eternity is called whole, not because it has parts, but because it is lacking in nothing. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 491:He did not say that because he knew that if you said a good thing it might not happen. ~ ernest-hemingway, @wisdomtrove 492:Humanity I love you because when you're hard up you pawn your intelligence to buy a drink. ~ e-e-cummings, @wisdomtrove 493:I long for the time when all human history is taught as one history, because it really is. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 494:Man's real life is happy, chiefly because he is ever expecting that it soon will be so. ~ edgar-allan-poe, @wisdomtrove 495:Opportunity is often missed because we are broadcasting when we should be tuning in ~ orison-swett-marden, @wisdomtrove 496:Real happiness is not vulnerable, because it does not depend on circumstances. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 497:Spies are a most important element in water, because on them depends an army's ability to move. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 498:The man who throws a bomb is an artist, because he prefers a great moment to everything. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 499:The reason why most people are frustrated is because a lie cannot be turned into a truth. ~ vernon-howard, @wisdomtrove 500:We fear our intuitions because we fear the transformational power within our revelations. ~ caroline-myss, @wisdomtrove *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:Because I´m a cat. ~ Julie Kagawa, #NFDB
2:because the hospital ~ K L Slater, #NFDB
3:Because we have to be ~ Ker Dukey, #NFDB
4:Because why not? ~ Michelle Obama, #NFDB
5:Because it is there ~ Jon Krakauer, #NFDB
6:And why? Because ~ Malcolm Gladwell, #NFDB
7:dickweed! Because ~ Theodora Taylor, #NFDB
8:I know because I read. ~ Libba Bray, #NFDB
9:moment, because, ~ Mary Kay Andrews, #NFDB
10:Because life is a gift. ~ Kim Holden, #NFDB
11:Because he can. You ~ Kathleen Brooks, #NFDB
12:Because it’s a person, ~ Lisa Jackson, #NFDB
13:Because pancakes.” **** ~ T M Frazier, #NFDB
14:Because love isn’t a cage. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
15:Because she's Peter's girl ~ Jenny Han, #NFDB
16:Because they weren't you. ~ Maya Banks, #NFDB
17:Because you know I'm ~ Meghan Trainor, #NFDB
18:talk, because I was heading ~ J R Rain, #NFDB
19:because the Pirahã language ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
20:It wasn’t because ~ William W Johnstone, #NFDB
21:because of her foolishness, ~ Lori Wilde, #NFDB
22:Because of you, I am me. ~ Suzanne Enoch, #NFDB
23:Because Tarik was dead. ~ Eliot Schrefer, #NFDB
24:I envy because of the heart. ~ Tite Kubo, #NFDB
25:I sing because I'm happy. ~ Sharon Jones, #NFDB
26:We lost because we didn't win. ~ Ronaldo, #NFDB
27:Because love requires context. ~ Joe Hill, #NFDB
28:Because the Muse persists. ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
29:I do it because I can. ~ Lauren Barnholdt, #NFDB
30:I like it because its ugly ~ Jack Kerouac, #NFDB
31:It hurts because it mattered ~ John Green, #NFDB
32:Maybe it’s because you’ve ~ Lucinda Riley, #NFDB
33:Act because you love to act. ~ Mae Whitman, #NFDB
34:Because I wanted to, Jasmine. ~ B V Larson, #NFDB
35:Because the heart is blind... ~ N R Walker, #NFDB
36:It hurts because it mattered. ~ John Green, #NFDB
37:It is legal because I wish it. ~ Louis XIV, #NFDB
38:I write because I believe ~ Anamika Mishra, #NFDB
39:Our love lives because I live. ~ Anais Nin, #NFDB
40:We die, because we live. ~ Herman Melville, #NFDB
41:Because he was impressed by it, ~ Lee Child, #NFDB
42:because I super don’t care. ~ Meagan Brandy, #NFDB
43:Because… Ronan. Always Ronan. ~ A Zavarelli, #NFDB
44:Because you are my Estrella. ~ Karina Halle, #NFDB
45:Don't hate me because I'm fabulous ~ Prince, #NFDB
46:I am here because of love. ~ David Levithan, #NFDB
47:I'm trying because I must. ~ Patti Callahan, #NFDB
48:In love there is no because. ~ Alice Notley, #NFDB
49:Is the market high only because of some , #NFDB
50:I write because you exist. ~ Michael Faudet, #NFDB
51:solid because the bees inside ~ Sue Hubbell, #NFDB
52:Thunder Point, Oregon, because ~ Robyn Carr, #NFDB
53:We love because we love. ~ Honore de Balzac, #NFDB
54:alive because of their sacrifice ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
55:as of late - mainly because ~ Rick Gualtieri, #NFDB
56:because he was only here for ~ E J Copperman, #NFDB
57:Because I'm in love with you. ~ Tahereh Mafi, #NFDB
58:Because I want to watch it die ~ Tillie Cole, #NFDB
59:Confident because of our caution ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
60:Done because we are too many. ~ Thomas Hardy, #NFDB
61:Goodbye -- Because I love you. ~ Kate Chopin, #NFDB
62:I am smart because I know I nothing. ~ Plato, #NFDB
63:I believe because it is absurd. ~ Tertullian, #NFDB
64:I drove slowly because there ~ Carolyn Brown, #NFDB
65:I live because I do not exist. ~ Dave Eggers, #NFDB
66:I need you because I love you. ~ Erich Fromm, #NFDB
67:It's funny because it's funny. ~ David Spade, #NFDB
68:I write because I can’t sleep. ~ Ben Mezrich, #NFDB
69:precisely because she was ~ Elizabeth Lowell, #NFDB
70:We are, because God is. ~ Emanuel Swedenborg, #NFDB
71:because her boils had erupted ~ Katherine Boo, #NFDB
72:Because I Stupidly Loved Her ~ Mary E Pearson, #NFDB
73:Because luck comes from within ~ Vikas Swarup, #NFDB
74:Because we forgot magic,’ Gim ~ Peter V Brett, #NFDB
75:I am because other people are. ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
76:I drink because I'm thirsty. ~ Shane MacGowan, #NFDB
77:I love swimming because racing. ~ Ryan Lochte, #NFDB
78:It grows because it's alive. ~ Nnedi Okorafor, #NFDB
79:I write because I love doing it. ~ Roxane Gay, #NFDB
80:People died because he lived. ~ Hafsah Faizal, #NFDB
81:Unstoppable not because she ... ~ Beau Taplin, #NFDB
82:We are, because God is. ~ Emanuel Swedenborg, #NFDB
83:We love because He first loved us ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
84:Because I couldn't go for three. ~ Woody Hayes, #NFDB
85:Because love, love never finishes. ~ Sara Zarr, #NFDB
86:Because,” she finally said softly, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
87:because thou hast obeyed my voice. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
88:Be love because you are. ~ Francesca Lia Block, #NFDB
89:God is God because he remembers. ~ Elie Wiesel, #NFDB
90:I do what I do because I love it. ~ Ray Romano, #NFDB
91:i love reading because it is fun ~ Elle Fowler, #NFDB
92:I trust you because I need you. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
93:They can because they think they can. ~ Virgil, #NFDB
94:twenty-five had bought drugs because ~ Jo Nesb, #NFDB
95:We are artists, because God is. ~ Peter Kreeft, #NFDB
96:We broke up because I was afraid. ~ Kyra Davis, #NFDB
97:because a rumor is like smoke. ~ Oliver P tzsch, #NFDB
98:Because the heart is the woman in us. ~ Jo Nesb, #NFDB
99:Because you're my friend, wingnut. ~ John Green, #NFDB
100:better. Because soon I’d have to pry ~ J C Reed, #NFDB
101:I believe BECAUSE it's impossible. ~ Tertullian, #NFDB
102:I kid because I'm on basic cable. ~ Jon Stewart, #NFDB
103:I’m amazing. Because I’m with you ~ Celia Aaron, #NFDB
104:I pray because I can't help myself. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
105:I write because I want express ~ Anamika Mishra, #NFDB
106:Laugh because that is the purest sound. ~ Hafez, #NFDB
107:Never fear because Triple H is here. ~ Triple H, #NFDB
108:You own me, because you are me. ~ Coco J Ginger, #NFDB
109:Because everything is different. ~ Stylo Fantome, #NFDB
110:...because my vagina is stupid. ~ Julie Klausner, #NFDB
111:I smoke because I like to get high. ~ Method Man, #NFDB
112:I trust you. Because you’re Will. ~ Sam Sisavath, #NFDB
113:It was love because it was worth it. ~ Jay Asher, #NFDB
114:I work hard because I love my work. ~ Bill Gates, #NFDB
115:People lived because she killed. ~ Hafsah Faizal, #NFDB
116:you will name him17 Jesus,18 because ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
117:And we forget because we must. ~ Maggie O Farrell, #NFDB
118:Art is alive because it is mortal. ~ Paul Virilio, #NFDB
119:Because I loved myself, I was loved. ~ Erica Jong, #NFDB
120:Because I prayed
this word:
I want ~ Sappho,#NFDB
121:Because most people ain't people. ~ Arthur Miller, #NFDB
122:BECAUSE SELF IS NO LONGER OUR GOD, ~ David Platt, #NFDB
123:Because you’re a suspicious bitch. ~ Lisa Jackson, #NFDB
124:concerned because here we ~ Uell Stanley Andersen, #NFDB
125:I am dead because I have no desire, ~ Rene Daumal, #NFDB
126:I came because you went. - Victoria ~ Nina George, #NFDB
127:I'm retiring because my time is up. ~ Dave Hickey, #NFDB
128:I quit politics because I hated it. ~ Roger Ailes, #NFDB
129:She knew because she looked. ~ Zora Neale Hurston, #NFDB
130:Why? Because he’s one of them. ~ Victoria Aveyard, #NFDB
131:All that I am is because of my mind. ~ Paavo Nurmi, #NFDB
132:And because I love this life ~ Rabindranath Tagore, #NFDB
133:Because I knew it was happening again. ~ R L Stine, #NFDB
134:Because I want to." - Tyson Maddox ~ Tarrah Anders, #NFDB
135:Because I was flat out wrong ~ John Walter Bratton, #NFDB
136:Because,” she says, “I said so.” I ~ Lauren Oliver, #NFDB
137:Because there is no glory in illness. ~ John Green, #NFDB
138:Because they drive on the left in China, ~ Jo Nesb, #NFDB
139:Because vacuum cleaners are too heavy. ~ Mat Waugh, #NFDB
140:Because we don't really sparkle. ~ John G Hartness, #NFDB
141:Be on time because it shows you care. ~ Nick Saban, #NFDB
142:Contentment is easy because what is needed? ~ Osho, #NFDB
143:I like barbecuing because it's easy. ~ Norah Jones, #NFDB
144:I like fighting because it's honest. ~ Gina Carano, #NFDB
145:I'm single because I was born that way. ~ Mae West, #NFDB
146:It is certain because it is possible. ~ Tertullian, #NFDB
147:I worked because I could control it. ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
148:Life is only precious because it ends, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
149:Love exalts because it is exalted. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
150:Man is ill because he is never still. ~ Paracelsus, #NFDB
151:too much, because it feels so good ~ Gillian Flynn, #NFDB
152:...And all because a boy loved a girl ~ Lauren Kate, #NFDB
153:Be amazing, because you are. ~ Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, #NFDB
154:Because I wanted her,” Adrian said. ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
155:Because of a great love, one is courageous. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
156:Because the sun is not their friend. ~ Sam Sisavath, #NFDB
157:Because we all love imperfectly. ~ Elizabeth Strout, #NFDB
158:Because you're mine, I walk the line. ~ Johnny Cash, #NFDB
159:Enjoy it. Because it's happening. ~ Stephen Chbosky, #NFDB
160:Everything is s*** because we lost. ~ Ronald Koeman, #NFDB
161:Fret not yourself because of evildoers, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
162:He was alone because he was Unique. ~ Thomas Harris, #NFDB
163:I am alive because you want me to. ~ Santosh Kalwar, #NFDB
164:I can't let you go because you're mine ~ Elle Casey, #NFDB
165:I cried because I was so beautiful. ~ Victoria Kann, #NFDB
166:I knew this because alone at night ~ Kristen Ashley, #NFDB
167:I know love is real because I feel it. ~ John Green, #NFDB
168:I laugh because your pain is amusing. ~ Lauren Dane, #NFDB
169:I need the sea because it teaches me ~ Pablo Neruda, #NFDB
170:It is because everything is relative ~ John Ashbery, #NFDB
171:It’s legal because it’s not illegal. ~ John Grisham, #NFDB
172:So few grow, because so few study. ~ Dwight L Moody, #NFDB
173:Usually, I get hired because I`m tall. ~ Peter Falk, #NFDB
174:We all scream because we are alive. ~ Douglas Clegg, #NFDB
175:We seem weak because we want to. ~ Victoria Aveyard, #NFDB
176:appearance, but because Rell had never ~ Megg Jensen, #NFDB
177:Because I cannot sleep I make music at night. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
178:Because our lies matched. It was a sign. ~ Jay Asher, #NFDB
179:Because they’re my life’s work. ~ Meg Mitchell Moore, #NFDB
180:comments because he needed Slick to ~ David Baldacci, #NFDB
181:Don't hate me because I'm beautiful. ~ Kelly LeBrock, #NFDB
182:Do what is right because it is right. ~ Ken Watanabe, #NFDB
183:Envy is universal because sin is. ~ Paul David Tripp, #NFDB
184:France is great because she is France. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
185:God made man because He loves stories. ~ Elie Wiesel, #NFDB
186:I can't remember, because I never knew. ~ John Green, #NFDB
187:I felt guilty because I survived. ~ Edgar Hilsenrath, #NFDB
188:I have no stress, because I am the best. ~ Lil Wayne, #NFDB
189:I like to read because
it kills me. ~ Mary Ruefle,#NFDB
190:I read because one life isn't enough. ~ Richard Peck, #NFDB
191:It is to believed because it is absurd. ~ Tertullian, #NFDB
192:it's gonna hurt because it matters. ~ David Levithan, #NFDB
193:Life is only precious because it ends ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
194:Love the church because Jesus loves it. ~ D A Carson, #NFDB
195:Mission exists because worship doesn't. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
196:O heart, be at peace, because ~ William Butler Yeats, #NFDB
197:or possibly thriving because of—them. ~ Ryan Holiday, #NFDB
198:Read because you’re tired of secrets. ~ Gabby Rivera, #NFDB
199:recommended to us because he sees lots of ~ Lisa See, #NFDB
200:Science will win because it works. ~ Stephen Hawking, #NFDB
201:The good hate sin because they love virtue. ~ Horace, #NFDB
202:The past is safe because it is indelible. ~ J R Ward, #NFDB
203:We are human because we can fantasize. ~ John Medina, #NFDB
204:We lists because we don't want to die. ~ Umberto Eco, #NFDB
205:Why are you here?” “Because you are. ~ Tarryn Fisher, #NFDB
206:Why are you smiling?” “Because I can. ~ Amelia LeFay, #NFDB
207:You do not have, because you do not ask. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
208:You doubt because you love truth. ~ George MacDonald, #NFDB
209:You’re free, because you decided to be. ~ Ranae Rose, #NFDB
210:Abandon the 'I', because it's a lie. ~ Grant Morrison, #NFDB
211:always busy because of interesting books ~ Lois Lowry, #NFDB
212:And because she jumped, our world began ~ Emily Henry, #NFDB
213:And love. I am here because of love. ~ David Levithan, #NFDB
214:Because crying is against The Rules. ~ Jason Reynolds, #NFDB
215:Because everyone loves the Dead Girl. ~ Gillian Flynn, #NFDB
216:Because it shouldn't hurt to be touched ~ A L Jackson, #NFDB
217:Because I want to know how it works. ~ Jeff Duntemann, #NFDB
218:Because love is worth it after all. ~ Jess Rothenberg, #NFDB
219:Because of a great love, one is courageous. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
220:Because the joy is in the climb itself. ~ Mark Manson, #NFDB
221:Because the other way wasn’t working. ~ Maria Semple, #NFDB
222:Because the reward is worth the risk. ~ Susan Mallery, #NFDB
223:Because the universe is not a fairy tale. ~ Liu Cixin, #NFDB
224:Because to write, one must truly suffer. ~ Juan Rulfo, #NFDB
225:Damon: I'm mad at you because I love you! ~ E L James, #NFDB
226:Dreams Matter because they push you ~ Jelena Jankovic, #NFDB
227:I am always training because I love it. ~ Gina Carano, #NFDB
228:I love money because I've earned it. ~ Conor McGregor, #NFDB
229:I never took drugs, because I am drugs ~ Salvador Dal, #NFDB
230:It's June in January because I'm in love. ~ Leo Robin, #NFDB
231:I write because I cannot NOT write. ~ Charlotte Bront, #NFDB
232:I write because I hate. A lot. Hard. ~ William H Gass, #NFDB
233:I write because I know magic happens ~ Anamika Mishra, #NFDB
234:Life is only precious because it ends, ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
235:Life is only precious because it ends. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
236:Life is too short because we die. ~ Christopher Locke, #NFDB
237:Mainly because she’ll tell you ~ Rachel Ren e Russell, #NFDB
238:No, because I am not a ventriloquist. ~ Russell Banks, #NFDB
239:Raise up your head because no place is Easy ~ Unknown, #NFDB
240:Suffering is our best teacher because it ~ Ayya Khema, #NFDB
241:They can do all because they think they can. ~ Virgil, #NFDB
242:we came home because we were failures ~ Eleanor Brown, #NFDB
243:We pray because we can’t help it. The ~ Philip Yancey, #NFDB
244:When bodies spring apart, because the air ~ Lucretius, #NFDB
245:Why? Because we had the ship, of course. ~ B V Larson, #NFDB
246:... you are loved because I love you. ~ Cecelia Ahern, #NFDB
247:You are worthy because you were born. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
248:Because audacity is a young man’s sword. ~ Brent Weeks, #NFDB
249:Because human nature never changes. ~ Orson Scott Card, #NFDB
250:Because I love you, you can keep my heart. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
251:Because it shouldn't hurt to be touched. ~ A L Jackson, #NFDB
252:Because of your love I have broken with my past ~ Rumi, #NFDB
253:Because sarcasm is my native language. ~ Maddy Edwards, #NFDB
254:Because she does not worry about me. ~ Lisa Scottoline, #NFDB
255:Because simplicity speaks the loudest. ~ Tarryn Fisher, #NFDB
256:because them bitches was out to beat ~ Tiffany Haddish, #NFDB
257:Because we shouldn’t be living lies, ~ Erika L S nchez, #NFDB
258:Because you have the most beautiful smile. ~ Ker Dukey, #NFDB
259:Because you're the reason. Swear it. ~ Madeline Miller, #NFDB
260:Enjoy today because it won't come back. ~ Leslie Gould, #NFDB
261:Fear not because God is with you. ~ Pio of Pietrelcina, #NFDB
262:Forbeare not sowing because of birds. ~ George Herbert, #NFDB
263:Freely we serve, because freely we love. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
264:got to! But not because of the prophecy! ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
265:I am who I am today because of my mother. ~ Kevin Hart, #NFDB
266:I keep on dying, Because I love to live ~ Maya Angelou, #NFDB
267:I know because an angel told me. ~ Jessica Shirvington, #NFDB
268:I like black because it is a vacant space. ~ Lady Gaga, #NFDB
269:I'm content because I'm a busy person. ~ George W Bush, #NFDB
270:inside the theater, because the bin ~ Michael Connelly, #NFDB
271:I paint because I have no tail to wag. ~ Hermann Hesse, #NFDB
272:I play so young because of my looks. ~ Monique Coleman, #NFDB
273:I read.. because one life is not enough ~ Richard Peck, #NFDB
274:I said it because it’s true. It’s the way ~ Lois Lowry, #NFDB
275:I trust men only because I trust God. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
276:Obviously it could be, because it was. ~ Piers Anthony, #NFDB
277:One jests because one wants to contemplate. ~ Plotinus, #NFDB
278:Paranoid? Probably. But just because you ~ Jim Butcher, #NFDB
279:We are powerful because we have survived ~ Audre Lorde, #NFDB
280:We are who we are because of who we were ~ Vanilla Ice, #NFDB
281:What I do I do because I like to do. ~ Anthony Burgess, #NFDB
282:You deserve them because you chose them. ~ Ned Vizzini, #NFDB
283:America is great, because America is free. ~ Dan Quayle, #NFDB
284:Because I cannot sleep i make music in the night ~ Rumi, #NFDB
285:Because our eternal destiny is sure, heaven ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
286:Because sponges never have a bad day. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
287:Because survival is insufficient ~ Emily St John Mandel, #NFDB
288:Because the world does not deserve them. ~ Markus Zusak, #NFDB
289:Because this is real and always and forever ~ Amy Zhang, #NFDB
290:Because we can imagine, we are free. ~ Jean Paul Sartre, #NFDB
291:Because we do not rest, we lose our way. ~ Wayne Muller, #NFDB
292:Because you’re worth far more alive. I ~ Pepper Winters, #NFDB
293:Because you were being a salty bitch ~ Michael Barakiva, #NFDB
294:Culture is public, because meaning is ~ Clifford Geertz, #NFDB
295:Do the right thing because it is right. ~ Immanuel Kant, #NFDB
296:Enjoy this moment because it may not come again. ~ Osho, #NFDB
297:Firsts are best because they are beginnings ~ Jenny Han, #NFDB
298:Forgive because it makes you feel good. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
299:I am an expert witness because I say I am. ~ Don Henley, #NFDB
300:I am I because my little dog knows me. ~ Gertrude Stein, #NFDB
301:I know this because Tyler knows this. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
302:I'm delirious because I'm dying so fast. ~ Henry Miller, #NFDB
303:I'm everything I am because you loved me. ~ Celine Dion, #NFDB
304:I smoke a pipe abroad, because ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #NFDB
305:I stay on [Twitter] because I deserve to. ~ Jen Kirkman, #NFDB
306:It's time to P-A-R-T-Why? Because I gotta! ~ Jim Carrey, #NFDB
307:It was love because I created it as love. ~ Rachel Cohn, #NFDB
308:I wonder… because that’s all I can do. ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
309:I write because it's a beautiful habit ~ Anamika Mishra, #NFDB
310:Keep calm because love fades. Mine has. ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
311:Modern man is sick because he is not whole. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
312:There seems no plan because it is all plan. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
313:Tread softly because you tread on my dreams ~ W B Yeats, #NFDB
314:We will be the cure. Because we want it. ~ Isaac Marion, #NFDB
315:And weep the more, because I weep in vain. ~ Thomas Gray, #NFDB
316:Art exists because life is not enough. ~ Ferreira Gullar, #NFDB
317:because he was always around, and because ~ John Grisham, #NFDB
318:Because Hope survives best at the Hearth. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
319:Because survival is insufficient, ~ Emily St John Mandel, #NFDB
320:Because survival is insufficient. ~ Emily St John Mandel, #NFDB
321:Because there wasn’t enough time to play 54 ~ Grant Fuhr, #NFDB
322:Because this age and the next age ~ William Butler Yeats, #NFDB
323:Because you had to see it, to believe it. ~ Kate Griffin, #NFDB
324:But I let it slide, because, hello, hot guy. ~ Meg Cabot, #NFDB
325:But nobody did come, because nobody does; ~ Thomas Hardy, #NFDB
326:Danny knew, too, because Danny had Carly. ~ Sam Sisavath, #NFDB
327:Everything I know, I know because of love. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
328:Firsts are best because they are beginnings. ~ Jenny Han, #NFDB
329:Haters gonna hate because they hate there self ~ Unknown, #NFDB
330:He came to destroy sin because it is fatal. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
331:I am only alive because I have not died. ~ Anthony Doerr, #NFDB
332:I am who I am because of Dave Matthews Band ~ John Mayer, #NFDB
333:I became an actor because I couldn't not. ~ Debra Winger, #NFDB
334:I can't bear to hurt you because I love you. ~ E L James, #NFDB
335:I don't get acting jobs because of my looks. ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
336:I drink because I want to suffer profoundly! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
337:I fuck everybody because I don’t fuck you. ~ Mary Calmes, #NFDB
338:I know everything because I know nothing. ~ Adam Carolla, #NFDB
339:I like kissing people because it's funny. ~ Casey Abrams, #NFDB
340:I love my fans because they're smart, dude. ~ Kris Allen, #NFDB
341:I love purple because my name is Amethyst. ~ Iggy Azalea, #NFDB
342:I love the sea because it is boundless. ~ Craig Thompson, #NFDB
343:I’m not 'aw shucks'. Because I'm gnarly. ~ Charlie Sheen, #NFDB
344:I'm openly gay because I'm a Catholic. ~ Andrew Sullivan, #NFDB
345:It is what it is because you let it be so. ~ Suzy Kassem, #NFDB
346:It’s because I’m so good-looking, isn’t it? ~ Kiera Cass, #NFDB
347:It’s because they’re afraid of El Patrón, ~ Nancy Farmer, #NFDB
348:Just because we are females doesn’t mean we ~ Jeff Brown, #NFDB
349:Just Because You Have Feathers … ~ Clayton M Christensen, #NFDB
350:Love dies because its birth was an error. ~ Susan Sontag, #NFDB
351:many people had died because of the problem? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
352:pain, because the last bus back is pretty ~ Gayle Forman, #NFDB
353:People are able because they think they're able ~ Virgil, #NFDB
354:Perhaps because I run in straight circles. ~ Maura Stone, #NFDB
355:Scientology is weird because it's new. ~ Sarah Silverman, #NFDB
356:She fell apart because that's what happens. ~ John Green, #NFDB
357:The heart lies to itself because it must. ~ Jack Gilbert, #NFDB
358:The universe was good because he was in it. ~ E Lockhart, #NFDB
359:The wise are wise only because they love. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
360:We hate the hawk because he ever lives in battle. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
361:We lost because we told ourselves we lost. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
362:Why? Because no one respects a weak man. ~ Ruth Cardello, #NFDB
363:You love life because life's all there is. ~ Glen Duncan, #NFDB
364:you’re all gonna die because of me.” Holden ~ Tim Lebbon, #NFDB
365:After all, God is God because he remembers. ~ Elie Wiesel, #NFDB
366:Beauty is boring because it is predictable. ~ Umberto Eco, #NFDB
367:...because even the alphabet is precious. ~ Adrienne Rich, #NFDB
368:Because it's his bad luck to be the best. ~ Thomas Harris, #NFDB
369:Because love by its nature desires a future. ~ Sarah Kane, #NFDB
370:Because when I touch you, you fucking bloom, ~ L H Cosway, #NFDB
371:Be joyful because it is humanly possible. ~ Wendell Berry, #NFDB
372:But no one came. Because no one ever does. ~ Thomas Hardy, #NFDB
373:but she’s got power—because she’s got money. ~ E Lockhart, #NFDB
374:Can't complain because nobody listens. ~ Michael Connelly, #NFDB
375:God loves you just because He loves you. ~ Timothy Keller, #NFDB
376:Goodbye. I'm leaving because I'm bored. ~ George Saunders, #NFDB
377:He was inaccurate because he was sensitive. ~ E M Forster, #NFDB
378:I became a vegan because I'm better than you ~ Thom Yorke, #NFDB
379:I do what I do because I'm broken, too. ~ Bryan Stevenson, #NFDB
380:I get $13 [a week] now, because I’m 13. ~ Abigail Breslin, #NFDB
381:I like chocolate because it's chocolatey! ~ Jensen Ackles, #NFDB
382:I look at you because I can't look away. ~ Amanda Hocking, #NFDB
383:I love advertising because I love lying. ~ Jerry Seinfeld, #NFDB
384:I love a happy ending... because I need hope. ~ S D Smith, #NFDB
385:I love life because what more is there? ~ Anthony Hopkins, #NFDB
386:I love your body because it has you in it. ~ Kennedy Ryan, #NFDB
387:I make music because I like making music. ~ Natalia Kills, #NFDB
388:I’m whole. I’m whole because I’m with you. ~ Katy Regnery, #NFDB
389:I started singing because I come from Wales ~ Bryn Terfel, #NFDB
390:It could be done, because it had to be done ~ Erik Larson, #NFDB
391:I was here on earth because I chose to be. ~ John Cheever, #NFDB
392:I wept because I had no shoes, until I met ~ Ruta Sepetys, #NFDB
393:I would play football, because I love it. ~ Summer Altice, #NFDB
394:I write because I love to play with language. ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
395:I write only because I cannot stop. ~ Heinrich von Kleist, #NFDB
396:Life is beautiful because it doesn't last. ~ Brit Marling, #NFDB
397:Life is only precious because it ends, kid ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
398:Many people are virtuous because they are cowards. ~ Osho, #NFDB
399:Mistake good because you learn, you fix. ~ Laurie Frankel, #NFDB
400:something just because everybody ~ Alexander McCall Smith, #NFDB
401:THEY THINK THAT BECAUSE THEY ARE GODS 10100 ~ Jeff Somers, #NFDB
402:Thrift is poetic because it is creative. ~ G K Chesterton, #NFDB
403:We like lists because we don't want to die. ~ Umberto Eco, #NFDB
404:We read because we are essentially alone. ~ Jessica Zafra, #NFDB
405:Why you? Because there is no one better. ~ Donna Brazile, #NFDB
406:Wise men speak because they have something to say ~ Plato, #NFDB
407:A river remains clean because
it goes on flowing ~ Osho,#NFDB
408:Bad things happen because things happen. ~ Richard Dawkins, #NFDB
409:because he wanted to matter more than magic. ~ K J Charles, #NFDB
410:Because if I lost her, I would be lost, too. ~ Kami Garcia, #NFDB
411:Because now he knew where his treasure was. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
412:Because of him(Kikwang) I was able to join BEAST. ~ Yoseob, #NFDB
413:Because of this filthy object in front of me, ~ S L Morgan, #NFDB
414:Because sometimes, laughter is what you need ~ Cat Patrick, #NFDB
415:Because women never say what they think. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
416:Because writing teaches writers to write, this ~ Mark Lutz, #NFDB
417:Because you are alive, everything is possible. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
418:Be foolishly in love, because love is all there is. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
419:But what I do I do because I like to do. ~ Anthony Burgess, #NFDB
420:Everything belongs to me because I am poor. ~ Jack Kerouac, #NFDB
421:Fear exists because we do not have faith. ~ Shri Radhe Maa, #NFDB
422:Freely we serve, because we freely love, ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
423:God loves you because He has chosen to do so. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
424:He could wait, because hatred is patient. ~ Bentley Little, #NFDB
425:Hold my hand because I might disappear. ~ Melina Marchetta, #NFDB
426:I am what I am because I have made myself so. ~ Obert Skye, #NFDB
427:I listen....because I don't have any answers. ~ John Shors, #NFDB
428:I love haters because they help me improve ~ Ross Campbell, #NFDB
429:I never get to go to movies, because I'm a mom. ~ Tina Fey, #NFDB
430:Life is only precious because it ends, kid. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
431:Man fears death because he loves life ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
432:Producing is great because you learn. ~ Guillermo del Toro, #NFDB
433:shirt, because the T-shirt fabric looked thin, ~ Lee Child, #NFDB
434:The fact is certain because it is impossible. ~ Tertullian, #NFDB
435:The temple is holy because it is not for sale ~ Ezra Pound, #NFDB
436:We are who we are because somebody loved us. ~ Cornel West, #NFDB
437:We survive our love because we go on loving. ~ June Jordan, #NFDB
438:We went west willingly--because we had to. ~ Brigham Young, #NFDB
439:We win because we play together as a team. ~ John Havlicek, #NFDB
440:19. We love him, because he first loved us. 20. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
441:And because he had food, she followed him. ~ Alethea Kontis, #NFDB
442:And she grasps it because it's her fate. ~ Gabriela Mistral, #NFDB
443:a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
444:Because everything worth having hurts. ~ Laurell K Hamilton, #NFDB
445:Because he’s a man, and they’re all the same ~ Meghan March, #NFDB
446:Because life is short but sweet for certain ~ Dave Matthews, #NFDB
447:Because my heart is running the show today. ~ Kate Racculia, #NFDB
448:Because this woman . . . she was a revelation. ~ Tessa Dare, #NFDB
449:Because you’re everything a man should be. ~ Kristen Ashley, #NFDB
450:Death won’t come because you called him. ~ Munshi Premchand, #NFDB
451:Don't give up just because things are hard. ~ Monica Murphy, #NFDB
452:God bless perseverance. Because it's not easy. ~ Junot Diaz, #NFDB
453:Goodbye. I am leaving because I am bored. ~ George Saunders, #NFDB
454:Heroes happen because somebody made a mistake. ~ John Ringo, #NFDB
455:I can’t help laughing because it’s funny, ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
456:I do what I do because I like doing it. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, #NFDB
457:If I'm free, it's because I'm always running ~ Jimi Hendrix, #NFDB
458:If you hate me it is because I have morals. ~ Philipp Meyer, #NFDB
459:I keep going back because I did nothing wrong! ~ April Ryan, #NFDB
460:I know it's true because I made it up myself. ~ Sue Grafton, #NFDB
461:I love dogs because they're so adaptable. ~ Martha Plimpton, #NFDB
462:I love the words, because they love me too. ~ M F Moonzajer, #NFDB
463:I'm only rich because I know when I'm wrong. ~ George Soros, #NFDB
464:I no longer want to be rich because I am rich. ~ Uri Geller, #NFDB
465:I perform for soldiers because they are important. ~ Coolio, #NFDB
466:I started making music because I could. ~ Alanis Morissette, #NFDB
467:I told you because I didn't know how not to. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
468:I will never fit in because I was not meant to ~ Cher Lloyd, #NFDB
469:Life happened because I turned the pages. ~ Alberto Manguel, #NFDB
470:Love’s not a because, it’s a no matter what. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
471:My life is blood because my world is beasts. ~ Laini Taylor, #NFDB
472:My music lives because of real players. ~ Abel Korzeniowski, #NFDB
473:Never fear being alone, because you never are. ~ Rod McKuen, #NFDB
474:No one is ever unhappy because of someone else. ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
475:snorted coke because a boyfriend told her ~ Karin Slaughter, #NFDB
476:Some poems are art because of their passion. ~ Gerald Stern, #NFDB
477:That’s because every day is the only day, ~ Caroline Kepnes, #NFDB
478:The Internet is awesome because it's...there. ~ Steven Page, #NFDB
479:The temple is holy because it is not for sale. ~ Ezra Pound, #NFDB
480:Tourists never go to downtown Orlando, because ~ John Green, #NFDB
481:Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
482:War is horrible because it strangles youth. ~ Philip Kearny, #NFDB
483:We are what we are because of what we've been ~ Jo Beverley, #NFDB
484:We isolated ourselves, because it hurt less. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
485:We pretend to be strong because we are weak. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
486:We sing because we can't speak anymore. ~ Kristin Chenoweth, #NFDB
487:Why do we like being Irish? Partly because ~ Louis MacNeice, #NFDB
488:Because all is lost, there is nothing to lose ~ Alan W Watts, #NFDB
489:Because...because...she came here with me. ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
490:Because each book has its own special perfume. ~ Jack Gantos, #NFDB
491:Because he's worth it and that's what matters. ~ Megan Smith, #NFDB
492:Because I fear God, I have no man to fear. ~ Oliver Cromwell, #NFDB
493:Because love was the best reason of all. ~ Melanie Dickerson, #NFDB
494:Because no one can catch the motherfucking fox. ~ John Green, #NFDB
495:Because now I am grown so old and neutral.... ~ Jack Kerouac, #NFDB
496:Because teaching teaches teachers to teach, this ~ Mark Lutz, #NFDB
497:because the ends justified the means. Drago’s ~ Scott McEwen, #NFDB
498:Because we all end up in the dirt at the end. ~ Chuck Wendig, #NFDB
499:Because you’re Batman, and that’s freaking cool. ~ Ker Dukey, #NFDB
500:Because you’re mine. And I’m so fucking yours. ~ Abbi Glines, #NFDB
501:Be happy now because tomorrow you are dying. ~ Philip K Dick, #NFDB
502:Be yourself, because others are already taken. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
503:But still I hope, because I can’t help but hope. ~ Jenny Han, #NFDB
504:Can you fall for someone because you're lazy? ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
505:Cheaters never prosper. (Because they suck.) ~ Greg Behrendt, #NFDB
506:Dogs make good pets because they are very loyal ~ Dave Barry, #NFDB
507:Enjoy today because it won't come back. ~ Mindy Starns Clark, #NFDB
508:Family over friends, because real friends are family ~ Drake, #NFDB
509:He can’t have you because you’re mine. ~ Aimee Nicole Walker, #NFDB
510:I am alive because I know how to love love. ~ Santosh Kalwar, #NFDB
511:I am only alive because I have not yet died. ~ Anthony Doerr, #NFDB
512:I don't do comparisons because I always lose. ~ Rosanne Cash, #NFDB
513:If I'm free, it's because I'm always running. ~ Jimi Hendrix, #NFDB
514:I made the mistakes not because I'm tired. ~ Oscar Pistorius, #NFDB
515:I'm angry because homophobia is still a thing. ~ Troye Sivan, #NFDB
516:I married her just because she looks like you. ~ Lyle Lovett, #NFDB
517:I'm doing this because I want to do it better. ~ Walt Disney, #NFDB
518:I overcame the nightmares because of my dreams. ~ Jonas Salk, #NFDB
519:I refused to march because George Bush marched. ~ Diane Nash, #NFDB
520:I've lived this long because I didn't die. ~ Dirk Jan Struik, #NFDB
521:Just because it fits doesn't mean it looks good. ~ Ann Bruce, #NFDB
522:Just because you are idle, don’t assume God is. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
523:Love is not a because, it's a no matter what. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
524:Marriage survives... because it evolves. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, #NFDB
525:No one was a hero because everyone was a hero. ~ Wael Ghonim, #NFDB
526:She does it simply because it looks beautiful. ~ Nicola Yoon, #NFDB
527:She's fragile because you let her be fragile. ~ Jessica Park, #NFDB
528:She sparkles because she believes. - Kailin Gow ~ Kailin Gow, #NFDB
529:Software sucks because users demand it to. ~ Nathan Myhrvold, #NFDB
530:the end, Mr Cantor could be out of a job because ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
531:... there are shadows because there are hills. ~ E M Forster, #NFDB
532:There is always enough because I died for you. ~ Heidi Baker, #NFDB
533:Thoughts arise because of the thinker. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
534:We can't feel safe because we are not safe. ~ Chris Coleman, #NFDB
535:We do crazy shit because we're broken. ~ Catherine Ryan Hyde, #NFDB
536:We think that we are invincible because we are. ~ John Green, #NFDB
537:Why anything? Because this moment simply is. ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
538:Again, I lay awake, and I cried because of waste. ~ Morrissey, #NFDB
539:America is great because she is good. ~ Alexis de Tocqueville, #NFDB
540:and the back of his belt, because he was bleeding ~ Lee Child, #NFDB
541:A risk is a risk because it's avoidable. ~ Erica Bauermeister, #NFDB
542:Because big men do not laugh at big ideas. ~ David J Schwartz, #NFDB
543:Because dead people don’t get angry. They’re dead. ~ J D Robb, #NFDB
544:Because hearing you laugh makes everything okay ~ Abbi Glines, #NFDB
545:Because he believes, miracles begin to happen. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
546:because he had been born to be forgotten. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zaf n, #NFDB
547:Because, here’s the truth: life is catastrophe. ~ Donna Tartt, #NFDB
548:Because I cannot flatter and look fair, ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
549:Because I didn’t exist until the day I saw you. ~ Alexa Riley, #NFDB
550:Because I loved him, and that love destroyed me. ~ Staci Hart, #NFDB
551:Because I’m fifty shades of fucked-up, Anastasia. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
552:Because I’m fifty shades of fucked up, Anastasia. ~ E L James, #NFDB
553:Because I'm not a nice lesbian, I'm a big dyke! ~ Lea DeLaria, #NFDB
554:Because it's not a lie if it's how you feel. ~ Jennifer Niven, #NFDB
555:Because it’s not a lie if it’s how you feel. ~ Jennifer Niven, #NFDB
556:because life is not stable except by faith. Let ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
557:Because love is a riddle, as is life itself. ~ Corban Addison, #NFDB
558:Because not all weakness has to be weakness ~ Michelle Sagara, #NFDB
559:Because of Bethlehem, I have a friend in heaven. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
560:Because sometimes not liking someone is easier. ~ Ally Carter, #NFDB
561:because talent alone doesn't make an artist ~ Maureen Johnson, #NFDB
562:Because the best things in life aren't things ~ Joshua Becker, #NFDB
563:Because we're the best: we use all organic. ~ Catherine Clark, #NFDB
564:Because you look at me like you want to be tasted ~ Ker Dukey, #NFDB
565:Colors seemed brighter because Becky was there. ~ Neil Gaiman, #NFDB
566:deserve my thanks, simply because they help ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
567:Design is important because chaos is so hard. ~ Jules Feiffer, #NFDB
568:Do it because you would, not because you should. ~ Alan Cohen, #NFDB
569:Do it double, because some can't do it at all. ~ Clara Kensie, #NFDB
570:Don't take your toys inside just because it's raining. ~ Cher, #NFDB
571:empty chest, because she has nothing to lose. ~ Rhyannon Byrd, #NFDB
572:Everything good in my life is because of you. ~ Thea Harrison, #NFDB
573:Everything I am is because of my mom. ~ Sarah Michelle Gellar, #NFDB
574:Famous people consume us because we are bored. ~ Lauren Groff, #NFDB
575:Finally, thank you, Dolly Parton. Just because. ~ Amy Poehler, #NFDB
576:God help you. Because now you’re fucking mine. ~ Meghan March, #NFDB
577:I am for Socialism because I am for humanity. ~ Eugene V Debs, #NFDB
578:I am Roman, alas, because Horace is Roman. ~ Pierre Corneille, #NFDB
579:I can't be a pessimist, because I am alive. ~ James A Baldwin, #NFDB
580:I don't pray because I don't want to bore God. ~ Orson Welles, #NFDB
581:I don't pull out because... it's not my problem. ~ Jim Norton, #NFDB
582:If I know what love is, it is because of you. ~ Hermann Hesse, #NFDB
583:"I got up early because I wanted to." - Nobody ~ Jim Gaffigan, #NFDB
584:I love because I can and I want to. ~ Christine Brooks Martin, #NFDB
585:I love her for that, because it was so human. ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
586:I'm who I am now because you've been with me. ~ Hisaya Nakajo, #NFDB
587:It makes me sad because it only exists in words. ~ John Green, #NFDB
588:Just because you know doesn't mean they know. ~ Scooter Braun, #NFDB
589:Money doesn't exist because I don't recognize it. ~ Bob Dylan, #NFDB
590:More than ready...Because God's got this. ~ Robin Lee Hatcher, #NFDB
591:Most of all, I hate you because I think of you. ~ Holly Black, #NFDB
592:Musicians own music because music owns them. ~ Virgil Thomson, #NFDB
593:One does not consider style, because style is. ~ Robert Stone, #NFDB
594:Team Jacob: Because Vampires Shouldn’t Sparkle ~ Molly Harper, #NFDB
595:There are no shortcuts because there is no end ~ Kyuzo Mifune, #NFDB
596:There I drank life because death was in the pool. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
597:The shadows betray you, because they belong to me… ~ Greg Cox, #NFDB
598:They feared Me
because
I feared Nothing. ~ Lydia Lunch,#NFDB
599:Today matters because tomorrow can’t be assumed ~ Dave Harvey, #NFDB
600:We adore chaos because we love to produce order. ~ M C Escher, #NFDB
601:We don't use guns because we don't have guns ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
602:We have to fight, because if we don’t, who will ~ Johan Twiss, #NFDB
603:What! because we are poor Shall we be vicious? ~ John Webster, #NFDB
604:What's your sign? Because I think we should fuck. ~ T Torrest, #NFDB
605:Why do writers write? Because it isn't there. ~ Thomas Berger, #NFDB
606:Why do writers write? Because it isn’t there. ~ Thomas Berger, #NFDB
607:You can take this job and shove it because I quit. ~ Jim Ross, #NFDB
608:You can talk to God because God listens. Always. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
609:You'll not have me, Lord, because you can't. ~ Steven Erikson, #NFDB
610:Average is so popular because average is familiar. ~ Jon Acuff, #NFDB
611:Because I always have a choice, I choose love. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
612:Because if you keep living like this you'll die. ~ Ned Vizzini, #NFDB
613:Because I was the match that started the inferno. ~ Jay McLean, #NFDB
614:Because Life is too Serious to be Taken Seriously. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
615:because our biology always needs something more. ~ Mark Manson, #NFDB
616:because people are flawed and nothing is fair. ~ Tarryn Fisher, #NFDB
617:Because she was a princess she had a pegasus. ~ Robin McKinley, #NFDB
618:Because this island is full of inimical phenomena. ~ H G Wells, #NFDB
619:Because you’re children and you can understand it, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
620:But still I hope, because I can’t help but hope. * ~ Jenny Han, #NFDB
621:Evil will always triumph, because good is dumb. ~ Rick Moranis, #NFDB
622:Have fun, because that's what life is all about. ~ Ryan Lochte, #NFDB
623:I am everything I am today, because of my past. ~ Maajid Nawaz, #NFDB
624:I cannot be contained because I am the container. ~ Jim Carrey, #NFDB
625:I love to get books, because I love to read. ~ Martina McBride, #NFDB
626:I'm pissed at a nickel because it isn't a dime. ~ Gene Simmons, #NFDB
627:I'm very fortunate because I love what I'm doing. ~ Jimmy Page, #NFDB
628:I'm with you because I want to be with you. ~ Jessica Sorensen, #NFDB
629:I need to be agile because I do all my own stunts. ~ Luke Goss, #NFDB
630:I never miss L.A. because I'm there enough. ~ Michael Connelly, #NFDB
631:I rob banks because that's where the money is. ~ Willie Sutton, #NFDB
632:I swear," said Adrian, meaning it, "because I must. ~ Ali Shaw, #NFDB
633:It didn't stoop because it didn't know how to. ~ Mehreen Ahmed, #NFDB
634:It's useful because it's beautiful. ~ Antoine de Saint Exupery, #NFDB
635:I want the world to be better because I was here. ~ Will Smith, #NFDB
636:I was born to poor because of honest parents. ~ Ambrose Bierce, #NFDB
637:Just because it’s over doesn’t mean it’s the end. ~ M R Forbes, #NFDB
638:Just because it’s the end doesn’t mean it’s over. ~ M R Forbes, #NFDB
639:Just because you can doesn’t mean that you should. ~ E L James, #NFDB
640:Keep pressure on Iran, because pressure works. ~ Rudy Giuliani, #NFDB
641:Listen Columbo you're mad because your money come slow ~ Big L, #NFDB
642:Live just because or live your life for a cause ~ Tavis Smiley, #NFDB
643:Music can change the world because it can change people ~ Bono, #NFDB
644:My love is my weight. Because of it, I move. ~ Saint Augustine, #NFDB
645:none of them are arrogant or superior because ~ Serenity Woods, #NFDB
646:No one loses anyone, because no one owns anyone ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
647:One makes war to win, not because it's just. ~ Michel Foucault, #NFDB
648:People give out compliments because it's polite. ~ Boots Riley, #NFDB
649:Rincewind ignored this, because it was true. ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
650:That's because you've kissed boys, sweetheart. ~ Jamie McGuire, #NFDB
651:The reason men rule is because women let them. ~ Jessica Zafra, #NFDB
652:Things don’t just go away because we want them to. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
653:Use it or lose it is a cliche because it's true. ~ Julian Cope, #NFDB
654:We call them feelings because we feel them. ~ Karen Joy Fowler, #NFDB
655:We love because it's the only true adventure. ~ Nikki Giovanni, #NFDB
656:Why would you do this?” “Because I’m a bitch. ~ Natalia Jaster, #NFDB
657:Women are smarter than men because they listen. ~ Phil Donahue, #NFDB
658:You exist only because God wills that you exist. ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
659:You're not alone, are you? Because I'm here ~ Steven Spielberg, #NFDB
660:You seek problems because you need their gifts. ~ Richard Bach, #NFDB
661:Because compassion must be louder than pride. ~ Victoria Schwab, #NFDB
662:Because God’s Love Is Perfect, I Don’t Have to Be ~ Renee Swope, #NFDB
663:Because I can't hit bottom, I can't be saved. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
664:Because if you try, you better be ready to...take. ~ Ella Frank, #NFDB
665:Because I knew I was looking at a woman who would ~ Stacey Lynn, #NFDB
666:Because music is the heart’s greatest librarian. ~ Kate Stewart, #NFDB
667:Because my dream was to have a love like this, ~ Lauren Blakely, #NFDB
668:Because nobody goes though life without a scar. ~ Carol Burnett, #NFDB
669:Because she couldn't knit she just crocheted ~ Sandra M Gilbert, #NFDB
670:Because she wanted to be us.” “Crazy fucking world, ~ C D Reiss, #NFDB
671:Because the only people for me are the mad ones. ~ Jack Kerouac, #NFDB
672:Because there is trust too, in feeling small. ~ Durga Chew Bose, #NFDB
673:Because you just turned a gun on their mahmen!” Next ~ J R Ward, #NFDB
674:Be kind, because everyone is having a really hard time. ~ Plato, #NFDB
675:design is so important because chaos is so hard ~ Jules Feiffer, #NFDB
676:Don't feel like you're alone because you're not. ~ Ryan Kwanten, #NFDB
677:Dream the impossible because dreams do come true. ~ Elijah Wood, #NFDB
678:God made (human beings) because he loves stories. ~ Elie Wiesel, #NFDB
679:Hip-hop ain't died because of the South, that's retarded. ~ Nas, #NFDB
680:I am Black because I come from the earth's inside ~ Audre Lorde, #NFDB
681:I am not free because I can be exploded anytime. ~ Jenny Holzer, #NFDB
682:I bought a gun because POW POW sounds a lot better ~ Joe Torry, #NFDB
683:I bought my first house because of Animal House. ~ P J O Rourke, #NFDB
684:I changed my act because I wasn't getting booked. ~ David Spade, #NFDB
685:I don't keep secrets because I'm no good at them! ~ Miley Cyrus, #NFDB
686:I give grace because I so desperately need it. ~ Lysa TerKeurst, #NFDB
687:I know because I read. Might I suggest you try it? ~ Libba Bray, #NFDB
688:I play better tennis because the court is there. ~ Robert Frost, #NFDB
689:I rarely read or buy a book because of a review. ~ Jim Harrison, #NFDB
690:I say the Gospel is frail because we are frail. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
691:I see you.
Because in you,
I see me. ~ Lisa Schroeder,#NFDB
692:I sing because I’ve forgotten how to scream. ~ Harry Connick Jr, #NFDB
693:It is what it is because you allowed it to be so. ~ Suzy Kassem, #NFDB
694:I trust my intuition because it is smarter than me. ~ I T Lucas, #NFDB
695:I write because I am curious. I am curious about me. ~ Pat Mora, #NFDB
696:I write because I want to have more than one life. ~ Anne Tyler, #NFDB
697:I write romance because I love to read romance. ~ Rachel Gibson, #NFDB
698:Just because no one can understand how you speak, ~ Talib Kweli, #NFDB
699:Just because we are dead does not make us smart. ~ Esther Hicks, #NFDB
700:Know thyself because what else is there to know? ~ Sarah Connor, #NFDB
701:Life is precious to us because it is ephemeral. ~ Carlo Rovelli, #NFDB
702:Long live the dead because we live in them. ~ Clarice Lispector, #NFDB
703:Love one another strenuously because it's hard. ~ Scot McKnight, #NFDB
704:Man does not cease to play because he grows old, ~ Drew Lachey, #NFDB
705:Music can change the world because it can change people. ~ Bono, #NFDB
706:my feet. Because of you, I can survive. I hope ~ Kristin Hannah, #NFDB
707:No one talked because we all wanted to scream. ~ Gary D Schmidt, #NFDB
708:People hide the truth because they're afraid. ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
709:People mainly fail because they fear failure. ~ Sebastian Thrun, #NFDB
710:Please, don't hate me because I am beautiful. ~ Michael Buckley, #NFDB
711:Religion is flawed, but only because man is flawed. ~ Dan Brown, #NFDB
712:She is venomous like this because she hurts. ~ Elin Hilderbrand, #NFDB
713:She went on because there was no going back. ~ Juliet Marillier, #NFDB
714:Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden, ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
715:Social media is not a fad because it's human. ~ Gary Vaynerchuk, #NFDB
716:The reason why things work is because of love. ~ Jeffrey Wright, #NFDB
717:unintelligible because the print was so small. ~ Niall Ferguson, #NFDB
718:was nobody to take over. Because of this, he was ~ Bill Browder, #NFDB
719:We can't give up just because the Universe does. ~ Isaac Asimov, #NFDB
720:We smile, because this is how we save the world. ~ Isaac Marion, #NFDB
721:Why are you chasing me?” “Because you’re mine. ~ Pepper Winters, #NFDB
722:You become a winner because you’re good at losing. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
723:You don’t believe it because you don’t want to. ~ Caren Lissner, #NFDB
724:You seek problems because you need their gifts. ~ Beth Harbison, #NFDB
725:A belief is not true because it is useful ~ Henri Fr d ric Amiel, #NFDB
726:And because love, real love, is not so easily shed. ~ Junot D az, #NFDB
727:And because love, real love, is not so easily shed. ~ Junot Diaz, #NFDB
728:Awe ignites joy because it makes us bend the knee. ~ Ann Voskamp, #NFDB
729:Because a book is a life, like one man is a life. ~ Studs Terkel, #NFDB
730:Because every story is a ghost story, even mine. ~ Samantha Hunt, #NFDB
731:Because if she isn’t angry with him, how can I be? ~ Ally Condie, #NFDB
732:Because I'm anti-war, I've been called pro-Taliban. ~ Imran Khan, #NFDB
733:Because Im psychic, and Instagram is my oracle. ~ Helena Hunting, #NFDB
734:Because it's not always easy to know how to live. ~ Paula McLain, #NFDB
735:Because it’s not always easy to know how to live. ~ Paula McLain, #NFDB
736:Because let me tell you, it was a happy ending. ~ Gary D Schmidt, #NFDB
737:Because my love for you is beyond words, I decided to shut up. ~, #NFDB
738:Because nobody but a reader ever became a writer. ~ Richard Peck, #NFDB
739:Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
740:Because the act of surrender means: "I trust you. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
741:Because there is no map for where we are going... ~ Ernest Cline, #NFDB
742:Because when you least expect it...love happens. ~ Sophia Tallon, #NFDB
743:Because you are alive, everything is possible. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
744:Because you’ve survived, there is a next strategy. ~ Janny Wurts, #NFDB
745:Blue eyes were blue because they were the deepest, ~ Brent Weeks, #NFDB
746:Buildings have been made because of man. ~ Leon Battista Alberti, #NFDB
747:But because racism is stupid, it’s easily tricked. ~ Trevor Noah, #NFDB
748:Children don’t need drugs, because they have sweets. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
749:Children see magic because they look for it. ~ Christopher Moore, #NFDB
750:detours in the road. Because without them, this life ~ Sarah Jio, #NFDB
751:Don't touch things just because they're shiny. ~ Zoraida C rdova, #NFDB
752:Givers have to set limits because takers rarely do. ~ Henry Ford, #NFDB
753:her teeth, because he puts his arm around her. ~ Neal Shusterman, #NFDB
754:He said that his eyes were red because he had a cold. ~ E Nesbit, #NFDB
755:I am a nihilist because I still believe in truth. ~ Ray Brassier, #NFDB
756:I belonged with them because I belonged to them. ~ Jamie McGuire, #NFDB
757:I didn't break up with you because of your sperm. ~ Cynthia Hand, #NFDB
758:I don't have regrets because they are negative. ~ Bruce Oldfield, #NFDB
759:I feel really blessed because of where I come from. ~ Katy Perry, #NFDB
760:If I look confused it is because I am thinking. ~ Samuel Goldwyn, #NFDB
761:I have a cape.
Because I’m motherfucking Batman. ~ Jay McLean,#NFDB
762:I keep calling you kitten because it gets you wet, ~ Alexa Riley, #NFDB
763:I know love is real because i feel it,'' Tiny says. ~ John Green, #NFDB
764:I know what love is because I lost it at an early age. ~ Doseone, #NFDB
765:I'm fast, why? Because I eat vegetables. ~ Jean Claude Van Damme, #NFDB
766:I'm not buying a boat because of writing skits. ~ Jason Sudeikis, #NFDB
767:I never fall apart, because I never fall together. ~ Andy Warhol, #NFDB
768:It is because my roots are so strong that I can fly. ~ Mira Nair, #NFDB
769:I want to touch him because I'm one of these queers! ~ Ken Kesey, #NFDB
770:Just because it's a dream doesn't mean it's a lie. ~ Brent Weeks, #NFDB
771:Just because you can doesn't mean you should. ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
772:Keep things because you love them—not “just because ~ Marie Kond, #NFDB
773:Love is ever new because it never groweth old. ~ Saint Augustine, #NFDB
774:Maybe because your mom just died in a car crash? ~ Courtney Cole, #NFDB
775:My life is perfect because I accept it as it is. ~ Lenny Kravitz, #NFDB
776:Never buy anything simply because it is expensive. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
777:nobody had a clue about cells, because nobody had ~ Cameron D az, #NFDB
778:Partly because I get such astonishingly nice fans. ~ Neil Gaiman, #NFDB
779:People like controversy because that's what sells. ~ Miley Cyrus, #NFDB
780:People talk about me because I am a great man ~ Chris Oyakhilome, #NFDB
781:She kept it all in because she was embarrassed. ~ Melanie Harlow, #NFDB
782:She loved the wind because the wind loved me. ~ Theodore Roethke, #NFDB
783:Slanderers do not hurt me because they do not hit me. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
784:Surely revival delays because prayer decays. ~ Leonard Ravenhill, #NFDB
785:That’s not because I’m dead, it’s because I’m smart. ~ Dan Wells, #NFDB
786:The past reappears because it is a hidden present. ~ Octavio Paz, #NFDB
787:There is no must in art because art is free. ~ Wassily Kandinsky, #NFDB
788:There's divinity within because we come from the divine, ~ Q Tip, #NFDB
789:there's no solution, because there's no problem ~ Marcel Duchamp, #NFDB
790:The sage is not ill, because he sees illness as illness. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
791:THEY CANNOT KILL US, BECAUSE WITHOUT US THEY DIE. ~ Alice Walker, #NFDB
792:Think not ambition wise, because 't is brave. ~ William Davenant, #NFDB
793:Time doesn’t stop for her just because you’re gone. ~ Robin Hobb, #NFDB
794:We all want to be guilty, because guilt is power. ~ Alison Lurie, #NFDB
795:we are dissatisfied because we are idealists. We ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
796:We can know ourselves only because we can remember. ~ John Ratey, #NFDB
797:We have nothing to fear, because God is sovereign. ~ David Platt, #NFDB
798:We lose our time because we lose our attention ~ Jacob Needleman, #NFDB
799:We’re dangerous because we know how to survive. ~ Heidi Cullinan, #NFDB
800:Why can't women tell jokes? Because we marry them! ~ Kathy Lette, #NFDB
801:Why I write music? Because it hurts not to. ~ Charlotte Eriksson, #NFDB
802:You choose to believe them, because you need to. ~ Tarryn Fisher, #NFDB
803:You get one shot. You that good? Because I am. ~ Jessica R Patch, #NFDB
804:You gotta laugh because if you didn't you'd cry ~ Craig Ferguson, #NFDB
805:Your needs are big because the Internet is big. ~ Jamie Zawinski, #NFDB
806:Abortion happens because of economic circumstances. ~ Nat Hentoff, #NFDB
807:A friend doesn't go on a diet because you are fat. ~ Erma Bombeck, #NFDB
808:Alcohol does kill brain cells, because you've lost it. ~ Triple H, #NFDB
809:Am I less man because I believe in a greater man? ~ Khalil Gibran, #NFDB
810:And I get up because it is the only thing I can do. ~ Jesmyn Ward, #NFDB
811:and I’m glad because I’m now behaving like a stalker. ~ E L James, #NFDB
812:Are you fleeing from Love because of a single humiliation? ~ Rumi, #NFDB
813:Are you stalking me? Because that would be super. ~ Ryan Reynolds, #NFDB
814:Because Elvis gave 'em cars, you think I'm cheap. ~ Joni Mitchell, #NFDB
815:Because in loving his darkness I found my own. ~ Lidia Yuknavitch, #NFDB
816:Because I obviously can’t tell a friend from an ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
817:because it tasted like a thousand smarmy assholes. ~ Belle Aurora, #NFDB
818:Because I've always been a fairly nervous person. ~ David Sedaris, #NFDB
819:Because I wanted a daddy and I wanted it to be you. ~ Pepper Pace, #NFDB
820:Because I want to read your countenance — turn! ~ Charlotte Bront, #NFDB
821:Because I was angry at her for making me feel for her. ~ K I Lynn, #NFDB
822:...because life is short and you too are thirsty. ~ Adrienne Rich, #NFDB
823:Because sugar is not arsenic, many graves are full. ~ Idries Shah, #NFDB
824:Because the other side of fear was truly beautiful. ~ Ginny Baird, #NFDB
825:Because we won’t be there for them in the Woods, ~ Soman Chainani, #NFDB
826:Because you may be smart, but I’ve been smart longer ~ John Green, #NFDB
827:Because you took advantage of my disadvantage. ~ Vladimir Nabokov, #NFDB
828:Children give terrible gifts because they are poor. ~ Rob Delaney, #NFDB
829:felt, because it was structured poetry. There were ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
830:God won't let me into heaven because I'm too evil. ~ Phil Spector, #NFDB
831:Good because I want you too. Now. Forever. Just you ~ Abbi Glines, #NFDB
832:History repeats because we do not learn from it, ~ Meredith Duran, #NFDB
833:I adore you because you made me a whore. ~ Gabriel Garc a M rquez, #NFDB
834:I am not special just because I’m famous right now. ~ Amy Schumer, #NFDB
835:I am what I am because of who we all are. ~ Martin Luther King Jr, #NFDB
836:I detest acting because it is sheer drudgery. ~ Tallulah Bankhead, #NFDB
837:I did not become a father because I am fond of children. ~ Thales, #NFDB
838:I do not know You God because I am in the way. ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
839:I don't go to the movies because I don't like films. ~ Donna Leon, #NFDB
840:I don't wanna need you because I can't have you. ~ Clint Eastwood, #NFDB
841:I do what I do because my favorite thing is to learn. ~ Daphne Oz, #NFDB
842:I drew because words were too unpredictable. (5) ~ Sherman Alexie, #NFDB
843:I have hope, because I believe in miracles. ~ Marianne Williamson, #NFDB
844:I like Math because there's only one right answer. ~ Brendan Fehr, #NFDB
845:I like my hair long because I have really big ears. ~ Josh Groban, #NFDB
846:I loved working with kids because the energy is great. ~ Paz Vega, #NFDB
847:I love my love with a b because she is peculiar. ~ Gertrude Stein, #NFDB
848:I play guitar because it lets me dream out loud. ~ Michael Hedges, #NFDB
849:I sound like Warhol but only because I'm tired. ~ William Monahan, #NFDB
850:I survived because I was tougher than anybody else. ~ Bette Davis, #NFDB
851:I think I became an actor because I couldn't sing. ~ Ray Winstone, #NFDB
852:I've never really liked L.A., because of its sprawl. ~ Geoff Dyer, #NFDB
853:I've refused roles because they're too simplistic. ~ Henry Czerny, #NFDB
854:Just because I rock doesn't mean I am made of stone. ~ Jim Carrey, #NFDB
855:Just because it’s made up, doesn’t mean it isn’t ~ Laurie Frankel, #NFDB
856:Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
857:Just because you can, dosen't mean you should. ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
858:Just because you made it warm doesn't make it yours ~ Amelia Gray, #NFDB
859:Keep things because you love them- not "just because ~ Marie Kond, #NFDB
860:Let's try and fail because through failure you learn ~ Jared Leto, #NFDB
861:Life is about to change if only because it must. ~ David Nicholls, #NFDB
862:Maybe because the human body was built to float. ~ Jennifer Niven, #NFDB
863:moving forward only because backward wasn’t possible. ~ Amy Bloom, #NFDB
864:Never stop being a good person because of bad people. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
865:No one ever built a fort because the world was safe. ~ Kelly Link, #NFDB
866:Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
867:People are difficult to rule, because of their knowledge. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
868:People die because they find living too painful. ~ Malcolm Fraser, #NFDB
869:People just loved the sound because I kept it simple. ~ Dick Dale, #NFDB
870:Please come to the dance, because you're my music. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
871:Really? Is this wrong? Because I can't tell anymore. ~ Hank Moody, #NFDB
872:return because he is one god who loves his devotees ~ Sudha Murty, #NFDB
873:Riches are chiefly good because they give us time. ~ Charles Lamb, #NFDB
874:She is dangerous because I cannot control her. ~ Kristen Callihan, #NFDB
875:there is no Plan B because there is no Planet B ~ Mohamed Nasheed, #NFDB
876:The tree is happy because it is scarcely sentient; ~ Ruben Dario, #NFDB
877:THE VALUES ARE UNEQUAL BECAUSE OF LOSS AVERSION ~ Daniel Kahneman, #NFDB
878:We have gold because we cannot trust governments ~ Herbert Hoover, #NFDB
879:We write because we have to, not because we want to ~ Steve Berry, #NFDB
880:What is it about the sea? Is it because it’s there? ~ Jerry Pinto, #NFDB
881:Why read? Because we are given more than we are. ~ James V Schall, #NFDB
882:willing men, I’ll do it. Because I can. Like a boss. ~ Niecey Roy, #NFDB
883:You and I are more than you and I because it's we. ~ e e cummings, #NFDB
884:You do not have, because you do not ask. James 4:2b ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
885:Your decisions are honorable because they are your own. ~ Unknown, #NFDB
886:You're alive because of love. You're made of love. ~ Rob Brezsny, #NFDB
887:Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
888:youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
889:A man hates his enemy because he hates his own hate. ~ Elie Wiesel, #NFDB
890:And because I don't want to start thinking again ~ Stephen Chbosky, #NFDB
891:And I survived because I made a point of forgetting. ~ Yann Martel, #NFDB
892:Are we, then, insane because we have not gone mad? ~ Hermann Broch, #NFDB
893:Because a happy worker is a more productive worker? ~ Candice Hern, #NFDB
894:Because being so dependent on people scares me. ~ Melina Marchetta, #NFDB
895:Because evil is a point of view. ~ Cameron JaceWolf ~ Cameron Jace, #NFDB
896:Because he loved true things he tried to explain. ~ John Steinbeck, #NFDB
897:Because I have willed it. And I am not a fairy tale. ~ Susan Power, #NFDB
898:Because it's our choices that makes us who we are... ~ Jeff Kinney, #NFDB
899:Because rain will wash away everything, if you let it. ~ Sarah Kay, #NFDB
900:Because you are strong enough to survive the fall. ~ Leigh Bardugo, #NFDB
901:Because you cannot see him, God is everywhere. ~ Yasunari Kawabata, #NFDB
902:Black Girls rock because we have no other choice. ~ Iyanla Vanzant, #NFDB
903:Carrie didn’t answer because it was true and she ~ Ruth Ann Nordin, #NFDB
904:Don't assume I'm dumb because I wear a suit and tie. ~ David Mamet, #NFDB
905:Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened. ~ Dr Seuss, #NFDB
906:Don't lose yourself just because you found somebody. ~ Emma Hewitt, #NFDB
907:Don’t underestimate him just because he’s a fool, ~ Seanan McGuire, #NFDB
908:Electroclash is good because it's stayed underground. ~ Chris Lowe, #NFDB
909:Give me some more wine, because life is nothing. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
910:God created us - because he thought we'd enjoy it. ~ Gregory Boyle, #NFDB
911:Good. Because we could be amazing. You and me. ~ Chelsea M Cameron, #NFDB
912:He dared to fight because his destiny was to die. ~ Alwyn Hamilton, #NFDB
913:He was sad because his new friend was so bloodthirsty. ~ E B White, #NFDB
914:His story is simple, because simple is always best. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
915:Holocaust victims count because Hitler counted them. ~ Trevor Noah, #NFDB
916:I am a PR disaster because I talk too much. ~ Benedict Cumberbatch, #NFDB
917:I am
and
You are,
because...
He IS! ~ Jos N Harris,#NFDB
918:I am wedded to India because I owe my all to her. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
919:I can be a really good mother because I'm happy. ~ Charlize Theron, #NFDB
920:I cannot be exacting because I respect myself. ~ Franz Grillparzer, #NFDB
921:I can’t because I don’t want you to hide from me. ~ Veronica Rossi, #NFDB
922:I’d hate for you to lose him because you were afraid. ~ Kiera Cass, #NFDB
923:I don't have technique because I never learnt any. ~ Emma Thompson, #NFDB
924:I don't like stress because stress stresses me out. ~ Jason Dufner, #NFDB
925:I hate reality TV, because it's so bullshit. ~ Diamond Dallas Page, #NFDB
926:I hate women because they always know where things are. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
927:I invented my life because I wasn't pleased with it. ~ Coco Chanel, #NFDB
928:I like a look of agony, because I know it's true ~ Emily Dickinson, #NFDB
929:I love story songs because I've always loved books. ~ Dolly Parton, #NFDB
930:I'm black because that's the way the world sees me. ~ Paula Patton, #NFDB
931:I'm not a good storm-outer... because I forget stuff. ~ Kevin Hart, #NFDB
932:I'm not in the big leagues just because I'm cute. ~ Pedro Martinez, #NFDB
933:I never have lunch because it makes me foggy-headed. ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
934:In God’s presence I feel small because I am small. ~ Philip Yancey, #NFDB
935:Intimacy requires courage because risk is inescapable. ~ Rollo May, #NFDB
936:I talk nonsense at times, because sense is monotonous. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
937:It's impossible for me to lose because I won't quit! ~ Bob Proctor, #NFDB
938:I wanted to look different because I felt different ~ Adam Lambert, #NFDB
939:I write because I have authority from life to do so. ~ Bessie Head, #NFDB
940:I write because I want to give strength to myself ~ Anamika Mishra, #NFDB
941:Just because ANYONE CAN, DOESN'T MEAN EVERYONE CAN. ~ Chris Colfer, #NFDB
942:Just because she's brave doesn't mean she's fearless. ~ Jim Beaver, #NFDB
943:Just because you believe it doesn't make it so. ~ Orson Scott Card, #NFDB
944:Just because you make mistakes doesn't mean you are one. ~ Unknown, #NFDB
945:Life doesnt stop because something happens to you. ~ Magic Johnson, #NFDB
946:Maybe people find me charming because I am charming. ~ C J Redwine, #NFDB
947:My mother named me Knight because she needed one. ~ Kristen Ashley, #NFDB
948:Never give up hope, because miracles do happen.” Then ~ John Glatt, #NFDB
949:None of it mattered, because there was music. ~ Erin Entrada Kelly, #NFDB
950:Nothing happens to you; it happens because of you. ~ Grant Cardone, #NFDB
951:Often an entire city has suffered because of an evil man. ~ Hesiod, #NFDB
952:One day" came.
Because finally I understood. ~ Melina Marchetta,#NFDB
953:pain is absurd because it exists, nothing more. ~ Charles Bukowski, #NFDB
954:People are my religion/Because I believe in them. ~ Andrew Jackson, #NFDB
955:She gets what she wants because she works for it. ~ Sophia Amoruso, #NFDB
956:She’s not crying because you professed your love, dumbass. ~ Tijan, #NFDB
957:[S]omething had to change. Because I had changed. ~ Meredith Russo, #NFDB
958:Sting's my ideal man, because he's a real man. ~ Alexander McQueen, #NFDB
959:That’s because humans are built to live with pain. ~ Tarryn Fisher, #NFDB
960:There is no solution because there is no problem. ~ Marcel Duchamp, #NFDB
961:They put it here because this guy is such a bugero. ~ Jeff Lindsay, #NFDB
962:This is dying - I know because I've done it before. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
963:Vatican Palace…because in Venturi’s words, ‘Less is ~ Emily Giffin, #NFDB
964:We have missed because we tried to miss, I suppose. ~ Thomas Hardy, #NFDB
965:we persevere because we believe rewards will come. ~ Philip Yancey, #NFDB
966:We take care of each other because we are each other. ~ Tara Brown, #NFDB
967:What we do is us. Because of you. For that we came. ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
968:Why do it, just because I can? That's kind of crazy. ~ Jules Shear, #NFDB
969:You are strong in spite of him. Not because of him. ~ Rachel Caine, #NFDB
970:You can’t break me because you didn’t make me. ~ Denzel Washington, #NFDB
971:You get mixed messages because I have mixed feelings. ~ Sarah Kane, #NFDB
972:You’ll get no answers because the questions are all wrong. ~ Sri M, #NFDB
973:7Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
974:All is grace only because all can transfigure. ~ Ann Voskamp, #NFDB
975:And I'm here. Because God's not done with me yet. ~ Karen Kingsbury, #NFDB
976:And may God be merciful, because these twisted men will not. ~ Brom, #NFDB
977:Are you asking because you really want an answer? ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
978:Auschwitz exists because of politicized science. ~ Michael Crichton, #NFDB
979:Because everyone lies to make people feel better ~ Penelope Douglas, #NFDB
980:Because he’s not here. Does that answer your question? ~ Robin Cook, #NFDB
981:Because he’s the love of my life. And he’s my dog. Well, ~ R S Grey, #NFDB
982:Because I don’t feel broken when you look at me. ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
983:Because if you're going to lose, lose. I'm serious. ~ Magic Johnson, #NFDB
984:Because I refused to live invincibly on all the days ~ Adam Silvera, #NFDB
985:Because it’s never really sex until someone squirts. ~ Ben Monopoli, #NFDB
986:because nothing means as much until it has vanished. ~ M T Anderson, #NFDB
987:Because nothing says flattery like a gun to the head. ~ Jim Butcher, #NFDB
988:Because of pain you feel more and so you live more. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
989:Because one can’t fix what one doesn’t know exists. ~ Bella Forrest, #NFDB
990:Because “Platitude” was a language everyone spoke ~ Julie Anne Long, #NFDB
991:Because Warner is beautiful in ways even Adam isn't. ~ Tahereh Mafi, #NFDB
992:Because we might as well dance while we wait. ~ Sarah Lyons Fleming, #NFDB
993:Because wisdom is innate, we can all enlighten ourselves. ~ Huineng, #NFDB
994:Because, you see, every triumph begins with failure. ~ Adam Gidwitz, #NFDB
995:Bo Derek turned down the role of Helen Keller because ~ Joan Rivers, #NFDB
996:But it's not a cancer book, because cancer books suck. ~ John Green, #NFDB
997:Do Kids Create Because of School—or in Spite of It? ~ George Couros, #NFDB
998:Don't doubt me, because that's when I get stronger. ~ Marvin Hagler, #NFDB
999:Don't have sex, because you will get pregnant and die! ~ Lloyd Carr, #NFDB
1000:Duty is not beneficial because it is commanded, ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
1001:Humble because of knowledge; mighty by sacrifice. ~ Rudyard Kipling, #NFDB
1002:I am against slavery simply because I dislike slaves. ~ H L Mencken, #NFDB
1003:I am a writer perhaps because I am not a talker. ~ Gwendolyn Brooks, #NFDB
1004:I am human because I belong, I participate, I share. ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
1005:I am malicious because I am miserable ~ Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, #NFDB
1006:I could've died because you had to tie your shoelace? ~ Derek Landy, #NFDB
1007:I dont want a broken heart because Ill lose the pieces. ~ Lil Wayne, #NFDB
1008:I failed to make the chess team because of my height. ~ Woody Allen, #NFDB
1009:If I am a thief, it's because of private property. ~ Facundo Cabral, #NFDB
1010:If you were mine, I'd make you pierce it, just because, ~ S E Jakes, #NFDB
1011:If you were mine, I’d make you pierce it, just because, ~ S E Jakes, #NFDB
1012:I got my first acting role because I was a singer. ~ Christian Kane, #NFDB
1013:I like digital because you can shoot for longer. ~ Nicholas Stoller, #NFDB
1014:I liked the Beatles because there was so much melody. ~ Robert Cray, #NFDB
1015:I love books because they are easier than people. ~ Courtney Conant, #NFDB
1016:I'm a courageous person because I'm a scared person. ~ Ronda Rousey, #NFDB
1017:I'm an easy target because of my political opinions. ~ Sean Connery, #NFDB
1018:I'm just going to write because I cannot help it. ~ Charlotte Bront, #NFDB
1019:I'm not superstitious because it brings bad luck. ~ Placido Domingo, #NFDB
1020:I remain on SVU because it is an incredible opportunity. ~ B D Wong, #NFDB
1021:I take a lot of vacation because I get a lot of vacation ~ Jim Rome, #NFDB
1022:I think Jo Kwon is my nemesis, because he looks like me. ~ Jay Park, #NFDB
1023:it is now also cursed because of mankind’s fall. ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
1024:It's a world of sorrow, Oddie, because we make it so. ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
1025:I wanted you here because I always want you with me. ~ Sally Thorne, #NFDB
1026:I want to party in space because I make alien music. ~ David Guetta, #NFDB
1027:I was a virgin.”
“Only because he saw you first. ~ Tiffany Reisz,#NFDB
1028:I was happy in Dublin because it is very cosmopolitan. ~ Rick Allen, #NFDB
1029:I was nervous because I really wanted this to go well. ~ N R Walker, #NFDB
1030:I won't go to England because they won't let my dog in. ~ Uta Hagen, #NFDB
1031:I would make a poor vegetarian because I adore meat. ~ Britt Ekland, #NFDB
1032:I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it. ~ Toni Morrison, #NFDB
1033:Just because I'm 77 doesn't mean I don't have a dream. ~ John Glenn, #NFDB
1034:Just because it’s normal doesn’t make it any easier. ~ Jill Mansell, #NFDB
1035:Keep silent, because the world of silence is a vast fullness ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1036:Life is marvelous now because I have a tape recorder. ~ Olga Korbut, #NFDB
1037:love doesn’t die just because the person does, ~ Karen Marie Moning, #NFDB
1038:Men are attracted to me because of my personality! ~ Kim Kardashian, #NFDB
1039:Murder is a dream because lack is the center of both. ~ Kathy Acker, #NFDB
1040:People are not mysterious because they never shut up! ~ Steve Toltz, #NFDB
1041:People know me for up-tempo songs because of my hits. ~ Eddie Floyd, #NFDB
1042:Perhaps love is essential because it's unnecessary. ~ Julian Barnes, #NFDB
1043:ready to fall into my pain again because I deserved it, ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
1044:Robot. Is. Sad. Because silly bitch. Will. Not. Dance. ~ Libba Bray, #NFDB
1045:Sex is a bad thing because it rumples the clothes. ~ Jackie Kennedy, #NFDB
1046:She loved you in the morning because the day was new. ~ Zadie Smith, #NFDB
1047:She's also wearing pants now.
Because I'm a dick. ~ Ashley Jade,#NFDB
1048:Soccer is popular because stupidity is popular. ~ Jorge Luis Borges, #NFDB
1049:That seems reasonable,” Lucas said, because it was. ~ John Sandford, #NFDB
1050:There’s nothing left of me, because you have it all. ~ Rachael Wade, #NFDB
1051:The sun does what it does because the earth tilts. ~ Vijay Seshadri, #NFDB
1052:This is the truth. You will know because it hurts. ~ Seth Dickinson, #NFDB
1053:Unicorns and rainbows exist because we want them to. ~ Truth Devour, #NFDB
1054:We can't stop living because other people are dead. ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
1055:We like something because someone else liked it. ~ Scott McClanahan, #NFDB
1056:We must go on, because we can't turn back. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #NFDB
1057:We're afraid to live, because we're afraid of dying. ~ Dolly Parton, #NFDB
1058:Why climb Mount Everest? Because it's there. ~ George Leigh Mallory, #NFDB
1059:you don’t know what he hears because he just talks. ~ Michael Wolff, #NFDB
1060:You feel lonely because you feel the need to be loved. ~ The Mother, #NFDB
1061:You keep me because none of you can kill me. ~ Nicole Kornher Stace, #NFDB
1062:You'll Never See It My Way, Because You're Not Me! ~ Britney Spears, #NFDB
1063:You think you're so cool just because you can walk! ~ Jen Lancaster, #NFDB
1064:And all because a boy loved a girl,” she said at last. ~ Lauren Kate, #NFDB
1065:A painter paints because he has no time not to paint. ~ Josef Albers, #NFDB
1066:A thing is not vulgar merely because it is common. ~ William Hazlitt, #NFDB
1067:Because Islam doesn’t,” he said, his voice toneless, ~ Hilary Mantel, #NFDB
1068:Because it would be very wrong.
"Would"? (I asked). ~ Andr Aciman,#NFDB
1069:because of her, I’ll never be anyone’s prey again. ~ Greer Hendricks, #NFDB
1070:because our living matter is greater than we are ~ Clarice Lispector, #NFDB
1071:Because rain is the closest thing I have to tears. ~ Neal Shusterman, #NFDB
1072:Because right now, I'm worse than dead. I'm forgotten. ~ Geoff Johns, #NFDB
1073:Because the desire to possess the other is... love ~ Gregory Benford, #NFDB
1074:Because thou must not dream, thou need not despair. ~ Matthew Arnold, #NFDB
1075:Because we will die, but at least we will die unbroken ~ Rick Yancey, #NFDB
1076:Because you’re my friend, and I take care of what’s mine. ~ K C Lynn, #NFDB
1077:Be willing to learn, because none of us know the truth ~ Cornel West, #NFDB
1078:Don't run away from it, just because it's difficult. ~ Harriet Evans, #NFDB
1079:Drinking every night because we drink to my accomplishments. ~ Drake, #NFDB
1080:Everyone’s face is odd, because we only get one. ~ Benny Bellamacina, #NFDB
1081:Evil is usually attractive, because evil is defiant. ~ Angela Carter, #NFDB
1082:God is letting me shine, because I've got a good heart. ~ ASAP Rocky, #NFDB
1083:He felt awkward because she was going to murder him. ~ Joseph Heller, #NFDB
1084:I am at peace with my choices, because they were my own. ~ Todd Rose, #NFDB
1085:I am convinced that UFOs exist because I've seen one. ~ Jimmy Carter, #NFDB
1086:I am happy and able because I allow myself to be happy. ~ James Frey, #NFDB
1087:I cost a girl her life because I was afraid to love her. ~ Jay Asher, #NFDB
1088:I did it because you are the epitome of ordinariness. ~ Markus Zusak, #NFDB
1089:I don't even own a TV because I think it's the devil. ~ Cameron Diaz, #NFDB
1090:I get on with kids and I feel that's because I am one. ~ Ringo Starr, #NFDB
1091:I hate giving advice, because people won't take it. ~ Jack Nicholson, #NFDB
1092:I irritate the wife because of my private dancing. ~ Brian McDermott, #NFDB
1093:I like Messi because he doesn't think he is Messi. ~ Eduardo Galeano, #NFDB
1094:I like music because it's the only invisible art form. ~ Sean Lennon, #NFDB
1095:I like tall girls because I like someone to look up to. ~ Davy Jones, #NFDB
1096:I love John Madden, because he makes me feel smart. ~ Frank Caliendo, #NFDB
1097:I love my poor earth because I have seen no other. ~ Osip Mandelstam, #NFDB
1098:I love rain because tears can not be seen in rain. ~ Charlie Chaplin, #NFDB
1099:I make a movie because it's something that inspires me. ~ Tony Scott, #NFDB
1100:I'm just going to write because I cannot help it. ~ Charlotte Bronte, #NFDB
1101:I’m really afraid to feel happy because it never lasts ~ Andy Warhol, #NFDB
1102:I'm successful in spite of my past, not because of it! ~ Traci Lords, #NFDB
1103:I'm writing this book because we're all going to die. ~ Jack Kerouac, #NFDB
1104:I paint because the spirits whisper madly inside my head. ~ El Greco, #NFDB
1105:I run because it always takes me where I want to go. ~ Dean Karnazes, #NFDB
1106:I run because it's my passion, and not just a sport. ~ Sasha Azevedo, #NFDB
1107:I should have become an "I" because I became a "we". ~ Irvin D Yalom, #NFDB
1108:I swim against the tide because I like to annoy. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zaf n, #NFDB
1109:I swim against the tide because I like to annoy. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon, #NFDB
1110:It's called faith because it's not knowledge. ~ Christopher Hitchens, #NFDB
1111:It’s impossible for you to lose me…because you never had me. ~ Drake, #NFDB
1112:I've decided to be happy because it's good for my health. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
1113:I want to cry because my mind is working too much ~ Melina Marchetta, #NFDB
1114:I was here. I exist. I'm alive, because I bleed. ~ Maggie Stiefvater, #NFDB
1115:I was nearly attacked. All because I missed your smell. ~ Kiera Cass, #NFDB
1116:I won’t have people judging you because of this. ~ Bianca Sommerland, #NFDB
1117:I write because I always want good to win over evil ~ Anamika Mishra, #NFDB
1118:Jack Kerouac was cool because he had no idea he was. ~ Dennis Miller, #NFDB
1119:Just because I had a good game doesn't change who I am, ~ Jeremy Lin, #NFDB
1120:Just because I had to go didn’t mean I wanted to leave. ~ Eric Smith, #NFDB
1121:Just because I'm biased doesn't mean it's not true. ~ Jocelyn Davies, #NFDB
1122:Just because you can, doesnt mean you should- Ash ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
1123:May God have mercy for my enemies because I won't. ~ George S Patton, #NFDB
1124:Men cry because things are not what they ought to be. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
1125:My friends love coming over because they get fed. ~ Jennifer Aniston, #NFDB
1126:People generally quarrel because they cannot argue. ~ G K Chesterton, #NFDB
1127:People's hearts break because they once cared ~ Carrie Hope Fletcher, #NFDB
1128:Questions are dangerous because they have answers ~ Jacqueline Carey, #NFDB
1129:Reader loyalty will stay because I'm not changing. ~ Karen Kingsbury, #NFDB
1130:reason Democrats support immigration is because of how ~ Ann Coulter, #NFDB
1131:Spring into action, because falling back is detrimental. ~ T F Hodge, #NFDB
1132:Swear it.
Why me?
Because you're the reason. ~ Madeline Miller,#NFDB
1133:The multitude of people fail because they talk failure. ~ T B Joshua, #NFDB
1134:The reason actors are assholes is because they don't eat. ~ Aya Cash, #NFDB
1135:The USA approach looks like bullying because it is. ~ Salman Rushdie, #NFDB
1136:The woman is bad-tempered because she’s terrified. ~ Gregory Maguire, #NFDB
1137:They killed him because he was too innocent to live. ~ Graham Greene, #NFDB
1138:We are a great nation because we are a good people. ~ Elizabeth Dole, #NFDB
1139:Why would I stop simply because I know it annoys you? ~ Alanea Alder, #NFDB
1140:7Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1141:All failures are so because they lack social interest. ~ Alfred Adler, #NFDB
1142:a man revenges himself because he sees justice in it. ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
1143:And all because of a mistaken concept of compassion! ~ Oliver P tzsch, #NFDB
1144:and he loved her suddenly because she loved him. ~ W Somerset Maugham, #NFDB
1145:Angels fly because they take themselves lightly, ~ Arianna Huffington, #NFDB
1146:Apparently, hope is for hipsters because hope failed me. ~ Penny Reid, #NFDB
1147:Ballet is good, because it makes you stand up tall. ~ Carine Roitfeld, #NFDB
1148:Because adventure starts the moment I leave my door. ~ Gloria Steinem, #NFDB
1149:Because every morning you have to wake up and be you. ~ Gillian Flynn, #NFDB
1150:Because he’s only a little boat looking for a harbor. ~ Arthur Miller, #NFDB
1151:Because hope springs eternal. And you just never know. ~ Sarina Bowen, #NFDB
1152:Because I am an inhuman monster, I tend to be logical. ~ Jeff Lindsay, #NFDB
1153:Because I don't have everything I want. Not even close. ~ Alyson Noel, #NFDB
1154:because in the past words have only driven them apart. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
1155:Because I think I love you, and you just see me as a toy. ~ E L James, #NFDB
1156:Because I wanted to see if I could make him shine. ~ Jessica Gadziala, #NFDB
1157:because man is the animal that laughs at himself. ~ Robert A Heinlein, #NFDB
1158:…because one who knows not how to seek will never find… ~ Umberto Eco, #NFDB
1159:Because other people are fools, must you be so too? ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
1160:Because she needed ore than sleep. She needed oblivion. ~ Karen White, #NFDB
1161:Because she was always meant to be my last word. ~ Brittainy C Cherry, #NFDB
1162:Because the possibility of pain is where love stems from. ~ Matt Haig, #NFDB
1163:Because we all eat lies when our hearts are hungry ~ Penelope Douglas, #NFDB
1164:Because we all need to believe in movies, sometimes. ~ pleasefindthis, #NFDB
1165:Because we will die, but at least we will die unbroken. ~ Rick Yancey, #NFDB
1166:Be grateful for your journey because it is yours alone. ~ Demi Lovato, #NFDB
1167:Credo quia absurdum – I believe because it is absurd. ~ Robert Ludlum, #NFDB
1168:discoveries happened because they needed to happen. He ~ Gary Paulsen, #NFDB
1169:Don't forget your eyes
because I inhabit them ~ Alejandra Pizarnik,#NFDB
1170:Don't look back, because someone might be gaining on you. ~ Tom Waits, #NFDB
1171:Don't look back, because that's the sign of failure. ~ James Hetfield, #NFDB
1172:Do you call the jewel blind, because your eye is? ~ Franz Grillparzer, #NFDB
1173:Ela did you just fart? Because you just blew me away. ~ Mark A Cooper, #NFDB
1174:Everybody hates me because I'm so universally liked. ~ Peter De Vries, #NFDB
1175:Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. ~ Aldous Huxley, #NFDB
1176:Get to work because Mother Earth needs you right now. ~ Doreen Virtue, #NFDB
1177:Go from good to great because good is the enemy of great. ~ Don Meyer, #NFDB
1178:He studied Latin like the violin, because he liked it. ~ Robert Frost, #NFDB
1179:Hi. It's Nikki. I'm not here right now because I'm dead. ~ Nikki Sixx, #NFDB
1180:His name isn’t on the tree because he isn’t my forever. ~ K L Grayson, #NFDB
1181:How odd; wedded for life, because one of us had died. ~ Emma Donoghue, #NFDB
1182:I am because WE are and, since we are, therefore I am. ~ John S Mbiti, #NFDB
1183:I can't simply adopt strays because they seem winsome. ~ Rachel Caine, #NFDB
1184:I dont' like talking to horses because they are naysayers ~ Pat Sajak, #NFDB
1185:I don't pray really, because I don't want to bore God. ~ Orson Welles, #NFDB
1186:I drink because I wish to multiply my sufferings. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, #NFDB
1187:I have a dream! Because I have lived a nightmare. ~ Christopher Titus, #NFDB
1188:I have always been a learner because I knew nothing. ~ Sidney Poitier, #NFDB
1189:I have chosen to be happy because it is goo for my health. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
1190:I have little feet because nothing grows in the shade. ~ Dolly Parton, #NFDB
1191:I just liked girls because I couldn't help not to. ~ Emily M Danforth, #NFDB
1192:I know I'm intelligent because I know that I know nothing. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
1193:I know the Bible is inspired because it inspires me. ~ Dwight L Moody, #NFDB
1194:I lay my heart at your feet because you own me, baby. ~ Sydney Landon, #NFDB
1195:I'm always writing or playing because that is my life. ~ Rick Wakeman, #NFDB
1196:I'm mad at you because...I don't know why. I just am. ~ Lorelei James, #NFDB
1197:I'm not leaving America because it doesn't support me. ~ Leslie Jones, #NFDB
1198:I’m not searching for my other half because I’m not a half. ~ Unknown, #NFDB
1199:I'm only civil because I don't know any swear words. ~ Bill Watterson, #NFDB
1200:I'm singing, you know, because I'm happy and I'm free. ~ Sharon Jones, #NFDB
1201:I play the dance because girls fuck men who play the dance. ~ Roosh V, #NFDB
1202:I smoke pot because I want to go to heaven before I die ~ Andy Warhol, #NFDB
1203:I stay grounded because everyone around me floats ~ Pharrell Williams, #NFDB
1204:It's silly when girls sell their souls because it's in. ~ Lauryn Hill, #NFDB
1205:I want to be the king of sprints because I think I am. ~ Asafa Powell, #NFDB
1206:I was afraid of the internet... because I couldn't type. ~ Jack Welch, #NFDB
1207:I won't stop loving you because I can't stop loving you. ~ Mike Gayle, #NFDB
1208:Just because I’m cheeky, doesn’t mean I’m not serious ~ David Hockney, #NFDB
1209:Just because I'm happy doesn't mean I'm shallow. ~ Kathie Lee Gifford, #NFDB
1210:Just because I’m human doesn’t mean I’m weak. ~ Jennifer L Armentrout, #NFDB
1211:Just because it’s not common doesn’t mean it’s wrong, ~ Sierra Simone, #NFDB
1212:Just because they disagree, doesn't mean you ain't right. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
1213:Just because you're offended doesn't mean your right. ~ Ricky Gervais, #NFDB
1214:Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
1215:Maybe the moon is beautiful only because it is far. ~ Mahmoud Darwish, #NFDB
1216:Men ought not to faint because men ought to pray. ~ G Campbell Morgan, #NFDB
1217:"Nags" nag because they feel they aren't being heard. ~ Amy Dickinson, #NFDB
1218:Never pray for justice, because you might get some. ~ Margaret Atwood, #NFDB
1219:Oh. And I have a cape. Because I’m motherfucking Batman. ~ Jay McLean, #NFDB
1220:People basically become runners because they’re meant to. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1221:People think I'm an artist because my films lose money. ~ Woody Allen, #NFDB
1222:Photography was a blessing because it filled my time. ~ Jessica Lange, #NFDB
1223:read many over the years because they’re my favorite, and ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1224:Scrubbley because she’d missed the train to Hogwarts. ~ Chris d Lacey, #NFDB
1225:Sometimes we are mush mouths because we like symmetry. ~ Kory Stamper, #NFDB
1226:That’s because you’re doing all the talking. Frankly, ~ Bella Forrest, #NFDB
1227:Thats why your doing this? Because Lissa told you to? ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
1228:The pain can’t define you, because then it controls you. ~ James Hunt, #NFDB
1229:Treat your customers like they own you. Because they do. ~ Mark Cuban, #NFDB
1230:We are made for more because we are children of God. ~ Lysa TerKeurst, #NFDB
1231:We are smart because we are capable of fuzzy thinking. ~ David Brooks, #NFDB
1232:We fear circumstances so much because we fear God so little. ~ LeCrae, #NFDB
1233:We have gold because we cannot trust Governments. ~ Peter L Bernstein, #NFDB
1234:We only consult the ear because the heart is wanting. ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
1235:We read many books, because we cannot know enough people. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
1236:We see the universe the way it is because we exist. ~ Stephen Hawking, #NFDB
1237:We suffer because we are the grass upon which giants tread. ~ Ken Liu, #NFDB
1238:Why did I want to win? because I didn't want to lose! ~ Max Schmeling, #NFDB
1239:Why did you come back for me?"
"Because you're mine. ~ T M Frazier,#NFDB
1240:Why don't you like me ?" "Because you never stay with me. ~ E L James, #NFDB
1241:WRITE. Because if you won't tell your story, who will? ~ Ksenia Anske, #NFDB
1242:Yet because I knew nothing, nothing was beneath me. ~ Madeline Miller, #NFDB
1243:You are afraid of me, because I talk like a sphinx. ~ Charlotte Bront, #NFDB
1244:You can't read my shorthand because I wrote in Polish. ~ Ellen Raskin, #NFDB
1245:You don't have to be afraid because we're all the same ~ Shawn Mendes, #NFDB
1246:You give because you love and cannot help giving. ~ Katharine Hepburn, #NFDB
1247:You have to get old because of the geometry of spacetime. ~ Brian Cox, #NFDB
1248:You must look at facts, because they look at you. ~ Winston Churchill, #NFDB
1249:You’re right. I have no heart because I lost it to you. ~ Susan Wiggs, #NFDB
1250:You’re so dumb… you returned a donut because it had a hole. ~ Various, #NFDB
1251:You will be a poet because you will always be humiliated. ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
1252:and I liked these moments because his touch felt like fire ~ R J Lewis, #NFDB
1253:Because all bad little vampires see me in the end ~ Laurell K Hamilton, #NFDB
1254:Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices. ~ Elie Wiesel, #NFDB
1255:Because I have this damnable curiosity that has to be fed. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1256:Because it very specifically said the mage that came ~ Lindsay Buroker, #NFDB
1257:Because, kitten, you kiss and claw when you're afraid. ~ Lorelei James, #NFDB
1258:Because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
1259:Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1260:Because people don't believe it unless it happens to them. ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
1261:Because promises matter. They matter now more than ever. ~ Rick Yancey, #NFDB
1262:Because,” said Mr. Lemoncello, “it’s a trampoline. ~ Chris Grabenstein, #NFDB
1263:Because the Lord is with me, I am a successful person. ~ Joseph Prince, #NFDB
1264:Because you never wore makeup, Hannah. You didn't need it. ~ Jay Asher, #NFDB
1265:China has really succeeded because of its stability. ~ Bernard Arnault, #NFDB
1266:Christian in any great detail because of the NDA, but even ~ E L James, #NFDB
1267:Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff. ~ Frank Zappa, #NFDB
1268:Do not stop trying just because perfection eludes you. ~ B K S Iyengar, #NFDB
1269:Don't cling to things because everything is impermanent. ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
1270:Don’t do it because it’s your job, do it because you can. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
1271:Doubts arise because of an absence of surrender. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
1272:Do you feel how profound that is because you are a poet? ~ James Joyce, #NFDB
1273:Embrace the weird. Enjoy it because it's never going away. ~ Tim Tharp, #NFDB
1274:Enjoy yourself because you can't change anything anyway ~ Jenny Holzer, #NFDB
1275:Even my life's not normal because I'm acting, right? ~ Natalie Portman, #NFDB
1276:Every creature is a divine word because it proclaims God ~ Bonaventure, #NFDB
1277:Half the things we do in life we do because of other people. ~ E N Joy, #NFDB
1278:How did you notice that?”
“Because I notice you. ~ Nalini Singh,#NFDB
1279:I alone know I am wise because I alone know I know nothing. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
1280:I am only interested in money because everyone else is. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
1281:I am where I am because of the bridges I have crossed. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
1282:I don't call myself a poet, because I don't like the word. ~ Bob Dylan, #NFDB
1283:I don't watch something just because it's a specific genre. ~ Drew Roy, #NFDB
1284:I drink because I wish to multiply my sufferings. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
1285:I find looking forward scary because you might die. ~ Domhnall Gleeson, #NFDB
1286:If you can’t hear me, it’s because I’m in parentheses. ~ Steven Wright, #NFDB
1287:I hate high expectations because they're hard to beat. ~ Neal H Moritz, #NFDB
1288:I have chosen to be happy because it is good for my health. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
1289:I held on to his warm hand simply because i wanted to. ~ Katie McGarry, #NFDB
1290:I hired Sarah Palin because she was hot and got ratings. ~ Roger Ailes, #NFDB
1291:I like to do things quickly because I'm easily bored. ~ Karl Lagerfeld, #NFDB
1292:I love and hate this place because it is full of words. ~ Markus Zusak, #NFDB
1293:I'm for gay marriage, because I'm for gay divorce. ~ Melissa Etheridge, #NFDB
1294:I’m mostly laughing, because you’re such an idiot. ~ Jacqueline Wilson, #NFDB
1295:I'm passionate about old people because I am one myself. ~ Len Goodman, #NFDB
1296:I prefer radio to TV because the pictures are better. ~ Alistair Cooke, #NFDB
1297:I started writing for the theatre because I hated it. ~ Eugene Ionesco, #NFDB
1298:I think you write because it’s easier than talking, ~ Christopher Rice, #NFDB
1299:I travel third-class because there is no fouth-class. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1300:I wanted everything because I didn't want anything enough. ~ Lang Leav, #NFDB
1301:I want to stay with you, Shane. Because of you. Only you. ~ Tara Leigh, #NFDB
1302:I went out to the hazelwood because a fire was in my head. ~ W B Yeats, #NFDB
1303:I write because there are things in me that cannot die. ~ Sanober Khan, #NFDB
1304:Just because we want something doesn't mean it's right ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
1305:Just because you do it doesn’t mean you always will. ~ Yrsa Daley Ward, #NFDB
1306:Keep trying hard because there is always a next time. ~ Anamika Mishra, #NFDB
1307:Never say 'I could have done that,' because you didn't. ~ Karim Rashid, #NFDB
1308:one. And I hid it. And Mia Turner found it because they ~ Chelsea Cain, #NFDB
1309:One starts an action simply because one must do something. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
1310:Painting, because of its universality, becomes speculation. ~ El Greco, #NFDB
1311:People become stronger and kinder because of their pain ~ Kanae Hazuki, #NFDB
1312:People cheat in life because they’re afraid of failure. ~ Dannika Dark, #NFDB
1313:People still go to Comic-Con because they love comics. ~ Rashida Jones, #NFDB
1314:Right, because I'm flat-chested and a midget. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
1315:Senna: “Why are you here?”
Isaac: “Because you are. ~ Tarryn Fisher,#NFDB
1316:She began to like him because he liked her. ~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, #NFDB
1317:Stay loyal to your creativity because it's a gift. ~ Pharrell Williams, #NFDB
1318:The dog gnawes the bone because he cannot swallow it. ~ George Herbert, #NFDB
1319:The name Sissy came because my brothers called me that. ~ Sissy Spacek, #NFDB
1320:The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to. ~ Frida Kahlo, #NFDB
1321:There are things you stand up for because it’s right. ~ Nikki Giovanni, #NFDB
1322:The reason I do interviews is because I'm protecting my songs. ~ Bjork, #NFDB
1323:There is no standing still because time is moving forward. ~ Greg Lake, #NFDB
1324:The Rust Belt has suffered a lot because of trade deals. ~ Nina Turner, #NFDB
1325:The world doesn't exist because you gave it permission. ~ Aimee Carter, #NFDB
1326:The world doesn’t exist because you gave it permission, ~ Aimee Carter, #NFDB
1327:they got to be so conceited because they were Catholics. ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
1328:Time isn't precious at all, because it is an illusion. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
1329:We are beautiful because God created us that way ~ Marianne Williamson, #NFDB
1330:We can go through anything because Jesus goes before us. ~ Max De Pree, #NFDB
1331:..we'll deal with it, because the good outweighs the bad. ~ E Lockhart, #NFDB
1332:We may not be weaklings because we have a strong enemy. ~ Hugh Latimer, #NFDB
1333:We were invincible because we were eighteen and stupid. ~ John Grisham, #NFDB
1334:What do I do? Tell me because I can’t lose her again. ~ Elizabeth Finn, #NFDB
1335:Why are you touching me?"
"Because I can. ~ Tahereh Mafi,#NFDB
1336:Why has the prostitute’s wage fallen so far? Because ~ Steven D Levitt, #NFDB
1337:Why is divorce so expensive? Because it's worth it! ~ Garrison Keillor, #NFDB
1338:Women are equal because they are not different any more. ~ Erich Fromm, #NFDB
1339:Women challenge the status quo because we are never it. ~ Cindy Gallop, #NFDB
1340:You are afraid of me, because I talk like a sphinx. ~ Charlotte Bronte, #NFDB
1341:You can't deny reality just because you can't explain it. ~ Toby Jones, #NFDB
1342:You don't have to pay its rent just because it is a book. ~ Susan Hill, #NFDB
1343:You're just saying that because you want to get layooked. ~ Jay McLean, #NFDB
1344:Your greatest mistakes will happen because of impatience. ~ T B Joshua, #NFDB
1345:Act right all the time, because someone's always watching. ~ Gwen Ifill, #NFDB
1346:And because she was quiet, they assumed she was shy. ~ Karen McQuestion, #NFDB
1347:And here I thought that smile you wore was because of me. ~ Donna Grant, #NFDB
1348:And I’m happy for me. Because I finally love who I am. ~ Krista Ritchie, #NFDB
1349:And we forget because we must and not because we will. ~ Matthew Arnold, #NFDB
1350:A person is worth something simply because he is a person. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
1351:A trauma doesn't stop just because you've been rescued. ~ Dot Hutchison, #NFDB
1352:Bad things happen because we live in a world with evil. ~ Tarryn Fisher, #NFDB
1353:Because after extreme loss, you want to go back. ~ Holly Goldberg Sloan, #NFDB
1354:Because animals seem to dwell in the present moment, ~ Brenda Peterson, #NFDB
1355:Because being with her felt so right. It was right. ~ Suzanne Brockmann, #NFDB
1356:Because confidence is like respect; you have to earn it. ~ Mindy Kaling, #NFDB
1357:Because I am a pretty thing and a soldier all the same. ~ Leigh Bardugo, #NFDB
1358:Because I feel the need to step closer, I step back. ~ Shari L Tapscott, #NFDB
1359:Because I show you my pain, I do not of necessity love you. ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
1360:Because making her happy was his favorite activity ~ Brittainy C Cherry, #NFDB
1361:Because no one sees the truth does not make it untrue. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1362:Because of what Jesus has done, I love and accept myself. ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
1363:Because that’s what you and I do. Protect each other. ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
1364:Because that's what you and I do, protect each other. ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
1365:because the hardest boss a man can ever have is himself. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1366:Because the living environment is what really sustains us. ~ E O Wilson, #NFDB
1367:Because the more you changed, the less of you there was. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
1368:Because the real wolf comes to kill. To steal. To destroy. ~ Ted Dekker, #NFDB
1369:Because there’s nothing better than autonomy. Because ~ Jeremy Robinson, #NFDB
1370:Because the way I figure it, everyone gets a tragedy. ~ Robyn Schneider, #NFDB
1371:Because without fear, there was no such thing as bravery. ~ Tina Folsom, #NFDB
1372:Because you're making a habit out of running away from me. ~ Maya Banks, #NFDB
1373:Be relentless in your looking, because you are the one you seek. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1374:Coincidence,” Ronan said, because it wasn’t. Noah’s ~ Maggie Stiefvater, #NFDB
1375:'Come out' is so funny to me because I've never been in. ~ Adam Lambert, #NFDB
1376:Counterfeiters exist because there is such a thing as real gold. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1377:Death is the greatest evil, because it cuts off hope. ~ William Hazlitt, #NFDB
1378:Do good because it is good to do good. Ask no more. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
1379:Don't be someone else's slogan because you are poetry. ~ Sandra Bullock, #NFDB
1380:Dream as big as you want because they come true everyday ~ Hunter Hayes, #NFDB
1381:Enjoy yourself because you can't change anything anyway. ~ Jenny Holzer, #NFDB
1382:Eve ate the apple
because Adam
was afraid ~ Laurie Halse Anderson,#NFDB
1383:Everybody loves you because you are brilliantly awkward. ~ Steven Tyler, #NFDB
1384:field directorship because the Philadelphia front office ~ Roger Angell, #NFDB
1385:First Lady of Food.” “Because that’s going to increase your ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1386:God uses us in spite of who we are, not because of it. ~ Andrew Wommack, #NFDB
1387:Happiness is your own treasure because it lies within you. ~ Prem Rawat, #NFDB
1388:Hearts can't be broken because they're made of marzipan. ~ Kerstin Gier, #NFDB
1389:He cried for the future, and he cried because of the past. ~ R J Ellory, #NFDB
1390:He doesn’t need to eat dinner because he already ate lunch. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1391:History proves nothing because it contains everything. ~ Emile M Cioran, #NFDB
1392:I am doing it because the time is now, and I am here. ~ Kathleen Morgan, #NFDB
1393:I am not playing Wimbledon because I am allergic to grass. ~ Ivan Lendl, #NFDB
1394:I began writing about power because I had so little. ~ Octavia E Butler, #NFDB
1395:I call it God Light, because it reminds me of heaven. ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
1396:I cried because I had no shoes till I met a man who had no feet ~ Saadi, #NFDB
1397:I decided to step outside for some air because it felt ~ Bethany Bazile, #NFDB
1398:I destroyed her life just because I wanted her for myself. ~ Lily White, #NFDB
1399:I do like to look at female drummers, because I am one. ~ Caroline Corr, #NFDB
1400:I don't love the word luxury because it feels Bougy to me. ~ Beth Ditto, #NFDB
1401:I don't work out too much and it's wild because it bugs me out. ~ Rakim, #NFDB
1402:I do what I do because there's nothing else I can do. ~ Colleen Saidman, #NFDB
1403:I drank some boiling water because I wanted to whistle. ~ Mitch Hedberg, #NFDB
1404:I dress up a certain way because I respect the music. ~ Wynton Marsalis, #NFDB
1405:If we don't fear God, it's because we don't know God. ~ Craig Groeschel, #NFDB
1406:I get road rage. I can't drive because I cuss people out. ~ Leona Lewis, #NFDB
1407:I hope people don't think I'm crazy, because I'm not. ~ Macaulay Culkin, #NFDB
1408:I like black, because for me it is a very happy color. ~ Azzedine Alaia, #NFDB
1409:I like LA because it has a giant supply of great comedians. ~ Joe Rogan, #NFDB
1410:I love acting because it's empowering. It empowers me. ~ Bryan Cranston, #NFDB
1411:i love the world as it is, because I love what it will be. ~ N D Wilson, #NFDB
1412:I love you because you help me love everything else. ~ Jeannine Allison, #NFDB
1413:I make the choice because it is one I can live with. ~ Kelley Armstrong, #NFDB
1414:I'm a mathematician because I'm too slow to be a writer. ~ Jack Edmonds, #NFDB
1415:I'm funny because I'm funny. And there's more to offer. ~ Brad Williams, #NFDB
1416:I'm here because she's here, and she belongs to me. ~Rephaim ~ P C Cast, #NFDB
1417:I’m nice to you because you’re worth it, Elizabeth. ~ Ilsa Madden Mills, #NFDB
1418:I'm not concerned with noise because I'm playing the long game. ~ Jay Z, #NFDB
1419:I'm such a good lover because I practice a lot on my own. ~ Woody Allen, #NFDB
1420:I ran because I was vain and it gave me great legs. ~ Maggie Stiefvater, #NFDB
1421:I started to earn money because we didn't have money. ~ Debbie Reynolds, #NFDB
1422:Is that why you didn't call me? Because I'm an idiot? ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
1423:I study history because I am interested in the future. ~ Peter Rachleff, #NFDB
1424:I think people get mad because I make more direct records. ~ Kool Keith, #NFDB
1425:I went because I was interested in the alchemy of issues. ~ Joan Didion, #NFDB
1426:Just because I don't feel calm, doesn't mean I'm not calm. ~ Penny Reid, #NFDB
1427:Just because it's automatic doesn't mean it works. ~ Daniel J Bernstein, #NFDB
1428:Just because Oprah said it, that doesn’t make it true. ~ Hayley DiMarco, #NFDB
1429:Just because something isn’t right, doesn’t make it wrong. ~ Elise Kova, #NFDB
1430:Just because we're related, doesn't mean we're family. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
1431:Leaders inspire us because they bring out the best in us. ~ Umair Haque, #NFDB
1432:Maybe I believed in destiny because I wanted to believe. ~ Claudia Gray, #NFDB
1433:Maybe they invited me because they know I have a tuxedo ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
1434:Men with style are great because they have a sense of self. ~ Lexa Doig, #NFDB
1435:Most people live average lives because they do average things ~ Unknown, #NFDB
1436:Never stop writing because you have run out of ideas. ~ Walter Benjamin, #NFDB
1437:No love can be endless because no life is endless! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
1438:No, we always get killed because of you, Leeroy Jenkins! ~ Ernest Cline, #NFDB
1439:people are strong despite suffering, not because of it. ~ Sonia Johnson, #NFDB
1440:People flatter us because they can depend upon our credulity. ~ Tacitus, #NFDB
1441:Q: Why does a divorce cost so much? A: Because it's worth it. ~ Various, #NFDB
1442:Savor kindness because cruelty is always possible later. ~ Jenny Holzer, #NFDB
1443:Science was competitive because it was full of scientists. ~ Mira Grant, #NFDB
1444:she died.i survived because i survived.i die everyday. ~ Ravinder Singh, #NFDB
1445:She knows who she is, because she knows who she isn't. ~ Nikki Giovanni, #NFDB
1446:Taking life’s a serious thing, because it’s irrevocable. ~ Victor Mil n, #NFDB
1447:Television is a medium because anything well done is rare. ~ Fred Allen, #NFDB
1448:The best films are because of nobody but the director. ~ Roman Polanski, #NFDB
1449:The greats weren't great because at birth they could paint ~ Macklemore, #NFDB
1450:The jungle speaks to me because I know how to listen. ~ Rudyard Kipling, #NFDB
1451:There is maybe a cynicism because of my past as a writer. ~ Ryan Tedder, #NFDB
1452:The sun doesn't stop shining because some people are blind. ~ Mark Nepo, #NFDB
1453:The swallow is not ensnared by men because of its gentle nature. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
1454:Things become clichés because they are apropos.” “Breaks ~ Harlan Coben, #NFDB
1455:This City is what it is because our citizens are what they are. ~ Plato, #NFDB
1456:Time is our friend, because for us there is no end. He ~ Michael Koryta, #NFDB
1457:TV is all new to me because I came from features. ~ Alfonso Gomez Rejon, #NFDB
1458:Tyranny remains because the weak and fearful seek it. ~ Ian C Esslemont, #NFDB
1459:We choose to be writers because we don't want to talk. ~ Gloria Steinem, #NFDB
1460:We hurt each other because we care about each other. ~ Linda Cardellini, #NFDB
1461:We only see starlight because all the stars are bleeding. ~ Steven Hall, #NFDB
1462:Why black and white? Because color can be too demanding. ~ Diane Keaton, #NFDB
1463:Why did God create mankind? Because God likes stories. ~ Jonathan Sacks, #NFDB
1464:Wilt thou reach stars because they shine on thee? ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1465:Write everything down because it’s all very fleeting. ~ Timothy Ferriss, #NFDB
1466:Yeah, because we really need a bit more fear in our lives ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
1467:yellow fingers because he smoked a lot. And he danced ~ Carole Matthews, #NFDB
1468:You don't get there because, you get there in spite of. ~ Janet Collins, #NFDB
1469:You follow your heart because one day, it’ll lead you home. ~ T J Klune, #NFDB
1470:You have to stop loving me. Because I stopped loving you. ~ Lauren Kate, #NFDB
1471:you're not a bad person because you want to be yourself. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
1472:Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. ~ Franz Kafka, #NFDB
1473:9. LOVE YOURSELF Because it’s the Holy Grail of happiness. ~ Jen Sincero, #NFDB
1474:A belief is not true simply because it is useful. ~ Henri Frederic Amiel, #NFDB
1475:Advice is given freely because so much of it is worthless. ~ James Geary, #NFDB
1476:A group of followers has strength because of its numbers. ~ Simon Sinek, #NFDB
1477:Almost starve, but I don’t starve because I eat very much ~ Sophia Loren, #NFDB
1478:A new year can begin only because the old year ends. ~ Madeleine L Engle, #NFDB
1479:Angry because the other bloke stole his breakfast cereal? ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1480:A prediction is a prediction because it's predictable. ~ Robert Kiyosaki, #NFDB
1481:A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
1482:Audiences feel no hatred from me. Because I'm not bitter. ~ Dick Gregory, #NFDB
1483:A value is true because it's true because it's true. ~ Randy Ingermanson, #NFDB
1484:Because before you acquired language, you didn't exist. ~ Marcel Theroux, #NFDB
1485:Because gold is honest money it is disliked by dishonest men. ~ Ron Paul, #NFDB
1486:Because I am an inhuman monster, I tend to be logical,... ~ Jeff Lindsay, #NFDB
1487:Because if a woman's heart was free a man might have hope. ~ Bram Stoker, #NFDB
1488:Because I'm such a tomboy, I hate showing off my body. ~ Brooklyn Decker, #NFDB
1489:Because I'm the best fuck in the solar system." (Toreth) ~ Manna Francis, #NFDB
1490:Because I never held you close, I hold you forever. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, #NFDB
1491:…because it is natural to touch more often the parts that hurt. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
1492:Because I wished for everyone to live, I did everything I could. ~ CLAMP, #NFDB
1493:Because knowledge is only a cage if you dwell in isolation. ~ Penny Reid, #NFDB
1494:Because love isn't just love. It's all he other stuff, too. ~ Kelly Link, #NFDB
1495:Because music makes good citizens and beautiful hearts. ~ Suanne Laqueur, #NFDB
1496:Because of all this, dancing will be worth your time to learn. ~ Roosh V, #NFDB
1497:Because of something told under the famished horn ~ William Butler Yeats, #NFDB
1498:...because really, sometimes the irony gods just get drunk. ~ Libba Bray, #NFDB
1499:Because she competes with no one, no one can compete with her. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
1500:Because she’d destroy him if he dared love anyone else. ~ Soman Chainani, #NFDB
1979 Integral Yoga
263 Poetry
211 Occultism
186 Philosophy
175 Christianity
121 Yoga
84 Fiction
83 Psychology
48 Mysticism
41 Islam
32 Science
18 Hinduism
17 Education
15 Integral Theory
13 Theosophy
13 Kabbalah
10 Mythology
9 Sufism
6 Buddhism
5 Cybernetics
5 Baha i Faith
3 Philsophy
1 Thelema
1 Alchemy
1354 The Mother
924 Satprem
689 Sri Aurobindo
289 Nolini Kanta Gupta
89 Aleister Crowley
84 Carl Jung
73 H P Lovecraft
60 Plotinus
54 Sri Ramakrishna
54 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
51 James George Frazer
42 Friedrich Nietzsche
41 Muhammad
37 Swami Krishnananda
36 William Butler Yeats
34 Saint Augustine of Hippo
32 Robert Browning
29 Swami Vivekananda
28 Lucretius
27 Saint Teresa of Avila
26 Aldous Huxley
26 A B Purani
22 Rudolf Steiner
21 Saint John of Climacus
21 Anonymous
18 Jorge Luis Borges
13 Rabbi Moses Luzzatto
13 Percy Bysshe Shelley
13 Nirodbaran
13 Franz Bardon
12 Plato
11 Walt Whitman
11 George Van Vrekhem
10 Rabindranath Tagore
10 Paul Richard
10 Jalaluddin Rumi
9 John Keats
8 Sri Ramana Maharshi
7 Vyasa
7 Rainer Maria Rilke
6 William Wordsworth
6 Thubten Chodron
6 Li Bai
6 Jordan Peterson
6 Henry David Thoreau
6 Bokar Rinpoche
6 Aristotle
5 Patanjali
5 Ovid
5 Norbert Wiener
5 Joseph Campbell
5 Friedrich Schiller
5 Baha u llah
5 Al-Ghazali
4 Peter J Carroll
3 Swami Sivananda Saraswati
3 R Buckminster Fuller
3 Ralph Waldo Emerson
3 Ken Wilber
3 Kabir
3 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
3 Ibn Arabi
3 Edgar Allan Poe
2 Saint Francis of Assisi
2 Mechthild of Magdeburg
2 Mansur al-Hallaj
2 Mahendranath Gupta
2 Jorge Luis Borges
2 Genpo Roshi
2 Alice Bailey
130 The Synthesis Of Yoga
103 Record of Yoga
94 On Thoughts And Aphorisms
87 Agenda Vol 08
79 Agenda Vol 10
73 Lovecraft - Poems
72 Agenda Vol 03
72 Agenda Vol 01
71 Agenda Vol 06
71 Agenda Vol 04
68 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04
68 Agenda Vol 07
66 Agenda Vol 12
66 Agenda Vol 09
64 Questions And Answers 1957-1958
63 Agenda Vol 02
60 Magick Without Tears
60 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
60 Agenda Vol 13
59 Agenda Vol 11
56 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01
55 The Life Divine
55 Agenda Vol 05
53 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
51 The Golden Bough
51 Questions And Answers 1950-1951
48 Letters On Yoga IV
47 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
46 Questions And Answers 1956
42 Letters On Yoga II
41 Quran
39 Questions And Answers 1953
37 The Study and Practice of Yoga
37 Questions And Answers 1955
36 Yeats - Poems
36 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07
35 Questions And Answers 1954
34 Mysterium Coniunctionis
33 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
32 Liber ABA
32 Browning - Poems
31 Letters On Yoga III
31 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02
28 Prayers And Meditations
28 Of The Nature Of Things
28 Essays On The Gita
26 The Perennial Philosophy
26 The Bible
26 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
25 Questions And Answers 1929-1931
24 The Human Cycle
24 Letters On Yoga I
23 Words Of Long Ago
23 The Practice of Psycho therapy
22 Essays Divine And Human
22 City of God
21 The Ladder of Divine Ascent
20 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 01
19 The Future of Man
19 Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness
19 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05
17 On Education
17 Letters On Poetry And Art
16 The Way of Perfection
16 The Divine Comedy
16 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04
16 On the Way to Supermanhood
16 Labyrinths
15 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
14 Some Answers From The Mother
13 Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo
13 The Phenomenon of Man
13 The Confessions of Saint Augustine
13 Shelley - Poems
13 Let Me Explain
13 General Principles of Kabbalah
13 Bhakti-Yoga
12 The Mother With Letters On The Mother
12 Talks
12 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 03
12 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 02
12 Aion
11 Whitman - Poems
11 Theosophy
11 Raja-Yoga
11 Preparing for the Miraculous
11 Isha Upanishad
10 Words Of The Mother II
10 Vedic and Philological Studies
10 The Interior Castle or The Mansions
10 Tagore - Poems
10 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 08
9 Twilight of the Idols
9 The Secret Of The Veda
9 The Problems of Philosophy
9 Savitri
9 Knowledge of the Higher Worlds
9 Kena and Other Upanishads
9 Keats - Poems
9 Hymn of the Universe
9 A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah
8 Initiation Into Hermetics
7 Vishnu Purana
7 The Integral Yoga
7 Rilke - Poems
7 Dark Night of the Soul
7 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 06
6 Wordsworth - Poems
6 Words Of The Mother III
6 Walden
6 The Secret Doctrine
6 Tara - The Feminine Divine
6 Rumi - Poems
6 Poetics
6 Maps of Meaning
6 Li Bai - Poems
6 How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator
5 The Practice of Magical Evocation
5 The Hero with a Thousand Faces
5 The Blue Cliff Records
5 The Alchemy of Happiness
5 Schiller - Poems
5 Patanjali Yoga Sutras
5 Metamorphoses
5 Cybernetics
5 Collected Poems
4 The Red Book Liber Novus
4 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
4 Liber Null
4 Hymns to the Mystic Fire
3 The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
3 The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep
3 The Lotus Sutra
3 The Book of Certitude
3 Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking
3 Sex Ecology Spirituality
3 Emerson - Poems
3 Beating the Cloth Drum Letters of Zen Master Hakuin
3 Anonymous - Poems
2 The Essentials of Education
2 Symposium
2 Songs of Kabir
2 Selected Fictions
2 Poe - Poems
2 Notes On The Way
2 God Exists
2 Faust
2 A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
2 Arabi - Poems
2 5.1.01 - Ilion
0 0.01 - Introduction, #Agenda Vol 1, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
She was uprooting a new Matter, free, free from the habit of inexorably being a man who repeats himself ad infinitum with a few improvements in the way of organ transplants or monetary exchanges. In fact, She was there to discover what would happen after materialism and after spiritualism, these prodigal twin brothers. because Materialism is dying in the West for the same reason that Spiritualism is dying in the East: it is the hour of the new species. Man needs to awaken, not only from his demons but also from his gods. A new Matter, yes, like a new Spirit, yes, because we still know neither one nor the other. It is the hour when Science, like Spirituality, at the end of their roads, must discover what Matter TRULY is, for it is really there that a Spirit as yet unknown to us is to be found. It is a time when all the 'isms' of the old species are dying: 'The age of
Capitalism and business is drawing to its close. But the age of Communism too will pass ... 'It is the hour of a pure little cell THAT WILL HAVE TERRESTRIAL REPERCUSSIONS, infinitely more radical than all our political and scientific or spiritualistic panaceas.
00.01 - The Approach to Mysticism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Mystic realities cannot be reached by the scientific consciousness, because they are far more subtle than the subtlest object that science can contemplate. The neutrons and positrons are for science today the finest and profoundest object-forces; they belong, it is said, almost to a borderl and where physics ends. Nor for that reason is a mystic reality something like a mathematical abstraction, -n for example. The mystic reality is subtler than the subtlest of physical things and yet, paradoxical to say, more concrete than the most concrete thing that the senses apprehend.
Furthermore, being so, the mystic domain is of infinitely greater potency than the domain of intra-atomic forces. If one comes, all on a sudden, into contact with a force here without the necessary preparation to hold and handle it, he may get seriously bruised, morally and physically. The adventure into the mystic domain has its own toll of casualtiesone can lose the mind, one can lose one's body even and it is a very common experience among those who have tried the path. It is not in vain and merely as a poetic metaphor that the ancient seers have said
--
The mystic truth has to be approached through the heart. "In the heart is established the Truth," says the Upanishad: it is there that is seated eternally the soul, the real being, who appears no bigger than the thumb. Even if the mind is utilised as an instrument of knowledge, the heart must be there behind as the guide and inspiration. It is precisely because, as I have just mentioned, Gargi sought to shoot uplike "vaulting ambition that o'erleaps itself" of which Shakespeare speaksthrough the mind alone to the highest truth that Yajnavalkya had to pull her up and give the warning that she risked losing her head if she persisted in her questioning endlessly.
For true knowledge comes of, and means, identity of being. All other knowledge may be an apprehension of things but not comprehension. In the former, the knower stands apart from the object and so can envisage only the outskirts, the contour, the surface nature; the mind is capable of this alone. But comprehension means an embracing and penetration which is possible when the knower identifies himself with the object. And when we are so identified we not merely know the object, but becoming it in our consciousness, we love it and live it.
--
For it must be understood that the heart, the mystic heart, is not the external thing which is the seat of emotion or passion; it is the secret heart that is behind, the inner heartantarhdaya of the Upanishadwhich is the centre of the individual consciousness, where all the divergent lines of that consciousness meet and from where they take their rise. That is what the Upanishad means when it says that the heart has a hundred channels which feed the human vehicle. That is the source, the fount and origin, the very substance of the true personality. Mystic knowledge the true mystic knowledge which saves and fulfilsbegins with the awakening or the entrance into this real being. This being is pure and luminous and blissful and sovereignly real, because it is a portion, a spark of the Divine Consciousness and Nature: a contact and communion with it brings automatically into play the light and the truth that are its substance. At the same time it is an uprising flame that reaches out naturally to higher domains of consciousness and manifests them through its translucid dynamism.
The knowledge that is obtained without the heart's instrumentation or co-operation is liable to be what the Gita describes as Asuric. First of all, from the point of view of knowledge itself, it would be, as I have already said, egocentric, a product and agent of one's limited and isolated self, easily put at the service of desire and passion. This knowledge, whether rationalistic or occult, is, as it were, hard and dry in its constitution, and oftener than not, negative and destructivewi thering and blasting in its career like the desert simoom.
--
The mystic's knowledge and experience is not only true and real: it is delightful and blissful. It has a supremely healing virtue. It brings a sovereign freedom and ease and peace to the mystic himself, but also to those around him, who come in contact with him. For truth and reality are made up of love and harmony, because truth is, in its essence, unity.
Sharp as a razor's edge, difficult of going, hard to traverse is that path!"
00.01 - The Mother on Savitri, #Sweet Mother - Harmonies of Light, #unset, #Zen
The sadhak, after returning from the Mother, wanted to note down immediately what She had said, but he could not do so because he felt a great hesitation due to his sense of incapacity to transcribe exactly the Mother`s own words.
After nearly seven years, however, he felt a strong urge to note down what the Mother had spoken; so in 1967 he wrote down from memory a report in French. The report was seen by the Mother and a few corrections were made by her. To another sadhak who asked Her permission to read this report She wrote: "Years ago I have spoken at length about it [Savitri] to Mona Sarkar and he has noted in French what I said. Some time back I have seen what he has written and found it correct on the whole."(4.12.1967)
--
Not much, but I like poetry, it is because of that I read it.
It does not matter if you do not understand it - Savitri, read it always. You will see that every time you read it, something new will be revealed to you. Each time you will get a new glimpse, each time a new experience; things which were not there, things you did not understand arise and suddenly become clear. Always an unexpected vision comes up through the words and lines. Every time you try to read and understand, you will see that something is added, something which was hidden behind is revealed clearly and vividly. I tell you the very verses you have read once before, will appear to you in a different light each time you re-read them. This is what happens invariably. Always your experience is enriched, it is a revelation at each step.
00.03 - Upanishadic Symbolism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
TheChhandyogya12 gives a whole typal scheme of this universal reality and explains how to realise it and what are the results of the experience. The Universal Brahman means the cosmic movement, the cyclic march of things and events taken in its global aspect. The typical movement that symbolises and epitomises the phenomenon, embodies the truth, is that of the sun. The movement consists of five stages which are called the fivefold sma Sma means the equal Brahman that is ever present in all, the Upanishad itself says deriving the word from sama It is Sma also because it is a rhythmic movement, a cadencea music of the spheres. And a rhythmic movement, in virtue of its being a wave, consists of these five stages: (i) the start, (ii) the rise, (iii) the peak, (iv) the decline and (v) the fall. Now the sun follows this curve and marks out the familiar divisions of the day: dawn, forenoon, noon, afternoon and sunset. Sometimes two other stages are added, one at each end, one of preparation and another of final lapse the twilights with regard to the sun and then ,we have seven instead of five smas Like the Sun, the Fire that is to say, the sacrificial Firecan also be seen in its fivefold cyclic movement: (i) the lighting, (ii) the smoke, (iii) the flame, (iv) smouldering and finally (v) extinction the fuel as it is rubbed to produce the fire and the ashes may be added as the two supernumerary stages. Or again, we may take the cycle of five seasons or of the five worlds or of the deities that control these worlds. The living wealth of this earth is also symbolised in a quintetgoat and sheep and cattle and horse and finally man. Coming to the microcosm, we have in man the cycle of his five senses, basis of all knowledge and activity. For the macrocosm, to I bring out its vast extra-human complexity, the Upanishad refers to a quintet, each term of which is again a trinity: (i) the threefold Veda, the Divine Word that is the origin of creation, (ii) the three worlds or fieldsearth, air-belt or atmosphere and space, (iii) the three principles or deities ruling respectively these worldsFire, Air and Sun, (iv) their expressions, emanations or embodimentsstars and birds and light-rays, and finally, (v) the original inhabitants of these worldsto earth belong the reptiles, to the mid-region the Gandharvas and to heaven the ancient Fathers.
Now, this is the All, the Universal. One has to realise it and possess in one's consciousness. And that can be done only in one way: one has to identify oneself with it, be one with it, become it. Thus by losing one's individuality one lives the life universal; the small lean separate life is enlarged and moulded in the rhythm of the Rich and the Vast. It is thus that man shares in the consciousness and energy that inspire and move and sustain the cosmos. The Upanishad most emphatically enjoins that one must not decry this cosmic godhead or deny any of its elements, not even such as are a taboo to the puritan mind. It is in and through an unimpaired global consciousness that one attains the All-Life and lives uninterruptedly and perennially: Sarvamanveti jyok jvati.
00.04 - The Beautiful in the Upanishads, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
And what else is the true character, the soul of beauty than light and delight? "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever." And a thing of joy is a thing of light. Joy is the radiance rippling over a thing of beauty. Beauty is always radiant: the charm, the loveliness of an object is but the glow of light that it emanates. And it would not be a very incorrect mensuration to measure the degree of beauty by the degree of light radiated. The diamond is not only a thing of value, but a thing of beauty also, because of the concentrated and undimmed light that it enshrines within itself. A dark, dull and dismal thing, devoid of interest and attraction becomes aesthetically precious and significant as soon as the artist presents it in terms of the values of light. The entire art of painting is nothing but the expression of beauty, in and through the modalities of light.
And where there is light, there is cheer and joy. Rasamaya and jyotirmayaare thus the two conjoint characteristics fundamental to the nature of the ultimate reality. Sometimes these two are named as the 'solar and the lunar aspect. The solar aspect refers obviously to the Light, that is to say, to the Truth; the lunar aspect refers to the rasa (Soma), to Immortality, to Beauty proper,
--
Art at its highest tends to become also the simplest and the most unconventional; and it is then the highest art, precisely because it does not aim at being artistic. The aesthetic motive is totally absent in the Upanishads; the sense of beauty is there, but it is attendant upon and involved in a deeper strand of consciousness. That consciousness seeks consciousness itself, the fullness of consciousness, the awareness and possession of the Truth and Reality,the one thing which, if known, gives the knowledge of all else. And this consciousness of the Truth is also Delight, the perfect Bliss, the Immortality where the whole universe resolves itself into its original state of rasa, that is to say, of essential and inalienable harmony and beauty.
***
0.00a - Introduction, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
For example, Keser is called "The Admirable or the Hidden Intelligence; it is the Primal Glory, for no created being can attain to its essence." This seems perfectly all right; the meaning at first sight seems to fit the significance of Keser as the first emanation from Ain Soph. But there are half a dozen other similar attri butions that would have served equally well. For instance, it could have been called the "Occult Intelligence" usually attri buted to the seventh Path or Sephirah, for surely Keser is secret in a way to be said of no other Sephirah. And what about the "Absolute or Perfect Intelligence." That would have been even more explicit and appropriate, being applicable to Keser far more than to any other of the Paths. Similarly, there is one attri buted to the 16th Path and called "The Eternal or Triumphant Intelligence," so-called because it is the pleasure of the Glory, beyond which is no Glory like to it, and it is called also the Paradise prepared for the Righteous." Any of these several would have done equally well. Much is true of so many of the other attri butions in this particular area-that is the so-called Intelligences of the Sepher Yetzirah. I do not think that their use or current arbitrary usage stands up to serious examination or criticism.
A good many attri butions in other symbolic areas, I feel are subject to the same criticism. The Egyptian Gods have been used with a good deal of carelessness, and without sufficient explanation of motives in assigning them as I did. In a recent edition of Crowley's masterpiece Liber 777 (which au fond is less a reflection of Crowley's mind as a recent critic claimed than a tabulation of some of the material given piecemeal in the Golden Dawn knowledge lectures), he gives for the first time brief explanations of the motives for his attri butions. I too should have been far more explicit in the explanations I used in the case of some of the Gods whose names were used many times, most inadequately, where several paths were concerned. While it is true that the religious coloring of the Egyptian Gods differed from time to time during Egypt's turbulent history, nonetheless a word or two about just that one single point could have served a useful purpose.
000 - Humans in Universe, #Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking, #R Buckminster Fuller, #Science
dimensions-planetary, solar, galactic, intergalactic. because of the six positive and
six negative degrees of freedom governing systems-within-systems
0.00 - INTRODUCTION, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
And, indeed, he soon discovered what a strange Goddess he had chosen to serve. He became gradually enmeshed in the web of Her all-pervading presence. To the ignorant She is, to be sure, the image of destruction; but he found in Her the benign, all-loving Mother. Her neck is encircled with a garland of heads, and Her waist with a girdle of human arms, and two of Her hands hold weapons of death, and Her eyes dart a glance of fire; but, strangely enough, Ramakrishna felt in Her breath the soothing touch of tender love and saw in Her the Seed of Immortality. She stands on the bosom of Her Consort, Siva; it is because She is the Sakti, the Power, inseparable from the Absolute. She is surrounded by jackals and other unholy creatures, the denizens of the cremation ground. But is not the Ultimate Reality above holiness and unholiness? She appears to be reeling under the spell of wine. But who would create this mad world unless under the influence of a divine drunkenness? She is the highest symbol of all the forces of nature, the synthesis of their antinomies, the Ultimate Divine in the form of woman. She now became to Sri Ramakrishna the only Reality, and the world became an unsubstantial shadow. Into Her worship he poured his soul. Before him She stood as the transparent portal to the shrine of Ineffable Reality.
The worship in the temple intensified Sri Ramakrishna's yearning for a living vision of the Mother of the Universe. He began to spend in meditation the time not actually employed in the temple service; and for this purpose he selected an extremely solitary place. A deep jungle, thick with underbrush and prickly plants, lay to the north of the temples. Used at one time as a burial ground, it was shunned by people even during the day-time for fear of ghosts. There Sri Ramakrishna began to spend the whole night in meditation, returning to his room only in the morning with eyes swollen as though from much weeping. While meditating, he would lay aside his cloth and his brahminical thread. Explaining this strange conduct, he once said to Hriday: "Don't you know that when one thinks of God one should be freed from all ties? From our very birth we have the eight fetters of hatred, shame, lineage, pride of good conduct, fear, secretiveness, caste, and grief. The sacred thread reminds me that I am a brahmin and therefore superior to all. When calling on the Mother one has to set aside all such ideas." Hriday thought his uncle was becoming insane.
--
One day Haladhari upset Sri Ramakrishna with the statement that God is incomprehensible to the human mind. Sri Ramakrishna has described the great moment of doubt when he wondered whether his visions had really misled him: "With sobs I prayed to the Mother, 'Canst Thou have the heart to deceive me like this because I am a fool?' A stream of tears flowed from my eyes. Shortly afterwards I saw a volume of mist rising from the floor and filling the space before me. In the midst of it there appeared a face with flowing beard, calm, highly expressive, and fair. Fixing its gaze steadily upon me, it said solemnly, 'Remain in bhavamukha, on the threshold of relative consciousness.' This it repeated three times and then it gently disappeared in the mist, which itself dissolved. This vision reassured me."
A garbled report of Sri Ramakrishna's failing health, indifference to worldly life, and various abnormal activities reached Kamarpukur and filled the heart of his poor mother with anguish. At her repeated request he returned to his village for a change of air. But his boyhood friends did not interest him any more. A divine fever was consuming him. He spent a great part of the day and night in one of the cremation grounds, in meditation. The place reminded him of the impermanence of the human body, of human hopes and achievements. It also reminded him of Kali, the Goddess of destruction.
--
A beautiful expression of the Vaishnava worship of God through love is to be found in the Vrindavan episode of the Bhagavata. The gopis, or milk-maids, of Vrindavan regarded the six-year-old Krishna as their Beloved. They sought no personal gain or happiness from this love. They surrendered to Krishna their bodies, minds, and souls. Of all the gopis, Radhika, or Radha, because of her intense love for Him, was the closest to Krishna. She manifested mahabhava and was united with her Beloved. This union represents, through sensuous language, a supersensuous experience.
Sri Chaitanya, also known as Gauranga, Gora, or Nimai, born in Bengal in 1485 and regarded as an Incarnation of God, is a great prophet of the Vaishnava religion. Chaitanya declared the chanting of God's name to be the most efficacious spiritual discipline for the Kaliyuga.
--
The Brahmani was the enthusiastic teacher and astonished beholder of Sri Ramakrishna in his spiritual progress. She became proud of the achievements of her unique pupil. But the pupil himself was not permitted to rest; his destiny beckoned him forward. His Divine Mother would allow him no respite till he had left behind the entire realm of duality with its visions, experiences, and ecstatic dreams. But for the new ascent the old tender guides would not suffice. The Brahmani, on whom he had depended for, three years, saw her son escape from her to follow the command of a teacher with masculine strength, a sterner mien, a gnarled physique, and a virile voice. The new guru was a wandering monk, the sturdy Totapuri, whom Sri Ramakrishna learnt to address affectionately as Nangta, the "Naked One", because of his total renunciation of all earthly objects and attachments, including even a piece of wearing cloth.
Totapuri was the bearer of a philosophy new to Sri Ramakrishna, the non-dualistic Vedanta philosophy, whose conclusions Totapuri had experienced in his own life. This ancient Hindu system designates the Ultimate Reality as Brahman, also described as Satchidananda, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. Brahman is the only Real Existence. In It there is no time, no space, no causality, no multiplicity. But through maya, Its inscrutable Power, time, space, and causality are created and the One appears to break into the many. The eternal Spirit appears as a manifold of individuals endowed with form and subject to the conditions of time. The Immortal becomes a victim of birth and death. The Changeless undergoes change. The sinless Pure Soul, hypnotized by Its own maya, experiences the joys of heaven and the pains of hell. But these experiences based on the duality of the subject-object relationship are unreal. Even the vision of a Personal God
--
But he remained as ever the willing instrument in the hand of God, the child of the Divine Mother, totally untouched by the idea of being a teacher. He used to say that three ideas — that he was a guru, a father, and a master — pricked his flesh like thorns. Yet he was an extraordinary teacher. He stirred his disciples' hearts more by a subtle influence than by actions or words. He never claimed to be the founder of a religion or the organizer of a sect. Yet he was a religious dynamo. He was the verifier of all religions and creeds. He was like an expert gardener, who prepares the soil and removes the weeds, knowing that the plants will grow because of the inherent power of the seeds, producing each its appropriate flowers and fruits. He never thrust his ideas on anybody. He understood people's limitations and worked on the principle that what is good for one may be bad for another. He had the unusual power of knowing the devotees' minds, even their inmost souls, at the first sight. He accepted disciples with the full knowledge of their past tendencies and future possibilities. The life of evil did not frighten him, nor did religious squeamishness raise anybody in his estimation. He saw in everything the unerring finger of the Divine Mother. Even the light that leads astray was to him the light from God.
To those who became his intimate disciples the Master was a friend, companion, and playmate. Even the chores of religious discipline would be lightened in his presence. The devotees would be so inebriated with pure joy in his company that they would have no time to ask themselves whether he was an Incarnation, a perfect soul, or a yogi. His very presence was a great teaching; words were superfluous. In later years his disciples remarked that while they were with him they would regard him as a comrade, but afterwards would tremble to think of their frivolities in the presence of such a great person. They had convincing proof that the Master could, by his mere wish, kindle in their hearts the love of God and give them His vision.
--
Balaram Bose came of a wealthy Vaishnava family. From his youth he had shown a deep religious temperament and had devoted his time to meditation, prayer, and the study of the Vaishnava scriptures. He was very much impressed by Sri Ramakrishna even at their first meeting. He asked Sri Ramakrishna whether God really existed and, if so, whether a man could realize Him. The Master said: "God reveals Himself to the devotee who thinks of Him as his nearest and dearest. because you do not draw response by praying to Him once, you must not conclude that He does not exist. Pray to God, thinking of Him as dearer than your very self. He is much attached to His devotees. He comes to a man even before He is sought. There is none more intimate and affectionate than God." Balaram had never before heard God spoken of in such forceful words; every one of the words seemed true to him. Under the Master's influence he outgrew the conventions of the Vaishnava worship and became one of the most beloved of the disciples. It was at his home that the Master slept whenever he spent a night in Calcutta.
--- MAHENDRA OR M.
--
One day Girish felt depressed because he was unable to submit to any routine of spiritual discipline. In an exalted mood the Master said to him: "All right, give me your power of attorney. Henceforth I assume responsibility for you. You need not do anything." Girish heaved a sigh of relief. He felt happy to think that Sri Ramakrishna had assumed his spiritual responsibilities. But poor Girish could not then realize that He also, on his part, had to give up his freedom and make of himself a puppet in Sri Ramakrishna's hands. The Master began to discipline him according to this new attitude. One day Girish said about a trifling matter, "Yes, I shall do this." "No, no!" the Master corrected him. "You must not speak in that egotistic manner. You should say, 'God willing, I shall do it.'" Girish understood. Thenceforth he tried to give up all idea of personal responsibility and surrender himself to the Divine Will. His mind began to dwell constantly on Sri Ramakrishna. This unconscious meditation in time chastened his turbulent spirit.
The householder devotees generally visited Sri Ramakrishna on Sunday afternoons and other holidays. Thus a brotherhood was gradually formed, and the Master encouraged their fraternal feeling. Now and then he would accept an invitation to a devotee's home, where other devotees would also be invited. Kirtan would be arranged and they would spend hours in dance and devotional music. The Master would go into trances or open his heart in religious discourses and in the narration of his own spiritual experiences. Many people who could not go to Dakshineswar participated in these meetings and felt blessed. Such an occasion would be concluded with a sumptuous feast.
--
Even before Rakhal's coming to Dakshineswar, the Master had had visions of him as his spiritual son and as a playmate of Krishna at Vrindavan. Rakhal was born of wealthy parents. During his childhood he developed wonderful spiritual traits and used to play at worshipping gods and goddesses. In his teens he was married to a sister of Manomohan Mitra, from whom he first heard of the Master. His father objected to his association with Sri Ramakrishna but afterwards was reassured to find that many celebrated people were visitors at Dakshineswar. The relationship between the Master and this beloved disciple was that of mother and child. Sri Ramakrishna allowed Rakhal many liberties denied to others. But he would not hesitate to chastise the boy for improper actions. At one time Rakhal felt a childlike jealousy because he found that other boys were receiving the Master's affection. He soon got over it and realized his guru as the Guru of the whole universe. The Master was worried to hear of his marriage, but was relieved to find that his wife was a spiritual soul who would not be a hindrance to his progress.
--- THE ELDER GOPAL
--
Sri Ramakrishna was grateful to the Divine Mother for sending him one who doubted his own realizations. Often he asked Narendra to test him as the money-changers test their coins. He laughed at Narendra's biting criticism of his spiritual experiences and samadhi. When at times Narendra's sharp words distressed him, the Divine Mother Herself would console him, saying: "Why do you listen to him? In a few days he will believe your every word." He could hardly bear Narendra's absences. Often he would weep bitterly for the sight of him. Sometimes Narendra would find the Master's love embarrassing; and one day he sharply scolded him, warning him that such infatuation would soon draw him down to the level of its object. The Master was distressed and prayed to the Divine Mother. Then he said to Narendra: "You rogue, I won't listen to you any more. Mother says that I love you because I see God in you, and the day I no longer see God in you I shall not be able to bear even the sight of you."
The Master wanted to train Narendra in the teachings of the non-dualistic Vedanta philosophy. But Narendra, because of his Brahmo upbringing, considered it wholly blasphemous to look on man as one with his Creator. One day at the temple garden he laughingly said to a friend: "How silly! This jug is God! This cup is God! Whatever we see is God! And we too are God! Nothing could be more absurd." Sri Ramakrishna came out of his room and gently touched him. Spellbound, he immediately perceived that everything in the world was indeed God. A new universe opened around him. Returning home in a dazed state, he found there too that the food, the plate, the eater himself, the people around him, were all God. When he walked in the street, he saw that the cabs, the horses, the streams of people, the buildings, were all Brahman. He could hardly go about his day's business. His parents became anxious about him and thought him ill. And when the intensity of the experience abated a little, he saw the world as a dream. Walking in the public square, he would strike his head against the iron railings to know whether they were real. It took him a number of days to recover his normal self. He had a foretaste of the great experiences yet to come and realized that the words of the Vedanta were true.
At the beginning of 1884 Narendra's father suddenly died of heart-failure, leaving the family in a state of utmost poverty. There were six or seven mouths to feed at home. Creditors were knocking at the door. Relatives who had accepted his father's unstinted kindness now became enemies, some even bringing suit to deprive Narendra of his ancestral home. Actually starving and barefoot, Narendra searched for a job, but without success. He began to doubt whether anywhere in the world there was such a thing as unselfish sympathy. Two rich women made evil proposals to him and promised to put an end to his distress; but he refused them with contempt.
--
One day, in January 1884, the Master was going toward the pine-grove when he went into a trance. He was alone. There was no one to support him or guide his footsteps. He fell to the ground and dislocated a bone in his left arm. This accident had a significant influence on his mind, the natural inclination of which was to soar above the consciousness of the body. The acute pain in the arm forced his mind to dwell on the body and on the world outside. But he saw even in this a divine purpose; for, with his mind compelled to dwell on the physical plane, he realized more than ever that he was an instrument in the hand of the Divine Mother, who had a mission to fulfil through his human body and mind. He also distinctly found that in the phenomenal world God manifests Himself, in an inscrutable way, through diverse human beings, both good and evil. Thus he would speak of God in the guise of the wicked, God in the guise of the pious. God in the guise of the hypocrite, God in the guise of the lewd. He began to take a special delight in watching the divine play in the relative world. Sometimes the sweet human relationship with God would appear to him more appealing than the all-effacing Knowledge of Brahman. Many a time he would pray: "Mother, don't make me unconscious through the Knowledge of Brahman. Don't give me Brahmajnana, Mother. Am I not Your child, and naturally timid? I must have my Mother. A million salutations to the Knowledge of Brahman! Give it to those who want it." Again he prayed: "O Mother let me remain in contact with men! Don't make me a dried-up ascetic. I want to enjoy Your sport in the world." He was able to taste this very rich divine experience and enjoy the love of God and the company of His devotees because his mind, on account of the injury to his arm, was forced to come down to the consciousness of the body. Again, he would make fun of people who proclaimed him as a Divine Incarnation, by pointing to his broken arm. He would say, "Have you ever heard of God breaking His arm?" It took the arm about five months to heal.
--- BEGINNING OF HIS ILLNESS
--
A few hours later the Master said to Narendra: "I said to Her: 'Mother, I cannot swallow food because of my pain. Make it possible for me to eat a little.' She pointed you all out to me and said: 'What? You are eating enough through all these mouths. Isn't that so?' I was ashamed and could not utter another word." This dashed all the hopes of the devotees for the Master's recovery.
"I shall make the whole thing public before I go", the Master had said some time before. On January 1, 1886, he felt better and came down to the garden for a little stroll. It was about three o'clock in the afternoon. Some thirty lay disciples were in the hall or sitting about under the trees. Sri Ramakrishna said to Girish, "Well, Girish, what have you seen in me, that you proclaim me before everybody as an Incarnation of God?" Girish was not the man to be taken by surprise. He knelt before the Master and said, with folded hands, "What can an insignificant person like myself say about the One whose glory even sages like Vyasa and Valmiki could not adequately measure?" The Master was profoundly moved. He said: "What more shall I say? I bless you all. Be illumined!" He fell into a spiritual mood. Hearing these words the devotees, one and all, became overwhelmed with emotion. They rushed to him and fell at his feet. He touched them all, and each received an appropriate benediction. Each of them, at the touch of the Master, experienced ineffable bliss. Some laughed, some wept, some sat down to meditate, some began to pray. Some saw light, some had visions of their Chosen Ideals, and some felt within their bodies the rush of spiritual power.
--
The Holy Mother was weeping in her room, not for her husband, but because she felt that Mother Kali had left her. As she was about to put on the marks of a Hindu widow, in a moment of revelation she heard the words of faith, "I have only passed from one room to another."
0.00 - The Book of Lies Text, #The Book of Lies, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
The verse from Tennyson is inserted partly because
of the pun on the word "break"; partly because of the
reference to the meaning of this title page, as explained
above; partly because it is intensely amusing for
Crowley to quote Tennyson.
--
because I did not know it. He went to the book-
shelves; taking out a copy of THE BOOK OF LIES, he
--
This chapter is presumably called Caviar because
that substance is composed of many spheres.
--
Dinosaurs because of their seeming to be terrible
devouring creatures. They are Masters of the Temple,
--
number of Binah; but they are called "None", because
they have attained. If it were not so, they would be
--
because Lao-tzu counts as nought, owing to the nature
of his doctrine. The reference to their "living not" is
--
The chapter is called "Steeped Horsehair" because
of the mediaeval tradition that by steeping horsehair
--
really called eleven, because of Liber Legis, I, 60.
The first part of the chapter describes the universe
--
because of the author's observation as a naturalist.
Paragraph 1 mere repeats Chapter 4 in quintessence;
--
Last came those that wept because they could not
see the Joke, and those that laughed lest they
--
This I know certainly, because they always treat me
with profound respect. Thus they have flattered
--
Yet it is true; and they have this insight because
they serve, and because they can have no personal
interest in the affairs of those whom they serve.
--
beyond physical love. It is called the Pole-Star, because
Laylah is the one object of devotion to which the author
--
the chapter is called "The Southern Cross", because,
on the physical plane, Laylah is an Australian.
--
The mind is called "wind", because of its nature; as has been
frequently explained, the ideas and words are identical.
--
described as a camel, not because of the connotation of the French
form of this word, but because "camel" is in hebrew Gimel, and
Gimel is the path leading from Tiphareth to Kether, uniting
--
it is because such sacrifices come under the Great Law
of the Rosy Cross, the giving-up of the individuality,
--
In paragraph 5 it is shown that this is because of
allowing enjoyment to cause forgetfulness of the really
--
the code is not changed because it is too hard, but
because if is fulfilled.
The dead dog floats with the stream; in puritan
--
and sinners; because his nature is ascetic.
O if everyman did No Matter What, provided that it
--
(27) Chapter so called because Amfortas was
wounded by his own spear, the spear that had made him
--
Think me not fallen because I love LAYLAH, and
lack LAYLAH.
--
Zelator is used because the Zelator of the A.'.A.'. has to pass an examination
in Asana before he becomes eligible for the grade of Practicus. The ten days
--
The third person plural must be used, because he has now perceived himself
to be a bundle of impressions. For this is the point on the Path of Gimel when
--
Through matter, because 77 is written in Hebrew Ayin
Zayin (OZ), and He-Goat, the symbol of matter, Capri-
--
men of courage. The plea that "love is sorrow", because
its ecstasies are only transitory, is contemptible.
--
the avalanche does not fall because it is tired of staying
on the mountain, or in order to crush the Alps below it,
or because that it feels that it needs exercise. Perfectly
unconscious, perfectly indifferent, it obeys the laws of
--
called the name of Spirit, because it is cheth: L is Earth, green
and fertile, because Venus, the greenness, fertility, and earthiness
of things is the Lady of Libra, Lamed.
0.00 - The Wellspring of Reality, #Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking, #R Buckminster Fuller, #Science
We are able to assert that this rationally coordinating system bridge has been established between science and the humanities because we have made adequate experimental testing of it in a computerized world-resource-use-exploration system, which by virtue of the proper inclusion of all the parameters-as guaranteed by the synergetic start with Universe and the progressive differentiation out of all the parts-has demonstrated a number of alternate ways in which it is eminently feasible not only to provide full life support for all humans but also to permit all humans' individual enjoyment of all the Earth without anyone profiting at the expense of another and without any individuals interfering with others.
While it takes but meager search to discover that many well-known concepts are false, it takes considerable search and even more careful examination of one's own personal experiences and inadvertently spontaneous reflexing to discover that there are many popularly and even professionally unknown, yet nonetheless fundamental, concepts to hold true in all cases and that already have been discovered by other as yet obscure individuals. That is to say that many scientific generalizations have been discovered but have not come to the attention of what we call the educated world at large, thereafter to be incorporated tardily within the formal education processes, and even more tardily, in the ongoing political-economic affairs of everyday life. Knowledge of the existence and comprehensive significance of these as yet popularly unrecognized natural laws often is requisite to the solution of many of the as yet unsolved problems now confronting society. Lack of knowledge of the solution's existence often leaves humanity confounded when it need not be.
--
The supposed location of the threshold between animate and inanimate was methodically narrowed down by experimental science until it was confined specifically within the domain of virology. Virologists have been too busy, for instance, with their DNA-RNA genetic code isolatings, to find time to see the synergetic significance to society of the fact that they have found that no physical threshold does in fact exist between animate and inanimate. The possibility of its existence vanished because the supposedly unique physical qualities of both animate and inanimate have persisted right across yesterday's supposed threshold in both directions to permeate one another's-previously perceived to be exclusive- domains. Subsequently, what was animate has become foggier and foggier, and what is inanimate clearer and clearer. All organisms consist physically and in entirety of inherently inanimate atoms. The inanimate alone is not only omnipresent but is alone experimentally demonstrable. Belated news of the elimination of this threshold must be interpreted to mean that whatever life may be, it has not been isolated and thereby identified as residual in the biological cell, as had been supposed by the false assumption that there was a separate physical phenomenoncalled animate within which life existed. No life per se has been isolated. The threshold between animate and inanimate has vanished. Those chemists who are preoccupied in synthesizing the particular atomically structured molecules identified as the prime constituents of humanly employed organisms will, even if they are chemically successful, be as remote from creating life as are automobile manufacturers from creating the human drivers of their automobiles. Only the physical connections and development complexes of distinctly "nonlife" atoms into molecules, into cells, into animals, has been and will be discovered. The genetic coding of the design controls of organic systems offers no more explanation of life than did the specifications of the designs of the telephone system's apparatus and operation explain the nature of the life that communicates weightlessly to life over the only physically ponderable telephone system. Whatever else life may be, we know it is weightless. At the moment of death, no weight is lost. All the chemicals, including the chemist's life ingredients, are present, but life has vanished. The physical is inherently entropic, giving off energy in ever more disorderly ways. The metaphysical is antientropic, methodically marshalling energy. Life is antientropic.
It is spontaneously inquisitive. It sorts out and endeavors to understand.
The overconcentration on details of hyperspecialization has also been responsible for the lack of recognition by science of its inherently mandatory responsibility to reorient all our educational curricula because of the synergetically disclosed, but popularly uncomprehended, significance of the 1956 Nobel Prize-winning discovery in physics of the experimental invalidation of the concept of "parity" by which science previously had misassumed that positive-negative complementations consisted exclusively of mirror-imaged behaviors of physical phenomena.
Science's self-assumed responsibility has been self-limited to disclosure to society only of the separate, supposedly physical ( because separately weighable) atomic component isolations data. Synergetic integrity would require the scientists to announce that in reality what had been identified heretofore as physical is entirely metaphysical- because synergetically weightless. Metaphysical has been science's designation for all weightless phenomena such as thought. But science has made no experimental finding of any phenomena that can be described as a solid, or as continuous, or as a straight surface plane, or as a straight line, or as infinite anything. We are now synergetically forced to conclude that all phenomena are metaphysical; wherefore, as many have long suspected-like it or not-life is but a dream.Science has found no up or down directions of Universe, yet scientists are personally so ill-coordinated that they all still personally and sensorially see "solids" going up or down-as, for instance, they see the Sun "going down." Sensorially disconnected from their theoretically evolved information, scientists discern no need on their part to suggest any educational reforms to correct the misconceiving that science has tolerated for half a millennium.
0.01 - I - Sri Aurobindos personality, his outer retirement - outside contacts after 1910 - spiritual personalities- Vibhutis and Avatars - transformtion of human personality, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
The question which Arjuna asks Sri Krishna in the Gita (second chapter) occurs pertinently to many about all spiritual personalities: "What is the language of one whose understanding is poised? How does he speak, how sit, how walk?" Men want to know the outer signs of the inner attainment, the way in which a spiritual person differs outwardly from other men. But all the tests which the Gita enumerates are inner and therefore invisible to the outer view. It is true also that the inner or the spiritual is the essential and the outer derives its value and form from the inner. But the transformation about which Sri Aurobindo writes in his books has to take place in nature, because according to him the divine Reality has to manifest itself in nature. So, all the parts of nature including the physical and the external are to be transformed. In his own case the very physical became the transparent mould of the Spirit as a result of his intense Sadhana. This is borne out by the impression created on the minds of sensitive outsiders like Sj. K. M. Munshi who was deeply impressed by his radiating presence when he met him after nearly forty years.
The Evening Talks collected here may afford to the outside world a glimpse of his external personality and give the seeker some idea of its richness, its many-sidedness, its uniqueness. One can also form some notion of Sri Aurobindo's personality from the books in which the height, the universal sweep and clear vision of his integral ideal and thought can be seen. His writings are, in a sense, the best representative of his mental personality. The versatile nature of his genius, the penetrating power of his intellect, his extraordinary power of expression, his intense sincerity, his utter singleness of purpose all these can be easily felt by any earnest student of his works. He may discover even in the realm of mind that Sri Aurobindo brings the unlimited into the limited. Another side of his dynamic personality is represented by the Ashram as an institution. But the outer, if one may use the phrase, the human side of his personality, is unknown to the outside world because from 1910 to 1950 a span of forty years he led a life of outer retirement. No doubt, many knew about his staying at Pondicherry and practising some kind of very special Yoga to the mystery of which they had no access. To some, perhaps, he was living a life of enviable solitude enjoying the luxury of a spiritual endeavour. Many regretted his retirement as a great loss to the world because they could not see any external activity on his part which could be regarded as 'public', 'altruistic' or 'beneficial'. Even some of his admirers thought that he was after some kind of personal salvation which would have very little significance for mankind in general. His outward non-participation in public life was construed by many as lack of love for humanity.
But those who knew him during the days of the national awakening from 1900 to 1910 could not have these doubts. And even these initial misunderstandings and false notions of others began to evaporate with the growth of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram from 1927 onwards. The large number of books published by the Ashram also tended to remove the idea of the other-worldliness of his Yoga and the absence of any good by it to mankind.
0.01 - Letters from the Mother to Her Son, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
known in Western countries, it is probably because their stature
does not go beyond the understanding of the Western mind.
--
"manage" everything, but not because I really own them. You
will readily understand why I am telling you all this; it is so you
--
sense. But perhaps we see it this way simply because nearness
makes us see all the details. From a distance the details fade and
0.01 - Life and Yoga, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Rajayoga, for instance, depends on this perception and experience that our inner elements, combinations, functions, forces, can be separated or dissolved, can be new-combined and set to novel and formerly impossible workings or can be transformed and resolved into a new general synthesis by fixed internal processes. Hathayoga similarly depends on this perception and experience that the vital forces and functions to which our life is normally subjected and whose ordinary operations seem set and indispensable, can be mastered and the operations changed or suspended with results that would otherwise be impossible and that seem miraculous to those who have not seized the rationale of their process. And if in some other of its forms this character of Yoga is less apparent, because they are more intuitive and less mechanical, nearer, like the Yoga of Devotion, to a supernal ecstasy or, like the Yoga of Knowledge, to a supernal infinity of consciousness and being, yet they too start from the use of some principal faculty in us by ways and for ends not contemplated in its everyday spontaneous workings. All methods grouped under the common name of Yoga are special psychological processes founded on a fixed truth of Nature and developing, out of normal functions, powers and results which were always latent but which her ordinary movements do not easily or do not often manifest.
But as in physical knowledge the multiplication of scientific processes has its disadvantages, as that tends, for instance, to develop a victorious artificiality which overwhelms our natural human life under a load of machinery and to purchase certain forms of freedom and mastery at the price of an increased servitude, so the preoccupation with Yogic processes and their exceptional results may have its disadvantages and losses. The
0.02 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In this case the paint slipped out because it was asked
for Mother's stool.
--
reproach in what I was saying, because there was nothing of
the kind in my intention. I was giving expression to an amused
--
Is it because there is no mental control in the dream state
and hence the vital being is free to act as it likes?
--
which protests and rebels because it cannot be fulfilled. These
formations are autonomous entities. That is why, once they are
--
Attila was compelled to spare Lutetia because of the occult
action of Saint Genevieve who, by the ardour of her prayers,
--
that is why there are many things I do not say, because to me they
are so obvious that it would be utterly pointless to mention them.
--
ask me to explain it to you. When I do not do so, it is because I
think you are receptive enough for the formation to act and fulfil
--
danger, it is because there is a hidden reason somewhere.
That is not exactly what I said. I said that a feeling of danger
--
under a pile of useless things, because one cannot take
care of them.
--
One really cannot dismiss a man because he laughed. He should
be given some other work and advised to be polite in the future.
--
It is precisely because your refusal had no real cause that it
did not have the power to dominate the other man's will.
--
thing is good or not, because my vision is limited.
I never said that you should be the judge. I agree to be the judge
in all cases, because I recognise that it is very difficult to know
whether a thing is right and good, unless one can see the law of
--
the case, and this is why I consult the people around me, because
they are able to move about. I do not want them to answer me
--
You wrote to me, "It is precisely because your refusal had no real cause that it did not have the power
to dominate the other man's will. So you should get the
--
I thought that my refusal was ineffective because it was
not supported by Sweet Mother, and I firmly believe that
--
upset and depressed because a fellow-worker did not
follow his advice.)
0.03 - III - The Evening Sittings, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
When Sri Aurobindo and the Mother moved to No. 9 Rue de la Marine in 1922 the same routine of informal evening sittings after meditation continued. I came to Pondicherry for Sadhana in the beginning of 1923. I kept notes of the important talks I had with the four or five disciples who were already there. Besides, I used to take detailed notes of the Evening Talks which we all had with the Master. They were not intended by him to be noted down. I took them down because of the importance I felt about everything connected with him, no matter how insignificant to the outer view. I also felt that everything he did would acquire for those who would come to know his mission a very great significance.
As years passed the evening sittings went on changing their time and often those disciples who came from outside for a temporary stay for Sadhana were allowed to join them. And, as the number of sadhaks practising the Yoga increased, the evening sittings also became more full, and the small verandah upstairs in the main building was found insufficient. Members of the household would gather every day at the fixed time with some sense of expectancy and start chatting in low tones. Sri Aurobindo used to come last and it was after his coming that the session would really commence.
--
Then, on 23 November 1938, I got up at 2 o'clock to prepare hot water for the Mother's early bath because the 24th was Darshan day. Between 2.20 and 2.30 the Mother rang the bell. I ran up the staircase to be told about an accident that had happened to Sri Aurobindo's thigh and to be asked to fetch the doctor. This accident brought about a change in his complete retirement, and rendered him available to those who had to attend on him. This opened out a long period of 12 years during which his retirement was modified owing to circumstances, inner and outer, that made it possible for him to have direct physical contacts with the world outside.
The long period of the Second World War with all its vicissitudes passed through these years. It was a priceless experience to see how he devoted his energies to the task of saving humanity from the threatened reign of Nazism. It was a practical lesson of solid work done for humanity without any thought of return or reward, without even letting humanity know what he was doing for it! Thus he lived the Divine and showed us how the Divine cares for the world, how He comes down and works for man. I shall never forget how he who was at one time in his own words "not merely a non-co-operator but an enemy of British Imperialism" bestowed such anxious care on the health of Churchill, listening carefully to the health-bulletins! It was the work of the Divine, it was the Divine's work for the world.
0.03 - Letters to My little smile, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I spent the whole day in this state of dullness because I
no longer imagine things as before.
--
these things to people because they cannot do anything
for her." "Yes," the doctor said, "I understand that he
--
- and least of all about their difficulties; it is uncharitable because it does not help them to overcome the difficulties. As
for doctors, the rule is that they should not talk about their
--
understand: you are dissatisfied not because I fail to give you all
that you need, but because I give you more, far more than you
are able to receive. Open yourself, increase your receptivity by
--
your smile; because you knew how to smile at life, you also
knew how to work with courage and steadiness, and in this
--
all night. It is like a bazaar, there is a lot of noise because
people are all talking at once and one can understand
--
good too. because they have remained in me, they have
not disappeared. And the smile and working regularly
--
so much trouble? It would be better to remain quiet because "what should disappear will disappear; only what
is good will remain. "
--
I am not angry because what you write here means nothing
- I pity you, that's all. Did I tell you that it would disappear
--
doesn't want to become quiet. because if I wanted to become quiet, I would naturally have tried to make myself
quiet, wouldn't I?
--
them (the thieves of the vital world), because it is when you are
depressed that they are best able to rob you. You must not listen
--
be tired because I am protected!"
14 April 1933
--
cut or not. because if it is well cut, I can cut other things
without any hesitation.
--
that? I want to know, because if it is not good I don't
want it; I will go on speaking as before.
--
then he said, "You are the Mother's child, not Sri Aurobindo's." (It was just a joke, because I can read Your
handwriting but not Sri Aurobindo's.)
--
won't tell You how many hours I work because if I
write "I worked for ten hours", You write to me, "It is
--
yet concealing in itself the stream of life. because of the resistance
of matter, this stream of life is freed only with difficulty and can
--
it concerned you because you were present, and I took it as
a promise that your difficulties would give way and that you
--
My dear child, I didn't reply at once because I wanted to see the
cloth first. There are irregularities, of course, but it seems to me
--
silver dragons, for 21 February 1935 - if You ask someone to do the drawing. because the green cloth and the
gold and silver thread are all ready.
--
told You the other day) because I know that if one can
always keep that silence and peace one never feels poor
--
saris all these days? It is certainly not because I dislike wearing
them - quite the contrary. But they are rather heavy and warm
--
January - at that time there are many visitors because of the
vacations and I shall then wear the embroidered saris with the
--
belittle the Divine's love, because without it nothing is worth
living for.
0.04 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
it brings down their vitality because of that, and makes them
become old very soon. That is why I do not wish them to be
0.05 - Letters to a Child, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
tonight? If it is so, it was because I was thinking of the stupidity
Series Five - To a Child
--
them together, because they are nearly always just as I thought
they should be. The small one you sent this morning is very fine
--
you, because they become jealous and their jealousy creates a
bad atmosphere which falls back on you and brings back the
difficulty to you; because you spoke, you opened yourself and
received it, perhaps without even being aware of it.
--
My child, my child, why this great sadness? Is it because someone to whom you had given your friendship has withdrawn for
reasons that he thinks are very profound?
--
I have told you this because the anxiety you speak of comes
from the fact that you are far too concerned about yourself. It
--
I am worried because you always have a headache and because
you are tired.
--
Were you angry with me because I have decided to
leave the Ashram? I want to go forward - not to revolt
--
not because I am afraid of my duty but because I want you." I
would like to tell you something about this. To be sure that you
--
There is no real cause because there is no discontent. Your pain
is quite gratuitous, so you would [do] better [to] get rid of it
--
You find it difficult to open because you have not yet made
the resolution to allow my will, and not your own, to govern
--
I did not answer because what I say seems to have no effect. If
you would express clearly, in a precise way, the nature of the
revolt, it would help you very much to get rid of it, because it is
Series Five - To a Child
0.05 - The Synthesis of the Systems, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Yoga. In man we render these terms by Will and Faith, - a will that is eventually self-effective because it is of the substance of
Knowledge and a faith that is the reflex in the lower consciousness of a Truth or real Idea yet unrealised in the manifestation.
0.06 - INTRODUCTION, #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
his observations, but because, even in spite of himself, he betrays the sublimity of
his own mystical experiences. Once more, too, we may admire the crystalline
0.06 - Letters to a Young Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
any great change after them, because they leave men as false, as
ignorant, as egoistic as before.
--
not very easily seen because it happens normally, in accordance
with the law of the truth of things, and not arbitrarily through
--
It is precisely because of this that you lose the feeling of the
Presence.
--
not appear bad to me, because I know there is a great
joy in seeking; but it is true that my heart will always be
--
is not well established because the mind makes too much noise
and the vital is too restless.
--
I have already told you that it is because the contact between
the outer consciousness and the psychic consciousness is not
--
inner state. It happens because you live in a very superficial
region of your mind. You must try to find some depth in your
--
Sweet Mother, I am happy because I love You and because I suffer a little in loving You.
I don't see the need of your suffering. Psychic love is always
--
It is in your soul that the calmness can be found and it is by contagion that it spreads through your being. It is not steady because
the sovereignty of your soul is not yet definitively established
--
anyone; nobody attracts me. And it is because of this
that I told You I was losing all human feelings.
--
Be courageous and do not think of yourself so much. It is because
you make your little ego the centre of your preoccupation that
--
Ashram; but those who are without work are certainly so because they do not like to work; and for that disease it is very
difficult to find a remedy - it is called laziness...
--
given up because of this?
Our way is very long, and it is indispensable to advance calmly
--
It is just when one is innocent that one ought to be most indifferent to ill-treatment, because there is nothing to blame oneself
for and one has the approbation of one's conscience to console
--
I don't see why people should feel guilty because they are hungry.
If food is prepared, it is for eating.
0.07 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But I submit reports about it because once you expressed
a desire that I should do so.
--
do because they can't be hurt. So I never attach much importance
to complaints.
--
Your heart is quite a sweet place because of your love - let
me remain always there so that I may fill your whole being with
--
what you wrote about it the other day, it is because I did not
attach much importance to it. My sentence meant simply that
0.08 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This process of development goes on tirelessly through innumerable lives, and if one is not conscious of it, it is because
one is not conscious of one's psychic being - for that is the
--
widening? because as soon as one aspires, isn't it the
mind that aspires?
--
feels this way because it is ignorant, and gradually one has
to convince it that its perception and understanding are too
--
beforehand, not while I am there, because any activity lessens
the receptivity.
--
To read my books is not difficult because they are written in the
simplest language, almost the spoken language. To get help from
--
To read what Sri Aurobindo writes is more difficult because
the expression is highly intellectual and the language far more
--
It is because each photo represents a different aspect, sometimes
even a different personality of my being; and by concentrating
0.09 - Letters to a Young Teacher, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
One keeps one's defects because one hangs on to them as if
they were something precious; one clings to one's vices as one
--
It is because an individual is not made up all of one piece, but
of many different entities which are sometimes even contrary to
--
ecstasy because one is in contact with one's Personal
Divine. How to approach the Transcendent Divine?
01.01 - A Yoga of the Art of Life, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Here is the very heart of the mystery, the master-key to the problem. The advent of the superhuman or divine race, however stupendous or miraculous the phenomenon may appear to be, can become a thing of practical actuality, precisely because it is no human agency that has undertaken it but the Divine himself in his supreme potency and wisdom and love. The descent of the Divine into the ordinary human nature in order to purify and transform it and be lodged there is the whole secret of the sadhana in Sri Aurobindo's Yoga. The sadhaka has only to be quiet and silent, calmly aspiring, open and acquiescent and receptive to the one Force; he need not and should not try to do things by his independent personal effort, but get them done or let them be done for him in the dedicated consciousness by the Divine Master and Guide. All other Yogas or spiritual disciplines in the past envisaged an ascent of the consciousness, its sublimation into the consciousness of the Spirit and its fusion and dissolution there in the end. The descent of the Divine Consciousness to prepare its definitive home in the dynamic and pragmatic human nature, if considered at all, was not the main theme of the past efforts and achievements. Furthermore, the descent spoken of here is the descent, not of a divine consciousness for there are many varieties of divine consciousness but of the Divine's own consciousness, of the Divine himself with his Shakti. For it is that that is directly working out this evolutionary transformation of the age.
It is not my purpose here to enter into details as to the exact meaning of the descent, how it happens and what are its lines of activity and the results brought about. For it is indeed an actual descent that happens: the Divine Light leans down first into the mind and begins its purificatory work therealthough it is always the inner heart which first recognises the Divine Presence and gives its assent to the Divine action for the mind, the higher mind that is to say, is the summit of the ordinary human consciousness and receives more easily and readily the Radiances that descend. From the Mind the Light filters into the denser regions of the emotions and desires, of life activity and vital dynamism; finally, it gets into brute Matter itself, the hard and obscure rock of the physical body, for that too has to be illumined and made the very form and figure of the Light supernal. The Divine in his descending Grace is the Master-Architect who is building slowly and surely the many-chambered and many-storeyed edifice that is human nature and human life into the mould of the Divine Truth in its perfect play and supreme expression. But this is a matter which can be closely considered when one is already well within the mystery of the path and has acquired the elementary essentials of an initiate.
01.01 - Sri Aurobindo - The Age of Sri Aurobindo, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
If one were to be busy about reforming the world and when that was done then alone to turn to other-worldly things, in that case, one would never take the turn, for the world will never be reformed totally or even considerably in that way. It is not that reformers have for the first time appeared on the earth in the present age. Men have attempted social, political, economic and moral reforms from times immemorial. But that has not barred the spiritual attempt or minimised its importance. To say that because an ideal is apparently too high or too great for the present age, it must be kept in cold storage is to set a premium on the present nature of humanity arid eternise it: that would bind the world to its old moorings and never give it the opportunity to be free and go out into the high seas of larger and greater realisations.
The ideal or perhaps one should say the policy of Real-politick is the thing needed in this world. To achieve something actually in the physical and material field, even a lesser something, is worth much more than speculating on high flaunting chimeras and indulging in day-dreams. Yes, but what is this something that has to be achieved in the material world? It is always an ideal. Even procuring food for each and every person, clothing and housing all is not less an ideal for all its concern about actuality. Only there are ideals and ideals; some are nearer to the earth, some seem to be in the background. But the mystery is that it is not always the ideal nearest to the earth which is the easiest to achieve or the first thing to be done first. Do we not see before our very eye show some very simple innocent social and economic changes are difficult to carry outthey bring in their train quite disproportionately gestures and movements of violence and revolution? That is because we seek to cure the symptoms and not touch the root of the disease. For even the most innocent-looking social, economic or political abuse has at its base far-reaching attitudes and life-urgeseven a spiritual outlook that have to be sought out and tackled first, if the attempt at reform is to be permanently and wholly successful. Even in mundane matters we do not dig deep enough, or rise high enough.
Indeed, looking from a standpoint that views the working of the forces that act and achieve and not the external facts and events and arrangements aloneone finds that things that are achieved on the material plane are first developed and matured and made ready behind the veil and at a given moment burst out and manifest themselves often unexpectedly and suddenly like a chick out of the shell or the young butterfly out of the cocoon. The Gita points to that truth of Nature when it says: "These beings have already been killed by Me." It is not that a long or strenuous physical planning and preparation alone or in the largest measure brings about a physical realisation. The deeper we go within, the farther we are away from the surface, the nearer we come to the roots and sources of things even most superficial. The spiritual view sees and declares that it is the Brahmic consciousness that holds, inspires, builds up Matter, the physical body and form of Brahman.
01.01 - The New Humanity, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Another humanity is rising out of the present human species. The beings of the new order are everywhere and it is they who will soon hold sway over earth, be the head and front of the terrestrial evolution in the cycle that is approaching as it was with man in the cycle that is passing away. What will this new order of being be like? It will be what man is not, also what man is. It will not be man, because it will overstep the limitations and incapacities inherent in man; and it will be man by the realisation of those fundamental aspirations and yearnings that have troubled and consoled the deeper strata the soulin him throughout the varied experiences of his terrestrial life.
The New Man will be Master and not slave. He will be master, first, of himself and then of the world. Man as he actually is, is but a slave. He has no personal voice or choice; the determining soul, the Ishwara, in him is sleep-bound and hushed. He is a mere plaything in the hands of nature and circumstances. Therefore it is that Science has become his supreme Dharmashastra; for science seeks to teach us the moods of Nature and the methods of propitiating her. Our actual ideal of man is that of the cleverest slave. But the New Man will have found himself and by and according to his inner will, mould and create his world. He will not be in awe of Nature and in an attitude of perpetual apprehension and hesitation, but will ground himself on a secret harmony and union that will declare him as the lord. We will recognise the New Man by his very gait and manner, by a certain kingly ease and dominion in every shade of his expression.
Not that this sovereign power will have anything to do with aggression or over-bearingness. It will not be a power that feels itself only by creating an eternal opponentErbfeindby coming in constant clash with a rival that seeks to gain victory by subjugating. It will not be Nietzschean "will to power," which is, at best, a supreme Asuric power. It will rather be a Divine Power, for the strength it will exert and the victory it will achieve will not come from the egoit is the ego which requires an object outside and against to feel and affirm itself but it will come from a higher personal self which is one with the cosmic soul and therefore with other personal souls. The Asura, in spite of, or rather, because of his aggressive vehemence betrays a lack of the sovereign power that is calm and at ease and self-sufficient. The Devic power does not assert hut simply accomplishes; the forces of the world act not as its opponent but as its instrument. Thus the New Man shall affirm his individual sovereignty and do so to perfection by expressing through it his unity with the cosmic powers, with the infinite godhead. And by being Swarat, Self-Master, he will become Samrat, world-master.
This mastery will be effected not merely in will, but in mind and heart also. For the New Man will know not by the intellect which is egocentric and therefore limited, not by ratiocination which is an indirect and doubtful process, but by direct vision, an inner communion, a soul revelation. The new knowledge will be vast and profound and creative, based as it will be upon the reality of things and not upon their shadows. Truth will shine through every experience and every utterance"a truth shall have its seat on our speech and mind and hearing", so have the Vedas said. The mind and intellect will not be active and constructive agents but the luminous channel of a self-luminous knowledge. And the heart too which is now the field of passion and egoism will be cleared of its noise and obscurity; a serener sky will shed its pure warmth and translucent glow. The knot will be rent asunderbhidyate hridaya granthih and the vast and mighty streams of another ocean will flow through. We will love not merely those to whom we are akin but God's creatures, one and all; we will love not with the yearning and hunger of a mortal but with the wide and intense Rasa that lies in the divine identity of souls.
01.01 - The One Thing Needful, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It is the lesson of life that always in this world everything fails a man - only the Divine does not fail him, if he turns entirely towards the Divine. It is not because there is something bad in you that blows fall on you - blows fall on all human beings because they are full of desire for things that cannot last and they lose them or, even if they get, it brings disappointment and cannot satisfy them. To turn to the Divine is the only truth in life.
To find the Divine is indeed the first reason for seeking the spiritual Truth and the spiritual life; it is the one thing indispensable and all the resit is nothing without it. The Divine once found, to manifest Him, - that is, first of all to transform one's own limited consciousness into the Divine Consciousness, to live in the infinite Peace, Light, Love, Strength, Bliss, to become that in one's essential nature and, as a consequence, to be its vessel, channel, instrument in one's active nature. To bring into activity the principle of oneness on the material plane or to work for humanity is a mental mistranslation of the Truth - these things cannot be the first true object of spiritual seeking. We must find the Self, the Divine, then only can we know what is the work the Self or the Divine demands from us. Until then our life and action can only be a help or a means towards finding the Divine and it ought not to have any other purpose. As we grow in inner consciousness, or as the spiritual Truth of the Divine grows in us, our life and action must indeed more and more flow from that, be one with that. But to decide beforeh and by our limited mental conceptions what they must be is to hamper the growth of the spiritual Truth within. As that grows we shall feel the Divine Light and Truth, the Divine Power and Force, the Divine Purity and Peace working within us, dealing with our actions as well as our consciousness, making use of them to reshape us into the Divine Image, removing the dross, substituting the pure Gold of the Spirit. Only when the Divine Presence is there in us always and the consciousness transformed, can we have the right to say that we are ready to manifest the Divine on the material plane. To hold up a mental ideal or principle and impose that on the inner working brings the danger of limiting ourselves to a mental realisation or of impeding or even falsifying by a halfway formation the truth growth into the full communion and union with the Divine and the free and intimate outflowing of His will in our life. This is a mistake of orientation to which the mind of today is especially prone. It is far better to approach the Divine for the Peace or Light or Bliss that the realisation of Him gives than to bring in these minor things which can divert us from the one thing needful. The divinisation of the material life also as well as the inner life is part of what we see as the Divine Plan, but it can only be fulfilled by an ourflowing of the inner realisation, something that grows from within outwards, not by the working out of a mental principle.
01.02 - Sri Aurobindo - Ahana and Other Poems, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
To humanise the Divine, that is what we all wish to do; for the Divine is too lofty for us and we cannot look full into his face. We cry and supplicate to Rudra, "O dire Lord, show us that other form of thine that is benign and humane". All earthly imageries we lavish upon the Divine so that he may appear to us not as something far and distant and foreign, but, quite near, among us, as one of us. We take recourse to human symbolism often, because we wish to palliate or hide the rigours of a supreme experience, not because we have no adequate terms for it. The same human or earthly terms could be used differently if we had a different consciousness. Thus the Vedic Rishis sought not to humanise the Divine, their purpose was rather to divinise the human. And their allegorical language, although rich in terrestrial figures, does not carry the impress and atmosphere of mere humanity and earthliness. For in reality the symbol is not merely the symbol. It is mere symbol in regard to the truth so long as we take our stand on the lower plane when we have to look at the truth through the symbol; but if we view it from the higher plane, from truth itself, it is no longer mere symbol but the very truth bodied forth. Whatever there is of symbolism on earth and its beauties, in sense and its enjoyments, is then transfigured into the expression of the truth, of the divinity itself. We then no longer speak in human language but in the language of the gods.
We have been speaking of philosophy and the philosophic manner. But what are the exact implications of the words, let us ask again. They mean nothing more and nothing lessthan the force of thought and the mass of thought content. After all, that seems to be almost the whole difference between the past and the present human consciousness in so far at least as it has found expression in poetry. That element, we wish to point out, is precisely what the old-world poets lacked or did not care to possess or express or stress. A poet meant above all, if not all in all, emotion, passion, sensuousness, sensibility, nervous enthusiasm and imagination and fancy: remember the classic definition given by Shakespeare of the poet
--
And because our Vedic poets always looked beyond humanity, beyond earth, therefore could they make divine poetry of humanity and what is of earth. Therefore it was that they were pervadingly so grandiose and sublime and puissant. The heroic, the epic was their natural element and they could not but express themselves in the grand manner Sri Aurobindo has the same outlook and it is why we find in him the ring of the old-world manner.
Mark the stately march, the fullness of voice, the wealth of imagery, the vigour of movement of these lines:
01.02 - The Creative Soul, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The difference between living organism and dead matter is that while the former is endowed with creative activity, the latter has only passive receptivity. Life adds, synthetises, new-createsgives more than what it receives; matter only sums up, gathers, reflects, gives just what it receives. Life is living, glad and green through its creative genius. Creation in some form or other must be the core of everything that seeks vitality and growth, vigour and delight. Not only so, but a thing in order to be real must possess a creative function. We consider a shadow or an echo unreal precisely because they do not create but merely image or repeat, they do not bring out anything new but simply reflect what is given. The whole of existence is real because it is eternally creative.
So the problem that concerns man, the riddle that humanity has to solve is how to find out and follow the path of creativity. If we are not to be dead matter nor mere shadowy illusions we must be creative. A misconception that has vitiated our outlook in general and has been the most potent cause of a sterilising atavism in the moral evolution of humanity is that creativity is an aristocratic virtue, that it belongs only to the chosen few. A great poet or a mighty man of action creates indeed, but such a creator does not appear very frequently. A Shakespeare or a Napoleon is a rare phenomenon; they are, in reality, an exception to the general run of mankind. It is enough if we others can understand and follow themMahajano yena gatahlet the great souls initiate and create, the common souls have only to repeat and imitate.
--
Now the centre of this energy, the matrix of creativity is the soul itself, one's own soul. If you want to createlive, grow and be real-find yourself, be yourself. The simple old wisdom still remains the eternal wisdom. It is because we fall off from our soul that we wander into side-paths, paths that do not belong to our real nature and hence that lead to imitation and repetition, decay and death. This is what happens to what we call common souls. The force of circumstances, the pressure of environment or simply the momentum of custom or habit compel them to choose the easiest and the readiest way that may lie before them. They do not consult the demand of the inner being but the requirement of the moment. Our bodily needs, our vital hungers and our mental prejudices obsess and obscure the impulsions that thrill the hidden spirit. We hasten to gratify the immediate and forget the eternal, we clutch at the shadow and let go the substance. We are carried away in the flux and tumult of life. It is a mixed and collective whirla Weltgeist that moves and governs us. We are helpless straws drifting in the current. But manhood demands that we stop and pause, pull ourselves out of the Maelstrom and be what we are. We must shape things as we want and not allow things to shape us as they want.
Let each take cognisance of the godhead that is within him for self is Godand in the strength of the soul-divinity create his universe. It does not matter what sort of universe he- creates, so long as he creates it. The world created by a Buddha is not the same as that created by a Napoleon, nor should they be the same. It does not prove anything that I cannot become a Kalidasa; for that matter Kalidasa cannot become what I am. If you have not the genius of a Shankara it does not mean that you have no genius at all. Be and become yourselfma gridhah kasyachit dhanam, says the Upanishad. The fountain-head of creative genius lies there, in the free choice and the particular delight the self-determination of the spirit within you and not in the desire for your neighbours riches. The world has become dull and uniform and mechanical, since everybody endeavours to become not himself, but always somebody else. Imitation is servitude and servitude brings in grief.
In one's own soul lies the very height and profundity of a god-head. Each soul by bringing out the note that is his, makes for the most wondrous symphony. Once a man knows what he is and holds fast to it, refusing to be drawn away by any necessity or temptation, he begins to uncover himself, to do what his inmost nature demands and takes joy in, that is to say, begins to create. Indeed there may be much difference in the forms that different souls take. But because each is itself, therefore each is grounded upon the fundamental equality of things. All our valuations are in reference to some standard or other set up with a particular end in view, but that is a question of the practical world which in no way takes away from the intrinsic value of the greatness of the soul. So long as the thing is there, the how of it does not matter. Infinite are the ways of manifestation and all of them the very highest and the most sublime, provided they are a manifestation of the soul itself, provided they rise and flow from the same level. Whether it is Agni or Indra, Varuna, Mitra or the Aswins, it is the same supreme and divine inflatus.
The cosmic soul is true. But that truth is borne out, effectuated only by the truth of the individual soul. When the individual soul becomes itself fully and integrally, by that very fact it becomes also the cosmic soul. The individuals are the channels through which flows the Universal and the Infinite in its multiple emphasis. Each is a particular figure, aspectBhava, a particular angle of vision of All. The vision is entire and the figure perfect if it is not refracted by the lower and denser parts of our being. And for that the individual must first come to itself and shine in its opal clarity and translucency.
01.03 - Mystic Poetry, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
There have been other philosophical poets, a good number of them since thennot merely rationally philosophical, as was the vogue in the eighteenth century, but metaphysically philosophical, that is to say, inquiring not merely into the phenomenal but also into the labyrinths of the noumenal, investigating not only what meets the senses, but also things that are behind or beyond. Amidst the earlier efflorescence of this movement the most outstanding philosopher poet is of course Dante, the Dante of Paradiso, a philosopher in the mediaeval manner and to the extent a lesser poet, according to some. Goe the is another, almost in the grand modern manner. Wordsworth is full of metaphysics from the crown of his head to the tip of his toe although his poetry, perhaps the major portion of it, had to undergo some kind of martyrdom because of it. And Shelley, the supremely lyric singer, has had a very rich undertone of thought-content genuinely metaphysical. And Browning and Arnold and Hardyindeed, if we come to the more moderns, we have to cite the whole host of them, none can be excepted.
We left out the Metaphysicals, for they can be grouped as a set apart. They are not so much metaphysical as theological, religious. They have a brain-content stirring with theological problems and speculations, replete with scintillating conceits and intricate fancies. Perhaps it is because of this philosophical burden, this intellectual bias that the Metaphysicals went into obscurity for about two centuries and it is precisely because of that that they are slowly coming out to the forefront and assuming a special value with the moderns. For the modern mind is characteristically thoughtful, introspective"introvert"and philosophical; even the exact physical sciences of today are rounded off in the end with metaphysics.
The growth of a philosophical thought-content in poetry has been inevitable. For man's consciousness in its evolutionary march is driving towards a consummation which includes and presupposes a development along that line. The mot d'ordre in old-world poetry was "fancy", imaginationremember the famous lines of Shakespeare characterising a poet; in modern times it is Thought, even or perhaps particularly abstract metaphysical thought. Perceptions, experiences, realisationsof whatever order or world they may beexpressed in sensitive and aesthetic terms and figures, that is poetry known and appreciated familiarly. But a new turn has been coming on with an increasing insistencea definite time has been given to that, since the Renaissance, it is said: it is the growing importance of Thought or brain-power as a medium or atmosphere in which poetic experiences find a sober and clear articulation, a definite and strong formulation. Rationalisation of all experiences and realisations is the keynote of the modern mentality. Even when it is said that reason and rationality are not ultimate or final or significant realities, that the irrational or the submental plays a greater role in our consciousness and that art and poetry likewise should be the expression of such a mentality, even then, all this is said and done in and through a strong rational and intellectual stress and frame the like of which cannot be found in the old-world frankly non-intellectual creations.
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This, I say, is something different from the religious and even from the mystic. It is away from the merely religious, because it is naked of the vesture of humanity (in spite of a human face that masks it at times) ; it is something more than the merely mystic, for it does not stop being a signpost or an indication to the Beyond, but is itself the presence and embodiment of the Beyond. The mystic gives us, we can say, the magic of the Infinite; what I term the spiritual, the spiritual proper, gives in addition the logic of the Infinite. At least this is what distinguishes modern spiritual consciousness from the ancient, that is, Upanishadic spiritual consciousness. The Upanishad gives expression to the spiritual consciousness in its original and pristine purity and perfection, in its essential simplicity. It did not buttress itself with any logic. It is the record of fundamental experiences and there was no question of any logical exposition. But, as I have said, the modern mind requires and demands a logical element in its perceptions and presentations. Also it must needs be a different kind of logic that can satisfy and satisfy wholly the deeper and subtler movements of a modern consciousness. For the philosophical poet of an earlier age, when he had recourse to logic, it was the logic of the finite that always gave him the frame, unless he threw the whole thing overboard and leaped straight into the occult, the illogical and the a logical, like Blake, for instance. Let me illustrate and compare a little. When the older poet explains indriyani hayan ahuh, it is an allegory he resorts to, it is the logic of the finite he marshals to point to the infinite and the beyond. The stress of reason is apparent and effective too, but the pattern is what we are normally familiar with the movement, we can say, is almost Aristotelian in its rigour. Now let us turn to the following:
Our life is a holocaust of the Supreme. ||26.15||
01.03 - Rationalism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
It may be retorted that if Reason is condemned, it is condemned by itself and by no other authority. All argumentation against Reason is a function of Reason itself. The deficiencies of Reason we find out by the rational faculty alone. If Reason was to die, it is because it consents to commit suicide; there is no other power that kills it. But to this our answer is that Reason has this miraculous power of self-destruction; or, to put it philosophically, Reason is, at best, an organ of self-criticism and perhaps the organ par excellence for that purpose. But criticism is one thing and creation another. And whether we know or act, it is fundamentally a process of creation; at least, without this element of creation there can be no knowledge, no act. In knowledge there is a luminous creativity, Revelation or Categorical Imperative which Reason does not and cannot supply but vaguely strains to seize. For that element we have to search elsewhere, not in Reason.
Does this mean that real knowledge is irrational or against Reason? Not so necessarily. There is a super-rational power for knowledge and Reason may either be a channel or an obstacle. If we take our stand upon Reason and then proceed to know, if we take the forms and categories of Reason as the inviolable schemata of knowledge, then indeed Reason becomes an obstacle to that super-rational power. If, on the other hand, Reason does not offer any set-form from beforehand, does not insist upon its own conditions, is passive and simply receives and reflects what is given to it, then it becomes a luminous and sure channel for that higher and real knowledge.
01.04 - Motives for Seeking the Divine, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
That involves something which throws all your reasoning out of gear. For these are aspects of the Divine Nature, powers of it, states of his being, - but the Divine Himself is something absolute, someone self-existent, not limited by his aspects, - wonderful and ineffable, not existing by them, but they existing because of him. It follows that if he attracts by his aspects, all the more he can attract by his very absolute selfness which is sweeter, mightier, profounder than any aspect. His peace, rapture, light, freedom, beauty are marvellous and ineffable, because he is himself magically, mysteriously, transcendently marvellous and ineffable. He can then be sought after for his wonderful and ineffable self and not only for the sake of one aspect or another of him. The only thing needed for that is, first, to arrive at a point when the psychic being feels this pull of the Divine in himself and, secondly, to arrive at the point when the mind, vital and each thing else begins to feel too that that was what it was wanting and the surface hunt after Ananda or what else was only an excuse for drawing the nature towards that supreme magnet.
Your argument that because we know the union with the
Divine will bring Ananda, therefore it must be for the Ananda that we seek the union, is not true and has no force. One who loves a queen may know that if she returns his love it will bring him power, position, riches and yet it need not be for the power, position, riches that he seeks her love. He may love her for herself and could love her equally if she were not a queen; he might have no hope of any return whatever and yet love her, adore her, live for her, die for her simply because she is she. That has happened and men have loved women without any hope of enjoyment or result, loved steadily, passionately after age has come and beauty has gone. Patriots do not love their country only when she is rich, powerful, great and has much to give them; their love for country has been most ardent, passionate, absolute when the country was poor, degraded, miserable, having nothing to give but loss, wounds, torture, imprisonment, death as the wages of her service; yet even knowing that they would never see her free, men have lived, served and died for her - for her own sake, not for what she could give. Men have loved Truth for her own sake and for what they could seek or find of her, accepted poverty, persecution, death itself; they have been content even to seek for her always, not finding, and yet never given up the search.
That means what? That men, country, Truth and other things besides can be loved for their own sake and not for anything else, not for any circumstance or attendant quality or resulting enjoyment, but for something absolute that is either in them or behind their appearance and circumstance. The Divine is more than a man or woman, a stretch of land or a creed, opinion, discovery or principle. He is the Person beyond all persons, the
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The pull of that is indeed a categorical imperative, the self in us drawn to the Divine because of the imperative call of its greater Self, the soul ineffably drawn towards the object of its adoration, because it cannot be otherwise, because it is it and
He is He. That is all about it.
01.04 - The Intuition of the Age, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
That is to say, the change has been in the soul of man himself, the being has veered round and taken a new orientation. It is this which one must envisage, recognise and consciously possess, in order that one may best fulfil the call of the age. But what we are doing instead is to observe the mere external signs and symbols and symptoms, to fix upon the distant quiverings, the echoes on the outermost rim, which are not always faithful representations, but very often distorted images of the truth and life at the centre and source and matrix. We must know that if there has been going on a redistribution and new-marshalling of forces, it is because the fiat has come from the Etat Major.
Now, in order to understand the new orientation of the spirit of the present age, we may profitably ask what was the inspiration of the past age, the characteristic note which has failed to satisfy us and which we are endeavouring to transform. We know that that age was the Scientific age or the age of Reason. Its great prophets were Voltaire and the Encyclopaedists or if you mount further up in time, we may begin from Bacon and the humanists. Its motto was first, "The proper study of mankind is man" and secondly, Reason is the supreme organon of knowledge, the highest deity in manla Desse Raison. And it is precisely against these two basic principles that the new age has entered its protest. In face of Humanism, Nietzsche has posited the Superman and in face of Reason Bergson has posited Intuition.
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Reason is insufficient and unsatisfactory because, as Bergson explains, it does not and cannot embrace life as a whole, seize man and the world in an integral realisation. The greater part of the vast mystery of existence escapes its envergure. Reason is that faculty which is for analysing, defining, classifying and fixing things. It is a power that has grown in man in order that he may best manipulate the things of the world. It is utilitarian, practical in its nature and outlook. And as practical dealing requires that things should be stable and separate entities, therefore Reason cannot but see things in solid and in the fragments of a solid. It cuts up existence into distinct parts and diverse elements; and these again it seeks to relate and aggregate, in accordance with what it calls "laws". Such a process has been necessary for man in conducting life and action successfully. Originally a bye-product of active life, Reason gradually separated itself and came finally to have an independent status and function, became or sought to become the instrument of knowledge, of Truth.
But although Reason has been and is useful for the practical, we may say almost, the manual aspect of life, life itself it leaves unexplained and uncomprehended. For life is mobility, a continuous flow that has nowhere any gap or stop and things have in reality no isolated or separate existence, they merge and mingle into one another and form an indissoluble whole. Therefore the forms and categories that Reason imposes upon existence are more or less arbitrary; they are shackles that seek to bind up and limit life, but are often rent asunder in the very effort. So the civilisation that has its origin in Reason and progresses with discoveries and inventionsdevices for artfully manipulating naturehas been essentially and pre-eminently mechanical in its structure and outlook. It has become more and more efficient perhaps, but less and less soul-inspired, less and less-endowed with the free-flowing sap of organic growth and vitality.
01.04 - The Poetry in the Making, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Is the artist the supreme artist, when he is a genius, that is to sayconscious in his creation or is he unconscious? Two quite opposite views have been taken of the problem by the best of intelligences. On the one hand, it is said that genius is genius precisely because it acts unconsciously, and on the other it is asserted with equal emphasis that genius is the capacity of taking infinite pains, which means it is absolutely a self conscious activity.
We take a third view of the matter and say that genius is neither unconscious or conscious but superconscious. And when one is superconscious, one can be in appearance either conscious or unconscious. Let us at the outset try to explain a little this psychological riddle.
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The three or four major orders I speak of in reference to conscious artistry are exampled characteristically in the history of the evolution of Greek poetry. It must be remembered, however, at the very outset that the Greeks as a race were nothing if not rational and intellectual. It was an element of strong self-consciousness that they brought into human culture that was their special gift. Leaving out of account Homer who was, as I said, a primitive, their classical age began with Aeschylus who was the first and the most spontaneous and intuitive of the Great Three. Sophocles, who comes next, is more balanced and self-controlled and pregnant with a reasoned thought-content clothed in polished phrasing. We feel here that the artist knew what he was about and was exercising a conscious control over his instruments and materials, unlike his predecessor who seemed to be completely carried away by the onrush of the poetic enthousiasmos. Sophocles, in spite of his artistic perfection or perhaps because of it, appears to be just a little, one remove, away from the purity of the central inspiration there is a veil, although a thin transparent veil, yet a veil between which intervenes. With the third of the Brotherhood, Euripides, we slide lower downwe arrive at a predominantly mental transcription of an experience or inner conception; but something of the major breath continues, an aura, a rhythm that maintains the inner contact and thus saves the poetry. In a subsequent age, in Theocritus, for example, poetry became truly very much 'sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought', so much of virtuosity and precocity entered into it; in other words, the poet then was an excessively self-conscious artist. That seems to be the general trend of all literature.
But should there be an inherent incompatibility between spontaneous creation and self-consciousness? As we have seen, a harmony and fusion can and do happen of the superconscious and the normally conscious in the Yogi. Likewise, an artist also can be wakeful and transparent enough so that he is conscious on both the levels simultaneouslyabove, he is conscious of the source and origin of his inspiration, and on the level plain he is conscious of the working of the instrument, how the vehicle transcribes and embodies what comes from elsewhere. The poet's consciousness becomes then divalent as it werethere is a sense of absolute passivity in respect of the receiving apparatus and coupled and immisced with it there is also the sense of dynamism, of conscious agency as in his secret being he is the master of his apparatus and one with the Inspirerin other words, the poet is both a seer (kavih) and a creator or doer (poits).
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Genius had to be generally more or less unconscious in the past, because the instrument was not ready, was clogged as it were with its own lower grade movements; the higher inspiration had very often to bypass it, or rob it of its serviceable materials without its knowledge, in an almost clandestine way. Wherever it was awake and vigilant, we have seen it causing a diminution in the poetic potential. And yet even so, it was being prepared for a greater role, a higher destiny it is to fulfil in the future. A conscious and full participation of a refined and transparent and enriched instrument in the delivery of superconscious truth and beauty will surely mean not only a new but the very acme of aesthetic creation. We thus foresee the age of spiritual art in which the sense of creative beauty in man will find its culmination. Such an art was only an exception, something secondary or even tertiary, kept in the background, suggested here and there as a novel strain, called "mystic" to express its unfamiliar nature-unless, of course, it was openly and obviously scriptural and religious.
I have spoken of the source of inspiration as essentially and originally being a super-consciousness or over-consciousness. But to be more precise and accurate I should add another source, an inner consciousness. As the super-consciousness is imaged as lying above the normal consciousness, so the inner consciousness may be described as lying behind or within it. The movement of the inner consciousness has found expression more often and more largely than that of over-consciousness in the artistic creation of the past : and that was in keeping with the nature of the old-world inspiration, for the inspiration that comes from the inner consciousness, which can be considered as the lyrical inspiration, tends to be naturally more "spontaneous", less conscious, since it does not at all go by the path of the head, it evades that as much as possible and goes by the path of the heart.
01.04 - The Secret Knowledge, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Yet none would leave because of his delight.
His works, his thoughts have been devised by her,
01.05 - Rabindranath Tagore: A Great Poet, a Great Man, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The world being nothing but Spirit made visible is, according to Tagore, fundamentally a thing of beauty. The scars and spots that are on the surface have to be removed and mankind has to repossess and clo the itself with that mantle of beauty. The world is beautiful, because it is the image of the Beautiful, because it harbours, expresses and embodies the Divine who is Beauty supreme. Now by a strange alchemy, a wonderful effect of polarisation, the very spiritual element in Tagore has made him almost a pagan and even a profane. For what are these glories of Nature and the still more exquisite glories that the human body has captured? They are but vibrations and modulations of beauty the delightful names and forms of the supreme Lover and Beloved.
Socrates is said to have brought down Philosophy from Heaven to live among men upon earth. A similar exploit can be ascribed to Tagore. The Spirit, the bare transcendental Reality contemplated by the orthodox Vedantins, has been brought nearer to our planet, close to human consciousness in Tagore's vision, being clothed in earth and flesh and blood, made vivid with the colours and contours of the physical existence. The Spirit, yes and by all means, but not necessarily asceticism and monasticism. So Tagore boldly declared in those famous lines of his:
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Tagore the poet reminds one often and anon of Kalidasa. He was so much in love, had such kinship with the great old master that many of his poems, many passages and lines are reminiscences, echoes, modulations or a paraphrase of the original classic. Tagore himself refers in his memoirs to one Kalidasian line that haunted his juvenile brain because of its exquisite music and enchanting imagery:
Mandki nirjharikarm vodh muhuh-kamPita-deva-druh
01.05 - The Nietzschean Antichrist, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
This is the Nietzsche we all know. But there is another aspect of his which the world has yet been slow to recognise. For, at bottom, Nietzsche is not all storm and fury. If his Superman is a Destroying Angel, he is none the less an angel. If he is endowed with a supreme sense of strength and power, there is also secreted in the core of his heart a sense of the beautiful that illumines his somewhat sombre aspect. For although Nietzsche is by birth a Slavo-Teuton, by culture and education he is pre-eminently Hellenic. His earliest works are on the subject of Greek tragedy and form what he describes as an "Apollonian dream." And to this dream, to this Greek aesthetic sense more than to any thing else he sacrifices justice and pity and charity. To him the weak and the miserable, the sick and the maimed are a sort of blot, a kind of ulcer on the beautiful face of humanity. The herd that wallow in suffering and relish suffering disfigure the aspect of the world and should therefore be relentlessly mowed out of existence. By being pitiful to them we give our tacit assent to their persistence. And it is precisely because of this that Nietzsche has a horror of Christianity. For compassion gives indulgence to all the ugliness of the world and thus renders that ugliness a necessary and indispensable element of existence. To protect the weak, to sympathise with the lowly brings about more of weakness and more of lowliness. Nietzsche has an aristocratic taste par excellencewhat he aims at is health and vigour and beauty. But above all it is an aristocracy of the spirit, an aristocracy endowed with all the richness and beauty of the soul that Nietzsche wants to establish. The beggar of the street is the symbol of ugliness, of the poverty of the spirit. And the so-called aristocrat, die millionaire of today is as poor and ugly as any helpless leper. The soul of either of them is made of the same dirty, sickly stuff. The tattered rags, the crouching heart, the effeminate nerve, the unenlightened soul are the standing ugliness of the world and they have no place in the ideal, the perfect humanity. Humanity, according to Nietzsche, is made in order to be beautiful, to conceive the beautiful, to create the beautiful. Nietzsche's Superman has its perfect image in a Grecian statue of Zeus cut out in white marble-Olympian grandeur shedding in every lineament Apollonian beauty and Dionysian vigour.
The real secret of Nietzsche's philosophy is not an adoration of brute force, of blind irrational joy in fighting and killing. Far from it, Nietzsche has no kinship with Treitschke or Bernhard. What Nietzsche wanted was a world purged of littleness and ugliness, a humanity, not of saints, perhaps, but of heroes, lofty in their ideal, great in their achievement, majestic in their empirea race of titanic gods breathing the glory of heaven itself.
01.07 - Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
But Faith and Reason, according to Pascal, are not contraries nor irreconcilables. because the things of faith are beyond reason, it is not that they are irrational. Here is what Pascal says about the function and limitation of reason:
"The last movement of reason is to know that there is an infinity of things that are beyond it. It must be a very weak reason if it does not arrive there."2
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One is not sure if such reasoning is convincing to the intellect; but perhaps it is a necessary stage in conversion. At least we can conclude that Pascal had to pass through such a stage; and it indicates the difficulty his brain had to undergo, the tension or even the torture he made it pass through. It is true, from Reason Pascal went over to Faith, even while giving Reason its due. Still it seems the two were not perfectly synthetised or fused in him. There was a gap between that was not thoroughly bridged. Pascal did not possess the higher, intuitive, luminous mind that mediates successfully between the physical discursive ratiocinative brain-mind and the vision of faith: it is because deep in his consciousness there lay this chasm. Indeed,Pascal's abyss (l' abme de Pascal) is a well-known legend. Pascal, it appears, used to have very often the vision of an abyss about to open before him and he shuddered at the prospect of falling into it. It seems to us to be an experience of the Infinity the Infinity to which he was so much attracted and of which he wrote so beautifully (L'infiniment grand et l'infiniment petit)but into which he could not evidently jump overboard unreservedly. This produced a dichotomy, a lack of integration of personality, Jung would say. Pascal's brain was cold, firm, almost rigid; his heart was volcanic, the faith he had was a fire: it lacked something of the pure light and burned with a lurid glare.
And the reason is his metaphysics. It is the Jansenist conception of God and human nature that inspired and coloured all his experience and consciousness. According to it, as according to the Calvinist conception, man is a corrupt being, corroded to the core, original sin has branded his very soul. Only Grace saves him and releases him. The order of sin and the order of Grace are distinct and disparate worlds and yet they complement each other and need each other. Greatness and misery are intertwined, united, unified with each other in him. Here is an echo of the Manichean position which also involves an abyss. But even then God's grace is not a free agent, as Jesuits declare; there is a predestination that guides and controls it. This was one of the main subjects he treated in his famous open letters (Les Provinciales) that brought him renown almost overnight. Eternal hell is a possible prospect that faces the Jansenist. That was why a Night always over-shadowed the Day in Pascal's soul.
01.08 - A Theory of Yoga, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
This is the real meaning and sense of the moral struggle in man, the continuous endeavour towards a transvaluation of the primary and aboriginal instincts and impulses. Looked at from one end, from below up the ascending line, man's ethical and spiritual ideals are a dissimulation and sublimation of the animal impulsions. But this is becauseas we see, if we look from the other end, from above down the descending lineman is not all instinct, he is not a mere blind instrument in the hands of Nature forces. He has in him another source, an opposite pole of being from which other impulsions flow and continually modify the structure of the lower levels. If the animal is the foundation of his nature, the divine is its summit. If the bodily demands form his manifest reality, the demands of the spirit enshrine his higher reality. And if as regards the former he is a slave, as regards the latter he is the Master. It is by the interaction of these double forces that his whole nature has been and is being fashioned. Man does not and cannot give carte blanche to his vital, inclinations, since there is a pressure upon them of higher forces coming down from his mental and spiritual levels. It is these latter which have deviated him from the direct line of the pure animal life.
Thus then we may distinguish three types of control on three levels. First, the natural control, secondly the conscious, i.e. to say the mental the ethical and religious control, and thirdly the spiritual or divine control. Now the spirit is the ultimate truth and reality, behind the forces that act in the mind and in the body, so that the natural control and the ethical control are mere attempts to establish and realise the spiritual control. The animal impulses feel the hidden stress of the divine urges that are their real essence and thus there rises first an unconscious conflict in the natural life and then a conscious conflict in the higher ethical life. But when both of these are transcended and the conflict is carried on to a still higher level, then do we find their real significance and arrive at the consummation to which they move. Yoga is the ultimate transvaluation of physical (and of moral) values, it is the trans-substantiation of life-power into its spiritual substance.
01.08 - Walter Hilton: The Scale of Perfection, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
This spiritual march or progress can also be described as a growing into the likeness of the Lord. His true self, his own image is implanted within us; he is there in the profoundest depth of our being as Jesus, our beloved and our soul rests in him in utmost bliss. We are aware neither of Jesus nor of his spouse, our soul, because of the obsession of the flesh, the turmoil raised by the senses, the blindness of pride and egoism. All that constitutes the first or old Adam, the image of Nought, the body of death which means at bottom the "false misruled love in to thyself." This self-love is the mother of sin, is sin itself. What it has to be replaced by is charity that is the true meaning of Christian charity, forgetfulness of self. "What is sin but a wanting and a forbearing of God." And the whole task, the discipline consists in "the shaping of Christ in you, the casting of sin through Christ." Who then is Christ, what is he? This knowledge you get as you advance from your sense-bound perception towards the inner and inmost seeing. As your outer nature gets purified, you approach gradually your soul, the scales fall off from your eyes too and you have the knowledge and "ghostly vision." Here too there are three degrees; first, you start with faith the senses can do nothing better than have faith; next, you rise to imagination which gives a sort of indirect touch or inkling of the truth; finally, you have the "understanding", the direct vision. "If he first trow it, he shall afterwards through grace feel it, and finally understand it."
It is never possible for man, weak and bound as he is, to reject the thraldom of his flesh, he can never purify himself wholly by his own unaided strength. God in his infinite mercy sent his own son, an emanation created out of his substancehis embodied loveas a human being to suffer along with men and take upon himself the burden of their sins. God the Son lived upon earth as man and died as man. Sin therefore has no longer its final or definitive hold upon mankind. Man has been made potentially free, pure and worthy of salvation. This is the mystery of Christ, of God the Son. But there is a further mystery. Christ not only lived for all men for all time, whether they know him, recognise him or not; but he still lives, he still chooses his beloved and his beloved chooses him, there is a conscious acceptance on either side. This is the function of the Holy Ghost, the redeeming power of Love active in him who accepts it and who is accepted by it, the dynamic Christ-Consciousness in the true Christian.
--
Indeed, it would be interesting to compare and contrast the Eastern and Western approach to Divine Love, the Christian and the Vaishnava, for example. Indian spirituality, whatever its outer form or credal formulation, has always a background of utter unity. This unity, again, is threefold or triune and is expressed in those great Upanishadic phrases,mahvkyas,(1) the transcendental unity: the One alone exists, there is nothing else than theOneekamevdvityam; (2) the cosmic unity: all existence is one, whatever exists is that One, thereare no separate existences:sarvam khalvidam brahma neha nnsti kincaa; (3) That One is I, you too are that One:so' ham, tattvamasi; this may be called the individual unity. As I have said, all spiritual experiences in India, of whatever school or line, take for granted or are fundamentally based upon this sense of absolute unity or identity. Schools of dualism or pluralism, who do not apparently admit in their tenets this extreme monism, are still permeated in many ways with that sense and in some form or other take cognizance of the truth of it. The Christian doctrine too says indeed, 'I and my Father in Heaven are one', but this is not identity, but union; besides, the human soul is not admitted into this identity, nor the world soul. The world, we have seen, according to the Christian discipline has to be altogether abandoned, negatived, as we go inward and upward towards our spiritual status reflecting the divine image in the divine company. It is a complete rejection, a cutting off and casting away of world and life. One extreme Vedantic path seems to follow a similar line, but there it is not really rejection, but a resolution, not the rejection of what is totally foreign and extraneous, but a resolution of the external into its inner and inmost substance, of the effect into its original cause. Brahman is in the world, Brahman is the world: the world has unrolled itself out of the Brahmansi, pravttiit has to be rolled back into its, cause and substance if it is to regain its pure nature (that is the process of nivitti). Likewise, the individual being in the world, "I", is the transcendent being itself and when it withdraws, it withdraws itself and the whole world with it and merges into the Absolute. Even the Maya of the Mayavadin, although it is viewed as something not inherent in Brahman but superimposed upon Brahman, still, has been accepted as a peculiar power of Brahman itself. The Christian doctrine keeps the individual being separate practically, as an associate or at the most as an image of God. The love for one's neighbour, charity, which the Christian discipline enjoins is one's love for one's kind, because of affinity of nature and quality: it does not dissolve the two into an integral unity and absolute identity, where we love because we are one, because we are the One. The highest culmination of love, the very basis of love, according to the Indian conception, is a transcendence of love, love trans-muted into Bliss. The Upanishad says, where one has become the utter unity, who loves whom? To explain further our point, we take two examples referred to in the book we are considering. The true Christian, it is said, loves the sinner too, he is permitted to dislike sin, for he has to reject it, but he must separate from sin the sinner and love him. Why? because the sinner too can change and become his brother in spirit, one loves the sinner because there is the possibility of his changing and becoming a true Christian. It is why the orthodox Christian, even such an enlightened and holy person as this mediaeval Canon, considers the non-Christian, the non-baptised as impure and potentially and fundamentally sinners. That is also why the Church, the physical organisation, is worshipped as Christ's very body and outside the Church lies the pagan world which has neither religion nor true spirituality nor salvation. Of course, all this may be symbolic and it is symbolic in a sense. If Christianity is taken to mean true spirituality, and the Church is equated with the collective embodiment of that spirituality, all that is claimed on their behalf stands justified. But that is an ideal, a hypothetical standpoint and can hardly be borne out by facts. However, to come back to our subject, let us ow take the second example. Of Christ himself, it is said, he not only did not dislike or had any aversion for Judas, but that he positively loved the traitor with a true and sincere love. He knew that the man would betray him and even when he was betraying and had betrayed, the Son of Man continued to love him. It was no make-believe or sham or pretence. It was genuine, as genuine as anything can be. Now, why did he love his enemy? because, it is said, the enemy is suffered by God to do the misdeed: he has been allowed to test the faith of the faithful, he too has his utility, he too is God's servant. And who knows even a Judas would not change in the end? Many who come to scoff do remain to pray. But it can be asked, 'Does God love Satan too in the same way?' The Indian conception which is basically Vedantic is different. There is only one reality, one truth which is viewed differently. Whether a thing is considered good or evil or neutral, essentially and truly, it is that One and nothing else. God's own self is everywhere and the sage makes no difference between the Brahmin and the cow and the elephant. It is his own self he finds in every person and every objectsarvabhtsthitam yo mm bhajati ekatvamsthitah"he has taken his stand upon oneness and loves Me in all beings."2
This will elucidate another point of difference between the Christian's and the Vaishnava's love of God, for both are characterised by an extreme intensity and sweetness and exquisiteness of that divine feeling. This Christian's, however, is the union of the soul in its absolute purity and simplicity and "privacy" with her lord and master; the soul is shred here of all earthly vesture and goes innocent and naked into the embrace of her Beloved. The Vaishnava feeling is richer and seems to possess more amplitude; it is more concrete and less ethereal. The Vaishnava in his passionate yearning seeks to carry as it were the whole world with him to his Lord: for he sees and feels Him not only in the inmost chamber of his soul, but meets Him also in and I through his senses and in and through the world and its objects around. In psychological terms one can say that the Christian realisation, at its very source, is that of the inmost soul, what we call the "psychic being" pure and simple, referred to in the book we are considering; as: "His sweet privy voice... stirreth thine heart full stilly." Whereas the Vaishnava reaches out to his Lord with his outer heart too aflame with passion; not only his inmost being but his vital being also seeks the Divine. This bears upon the occult story of man's spiritual evolution upon earth. The Divine Grace descends from the highest into the deepest and from the deepest to the outer ranges of human nature, so that the whole of it may be illumined and transformed and one day man can embody in his earthly life the integral manifestation of God, the perfect Epiphany. Each religion, each line of spiritual discipline takes up one limb of manone level or mode of his being and consciousness purifies it and suffuses it with the spiritual and divine consciousness, so that in the end the whole of man, in his integral living, is recast and remoulded: each discipline is in charge of one thread as it were, all together weave the warp and woof in the evolution of the perfect pattern of a spiritualised and divinised humanity.
01.09 - The Parting of the Way, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
As a matter of fact it is not so. The glimpses of a higher form of consciousness we can see even now present in self-consciousness. We have spoken of the different stages of evolution as if they were separate and distinct and incommensurate entities. They may be described as such for the purpose of a logical understanding, but in reality they form a single progressive continuum in which one level gradually fuses into another. And as the higher level takes up the law of the lower and evolves out of it a characteristic function, even so the law of the higher level with its characteristic function is already involved and envisaged in the law of the lower level and its characteristic function. It cannot be asserted positively that because man's special virtue is self-consciousness, animals cannot have that quality on any account. We do see, if we care to observe closely and dispassionately, that animals of the higher order, as they approach the level of humanity, show more and more evident signs of something which is very much akin to, if not identical with the human characteristic of self-consciousness.
So, in man also, especially of that order which forms the crown of humanityin poets and artists and seers and great men of actioncan be observed a certain characteristic form of consciousness, which is something other than, greater than the consciousness of the mere self. It is difficult as yet to characterise definitely what that thing is. It is the awakening of the self to something which is beyond itselfit is the cosmic self, the oversoul, the universal being; it is God, it is Turiya, it is sachchidanandain so many ways the thing has been sought to be envisaged and expressed. The consciousness of that level has also a great variety of names given to it Intuition, Revelation, cosmic consciousness, God-consciousness. It is to be noted here, however, that the thing we are referring to, is not the Absolute, the Infinite, the One without a second. It is not, that is to say, the supreme Reality the Brahmanin its static being, in its undivided and indivisible unity; it is the dynamic Brahman, that status of the supreme Reality where creation, the diversity of Becoming takes rise, it is the Truth-worldRitam the domain of typal realities. The distinction is necessary, as there does seem to be such a level of consciousness intermediary, again, between man and the Absolute, between self-consciousness and the supreme consciousness. The simplest thing would be to give that intermediate level of consciousness a negative namesince being as yet human we cannot foresee exactly its composition and function the super-consciousness.
01.09 - William Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The ideal was Blake's. It will not sound so revolting if we understand what the poet meant by Hell. Hell, he explains, is simply the body, the Energy of Lifehell, because body and life on earth were so considered by the orthodox Christianity. The Christian ideal demands an absolute denial and rejection of life. Fulfilment is elsewhere, in heaven alone. That is, as we know, the ideal of the ascetic. The life of the spirit (in heaven) is a thing away from and stands against the life of the flesh (on earth). In the face of this discipline, countering it, Blake posited a union, a marriage of the two, considered incompatibles and incommensurables. Enfant terrible that he was, he took an infinite delight in a spirit of contradiction and went on expatiating on the glory of the misalliance. He declared a new apocalypse and said that Lucifer, the one called Satan, was the real God, the so-called Messiah the fake one: the apparent Milton spoke in praise of God and in dispraise of Satan, but the real, the esoteric Milton glorified Satan, who is the true God and minimised or caricatured the counterfeit or shadow God. Here is Blakean Bible in a nutshell:
But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul is to be expunged.. . . If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.
--
We welcome voices that speak of this ancient tradition, this occult Knowledge of a high Future. Recently we have come across one aspirant in the line, and being a contemporary, his views and reviews in the matter will be all the more interesting to us.2 He is Gustave Thibon, a Frenchman-not a priest or even a religious man in the orthodox sense in any way, but a country farmer, a wholly self-educated laque. Of late he has attracted a good deal of attention from intellectuals as well as religious people, especially the Catholics, because of his remarkable conceptions which are so often unorthodox and yet so often ringing true with an old-world au thenticity.
Touching the very core of the malady of our age he says that our modern enlightenment seeks to cancel altogether the higher values and install instead the lower alone as true. Thus, for example, Marx and Freud, its twin arch priests, are brothers. Both declare that it is the lower, the under layer alone that matters: to one "the masses", to the other "the instincts". Their wild imperative roars: "Sweep away this pseudo-higher; let the instincts rule, let the pro-letariat dictate!" But more characteristic, Monsieur Thibon has made another discovery which gives the whole value and speciality to his outlook. He says the moderns stress the lower, no doubt; but the old world stressed only the higher and neglected the lower. Therefore the revolt and wrath of the lower, the rage of Revanche in the heart of the dispossessed in the modern world. Enlightenment meant till now the cultivation and embellishment of the Mind, the conscious Mind, the rational and nobler faculties, the height and the depth: and mankind meant the princes and the great ones. In the individual, in the scheme of his culture and education, the senses were neglected, left to go their own way as they pleased; and in the collective field, the toiling masses in the same way lived and moved as best as they could under the economics of laissez-faire. So Monsieur Thibon concludes: "Salvation has never come from below. To look for it from above only is equally vain. No doubt salvation must come from the higher, but on condition that the higher completely adopts and protects the lower." Here is a vision luminous and revealing, full of great import, if we follow the right track, prophetic of man's true destiny. It is through this infiltration of the higher into the lower and the integration of the lower into the higher that mankind will reach the goal of its evolution, both individually and collectively.
0.10 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
away. One snake was dead because I had stepped on it.
This is all I can remember clearly. I cannot remember
--
I went to work only for one hour, because I had too
much work at home.
This is not good; the collective work should not suffer because
of personal work.
--
but the Supreme Lord alone is its centre because He surpasses
and contains it.
--
incense-stick. But how is it that I wake up early because
of that? There is no relation between these two things!
--
"The Titans are stronger than the gods because they have agreed with God to front
and bear the burden of His wrath and enmity; the gods were able to accept only the
--
in the Kaliyuga9 that the Divine manifests fully because
man is in great danger in this age. And here he is! He
--
not know it, it is because you find it more convenient to forget it.
27 September 1962
--
a letter. because it is none of my business!
I read your letter and I was not at all angry. But Z was not at all
--
it will help you in your inner progress; because if you are sincere,
you will one day realise that it is the Divine in her that you love
--
people will say that I ask for anything I want just because
I have given You a little money. Mother, what do You
--
There are moments when one feels a kind of emptiness within; one is dejected and lonely - it is because
one wants to be loved.
Or better, it is because one is awaking to the need of knowing
one's soul and uniting with the Divine.
--
sign, because this kind of discretion comes from the psychic
consciousness which would rather give than ask.
--
I feel miserable because I asked the Mother for incense. It would be much better to buy it from the market,
for She does not like her children to beg.
--
It is a pity he did not explain his thought, because I don't know
what he wanted to say - probably he wanted to caution you
--
Everything people say is of little importance, because human
judgments are always partial and therefore ignorant.
--
his nature - but if she suffers and is unhappy because of what
he does, then it is her own fault, for it means that her own feeling
--
The body is afraid of anything new because its very base is
inertia, tamas; it is the vital which brings in a dominant note of
--
Is it because we have defects in ourselves that we
cannot tolerate them in others? What is the origin of the
--
that is free of all desire and attachment because it is under the
influence of the divine Light and Force. It is a long and exacting
--
It is always preferable not to try to assess the progress one is making because it does not help one to make it - on the contrary.
Aspiration for progress, if it is SINCERE, is sure to have an effect.
--
The advance is rarely in a straight and continuous line because a
human being is made up of many different parts, and generally
--
it says because it speaks without violence or insistence - it is a
murmur in the depths of our heart which is easy to ignore.
--
"The greatest egoist is the Supreme Lord because He never
bothers about anything but Himself!"
--
Ashram mean?18 Are we responsible for it because of our
faults and because we disobey the Supreme Truth in our
daily lives?
Very certainly such a thing has been made possible because the
atmosphere of the Ashram is not pure enough to be invulnerable
--
Nobody comes here for his own salvation because Sri Aurobindo
does not believe in salvation; for us salvation is a meaningless
--
make individual efforts to progress, it is because this progress is
indispensable for the accomplishment of the work.
--
It is impossible to say, because for each person it is different.
It depends on the part of one's being that awakens first and
--
there is no longer any question of renouncing it because it is no
longer an object of desire.
--
This happens because you are trying to enter with a superficial
consciousness which does not have contact with the inner states
--
Why? It is very easy. because these are only words. When one
practises without believing in God or the Divine, one practises
--
her and throw her into the Ganges because they were displeased
with her. If one believes in the Divine, one cannot do things like
--
that sort of thing: the world as it is proves the Divine. because
it is the Divine under a certain aspect - a rather distorted one,
--
But perhaps it is just because certain individuals and certain
departments are spending extravagantly that there is a financial
--
a constant experience? because the moment one throws
oneself into activity, the mental disturbance begins again!
--
Perhaps it is because you have a soul.
12 April 1967
--
psychic memory, because when one has one, it is quite evident.
Before knowing these things, I had had psychic memories
--
I was very strongly and consciously with you because X had
written to me that the tyres of the car were in poor condition.
You did not feel the danger because I did not want you to
feel it.
--
It is because men still imagine that to do something useful, they
have to form groups.
01.10 - Principle and Personality, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
It is asked of us why do we preach a man and not purely and solely a principle. Our ideal being avowedly the establishment and reign of a new principle of world-order and not gathering recruits for the camp of a sectarian teacher, it seems all the more inconsistent, if not thoroughly ruinous for our cause, that we should lay stress upon a particular individual and incur the danger of overshadowing the universal truths upon which we seek to build human society. Now, it is not that we are unconscious or oblivious of the many evils attendant upon the system of preaching a man the history of the rise and decay of many sects and societies is there to give us sufficient warning; and yet if we cannot entirely give the go-by to personalities and stick to mere and bare principles, it is because we have clear reasons for it, because we are not unconscious or oblivious either of the evils that beset the system of preaching the principle alone.
Religious bodies that are formed through the bhakti and puja for one man, social reconstructions forced by the will and power of a single individual, have already in the inception this grain of incapacity and disease and death that they are not an integrally self-conscious creation, they are not, as a whole, intelligent and wide awake and therefore constantly responsive to the truths and ideals and realities for which they exist, for which at least, their founder intended them to exist. The light at the apex is the only light and the entire structure is but the shadow of that light; the whole thing has the aspect of a dark mass galvanised into red-hot activity by the passing touch of a dynamo. Immediately however the solitary light fails and the dynamo stops, there is nothing but the original darkness and inertiatoma asit tamasa gudham agre.
--
And yet we yield to none in our demand for holding forth the principles always and ever before the wide open gaze of all. The principle is there to make people self-knowing and self-guiding; and the man is also there to illustrate that principle, to serve as the hope and prophecy of achievement. The living soul is there to touch your soul, if you require the touch; and the principle is there by which to test and testify. For, we do not ask anybody to be a mere automaton, a blind devotee, a soul without individual choice and initiative. On the contrary, we insist on each and every individual to find his own soul and stand on his own Truththis is the fundamental principle we declare, the only creedif creed it be that we ask people to note and freely follow. We ask all people to be fully self-dependent and self-illumined, for only thus can a real and solid reconstruction of human nature and society be possible; we do not wish that they should bow down ungrudgingly to anything, be it a principle or a personality. In this respect we claim the very first rank of iconoclasts and anarchists. And along with that, if we still choose to remain an idol-lover and a hero-worshipper, it is because we recognise that our mind, human as it is, being not a simple equation but a complex paradox, the idol or the hero symbolises for us and for those who so will, the very iconoclasm and anarchism and perhaps other more positive things as wellwhich we behold within and seek to manifest.
The world is full of ikons and archons; we cannot escape them, even if we try the world itself being a great ikon and as great an archon. Those who swear by principles, swear always by some personality or other, if not by a living creature then by a lifeless book, if not by Religion then by Science, if not by the East then by the West, if not by Buddha or Christ then by Bentham or Voltaire. Only they do it unwittingly they change one set of personalities for another and believe they have rejected them all. The veils of Maya are a thousand-fold tangle and you think you have entirely escaped her when you have only run away from one fold to fall into another. The wise do not attempt to reject and negate Maya, but consciously accept herfreedom lies in a knowing affirmation. So we too have accepted and affirmed an icon, but we have done it consciously and knowingly; we are not bound by our idol, we see the truth of it, and we serve and utilise it as best as we may.
01.11 - Aldous Huxley: The Perennial Philosophy, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
"To its heights we can always come. For those of us who are still splashing about in the lower ooze, the phrase has a rather ironical ring. Nevertheless, in the light of even the most distant acquaintance with the heights and the fullness, it is possible to understand what its author means. To discover the Kingdom of God exclusively within oneself is easier than to discover it, not only there, but also in the outer worlds of minds and things and living creatures. It is easier because the heights within reveal themselves to those who are ready to exclude from their purview all that lies without. And though this exclusion may be a painful and mortificatory process, the fact remains that it is less arduous than the process of inclusion, by which we come to know the fullness as well as the heights of spiritual life. Where there is exclusive concentration on the heights within, temptations and distractions are avoided and there is a general denial and suppression. But when the hope is to know God inclusivelyto realise the divine Ground in the world as well as in the soul, temptations and distractions must not be avoided, but submitted to and used as opportunities for advance; there must be no suppression of outward-turning activities, but a transformation of them so that they become sacramental."
The neatness of the commentary cannot be improved upon. Only with regard to the "ironical ring" of which Huxley speaks, it has just to be pointed out, as he himself seems to understand, that the "we" referred to in the phrase does not mean humanity in general that 'splashes about in the lower ooze' but those who have a sufficiently developed inner spiritual life.
01.11 - The Basis of Unity, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The truth behind a credal religion is the aspiration towards the realization of the Divine, some ultimate reality that gives a permanent meaning and value to the human life, to the existence lodged in this 'sphere of sorrow' here below. Credal paraphernalia were necessary to express or buttress this core of spiritual truth when mankind, in the mass, had not attained a certain level of enlightenment in the mind and a certain degree of development in its life-relations. The modern age is modern precisely because it had attained to a necessary extent this mental enlightenment and this life development. So the scheme or scaffolding that was required in the past is no longer unavoidable and can have either no reality at all or only a modified utility.
A modern people is a composite entity, especially with regard to its religious affiliation. Not religion, but culture is the basis of modern collective life, national or social. Culture includes in its grain that fineness of temperament which appreciates all truths behind all forms, even when there is a personal allegiance to one particular form.
--
In Europe such a contingency did not arise, because the religious spirit, rampant in the days of Inquisitions and St. Bartholomews, died away: it died, and (or, because) it was replaced by a spirit that was felt as being equally, if not more, au thentic and, which for the moment, suffused the whole consciousness with a large and high afflatus, commensurate with the amplitude of man's aspiration. I refer, of course, to the spirit of the Renaissance. It was a spirit profane and secular, no doubt, but on that level it brought a catholicity of temper and a richness in varied interesta humanistic culture, as it is calledwhich constituted a living and unifying ideal for Europe. That spirit culminated in the great French Revolution which was the final coup de grace to all that still remained of mediaevalism, even in its outer structure, political and economical.
In India the spirit of renascence came very late, late almost by three centuries; and even then it could not flood the whole of the continent in all its nooks and corners, psychological and physical. There were any number of pockets (to use a current military phrase) left behind which guarded the spirit of the past and offered persistent and obdurate resistance. Perhaps, such a dispensation was needed in India and inevitable also; inevitable, because the religious spirit is closest to India's soul and is its most direct expression and cannot be uprooted so easily; needed, because India's and the world's future demands it and depends upon it.
Only, the religious spirit has to be bathed and purified and enlightened by the spirit of the renascence: that is to say, one must learn and understand and realize that Spirit is the thing the one thing needfulTamevaikam jnatha; 'religions' are its names and forms, appliances and decorations. Let us have by all means the religious spirit, the fundamental experience that is the inmost truth of all religions, that is the matter of our soul; but in our mind and life and body let there be a luminous catholicity, let these organs and instruments be trained to see and compare and appreciate the variety, the numberless facets which the one Spirit naturally presents to the human consciousness. Ekam sat viprh bahudh vadanti. It is an ancient truth that man discovered even in his earliest seekings; but it still awaits an adequate expression and application in life.
01.13 - T. S. Eliot: Four Quartets, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Now, a modern poet is modern, because he is doubly attracted and attached to things of this world and this mundane life, in spite of all his need and urge to go beyond for the larger truth and the higher reality. Apart from the natural link with which we are born, there is this other fascination which the poor miserable things, all the little superficialities, trivialities especially have for the modern mind in view of their possible sense and significance and right of existence. These too have a magic of their own, not merely a black magic:
..... our losses, the torn seine,
--
Here the poet is almost grimly tense, concentrated and has not allowed himself to be dissipated by thinkings and arguments, has confined himself wholly to a living experience. That is because the poet has since then moved up and sought a more rarefied air, a more even and smooth temper. The utter and absolute poetic ring of the Inferno is difficult to maintain in the Paradiso, unless and until the poet transforms himself wholly into the Rishi, like the poet of the Gita or the Upanishads.
"East Coker"
0.11 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
receive a small part of it because I am not receptive
enough.
--
The body is able to bear the pressure of time because it knows
and feels quite concretely that it does not itself live and act, but
--
It is because material wealth is controlled by the adverse forces
- and because they have not yet been converted to the Divine
Influence, though the work has begun.
--
the greater the Truth that seeks to descend upon us, because it is already there within us
and calls for its release from the covering that conceals it in manifested Nature."
--
nights, because the activities of the night often contradict the
aspiration of the day and undo its work.
--
being. And one can hear it only if one is very attentive, because
it does not make any clamour.
--
three of them because there is a physical mind, a vital mind and
a mental mind.
--
The Presence is always there whatever we do, and it is because
of ignorance, negligence or absent-mindedness that we do not
--
of the divine transformation, because effort and aspiration are
needed for the transformation to take place.
--
indispensable so far as it can be done. because the aim of this
yoga is not an escape from the physical consciousness but a
0.12 - Letters to a Student, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
regularly, because it is the laziness of unconsciousness that keeps
you from doing them.
--
I said "not easy" because the contact is not spontaneous - it
is voluntary. The psychic being always has an influence on the
0.13 - Letters to a Student, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
the parents help you in your spiritual progress, because they are
usually more interested in a worldly realisation.
--
asking for permission, because they sensed that it would not be
given.
0.14 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
We are at a decisive hour in the history of the earth. It is preparing for the coming of the superman and because of this the old
way of life is losing its value. We must strike out boldly on the
--
That is why I said "progressive perfection", because the
manifestation of the consciousness of detail is infinite and unending.
--
will because its consciousness will be totally united with Yours.
23 February 1972
0 1954-08-25 - what is this personality? and when will she come?, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I knew you would ask me this question because it is indeed the most interesting thing in the whole passageso my answer is ready, along with my answer to another question. But first let me read you this one.
You asked, What is this Personality and when will She come? Here is my answer (Mother reads):
--
She came down because there WAS a possibility because things had reached such a stage that it was her hour to come down. But in truth, She came down because because I thought it was possible for her to succeed.
Possibilities are still thereonly they have to materialize.
--
I think it was in 1946, Mother, because you told us so many things at that time.
Right.
--
Oh! But you see, from an occult standpoint, it is a selection. From an external standpoint you could say that there are people in the world who are far superior to you (and I would not disagree!), but from an occult standpoint, it is a selection. There are It can be said that without a doubt the majority of young people here have come because it was promised them that they would be present at the Hour of Realization but they just dont remember it! (Mother laughs) I have already said several times that when you come down on earth, you fall on your head, which leaves you a little dazed! (laughter) Its a pity, but after all, you dont have to remain dazed all your lives, do you? You should go deep within yourselves and there find the immortal consciousness then you can see very well, you can very clearly remember the circumstances in which you you aspired to be here for the Hour of the Works realization.
But actually, to tell you the truth, I think your lives are so easy that you dont exert yourselves very much! How many among you have truly an INTENSE need to find their psychic beings? To find out truly who they are? To find out what their roles are, why they are here? You just let yourselves drift. You even complain when things arent easy enough! You just take things as they come. And sometimes, should an aspiration arise in you and you encounter some difficulty in yourself, you say, Oh, Mother is there! Shell take care of it for me! And you think about something else.
--
Yes, I have always said that it changed when we had to take the very little children. How can you envision an ascetic life with little sprouts no bigger than that? Its impossible! But thats the little surprise package the war left on our doorstep. When it was found that Pondicherry was the safest place on earth, naturally people came wheeling in here with all their baby carriages filled and asked us if we could shelter them, so we couldnt very well turn them away, could we?! Thats how it happened, and in no other way But, in the beginning, the first condition for coming here was that you would have nothing more to do with your family! If a man was married, then he had to completely overlook the fact that he had a wife and childrencompletely sever all ties, have nothing further to do with them. And if ever a wife asked to come just because her husb and happened to be here, we told her, You have no business coming here!
In the beginning, it was very, very strict for a long time.
The first condition was: Nothing more to do with your family Well, we are a long way from that! But I repeat that it only happened because of the war and not because we stopped seeing the need to cut all family ties; on the contrary, this is an indispensable condition because as long as you hang on to all these cords which bind you to ordinary life, which make you a slave to the ordinary life, how can you possibly belong to the Divine alone? What childishness! It is simply not possible. If you have ever taken the trouble to read over the early ashram rules, you would find that even friendships were considered dangerous and undesirable We made every effort to create an atmosphere in which only ONE thing counted: the Life Divine.
But as I said, bit by bit things changed. However, this had one advantage: we were too much outside of life. So there were a number of problems which had never arisen but which would have suddenly surged up the moment we wanted a complete manifestation. We took on all these problems a little prematurely, but it gave us the opportunity to solve them. In this way we learned many things and surmounted many difficulties, only it complicated things considerably. And in the present situation, given such a large number of elements who havent even the slightest idea why theyre here (!) well, it demands a far greater effort on the disciples part than before.
--
If you look at yourselves straight in the face and you see what you are, then if by chance you should resolve to But what really astounds me is that you dont even seem to feel an intense NEED to do this! But how can we know? because you DO know, you have been told over and over again, it has been drummed into your heads. You KNOW that you have a divine consciousness within you. And yet you can go on sleeping night after night, playing day after day, doing your lessons ad infinitum and still not be not have a BURNING desire and will to come into contact with yourselves!With yourselves, yes, the you just there, inside (motion towards the center of the chest) Really, its beyond me!
As soon as I found outand no one told me, I found out through an experienceas soon as I found out that there was a discovery to be made within myself, well, it became THE MOST IMPORTANT thing in the world. It took precedence over everything else!
--
I thought someone might ask me, Why doesnt She4 stay for your sake? Since She came here because you called Her, then why doesnt She stay for your sake?
But no one asked me that.
--
It is very clear. So it is not I who can make Her stay. And I certainly cannot ask Her to stay for egotistical reasons. Moreover, all these Aspects, all these Personalities manifest constantly but they never manifest for personal reason. Not one of them has ever thought of helping my bodybesides, I dont ask them to because that is not their purpose. But it is more than obvious that if the people around me were receptive, She could permanently manifest since they could receive Herand this would help my body enormously because all these vibrations would run through it. But She never gets even a chance to manifestnot a single one. She only meets people who dont even feel Her when Shes there! They dont even notice Her, theyre not even aware of her presence. So how can She manifest in these conditions? Im not going to ask Her, Please come and change my body. We dont have that kind of relationship! Furthermore, the body itself wouldnt agree. It never thinks of itself, it never pays attention to itself, and besides, it is only through the work that it can be transformed.
Yes, certainly had there been any receptivity when She came down and had She been able to manifest with the power with which She came But I can tell you one thing: even before Her coming, when, with Sri Aurobindo, I had begun going down (for the Yoga) from the mental plane to the vital plane, when we brought our yoga down from the mental plane into the vital plane, in less than a month (I was forty years old at the time I didnt seem very old, I looked less than forty, but I was forty anyway), after no more than a month of this yoga, I looked exactly like an 18 year old! And someone who knew me and had stayed with me in Japan5 came here, and when he saw me, he could scarcely believe his eyes! He said, But my god, is it you? I said, Of course!
--
Well, I am only telling you all this because I thought someone might ask me about it, but otherwise I dont have that kind of relationship with Her. You see, if you consider this body, this poor body, it is very innocent: it in no way tries to draw attention to itself nor to attract forces nor to do anything at all except its workas best it can. And thats how it stands: its importance is proportionate to its usefulness and to the significance the world attri butes to itsince its action is for the world.
But in and of itself, it is only one body among countless others. Thats all.
0 1956-05-02, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
When the mind came down upon earth, something like a million years went by between the manifestation of the mind in the earth atmosphere and the appearance of the first man. But it will go faster this time because man is waiting for something, he has a vague idea: he is awaiting in some way or another the advent of the superman. Whereas the apes were certainly not awaiting the birth of man, they never thought of it for the excellent reason that they probably dont think very much! But man has thought about it and is waiting, so it will go faster. But faster probably still means thousands of years. We shall speak of this again in a few thousand years!
(silence)
--
But for this only like can know like. Only the Supramental Consciousness in an individual can perceive the Supramental acting in the earth atmosphere. Those who, for whatever reason, have developed this perception can see it. But those who are not even remotely conscious of their inner beings, who would be quite at a loss to say what their souls look like, are certainly not ready to perceive the difference in the earth atmosphere. They still have quite a way to go for that. because, for those whose consciousness is more or less exclusively centered in the outer beingmental, vital and physicalthings need to have an absurd or unexpected appearance to be noticeable. And then they call it a miracle.
But we do not call a miracle the constant miracle of the forces that intervene to change circumstances and human natures and which have very far-reaching consequences, for we see only the appearance, and this appearance seems quite natural. But in truth, if you were to reflect upon the least thing that happens, you would be forced to acknowledge that it is miraculous.
It is simply because you do not reflect upon it and assume things to be as they are, what they are, unquestioningly; otherwise you would have quite a number of opportunities everyday to say to yourself, But look! That is absolutely amazing! How did it happen?
Quite simply, the habit of a purely superficial way of seeing.
--
because a lot of people have come here, and they are asking, How are we going to benefit from it?
Oh!
And why should they benefit from it? What entitles them to benefit from it? Simply because they took the train to come here?
I knew some people who came here a long time ago, something like (Oh, I dont recall anymore, but quite a long time ago!), certainly more than twenty years ago; the first time someone died in the Ashram, they expressed a considerable dissatisfaction: But I came here because I thought this yoga would make me immortal! If you can still die, then why did I come here?
Well, its the same thing. People take the train to come herethere were about a hundred and fifty more people than usual1simply because they want to benefit. But this may be exactly why they have not benefited from it! because This [the supramental consciousness] has not come to make people benefit in any way whatsoever!
They ask if their inner difficulties will be easier to overcome.
--
because when something new comes, we always have the idea of benefiting from it.
No! Not only in the case of something new: in every case, there is always this idea of benefiting. However, that is the best way to get nothing.
--
Thats how the universal movement works (I read this to you a few days ago): through their inner effort and inner progress, certain individuals, who are the pioneers, the forerunners, enter into communication with the new Force which is to manifest, and they receive it in themselves. And because a number of calls like this surge forth, the thing becomes possible, and the era, the time, the moment for the manifestation comes. This is how it happened and the Manifestation took place.
But then, all those who were ready should have recognized it.
0 1956-09-14, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
But perhaps you have felt this way because you had left your work in the Ashram for an entirely personal, that is, necessarily egoistical reason, and egoism always isolates one from the great current of universal forces. That is why, too, you no longer clearly perceive my love and my help which nevertheless are always with you.
You asked me what I see and whether your difficulties will not reappear upon your return to the Ashram. It may well be. If you return as you still are at present, it may be that after a very short period it will all begin again. That is why I am going to propose something to you but to accept it you will have to be heroic and very determined in your consecration to my work.
0 1956-10-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Z asked me, Why didnt you stop it?1 I replied, Probably because I am not omnipotent! Then he insisted: No, thats not it. I make no distinction between your will and the divine will and I know that you dont either. So why didnt you stop it?
And suddenly, I understood.
It was because I hadnt thought of it. It hadnt even grazed my consciousness. The divine will is not at all like that, it is not a will: it is a VISION, a global vision, that sees and No, it does not guide (to guide suggests something outside, but nothing is outside), a creative vision, as it were; yet even then, the word create does not here have the meaning we generally attribute to it.
And what is the Ashram? (I dont even mean in terms of the Universeon Earth only.) A speck. And why should this speck receive exceptional treatment? Perhaps if people here had realized the supermind. But are they so exceptional as to expect exceptional treatment?
0 1956-10-28, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
One should beware of the charm of memories. What remains of past experiences is the effect they have had in the development of the consciousness. But when one attempts to relive a memory by placing oneself again in similar circumstances, one realizes quite rapidly how devoid they are of their power and charm, because they have lost their usefulness for progress.
You are now beyond the stage when the virgin forest and the desert can be useful for your growth. They had put you in contact with a life vaster than your own and they widened the limits of your consciousness. But now you need something else.
0 1956-12-26, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I feel that this Truth of my being, this self most intensely felt, is independent from any form or institution. As far back as I can reach in my consciousness, this thing has been there; it was what drove me at an early age to liberate myself from my family, my religion, my country, a profession, marriage or society in general. I feel this thing to be a kind of absolute freedom, and I have been feeling within me this same profound drive for more than a year. Is this need for freedom wrong? And yet is it not because of this that the best in me has blossomed?
This is actually what is happening in me: I never really accepted the W solution, and the solution of Somalil and doesnt appeal to me. But I feel drawn by the idea of Turkestan, as I already told you, and this is why:
0 1957-04-09, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Thus I am so tense that I do not even want to close my eyes to meditate for fear of yielding. And I fall into all kinds of errors that horrify me, simply because the pressure is too strong at times, and I literally suffocate. Mother, I am not cut out to be a disciple.
I realize that all the progress I was able to make during the first two years has been lost and I am just as before, worse than beforeas if all my strength were in ruin, all faith in myself undoneso much so that at times I curse myself for having come here at all.
0 1957-07-03, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Its symbolism was very clear, though of quite a familiar nature, as it were, and because of its very familiarity, unmistakable in its realism Were I to tell you all the details, you would probably not even be able to follow: it was rather intricate. It was a kind of (how can I express it?)an immense hotel where all the terrestrial possibilities were lodged in different apartments. And it was all in a constant state of transformation: parts or entire wings of the building were suddenly torn down and rebuilt while people were still living in them, such that if you went off somewhere within the immense hotel itself, you ran the risk of no longer finding your room when you wanted to return to it, for it might have been torn down and was being rebuilt according to another plan! It was orderly, it was organized yet there was this fantastic chaos which I mentioned. And all this was a symbola symbol that certainly applies to what Sri Aurobindo has written here1 regarding the necessity for the transformation of the body, the type of transformation that has to take place for life to become a divine life.
It went something like this: somewhere, in the center of this enormous edifice, there was a room reservedas it seemed in the story for a mother and her daughter. The mother was a lady, an elderly lady, a very influential matron who had a great deal of authority and her own views concerning the entire organization. Her daughter seemed to have a power of movement and activity enabling her to be everywhere at once while at the same time remaining in her room, which was well, a bit more than a roomit was a kind of apartment which, above all, had the characteristic of being very central. But she was constantly arguing with her mother. The mother wanted to keep things just as they were, with their usual rhythm, which precisely meant the habit of tearing down one thing to rebuild another, then again tearing down that to build still another, thus giving the building an appearance of frightful confusion. But the daughter did not like this, and she had another plan. Most of all, she wanted to bring something completely new into the organization: a kind of super-organization that would render all this confusion unnecessary. Finally, as it was impossible for them to reach an understanding, the daughter left the room to go on a kind of general inspection She went out, looked everything over, and then wanted to return to her room to decide upon some final measures. But this is where something rather peculiar began happening.
0 1957-10-08, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
There is no question of my abandoning the path and I remain convinced that the only goal in life is spiritual. But I need things to help me along the way: I am not yet ripe enough to depend upon inner strength alone. And when I speak of the forest or a boat, it is not only for the sake of adventure or the feeling of space, but also because they mean a discipline. Outer constraints and difficulties help me, they force me to remain concentrated around that which is best in me. In a sense, life here is too easy. Yet it is also too hard, for one must depend on ones own discipline I do not yet have that strength, I need to be helped by outer circumstances. The very difficulty of life in the outside world helps me to be disciplined, for it forces me to concentrate all my vital strength in effort. Here, this vital part is unemployed, so it acts foolishly, it strains at the leash.
I doubt that a new experience outside can really resolve things, but I believe it might help me make it to the next stage and consolidate my inner life. And if you wish, I would return in a year or two.
--
It is not because I am unhappy with the Ashram that I want to leave, but because I am unhappy with myself and because I want to master myself through other means.
I give you so little love, but I have tried my best, and my departure is not a betrayal.
0 1957-12-21, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
This physical consciousness records all it sees, all your reactions, your thoughts, all the factswithout preference, without prejudice, without personal will. Nothing escapes it. Its work is almost mechanical. Therefore I know what to tell or to ask you according to the integral truth of your being and its present possibilities. Ordinarily, in the normal man, the physical consciousness does not see things as they are, for three reasons: because of ignorance, because of preference, and because of an egoistic will. You color what you see, eliminate what displeases you. In short, you see only what you desire to see.
Now, I recently had a very striking experience: a discrepancy occurred between my physical consciousness and the consciousness of the world. In some instances decisions made in the Light and the Truth produced unexpected results, upheavals in the consciousness of others that were neither foreseen nor desired, and I did not understand. No matter how hard I tried, I could not understand and I emphasize this word understand. At last, I had to leave my highest consciousness and pull myself down into the physical consciousness to find out what was happening. And there, in my head, I saw what appeared to be a little cell bursting, and suddenly I understood: the recording had been defective. The physical consciousness had neglected to register certain of your lower reactions. It could not have been through preference or through personal will (these things were eliminated from my consciousness long, long ago). But I saw that this most material consciousness was already completely permeated with the transforming supramental truth, and it could no longer follow the rhythm of normal life. It was much more attuned to the true consciousness than to the world! I couldnt possibly blame it for lagging behind; on the contrary, it was in front, too far ahead! There was a discrepancy between the rhythm of the transformation of my being and the worlds own rhythm. The supramental action on the world is slow, it does not act directlyit acts by infiltration, by traversing the successive layers, and the results are slow to come about. So I had to pull myself violently down in order to wait for the others.
0 1958-01-01, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
There is nothing to explain. It is an experience, something that took place, and when it took place, I noted it down; and it so happens that it occurred just as I remembered that I had to write something for the new year (which at that time was the following year, that is, the year beginning today). When I remembered that I had to write somethingnot because of that, but simultaneouslythis experience came, and when I noted it down, I realized that it was the message for this year!
(Mother reads the notation of her experience)
--
I mention this because you might be tempted to believe that fairy tales are going to be realized upon earth. The time has not yet come.
(silence)
0 1958-02-03b - The Supramental Ship, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Between the beings of the supramental world and men, there exists approximately the same gap as between men and animals. Sometime ago, I had the experience of identification with animal life, and it is a fact that animals do not understand us; their consciousness is so constituted that we elude them almost entirely. And yet I have known domestic animalscats and dogs, but especially catswho made an almost yogic effort of consciousness to understand us. But generally, when they watch us living and acting, they dont understand, they dont SEE US as we are and they suffer because of us. We are a constant enigma to them Only a very tiny part of their consciousness is linked to us. And it is the same for us when we try to look at the supramental world. Only when the link of consciousness has been built shall we see itand even then, only that part of our being which has undergone the transformation will be capable of seeing it as it isotherwise the two worlds would remain as separate as the animal world and the human world.
The experience I had on February 3 proves this. Before, I had had an individual, subjective contact with the supramental world, whereas on February 3, I went strolling there in a concrete wayas concretely as I used to go strolling in Paris in times pastin a world that EXISTS IN ITSELF, beyond all subjectivity.
--
I found myself upon an immense ship, which is the symbolic representation of the place where this work is being carried out. This ship, as big as a city, is thoroughly organized, and it had certainly already been functioning for quite some time, for its organization was fully developed. It is the place where people destined for the supramental life are being trained. These people (or at least a part of their being) had already undergone a supramental transformation because the ship itself and all that was aboard was neither material nor subtle-physical, neither vital nor mental: it was a supramental substance. This substance itself was of the most material supramental, the supramental substance nearest the physical world, the first to manifest. The light was a blend of red and gold, forming a uniform substance of luminous orange. Everything was like that the light was like that, the people were like thateverything had this color, in varying shades, however, which enabled things to be distinguished from one another. The overall impression was of a shadowless world: there were shades, but no shadows. The atmosphere was full of joy, calm, order; everything worked smoothly and silently. At the same time, I could see all the details of the education, the training in all domains by which the people on board were being prepared.
This immense ship had just arrived at the shore of the supramental world, and a first batch of people destined to become the future inhabitants of the supramental world were about to disembark. Everything was arranged for this first landing. A certain number of very tall beings were posted on the wharf. They were not human beings and never before had they been men. Nor were they permanent inhabitants of the supramental world. They had been delegated from above and posted there to control and supervise the landing. I was in charge of all this since the beginning and throughout. I myself had prepared all the groups. I was standing on the bridge of the ship, calling the groups forward one by one and having them disembark on the shore. The tall beings posted there seemed to be reviewing those who were disembarking, allowing those who were ready to go ashore and sending back those who were not and who had to continue their training aboard the ship. While standing there watching everyone, that part of my consciousness coming from here became extremely interested: it wanted to see, to identify all the people, to see how they had changed and to find out who had been taken immediately as well as those who had to remain and continue their training. After awhile, as I was observing, I began to feel pulled backwards and that my body was being awakened by a consciousness or a person from here1and in my consciousness, I protested: No, no, not yet! Not yet! I want to see whos there! I was watching all this and noting it with intense interest It went on like that until, suddenly, the clock here began striking three, which violently jerked me back. There was the sensation of a sudden fall into my body. I came back with a shock, but since I had been called back very suddenly, all my memory was still intact. I remained quiet and still until I could bring back the whole experience and preserve it.
--
In ordinary life, EVERYTHING is artificial. Depending upon the chance of your birth or circumstances, you have a more or less high position or a more or less comfortable life, not because it is the spontaneous, natural and sincere expression of your way of being and of your inner need, but because the fortuity of lifes circumstances has placed you in contact with these things. An absolutely worthless man may be in a very high position, and a man who might have marvelous capacities of creation and organization may find himself toiling in a quite limited and inferior position, whereas he would be a wholly useful individual if the world were sincere.
It is this artificiality, this insincerity, this complete lack of truth that appeared so shocking to me that one wonders how, in a world as false as this one, we can arrive at any truthful evaluation of things.
But instead of feeling grieved, morose, rebellious, discontent, I had rather the feeling of what I spoke of at the end: of such a ridiculous absurdity that for several days I was seized with an uncontrollable laughter whenever I saw things and people! Such a tremendous laughter, so absolutely inexplicable (except to me), because of the ridiculousness of these situations.
When I invited you on a voyage into the unknown, a voyage of adventure,2 I did not know just how true were my words! And I can promise those who are ready to embark upon this adventure that they will make some very astonishing discoveries.
0 1958-04-03, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
We have a lot of work to do together, because I have kept everything for your return.
I am trying to be near you as MATERIALLY as possible in order to help your body victoriously pass through the test.
0 1958-05-10, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
From the positive point of view, I am convinced that we agree upon the result to be obtained, that is, an integral and unreserved consecrationin love, knowledge and actionto the Supreme AND TO HIS WORK. I say to the Supreme and to his work because consecration to the Supreme alone is not enough. Now we are here for the supramental realization, this is what is expected of us, but to reach it, our consecration to it must be total, unreserved absolutely integral. I believe you have understood thisin other words, that you have the will to realize it.
From the negative point of view I mean the difficulties to be overcomeone of the most serious obstacles is that the ignorant and falsifying outer consciousness, the ordinary consciousness legitimizes all the so-called physical laws, causes, effects and consequences, all that science has discovered physically and materially. All this is an unquestionable reality to the consciousness, a reality that remains independent and absolute even in the face of the eternal divine Reality.
--
To be able to see the problem as it is, it is absolutely indispensable, as a first step, to get out of the mental consciousness, even out of a mental transcription (in the highest mind) of the supramental vision and truth. A thing cannot be seen as it is, in its truth, except in the supramental consciousness, and if you try to explain, it immediately begins to escape you because you are obliged to give it a mental formulation.
As for me, I saw the thing only at the time of this experience,4 and as a result of this experience. But it is impossible to formulate even the experience itself, and as soon as I endeavored to formulate it and the more I was able to formulate it, the more the thing faded, escaped.
--
And the proof I have the proof because I experienced it myselfis that from the minute you are in the other consciousness, the true consciousness, all these things which appear so real, so concrete, change INSTANTLY. There are a number of things, certain material conditions of my bodymaterial that changed instantly. It did not last long enough for everything to change, but some things changed and never returned, they remained changed. In other words, if that consciousness were kept constantly, it would be a perpetual miracle (what we would call a miracle from our ordinary point of view), a fantastic and perpetual miracle! But from the supramental point of view, it would not be a miracle at all, it would be the most normal of things.
Therefore, if we do not want to oppose the supramental action by an obscure, inert and obstinate resistance, we have to admit once and for all that none of these things should be legitimized.
0 1958-05-11 - the ship that said OM, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I said to myself, Who could have done that? I was not sure if only I had heard it, so I asked. The reply was, But it was the ship leaving! There was actually a ship which had left during the night3that is in support of those who said it was a ship. But for me, it was SOMEONE because I felt someone there and I thought, Oh! If someone, in the ardor of his soul, said that in this what I could call an atheistic silence. because people here are so afraid of following tradition, of being the slaves of the old things, that they cast out anything closely or remotely resembling religion.
It was very strange, because my first reaction was one of bewilderment: how is it that someone I was really bewildered for a fraction, not even the fraction of a second. And then
In any event, if it wasnt a man, if it was a ship, then the ship said it! because it was THATit was that, it was nothing other than an invocation. And the result was fantastic!
People immediately thought, Oh, its the ship! Well, even if it was a ship, it was the ship that said OM!
0 1958-06-06 - Supramental Ship, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Its all the same thing, but the word realization can be reserved for something that is durable, that does not wear off. because everything on earth fades awayeverything fades away, nothing remains. In this sense, there has never been any realization, for everything fades away. Nothing is ever permanent. And I know for myself: I am doing the sadhana at a gallop, as it were; never are two experiences identical nor do they recur in the same way. As soon as something is established, the next thing begins immediately. It may appear to fade away, but it doesnt fade away; rather, it is the basis upon which the next thing is built.
***
--
As for the latest experience,1 I cant say for sure that no one has ever had it, because someone like Ramakrishna, individuals like that, could have had it. But I am not sure, for when I had this experience (not of the divine Presence, which I had already felt in the cells for a long time, but the experience that the Divine ALONE is acting in the body, that He has BECOME the body, yet all the while retaining his character of divine omniscience and omnipotence) well, the whole time it remained actively like that, it was absolutely impossible to have the LEAST disorder in the body, and not only in the body, but IN ALL THE SURROUNDING MATTER. It was as if every object obeyed without even needing to decide to obey: it was automatic. There was a divine harmony in EVERYTHING (it took place in my bathroom upstairs, certainly to demonstrate that it exists in the most trivial things), in everything, constantly. So if that is established in a permanent way, there CAN NO LONGER be illness it is impossible. There can no longer be accidents, there can no longer be illness, there can no longer be disorders, and everything should harmonize (probably in a progressive way) just as that was harmonized: all the objects in the bathroom were full of a joyful enthusiasmeverything obeyed, everything!
As it was the first experience, it started to fade slightly when I began having contact with people; but I really had the feeling that it was a first experience, new upon earth. For I have experienced an absolute identity of the will with the divine Will ever since 1910, it has never left me. It isnt that, its SOMETHING ELSE. It is MATTER BECOMING THE DIVINE. And it really came with the feeling that this thing was happening for the first time upon earth. It is difficult to say for sure, but Ramakrishna died of cancer, and now that I have had the experience, I know in an ABSOLUTE way that this is impossible. If he had decided to go because the Divine wanted him to go, it would have been an orderly departure, in total harmony and with a total will, whereas this illness is a means of disorder.
Is this experience of May 1 related to the Supramental Manifestation of 1956? Is it a supramental experience?
--
The ego becomes more and more conscious and resistant as the being develops. Very primitive, very simple beings, little children will respond first, because they dont have an organized ego. But these big people! People who have worked on themselves, who have mastered themselves, who are organized, who have an ego made of steel, it will be difficult for them.
Unless they go beyond all this and have enough spiritual knowledge to be able to make the ego surrender in which case the realization will naturally be much greaterit will be more difficult to accomplish, but the result will be far more complete.
0 1958-07-02, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
No, but I know all these people, I know them thoroughly! I know Chaitanya, Ramakrishna and Ramdas thoroughly. They are utterly familiar to me. It doesnt bother them. These are people who live with a certain feeling, who have an entirely concrete experience and live in this experience, but they dont care at all if their formation they have not even crystallized it, they leave it like that, vaguecontains things that are mutually contradictory, because, in appearance, they reconcile them. They do not raise any questions, they do not have the need for an absolutely clear vision; their feeling is absolutely clear, and thats enough for them. Ramakrishna was like that; he said the most contradictory things without being bothered in the least, and they are all exactly and equally true.
But this crystal clear vision Sri Aurobindo had, where everything is in its place, where contradictions no longer existthey never soared to that height. This was the thing, this really crystalline, perfect supramental vision, even from the standpoint of understanding and knowledge. They never went that far.
0 1958-07-05, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I have just explained to Z my program for getting out of the present difficulties,1 and I think if he has not concluded that I am totally mad, it is because he has an immense respect for me! But as always in these cases, there is such a joy in me, such an exultation: all the cells are dancing. I understand why people begin singing, dancing, etc. It takes a formidable power to remain like that (gesture of solidity): there is such a desire in the throat to sing!
***
0 1958-07-06, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
This morning I asked myself the question, is money truly under Natures control? I shall have to see because for me personally, she always gives everything in abundance.
When I was young, I was as poor as a turkey, as poor as could be! As an artist, I sometimes had to go out in society (as artists are forced to do). I had lacquered boots that were cracked and I painted them so it wouldnt show! This is to tell you the state I was inpoor as a turkey. So one day, in a shop window, I saw a very pretty petticoat much in fashion then, with lace, ribbons, etc. (It was the fashion in those days to have long skirts which trailed on the floor, and I didnt have a petticoat which could go with such things I didnt care, it didnt matter to me in the least, but since Nature had told me I would always have everything I needed, I wanted to make an experiment.) So I said, Well, I would very much like to have a petticoat to go with those skirts. I got five of them! They came from every direction!
--
But it only happened like that once. And as for Ganesh, that was the end of it. So then I asked Nature. It took her a long time to accept to collaborate. But as for the money, I shall have to ask her about it; because for me personally, it is still going on. I think, Hmm, wouldnt it be nice to have a wristwatch like that. And I get twenty of them! I say to myself, Well, if I had that and I get thirty of them! Things come in from every side, without my even uttering a word I dont even ask, they just come.
The first time I came here and spoke with Sri Aurobindo about what was needed for the Work, he told me (he also wrote it to me) that for the secure achievement of the Work we would need three powers: one was the power over health, the second was the power over government, and the third was the power over money.
--
So considering all that, Sri Aurobindo came to the conclusion that only the supramental power (Mother brings down her hands) as he said, will be able to rule over everything. And when that happens, it will be all overincluding Nature. For a long time, Nature rebelled (I have written about it often). She used to say, Why are you in such a hurry? It will be done one day. But then last year, there was that extraordinary experience.5 And it was because of that experience that I told her, Well, now that we agree, give me some proof; I am asking you for some proofdo it for me. She didnt budge, absolutely nothing.
Perhaps it is a kind of it can hardly be called an intuition, but a kind of divination of this idea that made people speak of selling ones soul to the devil for money, of money being an evil force, which produces this shrinking on the part of all those who want to lead a spiritual life but as for that, they shrink from everything, not only from money!
0 1958-08-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Last night, I had many dreams (not really dreams, but ); I used to find them very interesting because they gave me certain indications, all kinds of things, but when I saw it all now, I said to myself, Good Lord! What a waste of time! Instead, I could be living in a supramental consciousness and seeing things. So during the night, I made a resolution to change all this too. My nights have to change. I am already changing my days; now my nights have to change. But then all this subconscious in Matter, all this, it all has to change! Theres no choice, it has to be seen to.
Once you set to this work, it is such a formidable task! But what can I do?
0 1958-09-16 - OM NAMO BHAGAVATEH, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I had a mantra in French before coming to Pondicherry. It was Dieu de bont et de misricorde [God of kindness and mercy], but what it means is usually not understoodit is an entire program, a universal program. I have been repeating this mantra since the beginning of the century; it was the mantra of ascension, of realization. At present, it no longer comes in the same way, it comes rather as a memory. But it was deliberate, you see; I always said Dieu de bont et de misricorde, because even then I understood that everything is the Divine and the Divine is in all things and that it is only we who make a distinction between what is or what is not the Divine.
My experience is that, individually, we are in relationship with that aspect of the Divine which is not necessarily the most in conformity with our natures, but which is the most essential for our development or the most necessary for our action. For me, it was always a question of action because, personally, individually, each aspiration for personal development had its own form, its own spontaneous expression, so I did not use any formula. But as soon as there was the least little difficulty in action, it sprang forth. Only long afterwards did I notice that it was formulated in a certain way I would utter it without even knowing what the words were. But it came like this: Dieu de bont et de misricorde. It was as if I wanted to eliminate from action all aspects that were not this one. And it lasted for I dont know, more than twenty or twenty-five years of my life. It came spontaneously.
Just recently one day, the contact became entirely physical, the whole body was in great exaltation, and I noticed that other lines were spontaneously being added to this Dieu de bont et de misricorde, and I noted them down. It was a springing forth of states of consciousness not words.
--
Like a triumph. But I didnt write that one down because I did not want to spoil my impression.
Of course, these things should not be published. We can file them in this Agenda of the Supramental Manifestation for later on. Later on, when the Victory is won, we shall say, If you want to see the curve
--
Unfortunately, I was unable to continue, because I dont have the time; it was just before the balcony darshan and I was going to be late. Something told me, That is for people who have nothing to do. Then I said, I belong to my work, and I slowly withdrew. I put on the brakes, and the action was cut short. But what remains is that whenever I repeat this mantra everything starts vibrating.
So each one must find something that acts on himself, individually. I am only speaking of the action on the physical plane, because mentally, vitally, in all the inner parts of the being, the aspiration is always, always spontaneous. I am referring only to the physical plane.
The physical seems to be more open to something that is repetitious for example, the music we play on Sundays, which has three series of combined mantras. The first is that of Chandi, addressed to the universal Mother:
--
So for these mantras, everything depends upon what you want to do with them. I am in favor of a short mantra, especially if you want to make both numerous and spontaneous repetitionsone or two words, three at most. because you must be able to use them in all cases, when an accident is about to happen, for example. It has to spring up without thinking, without calling: it should issue forth from the being spontaneously, like a reflex, exactly like a reflex. Then the mantra has its full force.
For me, on the days when I have no special preoccupations or difficulties (days I could call normal, when I am normal), everything I do, all the movements of this body, all, all the words I utter, all the gestures I make, are accompanied and upheld by or lined, as it were, with this mantra:
0 1958-09-19, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Ever since my childhood, I have spent my time veiling myself: one veil over another veil over another veil, so as to remain invisible. because to see me without the true attitude is the great sin. Anyway, sin in the sense Sri Aurobindo defines itmeaning that things are no longer in their place.
***
0 1958-10-04, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
When you left on your journey,2 for example, I made a specie! concentration for all to go well so that nothing untoward happen to you. I even made a formation and asked for a constant, special help over you. Then I renewed my concentration every day, which is how I came to notice that you were invoking me very regulary. I Saw you everyday, everyday, with a very regular precision. It was something that imposed itself on me, but it imposed itself only because l had initially made a formation to follow you.
For people here in the Ashram, my work is not the same. It is more like a kind of atmosphere that extends everywherea very conscious atmospherewhich I let work for each one according to his need. I dont have a special action for each person, unless something requires my special attention. When I would tune into you while you were travelling, I clearly saw your image appear before me, as though you were looking at me, but now that you have returned here, I no longer see it. Rather, I receive a sensation or an impression; and as these sensations and impressions are innumerable, its rather like one element among many. It no longer imposes itself in such an entirely distinct way nor does it appear before me in the same manner, as a clear image of yourself, as though you wanted to know something.
--
In the outer, practical domain, I might suddenly think of someone, so I know that this person is calling or thinking of me. When you left on your trip, I created a special link-up so that if ever, at any moment, you called me for anything, I would know it instantly, and I remained attentive and alert. But I do that only in exceptional cases. Generally speaking, when I havent made this special link-up, things keep coming in and coming in and coming in and coming in, and the answer goes out automatically, here or there or there or therehundreds and hundreds of things that I dont keep in my memory because then it would really be frightful. I dont keep these things in my consciousness; it is rather a work that is done automatically.
When you asked me if X4 were thinking of me, I consulted my atmosphere and saw that it was true, that even many times a day Xs thoughts were coming. So I know that he is concentrating on me, or something: it simply passes through me, and I answer automatically. But I dont particularly pay attention to X, unless you ask me a question about him, in which case I deliberately tune into him, then observe and determine whether its like this or like that. Whereas this vision the other day was something that thrust itself on me; I was in another region altogether, in my inner contemplation, my concentrationa very strong concentrationwhen I was forced to enter into contact with this being whose vision I had and who was obviously a very powerful being. After telling me what he had to tell me, he went away in a very peculiar way, not at all suddenly as most people appear and disappear, not at all like that. When I first saw him, there was a living form the being himself was there but upon leaving (probably to see the effect, to find out whether he had truly succeeded in making himself understood), he left behind a kind of image of himself. Afterwards, this image blurred and it left only a silhouette, an outline, then it disappeared altogether leaving only an impression. That was the last thing I saw. So I kept the impression and analyzed it to find out exactly what was involved; all this was filed away, and then it was over. I began my concentration once again.
--
Before, I always had the negative experience of the disappearance of the ego, of the oneness of Creation, where everything implying separation disappearedan experience that, personally, I would call negative. Last Wednesday, while I was speaking (and thats why at the end I could no longer find my words), I seemed suddenly to have left this negative phenomenon and entered into the positive experience: the experience of BEING the Supreme Lord, the experience that nothing exists but the Supreme Lordall is the Supreme Lord, there is nothing else. And at that moment, the feeling of this infinite power that has no limit, that nothing can limit, was so overwhelming that all the functions of the body, of this mental machine that summons up words, all this was I could no longer speak French. Perhaps the words could have come to me in Englishprobably, because it was easier for Sri Aurobindo to express himself in English, and thats how it must have happened: it was the part embodied in Sri Aurobindo (the part of the Supreme that was embodied in Sri Aurobindo for its manifestation) that had the experience. This is what joined back with the Origin and caused the experience I was well aware of it. And that is probably why its transcription through English words would have been easier than through French words (for at these moments, such activities are purely mechanical, rather like automatic machines). And naturally the experience left something behind. It left the sense of a power that can no longer be qualified,5 really. And it was there yesterday evening.
The difficultyits not even a difficulty, its just a kind of precaution that is taken (automatically, in fact) in order to For example, the volume of Force that was to be expressed in the voice was too great for the speech organ. So I had to be a little attentive that is, there had to be a kind of filtering in the outermost expression, otherwise the voice would have cracked. But this isnt done through the will and reason, its automatic. Yet I feel that the capacity of Matter to contain and express is increasing with phenomenal speed. But its progressive, it cant be done instantly. There have often been people whose outer form broke because the Force was too strong; well, I clearly see that it is being dosed out. After all, this is exclusively the concern of the Supreme Lord, I dont bother about itits not my concern and I dont bother about itHe makes the necessary adjustments. Thus it comes progressively, little by little, so that no fundamental disequilibrium occurs. It gives the impression that ones head is swelling so tremendously it will burst! But then if there is a moment of stillness, it adapts; gradually, it adapts.
Only, one must be careful to keep the sense of the Unmanifest sufficiently present so that the various things the elements, the cells and all thathave time to adapt. The sense of the Unmanifest, or in other words, to step back into the Unmanifest.6 This is what all those who have had experiences have done; they always believed that there was no possibility of adaptation, so they left their bodies and went off.
0 1958-10-10, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Then and this becomes rather amusing like lifes play Depending upon each ones nature and position and bias, and because human beings are very limited, very partial and incapable of a global vision, there are those who believe, who have faith, or to whom the eternal Mother is revealed through Grace, who have this kind of relationship with the eternal Mother and there are those who themselves are plunged in sadhana, who have the consciousness of a developed sadhak, and thereby have the same relationship with me as one has with what they generally call a realized soul. Such persons consider me the prototype of the Guru teaching a new way, but the others dont have this relationship of sadhak to Guru (I am taking the two extremes, but of course there are all the possibilities in between), they are only in contact with the eternal Mother and, in the simplicity of their hearts, they expect Her to do everything for them. If they were perfect in this attitude, the eternal Mother would do everything for themas a matter of fact, She does do everything, but as they arent perfect, they cannot receive it totally. But the two paths are very different, the two kinds of relationships are very different; and as we all live according to the law of external things, in a material body, there is a kind of annoyance, an almost irritated misunderstanding, between those who follow this path (not consciously and intentionally, but spontaneously), who have this relationship of the child to the Mother, and those who have this other relationship of the sadhak to the Guru. So it creates a whole play, with an infinite diversity of shades.
But all this is still in suspense, on the way to realization, moving forward progressively; therefore, unless we are able to see the outcome, we cant understand a thing. We get confused. Only when we see the outcome, the final realization, only when we have TOUCHED there, will everything be understood then it will be as clear and as simple as can be. But meanwhile, my relationships with different people are very funny, utterly amusing!
--
For example, this question of PowerTHE Powerover Matter. Those who perceive me as the eternal, universal Mother and Sri Aurobindo as the Avatar are surprised that our power is not absolute. They are surprised that we have not merely to say, Let it be thus for it to be thus. This is because, in the integral realization, the union of the two is essential: a union of the power that proceeds from the eternal position and the power that proceeds from the sadhana through evolutionary growth. Similarly, how is it that those who have reached even the summits of yogic knowledge (I was thinking of Swami) need to resort to beings like gods or demigods to be able to realize things? because they have indeed united with certain higher forces and entities, but it was not decreed since the beginning of time that they were this particular being. They were not born as this or that, but through evolution they united with a latent possibility in themselves. Each one carries the Eternal within himself, but one can join Him only when one has realized the complete union of the latent Eternal with the eternal Eternal.
And this explains everything, absolutely everything: how it works, how it functions in the world.3 I was saying to myself, But I have no powers, I have no powers! Several days ago, I said, But after all, I KNOW WHO is there, I know, yet how is it that ? There, up to there (the level of the head), it is all-powerful, nothing can resist but here it is ineffective. So those who have faith, even an ignorant but real faith (it can be ignorant but nevertheless it is real), say, What! How can you have no powers? because the sadhana is not yet over.
The Lord will possess his universe only when the universe will have consciously become the Lord.
0 1958-11-04 - Myths are True and Gods exist - mental formation and occult faculties - exteriorization - work in dreams, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
She is a portrait of the ideal woman according to the Hindu conception, the woman who worships her husb and as a god, which means that she sees the Supreme in her husband. And so this woman was much more powerful than all the gods of the Puranas precisely because she had this psychic capacity for total self-giving; and her faith in the Supremes presence in her husb and gave her a much greater power than that of all the gods.
The story narrated in the film went like this: Narada, as usual, was having fun. (Narada is a demigod with a divine position that is, he can communicate with man and with the gods as he pleases, and he serves as an intermediary, but then he likes to have fun!) So he was quarrelling with one of the goddesses, I no longer recall which one, and he told her (Ah, yes! The quarrel was with Saraswati.) Saraswati was telling him that knowledge is much greater than love (much greater in that it is much more powerful than love), and he replied to her, You dont know what youre talking about! (Mother laughs) Love is much more powerful than knowledge. So she challenged him, saying, Well then, prove it to me.I shall prove it to you, he replied. And the whole story starts there. He began creating a whole imbroglio on earth just to prove his point.
It was only a film story, but anyway, the goddesses, the three wives of the Trimurti that is, the consort of Brahma, the consort of Vishnu and the consort of Shivajoined forces (!) and tried all kinds of things to foil Narada. I no longer recall the details of the story Oh yes, the story begins like this: one of the three I believe it was Shivas consort, Parvati (she was the worst one, by the way!)was doing her puja. Shiva was in meditation, and she began doing her puja in front of him; she was using an oil lamp for the puja, and the lamp fell down and burned her foot. She cried out because she had burned her foot. So Shiva at once came out of his meditation and said to her, What is it, Devi? (laughter) She answered, I burned my foot! Then Narada said, Arent you ashamed of what you have done?to make Shiva come out of his meditation simply because you have a little burn on your foot, which cannot even hurt you since you are immortal! She became furious and snapped at him, Show me that it can be otherwise! Narada replied, I am going to show you what it is to really love ones husbandyou dont know anything about it!
Then comes the story of Anusuya and her husb and (who is truly a husb and a very good man, but well, not a god, after all!), who was sleeping with his head resting upon Anusuyas knees. They had finished their puja (both of them were worshippers of Shiva), and after their puja he was resting, sleeping, with his head on Anusuyas knees. Meanwhile, the gods had descended upon earth, particularly this Parvati, and they saw Anusuya like that. Then Parvati exclaimed, This is a good occasion! Not very far away a cooking fire was burning. With her power, she sent the fire rolling down onto Anusuyas feetwhich startled her because it hurt. It began to burn; not one cry, not one movement, nothing because she didnt want to awaken her husband. But she began invoking Shiva (Shiva was there). And because she invoked Shiva (it is lovely in the story), because she invoked Shiva, Shivas foot began burning! (Mother laughs) Then Narada showed Shiva to Parvati: Look what you are doing; you are burning your husbands foot! So Parvati made the opposite gesture and the fire was put out.
Thats how it went.
--
It should be said that we are speaking of the Puranic gods, because the Christians, for example, do not understand what this can mean. They have an entirely different conception of the gods.
It could apply to the old Greek mythology, though.
--
They are beings who belong to the progressive creation of the universe and who have themselves presided over its formation from the most etheric or subtle regions to the most material regions. They are a descent of the divine creative Spirit that came to repair the mischief in short, to repair what the Asuras had done. The first makers created disorder and darkness, an unconsciousness, and then it is said that there was a second lineage of makers to repair that evil, and the gods gradually descended through realities that were ever moreone cant say dense because it isnt really dense, nor can one even say material, since matter as we know it does not exist on these planesthrough more and more concrete substances.
All these zones, these planes of reality, received different names and were classified in different ways according to the occult schools, according to the different traditions, but there is an essential similarity, and if we go back far enough into the various traditions, hardly anything but words differ, depending upon the country and the language. The descriptions are quite similar. Moreover, those who climb back up the ladderor in other words, a human being who, through his occult knowledge, goes out of one of his bodies (they are called sheaths in English) and enters into a more subtle bodyin order to ACT in a more subtle body and so forth, twelve times (you make each body come out from a more material body, leaving the more material body in its corresponding zone, and then go off through successive exteriorizations), what they have seen, what they have discovered and seen through their ascensionwhe ther they are occultists from the Occident or occultists from the Orientis for the most part analogous in description. They have put different words on it, but the experience is very analogous.
--
However, you must have at least a little experience of these things to understand them. Otherwise, if you are convinced that all this is just human fancy or mental formations, if you believe that these gods have such and such a form because men have imagined them to be like that, or that they have such and such defects or qualities because men have envisioned it that wayas with all those who say God is created in the image of man and exists only in human thoughtall such people wont understand, it will seem absolutely ridiculous to them, a kind of madness. You must live a little, touch the subject a little to know how concrete it is.
Naturally, children know a great dealif they have not been spoiled. There are many children who return to the same place night after night and continue living a life they have begun there. When these faculties are not spoiled with age, they can be preserved within one. There was a time when I was especially interested in dreams, and I could return exactly to the same place and continue some work I had begun there, visit something, for example, or see to something, some work of organization or some discovery or exploration; you go to a certain place, just as you go somewhere in life, then you rest a while, then you go back and begin againyou take up your work just where you left it, and you continue. You also notice that there are things entirely independent of you, certain variations which were not at all created by you and which occurred automatically during your absence.
But then, you must LIVE these experiences yourself; you yourself must see, you must live them with enough sincerity to see (by being sincere and spontaneous) that they are independent of any mental formations. because one can take the opposite line and make an intensive study of the way mental formations act upon eventswhich is very interesting. But thats another field. And this study makes you very careful, very prudent, because you start noticing to what extent you can delude yourself. Therefore, both one and the other, the mental formation and the occult reality, must be studied to see what the ESSENTIAL difference is between them. The one exists in itself, entirely independent of what we think about it, and the other
That was a grace. I was given every experience without knowing ANYTHING of what it was all aboutmy mind was absolutely blank. There was no active correspondence in the formative mind. I only knew about what had happened or the laws governing these happenings AFTERWARDS, when I was curious and inquired to find out what it related to. Then I found out. But otherwise, I didnt know. So that was the clear proof that these things existed entirely outside of my imagination or thought.
--
What happened in my life is that I never studied or knew things until AFTER having the experienceonly because OF the experience and because I wanted to understand it would I study things related to it.
It was the same thing for visions of past lives. I knew NOTHING when I would have the experience, not even the possibility of past lives, and only after having had the experience would I study the question and, for example, even verify certain historical facts that had occurred in my vision but about which I had no prior knowledge.
0 1958-11-08, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Suddenly, while I was speaking (it was while I was speaking), I felt, Well really, can anything be done with such material? Then, quite naturally, when I stopped speaking, oh!I felt that I was being pulled! Then I understood. because I had asked myself the question, But what is HAPPENING in there behind all those forms? I cant say that I was annoyed, but I said to myself, Well really, this has to be shaken up a bit! And just as I had finished, something pulled meit pulled me out of my body, I was literally pulled out of my body.
And then, down into this hole I still see what I saw then, this crevasse between two rocks. The sky was not visible, but on the rock summits I saw something like the reflection of a glimmera glimmercoming from something beyond, which (laughing) must have been the sky! But it was invisible. And as I descended, as if I were sliding down the face of this crevasse, I saw the rock edges; and they were really black rocks, as if cut with a chisel, cuts so fresh that they glistened, with edges as sharp as knives. There was one here, one there, another there, everywhere, all around. And I was being pulled, pulled, pulled, I went down and down and downthere was no end to it, and it was becoming more and more compressing.1 It went down and down
And so, physically, the body followed. My body has been taught to express the inner experience to a certain extent. In the body there is the body-force or the body-form or the body-spirit (according to the different schools, it bears a different name), and this is what leaves the body last when one dies, usually taking a period of seven days to leave.2 With special training, it can acquire a conscious lifeindependent and consciousto such a degree that not only in a state of trance (in trance, it frequently happens that one can speak and move if one is slightly trained or educated), but even in a cataleptic state it can produce sounds and even make the body move. Thus, through training, the body begins to have somnambulistic capacitiesnot an ordinary somnambulism, but it can live an autonomous life.3 This is what took place, yesterday evening it was like that I had gone out of my body, but my body was participating. And then I was pulled downwards: my hand, which had been on the arm of the chair, slipped down, then the other hand, then my head was almost touching my knees! (The consciousness was elsewhere, I saw it from outsideit was not that I didnt know what I was doing, I saw it from outside.) So I said, In any case, this has to stop somewhere because if it continues, my head (laughing) is going to be on the ground! And I thought, But what is there at the bottom of this hole?
Scarcely had these words been formulated when there I was, at the bottom of the hole! And it was absolutely as if a tremendous, almighty spring were there, and then (Mother hits the table) vrrrm! I was cast out of the abyss into a vastness. My body immediately sat straight up, head on high, following the movement. If someone had been watching, this is what he would have seen: in a single bound, vrrrm! Straight up, to the maximum, my head on high.
--
At the very bottom of the inconscience most hard and rigid because generally, the inconscience gives the impression, precisely, of something amorphous, inert, formless, drab and gray (when formerly I entered the zones of the inconscient, that was the first thing I encountered). But this was an inconscience it was hard, rigid, COAGULATED, as if coagulated to resist: all effort slides off it, doesnt touch it, cannot penetrate it. So I am putting, most hard and rigid and narrow (the idea of something that compresses, compresses, compresses you) and stiflingyes, stifling is the word.
I struck upon an almighty spring that cast me up forthwith into a formless, limitless vast, generator of all creation. It was yes, I have the feeling that it was not the ordinary creation, the primordial creation, but the SUPRAMENTAL creation, for it bore no similarity to the experience of returning to the Supreme, the origin of everything. I had utterly the feeling of being cast into the origin of the supramental creation something that is already (how can it be expressed?) objectified from the Supreme, with the explicit goal of the supramental creation.
0 1958-11-11, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Yes. because at the very bottom of the Inconscient is the Supreme. It is the same idea as the highest height touching the deepest depth. The universe is like a circleit is represented by the serpent biting its tail, its head touching its tail. It means that the supreme height touches the most material matter, without any intermediary. I have already said this several times. But that was the experience. I didnt know what was happening. I expected nothing and it was stupendousin a single bound, I sprang up! If someone had had his eyes open, I assure you he would have had to laugh: I was bent over, like this, more and more, more and more, more and more, my head was just about to touch my knees when suddenlyvrrrm! Straight, straight up, my head upright in a single bound!
But as soon as you want to express it, it escapes like water running through your fingers; all the fluidity is lost, it evaporates. A rather vague, poetic or artistic expression is much truer, much nearer to the truth something hazy, nebulous, undefined. Something not concretized like a rigid mental expressionthis rigidity that the mind has introduced right down into the Inconscient.
This vision of the Inconscient (Mother remains gazing for a moment) it was the MENTAL Inconscient. because the starting point was mental. A special Inconscientrigid, hard, resistantwith all that the mind has brought into our consciousness. But it was far worse, far worse than a purely material Inconscient! A mentalized Inconscient, as it were. All this rigidity, this hardness, this narrowness, this fixitya FIXITYcomes from the presence of the mind in creation. When the mind was not manifested, the Inconscient was not like that! It was formless and had the plasticity of something that is formless the plasticity has gone.
It is a terrible image of the Minds action in the Inconscient.
--
because the starting point, precisely, was to look into the mental unconsciousness of these people. It was the mental Inconscient. Well, the mental Inconscient REFUSES to changewhich is not true of the other one; the other is nothing, it doesnt exist, it is not organized in any way, it has no way of being, whereas this one is an ORGANIZED Inconscientorganized by a beginning mental influence. A hundred times worse!
This is a very interesting point to note.
0 1958-11-14, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
It seems to me that the sooner I leave the better, because of this hypocrisy I detest.2
Signed: Satprem
0 1958-11-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I dont have all the information, otherwise certainly Two things made me see I saw them the other day. First of all, when you didnt understand my letter, for I wrote it to a part of you that without any doubt should have understood; I was referring to something other than what is seen and known by this part of you which is this center, this knot of revolt that seems to resist everything, that really remains knotted, in spite of your experiences and the strides you have made, as well as your openings. And what made me see is especially the fact that it resists experiences, it is not touched by experiences; this was the point that did not understand what I wrote. because the part of you that had the experience must necessarily understand what I wrote, without the shadow of a doubt.
Time is needed
--
I had the last vision yesterday evening. You were much taller than you are now; you were wearing the orange robe, and you were backed up against a door of bronze, a bronze door like the door of a temple or a palace but at the same time it was symbolic (it was a fact, it actually took place like this, but at the same time it was symbolic). And unfortunately, it didnt last because I was disturbed. But it contained the key.
I was VERY HAPPY with the vision, for there was a great POWER, though it was rather terrible. But it was magnificent. When I saw that, I This vision was given to me because I had concentrated with a will to find the solution, a true solution, an enduring and permanent solution that is, I had this spontaneous gratitude which goes out to the Grace when it brings some effective help. Only, what followed was interrupted by someone who came to call me and that cut it short, but it will return.
But now I KNOWbefore I did not know. The other morning I saw, and I was told very clearly that it was a karma1 to be worked out; so then I told you, but at the time I didnt know what it was.
--
because from what I have seen and from what I was told, I am sure that it is decisive, that what is offered to you is the possibility of a decisive victory, which means that it will no longer recur in the same way.
There is such an abyss between what one truly is and what we are that at times it is dizzying. But one must not let oneself become dizzy. One must not yield. One must remain like a rock until it passes.
0 1958-11-22, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
But because it is karma, one must, one must DO something oneself. Karma is the construction of the ego; the ego MUST DO something, everything cannot be done for it. This is it, THIS is the thing: karma is the result of the egos actions, and only when the ego abdicates is the karma dissolved. One can help it along, one can assist it, give it strength, bestow courage upon it, but the ego must then make use of it.
(silence)
--
As soon as you had left, and since I was following you, I saw that nothing of the kind was going to happen, but rather something very superficial which would not be of much use. And when I received your letters and saw that you were in difficulty, I did something. There are places that are favorable for occult experiences. Benares is one of these places, the atmosphere there is filled with vibrations of occult forces, and if one has the slightest capacity, it spontaneously develops there, in the same way that a spiritual aspiration develops very strongly and spontaneously as soon as one lands in India. These are Graces. Graces, because it is the destiny of the country, it has been so throughout its history, and because India has always been turned much more towards the heights and the inner depths than towards the outer world. Now, it is in the process of losing all that and wallowing in the mud, but thats another story it was like that and it is still like that. And in fact, when you returned from Rameswaram with your robes, I saw with much satisfaction that there was still a GREAT dignity and a GREAT sincerity in this endeavor of the Sannyasis towards the higher life and in the self-giving of a certain number of people to realize this higher life. When you returned, it had become a very concrete and a very real thing that immediately commanded respect. Before, I had seen only a copy, an imitation, an hypocrisy, a pretentionnothing that was really lived. But then, I saw that it was true, that it was lived, that it was real and that it was still Indias great heritage. I dont believe it is very prevalent now, but in any case, it is still there, and as I told you, it commands respect. And then, as I felt you in difficulty and as the outer conditions were not only veiling but spoiling the inner, well, on that day I wrote you a short note I no longer recall when it was exactly, but I wrote you just a word or two, which I put in an envelope and sent you I concentrated very strongly upon those few words and sent you something. I didnt note the date, I dont remember when it was, but its likely that it happened as I wished when you were in Benares; and then you had this experience.
But when you returned the second time, from the Himalayas, you didnt have the same flame as when you returned the first time. And I understood that this kind of difficult karma still clung to you, that it had not been dissolved. I had hoped that your contact with the mountains but in a true solitude (I dont mean that your body had to be all alone, but there should not have been all kinds of outer, superficial things) Anyway, it didnt happen. So it means that the time had not come.
But when here the difficulties returned and because of their obstinacy, their appearance of an inevitable fatality I concluded that it was a karma, although I knew it with certainty only now.
But I always had a presentiment of the true thing: that only a VERY COURAGEOUS act of self-giving could efface the thingnot courageous or difficult from the material point of view, not that There is a certain zone of the vital in you, a mentalized vital but still very material, which is very much under the influence of circumstances and which very much believes in the effectiveness of outer measuresthis is what is resisting.
0 1958-11-27 - Intermediaries and Immediacy, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
That interested me very much. because one of the obstacles I had felt was that although the Force was acting well, there was a time lag that appeared inevitable, a time element in the work which seemed unavoidablea play left to the forces of Nature. But with their knowledge of the processes, the tantrics can dispense with all that. So I understood why those who have studied, who are initiated and follow the prescribed methods are apparently more powerfulmore powerful even than those who are conscious in the highest consciousness.
What interested me is that in their case (those who follow tantric or other initiations), what is doubtful is whether or not they can succeed in receiving the response of the true Power, the divine power, the supreme power; they do everything they can, but this question still remains. Whereas for me, it is the opposite situation: the Power is there, I have it, but how can I make it act here in matter? The process for making it act immediately was missingthough not totally; I know from the psychological standpoint, but there is something other than the psychological power, there is the whole play of conscious, individualized forces that are everywhere in Nature and that have the right to exist. Since it was created this way, it must express something of the supreme Will, otherwise He wouldnt have made use of intermediaries but in His plan, it is obvious that the intermediary has a legitimate place.
0 1958-12-24, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Your last letter was a great comfort to me. If you were not there, with me, everything would be so absurd and impossible. I am again disturbing you because Swami tells me that you are worried and that I should write to you. Not much has changed, except that I am holding on and am confident. Yesterday, I again suffered an agonizing wave, in the temple, and I found just enough strength to repeat your name with each beat of my heart, like someone drowning. I remained as motionless as a pillar of stone before the sanctuary, with only your name (my mantra would not come out), then it cleared. It was brutal. I am confident that with each wave I am gaining in strength, and I know you are there. But I am aware that if the enemy is so violent it is because something in me responds, or has responded, something that has not made its surrender that is the critical point. Mother, may your grace help me to place everything in your hands, everything, without any shadow. I want so much to emerge into the Light, to be rid of all this once and for all.
I am following Swamis instructions to the letter. Sometimes it all seems to lack warmth and spontaneity, but I am holding on. I might add that we are living right next to the bazaar, amidst a great racket 20 hours a day, which does not make things easier. So I repeat my mantra as one pounds his fists against the walls of a prison. Sometimes it opens a little, you send me a little joy, and then everything becomes better again.
Swami told me that the mantra to Durga is intended to pierce through into the subconscient. To complement this work, he does his pujas to Kali, and finally one of his friends, X, the High Priest of the temple in Rameswaram (who presided over my initiation and has great occult powers), has undertaken to say a very powerful mantra over me daily, for a period of eight days, to extirpate the dark forces from my subconscious. The operation already began four days ago. While reciting his mantra, he holds a glass of water in his hand, then he makes me drink it. It seems that on the eighth day, if the enemy has been trapped, this water turns yellow then the operation is over and the poisoned water is thrown out. (I tell you all this because I prefer that you know.) In any event, I like X very much, he is a very luminous, very good man. If I am not delivered after all this!
In truth, I believe only in the Grace. My mantra and all the rest seem to me only little tricks to try to win over your Grace.
--
I have received your letter of the 24th. You did well to write, not because I was worried, but I like to receive news for it fixes my work by giving me useful material details. I am glad that X is doing something for you. I like this man and I was counting upon him. I hope he will succeed. Perhaps his work will be useful here, too for I have serious reasons to believe that this time occult and even definite magic practices aimed directly against my body have been mixed in with the attacks. This has complicated things somewhat, so as yet I have not resumed any of my usual activities I am still upstairs resting, but in reality fighting. Yesterday, the Christmas distribution took place without me, and it is likely that it will be the same for January 1st. The work, too, has been completely interrupted. And I do not yet know how long this will last.
Keep me posted on the result of Xs action; it interests me very much
0 1959-01-06, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
And it happened just as I was despairing of ever getting out of it. I seemed to be touching a kind of fundamental bedrock, so painful, so suffering, and full of revolt because of too much suffering. And I saw that all my efforts, all the meditations, aspirations, mantras, were only covering up this suffering bedrock without touching it. I saw this fundamental thing in me very clearly, a poignant knot, ever ready for an absolute negation. I saw it and I said to you, Mother, only your grace can remove this. I said this to you in the temple that morning, in total despair. And then, the knot was undone. Xs action contri buted a lot, with your grace acting through him. But truly, I have traversed a veritable hell this last while.
X continues his work on me daily; it is to last 41 days in all. He told me that he wants to undo the things of several births. When it is over, he will explain it all to me. I do not know how to tell you how luminous and good this man is, he is a very great soul. He is also giving me Sanskrit lessons, and little by little, each evening, speaks to me of the Tantra.
0 1959-01-21, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I do not ask you to write me your news,4 because I know that these are things it is better not to write about. But you know that it keenly interests me.
My love is always with you, enfolding and upholding you.
0 1959-03-10 - vital dagger, vital mass, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Sri Aurobindo calls this realm the intermediate zone, a zone in which, he says, you can have all the experiences you wish if you enter into it. But it isnt (laughing) very advisable!and I understand why! I had that experience because I had just read what Sri Aurobindo says on this subject in a letter in this latest book, On Yoga; I wanted to see for myself what it was. Ah, I understood!
And I express this in my own way when I say1 that thoughts come and go, flow in and out. But thoughts concerning material things are formations originating in that world, they are kinds of wills coming from the vital plane which try to express themselves, and most often they are truly deadly. If you are annoyed, for example, if someone says something unpleasant to you and you react It always happens in the same way; these little entities are there waiting, and when they feel its the right moment, they introduce their influence and their suggestions. This is what is vitally symbolized by the being with his dagger rushing forward to stab youand in the back, at that! Not even face to face! This then expresses itself in the human consciousness by a movement of anger or rage or indignation: How intolerable! How ! And the other fellow says, Yes! We shall put an end to it!
0 1959-04-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
May you never again suffer because of me. O Mother, purify me and open my heart.
Your child,
--
2) I am very pullednot constantly, but periodicallyby the need to write (not mental things) and exasperated by the fact that this Orpailleur is not published because I have not taken the time to carry out certain corrections. When I am in a good mood, I offer all this to you (is it perhaps a hidden ambition? But I am not so sure; it is rather a need, I believe) and when I am not in a good mood, I fume about not having the time to write something else.
Please, enlighten me, Sweet Mother.
0 1959-05-19 - Ascending and Descending paths, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I have also come to realize that for this sadhana of the body, the mantra is essential. Sri Aurobindo gave none; he said that one should be able to do all the work without having to resort to external means. Had he reached the point where we are now, he would have seen that the purely psychological method is inadequate and that a japa is necessary, because only japa has a direct action on the body. So I had to find the method all alone, to find my mantra by myself. But now that things are ready, I have done ten years of work in a few months. That is the difficulty, it requires time
And I repeat my mantra constantlywhen I am awake and even when I sleep. I say it even when I am getting dressed, when I eat, when I work, when I speak with others; it is there, just behind in the background, all the time, all the time.
0 1959-05-25, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I can easily understand that your task on this earth is not particularly encouraging and you must find our human matter stupid and rebellious. I do not wish to throw upon you more bad things than you already receive, but I wish you could also understand certain things. I am not made for this withered life, not made for putting sentences together all day long, not made for living alone in my holefriendless, loveless, with nothing but mantras, and waiting for a better that never comes. For three years I have wanted to leave and each time I yielded out of scruples that you needed me, though also because I am attached to you. But after the [book on] Sri Aurobindo, there will be something else, there will always be something else that will make my departure look like a betrayal. I am fed up with living in my head, always in my head, with paper and ink. It was not of this that I dreamed when I was ten years old and ran with the wind over the untamed heaths. I am suffocating. You ask too much of me; or rather, I am not worth your expectation.
A love for you might have held me here. And indeed, for you I have devotion, veneration, respect, an attachment, but there has never been this marvelous thing, warm and full, that links one to a being in the same beating of a heart. Through love, I could do all, accept all, endure all, sacrifice all but I do not feel this love. You cannot give yourself with your head, through a mental decision, yet that is what I have been doing for five years. I have tried to serve you as best I could. But I am at the end of my rope. I am suffocating.
--
You are imposing a new ordeal on me by asking me to go to Rameswaram. For you, I have accepted. But I shall go there sheathed in my sturdiest armor and I will not yield, because I know that it is always to be begun again. I do not want to become a great Tantric or whatever else it may be. I want only to love. And since I cannot love, I am leaving. I will arrive in Rameswaram at 2 in the morning, and will leave again by the 11 oclock train.
I want to go to New Caledonia. There, or elsewhere there are forests there. Africa is closing up. You must help me one last time by giving me the means to leave and try something else with a minimum of chancealthough, at the point Im at, I laugh in the face of chance. I need 2,000 rupees, if that is possible for you. If you do not want to, or if you cannot, I will leave anyway, no matter where, no matter how.
0 1959-05-28, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I do not want you to suffer because of me, for there is already too much suffering in this world. I shall do what you wish. I will go to Rameswaram and I will stay there as long as X wants. I have seen that there is no happy solution. So I bow before the circumstances.
If it is not too tiring for your eyes, I would like you to read what follows. I want to tell you what I have seen, very clearly.
--
2) There is the destiny of the writer in me. And this too is linked to the best of my soul. It is also a profound need, like adventuring upon the heaths, because when I write certain things, I brea the in a certain way. But during the five years I have been here, I have had to bow to the fact that, materially, there is no time to write what I would like (I recall how I had to wrench out this Orpailleur, which I have not even had time to revise). This is not a reproach, Mother, for you do all you can to help me. But I realize that to write, one must have leisure, and there are too many less personal and more serious things to do. So I can also sit on this and tell myself that I am going to write a Sri Aurobindo but this will not satisfy that other need in me, and periodically it awakens and sprouts up to tell me that it too needs to breathe.
3) There is also the destiny that feels human love as something divine, something that can be transfigured and become a very powerful driving force. I did not believe it possible, except in dreams, until the day I met someone here. But you do not believe in these things, so I shall not speak of it further. I can gag this also and tell myself that one day all will be filled in the inner divine love. But that does not prevent this other need in me from living and from finding that life is dry and from saying, Why this outer manifestation if all life is in the inner realms? But neither can I stifle this with reasoning.
So there remains the pure spiritual destiny, pure interiorization. That is what I have been trying to do for the last five years, without much success. There are good periods of collaboration, because one part of my being can be happy in any condition. But in a certain way this achievement remains truncated, especially when you base spiritual life on a principle of integrality. And these three destinies in me have their own good reasons, which are true: they are not inferior, they are not incidental, they are woven from the very threads that created the spiritual life in me. My error is to open the door to revolt when I feel too poignantly one or the other being stifled.
So you see, all this is insoluble. I have only to bow before these unfortunate circumstances. I perceive an injustice somewhere, but I have only to remain silent.
--
So there. I can find no solution. X will not understand, and I will not say anything to him. But I obey you because everything is futile and there is too much pain in this world, and also someone in me needs you, someone who loves you in his own way.
Signed: Satprem
--
I did not utter the words that you heard I wanted to speak to you of my experience during the night, but I was paralyzed because I clearly felt that you no longer understood me. As soon as I received your letter, I concentrated on you in an effort to help you, and when night fell, just at the hour I enter into contact with X, I called for his helpwhereupon he sent me this little Kali whom he had already sent once before. So I went to your house, I took you in my arms and pressed you tightly to my heart to keep you as sheltered as possible from blows, and I let Kali do her warrior dance against this titan who is always trying to possess you, creating this rebelliousness in you. She must have at least partially succeeded in her work, because very early in the morning the titan went away somewhat discomfited, but while leaving, he flung this at me as he went by: You will regret it, for you would have had less trouble if he had left. I flung his suggestion back in his face with a laugh and told him, Take that, along with all the rest of your ugly person! I have no need of it! And the atmosphere cleared up.
I wanted to tell you all this, but I couldnt because you were still far away from me and it would have seemed like boasting. Also the misunderstanding created by the distance made you hear other words than those I uttered.
***
0 1959-06-03, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Also, I explained to him that a mantra had come to you which you were repeating between 5 and 6 in particular, and I told him about this culminating point where you wanted to express your gratitude, enthusiasm, etc., and about the French mantra. After explaining, I gave him your French and Sanskrit texts. He felt and understood very well what you wanted. His first reaction after reading it was to say, Great meaning, great power is there. It is all right. I told him that apart from the meaning of the mantra, you wanted to know if it was all right from the vibrational standpoint. He told me that he would take your text to his next puja and would repeat it himself to see. He should have done that this morning, but he has a fever (since his return from Madurai, he has not been well because of a cold and sunstroke). I will write you as soon as I know the result of his test.
Regarding me, this is more or less what he said: First of all, I want an agreement from you so that under any circumstances you never leave the Ashram. Whatever happens, even if Yama1 comes to dance at your door, you should never leave the Ashram. At the critical moment, when the attack is the strongest, you should throw everything into His hands, then and then only the thing can be removed (I no longer know whether he said removed or destroyed ). It is the only way. SARVAM MAMA BRAHMAN [Thou art my sole refuge]. Here in Rameswaram, we are going to meditate together for 45 days, and the Asuric-Shakti may come with full strength to attack, and I shall try my best not only to protect but to destroy, but for that, I need your determination. It is only by your own determination that I can get strength. If the force comes to make suggestions: lack of adventure, lack of Nature, lack of love, then think that I am the forest, think that I am the sea, think that I am the wife (!!) Meanwhile, X has nearly doubled the number of repetitions of the mantra that I have to say every day (it is the same mantra he gave me in Pondicherry). X repeated to me again and again that I am not merely a disciple to him, like the others, but as if his son.
--
Before five months are over (in September, October or November), Pakistan will attack India with the help or the complicity or the military resources of the United States. And at about the same time, China will attack India because of the Dalai Lama, under the pretext that India is supporting the Dalai Lama and that thousands of Tibetan refugees are escaping into India to carry on anti-Chinese activities. Then America will offer its support to India against China and then, said X, We shall see what will be the political policy of the Congress Party, which pretends to be unaligned with any bloc. If India accepts American aid, there will be no more Pakistan but rather American troops to prevent conflicts between Muslims and Hindus, and a single government for both countries. I pointed out to X that this sounded very much like a world war
Then he made the following comparison: When you throw a pebble into a pond, there is just one center, one point where it falls, and everything radiates out from this center. There are two such centers in the world at present, two places where there are great vibrations: one is India and Pakistan, and that will radiate all over Asia. And the other is.
0 1959-06-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
On another occasion, he said to me, I am ALWAYS taking care of you. And when I asked him why he was taking such trouble for me, he replied, because I have orders. This attention that comes to me from you and him surprises me, for I do not feel that I am good, and upon the least occasion I know that I am seriously prepared to quit everything because something in me is profoundly revolted by this excess of suffering, by a lack of love and flowering, by an excess of solitude. Yesterday evening, it was still fully there, with all my approval, and at such a time no one in the world can hold me back. It is this POINT OF SUFFERING that makes me want to turn my back on everything. Not to commit suicide: to turn my back.
X told me the story of my last three existences (rather grim), but I will write you about that in another letter.
0 1959-06-13a, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I have received your last two letters of the 10th and 11th. I told X what you wrote about this trip to France and that your finances are in an almost desperate state. He replied with perfect assurance, Soon it will increase, very soon it will change. I am obviously hesitant to accept your generous offer and I do not know what I should do. I had never thought of returning to France, except in a distant future. I dont know why X told me that I should return there, except perhaps because he felt who my mother is. I know that she is sad, that she believes me lost to her and thinks she will die without seeing me again. It would surely be a great joy to her. But other than that, I have no desire to go there, for each time I go to France, I feel like I am entering a prison. Naturally I would be happy for my mothers joy; she is a great soul, but is this reason enough?
Sunday, 14th
0 1959-06-25, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
To begin with, I must tell you a dream that I had here in Rameswaram a few days after my arrival. I was being pursued and I fled like an assassinit is a dream I have had hundreds of times for years, but in this dream, there was a new element: while being pursued, I climbed a kind of stairway to try to escape when suddenly, in a flash, I saw a feminine form hurtling into a void. I saw only the lower half of her body (with a kind of mauve-colored saree), because she was already falling. And I had the horrible sensation of having pushed this woman into the void, and I fled. I climbed, I climbed these stairs with my pursuers close at my heels, and the image of this falling woman gave me a horrible feeling. When I reached the top of the stairs, I tried to close a door behind me to stop my pursuers, but there they were, it was too late and I woke up.
The last time I was in Rameswaram, I had two other very poignant dreams, but I could not make out what they meant. In one dream I was strangling someone with my bare hands; it was an abominable feeling. And in the other, I saw, in a kind of nocturnal setting, a hanged man being taken down, with all kinds of people bustling about the corpse with lamps, and suddenly I knew that this hanged man was me.
0 1959-07-14, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
This is what I should have told you this morning, but I was afraid. For the last month I have been afraid of you, afraid that you might not understand. But I cannot leave with this weight on me. I beg of you to understand, Sweet Mother. I want nothing bad, nothing impure. I feel I have something to create with Sujata, I feel she is absolutely a part of something I have to achieve, that we have something to achieve together. For the five years we have known each other I have never had a single wrong thought but suddenly she opened my heart, which had been so completely walled-off, and this was like a wonder in me and at the same time a fear. A fear, perhaps because this love has been thwarted for so many lives.
Mother, I need Sujata like my very soul. It seems to me that she is a part of me, that she alone can help me break with this horrible past, that she alone can help me to love truly at last. I need peace so much, a quiet, PEACEFUL happinessa base of happiness upon which I could use my strength to build, instead of always fighting, always destroying. Mother, I am not at all sure of what must be, but I know that Sujata is part of this realization.
0 1959-08-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
And now, today,1 I am writing you again because it is the day of great amnesties, the day when all past errors are effaced
With all my unvarying and eternal love.
0 1959-10-06 - Sri Aurobindos abode, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Shortly before the 15th of August I had a unique experience that exemplifies all this.1 For the first time the supramental light entered directly into my body, without passing through the inner beings. It entered through the feet (a red and gold colormarvelous, warm, intense), and it climbed up and up. And as it climbed, the fever also climbed because the body was not accustomed to this intensity. As all this light neared the head, I thought I would burst and that the experience would have to be stopped. But then, I very clearly received the indication to make the Calm and Peace descend, to widen all this body-consciousness and all these cells, so that they could contain the supramental light. So I widened, and as the light was ascending, I brought down the vastness and an unshakable peace. And suddenly, there was a second of fainting.
I found myself in another world, but not far away (I was not in a total trance). This world was almost as substantial as the physical world. There were roomsSri Aurobindos room with the bed he rests on and he was living there, he was there all the time: it was his abode. Even my room was there, with a large mirror like the one I have here, combs, all kinds of things. And the substance of these objects was almost as dense as in the physical world, but they shone with their own light. It was not translucent, not transparent, not radiant, but self-luminous. The various objects and the material of the rooms did not have this same opacity as the physical objects here, they were not dry and hard as in the physical world we know.
--
It is similar with this japa: an imperceptible little change, and one can pass from a more or less mechanical, more or less efficient and real japa, to the true japa full of power and light. I even wondered if this difference is what the tantrics call the power of the japa. For example, the other day I was down with a cold. Each time I opened my mouth, there was a spasm in the throat and I coughed and coughed. Then a fever came. So I looked, I saw where it was coming from, and I decided that it had to stop. I got up to do my japa as usual, and I started walking back and forth in my room. I had to apply a certain will. Of course, I could do my japa in trance, I could walk in trance while repeating the japa, because then you feel nothing, none of all the bodys drawbacks. But the work has to be done in the body! So I got up and started doing my japa. Then, with each word pronounced the Light, the full Power. A power that heals everything. I began the japa tired, ill, and I came out of it refreshed, rested, cured. So those who tell me they come out of it exhausted, contracted, emptied, it means that they are not doing it in the true way.
I understand why certain tantrics advise saying the japa in the heart center. When one applies a certain enthusiasm, when each word is said with a warmth of aspiration, then everything changes. I could feel this difference in myself, in my own japa.
In fact, when I walk back and forth in my room, I dont cut myself off from the rest of the worldalthough it would be so much more convenient! All kinds of things come to mesuggestions, wills, aspirations. But automatically I make a movement of offering: things come to me and just as they are about to touch my head, I turn them upwards and offer them to the Light. They dont enter into me. For example, if someone speaks to me while I am saying my japa, I hear quite well what is being said, I may even answer, but the words remain a little outside, at a certain distance from the head. And yet sometimes, there are things that insist, more defined wills that present themselves to me, so then I have to do a little work, but all that without a pause in the japa. If that happens, there is sometimes a change in the quality of my japa, and instead of being fully the power, fully the light, it is certainly something that produces results, but results more or less sure, more or less long to fructify; it becomes uncertain, as with all things of this physical world. Yet the difference between the two japas is imperceptible; its not a difference between saying the japa in a more or less mechanical way and saying it consciously, because even while I work I remain fully conscious of the japa I continue to repeat it putting the full meaning into each syllable. But nevertheless, there is a difference. One is the all-powerful japa; the other, an almost ordinary japa There is a difference in the inner attitude. Perhaps for the japa to become true, a kind of joy, an elation, a warmth of enthusiasm has to be added but especially joy. Then everything changes.
Well, it is the same thing, the same imperceptible difference, when it comes to entering the world of Truth. On one side there is the falsehood, and on the other, close by, like the lining of this one, the true life. Only a little difference in the inner quality, a little reversal, is enough to pass to the other side, into the Truth and Light.
0 1960-01-28, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Of all forms of ego, you might think that the physical ego is the most difficult to conquer (or rather, the body ego, because the work was already done long ago on the physical ego). It might be thought that the form of the body is a point of concentration, and that without this concentration or hardness, physical life would not be possible. But thats not true. The body is really a wonderful instrument; its capable of widening and of becoming vast in such a way that everything, everything the slightest gesture, the least little taskis done in a wonderful harmony and with a remarkable plasticity. Then all of a sudden, for something quite stupid, a draft, a mere nothing, it forgetsit shrinks back into itself, it gets afraid of disappearing, afraid of not being. And everything has to be started again from scratch. So in the yoga of matter you start realizing how much endurance is needed. I calculated it would take 200 years to say ten crore of my japa. Well, Im ready to struggle 200 years if necessary, but the work will be done.
Sri Aurobindo had made it clear to me when I was still in France that this yoga in matter is the most difficult of all. For the other yogas, the paths have been well laid, you know where to tread, how to proceed, what to do in such-and-such a case. But for the yoga of matter, nothing has ever been done, never, so at each moment everything has to be invented.
0 1960-03-03, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
When I came down that evening for distribution,2 at first I was annoyed. I had said that I didnt want anybody in the hall, precisely because I wanted to establish an atmosphere of concentration, the immobility of the Spirit but there were at least thirty people in there, those who had decorated the hall, thirty of them stirring, stirring about, a mass of little vibrations. And before I could even say scat I had hardly taken my seatsomeone put the tray of medals on my lap and they started filing past.
But what is surprising is that in a flash, no one was there any longer. No one, you understand I was gone. Perhaps I was everywhere (but in fact I am always everywhere, I am always conscious of being everywhere at the same time), though normally there is the sense of the body, a physical center, but that evening there was no more center! Nothing, no one, not even the sense that there was no onenothing. I was gone. There was indeed something handing out the medals which felt the joy of giving the medal, the joy of receiving it, the joy of mutually looking at each other. It was simply the joy of the action taking place, the joy of looking, this joy everywhere, but me?Nothing, no one, gone. Only later, afterwards, did I see what had happened, for everything had disappeared, even the higher mind that understands and organizes things (by understand I mean contain, which contains things). That also was gone. And this lasted the entire distribution. Only when that [the body] had gone back upstairs to the room did the consciousness of what is me return.
--
And there are many, many experiences like this. It is only a small, a very small beginning. This one in particular came to mark the new stage: four years have elapsed, and now four years to come. because everything has focused on this body to prepare it, everything has concentrated on itNature, the Master of the Yoga, the Supreme, everything So only when its over, not before, will it really be interesting to speak of all this. But maybe it will never be over, after all. Its a small beginning, very small.
The Darshan on February 29, 1960, the first anniversary of the Supramental Manifestation.
0 1960-05-16, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
If there is one fundamental necessity, it is humility. To be humble. Not humble as it is normally understood, such as merely saying, I am so small, Im nothing at allno, something else because the pitfalls are innumerable, and the further you progress in yoga, the more subtle they become, and the more the ego masks itself behind marvelous and saintly appearances. So when somebody says, I no longer want to rely on anything but Him. I want to close my eyes and rest in Him alone, this comfortable Him, which is exactly what you want him to be, is the egoor a formidable Asura, or a Titan (depending on each ones capacity). Theyre all over the earth, the earth is their domain. So the first thing to do is to pocket your egonot preserve it, but get rid of it as soon as possible!
You can be sure that the God youve created is a God of the ego whenever something within you insists, This is what I feel, this is what I think, this is what I see; its my way, my very ownits my way of being, my way of understanding, my relationship with the Divine, etc.
--
And in that kind of physical eternity (which lasted two and a half hoursits a long time for an experience), I was aware of something missing, something not there: the joy of the consciousness. because throughout my life I have developed the habit of being conscious of everything, always, at each second. And the joy of the consciousness was not there. So I thanked the Grace that made me see that this kind of nirvana was quite simply physical tamas.2
(silence)
X has the power of rendering things very material thats his great power, which is why things get upset when he comes here. Overnight, someone progressing well comes to grips with difficulties; money on the way stops coming; you fall sick, things break downall because he has the power to give materiality to things from above. For, you see, you can go right to the height of your consciousness and from there sweep away the difficulties (at a certain moment of the sadhana, difficulties truly dont exist, its only a matter of nabbing the undesirable vibration and its over, its reduced to dust). And everything is fine up above, but down below its swarming. When X comes, its precisely all this swarming that becomes tangible.
The mastery must be a TRUE mastery, a very humble and austere mastery which starts from the very bottom and, step by step, establishes control. As a matter of fact, it is a battle against small, really tiny things: habits of being, ways of thinking, feeling and reacting.
0 1960-05-21 - true purity - you have to be the Divine to overcome hostile forces, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Him, not only because we have given Him everything and consecrated ourselves totally to Him (that is not enough), but Him because He has taken total possession of the human instrument.
At times, I feel that Ill never get over the difficulty. We are besieged by this enormous world of hostile forcesoceans of forces, churning and combining and submerging each other in gigantic pralayas,1 then again regrouping and combining. When you see that, it feels as if you had to be the Divine Himself to get over the difficulty. Precisely so! (And its the hostile forces who help you to see this, its their role.) You have TO BE THE DIVINE, that is the solution, that is the true divine purity.
0 1960-05-24 - supramental flood, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
These experiences are always absolute, as long as they last; then, through certain signs that I know (I am accustomed to it), I notice that the body consciousness begins closing up again. Or rather, somethingevidently a Supreme Wisdomdecides its sufficient for this time and that the body has had enough. It ought not to break, which is why certain precautions are taken. So this comes in several little stages that I know quite well. The final one is always a bit unpleasant because my body gets into rather peculiar positions as a result of the work. As its only a sort of machine, towards the end I have some difficulty straightening my knees, for example, or opening my fingers I think they even make a noise, like something forced into one position whose life has become purely spontaneous and mechanical. There are plenty of people like that, plenty, who enter into trance and then can no longer get out by themselves; they get themselves into a certain position and someone has to free them. This has never happened to me; I have always managed to extricate myself. But yesterday evening, the experience lasted a very long time. There was even a little cracking at the end, as when people have rheumatism.
And during all this time, approximately three hours, the consciousness was completely, completely different. It was here, however; it was not outside the earth, it was on earth, but it was completely differenteven the body consciousness was different. And what remained was very mechanical; it was a body, but it could just as well have been anything. All this power of consciousness that for more than seventy years Ive gradually pushed into each of the bodys cells so that each cell could become conscious (and it goes on constantly, constantly), all this seemed to have withdrawn there only remained one almost lifeless thing. However, I could raise myself up from my bed and even drink a glass of water, but it was all so bizarre. And when I went back to bed, it took nearly forty-five minutes for the body to regain its normal state. Only after I had entered into another type of samadhi2 and again come out of it did my consciousness fully return. It is the first time I have had an experience of this kind.
--
I was reluctant to speak ( because of this problem that remains hanging: to make it permanent, even in the active consciousness), and I said to myself that if I speak, it will create difficulties for me in finding the solution But its all right. I shall simply have to make a still greater effort, because something always evaporates when you speak.
Sat-Chit-Ananda: the three Supreme Principles, Existence (Sat), Consciousness (Chit), and Bliss (Ananda).
0 1960-05-28 - death of K - the death process- the subtle physical, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I think they do it here (apart from entirely sanitary considerations in the case of people who have died from nasty diseases), here in India, mainly because they are very afraid of all these little entities that come from desires, impulsesthings which are dispersed in the air and which make ghosts and all kinds of things. All desires, all attachments, all those things are like pieces that break off (each one goes its own way, you see), then these pieces gain strength in the surrounding atmosphere, and when they can fasten on to someone, they vampirize him. Then they keep on trying to satisfy their desires.
The world, the terrestrial atmosphere, is full of filth.
And people here are much more sensitive than in Europe because they are much more interiorized, so they are conscious of all these little entities, and naturally theyre afraid. And the more afraid they are, the more theyre vampirized!
I think that many of these entities are dispersed by fire that creates havoc.
--
It was at Tlemcen, in Algeria. While Mother was in trance, Theon caused the thread which linked Mother to her body to break through a movement of anger. He was angry because Mother, who was in a region where she saw the 'mantra of life,' refused to tell him the mantra. Faced with the enormity of the result of his anger Theon got hold of himself, and it took all Mother's force and all Theon's occult science to get Mother back into her bodywhich created a kind of very painful friction at the moment of re-entry, perhaps the type of friction that makes new born children cry out.
***
0 1960-06-04, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
There would be many interesting things to tell about sleep, because its one of the things Ive studied the mostto speak of how I became conscious of my nights, for instance. (I learned this with Theon, and now that I know all these things of India, I realize that he knew a GREAT deal.) But it bothers me a lot to say II this, I that. Id rather speak of these things in the form of a treatise or an essay on sleep, for example. Sri Aurobindo always spoke of his experiences but rarely did he say Iit always sounds like boasting.
Sri Aurobindo said that the true or yogic reason for sleep is to put the consciousness back into contact with Sat-Chit-Ananda (I used to do this without knowing it). For some people the contact is established immediately, while for others it takes eight, nine, ten hours to do it. But really, normally you should not wake up till the contact has been established, and thats why its very bad to wake up in an artificial way (with an alarm clock, for example), because then the night is wasted.
As for me, my night is now organized. I go to bed at 8 oclock and get up at 4, which makes for a very long night, and its sliced into three parts. And I get up punctually at 4 in the morning. But Im always awake ten or fifteen minutes beforehand, and I review all that has happened during the night, the dreams, the various activities, etc., so that when I get up, I am fully active.
0 1960-06-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
No, no thats not what I mean. Im speaking of the relationship I have with you, the true onewhat I was telling you about just a moment ago. because, you see, Im going to tell you everything! (Mother laughs) I have the impression that it would go much faster if I could pick you up, put you here (Mother touches her heart), carry you here and tell you, Calm yourself, listen! But its not possible (alas). Youre always fast on your feet with your head touching this very low ceiling. Myself, I cant be like that. Im not even sure (laughing) if my feet would get in!
Anyway, my child, its not that Im not trying I am trying. And its not that you cantyou can. Thats the problem You know, its as if you were stubbornly trying to turn the key the wrong way in the lock.
0 1960-06-11, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Sometimes the Force comes direct. And it picks up words, any words at all, that makes no difference; the nature of the words changes, and they become expressive because of the power entering into them. This happens when I look directly at the thing.
But when a question is put to me, it comes coated with all the mental atmosphere of whoever is asking the question. And this coating is often a mere reflectionmuch of the life has been removed.
0 1960-07-12 - Mothers Vision - the Voice, the ashram a tiny part of myself, the Mothers Force, sparkling white light compressed - enormous formation of negative vibrations - light in evil, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Our consciousness shrinks from these things which belong to the past and which are no longer in their place, so we feel disgust and revulsion because we are ignorant. But if we can raise ourselves above and be in contact with That the supreme Lightwhich is ALWAYS just behind, then this Light seems all the more supreme because it is so much its own opposite.
Then you know.
0 1960-07-23 - The Flood and the race - turning back to guide and save amongst the torrents - sadhana vs tamas and destruction - power of giving and offering - Japa, 7 lakhs, 140000 per day, 1 crore takes 20 years, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Down below, the water was having a grand time; it was it was hopeless. But here, along this path, there was still a hope, even even after the water had passed; I probably had a certain power at my disposal to help others cross these fissured places. But because I woke up, I didnt see what it was. So that stopped everything. Probably because I woke up rather abruptly, I could not see what it meant.
All this is a translation in human language, actually, because really it was
And it happened quite early in the nightat such an early hour, they are not visions or things you observe: they are things you do.
0 1960-08-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
To this day I remember the experience. Truly, thats what I felt I did not intellectualize it. Exactly the impression of what Christ must have experienced when he felt the weight of the cross. It was the weight of a whole world of darkness, unconsciousness, universal bad will, total incomprehension, something And it really felt like that as if I were carrying a frightful weightwhich was frightful because of its darkness, not because of its weight. So I thought, Well, well. This must be how Christ felt when they laid the cross on him.
There are plenty of them! (Mother indicates a pile of various papers) In another pile there must be as many again! It is a mania for collecting papers.
--
But then Id rather not die if possible. And if I dont die, it will be perfectly useless, because that would then be the obvious proof of an uninterrupted ascent; consequently, what there will be at the very end will be much more interesting.
You alone have convinced me that the history of the way might be of some interest, so Im letting you do it Ive taken a very, very handsome file upstairs with all your notes in it.8 Its filling up; its going to be formidable! (Mother laughs) a frightful documentation.
0 1960-09-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
When Amrita,5 seized with zeal, wanted to make him understand what we were doing here and what Sri Aurobindo had wanted, it almost erupted into an unpleasant situation. So after that, I decided to identify myself with him to see I had never done this, because normally I only do it when I am responsible for someone, in order to truly help someone, and Ive never felt any responsibility in regard to X. So I wanted to see his inner situation, what could and could not be done. That was the day you saw him coming down from our meditation in an ecstatic state, when he told you that all separation between him and me had dropped awayit was to be expected, I anticipated as much!
But when I did that, I saw what X wanted to do for me. As a matter of fact, I recalled that when we first met I had told him that everything was all right up to this point (Mother indicates the region above the head), but below that, in the outer being, I wanted to hasten the transformation, and things there were difficult to handle.
When Sri Aurobindo was here, I never bothered about all this; I was constantly up above and I did what the Gita and the traditional writings advise I left it to Natures care. In fact I left it to Sri Aurobindos care. He is making the best use of it, I would say. He will manage it, he will do with it what he wants. And I was constantly up above. And from up there I worked, leaving the instrument as it was because I knew that he would see to it.
Actually, it was very different at that time because I was not even aware of any resistance or any difficulty in the outer being; it was automatic, the work was done automatically. Later on, when I had to do both thingswhat he had been doing as well as what I was doingit became rather complicated and I realized there were many what we could call gapsthings which had to be worked out, transformed, set right before the total work could be done without hindrance. So then I began. And several times I thought how unfortunate it was that I had never studied or pursued certain ancient Indian disciplines. because, for example, when Sri Aurobindo and I were working to bring down the supramental forces, a descent from the mental plane to the vital plane, he was always telling me that everything I did (when we meditated together, when we worked)all my movements, all my gestures, all my postures, all my reactionswas absolutely tantric, as if I had pursued a tantric discipline. But it was spontaneous, it did not correspond to any knowledge, any idea, any will, nothing, and I thought it was like that simply because, as He knew, naturally I followed.
Later on, when Sri Aurobindo left his body, I said to myself, If only I knew what he had known, it would be easier! So when Swami and later X came, I thought, I am going to take advantage of this opportunity. I had written to Swami that I was working on transforming the cells of the body and that I had noticed the work was going faster with Xs influence. So it was understood that X would help when he came thats how things began, and this idea has remained with X. But I have raced on I dont wait. Ive raced on, Ive gone like wildfire. And now the situation is reversed. What I wanted to find out, I found out. I experienced what I wanted to experience, but he is still He is very kind, actually, he wants really to help me. So, when I identified with him the other day during our meditation, I realized that he wanted to give silence, control and perfect peace to the physical mind. My own trick, if you will, is to have as little relationship with the physical mind as possible, to go up above and stay therethis (Mother indicates her forehead), silent, motionless, turned upwards, while That (gesture above the head) sees, acts, knows, decidesall is done from there. Only there can you feel at ease.
--
I felt better that night because I was concentrated, but my head was still hurting a little. Then the following day I said to myself, or rather I told him inwardly, Whether you like it or not, I am bringing down whats up above; it is the only way I can feel comfortable! And I told you what happenedas soon as I sat down I was so surprised, for he didnt start doing what he had done the day before; I myself did the same thing, I participated, so to speak, in his will (so as to find out), but with the resolve to remain consciously in contact with the highest consciousness, as always, and to bring it down. And it came in a marvelous flood. He was quite happy, he did not protest! All the pain was gone, there was nothing left, it was perfect. Only towards the end of the meditation did he again want to start doing his little trick of enclosing my physical mind in this construction, but it didnt last I watched all this from above.
And he isnt aware of this, actually, he isnt aware at all. If he were told, he would absolutely deny it for him, its an opening onto Infinity! But in fact, its always like that, we are always shut in, each of useach one is enclosed inside certain limits which he doesnt feel, for should he feel it, he would get out! Oh, I know this feeling very well, for when I was with Sri Aurobindo I was open in this way (gesture towards the heights), and I always had this feeling of Yes, my child He tolerated me the way I was and waited for it to change. Thats truly how things are, you know. And now I feel my limits, which are the limits of the world as it is at present, but beyond that theres an unmanifested immensity, eternity and infinityto which we are closed. It merely seeps init is not the great opening. What I am trying to bring about is the great opening. Only when it has opened wide will there really be the (how should I put it?) the irreducible thing, and all the worlds resistance, all its inertia, even its obscurity will be unable to swallow it up the determining and transforming thing I dont know when it will come.
--
Yes, he doesnt dare say a thing He doesnt understand it very well. What funny ideas, eh! He must think I have funny ideas, but anyway In the end, he tells himself, Oh, its just because shes born in France that she is still carrying this burden!
Its quite funny.
--
I found out, of course, because they log everything at the factory, so when they came to inform me of the breakdown the next morning, I asked them what time it had happenedexactly 10:30.
After that, I made a kind of pact with them the trouble, you see, is that there are constantly new ones. If only they were the same! They are constantly coming in new floods, so there was the need of a permanent formation over there. Ive tried to make this permanent formation, to take and absorb them, to calm them down and scatter them a little so they dont accumulate in one spot, which in the end could be dangerous.
0 1960-09-24, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Imagine! I thought I had lost my hearing. But I just realized that when I dont hear its because Im elsewhere.
Just now, I concentrated a little and tuned into your voice. And not one word escaped me! It became clear, absolutely clear.
0 1960-10-02a, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
This has protected me from all seeking for pleasure in life. It was a wonderful protection, because pleasure always seemed so futile to meyes, futile; for the sake of your personal satisfaction. Later, I even understood how foolish it is, for you can never be satisfiedthough when youre small you dont yet know that. I never liked it: But is it really useful, does it serve some purpose? And I still have this attitude in regard to my nights. I have this widening of the consciousness, this impersonalization, this wonderful joy of being above all that. But at the same time I also have, Im here in this body, on earth, to do something I mustnt forget it. And this is what I have to do. But probably Im wrong!
Im waiting for the Lord to tell me clearly.
0 1960-10-08, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
The SOUND must be captured. There must be one sound at the origin of all language And then, to capture it and project it. To make it vibrate because it doesnt vibrate in the same way here as it does above.
That would be an interesting work.
0 1960-10-11, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Im just now finishing the Yoga of Self-Perfection When we see what human life is and, even in the best of cases, what it represents in the way of imbecility, stupidity, narrowness, meanness (not to mention ignorance because that is too flagrant) and even those who believe themselves to have generous heart, for example, or liberal ideas, a desire to do good! Each time the consciousness orients itself in one direction to attain some result, everything that was in existence (not just ones personal existence, but this sort of collectivity of existences that each being represents), everything that is contrary to this effort immediately presents itself in its crudest light.
It happened this morning while I was walking back and forth in my room. I had finished my japa I had to stop and hold my head in my hands to keep from bursting into tears. No, it is too dreadful, I said to myself; and to think that we want Perfection!
Then naturally there came as a consolation: only because the consciousness is getting closer to THE REAL THING can it see all this wretchedness, and the contrast alone makes these things appear so mean.
And its true, those things I saw this morning which seemed so above all stupid and ugly (Ive never had a sense of morality at any time in my life, thank God! But stupid and ugly things have always seemed Ive always done my best to distance myself from them, even when I was very small). And now I see that these things which seem not only ridiculous but, well, almost shameful were considered, as I recall, remarkably noble earlier on and they represented an exceptionally lofty attitude in life the very same things. So then I understood that its quite simply a question of proportion.
--
I myself use it for a very special reason, because You see, I invoke (the words are a bit strange) the Lord of Tomorrow. Not the unmanifest Lord, but the Lord as he will manifest tomorrow, or in Sri Aurobindos words, the divine manifestation in its supramental form.
So the first sound of my mantra is the call to that, the evocation. With the second sound, the bodys cells make their surrender, they give themselves. And with the third sound comes the identification of this [the body] with That, which produces the divine life. These are my three sounds.
--
So I understand more and more. Everythingthis whole organization, this whole aggregate, all these cells and nerves and sensorsare all meant uniquely for the work, they have no other purpose than the work; every foolish act that is done is for the work; every stupidity that is thought is for the work; you are made the way you are because only in that way can you do the work and its none of your business to seek to be somewhere else. Thats my conclusion. Very well, as You wish, may Your will be done!No, not be done; it IS done. As You wish, exactly as You wish!
And in the end, its quite fun.
0 1960-10-19, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I can tell you why, but in a purely superficial way because for him to do IMMEDIATELYwithout leaving his body, that iswhat he had to do, well
(silence)
0 1960-10-22, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I also wrote one or two things, experiences I had noted down; they were rather interesting, which is why Id like to get them back. I had described some of my visions to Madame Theon, and then she explained their meaning to me. So I would narrate the vision and give its explanation. That was readable and interesting, because there was some symbolism.
(Pavitra:) What was this Chronicle of KI?
--
I had to stop because there is something like time that exists herewhat a shame!
But it is very good.
0 1960-10-25, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
But I was mainly interested by the fact that I felt the danger these people representednot because they were brigands, but because they had some powerbrigands with a power and from what I saw, it was not merely an hypnotic power. There must have been a tantric force in it, otherwise they would not have been so powerful, and especially so powerful from a distance. I had said to myself, They MUST be caught. Which was why (the Force kept on working, you see). And yesterday, the newspaper said that a gang of five men, eight women and half a dozen children had been arrested by the police in Allahabad for using what the newspaper called mesmeric means to rob people, attack them, etc. (They were operating in Poona, Bombay and Ahmedabad, but they were caught in Allahabad). Probably when they realized that the boy was gone, they got frightened and fled to the North. And they were arrested in Allahabad I had made a very strong formation and had said, They MUST be caught.
As of now, I have no other news Theyve been caught, so they cant do any wrong OUTWARDLY, but still their power is there. Were going to have to be And everyone here says the same thinglike a black veil of unconsciousness that has fallen upon us. Even those who arent accustomed to such things have felt it. Im presently cleaning the whole placeits not easy. Everything is upside down.
--
Well, well! So P.K. is clairvoyant! Its him, for surethis is the being behind those people. Thats why they had so much power. And he came here because of tha the was furious. Quite a demon!
I also saw him that night. You fools with your small crackers, he said, I will show you what real crackers are!6and those flashes of lightning, such an astonishing violence Oh, he proclaimed all kinds of things, disasters, what not But these are very complex matters and its better not to go into detail.
--
When I tell people that their health depends on their inner life (an intermediate inner life, not the deepest), its because of this.
During the last two years, Ive been accumulating experiences IN THEIR MINUTEST DETAILS, things that might seem most useless. You have to consent to that and not have a mania for greatness; you must know that where the key is found is in the tiniest effort to create a true attitude in a few cells.
--
When I say to someone, I shall take care of you, do you know what I do? I join his body to mine. And then all the work is done in me (as far as possibleessentially its possible, but there is a relativity because of time; but as far as possible ). So I find it very interesting to make cross-references and find out the results of my interventionnot so I can boast (theres nothing much to boast about), but for the sake of the SCIENTIFIC study of the problem: to know how to proceed, how to discriminate, what is active and what isnt, what are the guide lines, etc.
And even if at the moment you dont feel very good, you are able to say, It doesnt matter; what we have to do, well do (this fear of not being able to do what has to be done is the most irksome), if at that moment you can sincerely say to yourself, No, I trust in the Divine Grace no, I will do what I have to do, and Ill be given the power to do it, or the power to do it will be created in me then that is the true attitude.
0 1960-10-30, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
And there is something very happy, very happy, which keeps repeating, Its good, its good! Happy and rather satisfied because of that.
My impression is that in a while, maybe not in such a distant future, well be able to do something, a sort of it will no longer be personal. We should be able to establish something.4
0 1960-11-08, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I have experienced all kinds of things in life, but I have always felt a sort of lightso INTANGIBLE, So perfectly pure (not in the moral sense, but pure light!)and it could go anywhere, mix everywhere without ever really getting mixed with anything. I felt this flame as a young childa white flame. And NEVER have I felt disgust, contempt, recoil, the sense of being dirtiedby anything or anyone. There was always this flamewhite, white, so white that nothing could make it other than white. And I started feeling it long ago in the past (now my approach is entirely differentit comes straight from above, and I have other reasons for seeing the Purity in everything). But it came back when I met Z ( because of the contact with him)and I felt nothing negative, absolutely nothing. Afterwards, people said, Oh, how he used to be this, how he used to be that! And now look at him! See what hes become! Someone even used the word rotten that made me smile. because, you see, that doesnt exist for me.
What I saw is this world, this realm where people are like that, they live that, for its necessary to get out from below and this is a wayits a way, the only way. It was the only way for the vital formation and the vital creation to enter into the material world, into inert matter. An intellectualized vital, a vital of ideas, an artist; it even fringes upon or has the first drops of Poetrythis Poetry which upon its peaks goes beyond the mind and becomes an expression of the Spirit. Well, when these first drops fall on earth, it stirs up mud.
And I wondered why people are so rigid and severe, why they condemn others (but one day Ill understand this as well). I say this because very often I run into these two states of mind in my activities (the grave and serious mind which sees hypocrisy and vice, and the religious and yogic mind which sees the illusion that prevents you from nearing the Divine)and without being openly criticized, Im criticized Ill tell you about this one day
Youre criticized?
--
(Mother laughs) because its not that kind of reason, not a reason that can be explained!! No, its a its the same thing, a contact.
I know I told you that I had had a vision, but you didnt understand what I told you that day. It was a vision of the place you occupy in my being and of the work we have to do together. Thats really how it is. These things [that I tell you] have their utility and a concrete life, and I see them as very powerful for world transformation theyre what I call experiences (which is much more than an experience because it extends far beyond the individual)and its the same whether its said or not said: the Action is done. But the fact that it is said, that it is formulated here and preserved, is exclusively for you, because you were made for this and this is why we met.
It doesnt need a lot of explaining.
0 1960-11-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
For me its different, because I KNOW that it can and must become something else. But then all this Consciousness which is there and in which I live and which has this world vision must come forward and manifest in the vibration of EACH secondnot in a whole which looks interesting when seen from afar; it must enter the vibration of each second, the consciousness of each minute, otherwise
(silence)
--
While it was all coming up, I thought, How is this possible? For during those years of my life (Im now outside things; I do them but Im entirely outside, so they dont involve mewhether its like this or like that makes no difference to me; Im only doing my work, thats all), I was already conscious, but nevertheless I was IN what I was doing to a certain extent; I was this web of social life (but thank God it wasnt here in India, for had it been here I could not have withstood it! I think that even as a child I would have smashed everything, because here its even worse than over there). You see, there its its a bit less constricting, a bit looser, you can slip through the mesh from time to time to brea the some air. But here, according to what Ive learned from people and what Sri Aurobindo told me, its absolutely unbearable (its the same in Japan, absolutely unbearable). In other words, you cant help but smash everything. Over there, you sometimes get a breath of air, but still its quite relative. And this morning I wondered (you see, for years I lived in that way for years and years) just as I was wondering, How was I ABLE to live that and not kick out in every direction?, just as I was looking at it, I saw up above, above this (it is worse than horrible, it is a kind of Oh, not despair, for there isnt even any sense of feeling there is NOTHING! It is dull, dull, dull gray, gray, gray, clenched tight, a closed web that lets through neither air nor life nor lightthere is nothing) and just then I saw a splendor of such sweet light above itso sweet, so full of true love, true compassion something so warm, so warm the relief, the solace of an eternity of sweetness, light, beauty, in an eternity of patience which feels neither the past nor the inanity and imbecility of thingsit was so wonderful! That was entirely the feeling it gave, and I said to myself, THAT is what made you live, without THAT it would not have been possible. Oh, it would not have been possible I would not have lived even three days! THAT is there, ALWAYS there, awaiting its hour, if we would only let it in.
(silence)
--
But that CANNOT be extended as it is, for everything is constantly changing! And to be immortal, you have to follow this perpetual change; otherwise, what will naturally happen is what now happensone day you will die because you can no longer follow the change. But if you can follow it, then all this will fall from you! Understand that what will survive in you is something you dont know very well, but its the only thing that can survive and all the rest will keep falling off all the time Do you still want to be immortal?Not one in ten said yes! Once you are able to make them feel the thing concretely, they tell you, Oh no! Oh no! Since everything else is changing, the body might as well change too! What difference would it make! But what remains is THAT; THAT is what you must truly hold on to but then you must BE THAT, not this whole agglomeration. What you now call you is not THAT, its a whole collection of things..
Formerly, that was my first stepa long time ago. Now its so very different I wonder how it was possible to have been so totally blind as to call that oneself at any moment in ones life! Its a collection of things. And what was the link by which that could be called oneself? Thats more difficult to find out. Only when you climb above do you come to realize that THAT is at work here, but it could work there as well, or as well here, or here, or here At times there is suddenly a drop of something (Oh, I saw that this morningit was like a drop, a little drop, but with SUCH an intense and perfect light ), and where THAT falls it makes its center and begins radiating out and acting. THAT is what can be called oneselfnothing else. And THAT precisely is what enabled me to live in such dreadfully uninteresting, such nonexistent circumstances. And at the moment when you ARE that, you see how that has lived and how that has used everything, not only in this body but in all bodies and through all time.
--
I often find leaving the balcony difficult. And its only this same gentleman (you know, the censor) who starts telling me, Youre keeping them there in the rain just because youre in ecstasy; youre just letting them stand there drenched and getting a crick in the neck looking up in the air. Arent you going to let them go?When he insists too much, I go back inside.
Maybe thats why hes still there. Otherwise, if I forgot (Mother laughs)
0 1960-11-26, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Before I fell sick, I had a peculiar dream. I was here in the corridor, and someone quite dark came to tell me that Mother wanted me to change my work. And I recall trying with all my might to ask him, But why, why? Finally you arrived. You were there at a table with some others. I was quite annoyed because all these people upset me, they were hindering me from being with you. And you said to me very clearly, Its time this gentleman goes. perhaps this gentleman represented a part of my being which had to disappear or change, but anyway you asked me to do something extremely difficultl felt a very great difficulty doing it. I even remember, in my dream, having left you for an instant, as if I wanted to leave the Ashram, then I must have walked up and down for a while. Finally, I must have made an enormous effort to come back and sit next to you on a bench which symbolically was very hard The next morning I woke up with the flu.
So, its very simple. The sickness was due to one part of your being going faster than the rest. A part of the physical consciousness probably remained behind, and that created this imbalance and triggered the sickness.
--
It cant be you, he replied, because you alone can do the material thing.3
And that was all.
--
Dont write all this down, erase it, because Ill speak of it lateronce its over, when Ive reached the end. I dont want it to fall into anyones hands by accident. And for you, keep it in your consciousness.
(silence)
Im telling you all this because of what happened the other day. Its with such experiences that the the true Power is acquired.
And then, at the same time, some rather interesting things are happening. Imagine, X is starting to understand certain things that is, in his own way he is discovering the progress I am making; hes discovering it as a received teaching (through subtle channels). He wrote a letter to Amrita two or three days ago in which he translates in his own language, with his own words and his own way of speaking, exactly my most recent experiencesthings that I have conquered in a general way.
0 1960-12-17, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I think that even what seems to us ugly in animal and vegetal nature appears so only because of the limitations of our own understanding. But really, as soon as man enters the scene phew!
Yes, I have always felt that in Nature one can live in beauty, always. But then once man shows up, something gets thrown out of joint. Its the mind, actually. What gives birth to ugliness is really the intrusion of the mind in life. I wonder if it was necessary, if it could not have been immediately harmonious. But it appears not.
--
Thats why it takes so long. because those who readily accept are they get encrusted and buried under it; they no longer move. And those who see the future and what must be have a hard time accepting; they pull back, they kick and protestso they dont have any power.
***
0 1960-12-31, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
And IMMEDIATELY, I found myself down below, relieved of my packages. And everything was perfectly simple. (I had even brought the packages along without realizing it.) All, all was in order, very neat, very luminous, very simplesimply because I had said, Ah, no! Ive had enough of this business! Why all these stupid complications!5
But these are not dreams, they are types of activitymore real, more concrete than material life; the experience is much more concrete than ordinary life.
0 1961-01-10, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have a stack of unread letters this high and an even bigger stack Ive read but havent answered. How can I work on the Aphorisms when I am constantly hounded by people pulling on me simply because they have written! If I dont answer immediately, they say (not in words, but ): So youre not answering my letter!
These are not very favorable conditions!
--
To begin with, theres what could be called a negative way, the way expounded by Buddhism and similar religions: the refusal to see. To be in a state of such purity and beauty that there is no perception of evil and ugliness. Its like something that doesnt touch you because it doesnt exist in you. This is the perfection of the negative method.
It is quite elementary: never take notice of evil, never speak of the evil present in others, never perpetuate the vibrations of evil by observation, criticism or giving undue attention to the evil deed. This is what Buddha taught: each time you mention an evil you help spread it.
--
Put this way, there is no need to bring the principle of love into our explanation. But if we want to know or understand the nature of the Force or Power that permits and accomplishes this transformation (specially in the case of evil, but for ugliness to some extent as well), we see that of all powers, Love is obviously the mightiest, the most integralintegral in that it applies to all cases. Its even mightier than the power of purification which dissolves bad wills and is, in a way, master over the adverse forces, but which doesnt have the direct transforming power; because the power of purification Must FIRST dissolve in order to form again later. It destroys one form to make a better one from it, while Love doesnt need to dissolve in order to transform: it has the direct transforming power. Love is like a flame changing the hard into the malleable, then sublimating even the malleable into a kind of purified vapor. It doesnt destroy: it transforms.
Love, in its essence and in its origin, is like a white flame obliterating ALL resistances. You can have the experience yourself: whatever the difficulty in your being, whatever the weight of accumulated mistakes, the ignorance, incapacity, bad will, a single SECOND of this Lovepure, essential, suprememelts everything in its almighty flame. One single moment and an entire past can vanish. One single TOUCH of That in its essence and the whole burden is consumed.
--
I have replied endlessly, I have given all sorts of explanations about the organization of the School, about World Union,4 about the true way to organize industry (its true functioning)so many things! If all that were compiled we could publish brochures! Sometimes Ive spoken three-quarters of an hour non-stop to people who listened with delight and were receptive but quite incapable of making a written report of it. At times like that we could have used one of your machines! But when things are organized in advance, it may well be that nothing comes out at allmentalizing stops the flow. If I is in front of me, I cant say anything to her because she doesnt understand. I already have trouble writing to herwhat I have to say is always brought down a bit; but if she were here in the room and I had to speak to her, nothing at all would come out!
No, when we feel like it and when she doesnt raise any question about an aphorismat least not an impossible questionwell do this: I will speak here, its much easier for me. This way things come that I havent seen before; while when I write like that, they are usually things Ive seen on other occasions (not that I try to recall them, they are there and simply come back). But when theres a new contact, something new always comes.
0 1961-01-12, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In another aphorism, Sri Aurobindo says (I no longer recall his exact words) that sin is simply something no longer in its place. In this perpetual Becoming nothing is ever reproduced and some things disappear, so to speak, into the past; and when its time for them to disappear, they seemto our very limited consciousness evil and repulsive: we revolt against them because their time is past.
But if we had the vision of the whole, if we were able to contain past, present and future simultaneously (as it is somewhere up above), then we would see how relative these things are and that its mainly the progressing evolutionary Force which gives us this will to reject; yet when these things still had their place, they were quite tolerable. However, to have this experience in a practical sense is impossible unless we have a total vision the vision that is the Supremes alone! Therefore, one must first identify with the Supreme, and then, keeping this identification, one can return to a consciousness sufficiently externalized to see things as they really are. But thats the principle, and in so far as we are able to realize it, we reach a state of consciousness where we can look at all things with the smile of a complete certainty that everything is exactly as it should be.
Of course, people who dont think deeply enough will say, Oh, but if we see that things are exactly as they should be, then nothing will budge. But no! There isnt a fraction of a second when things arent moving: theres a continuous and total transformation, a movement that never stops. Only because its difficult for us to feel that way can we imagine that by our entering certain states of consciousness things would not change. Even if we entered into an apparently total inertia, things would continue to change and we along with them!
Ultimately, disgust, rebellion and anger, all movements of violence, are necessarily movements of ignorance and of limitation with all the weakness that limitation implies. Rebellion is a weakness, for its the feeling of an impotent will. When you feel, when you see that things are not as they should be, then you rebel against whatever is out of keeping with your vision. But if you were all-powerful, if your will and your vision were all-powerful, there would be no opportunity to rebel! You would always see that all things are as they should be! That is omnipotence.1 Then all these movements of violence become not only useless but profoundly ridiculous.
--
But the difficulty isnt so much not hating the sinner, but not hating the virtuous! Thats far more difficult! because one readily understands sinners, those poor people, but the virtuous.
Actually, what you hate in them is their self-righteousness, only that. After all, theyre right not to do evilthey cant be blamed for that! But whats hard to tolerate is their sense of superiority, the way they look down their noses at all these poor fellows who are no worse than they!
--
Consider the case of a woman with many friends, and these friends are very fond of her for her special capacities, her pleasant company, and because they feel they can always learn something from her. Then all of a sudden, through a quirk of circumstances, she finds herself socially ostracized because she may have gone off with another man, or may be living with someone out of wedlockall those social mores with no value in themselves. And all her friends (I dont speak of those who truly love her), all her social friends who welcomed her, who smiled so warmly when passing her on the street, suddenly look the other way and march by without a glance. This has happened right here in the Ashram! I wont give the details, but it has happened several times when something conflicted with accepted social norms: the people who had shown so much affection, so much kindness oh! Sometimes they even said, Shes a lost woman!
I must say that when this happens here. In the world at large it seems quite normal, but when this happens here it always gives me a bit of a shock, in the sense that I say to myself, So theyre still at that level!
--
This is a primary stage. As long as you havent gone beyond this condition, you are unfit for yoga. because truly, no one in such a rudimentary state is ready for yoga.
***
0 1961-01-17, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But actually, there are really two quite different forms of self-deception. One can be very shocked by certain things, not for personal reasons but precisely because of ones goodwill and ardor to serve the Divine, when one sees people misconducting themselves, being egoistical, unfaithful, treacherous. There comes a stage when one has mastered these things and doesnt permit them to manifest IN ONESELF; but to the extent that one is in contact with ordinary consciousness, ordinary viewpoints, ordinary life and thought, their possibility is still there, latent, because they are the inverse of the qualities one is striving for. And this opposition always exists until one has risen above and no longer has either the quality or the defect. As long as one has virtue, one always has its latent opposite. The opposition disappears only when one is beyond virtue and sin.
But until then, there is this kind of indignation stemming from the fact that one is not entirely above: its a period when one totally disapproves of certain things and would be incapable of doing them. And up to this point, there is nothing to say, unless one gives an external, violent expression to his indignation. If anger interferes, it indicates an entire contradiction between the feeling one wants to have and this reaction towards others. because anger is a deformation of vital power originating from an obscure and thoroughly unregenerate vital,1 a vital still subject to all the ordinary actions and reactions. When an ignorant, egoistic individual will exploits this vital power and encounters opposition from other individual wills around it, then under the pressure of opposition this power changes into anger and tries to obtain through violence what could not be achieved by the pressure of the Force alone.
Anger, moreover, like all forms of violence, is always a sign of weakness, impotence and incapacity. Here the deception comes from the approval one gives it or the flattering adjective one covers it with; for rage can be no more than blind, ignorant and asuricopposed to the light.
--
There is another case where peoplewithout knowing it or because they WANT to ignore italways pursue their personal interests, their preferences, their attachments, their concepts; people who are not entirely consecrated to the Divine and make use of moral and yogic ideas to conceal their personal motives. These people doubly deceive themselves: not only do they deceive themselves through their outer activities, their relations with others, but they also deceive themselves about their personal motives; instead of serving the Divine they are serving their own egoism. And this happens constantly, constantly! One serves his own personality, his egoism, while pretending to serve the Divine. This is no longer even self-deception: its sheer hypocrisy.
This mental habit of always cloaking everything with a favorable appearance, of giving all movements a favorable explanation, is at times so flagrant that it can fool nobody but oneself (although it may occasionally be subtle enough to create an illusion). It is a sort of habitual self-exoneration, the habit of giving a favorable mental excuse, a favorable mental explanation for all one does, all one says, all one feels. For example, someone with no self-control who strikes another in great indignation and is ready to call it divine wrath! Righteous2 is perfect, because righteous immediately introduces this element of puritanical moralitywonderful!
This power of self-deception, the minds craft in devising splendid justifications for any ignorance or folly whatsoever, is tremendous.
0 1961-01-19, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
No. Its purely physical. Its because people. When I came down, I felt fine. Only they kept me standing there, on and on. When I am seated, its all right; but beyond a certain point, speaking also becomes difficult.
***
0 1961-01-22, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
After that I felt quite at ease. The battle was overit was over FOR THE MOMENT, because they werent finished: they continued their uproar on the other side; but I didnt have to go there anymore.
It has been deferred because I was still down below; I had not yet returned to the upper levels. Anyhow.
But they are furious! There is evidently a whole alignment of forces (they must be vital forces) between here and my domain. Theyre furious! They set up explosions, demolitions. And I could see all the settings they were quite artificial, nothing real, but dangerous nonetheless.
--
Then last night I saw the symbol, the image of the thing. But what was it? It was an element in the most material Matter,3 because it was deep down below; yet despite it all, Mother Nature was in charge there: she was familiar with everything, knew everything and it was all at her disposalabsolutely the most material Nature. And she herself had no light, but was very, very she had a concealed power that was completely invisible.
Each time I set out to leave her domain and ascend above, it triggered a hurricane. I would pass this way and the storm started up, pass that way, unleash a gale. Finally she approached me and said very gently, very sweetly, in a most unassuming way, No, dont go there, dont go! Dont try to return to your home. They have set up a dreadful hurricane! And artificial: there were explosions like bombs everywhere, and even worse, like thunderbolts. One could see the artificial tricks and electrical effects they were using to create their thunder, but it was on a tremendous scale!
--
Oh, I felt it! It was very violent. It came down on me three times and I told myself, Hmm, someone is cleaning out! It felt like something was being removed from me that shouldnt be there. But the third time I doubted it was you because it became so violent, particularly around the abdomen, like something being torn out of me. Strange. Vibrations, nothing but vibrations very, very violent.
For me it was in the head (not last night but over the past few days), when I was trying to do my japaoh, it was as though my head would burst! All the nerves were not just tense (Mother touches the nape of her neck), but cramped. And my head felt as if boiling oil were being poured inside it; it was about to explode, and I couldnt see clearly.
--
You see, personal surrender and devotion is an excellent solution for the individual, but it doesnt work for the collectivity. For example, as soon as I am alone and lying on my bedpeace! (Ah, I forgot! They had invented yet another thing: making my heartbeats irregular. Every three or four beats it would stop; then it would start up again, pounding as if I had been struck. Three, four beats, a faint little beat, then stop then, bang! Blow after blow. One more of their extraordinary inventions!) But, as soon as I stretch out and make a total surrender of all the cellsno more activity, nothingeverything goes well. But I am well aware that this surrender has an effect on the action only to the extent that the Supreme Lord has decided upon the action, and those movements stretch over long periods of time5: all sorts of things may happen before the final Victory is won. because, for us, the scale is very small; even if it were of terrestrial proportions, it would be a very small scale; but on a universal scale. These forces have their place and their action, their universe, and as long as their place and their action are maintained, they will be here. So before their action can be exhausted or become useless, many things can happen.
Individually, however, there is almost instantaneous bliss. But this is not a true solution its a solution in the long run, by repercussion. To have true comm and here in this world, all of that must be mastered.
--
Later, on the 27th, Mother remarked: 'I was reading about this very thing yesterday in The Secret of the Veda, in the first hymn translated by Sri Aurobindo (the reference is to the colloquy between Indra and Agastya, Rig Veda I.170cf. The Secret of the Veda, Cent. Ed., X.241 ff.), and it helped me put my finger on the problem. In this hymn there is a dispute between Indra and the Rishi because the Rishi wants to progress too quickly without first passing through Indra [the god of the Mind], and Indra stops him; finally they reach an agreement. Sri Aurobindo's commentary is quite interesting: when one has the INDIVIDUAL power to go directly, but neglects the steps which are still necessary for the whole, for the universal movement, then one is stopped short. That is absolutely my experience.'
***
0 1961-01-24, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I must say that after this, when I read The Secret of the Veda as I do each evening. In fact, I am in very close contact with the entire Vedic world since Ive been reading that book: I see beings, hear phrases. It comes up in a sort of subliminal consciousness, a lot of things are from the ancient Vedic tradition. (By the way, I have even come to see that the pink marble bathtub I told you about last time, which Nature had offered me, belongs to the Vedic world, to a civilization of that epoch.3) There werethere are alwaysSanskrit words coming up, sentences, bits of dialogue. This is of interest, because I realized that what I had seen the other day (I told you about it) and then what I saw yesterday that whole domainwas connected to what the Vedas call the dasyus the panis and the dasyus4the enemies of the Light. And this Force that came was very clearly a power like Indras5 (though something far, far greater), and at war with darkness everywhere, like this (Mother sketches in space a whirling force touching points here and there throughout the world), this Force attacked all darkness: ideas, people, movements, events, whatever made stains, patches of shadow. And it kept on going, a formidable power, so great that my hands were like this (Mother clenches her fists). Later when I read (I happened to be reading just the chapter concerning the fight against the dasyus), this proximity to my own experience became interesting, for it was not at all intellectual or mental there was no idea, no thought involved.
The remainder of the evening passed as usual. I went to bed, and at exactly a quarter to twelve I got up with the feeling that this presence in me had increased even further and really become rather formidable. I had to instill a great deal of peace and confidence into my body, which felt as though it wasnt so easy to bear. So I concentrated, I told my body to be calm and to let itself go completely.
At midnight I was lying in bed. (And I remained there from midnight until I oclock fully awake. I dont know if my eyes were open or closed, but I was wide awake, NOT IN TRANCEI could hear all the noises, the clocks, and so forth.) Then, lying flat, my entire body (but a slightly enlarged body, exceeding the purely physical form) became ONE vibration, extremely rapid and intense but immobile. I dont know how to explain this, because it did not move in space but was a vibration (that is, it wasnt motionless); yet it was motionless in space. And the exact form of my body was absolutely the most brilliant white Light of the supreme Consciousness, the consciousness OF the Supreme. It was IN the body and it was as though in EACH cell there was a vibration, and it was all part of a single BLOCK of vibration. It extended this much beyond the body (gesture indicating about six centimeters). I was absolutely immobile in my bed. Then, WITHOUT MOVING, without shifting, it began consciously to rise upwithout moving, you understand: I remained like this (Mother holds her two joined and motionless hands at the level of her forehead, as if her entire body were mounting in prayer)consciously like an ascension of this consciousness6 towards the supreme Consciousness.
The body was stretched out flat.
--
It remained like that for a certain time (I knew it was a quarter of an hour because the clock chimed), but it was completely outside time. It was an eternity.
Then, with the same precision, the same calm, the same deliberate, clear and concentrated consciousness (absolutely NOTHING MENTAL), I began to come back down. And as I was descending, I realized that all the difficulty I had been fighting the other day and which had created this illness was absolutely ended, ANNULLEDmastered. Actually, it was not even mastery but the non-existence of anything to be mastered: Simply THE vibration from top to bottom; yet there was neither high nor low nor any direction.
--
I came out of this trance two hours later, at 3 a.m. And during these two hours I saw with a new consciousness, a new vision, and above all a NEW POWERI had a vision of the entire Work: all the people, all the things, all the systems, all of it. And it was it was different in appearance (this is only because appearances depend upon the needs of the moment), but mainly it differed IN POWERA considerable difference. Considerable. The power itself was no longer the same.9
A truly ESSENTIAL change in the body has occurred.
--
Does a servant come to your house? No one is sick in his family? because what happens is that they dont want to lose their jobs or their salary, so they dont warn you. They may have smallpox or measles or chickenpox and they dont take the slightest care to wash or change their clothes; they come to your house and of course they bring along the disease. So the number of cases keeps multiplying and multiplying. I have been meaning to tell Pavitra to be careful of that little character who works for himeven ordinarily I dont like to see him running around here. Its strange how it sullies the atmosphereoh, you cant imagine! Almost all of them, almost all!
Its not at all the same as in the West, in Europe or America, not at all. Basically, the people in those countries are made of the same stuff as we are. But here thats not the case, because for centuries it never changeda Brahmin, for example, always remained a Brahmin, a Kshatria was always a Kshatria and all his servants were Kshatrias. It stayed in the family, in the sense that in each caste the servantsoften poor relativesbe longed to that same caste. From a social standpoint this might not have been too pleasant, but as far as atmosphere was concerned, it was very good. This was changed, however, first by the Muslim invasion, and then especially by the British.
The British, you see, were served only by pariahs (in fact, its we Europeans who named them that!). But they were not actually pariahs by birth, they became pariahs out of HABIT.
I have studied the problem very closely, because when you come from Europe you bring all your European ideas with you and you dont know or understand a thing about the way it really is. I immediately came into contact with Brahmin servants and pariah servants, but I didnt know that some were Brahmins and others pariahs, nobody had told me anything; it depended upon the people I was with and the places I went. But the contact, the atmosphere (gesture of fingering the air). You know, I didnt even need to touch them physically! There was such a difference that I asked Sri Aurobindo, But what is it? So he explained the whole thing to me.
You see, originally these pariahs were people who took their delight (their pleasure) in filth and falsehood, in crime, in violence and robberyit was a joy for them. They had castes among themselves; there is still a caste of brigands nearby I once went to their village to have a lookpeople who always keep a dagger on them, they love to play with daggers. They stea l not so much out of need as out of pleasure. And dirty-they abhor cleanliness! And they will lie even if they have to contradict themselves fifteen minutes later, for the sheer delight of lying.
--
We think these people are the way they are because the environment is bad, the education is poor, the conditions are difficultits not true! In the universal economy of things they REPRESENT something, a certain type of force and vibration. It will have to be either dissolved or transformed. Transformed? But perhaps that is. It may disappear along with the hostile forces. Perhaps once everything has been transformed it will disappear I dont know when.
In any case, I really tried my best, with all the power I had, all the knowledge I had, because I liked this girl a lot, it wasnt at all a question of charity, I found her very interesting. But I watchedwith a kind of horror, reallyas this past repossessed her more and more, more and more each day, until we were finally obliged to dismiss her, to tell her, Go. Yes, I understand, she replied, I cant stay here.
She lived in France from the age of thirteen, with all that those people did for her! (It was Ambroise Thomas, I remember now. They were so kind to her.) And naturally she had picked up very fine manners the outer appearances were all there.
0 1961-01-27, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
They are only too eager to believe that God can get angry with them! I try to dispel this notion as much as I can, because its not trueit isnt true.
(long silence)
--
It was about the Word, the primal sound. Sri Aurobindo speaks of it in Savitri: the essence of the Word and how it will express itself, how it will bring in the possibility of a supramental expression that will take the place of languages. I began by speaking to him about the different languages, their limitations and possibilities; and I warned him against the deformations imposed on languages with the idea of making them a more flexible means of expressing something else. I told him how completely ridiculous it all was, and that it didnt correspond at all to the truth. Then little by little I began ascending to the Origin. So yesterday again, I had this same experience: a whole world of knowledge, of consciousness and of CERTAINTYprecluding the least possibility of contradiction, discussion, or opposition; the possibility DOES NOT EXIST, it doesnt exist. And the mind was absolutely silent and immobile, listening with obvious pleasure because these things had never before come into my consciousness; I had never been concerned with them in that way. It was completely newnot new in principle but completely new in action.
The experiences are multiplying.
0 1961-01-29, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Oh, yes, thats best. because one must absolutely beware. But as I said, with her I have no objection.
***
0 1961-01-31, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Suffering also comes through the physical mind, because if this entity is calmed down, we no longer sufferexactly what happened to me!
The physical mind, you see, makes use of the nervous substance; if we withdraw it from the nervous substance, we no longer feel anything, for thats what gives us the perception of sensation. We know something is wrong, but we no longer suffer from it.
--
This ought to be noted down, because its important. It has seemed all the more important to me these last two days. Beginning yesterday evening, there was a whole series of experiences, and this morning I came to a certain conclusion, whose starting point, I realized, was that experience I had upon coming out of trance.
The rest will come later.
It was the very moment I was coming out of the trance, at 3 a.m.I came out of it with that1; it was the first contact. I had forgotten to mention this to you because it took on importance only very recently.
***
--
Ah, yes! (How to explain?) On the 21st, these photos could still have created a kind of difficulty in Xs consciousness (a semiconscious difficulty) because of all the obstacles, all the contradictions, all that was coming to put up a figh the is very sensitive to these things and I didnt want to put him in contact with that realm. Later, though they had been given a good thump on the head (Mother abruptly bangs down both hands) and were keeping still. Then I said, All right, now you can send them.
I always avoid putting him in contact with the realm of conflicts and contradictions because he is extremely sensitive and it causes him difficulties. Thats why I said, No, dont bother. Afterwards, it was fine!
(silence)
--
A few days ago I had an experience related to this. For some time I had been unable to work because I was unwell and my eyes were very tired. And two or three days ago, when I resumed the translation, I suddenly realized that I was seeing it quite differently! Something had happened during those days (how to put it?) the position of the translation work in relation to the text was different. My last sentence was all I had with me, because I file my papers as I go along, so I went back to it along with the corresponding English sentence. Oh, look! I said, Thats how it goes! And I made all the corrections quite spontaneously. The position really seemed different.
Its not yet perfect, its still being worked on, but when I read it over, I saw that I had truly gone beyond the stage where one tries to find a correspondence with what one reads, an appropriate expression sufficiently close to the original text (thats the state I was in before). Now its not like that anymore! The translation seems to come spontaneously: that is English, this is French sometimes very different, sometimes very close. It was rather interesting, for you know that Sri Aurobindo was strongly drawn to the structure of the French language (he used to say that it created a far better, far clearer and far more forceful English than the Saxon structure), and often, while writing in English, he quite spontaneously used the French syntax. When its like that, the translation adapts naturallyyou get the impression that it was almost written in French. But when the structure is Saxon, what used to happen is that a French equivalent would come to me; but now its almost as if something were directing: That is English, this is French.
--
Ye es but its because we are still too bound up in the outermost form of things. You cant imagine the difference this makes! One does the SAME thing in exactly the same way, the motion is identical, but in one case it takes time, while in the other case it doesnt.
I have experienced this very concretely. In the mornings, for instance, I have a very short time, very limited and very fixed, to get to the balcony for darshan, and there are a number of completely material things I must do beforehand. Its quite natural to feel that time must always be the same but its not true. Its not trueeven I am astonished!
0 1961-02-04, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And interestingly enough, its smell is fantastically attractive to snakes; it makes them come from far away to nest in the shrubs. And as you know, the serpent is the power of evolution, it is Shivas own creature; he always puts them on his head and around his neck because they symbolize the power of evolution and transformation. And snakes like this flower; it often grows near rivers, and wherever there is a cluster of the plants you are sure to discover snake nests.
I find this very interesting, for WE didnt decide it should be like this: these are conscious vibrations in Nature. The fragrance, the color, the shape, are simply the spontaneous expressions of a true movement.
--
Then after these two incidents, I received a visit one night from the King of Serpents. He was wearing a superb crown on his headsymbolic, of course, but anyway, he was the spirit of the species. He had the appearance of a cobra, and he was wonderful! A formidable beast, and wonderful! He said he had come to make a pact with me: I had demonstrated my power over his species, so he wanted to come to an understanding. All right, I said, what do you propose? I not only promise that serpents wont harm you, he replied, but that they will obey you. But you must promise me something in return: never to kill one of them. I thought it over and said, No, I cant make this promise, because if ever one of yours attacks one of mine (a being that depends upon me), my pact with you could not stop me from protecting him. I can assure you that I have no bad feelings and no intention of killingkilling is not on my program! But I cant commit myself, because it would restrict my freedom of decision. He left without replying, so it remains status quo.
I have had several experiences demonstrating my power over snakes (not so much as over catswith cats its extraordinary!). Long ago, I often used to take a drive and then stop somewhere for a walk. One day after my walk, as I was getting back into the car to drive away (the door was still open), a very large snake came out, right from the spot I had just left. He was furious and heading straight towards the open door, ready to strike (luckily I was alone, neither the driver nor Pavitra were there, otherwise). When the snake had come quite near, I looked at him closely and said, What do you want? Why have you come here? There was a pause. Then he fell down flat and off he went. I hadnt made a move, only asked him, What do you want? Why have you come here? You know, they have a way of suddenly falling back, going limp, and prrt! Gone!
--
And do you know how he received me when I arrived there? It was the first time in my life I had traveled alone and the first time I had crossed the Mediterranean. Then there was a fairly long train ride between Oran and Tlemcenanyway, I managed rather well: I got there. He met me at the station and we set off for his place by car (it was rather far away). Finally we reached his estatea wonder! It spread across the hillside overlooking the whole valley of Tlemcen. We arrived from below and had to climb up some wide pathways. I said nothingit was truly an experience from a material standpoint. When we came in sight of the house, he stopped: Thats my house. It was red! Painted red! And he added, When Barley came here, he asked me, Why did you paint your house red? (Barley was a French occultist who put Theon in touch with France and was his first disciple.) There was a mischievous gleam in Theons eyes and he smiled sardonically: I told Barley, because red goes well with green! With that, I began to understand the gentleman. We continued on our way uphill when suddenly, without warning, he spun around, planted himself in front of me, and said, Now you are at my mercy. Arent you afraid? Just like that. So I looked at him, smiled and replied, Im never afraid. I have the Divine here. (Mother touches her heart.)
Well, he really went pale.
--
because it is all here, it just hasnt been brought to the surface.
So, its time to go and we still havent workedonce again Ive been talking away! Dont bother noting it all down; Ive told it just for you, for your personal entertainment!
--
No. Besides, there are things. There are things I dont want to speak of because (and I havent said them, either) because, after all, he taught me a lot.
(long silence)
--
Sometimes I am a little troubled because I dont feel I am advancing much or having any experiences. Nothing seems to be happening. Its rather discouraging and at times I wonder why
Lately, the nights are being spent in a subconscious realm that absolutely must be clarified; its precisely the realm where one feels helpless, foolish, ignorant, utterly unprogressive, bound up in all sorts of stupidities. It all must be clarified.
0 1961-02-07, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You ask me what you must do. It would be better to ask what you must be, because the circumstances and activities in life have not much importance. What is important is our way of reacting towards them.
This is where it begins.
--
The other is to find something worth concentrating upon that diverts your attention from your small, personal self. The most effective is a big ideal, but there are innumerable things that enter into this category. Most commonly, people choose marriage, because it is the most easily available (Mother laughs). To love somebody and to love children makes you busy and compels you to forget your own self a little. But it is rarely successful, because love is not a common thing.
Others turn to art, others to science; some choose a social or a political life, etc., etc.
But here also, all depends on the sincerity and the endurance with which the chosen path is followed. because here also, there are difficulties and obstacles to surmount.
So, in life, nothing comes without an effort and a struggle.
--
Those who try to lead a spiritual life have always been compared to warriors (there are classic writings on this subject), and one must truly be a fighterfighter is more exact than warrior because you wage war against no one: everything wages war against you! Everything (Mother makes a gesture like an avalanche falling upon her) and with such savage opposition!
Ah, well.
0 1961-02-11, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
For Sri Aurobindo, the important thing was always the Mother. As he explained it, the Mother has several aspects, and certain aspects are still unmanifest. So if he has represented the Mother by Kali in particular, I believe its in relation to all those gods. because, as he wrote in The Mother, the aspects to be manifested depend upon the time, the need, the thing to be done. And he always said that unless one understands and profoundly feels the aspect of Kali, one can never really participate in the Work in the worldhe felt that a sort of timid weakness makes people recoil before this terrible aspect.
***
--
All right because its always all right! But.
Well, it doesnt matter
--
Last night I had a dream about you that made a vivid impression on me. Its probably absurd, but it was so real! You had called me because you were going to leave your body: you had decided to leave and you wanted somehow to say good-bye. It was so real! I came to you and for a moment you placed my head on your knees, and I was filled with light; it was very tender. But at the same time, I knew you were saying good-bye, you were going to leave your body, and I wept in my dream. Then I went to sit in a corner because there were other people who probably had come to see you as well. I remained in that corner, strickenit seemed so real, you understand! Just then, aman I didnt know entered the room (I knew he was French), a stranger dressed all in black, and he started making a loud commotion. He was smoking a pipe,2 a very coarse man, and he wanted to make all the people there, the disciples, get out of the room .3 It was so real! I awoke with a start and almost cried aloud, Ah, its a dream! Its only a dream!
Oh, it was that real!
--
I have asked to be forewarned, not for reasons of. It can happen any time at all, I am always ready. I can do nothing more for the work than what I am doing now, and I havent a single practical measure to take because I have already taken them all. So that isnt why, but to AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE to withdraw from the body all that has been put into it. There is such an accumulation inside it of force, consciousness, power, oh! All the cells are impregnated and it would take some time if it all had to be taken out.
But I have had no indication of this, neither by night nor by day, neither awake nor in tranceno indication. The indication rather points to all that must be clarified, purified so the physical may keep what it received from that experience [of January 24, 1961].
From an ordinary standpoint, I believe the situation is dangerous, because (laughing) the doctor refuses to tell me what the consequences might be. I asked him but he wouldnt tell me, so thats what it must mean! But I really have no indications and I hope I wont be told, Now you must go, only at the very last minute!
The body doesnt ask (its so docile), it doesnt even ask for its sufferings to stopit adapts to them. Its mainly my contact with people that makes the thing difficult: when I am all alone upstairs, everything goes well, quite well. But when I spend one or one and a half hours in the afternoon seeing people, afterwards I feel exhausted. That, obviously, is whats making the thing difficult. But the body doesnt complain. It doesnt complain, its ready. The other day when it went back upstairs, it felt a bitwell, at the end of its resources, as though it had pushed itself to the limit. It said to the Lord (and it said this so clearly, as though the consciousness of the cells were speaking; I noted it down): If this (I cant call it an illness there is no illness! Its a condition of general disequilibrium), if this condition is necessary for Your Work, then so be it, let it go on. But if its an effect of my stupidity (you see, its the BODY saying, If its because I dont understand or I am not adapting or not doing what I should or not taking the proper attitude), if it is an effect of my stupidity, then truly I pray that. It asks only to changeto know and to change!
It is attached to nothing: none of its habits, none of its ways of being-nothing. It says in all sincerity, I ask only for the Light, only to change. That is its state. it has never, never said, Oh, Im tired, Ive had enough! Bah! Its not like that. It is attached to nothing for a long, long time it has ceased to have desiresit is attached to nothing at all, to nothing. There isnt a single thing for which it says, Oh, I cant do without that! Not one. It doesnt care-if something comes, it takes it; if it doesnt come, the body doesnt think about it. In other words, its truly good-natured. But if this isnt sufficient, then it doesnt know and it says, If there is something I cant do or I dont know or I am not doing It asks for nothing more than to make the necessary effort!
--
It all began with some extremely violent attacks. So if your dream is not premonitory, then it must be the result of their formation, by which they intend to disseminate the conviction everywhere, as much as possible, that this is the end. Two years ago, when I had to retire to my room, a formidable campaign was set into operation upon all the Ashram people; and all those who were a little receptive, either in dreams or through an openness to suggestions, heard it clearly announced: On the 9th of December of this year [1958], Mother will leave. Theres no doubt about it, its sure. It was said to me as well: This will be the end, you will leave. It was repeated to everybody, everybody, a great many people heard itthey were virtually awaiting it. And this is why (you know how extremely ill I was at the time, I was really ill), this is why I didnt react, but all the same I didnt go to the lake [the lake estate where Mother was to have gone on the 9th of December], because I told myself, If anything happens there, it will be awkward I had better not go. But still I knew it wasnt true, I knew it.
Now this kind of attack has stopped, it is no longer like that. But there are beings who send dreams. For example, some dreams were sent to Z (who, as you know, is quite clairvoyant), in which she was told I would be broken to pieces. She was very upset and I had to intervene. Is your dream of this nature, or are you being forewarned? I dont know, I cant say. If the doctor were asked, perhaps he would say that if it continues like this, obviously (you see, one thing after another is getting disorganized), if it continues in this way, how long can the body last?
But this body feels so strongly that it exists ONLY because the divine Power is in it. And constantly, for the least thing, it has only one remedy (it doesnt think of resting, of not doing this or that, of taking medicine), its sole remedy is to call and call the Supremeit goes on repeating its mantra. And as soon as it quietly repeats its mantra, it is perfectly content. Perfectly content.
(silence)
Two nights ago, I saw a formation of illness over the entire Ashram, a kind of adverse formation trying to prevent me from leaving my room, and I had to hide to get out, leave clandestinely. Oh, what a terrible atmosphere, so heavy, so grayeverybody was ill. And this formation had some actual effects because many people fell ill who normally never do. It is an adverse formation and theres no reason to concede its victory; its simply a force which doesnt want us to succeed, of courseso we need not pay attention.
The trouble is, if I were thirty or forty years old, people wouldnt be affected. But unfortunately they think about how old I am all the time and it creates a bad atmosphere. After all, they keep saying, Mother is old and. All the usual nonsense.
--
There was one bizarre little detail: someone told me you were leaving because you had swallowed something I understood it to be a grain of rice and that was why you had to leave! You had swallowed something and that was making you leave.
(After a long silence) This would rather indicate those who disapprove of my non-asceticism. It would seem to originate from those particular forces.
You see, theres a curious fluctuation possibly indicating that your dream is part of the present attack which continues with such violence. The night before last, between midnight and half-past, there was a formidable attack. When I emerged from it, I felt that something had lifted, a victory had been won and that the bodys condition had improved. It happens like that, the horizon clears and this Certainty comes with. (The presence is always hereSri Aurobindo and I are together almost every night but the night when I saw that formation, the illness spell over the Ashram, Sri Aurobindo was quite sick in his bed, just as I saw him in 1950.) So when it lifts, all is well: once again there is harmony, there is joy, there is force and again the whole thing continues, the effort continues, consciously. Yet there is a kind of fluctuation: it will go on like that for a few moments or a few hours and then suddenly everything becomes muddled again and I am beset by a fatigue. A fatigue which is I cant say almost unbearable, because nothing in the consciousness feels it to be unbearable but it makes me like this (Mother clenches her fist tightly in a tension to hold on).
For example, at five-thirty in the evening, after Ive spent an hour and a half here with people, its a labor to climb the stairs; and by the time I get upstairs, I feel strained to the breaking point. Then I begin to walk (I dont stop, I dont rest), I immediately begin to walk with my japa, and within half an hour, pfft! it has lifted.
--
This detachment, as I told you, came afterwards (it was evidently indispensable); and as soon as it came, everything began to get disorganized. Well, the detachment must surely have come so that. Actually, my immediate impression was: so that I wouldnt get worried and say to myself, Oh, now it wont work any morethis is the end. So I wouldnt worry. All right, I said, dont bother with it.(gesture of surrender, hands opened upwards) And for the first two or three days I was absolutely detached, watching and not bothering about it. Its only with this last attack on my legs. because the rest of it tired me and made me ill but it didnt hinder my work; but things become difficult when the legs dont function.
We shall see, mon petit! Well see whats going to happen (Mother laughs).
But I have no doubts about that! It just came to menot because I was consciously concerned about Your physical future: this dream simply came so unexpectedly and vividly.
No, no I know that! I tell you, it can only be one of two things: either a good kick from the Enemy who is still trying to find a support in someones mentality, or else premonitory.
--
Otherwise, concentration is very good, it doesnt tire mewhen my body is not drained, when it isnt constantly aware that it exists because it hurts here, hurts there, aches here, aches there (pain is what gives it a sense of existing), when the body is able to forget itself, things go well, its nothing. Now the Force passes through me without causing fatigue, while many years ago, too much Force created tension; but its not like that now, not at allon the contrary, the body feels better when a lot of force has passed through it.
I dont know. We shall see.
--
This particular period was very bad last year too.6 There was a tremendous opposition because of February 29th [first anniversary of the supramental manifestation]. But always a little before Darshans7 or days for special blessings there is a new outbreak of adverse attacksalways.
Well, mon petit, we have done nothing but talk. Its time to go and we havent done anything!
--
Thats how it works. because all substance is ONE. All is onewe constantly forget that! We always have a sense of separation, and that is total, total falsehood; its because we rely on what our eyes see, on (Mother touches her hands and arms, as if to indicate a separate body, cut off from other bodies). That is truly Falsehood. As soon as your consciousness changes a little, you realize that what we see is like an image plastered over something. But its not true, NOT TRUE AT ALL. Even in the most material Matter, even a stoneeven in a stoneas soon as ones consciousness changes, all this separation, all this division, completely vanishes. These are (how to put it?) modes of concentration (something akin to yet not quite that), vibratory modes WITHIN THE SAME THING.8
(The clock strikes) Oh, now I must go!
--
In any case, one thing: never forget that what we have to do, we shall do; and we shall do it together because we have to do it together, that is alllike this, like that, in this way, in that way (Mother tilts her hand from right to left as though to indicate this side of the world or the other, life or death), it has no importance. But this is the true fact.
There, petit.
0 1961-02-18, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I hope you arent noting down all these unpleasant things Im saying, because its really not encouraging.
It isnt encouraging, but its relevant. Its part of the battle.
--
It is something which has not come to fruition because the time for it has not come; but what is done is done. It is not a defeat: what is gained is gained.
But I dont at all believe it wont bear fruita fruition is inevitable!
--
I tell you this because just now as we were speaking about the book and you were saying it would come all at once in a single flow, I saw a kind of globe, like a suna sun shedding a twinkling dust of incandescent light (the sun was moving forward and this dust came twinkling in front of it), like this (gesture). It came towards you, then made a circle around you as if to say, Here is the formation. It was magnificent! There was a creative warmth in it, a warmth like the sunsa power of Truth. And here again, I was given the same impression: that what Sri Aurobindo has come to bring is not a teaching, not even a revelation, but a FORMIDABLE action coming direct from the Supreme.
It is something pouring over the world.
--
If the experience remained permanently, it would be something very close to omnipotence. I felt at the time that there was no such thing as an impossibility: it was truly the sensation of omnipotence. It is not omnipotence, because there is always a greater Omnipotence (one knows this only in the higher realms). But in terms of the material world, it was clearly something very, very different from all that has ever been seen or heard or told by all extant traditionsit all seems like the babbling of a child in comparison. At that moment itself there was only the Something which sees, decidesand it is done.
(silence)
--
I want you to have enough time to write your book, because I feel that Sri Aurobindo is interested in it the sun that came a while ago was from him. I feel he is interested and confident you can do it.
What have you reread?
--
And part of The Secret of the Veda, as well as two other things because they contain many of Sri Aurobindos letters: I re-read Zs book on Sri Aurobindo, since there are many letters in it, and.
Yes, only unfortunately he has tampered with it.
--
Sri Aurobindo had made certain statements about me in those letters, and Z deleted them. (Anyway, it makes no difference for your book, because Im not at all keen on having any statements about me published.)
But Z is not honest. He hasnt been honest at all. We were forced to intervene once or twice because his deletions distorted the meaning. We finally told him (for the book published here), We wont publish it unless you restore these things.
(silence)
0 1961-02-25, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You can easily make a speech using flowers and I have noticed that this can effectively replace the old Vedic images, for instance, which no longer hold meaning for us, or the ambiguous phraseology of the ancient initiations. Flower language is much better because it contains the Force and is extremely plasticsince its not formulated in words, each one is free to arrange and receive it according to his own capacity. You can make long speeches using flowers!
I have nothing more to say now, except that the same situation prevails.
--
The second sign is a sense of ABSOLUTENESS in knowledge. As I have already told you, I had this with my experience of January 24. This state CANNOT be obtained through any region of the mind, even the most illumined and exalted. Its not a certainty, its (Mother lowers both hands like an irresistible block descending), a kind of absoluteness, without even any possibility of hesitation (theres no question of doubt), or anything like that. Without (how to say it ?). All mental knowledge, even the highest, is a conclusive knowledge, as it were: it comes as a conclusion of something elsean intuition, for instance (an intuition gives you a particular knowledge, and this knowledge is like the conclusion of the intuition). Even revelations are conclusions. Theyre all conclusions the word conclusion comes to me, but I dont know how to express it. This isnt the case, however, with the supramental experiencea kind of absolute. The feeling it gives is altogether uniquefar beyond certainty, it is (Mother again makes the same irresistible gesture) it is a FACT, things are FACTS. It is very, very difficult to explain. But with that one naturally has a complete power the two things always go together. (In my reply to this man I didnt speak of power because the power is almost a consequence and I didnt want to speak of consequences.) But the fact remains: a kind of absoluteness in knowledge springing from identityone is the thing one knows and experiences: one is it. One knows it because one is it.
When these two signs are present (both are necessary, one is incomplete without the other), when a person possesses both, then you can be sure he has been in contact with the Supermind. So people who speak about receiving the Light well, (laughing) its a lot of hot air! But when both signs are present, you can be sure of your perception.12
--
Obviously, the body needed a test, a VERY SEVERE test, because from a personal viewpoint, its the only explanation I can find for all these disorders. There are many explanations from a general viewpoint, but. Anyway, I will know the day I am toldall these imaginings are useless. But from a personal viewpoint. You see, for a long time (more than a year now, probably almost two), this body hasnt felt its limits.14 It is not at all its former self; it is scarcely more than a concentration now, a kind of agglomeration of something; it is not a body in a skinnot at all. Its a sort of agglomeration, a concentration of vibrations. And even what is normally called illness (but it is not illness, these are not illnesses, they are functional disorders), even these functional disorders dont have the same meaning for the body as they have for the doctor, for instance, or for ordinary people. Its not like that, the body doesnt feel it like that. It feels it rather as as a kind of difficulty in adjusting to some new vibratory need.
(silence)
--
Now the body has a kind of extraordinary smile for everything. At the end of the day, with the accumulation of everything coming from the people I have seen and the work I have done, when I have to push and pull myself just to climb the stairs because my legs are like iron rods, without any will (thats the most terrible part: they dont respond to the will), even at times like these, when my arms are what pull me up the stairs (no longer my legs), the body doesnt protest, doesnt protest. Then it begins walking back and forth for japa. And after half an hour of walking, things are infinitely better (Mother makes a gesture of the Force descending into her body).
(silence)
But the body itself doesnt know why this is happening. And in fact, it finds it unnecessary to try: its like that because its like that. And were it called upon, it would say, Very well, when conditions ought to be otherwise, they will be otherwise. Thats exactly its position.
(silence)
--
Almost (I say almost because the body hasnt had every experience), but almost all pains can be reduced to something absolutely negligible. (Of course, some pains it hasnt had, but it has had a sufficient number!) Its this anxiety resulting from a semi-mental vibration (the first stirrings of Mind) that complicates everything, everything! For example, take this difficulty I mentioned of climbing the stairs: in the doctors consciousness or anyone elses, pain causes it. According to their ordinary reasoning, pain is what tenses the nerves and muscles so one can no longer walk but this is absolutely FALSE. Pain does not prevent my body from doing anything at all. Pain isnt a factor, or rather its a factor that can be easily dealt with. Its not that: it is Matter; Matter (probably cellular matter, or) losing its capacity to respond to the will, to will-power. But why? I dont know! It depends upon the particular disorganization; but why is it like that? I dont know. Now each time I climb the stairs, I am trying to find the means of infusing Will in such a way that this lack of response doesnt last but I still havent found it. Although theres all this accumulated force and power and will (a tremendous accumulation, I am BATHED in it, the whole body is bathed in it!), yet for some reason it doesnt respond. Here and there, groups of cells fail to respond, and the Force cannot act. So what must be found is.
(silence)
--
Are these disorders necessary for it to become like that? I have my doubts. I have my doubts. But the question cant even be asked, because what it implies seems to verge on a fatalism having no truth in itselfit is not a fatalism, not at all. What is it? Something that defies expression.
(silence)
0 1961-03-04, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I used to send him around to the various centers ( because he had to do something!), and he would visit, speak to people I dont know about what. And during one of his trips to Delhi he happened to meet Z, who had been sent by the government of India to the Soviet Union, where it seems he delivered an extraordinary speech (it must have been extraordinary, because I have been receiving letters from everywhere, including America, asking for the text of this sensational speech in which he apparently spoke of human unity). So Z returned with the idea of forming a World Union, and J. and Z met. Furthermore, they were encouraged by S.M.7 and even by the Prime Minister,8 who probably had a special liking for Z and had given him a lot of encouragement. Thats how things began.
I treated it as something altogether secondary and unimportantwhen people need to gallop, I let them gallop (but I hadnt met Z). Then J. and Z left together on a speaking-tour of Africa and there things began to go sour, because Z was working in one way and J. in another. Finally, they were at odds and came back here to tell me, World Union is off to a good startwith a quarrel! (Mother laughs) Z was saying, Nothing can be done unless we base ourselves EXCLUSIVELY on the teaching of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and they are behind us giving support. And J. said, No, no! We are not sectarian! We accept all ideas, all theories, etc. I replied, and as it happens, I said that Z was right, though with one corrective: he had been saying that people had to recognize us as their guru. No, I said, its absolutely uselessnot only useless, I refuse. I dont want to be anybodys guru. People should simply be told that things are to be done on the basis of Sri Aurobindos thought.9
So they kept pulling in opposing directions. Eventually they tried to set something up (which still didnt hold together), and finally they wrote me a little more clearly. (There is one very nice man involved, Y. He isnt particularly intellectual but has a lot of common sense and a very faithful hearta very good man.) Y asked me some direct questions, without beating around the bush, and I replied directly: World Union is an entirely superficial thing, without any depth, based on the fact that Sri Aurobindo said the masses must be helped to follow the progress of the elitewell, let them go ahead! If they enjoy it, let them go right ahead! I didnt say it exactly like that (I was a bit more polite!), but that was the gist of it.
--
For example, theres someone here, Mridou (you know her, shes as round as a barrel11), who gossips to everybody. She had quite a clientele for a long time because she used to make Indian sweets and the Europeans went to her place for snacks. She is a woman who, when there isnt any gossip, invents it! She tells all the dirt imaginable to all her visitorsa fact which was brought to my attention. I recall that a long time ago Sir Akbar from Hyderabad warned me, You know, shes the second Mother of the Ashram, be careful! Its a good test, I replied, people who dont immediately sense what it is arent worthy of coming here!
Well, with J. its the samefrom an intellectual viewpoint, its the very same thing: if people are taken in by what he says, it means theyre not ready AT ALL.
--
Im going to send this to V, asking her innocently, Has this appeared in your journal? because it would be better if it didnt: we dont make propaganda. Oh, I am hard on them, you know!
But it doesnt matter, we must always keep smiling, mon petit. In the end, good always comes out of such thingsits a sorting-out! A splendid, splendid sifter!
--
I told them. because at World Union they asked me what their mistake had been (they didnt state it so candidly, but in a roundabout way), and I replied (not so candidly, eithernot exactly in a roundabout way, but in general terms). I told them their mistake was being unfaithful and I explained that to be unfaithful means to put everything on the same level (thats when I sent them those lines12). I told them, Your error was in saying: One teaching among many teachingsso let us be broad-minded and accept all teachings. So along with all the teachings, you accept every stupidity possible.
But if someone is taken in, it proves hes at an elementary stage and unready.
--
Each one of us must learn his lesson thats a different matter. WE are not perfectly all right because we can be bettercircumstances are simply the outgrowth of what we are, nothing else. And we neednt worry I never worry myself!
Whats more, I find it so funny! A time comes when all such things seem so childish, so stupid, so meaningless! What difference can it make! As long as people are still at that level, thats where they are. The day they get away from it, they too will smile!
Of course, I have a kind of responsibility because people expect me to organize everything, so I try to put things in their place. Thats why I told them I preferred they didnt hold seminars here, because it appears a bit I didnt say parasitic, but its like (laughing) a toadstool growing on an oak tree!
***
--
This is the text of Mother's reply to J.: 'I have read Z's account and your own letter on this subject. in the faith of his devotion, he must have been quite offended. The truth in what he says is that any idea, WHATEVER its degree of truth, is ineffective if it does not also carry the power acquired through realization, by a real change of consciousness. And if the proponent of this idea does not himself have the realization, he must seek the backing of those who have the power. On the other hand, what you say is true: an idea ought to be accepted on the basis of its inherent truth and not because of the personality expounding it, however great this personality may be. These two truths or aspects of the question are equally true but also equally incomplete: they are not the whole truth. Both of them must be accepted and combined with many other aspects of the question if you want to even begin to approach the dynamic power of the realization. Don't you see how ridiculous this situation is? Three people of goodwill meet in the hope of teaching men the necessity for a "World Union" and they are not even able to keep a tolerant or tolerable union among themselves, because each sees a different angle of the procedure to be followed for implementing their plan.'
Although it began as a fund-raising organization for the needs of the Ashram and Auroville, this 'strictly external thing,' which had 'nothing to do with working for an ideal,' would, after Mother's departure, coolly declare itself the 'owner' and guide of Auroville.
0 1961-03-07, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have brought you a whole discourse! (Mother gives Satprem some flowers) First, the goal of the Vedas: Immortality.1 That was their goal: the Truth that led to Immortality. Immortality was their ambition. I dont think it was physical immortality but I am not sure, because they do speak of the forefa thers and this refers to the initiatory tradition prior to the Vedas as well as the Kabbala, and immortality on earth is spoken of there: the earth transformedSri Aurobindos idea. So although they didnt explicitly state it, perhaps they knew.
(Mother gives more flowers) This one is more on the personal side: Friendship with the Divine2, the friendly relationship you can have with the Divineyou understand each other, you dont fear each other, youre good friends! And this one is a wonder! (Mother gives Divine Love Governing the World3) What strength! Its generous, expansive, without narrowness, pettiness, or limitationswhen that comes.
--
I knew when I caught it: it was at the Playground.4 Certain people poisoned me with a mosquito bite the instant the mosquito bit me, I knew, because it so happens I am a little bit conscious! But I controlled it like this (gesture of holding the disease in abeyance and under control), so it couldnt stir. Probably it would never have stirred if I hadnt had that experience of January 24 and the body didnt need to be made ready. For the body to be ready, a host of things belonging to the dasyus, as the Vedas say, cant be stored inside it! These are very nasty little dasyus (laughing), they have to be chased away!
When the disease came back, I said to myself, Very well, this means it must be dealt with in a new way.
--
No, no, it wasnt by accident, but because.
Mon petit, I dont claim to be totally universal, but in any case I am open enough to receive. You see, given the quantity of material I have taken into my consciousness, its quite natural that the body bears the consequences. There is nothing, not one wrong movement, that my body doesnt feel5; generally, though, things are automatically set in order (gesture indicating that Mother automatically purifies and masters the vibrations coming to her). But there are timesespecially when it coincides with a revolt of adverse forces who dont want to give up their domain and enter into battle with all their mightwhen I must admit its hard. If I had some hours of solitude it would be easier. But particularly during the period of my Playground activities, I was badgered, harassed; I would rush from one thing to the next, one thing to the next, I had no nights to speak ofnights of two and a half or three hours rest, which isnt enough, theres no time to put things in order.
--
Long ago when Sri Aurobindo was still here, I was once bitten by a mosquito that had just come from a leper. He was sitting on the street corner, although I didnt know it at the time (I was in my bathroom, just opposite the corner). Suddenly I was bitten here, on the chin, and I knew IMMEDIATELY: Leprosy! Within a few seconds it became terriblehideous! I did what was necessary at once (as I was in the bathroom, I had what I needed). Then I suddenly got the impulse to go and look out the window there was the leper. And I understood: the mosquito had been kind enough to fly from him to me! But in that instance I was able to check it right away (it lasted three or four days)I say check because they claim leprosy sometimes takes fifteen years to surface, so. But now it has been more than fifteen years (Mother laughs), so its finished!
No, the difference, the great difference, is that when one is conscious, the thing is KNOWN immediately and one can react.
0 1961-03-11, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
When was it? Not last night, but the night before, I was with you; and while I was with you I heard the clock strike. I didnt count, but I told myself, Its 4 oclock! and got out of bed. One hour later I saw that it was 4 a.m.: I had risen at 3, and by then we had been together for quite a long time. I had gone where? I dont know. I was living some place (certainly somewhere in the Mind) and we were together, we had been working together, doing all sorts of things and spending a lot of time together I dont know for how long because time there isnt the same.
Then I had to return here that is, to my home in India, to Sri Aurobindos home: I had to return to Sri Aurobindos home. Pavitra was also working there and he didnt want to let me leave; when he saw me going he came and tried to stop me. You, on the contrary, were helping. Shall I take anything with me or not? I asked myself Oh, I dont need anything, Ill go all alone. That worried you a little because of the journey ahead, and you said, There will be many complications. It doesnt matter! I replied (laughing). But if you only knew how living and concrete it was! The impressions were so there was the feeling of making a long voyageit was a LONG voyage, as if I were crossing the sea (but not physically), a long voyage. I remember setting off (I was with you, you were there) and telling myself, At last hes here! At last I have found a reasonable being who doesnt try to stop me from doing what I must do! I had (laughing mischievously) a very high opinion of you, thats why I am telling you this!
I was abruptly awakened by the clock striking (I didnt count), and my immediate feeling was, Well, he is really very nice! Now theres a good companion!
--
Oh! (Mother notices the flowers in her hands) This is Supramental Beauty,2 this is Supramental Victory and this is the Endurance3 needed to get there and the Promise.4 Then this one is a lily that grows here (Mother looks at it for a long time) and inside I have put Attachment for the Divine5I brought it for you because its so lovely.
What are we working on today? (Mother looks at Sri Aurobindos Aphorisms) Ive already begun replying!
--
The tree of knowledge symbolizes this kind of knowledge a material knowledge, no longer divine because its origin was the sense of division and this is what began to spoil everything. How long did this period last? I am unable to say. ( because my recollection is of an almost immortal life; it seems that it was through some sort of evolutionary accident that the destruction of forms became necessary for progress.) And where did it take place? From certain impressions (but these are only impressions), it would seem that it was in the vicinity of either this side of Ceylon and India or the other, I dont know exactly (Mother indicates the Indian Ocean either west of Ceylon and India or to the east between Ceylon and Java), although certainly the place no longer exists; it must have been swallowed up by the sea. I have a very clear vision of the place and a consciousness of that life and its forms, but I cant give precise material details. Did it last for centuries, was it ? I dont know. To tell the truth, when I was reliving those moments I wasnt curious about such details (for one is in another mental state where there is no curiosity about material details: all things turn into psychological facts). It was something so simple, luminous, harmonious, far removed from all our usual preoccupationsthose very preoccupations with time and space. It was a spontaneous life, extremely beautiful, and so close to Naturea natural flowering of animal life. There were no oppositions or contradictions, nothing of the kindeverything happened in the best way possible.
(silence)
A similar memory has recurred several times under different circumstancesnot exactly the same scene and the same images, because it wasnt something I was seeing but A LIFE I was living. During a certain period, at any time, night or day, I would experience a particular state of trance in which I was rediscovering a life I had lived. I was fully conscious that this life had to do with the first flowering of the human form upon earth, the first human forms able to incarnate the divine being from above. This was the first time I could manifest in a particular terrestrial form (not a general life but an individual form); that is, for the first time, through the mentalization of this material substance, the junction between the higher Being and the lower being was made. I have lived that several times, and always in a similar setting and with quite a similar feeling of such joyous simplicity, without complexity, without problems, without all these questions. It was the blossoming of a joy of lifenothing but that; love and harmony prevailed: flowers, minerals, animals all got along together perfectly.
Things began to go wrong only a LONG time afterwards, long after (but this is a personal impression), probably because certain mental crystallizations were necessary, inevitable, for the general evolution, so that the mind might prepare itself to move on to something else. That was when oh, it seems like a fall into a pitinto ugliness, darkness! Everything became so dark, so ugly, so difficult, so painful. Really really the sense of a fall.
(silence)
Theon used to say it wasnt (how to put it?) inevitable. In the total freedom of the manifestation, this voluntary separation from the Origin is the cause of all the disorder. How to explain it? Words express these things so poorly. We can call it inevitable because it happened! But outside of this creation, a creation can be imagined (or could have been) where this disorder would not have occurred. Sri Aurobindo saw it in approximately the same way: a sort of accident, as it were but an accident allowing the manifestation a far greater and more total perfection than if it had never occurred. But this is all still in the realm of speculation, and useless speculation at that. In any case, the experience, the feeling, is that all at once (Mother makes the gesture of a brutal fall) oh!
For the earth it probably happened like that, all at once: a sort of ascent, then the fall. But the earth is a tiny concentrationuniversally, its something else.
--
A time comes when all these disputesAh, no, this is like this, that is like thatseem so silly, so silly! And there is nothing more comical than this spontaneous reply so many people give: Oh, thats impossible! because with even the most rudimentary intellectual development, you would know you couldnt even think of something if it werent possible!
(silence)
0 1961-03-14, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have been honored with a form of filariasis which occurs perhaps not once in a million cases. The doctor isnt tearing his hair out because thats not his way, but he is perplexed.
Yet the cells sense so perfectly that. All the experiences in the subconscient at night are quite clear proofs that a a WORLD of things and vibrations is being cleaned outall the vibrations opposed to the cellular transformation. But how can one poor little body do all that work! The body is quite aware of being a sort of accumulation and concentration of things (yet there is inevitably a selectionMo ther laughs because if everything had to be worked out in one center like this [her body] it would be it would be impossible!). Oh, if you knew how deeply and perfectly convinced these cells are, in all their groups and sub-groups, each one individually and within the whole, that everything is not only decreed but executed by the Divine, everything! They have a kind of constant awareness so filled with a conscious faith in His infinite wisdom, even when there is what the ordinary consciousness calls suffering or pain. Thats not what it is for the cellsits something else! And the result is a state of yes, a state of peaceful combat. There is a sense of Peace, the vibration of Peace, and simultaneously an impression of being (how to put it?) on the alert, in constant combat. Taken all together it creates a rather odd situation.
--
Then, from time to time, everything seems to be on the edge of a precipice; the body doesnt fall simply because it keeps its balance but without this higher state of perfect faith, one would surely fall!
All together, as a whole, its something so peculiar!1
0 1961-03-17, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Up to that point, all his modes of being are naturally natural! But with the minds intrusion, evolution was, if not falsified, then deformed, because by its very nature the mind was open to perversion and it became perverted almost from the start (or to be more exact, it was perverted by the asuric forces). And what appears unnatural to us now is this state of perversion. At any rate, its a deformation.
You ask why man questions himself, but this is the nature of the mind!
--
Man questions himself because the mental instrument is made for seeing all possibilities and because the human being feels he has freedom of choice and the immediate consequences are the notions of good and evil, right and wrong, and all the ensuing miseries. This cant be called a bad thing: its an intermediate stagenot a very pleasant stage, but nevertheless it was certainly inevitable for a total development.
***
--
The experience occurred in a place corresponding to ours [the main Ashram building], but immense: the rooms were ten times bigger, but absolutely one cant say emptythey were barren. Not that there was nothing in them, but nothing was in order, everything was just where it shouldnt be. There wasnt any furniture so things were strewn here and therea dreadful disarray! Things were being put to uses they werent made for, yet nothing needed for a particular purpose could be found. The whole section having to do with education [the Ashram School] was in almost total darkness: the lights were out with no way to switch them on, and people were wandering about and coming to me with incoherent, stupid proposals. I tried to find a comer where I could rest (not because I was tired; I simply wanted to concentrate a little and get a clear vision in the midst of it all), but it was impossible, no one would leave me alone. Finally I put a tottering armchair and a footstool end-to-end and tried to rest; but someone immediately came up (I know who, Im purposely not giving names) and said, Oh! This wont do at all! It CANT be arranged like that! Then he began making noise, commotion, disorderwell, it was awful.
To wind it all up, I went to Sri Aurobindos rooman enormous, enormous room, but in the same state. And he appeared to be in an eternal consciousness, entirely detached from everything yet very clearly aware of our total incapacity.
He hadnt eaten (probably because no one had given him anything to eat), and when I entered, he asked me if it was possible to have some breakfast. Yes, of course! I said, Ill go get it, expecting to find it ready. Then I had to hunt around to find something: everything was stuffed into cupboards (and misplaced at that), all disarrangeddisgusting, absolutely disgusting. I called someone (who had been napping and came in with sleep-swollen eyes) and told him to prepare Sri Aurobindos breakfast but he had his own fixed ideas and principles (exactly as he is in real life). Hurry up, I told him, Sri Aurobindo is waiting. But hurry? Impossible! He had to do things according to his own conceptions and with a terrible awkwardness and ineptitude. In short, it took an infinite amount of time to warm up a rather clumsy breakfast.
Then I arrived at Sri Aurobindos room with my plates. Oh, said Sri Aurobindo, it has taken so long that I will take my bath first. I looked at my poor breakfast and thought, Well, I went to so much trouble to make it hot and now its going to get cold! All this was so sordid, so sad.
--
A sort of power over circumstances does come to me, however, as if I could rise above it all and give the subconscient a bit of a work-over. Naturally this has some results: entire areas are brought under control. Thats the most important thing. Individuals get the repercussions later because they are very very coagulated, a bit hard! A lack of plasticity.
Take the case of this man Im not naming Ive been training him, working with him, for more than thirty years and I still havent managed to get him to do things spontaneously, according to the needs of the moment, without all his preconceived ideas. Thats the point where he resists: when things have to be done quickly he follows his usual rule and it takes forever! This was illustrated strikingly that night. I told him, Just look: its there its THEREhurry up and warm it a little and Ill go. Ah! He didnt protest, didnt say anything, but he did things exactly according to his own preconceptions.
--
Of course, these scenes are slightly exaggerated because they are seen in isolation from the rest; within the whole many things crisscross and complete each other, diminishing each others importance. But in an experience like last nights, things are taken singly and shown in isolation, as through a magnifying glass. And after all its a good lesson.
Inefficiency. All right, then.
And it all exists PRIMARILY because each individual is shut up in his own little personal formation (Mother forms an eggshell), a formation of the most ordinary mind, the mind that fabricates the details of everyday life; its like being cramped into a narrow prison.
Satprem later asked if this 'on earth' wasn't superfluous and Mother replied: 'This precision is not superfluous; I said "on earth" meaning that man does not belong only to the earth: in his essence, man is a universal being, but he has a special manifestation on earth.'
0 1961-03-21, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Then I woke up (I always wake up three or four times during the night) and when I went back to bed I had an attack of what the doctor and I have taken to be filariasis but a strange type of filariasis, for as soon as I master it in one spot it appears in another, and when I master it there it reappears somewhere else. Last night it was in the arms (it lasted quite a while, between 2:30 and 4 a.m.); but I was fully conscious, and each time the attack came, I went like this (gestures over the arms, to drive away the attack) and my arms were not affected at all. When it was over, I consciously entered the most material subtle physical, just beyond the body. I was sitting in my room there (an immense, cubic room) reading or writing something, when I heard the door open and close, but I was busy and didnt pay attention, presuming it was one of the people usually around me. Then suddenly I had such an unpleasant sensation in my body that I raised my head and looked, and I saw someone there. Do you know how the magicians in Europe dress, in short satin breeches and a shirt? He was wearing something like that. He was Indian, tall and rather dark, with slicked-down hairwhat you would normally call a handsome young man. He seemed to have been drawn1 there becausehe was standing in front of me staring into space, not looking at me. And the moment I saw him, there was the same sensation in all my cells as I have with what Ive been calling filariasis (its a special, minute kind of pain) and simultaneously all the cells felt disgusta tremendous will of rejection. Then I sat up straight (I didnt stand up) and said to him as forcefully as possible, How do you dare to come in here! I said it so loudly that the noise woke me up! I dont know what happened then, but things went much better afterwards.
The moment I saw this person I knew he was only an instrument, but a well-paid instrumentsomeone paid a great deal to have him do that! I would recognize him again among hundreds I can still see him I see him more clearly than with physical eyes. He is an unintelligent man with no personal animosity, merely a very well-paid instrumentsomeone is hiding behind him, using him as a screen.
--
X told me he has been doing something for me in his puja3since December, it seemsso this morning I thought he should know about the experience and I sent Amrita to tell him. He replied to Amrita that this confirmed his certainty that Z has been making black magic against me since December. He had been told that Z was practicing black magic in Kashmir. Could this be the same person I saw before [during the December 1958 attack]? Since it was someone who concealed his identity, I cant say but this form was robed as a sannyasi. Perhaps its he, I dont know. I reserve my judgment because I dont know personally. But this is what X said, and hes going to redouble his efforts.
Thats the situation.
I had a talk with the doctor this morning and he told me, In fact, your case of filariasis has some symptoms missing and others that dont normally exist. He was a bit perplexed because its impossible for him to understand what it might be if its not filariasis. I said that perhaps ( because as I told you, I did have filariasis some years ago, but brought it under control) perhaps its being used as a base for this attack.
Of course, there are certain symptoms which never appear with filariasis. And the doctor has been astounded at the control Ive had over it: it began in the feet, I checked it there; it went higher, I checked it there; then it went higher still and I continued to control it. Finally, the other day, it tried to get into the arms, but it couldnt hold outand last night there was a real riot! (Mother laughs) So perhaps its the deformation or transposition of some sort of mantric effort, like last time in 58 when there was an attempt to make me throw up all my blood but only food came out! Its probably something similar. My impression (Ive had it from the start) is that they have made a try at thrombosis (you know, when something blocks the circulation). Besides, it seems that X asked the doctor if blood-poisoning might be involved, so he must have seen this possibility. There has been absolutely nothing of the kind, but there has been an effort to block the circulation in the veins, probably an adaptation of the magic attack. And along with this have come all the usual things: all the usual suggestions, all the usual prophecies [about Mothers departure]. But for me, these are the normal facts of life, thats all. I am used to it. It has no importance.
--
I had told N. to knock at the door when he arrived with X, but he didnt do itluckily I heard the door opening. I stood up, still in that state and almost fell over! X must have thought I was having a spell of weakness or something, because I was holding onto the arms of the chair, and when I took his flowers, my hands were trembling I wasnt in my body. And afterwards, ah, what a concentration! We remained in it for about thirty-five minutes. It was SOLIDan extraordinary solidity! I didnt want to waste time waiting for it to subside before coming here, and you must have seen how I was when I arrived: like a sleepwalker! I said to the people I passed in the corridor, Im coming back, Im coming back! Thats all I could say, like an idiot.
(silence)
I wanted to tell you about this because its an indication. Its better to say such things as soon as they happen, to be sure of being accurate.
This stupid cold in the middle of the night. It was the start of the attack.
--
Yes, its a problem. Thats why I dont categorically tell you not to do it, because after all, he shouldnt be massacred!
Yes, I cant do it superficially, you understand. I cant, its impossible for me.
0 1961-03-25, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Strangely enough, Ive received the same complaint from S. He says, I dont have any experiences. What kind of experience do you have? I asked. He replied, I sit in meditation and what comes is peace, peace, peace its always the same thing!(Some people would be very happy with that, but him.) I asked him, What experience do you want? To be conscious, he told me, to be conscious of the Divine, conscious of the divine Presence! And I always answer him, Its because your mind is barricaded. (Mother forms a geometrical figure) He is so convinced that he knows! He tells me, No! Its not that. He doesnt believe me!
At any rate, I have had no results with him, nor with X.
--
But it made me think that something like this must be happening with people here. because, not to boast, but I do give you people experiences!
Of course, all of you would be perfectly justified in replying, What good does that do if were not aware of it! But it must be a phenomenon like the one I described. I am looking for the reason something which refuses the knowledge. A part of the being is refusingalthough not consciouslyto become aware of the experience.
0 1961-03-27, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You know he said someone has been doing black magic against me; but I have never felt anything of the sort in the room where we meditate, because I make a point of coming half an hour early and this of course clears the atmosphere: everything is always ready when he arrives, in silence, in perfect peace. Hasnt he always told you that when he comes into that room he enters another world, like Kailas?1 And thats the way it has always been. If there has been a change, its that now its even more like that because (how to put it?) its more stable. Before, it fluctuated a bit: it came, went, came. But now its like a tranquil mass (Mother lowers her arms) that doesnt stir. Yesterday in particular, this was the experience: I felt him coming (when he is about to come in, I always sense something drawing me outward a little so that I wont be completely in trance and can stand up), and this prayer came so spontaneously, oh! And then (laughing) in the afternoon N. tells me, Oh, X said he had some difficulty at the start of todays meditationa hostile force was present and it took him five minutes to clarify the atmosphere!
It gave me the impression you get in outer life: all the pieces more or less dovetail but with no inner unitytheres not ONE thing, not one, that is true, essentially and always true. We know it is like that outwardly, of course; but I have always felt that with people who have an inner life, one could attain a kind of identity of vibration and knowledge but no!
--
because truly it was truly the best I could have done for someone! It came so spontaneously! And then (laughing) he comes in and feels a hostile force!!
He was evidently on another plane entirely.
What ruffles me is that someone like X, who has worked on himself, ought to have felt it. Why do I feel it? because since I have been doing all this work on my body, it senses things and it is never mistaken. I have had repeated proof that it is never mistaken. When a higher vibration comes, it feels it right away! But I must say that this has only been the case since the body became very universalized. However, I was under the impression that X must have been somewhat universalized to have the powers he has, but now I dont know.
Its not that I was disappointed by his way of being, certainly not; but it has suddenly confronted me with a terrible problem: Is it impossible to live a truth in material consciousness? Is it really impossible? An absolute, I mean an absolute truthnot something entirely subjective and relative, each one living his own truth in his own manner. Will one person always be like this and the other like that and the third like something else? So that only by putting all the pieces together do we actually amount to anything and yet to what?! Is it completely impossible for absolute truth to manifest in the present state of Matter? This is the problem that has seized me.
Why? Probably because I was ready to face it. But it has been posed so intensely. It was so intense that it was painful.
It reinforces what the old Schools have always taught but Sri Aurobindo rejected it! Sri Aurobindo told us precisely that the Truth could be lived IN material life. Of course, there must be a change of consciousness, but I thought.
--
Still, it surprises me. because sitting in that room, one has the feeling (I say one, its probably I dont know what it is), I thought he had the same feeling I did: oh, it could last an eternity! Its like that: tranquil, tranquil, peaceful, balanced, strong. On other occasions there was a kind of movement: it came, went, came, went; but this time (Mother stretches forth her arms as if time had stopped) and I am like that (not the I here, the I above), I see it like that. Then just as the clock is about to strike, when the half-hour is finished, something comes and tells my body, Now! A tiny shock, and two or three seconds later the clock strikes. I always feel beforehand, Now its over. Otherwise there would be no reason for it to endits so peaceful! And not something diluted, as it were, but strong, compact. Compact. Then that tiny shock and the body comes to attention: Ah, Im going to have to move! And always after about two seconds, the clock strikes. I open my eyes, look at X and wait. Three or four seconds later, or after a minute or two, he opens his eyes, bows to me and gets up. Then I get up. Its always the same. So I dont know why. I dont understand what goes on in his consciousness. I no longer understand.
Im not so sure about what he said to N.
--
He doesnt speak about these things with N. Perhaps N. has confused two different times or. because Xs way of expressing himself can seem very vague when you dont know him well, especially when it concerns time and place. This attack may not have occurred during the meditation with you, but beforeh and or elsewhere.
I dont know, because N. said quite categorically: X told me that on arriving for this mornings meditation he had some difficulties and it took him five minutes to get over it; an adverse force was present. N. was quite positive and I even made him repeat it. Are you sure, I asked him, that it didnt happen when X came to you? No, N. replied, X met that force THERE. He said THERE! Yet that it could have been there, with all the force, light and peace that descended is incomprehensible to me. because the first thing I do when I sit down is to make a thorough cleaning.
It ruffles me because its like a negation of my power. Till yesterday I had never experienced anything of the kind! On the 29th, you know, it will be forty-seven years since I first came here3thats not exactly yesterday! And ever since I began working with Sri Aurobindo, I have had the sense of this Power, it has never left me; so. It is disconcerting to have this kind of episode come up after such a long time.
Ill try to speak with X and find out exactly what happened.
That risks a terrible misunderstanding; be careful. Perhaps he wont even remember what he said anymore. Its difficult with X because he doesnt say things with his mindit just comes like that, and then he forgets. You know how it is. Something may have made him speak. For instance, I know that with N. he almost always says unpleasant things about people and situations and this entirely results from N.s atmosphere. I have told N., He speaks like that because of your inner attitude. To one person he will say one thing, to another something completely different on the same subjectit depends a great deal on who hes talking to. No, I havent told you all this for you to speak with X about it, I have told you because it has posed a serious problem for me.
Its best to wait and see. I put a certain force into that note I wrote this morning (I wrote it at a very early hour) and you know that a formation4 is created when I write; I willed it to go to himand he may have received it. Well see what happens. Its better not to speak of it because it might speaking is too external.
On other occasions (as I have told you) I had difficulties with X on the mental plane; now all that has cleared up, cleared up very well. But this present situation is on another plane, so lets wait. Perhaps probably it will clear up.
--
I probably needed the experience. You remember that type of detachment I spoke of when I had that experiencewhen the BODY had that experience of January 24, 1961well, it has increased to such an extent that it now applies to anything and everything linked with action on earth. This detachment was probably necessary. It began with something like things dissolving (Mother makes a gesture of crumbling something between her fingers); certain kinds of links between my consciousness and the Work were dissolving (not links with me, because I dont have any, but with the body; the whole physical consciousness, all that attaches it to the things in its environment, to the Work and to the entourage I spoke to you about that in regard to physical immortality; well, thats what is happening now). Its like things dissolvingdissolving, dissolving, dissolving. And its more and more pronounced. During these last days, things have been becoming increasingly difficultdifficulties have been coming one after another, one after another. Formerly, I had the power to get a grip on them and hold them (Mother tightens her grip as though mastering circumstances); but now that this type of detachment has begun, things drift away everywhereeverywhere, everywhere.
So this episode with X is probably part of the same process. What has been affected is a certain confidence in the REALITY of the Power, the REALITY of spiritual action; there seems to be no communication between here (above) and there (below).
--
No, thats not it. Things go on. I dont know, I have no idea. I cant say exactly what it is, but. Its a. Dont know. In any case, it seems obvious that the NATURE of the contact must become very different. because in proportion to this detachment, the reality of the Vibration and especially the vibration of divine Lovekeeps growing and growing (out of all proportion to the body, even) in a FORMIDABLE manner, formidable! The body is beginning to feel nothing but that.
Is this detachment necessary, then, for divine Love to be established? I dont know.
Yes, its as if I were living, as if the BODY were living (despite all the illnesses and attacks, all the ill will besetting it), living in a bath of the divine vibrationbathing in something immenseimmense, immense limitless, and so stable! The body lives in it like this (gesture as if Mother were floating). So even when there is what we call physical pain, even when there are blows to morale (like having a cashier ask you for money and you have none to give him5), well, despite it all, despite all the possible complications (coming all at the same time), EVERYTHING, everything that happens now, even things which seem extremely unpleasant to our mental conceptions or our mental reactions, everything is a bath, a bath of the vibration of divine Love. So much so that if I didnt control my body, I would be smiling at everything all the time like an idiot. A beatific smile for everything (I dont show it because I control myself).
(silence, the clock strikes the hour)
--
X is sensitive mentally, but to what degree? And to what degree do things crystallize differently for him because of all his ideas?
Well see.
--
And theres no point in giving up, because it would just have to be started all over again next time. What I always say is: Heres the opportunitygo right to the end. Its no use saying, Ah, I cant, because next time it will be even more difficult.
A region high in the Himalayas, also known as the abode of Shiva.
0 1961-04-07, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I am continuing my reading of the Veda. I had to stop for some days because of a sore throat. But anyway, Im starting again.
The Vedas, after all, were written by people who remembered a radical experience, which must have taken place on earth at a given moment, as an example of what was to come. (This always happens in the yoga: a first radical experience comes like a herald of the future realization.) So in the terrestrial yogain the yoga of the earth, of the planet earththere was a moment when it came; they who are called the forefa thers must have created, through their effort and their yoga, at least an image of the supramental realization. And those who wrote the Vedas, who composed all these hymns, remembered or kept the tradition of that experience. And oh, mon petit, it had the same effect on me as when I read the Yoga of Self-Perfection in The Synthesis of Yoga (Mother catches her breath): there is such a gulf between what we are, what life on earth and human consciousness now are, even among the most enlightened, the most advanced, and THAT!
I dont know if its because I have been so violently attackedbludgeonedby all these malevolent energies, but in any case, I sensed acutely the FORMIDABLE immensity of what has to be done in order for THAT to be realized.
(silence)
--
Its not something miraculous, you know. To be really satisfied, the human mind always needs some kind of miracle. In its thought, the miraculous is associated with the Divine. I know, because I was born like that. I felt like that when I was very young. And only because life has dealt me some extremely brutal denials have I come to this kind of sober and reasonable attitude. You know (I told you this the other day), its disgusting! (Mother laughs) All the bloom has gone banished by the hard knocks of life. For I was born with this feeling that yes, that Truth is something miraculous, which has only to show itself to prevail.
It would be like thatwithout the adverse forces.
--
The adverse force is what keeps the Divine from blossoming miraculously whenever He appears. because I know that wherever Matter is not under the influence of this adverse will to any degree, it blossoms immediately. And everything in the human heart, in human consciousness, in human thought, all that is slightly sheltered from this adverse influencesheltered by the psychic, the divine Presenceblossoms, becomes immediately becomes marvelous, without any obstacleall the obstacles come from that source. So its all very well to call it an accident, but.
Its obviously reparable, theres no doubt about that, but at what price? And how it complicates things!
--
And I am really in the most favorable conditions, because my body says yes. It says yes, yes, yesit doesnt complain. This may be the sense behind all this illness and difficulty. Not a single day of complaint.
The night before last I was again awakened at midnight (not awakened: I came out of my trance) with those stings burning from inside out, from the tips of the feet up to here, everywhere, in the back it lasted four hours, non-stop. Well, my body didnt once complain. Not once did it ask for it to stop; it just kept quiet, saying: Thy Will be done. And not only saying it but FEELING it, quietlyfour hours of minuscule tortures. It didnt say a thing.
0 1961-04-08, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The first thing he did was to go see the Doctor and ask him to heal his ear, heal his stomach, heal. So the Doctor told him, But why do you eat just anything at any time of day? Naturally youre sick. And then he was constantly running up against our ways of organizing material things herepeople like him dont organize, they dont care, they just let things drift. Regarding his son, for instance, the Doctor told him, Its because you dont look after him. If you did, this wouldnt happen. And X very bluntly replied, But why!?
Theres a gap.
0 1961-04-12, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
because later on he would go roaming about; he had become terribly strong and would prowl around everywhere. At that time I was living in the Library house, and he would go off as far as the Ashram street (the Ashram didnt belong to us yet, the house was owned by all kinds of people), but when I would go out on the terrace across from Champaklals kitchen and call, Big boy! Big Boy! although he couldnt hear it, he could sense it, and he would come back galloping, galloping. He always came back, unfailingly. The day he didnt come back, I got worried; the servant went looking for himand found him moaning, vomiting, poisoned. He brought him to me. Oh, really! it was. He was so nice! He wasnt a thief or anythinghe was a wonderful cat. Someone had laid out poison for god knows what cat, and he ate it. I showed him to Sri Aurobindo and said, He has been killed.
Before that, I lost another one from that kind of typhoid cats get. He was called Browny and he was so beautiful, so nice, such a marvelous cat! Even when utterly sick, he wouldnt make a mess, except in a corner prepared just for that; he would call me to carry him to his box, with such a soft and mournful voice. He was so nice, with something sweeter and more trusting than a child. There is a trust in animals which doesnt exist in humans (even children already have too much of a questioning mind). But with him, there was a kind of worship, an adoration, as soon as I took him in my armsif he could have smiled, he would have. As soon as I held him, he became blissful.
0 1961-04-15, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Nonexistent because.
I would rather say nothing. Lets work.
--
But now I have the knack of forgetting I just forget. because when I used to remember, I had to fight for entire days. So as soon as I wake up, I erase it right away: go away! Gone!
But all night long I am fully conscious of a lot of things they cant be called trivial, but. Oh, its as though everything that can comes to tell me: You think there will be a supramental transformation? Well then, just look: there is this and that and that and this, this one and that one, this circumstance, that thing, the world, people, things. Oh, a deluge!
And in the evening before going to sleep I read the Vedas, which aggravates the situation. because those people rememberei ther they have heard of it, or they remember it themselvesa supramental realization; and they describe it all so beautifully that it makes you feel very far from it, so very, very far.
After that, I spend hours concentrated in prayernot exactly prayer but (gesture palms turned upwards), like that, beseeching.
--
Actually it is because, without knowing it, you are becoming aware of the true Self, and that awareness always produces a sense of betrayal. But its neither you nor I nor he nor anything other than THAT which is being betrayed. All that we are is a betrayal of That. This is what it is. And we are constantly pushing, pushing, pushing to go beyond.
Its all right. Dont worry. When you are a little upset, you only have to think: Oh, Mother is here, and she will do the work.
0 1961-04-18, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
For example, if I were asked how much time it takes for a thing decided upon there to be realized here, I would answer that it is absolutely indeterminate. That is my experience. I always give the following example because its so clear: Thirty-five years before India became free, I saw that she was free. It was already done. And I have also seen things which for us are almost instantaneous something is decided there and realized almost instantly here. And there are all sorts of possibilities between these two extremes, because the notion of time is not at all the sameso we cant judge. It is facile to say that what you are seeing will happen in a year or in a week or in an hour but in fact, this is impossible. It depends upon the case and certain factors which are part of the whole.
In one chapter of The Synthesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo says that there is a state of consciousness in which all is from all eternityeverything, without exception, that is to be manifested here.
--
We think its because we do such and such a thing that something else happens. (And how frequently, too!) People are constantly saying and writing: do this and that will happen. But the fact that this person speaks and the other one acts is also absolutely decreed.
If we could really get this into our heads, it would probably make them swim.
But things as they are wouldnt be changed at all. I have had a very clear experience of this: the absoluteness of all that is materially; everything we think we are doing, or are planning, or intending, doesnt change anything about anything. But then, I was intent upon understanding what difference there can be between the true and the false state, SINCE MATERIALLY EVERYTHING IS EXACTLY AS IT SHOULD BE. (We think that things are like this or like that because of certain reactions we have, but our very reactions are as absolute and decreed as the thing itself.) And yet.
I have had this experience, and I remember it even went on for several days; I saw all material circumstances as an absolutean absolute that we perceive as an unfolding, but which is an eternally existing absolute. I had this experience, and at the same time I had a very clear perception of what falsehood is the lie; what, from the psychological, the mental point of view, Sri Aurobindo, translating from the Sanskrit, called crookedness.3 We attribute the course of circumstances to our psychological reactionsand indeed, they are used momentarily because everything collaborates either consciously or unconsciously to make things be what they have to be but things could be what they have to be without the intervention of this falsehood. I lived in that consciousness for several days, and it became apparent that this was what separated falsehood from truth. In this state of knowledge-consciousness, the distinction can be made between falsehood and truth; and when seen in that truth-consciousness, material circumstances change character.
Now I no longer have the experience of that state except as a memory, so I cant formulate it accurately. But what was very clear and comes very oftenvery oftenis the perception of a superimposition of falsehood over a real fact. This brings us back to what I was telling you some time ago,4 that everything is very simple in its truth, that human consciousness is what complicates everything. But the former was an even more total experience of it.
--
Let me tell you about a recent occurrence. E. had sent a telegram saying that she had a perforated intestine (but it must have been something else because they operated on her only after several days, and when you are not operated on immediately in such cases, you die). Anyway, it was very serious and she was on the threshold of death that much is certain. She wrote me a letter the day before the operation (what is interesting is that now she doesnt even remember what she wrote). It was a magnificent letter saying that she was conscious of the Divine Presence and of the Divine Plan. Tomorrow they will operate on me, she said. And I am entirely aware that this operation has ALREADY been done, that it is a fact accomplished by the Divine Will; otherwise it could be a fatal ordeal. And she said she was conscious of the supreme Wills action, in a perfect peace. It was a magnificent letter. And the whole thing went off almost miraculously; she recovered in such a miraculous way that the surgeon himself said, I must congratulate you, to which she replied, How surprising! You did the operation! Yes, he said, we did the operation, but it is your body that willed to be healed, and I congratulate you for your bodys willpower. Of course she wrote to me that she knew who had been there to see that all went well. And this feeling of the thing being already accomplished is a beginning of the consciousness Sri Aurobindo speaks of in the Yoga of Self-Perfection, where one is simultaneously both here and there. because, as Sri Aurobindo says, some people have managed to be entirely there, but what he has called the realization is to be both there and here simultaneously.
Of course, one might wonder what the meaning of everything here is, if it has all been already accomplished above, on an occult plane, and we are merely re-enacting it.
--
I have had this particular consciousness in flashes. The difficulty is that in expressing it, we use all our mental faculties, and they themselves are falseso we are cornered. because when you follow through. Whatever you say,If this, if that, if the otheris all part of our general stupidity. Going right to the end of it, you are suddenly like this: Ah! (Mother remains suspended midway in her sentence) There is nothing more to do, not a move to make.
Only, as I have told you, practically speaking this experience can be dangerous. When it came, you see, one part of me was having the experience, and one part wasnt yet ready for it. Well, I was awake enough to tell myself, The part experiencing this prevails and keeps the rest calm, yet if the preparation had not been adequate, it could have produced an imbalance. And if by mischance someone without sufficient strength had the possibility of picking up something of that, well, he would lose his head.
This has made it very clear to me why certain things can illuminate some people (I have clearly seen it) and drive others utterly madcompletely destroy their balance. You might say to me, Then its because they had to go mad! Yes, evidently.
But even if its put in absolute terms, the relationships remain exactly the same.6 You see, the initial impulse is to say, Whats the use of doing anything? But look here, the very fact that you might want to do something is part of the general determinism! because we always keep something back and wont admit it into the total scheme of things, otherwise. There is no way to get out of it thats just the way it is.
And Sri Aurobindo explains this in such a complete, total and compact way, that there is no escape; so this so-called incapacity, this idea of still being incapable of emerging from ones divided state, becomes false.
--
When I used to speak at the Playground, I tried to explain this one day I was facing the same problem: what really is? And clearly, it is utterly impossible to understand with the mind. But I had a vision of a kind of infinite Eternity through which the Supreme Consciousness voyages7; and the path this Consciousness travels is what we call the manifestation. And this vision explained absolute freedom, it explained how both thingsabsolute freedom and absolute determinismcould coexist in an absolute way. The image in my vision was of an eternal Infinity in which that Consciousness voyagesone cant even say freely, because freely would imply that it could be otherwise.
All who experience this say that the first movement of the manifestation, or the creation (creation, manifestation, objectification: all these words are imperfect) is CHIT, Consciousness that becomes Power. Consequently, Consciousness goes voyaging along in SAT, in Beingstatic, eternal, infinite and necessarily outside time and space and this movement of Consciousness is what produces time and space within this Infinity and Eternity.8 This leads to the understanding that things can simultaneously be absolutely free and absolutely determined.
--
An illustration of this is the well-known story about the man who refused to move out of the path of an elephant on the pretext that he was Brahman and that Brahman had told him to stay put. And the mahout replied, 'But Brahman has told me that you should get out of the way and let the elephant Brahman pass.' Although childishly simplified, it's the same thing. It's because we look 'in this way' yet not , in that way' at the same time, and above all, because we don't look at EVERYTHING at the same time. From the minute we could be integral in our perception, all relationships would remain the same, but instead of being in a state of ignorance, we would experience them in a state of knowledge.
Would remain the same? You mean they would physically be the same as they are now, but would be seen in a different way?
0 1961-04-22, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yet I dont understand how someone might be doing something positively evil, to the extent that X says, They will repent of it. I dont understand it, I just dont. because usually when people are like that, they cant stay, they go. Certain people have left for just that reason. Its like this story of black magic performed at the Ashram the first time I fell ill two years ago; I cant believe it, because it would prove that I am totally unconscious! And I dont think I am.
I know all the people here. I know everything thats going on, I see it night and day. But I havent seen this. Yes, there are ill-intentioned people, but they are even obliged to tell me so! There are people who oh, they almost wish I would leave, because they feel my presence as a constraint! They tell me so very frankly: As long as youre here, were obliged to do the yoga, but we dont want to do the yoga, we want to live quietly; so if you werent here, well, we wouldnt have to think about yoga anymore! But they are a bunch of fools with no power in them at all. As I said, they are even forced to tell me their true feelings.
There are manymanywho think I am going to die and are making preparations so as not to be left completely out on the street when I go. I am aware of all this. But its childishnessif I leave, they are right; if I dont, it doesnt matter!
0 1961-04-25, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It began with this famous World Union1 and now the Sri Aurobindo Society2 is meddling in it! They have put together a brochure saying, We will facilitate your relations with the Mother!! Luckily, the draft was sent to me. I said, I do not accept this responsibility. I agreed to be President because money is involved and I wanted to be a guarantee that all these people who make propaganda dont put the money into their own pockets for their personal use; so I agreed to be Presidentto guarantee that the money would really go to work for Sri Aurobindo, thats all. But no spiritual responsibility; I have nothing to teach to anyone, thank God!
(Pavitra.) But Mother, A. has also been bitten by the propaganda bug; in the by-laws he sent, he put: The goal of the Centre dEtudes de Sri Aurobindo [Sri Aurobindo Study Center, in Paris] is to steer people towards Pondicherry and the Mother.
--
The first thing I did this morning was to open this book by Alice Bailey (Ive had it for several days, I had to have a look at it). So I looked Ah, I saidwell, well! Heres a person whos dead now, but she was the disciple of a Tibetan Buddhist lama and considered a very great spiritual leader, and she writes, Christ is the incarnation of divine love on earth. And thats that. And the world will be transformed when Christ is reborn, when he comes back to earth. But why the devil does she put Christ? because she was born Christian? Its deplorable.
And such a mixture of everythingeverything! Instead of making a synthesis, they make a pot-pourri. They scoop it all up, toss it together, whip it up a little, use a bunch of words that have nothing to do with one another, and then serve it to you!
--
Ah, no! Thats not the same thing at all, They have nothing to do with each other. Nothing. They wanted to merge: I refused. I told them, You have nothing to do with each other. You, World Union, are idealists (!) wanting to realize your ideal externally (without any foundation), while they are businessmen, practical people, wanting to bring money to the Ashram, and I fully agree with that, because I need it.
Its another thing entirely.
--
There used to be a kind of mainspring, which had its raison dtre and so persisted: do this to arrive at that, and this leads to that (its more subtle, of course); but this mainspring suddenly seems to have been abolished, because it became useless.
Now a kind of absoluteness prevails at each and every second, in each movement, from the most subtle, the most spiritual, to the most material. The sense of linking has disappeared: that isnt the cause of this, and this isnt done for that; there is no there one is heading towardsit all seems.
--
But what can be translated is this kind of sensation that the sequence of cause and effect, of purpose, of goal, all seems to be very far below, very, very DISTANT, very humanperhaps divine, too (from the viewpoint of the gods it may be like this also, I dont know), because in the consciousness of the universal Mother it is still there, there is still this ardent love to serve: To do Your Will. That is still there, so its there with the gods also.
(silence)
0 1961-04-29, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
At the age of eighteen, I remember having such an intense need in me to KNOW. because I was having experiences I had all kinds of experiences but my surroundings offered me no chance to receive an intellectual knowledge which would have given me the meaning of it all: I couldnt even speak of them. I was having experience after experience. For years, I had experiences during the night (but I was very careful never to speak about them!)memories from past lives, all sorts of things, but without any base of intellectual knowledge. (Of course, the advantage of this was that my experiences were not mentally contrived; they were entirely spontaneous.) But I had such a NEED in me to know! I remember living in a house (one of these houses with a lot of apartments), and in the apartment next door were some young Catholics whose faith was very they were very convinced. And seeing all that, I remember saying to myself one day while brushing my hair, These people are lucky to be born into a religion and believe unquestioningly! Its so easy! You have nothing to do but believehow simple that makes it. I was feeling like this, and then when I realized what I was thinking (laughing), well, I gave myself a good scolding: Lazybones!
To know, know, KNOW! You see, I knew nothing, really, nothing but the things of ordinary life: external knowledge. I had learned everything I had been given to learn. I not only learned what I was taught but also what my brother was taughthigher mathematics and all that! I learned and I learned and I learned and it was NOTHING. None of it explained anything to menothing. I couldnt understand a thing!
--
I have had discussionsnot discussions, exchanges of viewswith prelates. There was one cardinal in particular. I told him my experience, what I KNEW. He replied, Whether you want to or not, you belong to the Church; because those who know belong to the Church. And he added, You have the knowledge we are taught when we become cardinals. Nobody has taught me anything, I said, this is my experience. Then he repeated, Whether you like it or not, you belong to the Church. I felt like telling him a thing or two, but I didnt.
Otherwise, you just keep turning in circles, oh, caught by the form, locked in by the form!
--
In short, I have known people from everywhere, I have been everywhere, I have seen and heard everything. It was very strange, very strange. And I didnt do it on purpose, but just because the Lord willed it.
What experiences!
--
Oh, yes, definitely do that. But I am not keen on keeping all thatits much too personal. It involves a lot of people and a lot of things, and I dont want. Ive told it to you, thats all. Keep it for yourselfnot even for the Agenda, its not necessary. If you enjoy it, you can keep it thats all. I told it to you just like thatprobably because I felt like chatting!
I could say many other things which would be almost the opposite of all Ive just said! It all depends on the orientation. If I really started talking, you know, I would seem like I dont know what, something like a lunatic, because with equal sincerity and equal truth, I could say the most opposing things.
And experiences! I have had the most contradictory experiences! Only one thing has been continuous from my childhood on (and the more I look, the more I see how continuous it has been): this divine Presence and in someone who, in her EXTERNAL LIFE, might very well have said, God? What is this foolishness! God doesnt exist! So you understand, you see the picture.
0 1961-05-02, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And I dont see, I really do not see why all that needs to manifest in order to disappear. because before, when it didnt manifest, it faded away by itself; but now it creates problems and problems and problems. (For me they are not problems but stupidities; they are problems and complications for others.) And its so useless! So much time is lost, so much time coping with stupid reactions. I dont know why.
And nothing can be done until its over.
0 1961-05-19, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And the trouble is that if one translates literally, into poor French, it doesnt yield the deeper sense either, because that also considerably demolishes the meaning.
If we want to translate literally its as much a mistranslation as translating freely.
--
And despite everything, our translations of Sri Aurobindo are superior to those published in France; because those translations you know.
Its an absolute betrayal.
--
I mean there is nothing sensational, interesting to recount. Its a minuscule labor, minute to minute, like oh, its not even like cutting a path through a virgin forest, because a virgin forest is pleasant to look at! But this. Its almost like laying stones together to build a road. Every day and all the time, night and day and at any moment whatsoever, there are tiny, tiny things, tiny things, tinyits not interesting.
There are successive curves, each second of which would have to be noted down; and in the course of one of these curves, something is suddenly found. For example, at the beginning of The Yoga of Self-Perfection, Sri Aurobindo reviews other yogas, beginning with Hatha Yoga. I had just translated this when I remembered Sri Aurobindo saying that Hatha Yoga was very effective but that it amounted to spending your whole life training your body, which is an enormous time and effort spent on something not essentially very interesting. Then I looked at it and said to myself, But after all, (I was looking at life as it is, as people ordinarily live it) one spends at least 90% of ones life merely to PRESERVE ones body, to keep it going! All this attention and concentration on an instrument which is put to hardly any use. Anyway, I was looking at it with that attitude, when suddenly all the cells of my body responded, in such a spontaneous and WARM way. How to say it? Something so so moving. They told me, But its the Lord who is looking after Himself in us! Each one was saying: But its the Lord who is looking after Himself in us!
--
But this experience of taste was completely new. It didnt last long, only a few minutes, because it amazed me so! It was as if I had a mouthful of the most marvelous foods one could imagine. And my hands were gathering it up in the atmosphere it was so funny!
The body is obviously being prepared for something.
--
They say I have become deaf. I believe its the Lords grace, because when I make an effort to hear what is being said to me, nine times out of ten its completely useless and its absolutely stupid. Its better not to hear!
So there, mon petitand I said I wasnt going to talk! Its always the same thing.
0 1961-05-23, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To tell the truth, this question seems stupid to me, because one can have mastery over circumstances only if one becomes the Supreme because the Supreme alone has mastery over circumstances. So the question is senseless.
If you become identified with the Supreme and there is but ONE willHis then of course you have supreme mastery. Otherwise its all nothing but illusion. You imagine that by wanting a certain thing you can change circumstances, but you still have to be in total ignorance to believe that the change occurs because YOU want it toin fact, the Supreme is making use of you. Consequently, you have no mastery at all; you are an instrument used by the Supreme, and thats all.
So all these things [the earlier Questions and Answers] seem quite childish to me, quite childishirrelevant chatter. You are outside the garden talking about what is within. It would be best to delete the whole thing.
0 1961-05-30, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its probably worse for me than for others because of all these people around me, clinging like leeches. But even for an ordinary being it is a swarm; it keeps on coming and comingyou would need to spend all your time fanning it away!
***
0 1961-06-02, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Regarding an earlier 'Questions and Answers'March 13, 1957where Mother says: 'And finally, isn't the Divine the best friend one could have? The Divine to whom one can tell all, reveal all, because here is the source of all mercy, of all power to efface error when it no longer recurs....' Surprised, Satprem blurts out.)
But theres no more problem when the error no longer recurs! Isnt it when the error recurs that it needs to be effaced?
When one does not repeat ones past mistakes, the divine power, the power of the divine Grace, abolishes their consequences their karmain the being. But as long as mistakes are repeated nothing can be abolished, because one re-creates them at every minute. When a person has made a serious error, say, a serious mistake (it can be serious or not, but we are concerned primarily with the serious ones), such mistakes have their consequences in life, a karma which has to be exhausted. The divine Grace, if you call upon it, has the power to abolish that karma, to cut short the consequences but the Grace can only do this when you, within yourself, dont begin all over again, when the mistake committed is not renewed. The past can be completely purified and abolished, on condition that one does not keep making it into a perpetual present.
I have said it there in one sentence, but I didnt want people to believe that they can continue making the same stupid blunder indefinitely and have the Grace indefinitely annul all the consequences.1 It isnt like that! The past can be cleansed to the point where it has no effect of any kind on the future, but only on condition that you stop the wrong vibration in yourself, that you dont reproduce the same vibration indefinitely.
I know why I gave no explanations as I was speaking: because of the intensity of the experience. There is something like it in Prayers and Meditations. I remember an experience I had in Japan which is noted there. (Mother looks through Prayers and Meditations and reads a passage dated November 25, 1917:)2
Thou art the sure friend who never fails,
--
because Thou art its source!
O Supreme and only Friend, Thou who acceptest,
--
just as we are, because it is Thyself
who hast so made us.
--
because it is Thou Thyself who willest in it!
It would be folly to seek elsewhere than in Thee
--
Fundamentally, I have noticed one thing: if you yourself are in the right state, the right atmosphere is immediately created. And in addition, I am always in a sort of not even a convictionan ABSOLUTE perception that all that happens is the Lords doing. When He makes me late going upstairs its because He wants me to be late, and consequently, if I take it wellif instead of closing myself and getting annoyed I say, Good, thats fineimmediately a very interesting atmosphere is created, because at the same time I see all the advantages of this change. But this movement must not be mentalit has to be spontaneous.
Therefore, I have told her (to put it simply): provided you are sincere in your attitude, all is well.
--
And I see that the translation would go quickly if one moved into another domain. In one domain it is laborious, terrible, difficult, and the result is never very satisfying. But contrary to what I had thought, the domain of comprehension does not suffice, even the domain of experience does not suffice: something else is needed (oh, how to explain it?), a state in which effort is left totally behind. There is a state (which probably must be beyond the mind, because one no longer thinks at all, not at all) where everything is smiling and easy, and the sentences come to you all by themselves. Its peculiar I read, and even before I finish reading the sentence to be translated I know whats in it; and then without waitingalmost without waiting to know whats in it I know what to put for it. When its like that I can translate a page in half an hour.
But it doesnt lastit ought to last. Usually it ends in a trance: I go off into the experience, I am in a beatific state and ten minutes later I notice that Ive been in that state with my pen poised in my hand. Its not favorable to the work! But otherwise its I cant even say its like someone dictating (its not that, I dont hear); it comes by itself. Oh, the other day there were one or two sentences! I wrote something and suddenly saw what I was writing and doing so pulled me out of that state. Well, I said to myself, how nicely put! And plop! (Mother laughs) Everything was gone.
--
But to get there, believe me, you must accept to be a total imbecile for quite some time! I am not exaggerating. I have found myself in such states: you no longer understand anything, no longer know anything, no longer think anything, no longer want anything, no longer can do anythingno more power, no more will, no more thought, no more anythingyou are like that. And when I am like that (when I WAS, because now its beginning to go away), I see the external world, people like those around me, looking at me and thinking, Ah! Mother is lapsing into her second childhood! Their vibrations come to me and unfortunately they sometimes have the power to shake me I have to make a movement to free myself from the thoughts of others.
(silence)
--
I once fell down and dented my head (for a long time it was even painful); and since then the dent has become deeper and deeper and the bump has become larger and larger. I told the doctor about it (he had been called in at the time because it was bleeding profusely and people were upsetit healed in a day) and he told me there had been an accumulation of blood causing the bone to increase in size. But this is a doctors reason.
It is quite interesting.
0 1961-06-06, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Thats why I had difficulty listening to you just now [during the work], because since last night I have been constantly facing this problem, and all morning long Ive had to you know, do like this (Mother clenches her fist, as though getting a grip on herself) in order to come here and listen. I didnt feel like seeing anyone, doing anything only staying like this (Mother keeps still, her arms at her sides) until that problem is willing to explain itself.
But if you had seen me yesterday. I would probably have said nothing, but it was so lovely! Exactly the same thing, the same people, the same circumstances, the same conditions in the body. Everything, everything was the same.
--
Sri Aurobindo was not admitted to the Indian Civil Service because he refused to appear at the riding test which terminated the examination.
Mother is alluding to two extracts from Questions and Answers (dated June 19 and July 17, 1957) which she has just reviewed for inclusion in the Bulletin. In them she speaks of the causes of illness and of using the conscious will for physical development.
0 1961-06-24, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have received your note1 and it didnt surprise me, because just about a month ago I received what seemed like an SOS from your mother, telling me your father was rapidly declining. I have done what I could, mainly to bring in some tranquillity, some calm, some inner peace. But I havent done. You see, there are always two possibilities when people are so seriously ill: they can be helped to die quickly, or else made to linger on for a very long time. When I have no outer or inner indications, all I ever do is apply the consciousness for the best to happen to them (the best from the souls standpoint, of course).
Do you know whether your father has expressed any wish?
--
(Mother remains silent for a moment, then says:) Over the years I have had a considerable number of experiences in this realm, and my first action is always the same: send the Peace (I do this in all cases, for everyone) and apply the Force, the Power of the Lord, for the best thing to happen. Some people are very sick, sick to the point where there is no hope, where they cannot be cured, where the end is coming; but they sense that their souls must still need to have certain experiences, so they hang on-they dont want to die. In such cases I apply the Force for them to last as long as possible. In other cases, on the contrary, they are weary of suffering, or indeed the soul has finished its experience and desires to be liberated. In such a case, if I am sure of it, sure that they themselves are expressing the desire to depart, its over in a few hours I say this with certainty because Ive had a considerable number of experiences. There is a certain force which goes out and does what is necessary. I havent done either of these things for your fathernei ther to prolong his life ( because when people are suffering its not very kind to prolong their lives indefinitely), nor to finish it, because I didnt knowone cant do either without knowing the persons conscious wish.
As for your mother, she must have been thinking of me, for otherwise she wouldnt have come in that wayshe would have come through you (its different when things come through you). But she came to me directly, so I thought that for some reason she must have remembered me. I dont know. And I looked and said to myself (it came just like that), Now that she will be left all alone, why doesnt she come here? I havent done anything about that, either, one way or the other.
--
These things are very interesting. They must form part of the work I have come on earth to do. because even before encountering Theon, before knowing anything, I had experiences at night, certain types of activities looking after people who were leaving their bodiesand with a knowledge of the process; I didnt know what I was doing nor did I seek to know, yet I knew exactly what had to be done and I did it. I was around twenty.
As soon as I came upon Theons teaching (even before meeting him personally), and read and understood all kinds of things which I hadnt known before, I began to work quite systematically. Every night, at the same hour, I was working to constructbetween the purely terrestrial atmosphere and the psychic atmospherea path of protection across the vital, so that people wouldnt have to pass through it (for those who are conscious but without knowledge its a very difficult passageinfernal.) I was preparing this path, doing this work (it must have been around 1903 or 1904, I dont remember exactly) for months and months and months. All sorts of extraordinary things happened during that timeextraordinary. I could tell long stories.
--
I was keeping I.B. near me because I already had the idea of putting him immediately back into another bodyhis soul was not satisfied, it had not finished its experience (there was a whole combination of circumstances) and it wanted to continue to live on earth. Then, that night, his inner being went to find V., lamenting, saying he was dead and hadnt wanted to die, that he had lost his body and wanted to continue to live. V. was very perplexed. He let me know about it in the morning: Heres what has happened. I sent word to him of what I was doing, that I was keeping I.B. in my atmosphere and that he should stay very calm and not get excited, for I was going to put him back into a body as soon as possible I already had something in view. The same evening I.B. again went to find V., with the same complaint. V. told him very clearly, Here is what Mother says, here is what she is going to do; come now, be calm and dont torment yourself. And he saw in I.B.s face that he had understood (the inner being was taking on I.B.s physical appearance, naturally); his face relaxed, he became content.
He went away and he never came back. That is, he stayed tranquilly with me, until I was able to put him into C.s child.
This correlation in the work is very interesting because it has quite practical effectsV. was able to communicate exactly what I had to say to I.B., and I.B. understood better through him than through me directly ( because I do the work, but dont have time to deal with all the details, to tell each individual what to do).
I was telling you the other day how vexing it is that we are all on different planes all the time,3 but on that particular plane it works very well with this boyon this one point, this tiny, precise point concerning the moment of leaving the body. We can do interesting work this way.
--
Have I told you about the experience I had the day I suddenly found myself in Sri Aurobindos home in the subtle physical?7Well, its as if I took a step and entered a far more concrete world than the physicalmore concrete because things contain more truth. I spent a good while there with Sri Aurobindo and then, when it was over, I took another step and I found myself back here slightly dumbfounded. It took me quite some time to regain my bearings here, because it was this world that seemed unreal to me, not the other.
But its simply thatyou take a step, and you enter another room. And when you live in your soul there is a continuity, because the soul remembers, it keeps the whole memory; it remembers all occurrences, even outer occurrences, all the outer movements it has been associated with. So its a continuous, uninterrupted movement, here and there, from one room to another, from one house to another, from one life to another.
People are so ignorant! Thats what irritates those who have passed to the other sidepeople dont understand, they shoo them away: What does he want? Why does he bother me? Hes DEAD!
--
I have to goa high-priest is waiting for me! Yes, the man in charge of all the temples of Gujarat, thoroughly orthodoxhe has come to the Ashram for some mysterious reason and he wants to see me. Is it really necessary? I asked. He wanted an interview, he wants to speak to me (naturally hell be speaking god knows whatGujarati!). I had him told, I cant hear, Im deaf! Its very convenient Im deaf, I cant hear. If he wants to receive a flower from me (I didnt say make a pranam,8 because that would be scandalous!), he can come and Ill give him a flower. I told him eleven oclockits that time now.
This is all Xs work. The most unexpected people, people youd think would rather be cursed than come to a place like this, are coming from everywhere, from the most diverse milieus the most materialistic materialists, fanatical communists, as well as all sorts of sannyasis, bhikkus, swamis, priestsoh! People who previously were not at all they werent so much disinterested as actually displeased with the Ashram.
0 1961-06-27, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Jokingly you can say (you can always joke, although I hesitate to do so, because people take my jokes so seriously) but you can very well say, without being totally in error, that you sometimes learn much more listening to a madman or a fool than to a reasonable person. Personally, Im convinced of it! There is nothing more deadening than reasonable people.
At any rate, this simultaneity of past, present and future cant be a physical simultaneity, can it?
--
I have had an oft repeated experience of reliving the past1 (its a phenomenon of consciousness, possible because everything is preserved and continues to exist somewhere), with a kind of willwhich would be the sign of a powerto change it. I dont know, but at the moment of reliving it, instead of reliving the past just as it had been preserved, a power to make it different was introduced. I am not speaking of the power to change the consequences of the past (that is obvious and functions all the time)it wasnt that; it was the power to change the circumstances themselves (circumstances not quite material but of the subtle physical, with a predominantly psychological content). And since the will was there, from the standpoint of consciousness it actually happened that is, instead of circumstances developing in one direction, they developed in another. So it must correspond to something real, otherwise I would not have had the experience. It wasnt a product of the imagination; it wasnt something one thinks of and would really like to be differentit wasnt that; it was a phenomenon of consciousness: my consciousness was reliving certain circumstances (which are still quite living and obviously continue to exist within their own domain), but reliving them with the power and the knowledge acquired between that past moment and the present, and with a power to change the past moment. A new power entered the scene and turned the circumstance being relived in a new direction. I have had this experience many times and it has always surprised meits not a phenomenon of mental imagination, which is something else entirely.
It opens the door to everything.
--
Actually, as soon as one is not totally, totally tied down by the physical sense organs. For example, I am more and more frequently experiencing changes in the quality of vision. Quite recently, yesterday or the day before, I was sitting in the bathroom drying my face before going out and I raised my eyes (I was sitting before a mirror, although I dont usually look at myself); I raised my eyes and looked, and I saw many things (Mother laughs, greatly amused). At that moment, I had an experience which made me say to myself, Ah! Thats why, from the physical, purely material standpoint, my vision seems to be a bit blurred. because what I was seeing was MUCH clearer and infinitely more expressive than normal physical sight. And I recalled that it is with these clearer eyes that I see and recognize all my people at balcony darshan. (From the balcony I recognize all my people.) And its that vision (but with open eyes!) which. It is of another order.
I am going to study what Sri Aurobindo says when I come to it in The Yoga of Self-Perfection. He says there comes a time when the senses changeits not that you employ the senses proper to another plane (we have always known we had senses on all the different planes); its quite different from that: the senses THEMSELVES change. He foretells this changehe says it will occur. And I believe it begins in the way I am experiencing it now.
0 1961-07-04, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Last night or the night before you were associated with an experience. Following my reading [On Himself] I had a sense of how very small we are and of how to expand. You were associated, very intimately associated with this expansion. Sri Aurobindo was there (you know he has adopted you as his biographer; I have told you this and I repeat it because I have evidence of it all the time), and he was giving a kind of practical demonstrationnot intellectual, practicalof how to expand not only the consciousness but the whole being, down to its most material parts. You were there, associated with this, and he was showing you as well as me what had to be done. (Mother makes a gesture of breaking through limits.)
This made me very glad.
0 1961-07-07, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This happens quite often on the balcony, because there I am concentrated on the descending Light. Then, very often, the body becomes completely still, like this.
That way one can last. Very well. Lets work.
--
Ah! I have seen T., who told me she was finding it too difficult to ask questions [on Sri Aurobindos Aphorisms] because it always seemed to be the same thing! So now she has nothing to ask. We have decided she wont ask any more questions, unless, by chance, something suddenly arouses a question in her. Otherwise, no more questions (Mother breathes a sigh of relief).
63God is great, says the Mahomedan. Yes, He is so great that He can afford to be weak, whenever that too is necessary.
--
65 because God is invincibly great, He can afford to be weak; because He is immutably pure, He can indulge with impunity in sin; He knows eternally all delight, therefore He tastes also the delight of pain; He is inalienably wise, therefore He has not debarred Himself from folly.
Can God truly be said to be weak or to fail? Does this actually happen, or is it simply the Lords play?
--
I am putting this purposely into rather childish terms so that it will be clearly understood. But this is the way it is. I am sure of it because I have observed it in myself for a VERY long time, and I had to. Due to the whole subconscious formation of childhoodenvironment, education, and so forthwe have to DRUM into this (Mother touches her body) the consciousness of Unity : the absolute, EXCLUSIVE unity of the Divineexclusive in the sense that nothing exists apart from this Unity, even the things which seem most repulsive.
Sri Aurobindo also had to struggle against this because he too received a Christian education. And these Aphorisms are the result the floweringof the necessity to struggle against the subconscious formation which has produced such questions (Mother takes on a scandalized tone): How can God be weak? How can God be foolish? How. But there is nothing but God! He alone exists, there is nothing outside of Him. And whatever seems repugnant to us is something He no longer wishes to existHe is preparing the world so that this no longer manifests, so that the manifestation can pass beyond this state to something else. So of course we violently reject everything in us that is destined to leave the active manifestation. There is a movement of rejection.
Yet it is He. There is nothing other than He! This should be repeated from morning to night, from night to morning, because we forget it every minute.
There is only He, there is nothing other than He. He alone exists, there is no existence without Him. There is only He!
--
Perfection is one way to approach the Divine; Unity is another. But Perfection is a global approach: all is there and all is as it should be that is to say, the perfect expression of the Divine (you cant even say of His Will, because that still implies something apart, something emanating from Him!).
It could be put like this (but it brings it down considerably): He is what He is and exactly as He wants to be. The exactly as He wants to be takes us down quite a few steps, but it still gives an idea of what I mean by perfection!
--
Mother later clarified this point: 'It is impossible for anything to be missing because it is impossible for anything not to be part of the whole. Nothing can exist apart from the whole. But I am taking this now to its extreme limit of meaningnot down-to-earth, but to the heights, to the extreme limits of meaning. I will explain: everything is not necessarily contained within a given universe, because one universe is only one mode of manifestation but all possible universes exist. And so I always come back to the same thing: nothing can exist apart from the whole. If we give the whole the name of "God," for example, then we say that nothing can exist apart from Him. But words are so earthbound, aren't they?' (Mother makes a down-to-earth gesture.)
See 'Prayers of the Consciousness of the Cells,' Agenda I, pp. 337-350.
0 1961-07-12, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This japa, you know, didnt at all come from here (Mother points to her head). Its something I received fully formed, and to such an extent that I couldnt even change the place of a single thinga will seemed to oppose any change. Its a long series unfolding according to a law that probably corresponds to what is needed to develop this consciousness and the work it has to do (I suppose I dont really know and I havent tried to know). But a sort of law makes it impossible to change the position of even a single word, because these are not wordsthey are fully formed states of consciousness. And the whole series culminates with:
Manifest Your Love.
0 1961-07-15, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And it has become acute since.1 No, I dont read these days, because Ive had a hemorrhage in this eye. There have been too many letters, and its difficult for me to decipher handwriting the result is this hemorrhage. So I have gone on strike. All right, I said, I wont read any letters for a week. People can write as much as they please, its all the same to me Im not reading any more. But just before stopping (I stopped reading for only three days), I read a passage where Sri Aurobindo speaks of his own experience and his own work and explains in full what he means by the supramental transformation. This passage confirmed and made me understand many experiences I had after that experience of the bodys ascent [January 24, 1961] (the ascent of the body-consciousness, followed by the descent of the supramental force into the body); immediately afterwards, everything (how to put it?) outwardly, according to ordinary consciousness, I fell ill; but its stupid to speak this way I did not fall ill! All possible difficulties in the bodys subconscient rose up en masseit had to happen, and it surely happened to Sri Aurobindo, too. How well I understood! How well, indeed. And its no joke, you know! I had wondered why these difficulties had hounded him so ferociouslynow I understand, because I am being attacked in the same relentless fashion.
Actually, it springs from everything in material consciousness that can still be touched by the adverse forces; that is, not exactly the body-consciousness itself but, one could say, material substance as it has been organized by the mind the initial mentalization of matter, the first stirrings of mind in life making the passage from animal to human. (The same complications would probably exist in animals, but as there is no question of trying to supramentalize animals, all goes well for them.) Well, something in there protests, and naturally this protest creates disorder. These past few days I have been seeing. No one has ever followed this path! Sri Aurobindo was the first, and he left without telling us what he was doing. I am literally hewing a path through a virgin forestits worse than a virgin forest.
--
We tried, ohmyself in particular! I concentrated all my power to prevent him from going, and it made him suffer greatly, because he WANTED to go, he had decidedhe the Supreme Lord had decided that he would go.
Yes, but why exactly was there this halt? He had come for that.
--
Obviously, were I to leave now I can say there would be a halt, because I dont see anyone at the moment who could continue. But theres a good chance that. We will see.
Yes, we will see.
--
That was the basic problem because the identification of the two [Sri Aurobindo and Mother] was almost childs play, it was nothing: for me to merge into him or him to merge into me was no problem, it wasnt difficult. We had some conversations on precisely this subject, because we saw that (there were many other things, too, but this isnt the time to speak of them) the prevailing conditions were such that I told him I would leave this body and melt into him with no regret or difficulty; I told him this in words, not just in thought. And he also replied to me in words: Your body is indispensable for the Work. Without your body the Work cannot be done. After that, I said no more. It was no longer my concern, and that was the end of it.
This was said in 1949, just a little more than a year before he left.
--
In the final analysis, everything obviously depends upon the Supremes Will because, if one looks deeply enough into the question, even physical laws and resistances are nothing for Him. But this kind of direct intervention takes place only at the extreme limit; if His Will is to be expressed in opposition, as it were, to the whole set of laws governing the Manifestationwell, that only comes at the very last second. Sri Aurobindo has expressed this so well in Savitri, so well! At least three times in the book he has expressed this Will that abolishes all established laws, all of them, and all the consequences of these laws, the whole formidable colossus of the Manifestation, so that in the face of it all, That can express itself and this takes place at the very last second, so to speak, at the extreme limit of possibility.
I must say that there was a time when, as Sri Aurobindo had entrusted his work to me, there was a kind of tension to do it (it cant be called an anxiety); a tension in the will. This too has now ended (Mother stretches her arms into the Infinite). Its finished. But there MAY still be something tense lurking somewhere in the subconscient or the inconscient I dont know, its possible. Why? I dont know. I mean I have never been told, at any time, neither through Sri Aurobindo nor directly, whether or not I would go right to the end. I have never been told the contrary, either. I have been told nothing at all. And if at times I turn towards Thatnot to question, but simply to know the answer is always the same: Carry on, its not your problem; dont worry about it. So now I have learned not to worry about it; I am consciously not worried about it.
--
But there has evidently been some rather considerable progress, because lately the enormity of the thing has been shown to me far more concretely, oh! I tell you, it has reached the point where all spiritual life, all these peoples and races who have been trying since the beginning of the earth, who have made so many efforts to realize somethingit all seems like nothing, like childs play. Its nothing: you smile and then you are joyous. Its nothing at all, nothing at all!
To put things in ordinary terms, mon petit, this work is without glory! You get no results, no experiences filling you with ecstasy or joy or wondernone of that. It is hideous, a hideous labor.
--
And not individual but collective work was meant. So naturally, because of the way it came, it was joyously accepted and immediately implemented.
But when I remember that experience and consider what I have now
--
because evidently I cant say that my experiences are the result of a mental aspiration or will or knowledge I dont know, I dont know at all. I dont know how it should be, nor what it should be, nor anything at all. I dont know what should be done, I dont know what should not be donenothing. Its truly a blind march (gesture of groping along), in a desert riddled with all possible traps and difficulties and obstaclesall this heaped together. Eyes blindfolded, knowing nothing (same gesture of groping blindly), one plods on.
The only thing to do is to be like this (Mother turns her hands towards the Heights in a gesture of abandonment). Provided you dont fall asleep! You mustnt enter into a beatific state where you. No, we must keep moving on.
0 1961-07-18, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This is quite interesting to me because Sri Aurobindo says the same thing: that nothing is bad, simply things are not in their placetheir place not only in space but in time, their place in the universe, beginning with the planets and stars, each thing exactly in its place. Then when each thing, from the most colossal to the most microscopic, is exactly in place, the whole Will PROGRESSIVELY express the Supreme, without having to be withdrawn and emanated anew. On this also, Sri Aurobindo based the fact that this present creation, this present universe, will be able to manifest the perfection of a divine worldwhat Sri Aurobindo calls the Supermind.
Equilibrium is the essential law of this creationit is what permits perfection to be realized in the manifestation.
--
One thing must inevitably cease: the Deformation, the veil of falsehood covering Truth, because all we see existing here is due to that. If the veil is removed, things will necessarily be completely different, completely: they will be as we experience them when we emerge individually from that deformed consciousness. When one comes out of that consciousness and enters the Truth-Consciousness, one is incredulous that such things as suffering, misery and death can exist; its amazing, in the sense that (when one is truly on the other side) one doesnt understand how all this can be happening. And, although this state of consciousness is habitually associated with the experience of the unreality of the world as we know it, Sri Aurobindo tells us that this perception of the worlds unreality need not exist for the supramental consciousness: only Falsehood is unreal , not the world. And this is most interesting the world has its own reality, independent of Falsehood.
I suppose this will be the first effect of the Supermindperhaps even its first effect in the individual, because it will begin in individuals first.
This state of consciousness4 probably has to become constant, but that would pose a problem: how could one then keep in contact with the world as it is in its deformation? because I have noticed that when this state is very strong in me, very strong, so strong that it can withstand everything bombarding it from outside, people dont understand a thing I say, NOTHING! Therefore, it would seem to cut off a useful contact.
What would it be like, for instance, to have a small supramental creation as a nucleus of action and influence radiating upon earth (to limit it to the earth)? Is it possible? Its easy to conceive of a superhuman nucleusa creation of supermen, that is, of men who by virtue of evolution and transformation (in the true sense of the word) have succeeded in manifesting the supramental forces; yet since their origin is human, there is inevitably a contact; even if everything is transformed, even if their organs are transformed into centers of force, a sort of human coloration still remains. These are the beings who, according to tradition, will discover the secret of direct, supramental creation, bypassing the process of ordinary Nature. Then through them the true supramental beings will be born, who will necessarily have to live in a supramental world. But how would contact be made between these beings and the ordinary world? How to conceive of a transformation of nature sufficient to enable this supramental creation to take place on earth? I dont know.
--
because such beings would automatically become the target of outside attacks?
They would need to be automatically protected; that is, any foreign or opposing element should be kept from approaching.
--
The realization under community or group conditions would clearly be far more complete, integral, total and probably more perfect than any individual realization, which is always, necessarilynecessarilyextremely limited on the external material level, because its only one way of being, one mode of manifestation, one microscopic set of vibrations that is touched.
But for the facility of the work, I believe theres no comparison!
--
I am constantly seeing images! Not images, living thingslike answers to questions. A magnificent peacock was taking shape (its the symbol of victory here in India) and its tail opened out, and on it a construction appeared, like this construction of an ideal place. Its a pity this subtle world cant be photographed! There ought to be photographic plates sensitive enough to do it. It has been tried. It would be interesting because it moves, its like a movie.
All right, then. What did you want to ask?
--
It makes you sense so clearly that things in themselves dont count. What we call things in themselves are of no true importance! What really counts is the relationship of consciousness to these things. And theres a formidable power in this, since in one instance you touch something and drop or mishandle it, while in the other its so lovely, it works so smoothly. Even the most difficult movements are made without difficulty. Its an unheard-of power! We dont give it importance because it has no grandiose effects, its not spectacular. Yes, there are indeed states of grace when one is in the presence of a great difficulty and suddenly has all the power needed to face ityes, but thats something else. I am speaking of a power active in ordinary life.
There was an instance of this the other day: someone in a completely detestable mood wrote me a letter; it was impossible, I couldnt reply I didnt know what to say. I simply applied the Force and remained like this (gesture of an offering to the Light). I said, We shall see. Several hours later (I knew I was going to see this person) I didnt even know if I was going to say I had read the letteror rather if what I was going to say would result from having read it. I had come to that pointnothing. But that very morning a little circumstance occurred that changed everything! And when I met the person I knew immediately what had to be said, what had to be done, and everything worked out.
That is ONE example. I mention it because it happened the day before yesterday, but this goes on all the time.
I have made it a habit to always do this (gesture of abandonment to the Light). When a problem comes up, I offer it to the Lord and then leave it. And the moment the solution is required, it comesit comes in facts, in deeds, in movements.
0 1961-07-28, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Isnt it in the Essays on the Gita? He explains what Krishna says and how the two [descent and evolution] are combined. I read it not long ago because I was interested in this very question. And I even said something myself about the difference between what evolves (what emerges from this involution) and the Response from what already exists above in all its glory.
Well have to find this passage.
--
Take the experience of Mind, for example: Mind, in the evolution of Nature, gradually emerging from its involution; well and this is a very concrete experience these initial mentalized forms, if we can call them that, were necessarily incomplete and imperfect, because Natures evolution is slow and hesitant and complicated. Thus these forms inevitably had an aspiration towards a sort of perfection and a truly perfect mental state, and this aspiration brought the descent of already fully conscious beings from the mental world who united with terrestrial formsthis is a very, very concrete experience. What emerges from the Inconscient in this way is an almost impersonal possibility (yes, an impersonal possibility, and perhaps not altogether universal, since its connected with the history of the earth); but anyway its a general possibility, not personal. And the Response from above is what makes it concrete, so to speak, bringing in a sort of perfection of the state and an individual mastery of the new creation. These beings in corresponding worlds (like the gods of the overmind,4 or the beings of higher regions) came upon earth as soon as the corresponding element began to evolve out of its involution. This accelerates the action, first of all, but also makes it more perfectmore perfect, more powerful, more conscious. It gives a sort of sanction to the realization. Sri Aurobindo writes of this in SavitriSavitri lives always on earth, with the soul of the earth, to make the whole earth progress as quickly as possible. Well, when the time comes and things on earth are ready, then the divine Mother incarnates with her full powerwhen things are ready. Then will come the perfection of the realization. A splendor of creation exceeding all logic! It brings in a fullness and a power completely beyond the petty shallow logic of human mentality.
People cant understand! To put oneself at the level of the general public may be all very well5 (personally I have never found it so, although its probably inevitable), but to hope that they will ever understand the splendor of the Thing. They have to live it first!
I myself would NEVER try to deal with the why; I would always say this is how it is. When people ask me, Why did it happen like this? Why is the world so unhappy? Why does it have to be dark before growing luminous? Why has there been this accident (if it can be called an accident)? Why did the Lord permit You can say its because of this, because of thatthere are fifty thousand replies and theyre all worthless.
Its like this because thats the way it is!
It wasnt so much a question of the why as of the process.
--
So if people ask why, we can tell them, I dont know, but thats how it is. Why? (Mother shrugs her shoulders) How can a small human brain understand why! When you live it, you know! Theres no problem, its clear; its like that because its like that. It had to be that way thats how it is.
You can find all sorts of explanations for it: consciousness would never have been so complete, joy would never have been so full, the realization would never have been so total, if one had not passed through all that. But these explanations are just to satisfy the mind. When you live in it, theres no need for explanations.
0 1961-08-02, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Evolution begins with the Inconscient, complete Inconscience; and from this Inconscient a Subconscient gradually emerges that is, a half or quarter-consciousness. There are two different things here. Consider life on earth ( because the process is slightly different in the universe); earth-life begins with total Inconscience and little by little what was involved within it works out and changes this Inconscience into semi-consciousness or subconsciousness. At the same time, there is an individual working that awakens the INDIVIDUAL inconscient to an individual semiconsciousness, and here, of course, the individual has controlalthough its not actually individualized because individualization begins with consciousness. The subconscient of plants or animals, for example, isnt individualized; what we call an animals behavior doesnt arise from individualization but from the genius of the species. Consequently, the individual subconscient is something already evolved out of the general Subconscient. But when one descends to accomplish a work of transformationto bring Light into the different layers of life, for instanceone descends into a cosmic, terrestrial Subconscient, not an individual Subconscient. And the work of transformation is done within the wholenot through individualization, but through the opposite movement, through a sort of universalization.
No, what I mean is that as we progress, we automatically become universalized.
--
So it all keeps circling round and round in the earths atmosphere. But compared to the universe, the earths atmosphere is a very tiny thing. Well, all this keeps circling around within it. And in fact, because of the movement of evolution, there is a progress. The present Inconscient is not as unconscious as the initial Inconscient, and the present Subconscient is not as subconscious nor as generalized as it was at the beginning. This is the meaning of terrestrial evolution.
But if, as you say, it keeps circling around in the earths atmosphere, doesnt this mean that vibrations are ceaselessly re-created?
--
Every night, you know, I continue to see more and more astounding things emerging from the Subconscient to be transformed. Its a kind of mixturenot clearly individualizedof all the things that have been more or less closely associated in life. For example, some people are intermingled there. One relives things almost as in a dream (although these are not dreams), one relives it all in a certain setting, within a certain set of symbolic, or at any rate expressive, circumstances. Just two days ago I had to deal with someone (I am actively at work there and I had to do something with him), and upon seeing this person, I asked myself, is he this one or that one? As I became less involved in the action and looked with a more objective consciousness, the witness-consciousness, I saw that it was simply a mixture of both personseverything is mixed in the Subconscient. Already when I lived in Japan there were four people I could never distinguish during my nighttime activitiesall four of them (and god knows they werent even acquainted!) were always intermingled because their subconscious reactions were identical.
In fact, this is what legitimizes the ego; because if we had never formed an ego, we would have lived all mixed up (laughing), now this person, now another! Oh, it was so comical, seeing this the other day! At first it was a bit bewildering, but when I looked closely, it became utterly amusing: two little people with no physical resemblance, yet of a similar typesmall and in short, a similarity. Its like the four men I used to see in Japan: there was an Englishman, a Frenchman, a Japanese and one more, each from a different country; well, at night they were all the same, as if viewed one through the other, all intermingledvery amusing!
But individualization is a slow and difficult process. Thats why you have an ego, otherwise you would never become individualized, but always be (Mother laughs) a kind of public place!
--
because when one loses his ego and finds this central being, Sri Aurobindo says that an individuality remainsit isnt a dissolutionone retains a personality.
Yes, a personality remains.
--
Otherwise there could be no permanent material life for this [individuality] is the very nature of materialization. Were it destined to disappear, then the phenomenon of physical dissolution would become permanent, and there would never be physical immortality; because, after exhausting a certain basically, a certain number of illusions or disorders or falsehoods, one would return to the Truth. But according to Sri Aurobindo, it isnt like that: this individualization, this individual personalization is the Truth, a real, au thentic divine phenomenon the only falsehood is the deformation of consciousness. Well, when we rediscover the true consciousness of Unity that Unity which is both in and above the manifest and the non-manifest (above in that it contains both the manifest and non-manifest equally), well, this Truth includes material personalization, otherwise that2 could not exist.
But each individual has a different personality.
--
A mode of being, yes, in a way, in its essencein its essence, because in the manifestation all this is destined to disappear. Yes, they are modes of beinglike those first four modes of being3 created at the first manifestation.
But in our case, would there be innumerable modes of being, each representing one particular aspect?
--
Yes, because.
How is this possible? Arent the gods already fully conscious?!
--
In all the traditions here in India (and in other countries and other religions as well), most of the time these gods behave impossibly! This is simply because they have no psychic being. The psychic being is the one thing belonging specifically to terrestrial life; it has been given as a grace to repair, to undo what had been done.
Yes, but arent the gods conscious of the Divine?
--
I knew how it was with her because I remember the days when Sri Aurobindo was here and I used to go downstairs to give meditations to the people assembled in the hall. Theres a ledge above the pillars there, where all the gods used to sitShiva, Krishna, Lakshmi, the Trimurti, all of them the little ones, the big ones, they all used to come regularly, every day, to attend these meditations. It was a lovely sight. But they didnt have this kind of adoration for the Supreme. They had no use for that concepteach one, in his own mode of being, was fully aware of his own eternal divinity; and each one knew as well that he could represent all the others (such was the basis of popular worship,7 and they knew it). They felt they were a kind of community, but they had none of those qualities that the psychic life gives: no deep love, no deep sympathy, no sense of union. They had only the sense of their OWN divinity. They had certain very particular movements, but not this adoration for the Supreme nor the feeling of being instruments: they felt they were representing the Supreme, and so each one was perfectly satisfied with his particular representation.
Except for Krishna. In 1926, I had begun a sort of overmental creation, that is, I had brought the Overmind down into matter, here on earth (miracles and all kinds of things were beginning to happen). I asked all these gods to incarnate, to identify themselves with a body (some of them absolutely refused). Well, with my very own eyes I saw Krishna, who had always been in rapport with Sri Aurobindo, consent to come down into his body. It was on November 24th, and it was the beginning of Mother.8
--
Shiva, on the other hand, refused. No, he said, I will come only when you have finished your work. I will not come into the world as it is now, but I am ready to help. He was standing in my room that day, so tall (laughing) that his head touched the ceiling! He was bathed in his own special light, a play of red and gold magnificent! Just as he is when he manifests his supreme consciousnessa formidable being! So I stood up and (I too must have become quite tall, because my head was resting on his shoulder, just slightly below his head) then he told me, No, Im not tying myself to a body, but I will give you ANYTHING you want. The only thing I said (it was all done wordlessly, of course) was: I want to be rid of the physical ego.
Well, mon petit (laughing), it happened! It was extraordinary! After a while, I went to find Sri Aurobindo and said, See what has happened! I have a funny sensation (Mother laughs) of the cells no longer being clustered together! Theyre going to scatter! He looked at me, smiled and said, Not yet. And the effect vanished.
0 1961-08-05, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
First of all, in the Questions and Answers you speak of the reversal of consciousness. Is this synonymous with the psychic realization? because in one Conversation you connect the two things: the reversal of consciousness and the discovery of the psychic being.
Its the result of this discovery. In fact, its the result of union with the psychic being.
--
Yes, because I dont quite understand.
You see, the subtle physical extends a long way beyond the body.
Then comes what Theon called the nervous sub-level, which lies between this subtle physical and the vital. And it acts as a protection: if it is stable, harmonious and strong, it protects youit protects you even physicallyfrom contagious diseases, for instance, and even from accidents. I experienced it when I was living at Val-de-Grce. It was the year I resolved to attain union with the psychic being and I was concentrated on this from morning to night and night to morning. Every day I spent some time in the Luxembourg Gardens. They were right near the house, but to get there I had to go all the way down Rue du Val-de-Grce and cross Boulevard Saint Michel, where there were streetcars, automobiles, buses the whole circus. I would remain in my concentration the whole time, and once, while crossing the boulevard, I felt a shock about this far from my body [slightly more than arms length], so spontaneously I jumped backjust enough for the streetcar to pass by. I hadnt heard anything; I was totally absorbed, and without that warning I would surely have been run over; instead, I jumped back just in time, and the streetcar sped by. I understood then that this nervous sheath was something entirely concrete, because what I had felt was not an idea of danger but a shocka material SHOCK.
So its true that as long as this envelope is strong and undamaged, you are protected. But for instance, if you are over-tired or worried or flusteredanything that brings disorder into the atmosphere seems to make holes in this envelope, and all kinds of things can enter.
--
No, no, no. Most of the time in sleep, with very few exceptions, one is in contact with all that rises up from the subconscient: a cerebral subconscient, an emotive subconscient, a material subconscient; this is what produces ninety-nine percent of the dreams people have. Sometimesusually the mind goes wandering, but ninety-nine and a half percent of the time, one remembers nothing when it returns, because the link is not properly established.
The purpose of sleep is to re-establish contact with the consciousness of Sachchidananda. But I dont think one person in a hundred does so! They enter into unconsciousness far more than into Sachchidananda.
Yet no two sleeps are the same, mon petit! And its the same with deaths, no two are the same. But sleep and death are different because they are different STATES. As long as you have a body, you are not in the same state as when you are dead. There is a period of seven days after the doctors declare you dead when you are still in an intermediary state; but the actual state of death itself is completely different because there is no longer this physical base.
Once when I was at Tlemcen with Theon (this happened twice, but Im not sure about the second time because I was alone), my body was in a cataleptic state and I was in conscious trance. It was a peculiar kind of catalepsy in the sense that my body could speak, though very slowly Theon had taught me how to do it. But this is because the life of the form always remains (this is what takes seven days to leave the body) and it can even be trained to make the body move the being is no longer there, but the life of the form can make the body move (in any case, utter words). However, this state is not without danger, the proof being that while I was working in trance, for some reason or other (which I no longer remember, but obviously due to some negligence on the part of Theon who was there to watch over me), the cord I dont know what to call itwent snap! The link was cut, malevolently,5 and when it was time and I wanted to return, I could no longer re-enter my body. But I was still able to warn him: The cord is cut. Then he used his power and knowledge to help me come back but it was no joke! It was very difficult.6 And this is when I had the experience of the two different states, because the part that had gone out was now without the bodys support the link was cut. Then I knew. Of course, I was in a special state; I was doing a fully conscious work with all the vital power, and I was in control not only of my surroundings but. You see, what happens is a kind of reversal of consciousness: you begin to belong to another world; you feel this quite distinctly. Theon instantly told me to concentrate (I was finding it all interestingMo ther laughs I was making experiments and getting ready to go wandering off, but he was terribly scared that I would die on him!). He begged me to concentrate, so I concentrated on my body.
When I re-entered, it hurt terribly, terriblyan excruciating pain, like plunging into a hell.
--
He made me drink half a glass of cognac (he always made me take some every day after the trance because I would work in trance for more than an hour, which is generally a forbidden practice). Still, I am quite sure that with anybody but me and him, this would have been the end. I would not have reentered.
So I know a little bit, even in my outermost consciousness. A little bit, thats all.
--
Its strange. I say strange because its due to her that I took birth in this body, that it was chosen. When she was very young she had a great aspiration. She was exactly twenty years older than 1; she was twenty when I was born and I was her third child. The first was a son who died in Turkey when he was two months old, I thinkthey vaccinated him against smallpox and poisoned him, (laughing) god knows what it means! He died of convulsions. Next was my brother who was born in Egypt, at Alexandria, and then me, born in Paris when she was exactly twenty years old. At that time (especially since the death of her first child) she had a kind of GREAT aspiration in her: her children had to be the best in the world. It wasnt an ambition, I dont know what it was. And what a will she had! MY mother had a formidable will, like an iron bar, utterly impervious to all outside influence. Once she had made up her mind, it was made up; even if someone had been dying before her eyes, she wouldnt have budged! And she decided: My children will be the best in the world.
One thing she did have was a sense of progress; she felt that the world was progressing and we had to be better than anything that had come before and that was sufficient.
--
She was down on her knees before my brother. My mother scorned all religious sentiments as weakness and superstition and she absolutely denied the invisible. Its all brain disease, she would say! But she could say just as well, Oh, my Matteo is my God, he is my God. The devil knows why, but in Alexandria she gave him the Italian name Matteo! And she truly treated him like a god. She left him only when he married, because then she really couldnt continue to follow him around any longer.
But whats interesting, for instance, is that when her father died she knew it; she saw him. She thought it was a dreama stupid dream. But he came to let her know he was dead and she saw him. Its nothing, she said, a dream! (Mother laughs)
--
We are not sure, finally, if this envelope and the circumconscient are one and the same thing, but this is how Sri Aurobindo speaks of it: 'The first thing one sees when one has broken the barrier is the vital-physical body. It is around the physical body and with the physical it forms as it were the "nervous envelope." The force of a disease has to break through it to reach the bodyexcept for the attacks on the most material parts. You can then feel the disease coming and also feel in the nervous envelope the part of the body which it is going to, or intending to, attack because what is in the nervous envelope has a material counterpart in the body. Thus it is the vital-physical which is first attacked and then the force takes the form of a disease in the system. I had myself the experience of fever all around the body.'
A.B. Purani, Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo, Volume I, p. 232
--
On another occasion, Mother told Sujata more about these three times her brother almost killed her: 'One day we were playing croquet, and either because he got beaten or for some other reason, he flew into a rage and struck me hard with his Mallet; fortunately I escaped with only a slight scratch. Another time, we were sitting in a room and he threw a big chair towards me I ducked just in time and the chair passed over my head. A third time, as we were descending from a carriage, he pushed me down under it; luckily the horse didn't move.'
***
0 1961-08-08, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This is something new he has accepted, because the Supreme doesnt usually appear in tantrism they are in contact with the Shakti and dont bother about the Supreme. But here he has come to accept it.
He has tried very hard to understand. But his spiritual conception has remained like this: one canone MUSTmaster life, and in life, to some extent, a certain adaptation to the higher forces can be achieved; but there is no question of transformation: the physical world remains the physical world. It can be a little better organized, more harmonious, but there is no question of something else, of divinizationno question at all.
And this is probably why there are things he cant make out in his contact with me, because he simply doesnt understand. For example, these physical disorders baffle him, they seem incompatible with my realization. As long as the question of transformation does not come into play, the realization I had was sufficient to establish a kind of very stable orderreaction against the transformative will is what causes these disorders. And this he does not understandto him something seems not to be functioning properly. He must feel a contradiction between certain things he perceives in my consciousness and my contact with the material world. This being this, he thinks, that ought to be like that; so why? He doesnt understand.1
X's astonishment raises an extremely important point, drawing the exact dividing line between all the traditional yogas and the new yoga of Sri Aurobindo and Mother. To a tantric, for example, it seems unthinkable that Mother, with a consciousness so powerful as to scoff at the laws of nature and comm and the elements (if she wishes), could be subjected to absurd head colds or an eye hemorrhage or even more serious disorders. For him, it is enough to simply lift a finger and emit a vibration which instantly muzzles the disorderyes, of course, but for Mother it is not a question of 'curing' a head cold by imposing a higher POWER on Matter, but of getting down to the cellular root and curing or transforming the source of the evil (which causes death as easily as head colds, for it is the same root of disorder). It is not a question of imposing oneself on Matter through a 'power,' but of transforming Matter. Such is the yoga of the cells.
0 1961-08-11, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
because this kind of creative Power coming from on high, from up, up, up on the highest heights, beyond all forms of manifestation, mon petit, its like something tremendous held behind a floodgate. And sometimes (Mother smiles) theres a temptation to open the floodgate a little.
When it pours out that will be something.
0 1961-08-18, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Well, so much the better, because I dont have much left!
I have quite a supply right now.
--
It was very interesting. However, the experience could not last because after a while I wasnt alone anymore. Actually, it was dinner time. Not that I couldnt eat in that stateit makes no difference (I can eat very easily through others, for instance: it has happened quite frequently that someone else eats and I am satisfied; theres no need to put anything inside, its very convenient! These are experiments.) But this was it was the almost total annihilation of the center. It didnt last because of the people (four, as always) bringing in dinner, serving the plates, etc.their concentration weakened the experience: it faded. The feeling of Im eating returned a littlenot I! That notion disappeared a long time ago! Not my true Imy true I has been settled up above for a very long time, and it doesnt move from there. But this body is eating; this body which has been put at the disposal of the work is eating (it didnt come in so many words and sentences, but still!). In short, the experience faded with the sensation of eating and I was unable to know its effect.
But I would like to know the effect it must have on the bodys functioning. It would be interesting to know if the functioning becomes wholly harmonious or what? We will probably see. But the experience must last; it must last for at least one day, or even two or three then the result would be interesting to see.
--
Balsam. Also called 'Impatiens' because of the fruit's irritability: the instant it is touched, it explodes and projects its seeds far and wide.
Punica granatum (Pomegranate flower).
0 1961-08-25, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Anyway, X has written to me (and to M. also), telling me he will be here on the 29th, but will have to leave on the 10th, so it wont be for very longall because of various ceremonies.2 He writes me that hes going to train someone to replace him for all these ceremonies so he can be freer to come here for longer periods. But to M. (the devil knows what M. wrote to him), he says something like, Yes, there is a very sorry situation in the Ashram and peoples jealousy and envy are increasing more and more. Yet nevertheless he feels so drawn by the Mothers presence that he will come.
I admit I didnt like this letter. But I dont hold him responsible because. When people tell him things, he believes them. God knows what story M. told him!
(silence)
--
Nowadays I always spend a part of the night in the realm of expression, a realm where generally I never used to go at all. Its a very lovely place, very human in the sense that its not a scene from Nature: there are huge rooms and great, highly intellectual arrangements; yet its very lovely, with such a clear and limpid atmosphereall in clear shades (Mother gives up trying to describe it). Oh, its so luminous and lovely, very well organized, as far as the eye can see; it seems as big as the earth. The rooms are roofless, just imagine! Huge roofless rooms flooded with light, and transparent partitions. And the people inside seem very, very awarenot a lot of people, but extremely studious and attentive, and they are creating arrangements of things. They must be people writing books. They are making compositionsoh, if you knew how lovely it was! Its as if they were taking colors and more or less geometrical forms and placing them in relation to one another. There are huge pigeonholes where everything is in order, and yet without doors, not closed upwide open and still completely protected. An interesting place. I dont usually go there Ive gone maybe two or three times in my life, without paying much attention but lately, because of this book you are writing, Sri Aurobindo is taking me there all the time.
And there are people with no countryhe takes me to a place where the people have no country, no race, no special costume they seem very universal. And they move around harmoniously, silently, as though they were gliding and with precision, everything is extremely precise. Some of them have even shown me things: there were some lovely colored papers! But these colors are unearthly, somehow transparent. They were arranging it all, demonstrating and explaining to me how it has to be arranged to give the maximum effect.
0 1961-09-10, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The night before last, around 3 in the morning, I was in a place where there were a lot of people from here (you were there), and I was trying to play some music, precisely in order to SAY something. There were three pianos there, which seemed to be interlocked into each other, so I leaned over sideways to get at one of the three and began playing on it. It was in a large hall with people seated at a distance, but you were just at my left alongside a young lady who was a symbol figure (that is, the vibration or impression I received from her and the relationship I had with her could be applied as well to four or five persons here: it was like relating to an amalgam something that is very interesting and often happens to me). Anyway, I was leaning over one of the keyboards and trying trying to work something out, to illustrate how this would translate into that. Finally I realized that playing half-standing, half-leaning was unnecessary acrobatics, because a grand piano was right there in front, so I sat down before it. Well, the most amusing part of it was that the keys (there were two keyboards) were all bluelike the marbled paper we are making now, all blue, and with every possible marbled effect. Black keys, white keys, high keys, low keys (all of them were the same width, quite wide, like this), all seemed to be coated but it wasnt paperwith this blue. Facing the piano I said to myself, Well now, this cant be played with physical eyesit has to be played FROM ABOVE.
While I was playing, I kept telling myself, But this is what Ive tried to do with music all my lifeplay on the blue keyboard!
--
I was so sorry to have to get up. because (laughing) I thought, At least I would have heard something good for once! It was such an outburst of sound! So extraordinary and so powerful that. But it was 4 oclock and time to get up.
Maybe this is what you were thinking ofwhat you would like to express in your book. It occurred in a place similar to the realm of expression where, as I told you, I have frequently been going lately. It is very, very vast, very open, but this time there were no walls. No ceiling, no walls. There was only a kind of groundvery pale, luminous, vast and very empty, empty. People were seated but I didnt see any chairs. Only the pianos were visible, and they were quite odd: you could hardly see anything but the keyboards, which were sort of overlapping. In front was a grand piano, and over here was a somewhat bigger one the one I had been leaning over sideways to play on and then there was one turned to the other side. And then this grand piano, right in front but with only the keyboard visible! Well, why shouldnt I be comfortable! I said to myself, and I sat down. Then everything became bluegreat, blue notes. How am I going to play? I wondered. I tried to play as usual and then: It doesnt work, it doesnt work, I said. Ah! It has to be played from aboveit has to be played from above! So I place my hands on the keys, I concentrate and brrff! It was like some not violent, not loud and noisy, butoh, overwhelming! Three, fournot notes: sounds, harmonies I dont really know what.
0 1961-09-16, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
These last two or three days I have been constantly seeing this for you. Then this morning it came for me, because the accumulation of work has become so tremendous that I would need ten times more time than I have merely to bring things up to date. So there I was, feeling a bit cornered; there was even a force wanting me to stop in the midst of my walk and RELAX, and I was resisting it with all my willuntil I realized I was doing something foolish. It was the same thing, he said the same thing for me. I relaxed and immediately everything was fine.
Essentially, we live with too much tension, dont we?
--
What to do about it? Oh, that will come. But its true, we are always too tensealways. And I know that as long as we are controlled by that admirable mind, we feel that to relax means to fall into tamas and unconsciousness. All these old notions remain, prolonging themselves; and theres something like the residue of one of those marvelous censors, telling you: Be careful, tamas, tamas! Be careful, you are dozing offvery bad, very bad. And its idiotic, because tamas is neither joyous nor luminous, while this is an immediate joy and light.
***
--
We are not here to do only a little better what the others do, we are here to do what the others CANNOT do, because they do not have even the idea that it can be done. We are here to open the way of the Future to children who belong to the Future. Anything else is not worth the trouble and not worthy of Sri Aurobindos help.
Thats what I wrote.
It is Sri Aurobindo, of course, because it came in English.
(Mother gets up to leave)
0 1961-09-30, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
1. This letter to Mother is, with a few others, the sole survivor of thirteen years of correspondence. All the rest, all Satprem's correspondence with Mother since 1960, was confiscated by the Ashram after the Mother's departure, for its own reasons. His letters of 1960, already published in Volume I, escaped the destruction because Mother herself had kept them. It makes a big hole in this Agenda, not only for him because he had poured out his heart, his questions and doubts and difficulties into these letters but also from an historical point of view, for many of these conversations with Mother were invisibly oriented by his own condition. In fact, he was intimately linked with the flow of this Agenda, which thus stands mutilated. Need we add that we had to prepare the first two volumes as fugitives, and it required Mother's miraculous help to avert even more serious mutilations than the auto-da-f of Satprem's correspondence.
***
0 1961-10-02, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The story began with an entirely concrete and material incident something very amusing; this is not the first time it has happened, but it was so concrete and so precise that it became interesting. Someone was complaining of being ill, quite a serious, psychological illness: periodic possession by a spirit of falsehood, recurring regularly every month, of more or less long duration. This person comes to see me, and the moment shes here theres an upwelling of that profound Compassion of Love, with a considerable, concentrated Power to drive away the possession; and all of this accompanied, even outwardly, by quite an affectionate gesture. This person leaves and within half an hour I receive a letter: Now I know: you hate me, you want me to be ill and you want me to die because I disgust you.
It was interesting because it was so concrete. I was conscious of my movement of compassion and love and of what it had become in the other persons consciousness!
Its very easy to explain: she was already more than half possessed, and of course this spirit of falsehood hardly felt comfortable! And the identification2 (not only mental but sensory, vital) was so complete that she felt this love as a movement of hatred. When I saw the two phenomena, I also saw that this is exactly what happens in the world! Its exactly what EVERYONE is.
I must add that the experience came after I had been concentrating for three days (concentrating almost constantly) on finding an explanation for this: why has it become this way? It is impossible to find the why because its the reason asking and this goes beyond reason but what is the MECHANISM? Finding the mechanism would already be somethingto have the experience of the mechanism. And then came this CONCRETE superposition of the vibration of Love and the reception of hate. But this is exactly what happens! I said. The Lord is All-Love, All-Truth, All-Bliss, All-Deligh tHe is CONSTANTLY like thatand the world, especially the human world, constantly receives him in the other way. And the two things are superposed (Mother covers her left hand with her right).
Words dont convey anything; it was the experience. I made contact. It was very interesting. It lasted a long time, some two or three days. Since it was also linked to a state of healtha headache that had to be curedit bore its consequences: a crystal clear explanation of illness came. But I must again add something that preceded this.
This concentration on finding the mechanism sprang from the fact that there were disorders in the body which were vanishing and then reappearingpermanent cure seemed impossible. So I told myself, Somewhere, probably in the subconscient, something must be justifying their presence. Then, after concentrating and searching and concentrating some more, suddenly a memory rose up from the subconscient (a memory which is a kind of continued existence under a certain form), the memory of a particular set of movements and actions (not physical movements, but attitudes) that go back many years and had never attracted my attention. None of it had ever been included in the general clearing-out because, like so many other things, it all seemed to be due to normal, ongoing circumstances. But thats just where I saw (what to call it?) the hue, the taint of Falsehood. Its very subtle. These are very subtle things. But suddenly, oh! It caught hold of me and created a revolution in the whole being. All those vibrations were cast up and transformedan extraordinary thing. It stirred up much more commotion and revolution than I had ever expected. And ah! A relief. Something was clarified, bringing a brilliant, new comprehension, and then quite interesting physical results. Before this, I was really feeling rather poorly, extremely tired, with the impression of a decline into decrepituderelatively speaking! (It was in a very superficial part of the being, but it was enough to be disagreeable.) And all of itpfft! Gone in a single stroke.
And that very day, I had this experience with the possessed personit all came together. And then afterwards, a sort of mastery over the problem and the impression of a breakthroughan opening up of the WAY to change, which is this enlargement. First, the movement of generosity (not that shriveling movement, but its exact opposite the movement of expansion), and from there you go on to universality, and from universality to Totality.
--
If you give it to me to read when its all finished, as you did with the other one [LOrpailleur], thats how it will be received; it wont pass through the mind at all. It will be reflected in the mirror and from the mirror it will go above. Thats the way I saw the other book, and I was shown many things about you I hadnt known. So you can do it either way; I mean you can use the mirror before finishing the booknot for what I may think of it, because that has no importance at all, but for the effect it might have on your work. Its up to you.
Its not quite ready. I still have a lot to correct.
--
But it took some time, because first of all he had to stop talking, and then I had to concentrate.
And I never did find out what he said to me!
--
I am their despair because I always tell them, It doesnt make any difference! Do it like this or do it like that, it all comes down to the same thing. They are indignant: What do you mean it all comes to the same thing! (Mother laughs wholeheartedly)
So there we are.
0 1961-10-15, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The first time you read your manuscript, I called Sri Aurobindo to hear it. He was in the subtle physical and he listened. Yesterday when I sat down to listen, I thought, It would be much better if he entered my brain because that way. In fact, I called him; he entered my brain. It took some time; all through the beginning of the reading we were still two; then he came in more and more, more and more, more and more. My headmy physical headseemed to be swelling up! There was no longer space for anyone but him. It was the light that dark blue light of mental power (but true mental power) in the physical the tantrics use it, you always see it with Xs action, but Ive never seen it this way before! My head was full, you knowfull, full, not an atom of space to spare I could feel it swelling up!
And this light was absolutely immobilevibrationless, totally compact and coherent. When I see Xs light, for example, there are always vibrations in it; it vibrates, vibrates, things are shifting about; out with this, not a single vibration, not one movement: a MASS that seemed eternally immobile but which was (how to put it?) attentive, listening. It was a volume with the form of the head, as if that had wholly taken over the head. It was full, so full, yet with no feeling of tension or of anything resisting, none at all; there was only a kind of immobile eternity and COMPACT, compact, absolutely coherent, no vibrations. And it increased, increased more and more, it became heavy, but with a very particular heavinessnot a weight, the feeling of a mass.
And within all this, I no longer existed. I seemed to vanish into a kind of trance, yet I was consciousnot I: the consciousness was conscious of what Sri Aurobindo was conscious of. And he was following the reading. But I couldnt remember anything; at the time, it was impossible to observe. I can only describe it all to you now because the experience remained for at least an hour and a half afterwards; when I left here, I began to objectify it, to see what it wasaside from that, it was merely a STATE I found myself in. But in this state there was an awareness of what he was hearing, and at two or three places in your reading he seemed to be saying (I cant be exact, I can only give the impression), Not necessary. In fact, thats what made me call this passage too philosophical (although when you first asked my opinion I was in a peculiar condition, nothing was active in me). With him, it was very clear, it was almost as if there were a certain number of words about which he said, That, not necessary. That, not necessary. Not many, not often, but once in a while. Especially at the end (he was still there inside my head while you were talking), when you were saying that its necessary to explain to people; there he very clearly said, No, not necessary.
But I was incapable of remembering or of registering anything the only head present there was his.
--
After our meeting yesterday, as soon as I saw clearly and could objectify it, I immediately sent all this to you (I didnt write because I had no time, but I told it all to you), for I felt that, not knowing what had happened, you might have thought I wasnt listening, or I dont know what!
No, no! I felt that what I had written wasnt it.
--
For a long, long time I have been asking for. When I would say, Lord, take possession of this brain, I expected something of the sort, but I was expecting it with the supramental light (which, partially and momentarily, I have had). But this! It was really. I dont know what he did with my brainnot brain, my mental power. Probably during that period he absorbed it (I suppose thats what happened because there was no sense of difference). My impression was that as a result of this the physical cells were going to develop materially and be transformed (I think it will happen I had a sort of assurance that it will). because now, as Im talking to you, Im looking at it and I see the effect is still there: no longer with the same overwhelming power, but the effect is there and it gives a sort of (it cant be compared to anything physical) a sort of warmth; its not heat, but warmth. Everything is seized by it, both ears (Mother touches her head), everythinghere, there, all around! Tremendous. And this immobility! As soon as one stops, it is immor (Mother cuts off her word), it is eternity.
It is truly bringing THAT down here [into Matter].
--
But is this thread so very necessary? because the last time you read (I cant pinpoint exactly where), Sri Aurobindo seemed to intervene each time any of those habitual coherences of reason intruded, things you probably inserted precisely in order to join passages together and make them comprehensible. It was at these junctures (I cant remember them exactly) where he would occasionally say, Not necessary, not necessary. That can go, that can go.
Afterwards, I tried to understand (I tried to identify enough to be able to understand) and I got the feeling that he finds it will be much more powerful if you dont follow normal logical lines (Im elaborating a bitit wasnt quite like this); rather, if you like, it is better to be prophetic than didacticfling abroad the ideas, ploff! Then let people do what they can with them. I felt he was viewing this not only from the essential standpoint, but from the standpoint of the public, and he wanted to ensure that it doesnt become tiresomeat all costs, dont let it be tiresome. It can be bewildering, but not tiresome. Let them be hurled right into things strange and unknown things, perhaps, but. For instance (this is my own style, you can take it for what its worth), it would be better for people to say, Hes a madman, than to say, Hes a boring sermonizer. And all this was coming with his sense of humor, the way he has of saying, for example, that folly is closer to the Divine than reason!
--
After speaking of the descent of the Supermind, he said that an INTERMEDIARY must be prepared between our present mental state (even the most elevated higher mind) and the supramental region, because if one entered directly into Gnosis, well, it would produce such an abrupt change that our physical constitutions would be unable to support itan intermediary is needed. The experiences Ive had make me absolutely convinced of it; twice the supramental world took veritable possession of me and both times it was as if the bodytruly the physical bodywas going to completely disintegrate, due to what you could almost call the opposition of the two conditions.
And yesterday again I clearly saw (Mother touches this mass in her head). My eyes are full of it my eyes are full, you know, and I see that as it works to settle itself in here, it produces this little vibrationa twinkling of vibrationswhich seems to be indispensable for it to enter into this Matter.
--
Two or three days ago, in one of those moments when you feel a little stupid (little is an understatement!), I said to myself, Yes, how good it was when I used to feel him with me all the time. In this period now, I no longer feel him. Then he told me so clearly, so positively, You dont feel me because I am you.
And I saw that it was true, that the identification was established in such a detailed way, one could say, that there is no longer the joya joy of feeling like this (gesture of being embraced).
--
And precisely because a large part of the book is reasonable enough, artistic, well-expressed and well-presented, it can afford a few pages (there need not be many), a few pages that are like a leap into sheer madness!
I SEE, I am looking at all that, sparkling.
--
If I say all this its because I see to what extent Sri Aurobindo views this book as an important tool for world-wide workfrom the beginning he has taken it seriously. And he is so very much HERE that it seems to me not at all impossible that he HIMSELF is stimulating the expression.
Its not so much a question of ideas, because all that is quite fine.
Read your final page to me. I dont care about the coherence of ideas. Read the final page for me to see whether I feel that same Force in it.
--
Listen, think it over. because Im not so sure. When I see, I see segments: a blank, another segment, a blank (Mother seems to sketch a kind of diagram in space), then an apotheosis at the endyour ending is magnificent.
Its not necessary for the whole book to proceed in the same way.
--
You have to concretely feel that Sri Aurobindos full Power of expression is there (I dont mean the words, its not a question of words), but the power to transmit knowledge (not mental knowledge, experience). Its constantly there. So an attentive silence but be very patient, because as soon as the Force comes, something begins to stir in the mental regions. Then there is also a sort of eagerness to seize hold and it ruins the thing.
I have noticed that the true inspiration doesnt come when one is very, very anxious, nor even when you have a very intense aspiration, but (how to put it?) when you succumb in a smile, and it all goes blank. Then theres nothing; but if you know how to curb impatience (simply delighting in His beatitude, even if ages passdelighting in His beatitude), then suddenly, when you least expect itflash! Thats IT!
--
I dont think so, mon petit! I dont think so. I cant tell you for sure because Im not the one who heard ityou know what I mean? No memory is operating. Were you to ask me to repeat a single word of what you have written, I couldnt do ityet I listened to you.
I have a sort of vision in my head of parts of sentences, three or four words where the impression was what I told you: Not necessary. But it was a very minor thing. It was more an attitude, an attitude in the expression. But it wasnt disturbing.
0 1961-10-30, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The secret lies in matter. because Agni is imprisoned in matter and we ourselves are imprisoned there. It is said that Agni is without head or feet, that it conceals its two extremities: above, it disappears into the great heaven of the supraconscient (which the Rishis also called the great ocean), and below, it sinks into the formless ocean of the inconscient (which they also called the rock). We are truncated. But the Rishis were men of a solid realism, a true realism resting upon the Spirit; and since the summits of mind opened out upon a lacuna of lightecstatic, to be sure, but with no hold over the worldthey set upon the downward way.6 Thus begins the quest for the lost sun, the long pilgrimage of descent into the inconscient and the merciless fight against the dark forces, the thieves of the sun, the panis and vritras, pythons and giants, hidden in the dark lair with the whole cohort of usurpers: the dualizers, the confiners, the tearers, the COVERERS. But the divine worker, Agni, is helped by the gods, and in his quest he is led by the intuitive ray, Sarama, the heavenly hound with the subtle sense of smell who sets Agni on the track of the stolen herds (strange, shining herds). Now and again there comes the sudden glimmer of a fugitive dawn then all grows dim. One must advance step by step, digging, digging, fighting every inch of the way against the wolves whose savage fury increases the nearer one draws to their denAgni is a warrior. Agni grows through his difficulties, his flame burns more brilliantly with each blow from the Adversary; for, as the Rishis said, Night and Day both suckled the divine Child; they even said that Night and Day are the two sisters, Immortal, with a common lover [the sun] common they, though different their forms (I.113.2,3). These alternations of night and brightness accelerate until Day breaks at last and the herds of Dawn7 surge upward awakening someone who was dead (I.113.8). The infinite rock of the inconscient is shattered, the seeker uncovers the Sun dwelling in the darkness (III.39.5), the divine consciousness in the heart of Matter. In the very depths of Matter, that is to say, in the body, on earth, the Rishis found themselves cast up into Light that same Light which others sought on the heights, without their bodies and without the earth, in ecstasy. And this is what the Rishis would call the Great Passage. Without abandoning the earth they found the vast dwelling place, that dwelling place of the gods, Swar, the original Sun-world that Sri Aurobindo calls the Supramental World: Human beings [the Rishis emphasize that they are indeed men] slaying the Coverer have crossed beyond both earth and heaven [matter and mind] and made the wide world their dwelling place (I.36.8). They have entered the True, the Right, the Vast, Satyam, Ritam, Brihat, the unbroken light, the fearless light, where there is no longer suffering nor falsehood nor death: it is immortality, amritam.
***
0 1961-11-05, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Anyway, it was because of Theon that I first found the Mantra of Life, the mantra that gives life, and he wanted me to give it to him, he wanted to possess itit was something formidable! It was the mantra that gives life (it can make anyone at all come back into life, but thats only a small part of its power). And it was shut away in a particular place,2 sealed up, with my name in Sanskrit on it. I didnt know Sanskrit at that time, but he did, and when he led me to that place, I told him what I saw: Theres a sort of design, it must be Sanskrit. (I could recognize the characters as Sanskrit). He told me to reproduce what I was seeing, and I did so. It was my name, Mirra, written in Sanskrit the mantra was for me and I alone could open it. Open it and tell me whats there, he said. (All this was going on while I was in a cataleptic trance.) Then immediately something in me KNEW, and I answered, No, and did not read it.
I found it again when I was with Sri Aurobindo and I gave it to Sri Aurobindo.
--
When Richard had finished his work, he returned to France with a poor photograph of Sri Aurobindo and a completely superficial impression of him, yet with the feeling that Sri Aurobindo KNEW (he hadnt at all understood the man that Sri Aurobindo was, he hadnt felt the presence of an Avatar, but he had sensed that he had knowledge). Moreover, I think he always held this opinion, because he used to say that Sri Aurobindo was a unique intellectual giant without many spiritual realizations! (The same type of stupidity as Romain Rollands.) Well, my relationship with Richard was on an occult plane, you see, and its difficult to touch upon. What happened was far more exciting than any novel imaginable.
But he was a man who.
He isnt dead and hes still terribly dangerous because of whats behind him [the Lord of Falsehood].
You didnt record that, did you?
--
When we returned to France, Richard got himself declared unfit for military service on health groundsa yogic heart ailment! But life in France was impossible; and my presence there was dangerous because monstrous things were going on, monstrous; as Sri Aurobindo said, my sitting at home all alone was generating revolutionsarmies were revolting.6 I saw that happening and I didnt want the Germans to win, which would have been even worse, so I said, I had better go. Then Richard managed to have himself sent to Japan on business (an admirable feat!), representing certain companies. People didnt want to travel because it was dangerousyou risked being sunk to the bottom of the sea; so they were pleased when we offered and sent us to Japan.
Once there (this would also make a great novel), Richard continued writing and sending his manuscripts to Sri Aurobindo. Finally, when the Peace Treaty was signed and it was possible to travel, the English said that if we tried to return to India they would throw us in jail! But it all worked out miraculously, almost becoming a diplomatic incident: the Japanese government decided that if we were put in prison they would protest to the British government! (What a story I could write novels!) In short, Richard returned here with me. And thats when the tragi-comedy began.
--
This man clearly led a rather loose life. Right after he left here he spent some time in the Himalayas and became a Sannyasi. Then he went to France and from France to England. In England he married againbigamy! I didnt care, of course (the less he showed up in my life, the better), but he was in a fix! One day I suddenly received some official letters from a lawyer telling me I had initiated divorce proceedings against Richard. it seems I had a lawyer over there! A lawyer I had never asked for, whose name I didnt know, a lawyer I didnt even know existedmy lawyer! The trial was taking place at Nice, and I was accusing Richard of abandoning me without any means of support! (That was nothing new I had paid all the expenses from the first day we met! But anyway.) Naturally, he couldnt plead that he was a bigamist; nor could he have me accuse him of being a bigamist, because it was true! So it seemed he hadnt been paying my expenses; but then I wasnt claiming anything from him in the case, no alimonya little incoherent, all that. After a few months I was finally informed that I was divorced, which was rather convenient for me as far as the bank was concerned. I had a marriage contract stipulating that our properties were separate; since I was the one with the money (he had nothing), I wanted to be free to do with it as I pleased. But the French were impossible in such matters: the woman was considered the minor party, so even if the money was the wifes and not the husbands, she couldnt withdraw it without his authorization. I dont know if its still like that, but in those days the husb and always had to countersignan annoying situation! I got around this in Japan (the banker there found the rule stupid and told me to ignore it), but the bank here can be a pain in the neck, so it was good to get this cleared up.
He remarried two or three more times. By now (I believe) he is the father of quite a large family, with grandchildren and perhaps great-grandchildren. He lives in America. Someone once told me he was dead, but I could sense that he wasnt. Then, out of the blue, E. arrived, full of admiration, telling me she had met Richard and how stunningly he could preach to people.
--
because in the Veda its incomplete.
No, they had a hint, like a vision of the thing, but there is no proof that they realized it. Whats more, had they realized it, it seems to me that we would certainly have found some traces but no traces remain.
0 1961-11-06, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
[This letter survived because Mother returned it with her reply written on the reverse.]
Sweet Mother,
0 1961-11-07, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
My impression from the Veda is not the same as yours. You say that when they reached the heights they went into trance and then tried the other method. When I read the Veda at least what Sri Aurobindo translates for us, because otherwise I have no direct knowledge.
But they say nothing about this.
--
Well, one time I was there (Theon used to warn against going beyond this domain, because he said you wouldnt come back), but there I was, wanting to pass over to the other side, whenin a quite unexpected and astounding way I found myself in the presence of the principle, a principle of the human form. It didnt resemble man as we are used to seeing him, but it was an upright form, standing just on the border between the world of forms and the Formless, like a kind of standard.3 At that time nobody had ever spoken to me about it and Madame Theon had never seen itno one had ever seen or said anything. But I felt I was on the verge of discovering a secret.
Afterwards, when I met Sri Aurobindo and talked to him about it, he told me, It is surely the prototype of the supramental form. I saw it several times again, later on, and this proved to be true.
--
I am telling you this because, as soon as I got your letter, I replied with what Ill read to you now; then I was immediately faced with something I couldnt formulate, the kind of thing that gives you the feeling of the unknown (all I knew was my own experience). So I did the usual thingbecame blank, turned towards the Truth; and I questioned Sri Aurobindo and beyondasking, if there were something to be known, that it be told to me. Then I dropped it, I paid no more attention. And only as I was coming here today was I told I cant really use the word told, but anyway, what was communicated to me concerning your question was that the difference between the two processes [the Rishis and the present one] is purely subjective, depending upon the way the experience is registered. I dont know if I can make myself clear. There is something which is the experience and which will be the Realization; and what appears to be a different, if not opposite, process is simply a subjective mental notation of one SINGLE experience. Do you follow?
Thats what I was told.
--
After reading your letter, I had a very strong feeling that you put the problem like that because you were considering it from a mental plane, which is the only plane where it exists; if you go beyond, there are no more oppositions or problems. These things are subtle, you know, and as soon as you try to formulate them, they elude youformulation deforms.
What I mean is that its not necessarily in trance, in another world, that one gets the supramental consciousness.
--
It depends upon the level of development, thats what Theon used to say: One goes into trance only when certain links are missing. He saw people as made up of innumerable small bridges, with intermediary zones. If you have an intermediary zone that is undeveloped, he said, a zone where you are not conscious because its not individualized, then you will be in trance when you cross it. Trance is the sign of non-individualization the consciousness is not awake and so your body goes into trance. But if your consciousness is wide awake you can sit, keeping full contact with things, and have the total experience. I could go out of my body with no need of trance, except when Theon wanted me to do a particular work. That was a different business the vital force (not the consciousness, the vital force) had to go out for that work, so the body had to go into trance. But even then. For instance, very often when I am called and go to do something in response, my body does become still, but its not in trance; I can be sitting and, even in the middle of a gesture, suddenly become immobile for a few seconds.7 But I was doing another type of work with Theondangerous work, at thatand it would last for an hour. Then all the bodys vital energy would go out, all of it, as it does when you die (in fact, thats how I came to experience death).
But it isnt necessary to have all those experiences, not at allSri Aurobindo never did. (Theon didnt have experiences, either; he had only the knowledgehe made use of Madame Theons experiences.) Sri Aurobindo told me he had never really entered the unconsciousness of samadhi for him, these domains were conscious; he would sit on his bed or in his armchair and have all the experiences.
--
Its very difficult to express, because as soon as we notice it.
While having this experience, you are free (as I said, the body no longer exists, it has even no reason to exist, and you dont think of it), and you have just as concrete an OBJECTIVE functioningeven more so! It is more concrete because you have a MUCH CLEARER and more tangible perception of knowledge than ordinary physical perception; our ordinary way of understanding always seems so hazy in comparison. Its not the same phenomenon as going off into trance and being linked to the body, depending upon it for expression, and so forth.
But a certain work [of adaptation] is required to express this experience, and the first impression upon returning is that theres no way to do it. It simply doesnt correspond to anything.9
0 1961-11-12, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Sri Aurobindo was telling me, Satprem has a headache and is tired because hes trying to do an unnecessary work.
No, its not me, I didnt think that myself, but it came to me several times. So I wondered if inspiration was coming, after all, but you Were fighting against it. That would be more than enough to make you tired!
--
because it wasnt coming.
Yes (laughing), thats all right with me!
--
Perhaps, because it has the greatest pretensions to precision, which naturally shrinks everything down. Theres an impression of paucity, of an absence of depth.
Yet in Vedic times they spoke of The Word the creative Word [Vak]. This is the idea behind the mantra. Too bad a book cant be written using mantras!
--
(Laughing) Perhaps thats why you were angry with me! because I insist! Upstairs [in Mothers room, during japa], it keeps coming all the time, all the time: Go ontake the plunge! Clear the hurdle, take the plunge, cross to the other side. Constantly, constantly.
You see, in what youve just read to me, every place where something rushes in from above is VERY good. Then suddenly something in me begins to (words are much too crude), begins to grow bored or tired (thats too crude, its only a slight uneasiness). And I invariably notice that what bothers me are the explanations Im exaggerating.
0 1961-12-16, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
One day (Im translating the last section of The Synthesis of Yoga, The Yoga of Self-Perfectionit plunges you into bottomless gulfs) and one day (I think Ive told you this), I had a vision of the gap between not even what ought to be, because we probably havent the slightest idea of that, but between our concept of what we would like to be and what is. And it was so dreadful that the body was thrown into, oh an anguish, a horror; and along with it an intensity of aspiration, a prayer. The gap seemed so tremendous: Is it possible?
Thats how it felt.
--
The English version is stronger than the French. Thats because it first came in English and then I made a patch-up job in French!
(silence)
--
I shut my eyes (thats how I hear best) but then sometimes my fingers make mistakes; they slip. because I see with other eyes; and when I do see with those other eyes, the music comes much better. When I open my eyes it doesnt come. Its always with eyes closed that I hear clearly, clearly. But then my fingers sometimes slip.
All the time, it comes and it comes, all the time (Mother shapes great waves). Someone is playing to me; so if my hands are ABSOLUTELY docile, it goes well.
0 1961-12-20, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Dear Sir I must begin by telling you that although this text is an excellent essay, it is not, in its present form, a book for the Spiritual Masters series. Let us enumerate the reasons for this. First of all, the general impression is of an ABSTRACT text. I can straight-away imagine your reaction to this and I dread misunderstandings! But putting myself in the readers place, since, once again, it does involve a collection intended for a wide public that we are beginning to know well, I can assure you that this public will not be able to follow page after page of reflections upon what one is bound to call a philosophical and spiritual system. Obviously this impression is caused primarily by the fact that you have begun with twenty-one pages where the reader is assumed to already know of Sri Aurobindos historical existence and the content of the Vedas and the Upanishads, plus I dont know how many other notions of rite, truth, divinity, wisdom, etc., etc. In my view, and the solution is going to appear cruel to you, for you certainly value these twenty-one pages [on the Secret of the Veda], they should purely and simply be deleted, for everything you say there, which is very rich in meaning, can only become clear when one has read what follows. There are many books in which readers can be asked to make the effort entailed in not understanding the beginning until they have read the end: but not books of popular culture. One could envisage an introduction of three or four pages to situate the spiritual climate and cultural world in which Sri Aurobindos thought has taken place, provided, however, that it is sufficiently descriptive, and not a pre-synthesis of everything to be expounded upon in what follows. In a general way you are going to smile, finding me quite Cartesian! But the readership we address is more or less permeated by a widespread Cartesianism, and you can help them, if you like, to reverse their methodology, but on the condition that you make yourself understood right from the start. Generally, you dont make enough use of analysis and, even before analysis, of a description of the realities being analyzed. That is why the sections of pure philosophical analysis seem much too long to us, and, even apart from the abstract character of the chapter on evolution (which should certainly be shorter), one feels at a positive standstill! After having waited patiently, and sometimes impatiently, for some light to be thrown on Sri Aurobindos own experience, one reads with genuine amazement that one can draw on energies from above instead of drawing on them from the material nature around oneself, or from an animal sleep, or that one can modify his sleep and render it conscious master illnesses before they enter the body. All of that in less than a page; and you conclude that the spirit that was the slave of matter becomes again the master of evolution. But how Sri Aurobindo was led to think this, the experiences that permitted him to verify it, those that permit other men to consider the method transmittable, the difficulties, the obstacles, the realizationsdoesnt this constitute the essence of what must be said to make the reader understand? Once again, it is the question of a pedagogy intimately tied in with the spirit of the collection. Let me add as well that I always find it deplorable when a thought is not expressed purely for its own sake, but is accompanied by an aggressive irony towards concepts which the author does not share. This is pointless and harms the ideas being presented, all the more so because they are expressed in contrast with caricatured notions: the allusions you make to such concepts as you think yourself capable of evoking the soul, creation, virtue, sin, salvationwould only hold some interest if the reader could find those very concepts within himself. But, as they are caricatured by your pen, the reader is given the impression of an all too easily obtained contrast between certain ideas admired and others despised. Whereas it would be far more to the point if they corresponded to something real in the religious consciousness of the West. I have too much esteem for you and the spiritual world in which you live to avoid saying this through fear of upsetting you.
Amen.
--
But I know that if we publish it here it will have a wide public in Europe and America swallowing it down like holy bread, and it will do a magnificent work. IF it comes from here. Not because of what they think of us [the Ashram], but because of what will be in it.
They want to tidy up your book, do they! They cant take it. I saw this when the book was sent off: they cant take it, they just cant. They put up a barrier; they cant receive what is in it, and so they will do all they can to annul its effects.
--
From the practical standpoint, I would much prefer the book to be printed here and for us to make the necessary effort for it to go out and touch as many people as possible. The publisher may be a handy and less troublesome channel, but hes not at all the best onefar from it. THAT I know, because I am constantly seeing your book with Sri Aurobindos perception, and I am absolutely positive that he likes it very much; he has put a lot into it and he sees that it can be an enormous help but not in the short run. There is always the sense of it needing a hundred years to have its full effect. With your publisher, on the other hand, the effects are far more violent, more external and noisy, but they fade far more quickly.
And I feel its rather essential to change all the emphasis on pictures. I let them go because there was nothing else to do, but I must say I wasnt too happy about it.1 it was not a deep understanding, a soul-understanding, that chose the pictures, but a very developed intellect.
A few pictures, very few, simply giving an opening for the soul, is quite sufficient.
--
I know it would create a furor if I wrote this book! because any fool could read it like a story and feel perfectly satisfied and he wouldnt even notice it taking hold of him inside and changing him.
A philosophical book? No. A spiritual book? No, not at all! Just a nice, little commonsense book thats what they would see!
--
I am seeing this book now. I see it. But when I leave here, with that whole throng around me and all that work to do, it will fade away. I would need to be very quiet, have nothing to do, and just write when it comes to me; because I cannot do things in a logical fashion I have never been able to, never. The experience must come suddenlya memory, an experience then I note it down, put it aside and leave it. And when another comes, the same thing. In this way there would be (smiling) no plan to the book! It would be very simple: no plan of ideas, no plan of development, nothing; simply a story.
For example, the importance of the departure2: how he was present the whole time I was away; how he guided my entire life in Japan; how. Of course, it would be seen in the mirror of my own experience, but it would be Sri Aurobindonot me, not my reactions: him; but through my experience because thats all I can speak of.
There would be interesting things even for.
But I have two very serious objections. One, it would be a major occult revelation (there would be a lot of occultismwhat people term miracles or things of that nature), a major revelation. I hesitate to do that because I dont think its time yet. Mainly that. And then, in spite of everything, it would inevitably be far too personal, even if it werent written along personal linesfar too personal. And now isnt the time for that.
There would inevitably be far too much of the physical person in it, and that isnt interesting. It would only be interesting if the Person, with a capital P, came to express Itself. That would be tremendous.
--
As for Theon, he was European and wore a long purple robe that wasnt at all like the one in my vision. (Im not sure, but I think he was either Polish or Russian, but more probably Russian, of Jewish descent, and that he was forced to leave his country; he never said anything about this to anyone, its only an impression.) When I saw him I recognized him as a being of great power. And he bore a certain likeness to Sri Aurobindo: Theon was about the same size (not a tall man, of medium height) and thin, slim, with quite a similar profile. But when I met Theon I saw (or rather I felt) that he was not the man I saw in my vision because he didnt have that vibration. Yet it was he who first taught me things, and I went and worked at Tlemcen for two years in a row. But this other thing was always there in the background of the consciousness.
Then when Richard came here he met Sri Aurobindo (he was haunted by the idea of meeting the Master, the Guru, the Great Teacher). Sri Aurobindo was in hiding, seeing no one, but when Richard insisted, he met him, and Richard returned with a photograph. It was one of those early photos, with nothing in it. It was empty, the remnants of the political man, not at all resembling what I had seen I didnt recognize him. Its strange, I said to myself, thats not it (for I saw only his external appearance, there was no inner contact). But still, I was curious to meet him. At any rate, I cant say that when I saw this photograph I felt, Hes the one! Not at all. He impressed me as being a very interesting man, but no more.
--
I still dont know. The day I do it will probably be done. because it will come in the same manner, like a massive fact: it will be LIKE THAT. And only much later will the understanding say, Ah! So thats what it is!
First it comes, afterwards we know it.
--
Think it over. I would like us to publish your book exactly as it is, with its full force, with all that Sri Aurobindo has put into it; and we will give it a bit of help to go and do its work. And you should come to an understanding with these people. But first you should write just a simple book, quite simple and quite positive: the constructive aspectvery constructive, very simple. No attempt to convince, no big problemsno, no, no! Sri Aurobindo has come to tell the world that man is not the final creation, that there is another creation; and he said this not because he knew it but because he felt it. And he began to do it. And thats all.
It neednt be long.
0 1961-12-23, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Concerning the Sri Aurobindo manuscript, Mother advises against replying to the publisher too hastily, because she sees a possibility that could change the situation.)
There is something deeper. And within this deeper thing there was: quiet, quiet, quiet, we will wait; and the impression (but vague, distant and uncertain) of some attempt being made to introduce a very good possibility into the atmosphere. I never see on the purely physical plane, you know (its always on the subtle physical, the plane of possibilities thats more real to me; the purely physical generally eludes me, but I see the subtle physical clearly), and I was seeing I dont know, it was like something higher, from above, trying to make someone enter the field of possibilities, a brain that would suddenly be touched by the book and reverse the situation. I dont know who, I dont know what, I dont know how. Ah, you know that yellow rose I just gave you? Its fringed in pink. Well, what came was like a slender pink fringe winding through the atmosphere of this situation.
--
because there comes a time when one perceives the entire universe in such a total and comprehensive way that, in truth, it is impossible to remove anything from it without disturbing everything. And going a couple of steps further, one knows for certain that things which shock us as contradictions of the Divine are simply things out of place. Each thing must be exactly in its place, and whats more, be supple enough, plastic enough, to admit into a harmonious, progressive organization all the new elements constantly being added to the manifest universe. The universe is in a perpetual movement of internal reorganization, and at the same time its growing: its becoming more and more complex, more and more complete, more and more integralindefinitely. And as the new elements manifest, the whole reorganization must be built on a new basis, and thus there isnt a second when ALL is not in perpetual movement. And when the movement is in accord with the divine order, its harmonious, so perfectly harmonious that its almost imperceptible. Now, if you descend from this consciousness towards a more external consciousness, you begin naturally to have a very precise feeling of what helps you attain the true consciousness and what bars the way or pulls you backwards or even fights against your progress. And so the perspective changes and you are obliged to say: this is divine or a help towards the Divine; and that goes against the Divine, its the Divines enemy. But this is a pragmatic standpoint, geared to action, to movement in material life because you havent yet attained the consciousness surpassing all that; because you havent reached that inner perfection where you no longer have to fight, since you have gone beyond the field or the time or the utility of struggle. But before reaching that state in your consciousness and action, there is necessarily struggle; and if there is struggle, there is choice; and to choose, you need discrimination.
(Mother remains silent)
--
And if to this material capacity of identification, of exercising the will, is added that Something which was there during my experience and is truly the expression. I dont know if its the supreme expression, but for the time being its certainly the highest I know of. (Its far superior to pure Knowledge through identity, to knowing the thing because one IS itits infinitely more powerful than that.) its something formidable! It has the power to change everything and how!
One IS simply Thatone vibration of THAT.
0 1962-01-09, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But following that, and because of the overwork, an old thing I thought I had cured has come back. It was originally brought on by overwork when I was going to the Playground and resting only two hours out of twenty-four, which wasnt enougha sort of ulcer formed between my nose and throat. Its an old complaint, dating from the removal of adenoids in my childhood; the operation left a kind of small cavity, which was nothing in itself, except that occasionally it would give me a cold. But as a result of overwork it came back in the form of an ulcer, and gave me artificial colds; it was so sour and corrosive, a terrible irritation in the throat and nose. It got much worse when I was giving classes at the Playground, and once I showed it to the doctor. Why, you have an ulcer! he said. A big fuss. He offered to treat me. No thanks! I said. Dont worry, it will pass. And I began my own yogic treatment. It was over in a week and for three years there was no further sign of it. Recently (the last two or three months) I had felt it trying to come back, for exactly the same reason of overwork. And with that little adventure the other day, it did come backit gave me one of those stupid colds: sneezing, coughing. Its not quite over yet. But its nothing, it just gives me an excuse (laughing) to tell people I am still not quite well!
I am resting.
Its a difficult problem to resolve, because at no price do I want to stop the discipline (the tapasya,2 to be precise). I dont want to stop. And both things together are clearly too much for a stupid little bodystupid mainly because it lives in tension.
These past few days Ive had some interesting experiences from this standpoint. I had what is commonly called fever, but it wasnt feverit was a resurfacing from the subconscient of all the struggles, all the tensions this body has had for what will soon be eighty-three years. I went through a period in my life when the tension was tremendous, because it was psychological and vital as well as physical: a perpetual struggle against adverse forces; and during my stay in Japan, particularly oh, it was terrible! So at night, everything that had been part of that life in Japanpeople, things, movements, circumstancesall of it seemed to be surrounding my body in the form of vital3 vibrations, and to be taking the place of my present state, which had completely vanished. For hours during the night, the body was reliving all the terrible tensions it had during those four years in Japan. And I realized how much ( because at the time you pay no attention; the consciousness is busy with something else and not concentrated on the body), how much the body resists and is tense. And just as I was realizing this, I had a communication with Sri Aurobindo: But youre keeping it up! he told me. Your body still has the habit of being tense. (Its much less now, of course; its quite different since the inner consciousness is in perfect peace, but the BODY keeps the habit of being tense.) For instance, in the short interval between the time I get up and the time I come down to the balcony,4 when I am getting ready (I have to get this body ready to come down) well, the body is tense about being ready in time. And thats why accidents happen at that moment. So the following morning I said, All right, no more tension, and I was exclusively concerned with keeping my body perfectly tranquil I was no later than usual! So its obviously just one of the bodys bad habits. Everything went off the same as usual, and since then things are better. But its a nasty habit.
And so I looked. Is it something particular to this body? I wondered. To everyone who has lived closely with it, my body gives the impression of two things: a very concentrated, very stubborn will, and such endurance! Sri Aurobindo used to tell me he had never dreamed a body could have such endurance. And thats probably why. But I dont want to curtail this ability in any way, because it is a CELLULAR will, and a cellular endurance toowhich is quite intriguing. Its not a central will and central endurance (thats something else altogether)its cellular. Thats why Sri Aurobindo used to tell me this body had been specially prepared and chosen for the Work because of its capacity for obstinate endurance and will. But thats no reason to exercise this ability uselessly! So I am making sure it relaxes now; I tell it constantly, Now, now! Just let go! Relax, have some fun, wheres the harm in it? I have to tell it to be quiet, very quiet. And its very surprised to hear that: Ah! Can I live that way? I dont have to hurry? I can live that way?
So thats why I am resting. Am I better or not? Things are always the same. Were I to start doing what I was doing before, which I KNEW all along was absolutely unreasonable. Its not that I didnt know it; I did know and I wasnt happy about it, because I knew I was doing something I shouldnt. I have no intention of starting again, but if I had said, I am withdrawing for good, it would have been. If you knew how MANY things have gone slack [in the Ashram]! And how many people I am telling off: Well, you wouldnt have done that a week ago! Oh, thats an experience in itselfto see what peoples so-called faithfulness depends on.
You have to constantly keep a firm grip on themconstantly, constantly.
--
That must be it, because Ive fainted fairly often in my life. Even when I was young, I would remain conscious, and there was a whole period when I used to go out of my body, which I would always immediately see in some ridiculous position (just where it had no business being, of course!). So I would rush back into it and say, Come on! Whats wrong with you! Then it would shake itself and get moving again, like a donkeyyou give it a good whack, and it gets back to work.
This need for relaxation was never psychological with me. And I have seen that the habit people have of slackening has the same origin: its not necessarily negligence or vital weakness, the body simply gets winded. It bears up under the tension of vital energy, but eventually it gets winded, tired out, and needs rest.
--
Later, when he withdrew and put me in front, there was naturally a bit more activity, as well as the semblance of responsibility but it was only a semblance. What security! A sense of total, total security for thirty years. Not once. There was just a single scratch, so to speak, when he had that accident and broke his leg. There was a formation at work (an adverse force) and he wasnt taking sufficient precautions for himself because it was directed against both of us, and more especially against me (it had tried once or twice to fracture my skull, things like that). Well, he was so intent on keeping it from seriously touching my body that it managed to sneak in and break his leg. That was a shock. But he straightened everything out again almost immediatelyit all fell back into place and went on like that till the end.
And the feeling was so strong that even during his illness (which lasted for months, you know), I had a sense of perfect security; so much so that the idea of his life being really affected in the least by this illness couldnt even occur to me! I didnt want to believe it when the doctor said, Its over. I didnt want to believe it. And as long as I stayed in the room with me in the room he couldnt leave his body. And so there was a terrible tension in himon the one hand the inner will to depart, and then this thing holding him there in his body: the fact that I knew he was alive and could only be alive. He had to signal me to go to my room, supposedly to rest (I didnt rest); and no sooner had I left his room than he was gone.
--
Yesterday evening I read something in the book9. Sri Aurobindo is writing to someone who said, How lucky people are who live near the Mother. You dont know what youre talking about! he replies. To live in the Mothers physical presence is one of the most difficult things. Do you remember this passage? I didnt know he had written that. Well, well I thought. He writes, It is hard to stay near her, because the difference between the physical consciousness of all you people and her physical consciousness is so enormous.10 Indeed, thats what tires me out. Thats what tires my body, because it is used to living in a certain rhythm, a universal rhythm.
(silence)
--
Here is the text of Sri Aurobindo's letter: "There is a confusion here. The Mother's grace is one thing, the call to change another, the pressure of nearness to her is yet another. Those who are physically near to her are not so by any special grace or favour, but by the necessity of their work that is what everybody here refuses to understand or believe, but it is the fact: that nearness acts automatically as a pressure, if for nothing else, to adapt their consciousness to hers which means change, but it is difficult for them because the difference between the two consciousnesses is enormous especially on the physical level and it is on the physical level that they are meeting her in the work."
Centenary Edition, Vol. XXV, p. 297
0 1962-01-12 - supramental ship, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
because I followed the thread, I put myself back in contact with the experience of the supramental ship, and I noticed that it had a DECISIVE effect on my position: the required conditions were established quite clearly, precisely, and definitively by that experience. In that respect, it was interesting.
Once and for all it has swept away all these notionsnot merely ordinary moral notions, but everything people here in India consider necessary for the spiritual life. In that respect, it was very instructive. And first and foremost, this so-called ascetic purity. Ascetic purity is merely the rejection of all vital movements. Instead of taking these movements and turning them towards the Divine, instead of seeing, that is, the supreme Presence in them (and so letting the Supreme deal with them freely), He is told (laughing): Noits none of Your business! You have no say in it.
--
But even accepting all these misadventures a priori, things remain difficult because theres a double movement: both a cellular transformation and a capacity for something that could replace expansion with readjustment, a constant intercellular reorganization.3 The way they are now, of course, our bodies are rigid and heavyits unspeakable, actually; if it werent for that we would never grow old. For instance, my vital being is more full of energy, and thus full of youth and power to grow, than when I was twenty. Theres really no comparison. The power is INFINITELY greater yet the body is going to piecesits really something unspeakable. So a way has to be found to bridge this gap between the vital and the material being.
Not that the problem hasnt been partially solved: hatha yogis have solved it, partiallyprovided you do nothing else (thats the trouble). Yet having the knowledge, we should have the power to do whats necessary without making it our exclusive preoccupation. At any rate, this possibility is certainly not altogether unknown; for the first few months after I retired to my room,4 when I had cut all contact with the outside, it was working very well even extraordinarily so! Lots of disorders in my body were surmounted, and I had many fairly precise indications that if I continued like that long enough I would regain everything that had been lost, and with an even better equilibrium. I mean that the functional equilibrium was far superior. Only when I came back into contact with the world did it all come to a halt and begin to deteriorateall the more so as it was aggravated by this discipline of expansion making me constantlyCONSTANTLYabsorb mountains of difficulties to be resolved. And so.
With the mind, its rather easyyou can put things back in order in five minutes, its not difficult. With the vital its already a bit more troublesome, it takes a little longer. But when you come to the material level, well. Theres a CONTAGION of wrong cellular functioning and a kind of internal disorganizationthings not staying in their proper places. Each vibration absorbed from the outside instantly creates a disorder, dislocates everything, creates wrong contacts and disrupts the organization; it sometimes takes HOURS to put it all back in order. Consequently, if I really want to make use of this bodys possibility without having to face the necessity of changing it because it cant follow along, then, materially, I would really need, as much as possible, to stop having to gulp down all sorts of things that drag me years backwards.
Its difficult difficult.
So long as theres no question of physical transformation, the psychological and in large part, the subjective point of view is sufficientand thats relatively easy. But when it comes to incorporating matter into the work, matter as it is in this world where the very starting point is false (we start off in unconsciousness and ignorance), well, its very difficult. because, to recover the consciousness it has lost, Matter has had to individualize itself, and for that for the form to last and retain this possibility of individualityit has been created with a certain indispensable measure of rigidity. And that rigidity is the main obstacle to the expansion, to the plasticity and suppleness necessary for receiving the Supermind. I constantly find myself facing this problem, which is utterly concrete, absolutely material when youre dealing with cells that have to remain cells and not vaporize into some nonphysical reality, and at the same time have to have a suppleness, a lack of rigidity, enabling them to widen indefinitely.
There have been times, while working in the most material mind (the mind ingrained in the material substance), when I felt my brain swelling and swelling and swelling, and my head becoming so large it seemed about to burst! On two occasions I was forced to stop, because it was (was it only an impression, or was it a fact?) in any event it seemed dangerous, as if the head would burst, because what was inside was becoming too tremendous (it was that power in Matter, that very powerful deep blue light which has such powerful vibrations; it is able to heal, for example, and change the functioning of the organsreally a very powerful thing materially). Well then, thats what was filling my head, more and more, more and more, and I had the feeling that my skull was (it was painful, you know) that there was a pressure inside my skull pushing out, pushing everything out. I wondered what was going to happen. Then, instead of following the movement, helping it along and going with it, I became immobile, passive, to see what would happen. And both times it stopped. I was no longer helping the movement along, you see, I simply remained passive and it came to a halt, there was a sort of stabilization.
(silence)
But Sri Aurobindo must have had the experience [of cellular expansion], because he said positively that it COULD be done.
The question, of course, is the supramentalization of MATTER the consciousness, thats nothing at all. Most people who have had that experience had it on the mental level, which is relatively easy. Its very easy: abolition of limits set by the ego, indefinite expansion with a movement following the rhythm of the Becoming. Mentally, its all very easy. Vitally. A few months after I withdrew to my room, I had the experience in the vitalwonderful, magnificent! Of course to have the experience there, the mind must have undergone a change, one must be in complete communion; without exception, any individual vital being that hasnt been prepared by what might be called a sufficient mental foundation would be panic-stricken. All those poor people who get scared at the least little experience had better not dabble with thistheyd panic! But as it happensthrough divine grace, you might saymy vital, the vital being of this present incarnation, was born free and victorious. It has never been afraid of anything in the vital world; the most fantastic experiences were practically childs play. But when I had that experience, it was so interesting that for a few weeks I was tempted to stay in it; it was. I once told you a little about that experience (it was quite a while ago, at least two years).5 I told you that even during the day I seemed to be sitting on top of the Earth that was this realization in the vital world. And what fantastic nights it gave me! Nights I have never been able to describe to anyone and never mentioned but I would look forward to the night as a marvelous adventure.
--
Another thing I didnt mention to you when I related the experience was that the ship had no engine. Everything was set in motion through will powerpeople, things (even the clothes people wore were a result of their will). And this gave all things and every persons shape a great suppleness, because there was an awareness of this willwhich is not a mental will but a will of the Self, what could be called a spiritual will or a soul-will (to give the word soul that particular meaning). I have that experience right here when theres an absolute spontaneity in action, I mean when the action for instance, an utterance or a movementis not determined by the mind, and not even (not to mention thought or intellect), not even by the mind that usually sets us in motion. Generally, when we do something, we can perceive in ourselves a will to do it; when you watch yourself, you see this: there is always (it can happen in a flash) the will to do. When you are conscious and watch yourself doing something, you see in yourself the will to do itthis is where the mind intervenes, its normal intervention, the established order in which things happen. But the supramental action is decided by a leap over the mind. The action is direct, with no need to go through the mind. Something enters directly into contact with the vital centers and activates them without going through the mindyet in full consciousness. The consciousness doesnt function in the usual sequence, it functions from the center of spiritual will straight to matter.
And so long as you can keep that absolute immobility in the mind, the inspiration is absolutely pureit comes pure. When you can catch and hold onto this while youre speaking, then what comes to you is unmixed too, it stays pure.
This is an extremely delicate functioning, probably because were not used to it the slightest movement, the slightest mental vibration disrupts everything. But as long as it lasts, its perfectly pure. And in a supramentalized life this has to be the CONSTANT state. Mentalized will should no longer intervene; because you may well have a spiritual will, your life may be the constant expression of spiritual will (its what happens to all who feel themselves guided by the Divine within), but it still comes through a mental transcription. Well, as long as its that way, its not the supramental life. The supramental life NO LONGER goes through the mind the mind is an immobile zone of transmission. The least little twitch is enough to upset everything.
(silence)
So we can say that the Supermind can express itself through a terrestrial consciousness only when there is a constant state of perfect equalityequality arising out of spiritual identification with the Supreme: all becomes the Supreme in perfect equality. And it must be automatic, not an equality obtained through conscious will or intellectual effort or an understanding preceding the state itselfnone of that. It has to be spontaneous and automatic; one must no longer react to what comes from outside as though it were coming from outside. That pattern of reception and reaction must be replaced by a state of constant perception and (I dont mean identical in all cases, because each thing necessarily calls forth its own particular reaction) but practically free from all rebound, you might say. Its the difference between something coming from outside and striking you, making you react, and something freely circulating and quite naturally generating the vibrations needed for the overall action. I dont know if I am making myself clear. Its the difference between a vibratory movement circulating within an IDENTICAL field of action, and a movement from an outside source, touching you and getting a reaction (this is the usual state of human consciousness). But once the consciousness is identified with the Supreme, all movements are, so to speak, innerinner in the sense that nothing comes from outside; there are only things circulating, which, through similarity or necessity, naturally generate or change the vibrations within the circulatory milieu.
I am very familiar with this, because I am now constantly in that state. I never have the feeling of something coming from outside and bumping into me; theres rather the sense of multiple and sometimes contradictory inner movements, and of a constant circulation generating the inner changes necessary to the movement.
This is the indispensable foundation.
--
If we continue along this path, we will surely be able to do some worthwhile work, because its all new. Its quite new I never spoke of this with Sri Aurobindo because at the time I didnt have those experiences. I had all the psychological experiences, experiences in the mind, even the most material mind, or in the vital or the physical consciousness the physical CONSCIOUSNESS but not in the body. Thats something new, it started only three or four years ago.
All the rest is easy. Everything up to that point is settledsettled very nicely.
--
And mind you (this is my personal case), I dont think I have wasted any time. because you might say that had I known forty years ago what I know nowat the age of forty instead of eightywell, there would have been the sense of a lot more time to work with. But I havent been wasting time. I havent wasted any time. All that time was necessary to get me where I am today.
I dont think Ive been going slowly. As I told you last time, I had the most wonderful conditions, those thirty years with Sri Aurobindoas wonderful as could be. I havent wasted my time. Oh, it was hour by hour!
--
Mother later clarified the meaning of this sentence: "I saw that to follow the Supreme in the Becoming one has to be able to expand, because the universe expands in the Becoming the amount of expansion in the universe is not matched by an equal amount of dissolution. So it is really necessary to be able to grow, as a child grows, to expand; but at the same time, for things to progress, this process of expansion demands a constant inner reorganization. As the quantity is increased (if we can speak of quantity here), so must the quality be simultaneously maintained by an ongoing internal reorganization of intercellular relationships."
In December 1958.
This is part of the lost treasures, never noted down, because at the time Satprem was not aware that the experiences Mother was relating to him were already part of the Agenda.
This letter has vanished with the others.
0 1962-01-15, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And EXACTLY five years later, it happened. Later I met people coming from China who told me it had all been the work of a secret society. They told me about it because that society used a certain sign, and instinctively, unknowingly, I had made that sign while one of them was talking to me (Mother puts one fist on top of the other). And the person said, Ah, so youre one of us! I didnt reply. Then he told me everything.
But its really interesting because the exact date was given. The revolution will take place in exactly five years, he told me. He knew it before he left. And that, he continued, will be the beginning, the first terrestrial movement heralding the transformation of. (Theon didnt use the word supramental; he used to talk about the new world on earth.)2
But I did note that down.
I had forgotten the whole story, because I now live constantly in the Becoming. But it came back to me.
And all the disbelief in the world cant contradict that piece of evidence.
--
Two things were stolen: that note and the mantra of life (I have told you about that). And I have a suspicion that it was an occult theft, not an ordinary one, because no one even suspected the value of those papers for most people they had no interest at all.
Wellau revoir, mon petit.
0 1962-01-21, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Most likely the experience could take place only because the time had come for all this to be offered up.
The point is not to perpetuate those things, but to offer them up.
because the time has come to manifest this Power, which is a power of Loveof LOVE, not merely of identityof Love, of perfect Love; for perfect Love alone can offer.
It happened this morning, with great simplicity, but at the same time it had something so vast and almighty in it, as if the Universal Mother were turning towards the Lord and saying, At last! We are ready.
0 1962-01-24, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Id rather you read it yourself, because my English. I found it really striking these four lines here.
(Mother reads:)
--
Its difficult for me to speak during these experiences because French comes to me more spontaneously, and the experiences all happen in EnglishSri Aurobindos power is so much with them.
All right, mon petitwhen do I see you again?
0 1962-01-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So She made her first four emanations. The first was Consciousness and Light (arising from Sachchidananda); the second was Ananda and Love; the third was Life; and Truth was the fourth. Then, so the story goes, conscious of their infinite power, instead of keeping their connection with the supreme Mother and, through Her, with the Supreme, instead of receiving indications for action from Him and doing things in proper order, they were conscious of their own power and each one took off independently to do as he pleased they had power and they used it. They forgot their Origin. And because of this initial oblivion, Consciousness became unconsciousness, and Light became darkness; Ananda became suffering, Love became hate; Life became Death; and Truth became Falsehood. And they were instantly thrown headlong into what became Matter. According to Theon, the world as we know it is the result of that. And that was the Supreme himself in his first manifestation.
But the story is easy to understand, and quite evocative. On the surface, for intellectuals, its very childish; but once you have the experience you understand it very well I understood and felt the thing immediately.
--
In fact, they were not surrendered in the way a psychic being can be, because they had no psychic in them. The psychic being is the result of that descent. Only human beings have it. And thats what makes humanity so superior to the gods. Theon insisted greatly on this: throughout his story, humans are far superior to gods and should not obey themthey should only be in contact with the Supreme in his aspect of perfect Love.
I dont know how to put it. To me, those gods always seemed (not those described in the Puranas, theyre different well, not so very different!) but the way Theon presented them, they seemed just like a bunch of marshmallows! Its not that they had no powerthey had a lot of power, but they lacked that psychic flame.
--
To see it from the angle of delight of being is qualitatively far superior, but then theres still the problem of why it all became the way it is. The usual reply is: because all things were possible, and this is ONE possibility. But its not a very satisfying feeling: Yes, all right, thats just the way it is, its a fact. People used to ask Theon too, Why did it happen like this? Why? Wait till you get to the other side, then you will know. And meanwhile do whats necessary to get there thats the most urgent thing.
But there is one advantage: without those beings, without the worlds distortion, many things would be lacking. Those beings potentially embodied certain absolutely unique elementsunderstandably so, since they were the first wave. And precisely because they still WERE the Supreme to such a great extent, each one felt he was the Supreme, and that was that. Only it wasnt quite sufficient, for the simple reason that they were already divided into four, and one single division is enough to make everything go wrong. Its readily understandable: its not something essentially evil, but a question of wrong FUNCTIONING; its not the substance, not the essence. The essence isnt evil, but the functioning is faulty.
But if you understand.
--
It was written in English and I am the one who translated it into Frenchinto horrible French, perfectly ghastly, because I put in all the new words Theon had dreamed up. He had made a detailed description of all the faculties latent in man, and it was remarkable but with such barbarous words! You can make up new words in English and get away with it, but in French its utterly ridiculous. And there I was, very conscientiously putting them all in! Yet in terms of experience, it was splendid. It really was an experienceit came from Madame Theons experiences in exteriorization. She had learned what Theon also taught me, to speak while youre in the seventh heaven (the body goes on speaking, rather slowly, in a rather low voice, but it works quite well). She would speak and a friend of hers, another English woman who was their secretary, would note it all down as she went along (I think she knew shorthand). And afterwards it was made into stories, told as stories. It was all shown to Sri Aurobindo and it greatly interested him. He even adopted some of the words into his own terminology.
The divisions and subdivisions of the being were described down to the slightest detail and with perfect precision. I went through the experience again on my own, without any preconceived ideas, just like that: leaving one body after the other, one body after the other, and so on twelve times. And my experienceapart from certain quite negligible differences, doubtless due to differences in the receiving brainwas exactly the same.
--
Some people do it spontaneously, so of course youre not going to tell them its dangerous. But it is dangerous, because if they do it just like that, without being watched over, and someone or something abruptly calls them backsome event, some circumstance or otherthey can be cut off (gesture of the cord being cut). I would never let anyone without knowledge do it on his own. If its spontaneous, it means it comes from previous existences, so they have the knack. But all the same its a bit risky, someone should always be there to watch over your body. And as for teaching it to someone offhandno.
I did try once in Francewith Hohlenberg, that painter who came here during the war [World War I] and then had to go back.2
0 1962-02-03, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
because you were here.
because before you were told about your karma, I had already seen certain things about you and was trying to set you freenot from the thing itself, but from the tendency that remained in your nature. That, yes.
But Sujata, for example, was completely, COMPLETELY free of the whole (what shall I say?) what could be called the unhappy aspect of her karmacompletely free. For I know the people around me and what they carry with them very well, and there was nothingjust one thing remained, the one part that was rather constructive, so I had left that totally intact. And when the events of her past life were revealed to her, I took the greatest care to destroy the revelation as it was being given. And I did it ruthlessly. You see, it was like dumping a load of mud on someone completely unsullied, and I didnt let it happen (I couldnt stop what entered through her physical brain, but inwardly I utterly annihilated it). The only thing I left untouched was the constructive part of the bond that had existed between you two, and so when she met you, she. Thats all I left, because it was good, pure, lovelyit was good. But all the rest. And you saw how strongly I protested when I was told she had committed suicide. No, no, no! I said; even if somebody with perfect knowledge were to tell me so, Id still say NO.
She is untainted by all thatpure and I wont stand for someone pure to be soiled. She was so much my child that after her death everything was carefully cleansed, arranged, put back in place, organized, purified. So she returned unblemished and pure, and I dont want her soiled.
--
It happened again recently: K.s sister came because she had lost her sonit had just occurred and he was still here (he hadnt left yet). So I arranged everything, saw to the mothers condition and so forth; I arranged it all nicely, very carefully keeping the son here and telling his mother he would shortly return in some family member. Everything was well organized.
But naturally that was against the rules I make a habit of doing everything against the rules, otherwise there would be no point in my being here; the rules could just go on and on! So they went to see X. They shouldnt have said anything, but they did. And that was thatall sorts of things were said and my work was completely mucked up.
So now its all going according to rule, because thats the way it has to be. I am not bothering with it any more.
Myself, I have learned a lot of rules I didnt know before (thank God!)the divine Grace saved me from that whole hodgepodge of rules about how this happens and how that cant happen and how that must happen and how. Oh, good Lord! I saw things very simply, without a single rule in my brain, and so I did them just as simply, with no rules in my headit worked very, very well, I didnt run into any trouble. Things worked out quite naturally and simply. And if I was told, That cant beWell, sorry, I would say, but its already done.
--
In the lower mind there was a whole world of difficulties I was unaware of. In the vital I knew, because Id had to do battle therewhich was fine with me! Just imagine, this time I have been given a warrior as my vital being. A magnificent warrior, neither male nor female, and as tall as this room1he is splendid. I was so happy when I first saw him. Well, I thought, thats worth my while!
Yes, there are battles galore there!
Oh, by the way, how are your nights, mon petit? because I have put you in my warriors hands, you see.
Better. More conscious, anyway.
--
The image is lovely. Its perfect for people who imagine they have found Truth. Its a good thing to tell those who think they have found the truth simply because theyve managed to touch one point.
Yet how many times have we said that thats not enough!
--
There has been a kind of perception of a variety of bodily activities, a whole series of them, having to do exclusively (or so it seems) with the maintenance of the body. Some are on the borderlinesleep, for instance: one portion of it is necessary for good maintenance of the body, and another portion puts it in contact with other parts and activities of the being; but one portion of sleep is exclusively for maintaining the bodys balance. Then there is food, keeping clean, a whole range of things. And according to Sri Aurobindo, spiritual life shouldnt suppress those things; whatever is indispensable for the bodys well-being must be kept up. For ordinary people, all other bodily activities are used for personal pleasure and benefit. The spiritual man, on the other hand, has given his body to serve the Divine, so that the Divine may use it for His work and perhaps, as Sri Aurobindo said, for His joyalthough given the present state of Matter and the body, that seems to me unlikely or at best very intermittent and partial, because this body is much more a field of misery than a field of joy. (None of this is based on speculation, but on personal experience I am relating my personal experience.) But with work, its different: when the body is at work, its in full swing. Thats its joy, its needto exist only to serve Him. To exist only to serve. And of course, to reduce maintenance to a bare minimum while trying to find a way for the Divine to participate in the very restricted, limited and meager possibilities of joy this maintenance may give. To associate the Divine with all those movements and things, like keeping clean, sleeping (although sleep is different, its already a lot more interesting); but especially with personal hygiene, eating and other absolutely indispensable things, the attempt is to associate them with the Divine Presence so that they may be as much an expression of divine joy as possible. (This is realized to a certain extent.)
Now where does japa fit into all this?
--
In the course of my observation, I also saw the position of X and people like him, who practically spend their lives doing japa, plus meditation, puja,4 ceremonies (I am talking only about sincere people, not fakers). Well, thats their way of working for the world, of serving the Divine, and it seems the best way to themperhaps even the only way but its a question of mental belief. In any case, its obvious that even a bit of not exactly puja, but some sort of ceremony that you set yourself to dohabitual gestures symbolizing and expressing a particular inner statecan also be a help and a way of offering yourself and relating to the Divine and thus serving the Divine. I feel its important looked at in this waynot from the traditional viewpoint, I cant stand that traditional viewpoint; I understand it, but it seems to me like putting a brake on true self-giving to the Divine. I am speaking of SELF-IMPOSED japa and rules (or, if someone gives you the japa, rules you accept with all your heart and adhere to). These self-imposed rules should be followed as a gesture of love, as a way of saying to the Divine, I love You. Do you see what I mean? Like arranging flowers in a certain way, burning incense, dozens of little things like that, made beautiful because of what is put into themit is a form of self-giving.
Now, I think that doing japa with the will and the idea of getting something out of it spoils it a little. You spoil it. I dont much like it when somebody says, Do this and you will get that. Its trueits true, but its a bit like baiting a fish. I dont much like it.
--
Japa shouldnt become so exclusive that its done twenty-four hours out of twenty-four, because then its equivalent to asceticism but there should be a good dose of it.
Its almost the one luxury of life thats how it feels to me. The luxury of That alone, nothing but that divine vibration around you, within you, everywhere. Nothing but the divine vibration.
0 1962-02-06, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Perhaps the problem is the opposition (if it is an opposition) between two attitudes, both of which should express our relationship with the Supreme. One is the acceptancenot only voluntary but perfectly contentof everything, even the worst calamities (what are conventionally called the worst calamities). I wont use this story as an example because its self-explanatory, but if Andromeda were a yogi (with ifs you can build castles in the air, but I am trying to explain what I mean), she would accept the idea of death readily, easily. Well, its precisely this conflict between an attitude quite ready to accept death (I am not talking about what happens in the story itself, but merely giving a case in point to make myself clear) because it is the divine Will, for this reason aloneits the divine Will, so its quite all right; since thats how it is, its quite all rightand at the same time, the love of Life. This love of Life.3 Following the story, you would say: she lived because she had to live and everything is explained. But thats not what I mean. I am looking at this outside the context of the story.
because things like that happen in the consciousness of. It always bothers me to get into big ideas and big words, but to truly explain myself, I should say: the Universal Mother.
(silence)
--
At my fullest and most intense momentsmoments when truly what exists is the universe (by universe I mean the Becoming of the Supreme) with the utmost active awareness of the Supremeat such moments I am suddenly caught by that [the static, nirvanic aspect]. Its not a matter of choosing between the two, but rather a question of priorities from the standpoint of action on the lowest level. Instinctively (the instinct of this body, this material base), the choice is aspiration, because this being was built for action; but this cannot be taken as an absolute rule, its almost like a casual preference.
One feels that life Is this aspiration, this anguish, while bliss leads most naturally to the nirvanic side I dont know.
--
because a day or two ago (I dont remember exactly, it was rather fleeting but very interesting), I went through such a moment while walking in my room (it lasted while I was out on the balcony, too): suddenly a kind of absolute certainty that I knew nothing (there was no I at all) that one knew nothing (one, there was no one, there was only); one couldnt know (I have to use words), one couldnt know, there was nothing to know, it was totally hopeless, it was completely IMPOSSIBLE to understand anything, even, even going beyond the mind, and no formulation was possible, there was no possibility of understanding. It was really so absolute that helping others, making the world progress, spiritual life, seeking the Divine, all of that seemed idle talk, empty words! There was nothing in it, it was nothing, and there was nothing to understand, it was impossible to understandit was impossible to BE. The feeling of a total incapacity. The experience was like a solventeverything seemed to dissolve: the world, the earth, people, life, intelligence, all of it, everything was dissolved. An absolutely negative state. And my solution was the same as always: when the experience was total and complete, when nothing was left, then: Who cares! (it could really be put in the most ordinary words), I adore You! And the I was something utterly insubstantial: there was no form, no being, no qualityonly I adore You. This I was I adore You, there was just enough I to adore You with.
From that moment on there was an inexpressible Sweetness, and within that Sweetness, a Voice so sweet and harmonious too! There was a sound but no wordsyet it held a perfectly clear meaning for me, like very precise words: You have just had your most creative moment!
--
I can have that experience at any moment whatsoever: one second of concentration, stepping back from action, and its Bliss. And when I dont step back, then its something like an eternal omnipotence geared to action and entirely upheld and englobed by That. This power geared to action is the first manifestation of That thats what manifests first when That begins to exist consciously. (Mother places her palms together and, without separating them, turns her hands from side to side, as if to show two faces of the same thing.) So its indissoluble: its not two things, not even two aspects, because it isnt an aspect at all (words are idiotic, imbecilic, meaningless). The experience is renewable at will: one single thing in its essence, innumerable in its expression, and apparently increasing in power. I have experienced this at will, in every possible circumstance, including physically fainting (I told you the other day). Its called fainting, but I didnt lose consciousness for a minute! Not for one minute did I PHYSICALLY lose consciousness and behind it all, witnessing everything, was this experience.
(Pavitra enters the room to ask Mother an urgent question)
0 1962-02-13, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It was odd this morning because on one side I felt (one sideits not even a side; I dont know how to explain, they are both together) the body was unwell, most unharmonious (someone in an ordinary consciousness would have said the body was ill, or at any rate very weak, very not at all in good condition), and simultaneously, in the SAME PHYSICAL SENSATION: a glory! A marvelous glory of blissfulness, joy, splendor! But how could the two be together?
Really, you must stay perfectly, perfectly calm inside; externally, you do things, brush your teeth and so forth, but within you must keep very calm if you dont want to fall over.1
--
You see, its like trying to alter the functioning of the organs. What is the process? Already the two are beginning to exist simultaneously. What does it take for one to disappear and the other to remain on its own, changed? Changed, because as it is now it wouldnt be enough to make the body function; the body wouldnt perform all the things it must perform, it would stay in a blissful state, delighting in its condition, but not for longit still has a lot of needs! Thats the trouble. It will be very easy for those who come in one or two hundred years; they will only have to choose: not to belong to the old system any more or else to belong to the new.2 But now. A stomach has got to digest, after all! Well, that will mean a new way of adapting to the forces of Nature, a new functioning.
But for that to happen, some beings would have to prepare this new functioning.
--
But if he knew, he will be able to tell me. So it means it isnt time yet. because I am with him consciously, mon petit, every night for hourstwo hours of my night, at leastnot joined to him, with him: like someone I see and talk to and who talks to me.
Again last night.
--
In fact, in the Agenda conversations of 1958 and '59 (never noted by Satprem because he believed them too "personal"), Mother mentioned this as one of the main reasons for encouraging his tantric discipline. He even set out for the Himalayas, like a knight of yore, with the idea of bringing back to Mother the secrets of transformation; and Mother indicated to him the spot where one of her former bodies lay in a Himalayan cave, petrified by a mineral spring. But the secret of the new species can manifestly not be found through any "trick" tantric or otherwiseone's very nature must change. No one could help Mother because if someone "knew," it would already be done.
Mother means that it wasn't possible for Sri Aurobindo to continue.
0 1962-02-17, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
That will come, because I always. Simply by going back and forth like that, a path is created.
The thought keeps coming to me that I will have to write a new book on Sri Aurobindo.1
0 1962-02-24, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
For a long time, several months, things were constantly on the brink, and dangerously so; I felt they could go either this way or that. Then on my birthday1 something suddenly tilted. All at once a formation seemed to have been lifted, a formation weighing terribly on I wont say on what, because it appeared to be everything it was lifted with the sweep of a hand, exactly the same movement Sri Aurobindo used for taking away illnesses.2
It has made a tremendous change for this body, as though I had abruptly gotten out of a very tight corner.
--
because. Ive noticed there are always several ways of explaining things. But certainly one very common explanation would be that it was some type of magic spell for my health too.
The last time X came, I was very ill the day he arrived and he was called to my room upstairsactually I wanted him to come upstairs for several reasons, so he could see certain things. But he didnt see a thing, or if he did, he was reluctant to say so. Oh, its a physical ailment, he said (it isnt true, I had no physical ailmentperhaps he didnt want to say it), its a physical ailment; something may be acting from outside, but it doesnt amount to much. But it seems to me the formation was made a long time ago I was always feeling attacked and it must have been skillfully made!4
--
This explanation is clear; and the healing was the result of tapasya. Its self-explanatory. Something was even saying to my body, to the bodys SUBSTANCE, O unbelieving substance, now you wont be able to say there are no miracles. Throughout all the work that was being done on the 20th, something was saying (I dont know who, because it doesnt come like something foreign to me any more, its like a Wisdom, it seems like a Wisdom, something that knows: not someone in particular, but that which knows, whatever its form), something that knows was insisting to the body, by showing it certain things, vibrations, movements, From now on, O unbelieving substance, you cant say there are no miracles. because the substance itself is used to each thing having its effect, to illnesses following a particular course and certain things even being necessary for it to be cured. This process is very subtle, and it doesnt come from the intellect, which can have a totally different interpretation of it; its rather a kind of consciousness ingrained in physical substance, and thats what was being addressed and being shown certain movements, certain vibrations and so forth: You see, from now on you cant say there are no miracles. In other words, a direct intervention of the Lord, who doesnt follow the beaten path, but does things in His own way.
There was also that attack (it was rather serious and threw the doctor into a fit of anxiety) which took place, I think, the day before sari distribution.6 The next morning, throughout the distribution, someone else seemed to have taken possession of my body and to be doing what had to be done, taking care of all the difficulties; I was comfortable, serene, simply like a carefree spectator. I had nothing to worry about, someone was. (What someone? Someone, something, I dont know, theres no more difference, its not delineated like that any more; but anyway, it was a being, a force, a consciousness perhaps a part of myself, I dont know; none of this is clear-cut; its quite precise, but not divided, very smoothMo ther makes a rounded gestureno breaks.) Something, then, a will or a force or a consciousness plainly a powerhad taken possession of the body and was doing all the work, looking after everything. I was witnessing everything, smiling. But its gone now. It came specifically for that work (I was in pretty bad shape); when the work was over, it dissolvedit didnt leave abruptly but it became inactive. Afterwards, I felt rather confident. Well in any case, I thought, something similar could happen on the 21st, since it just happened now.
--
And exhale slowly thats very difficultbeing careful to empty the top part of the lungs, because air often stagnates there. This seems to be one of the most frequent causes of coughs and colds. When I had bronchitis I learned to empty the air out completely. And I knew singing, so I was familiar with the method: you learn to hold the air and then release it slowly, slowly, so as to keep singing nonstop.
I advise you to practice it.
--
Ah, its funny, because just this morning. Did you come for the balcony?
Lately I have been coming, but I didnt this morning.
0 1962-02-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The closer you approach absolute certainty, the greater is the time span, because the realm of such visions is quite close to the Origin, and a long time can pass between the revelation of what will be and its realization. But being so near the Origin, the revelation is very certain.
When one is identified with the Supreme, there is a place where all is unequivocally known: in the past, in the present, in the future and everywhere. But when they return, those who go there usually forget what they have seen. A particularly strict discipline is needed to remember. Thats the only realm where you cant be mistaken.
--
Anyway, to go back to what I was saying, depending on the plane of ones vision, one can judge approximately how much time it will take to be realized. Immediate things are already realized, they are self-existent and can be seen in the subtle physical they already exist there, and the reflection (not even transcription) or projection of this image is what will take place in the material world the next day or a few hours later. In this case you see the thing accurately, in all its details, because its already there. Everything hinges on the precision and power of your vision: if your vision is objective and sincere, you will see the thing as it is; if you add personal sentiments or impressions, it gets colored. Accuracy in the subtle physical depends exclusively on the instrument, the one who sees.
But as soon as you move into a subtler realm, like the vital (and the mental even more so), there is a narrow margin of possibilities. You can see the rough outlines of what is going to take place, but in the details it can be this way or that way: it is possible for certain wills or influences to interfere and create discrepancies.
This is so because the original Will is reflected, as it were, in different realms, and in each realm the organization and relation of the images are changed. The world we live in is a world of imagesnot THE thing itself in its essence, but its reflection. We could say that in our material existence we are merely a reflection, an image of what we are in our essential reality. And the modalities of these reflections are what introduce all the errors and all the falsifications (what is seen in its essence is perfectly true and pure, existing from all eternity, while images are essentially variable). And according to the amount of falsehood introduced into the vibrations, the amount of distortion and alteration increases. Each circumstance, each event and each thing can be said to have one pure existenceits true existence and a considerable number of impure or distorted existences in the various realms of being. There is a substantial beginning of distortion, for instance, in the intellectual realm (indeed, the mental realm holds a considerable amount of distortion), and it increases as all the emotional and censorial realms interfere. Arriving at the material plane, the vision is most often unrecognizable. Completely distorted. To such a point that its sometimes very hard to realize that this is the material expression of thattheres not much resemblance any longer!
This approach to the problem is rather new and can provide the key to many things.
Take the case of someone you know well and are used to seeing materially: seeing him in the subtle physical, certain aspects become more prominent, more visible, more marked; physically they went unseen because in the material grayness they had blended with many other things. Certain character traits that never showed up physically now become so marked as to be quite visible. When you look at someone physically, you see the color of his complexion, the shape of his features, his expression. Seeing him at the same moment in the subtle physical, you suddenly notice different colors on different parts of the face, in the eyes an expression or a particular light you hadnt seen beforea strong impression of a very different overall appearance, which to our physical eyes would seem rather outlandish. But for the subtle vision its all very expressive and revealing of the persons character, or even of the influences hes under (what I am talking about is something I observed a few days ago).
So, according to the plane where you are conscious and can see, you perceive images and see events from varying distances and with varying degrees of accuracy. The only true and sure vision is the vision of the Divine Consciousness. The problem, therefore, is to become conscious of the Divine Consciousness and constantly maintain it in all lifes details.
--
Ultimately, absolute sincerity is the great deciding factor for those who predict or foresee. Unfortunately, because of peoples curiosity, their insistence and the pressure they exert (which very few can resist), an almost involuntary mechanism of inner imagination comes to add just that small missing element to something not seen with precision or exactness. Thats what causes flaws in prediction. Very few have the courage to say, Ah no, I dont know this, I dont see that, this eludes me. They dont even have the courage to say it to themselves! So then, with a tiny drop of imagination, which acts almost subconsciously, the vision or information gets rounded outit can turn out to be anything at all! Very few people can resist this tendency. I have known many, many psychics, many extraordinarily gifted beings, and only a handful were able to stop just at the point where their knowledge stopped. Or else they embellish. Thats what gives these faculties their slightly dubious quality. One would have to be a great saint, a great sage, and completely free from other peoples influences (I dont speak of those who seek fame: they fall into the most flagrant traps); because even goodwillwanting to satisfy people, please them, help themis enough to distort the vision.
(Smiling) Are you satisfied? Have I answered everything?
--
He asked me about it and my explanation was that an entity had forewarned him. The image of the bellboy indicates an intelligent, conscious intermediaryit doesnt seem to come from the mans subconscient.1 Or else he had seen it in the subtle physical and his subconscient knew but then why did it present him with such an image? I dont know. Perhaps something in his subconscient knew, because the accident already existed in the subtle physical. Before it occurred here, the accident the law of the accidentexisted.
Of course, in every case there is invariably a time-lag, sometimes a few hours (thats the maximum), sometimes a few seconds. Quite frequently things announce their presence, but to come in contact with your consciousness, it may take them a couple of minutes or just seconds. I am constantly, constantly aware of whats going to happenutterly uninteresting things, as a matter of fact; knowing them in advance changes nothing. But they exist all around us, and with a wide enough consciousness we can know it all. For example, I know that so and so is going to bring me a parcel, that someone is about to come, and so forth. And its like this every day. because my consciousness is spread far and wideit comes into contact with things.
But the thing already exists, so it cant be called a premonition; its just that to come true for us it needs a few seconds to make contact with our senses, because a door or a wall or something prevents us from seeing it.
Ive had many such experiences. Once I was walking along a mountain path wide enough only for one: on one side, a precipice, on the other, sheer rock. Three children were behind me and a fourth person brought up the rear. I was in the lead. The path skirted the rock so you couldnt see what lay ahead. It was quite dangerous, besides: one slip and you fell off the cliff. I was walking in front when suddenly, with other eyes than these (yet I was carefully watching my steps), I saw a snake lying on the rocks around the bend. Waiting. I took one soft step and a snake was actually there! This spared me the shock of surprise ( because I had seen it and was advancing cautiously), and as there was no shock of surprise, I could say to the children without scaring them, Stop, be quiet, dont move. A shock might have caused a mishap the snake had heard us and was already on the defensive, coiled before his hole, head swayinga viper. It was in France. Nothing happened, but with confusion and commotion, who knows?
--
Its easier with the mind because we are more used to concentrating there. When you want to reflect and find a solution to something, instead of using mental deduction, you stop everything, focus on the idea or problem, and then concentrate, concentrate, intensifying the crux of the problem. You stop everything and wait until, through sheer intensity of concentration, a response comes. Learning that also demands a little time; but if you were ever a good student you have something of the aptitudeits not so very difficult.
Theres a kind of extension of the physical senses. In American Indians, for instance, the senses of hearing and smell are far more extended than ours (in dogs too!). When I was eight or ten years old, I had an Indian friend who came with Buffalo Bill in the days of the Hippodrome that was a long time ago, I was around eight. He was so sharp that he could put his ear to the ground and tell, from the intensity of the vibrations, how far the sound of footsteps was coming from. All the children immediately said, Id really like to know how to do that! And so you try.
0 1962-03-06, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This in itself has to be conquered; I mean, the state in itself represents something to be conquered. because you remember, I told you the other day about having such a tremendous experience in the body-consciousness1this this dull consciousness in the material world, which really gives the feeling of something inert, unchanging, incapable of responding; you could wait millions and millions of years and nothing would budge. And that experience came at the end of a rather critical passageit takes catastrophes to get it moving, thats whats so strange! And not only that, but the wisp of imagination it does have (if you can call it imagination) is invariably catastrophic. Whatever it anticipates is always for the worst the pettiest, meanest, nastiest kind of worstalways the worst. Its really, its the most sickening condition human consciousness and matter can be in. Well, I have been swimming in it for months, and my way of being in it is to go through every possible illness and to have every possible physical aggravation, one after another.
Just recently, as I told you, things truly became a little disgusting, dangerous, and for an hour or an hour and a half I did a sadhana like this (Mother clenches her fists), keeping hold of this body and body-consciousness. And the whole time the Force was at work there (it was like kneading a very resistant dough), something was saying to me, Look, you cant deny miracles any longer. It was being said to this consciousness (not to me, of course), this body-consciousness: Now you cant deny it miracles do happen. It was forced to see; there it was, gaping like an idiot being shown the skyAh! And its so stupid that it didnt even have any joy of discovery! But it was forced to see, the thing was right under its nosethere was no escaping it, it had to be admitted. But you know what, mon petit, as soon as I let up on the pressureforgotten!
--
What has become constant, though. I shouldnt say it, because its going to get me into trouble again! But anyway, whats trying to be constant is DISCRIMINATION: taking all circumstances, vibrations, relationships, what comes from the people around me, what responds, and putting each in its proper place. A second-to-second discrimination. I know where things are coming from, why they come, their effect, where theyre going to lead me, and so on. Its growing more and more frequent, constant, automaticlike a state of being.
Thats about the only place where progress is really visible. I hope the fact of having spoken wont get me into trouble again!
--
except the bare minimum, which I do because it has to be done; otherwise. I have no desire to stir up the mind, I want something else.
Naturally! Thank god, I tell you, its an immense progress. You should be delighted.
0 1962-03-11, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
No, no, not delete! But sometimes I havent quite grasped something, or else Ive had to interpret because you made a gesture or.
because it was incomplete, unexpressed.
There are a few points like that in all these texts. Its up to you whether I read only those points or.
--
I dont like to talk about this because people here have no discrimination; they would be left with nothing but fear and would no longer believe in anything, forever asking me, Oh, isnt this a trick? Which paralyzes everything. Thats why I didnt speak about that in this Talk.
You do say a couple of words about it.
It should at least be mentioned that some beings in the vital world can take on completely deceptive appearances at willall the most dazzling lights are found in the vital, but with a particular quality. So those who have truly approached THE Light cant be deceived. because its indefinable, something the spiritual sense alone can feel: perfect security, perfect peace, perfect purity (although I hesitate to use the word purity, which has taken on such an idiotic meaning); what I mean is the absence of all admixture.
To those with the spiritual sense, the most dazzling vital lights always seem to have something artificial about themthey FEEL artificial and cold, hard, aggressive, deceptive. But thats the point: you yourself must be beyond all this. Not to be fooled, you mustnt fool yourself!
Actually, thats the main reason I dont like to talk about occultism. It puts people in touch with an extremely dangerous world which cant be safely entered unless one is (I cant even say a saint, because its not true; some saints enter the vital world and get right into it!) unless one is transformed, unless one has the true spiritual consciousness. On this condition alone are you perfectly safe. So where are the people with the spiritual consciousness? There are really very few of them, very few. And above all, in those who have this occult curiosity there are also all sorts of vital movements, which make it dangerous for them to enter that world. Unless, of course, they go shielded by the gurus presence; with that, you can go anywhere, its the same as going there with him. And if you do go with him, all is well; he has the knowledge and he protects you. But going there all on your own is you need the Divine Protection itself! Or the protection of the guru who represents the Divine. With the gurus protection you are safe.
But isnt it possible to have a fruitful collaboration with those beings? Should they be avoided altogether, or what?
--
I can tell you the result: a lot of people will lose all confidence in what they see. Then it becomes impossible to work with them. I cant even teach them to receive what I tell them in silence any more; they instantly start wondering, Oh, is it Mother or a spirit of falsehood? They really have no sense of discrimination, you see, they dont KNOW! So if they have to come every time, wondering Was it you or was it? And when theyre in that state they dont listen properly. Theres a whole range of work I cant do any more, because they lack the necessary discrimination. So I normally dont say anything.
I really prefer to say nothing.
0 1962-03-13, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
No, no, I must really have expressed myself very poorly, because it was quite the opposite. I deem this Agenda far too intimate, far too near and dear to me, to be thrown as fodder to a bunch of idiots!
I fully agree! But you said (at least I thought you did) that you would systematically file this Agenda away, that it would never even be at the disposal of those interested in the Work.
--
No, I am never like that. Its just that (I may seem to be making fun of things, thats different) but its precisely when. Listen, I can tell you: when I am like that, when I seem to be making fun of things, its because at times its really dangerous, really dangerous.1
I cant stand drama.
--
because it comes from very highits not from here, not at all; it was decided on high, and a long, LONG time ago. Before you came here, I was constantly feeling. Besides, it hadnt been so long without Sri Aurobindo; when Sri Aurobindo was here I had nothing to say, and if I did speak it was almost by chance. Thats all. What had to be said was said by him. And when he left and I began to read his books (which I hadnt read before), I told myself, Well, what do you know! There was absolutely no need for me to say anything. And I had less and less desire to speak. The minute I met you, I began to get interested. Ah, I thought, collaboration! Something interesting can be done.
None of this is random chance. Its not that were taking advantage of circumstances, not at all; it was DECREED.
All my life I have always, always felt I had something to say, but that there had to be another instrument to say it, to give it a kind of perfection of form I myself was unable to give. because thats not my job. Its not my job.
What I can bring to the world are flashes something that goes beyond, above and through everything that is presently manifested. But I dont have the patience for the concrete, fixed, material form. I could have been a scholar, I could have been a writer, just as I could have been a painter and I have never had the patience for any of it. There was always something moving on too swiftly, too high and too far.
--
Besides, youre totally wrongits not WHAT YOU ARE that makes you grumble; its just the opposite: you see yourself that way because you grumble!
There, enough scolding, lets get to work.
0 1962-04-03, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There is in that group a man whom I must have seen once or twice, who is not with them in spirit, but only in appearance, but without knowledge. He does not know what kind of being it is. And he always hopes to make him accept me, believing it is truly Sri Aurobindo. I saw this being last night. I wont tell you all the details of the vision. It is not necessary. But I must say that I was fully conscious, aware of everything, knowing that there was an Asuric Force there, but not rejecting it, because of the infinity of Sri Aurobindo. I knew that everything is part of him and I do not want to reject anything. I met this being last night three times, even apologized for sins that I have not committed, and in full love and surrender.
I woke up at twelve, remembering everything.
--
I woke up at two and noticed that the heart had been affected by the attack of this group that is wanting to take my life away from this body, because they know that as long as I am in a body upon earth their purpose cannot succeed. Their first attack was many years ago in vision and action. It happened during the night and I spoke of it to no one. I noted the date, and if I can come out of this crisis, I will find it and give it out. They would have liked me dead years ago. It is they who are responsible for these attacks on my life. Until now I am alive because the Lord wants me to be alive, otherwise I would have gone long ago.
I am no more in my body. I have left the Lord to take care of it, if it is to have the Supramental or not. I know, and I have also said, that now is the last fight. If the purpose for which this body is alive is to be fulfilled, that is to say, the first steps towards the Supramental transformation, then it will continue today. It is the Lords decision. I am not even asking what He has decided. If the body is incapable of bearing the fight, if it has to be dissolved, then humanity will pass through a critical time. What the Asuric Force that has succeeded in taking the appearance of Sri Aurobindo will create is a new religion or thought, perhaps cruel and merciless, in the name of the Supramental Realisation. But everybody must know that it is not true, it is not Sri Aurobindos teaching, not the truth of his teaching. The truth of Sri Aurobindo is a truth of love and light and mercy. He is good and great and compassionate and divine. Et cest Lui qui aura la victoire finale.1
0 1962-04-13, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And how, how to express in the world? It was like an impossibility, because of the contradiction. But then it came: You have accepted that this world should know the Supramental Truth and it will be expressed totally, integrally. Yes, yes.
And the thing is DONE.
0 1962-05-13, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Then began the process of descent,1 and the Voice was explaining it to me I lived through it all in detail, and it wasnt pleasant. It took an hour and a half to change from that true Consciousness to the individual consciousness. because throughout the experience this present individuality no longer existed, this body no longer existed, there were no more limits, I was no longer herewhat was here was THE PERSON. An hour and a half was needed to return to the body-consciousness (not the physical consciousness but the body-consciousness), to the individual body-consciousness.
The first sign of the return to individuality was a prick of pain, a tiny point (Mother holds between her fingers a minuscule point in the space of her being). Yes, because I have a sore, a sore in a rather awkward place, and it hurts2 (Mother laughs). So I felt the pain: it was the sign of individuality coming back. Other than that, there was nothing any moreno body, no individual, no limits. But its strange, I have made a strange discovery3: I used to think it was the individual (Mother touches her body) who experienced pain and disabilities and all the misfortunes of human life; well, I perceived that what experiences misfortunes is not the individual not my body, but that each misfortune, each pain, each disability has its own individuality as it were, and each one represents a battle.
And my body is a world of battles.
--
I would prefer a word other than descent, because there was no sensation or notion of descentnone at all. It could be called the process of materialization or individualizationtransformation of consciousness would be more exact. It is the process of changing from the true Consciousness to the distorted consciousness thats it exactly.
You say it yourself: the transition from the true Consciousness to ordinary consciousness.
0 1962-05-15, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So it was in 59 that I first saw them, and it must have been the end of June or the beginning of July. This note [the desk-calendar page] is what gave me the clue, because I know that the other experience [of Sri Aurobindo in the subtle physical] came a few weeks later.
You say there was a whole group organized around that asuric beingpeople, ceremonies.
--
I didnt receive a promisethis Voice made me remember a promise I had made. I was saying to myself, How to connect this true Consciousness to the other oneits impossible! And just then I seemed to hear not Sri Aurobindo exactly, because then you immediately think of a particular body, but that sort of Voice saying to me, Your promise. You said you would do the Work. So thats when I said, Yes, I shall do the Work. And from that moment on the process of materialization began, the entire transition from the true Consciousness to the ordinary consciousness.
I didnt receive a promise, but a reminder of the promise I had made.
--
I said on April 3 the body was the battlefield, that the battle was being waged IN this body. And then in that experience [of April 13] I was sent back into the body, because the thing that last creative gusthad to be realized through this body.
(silence)
--
They had wanted to give the Nobel prize to Sri Aurobindo, but he left the year before the decision was to be made. And as they dont give the prize to dead people, he never got it. Then they wanted to transfer it to me, and I wrote this note, because the last thing I want is name and fame. Thats all there was to it. They didnt give a peace prize that year.
I believe the whole affair is now buried and forgotten.
0 1962-05-18, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There was a relation, I kept a link with it, but it took some days to get established (I dont know how many, because for a long time I couldnt keep track of anything). After some days (say ten days, twenty days, I dont know), the will began to function, the body was again under the control of the will. But that didnt happen right away for some days, the will that deals with the body was annulled (I was entirely conscious and alive, but not in my body). The body was merely something moved around by the people looking after me. Not that it was separate, but I couldnt even say, its a body it wasnt anything any more! Something. Having undergone so much preparation, the universalization of the body-consciousness and all that, the experience didnt even seem strange to me (in fact, it was certainly the result of all that preparation). The body was something like a mass of substance being driven by the will of the three people looking after it. Not that I was unaware of it but. I wasnt much concerned with it, to tell the truth; but as far as my attention was turned to it, it was a corporeal mass being moved around by a few wills. The supreme Will was in full agreement; the body had been entrusted, in a way (I dont know how to express this) yes, it was like something entrusted, and I was simply looking on I watched it all for I dont know how many days, with hardly any interest.
The one really concrete link was pain. Thats how the contact was kept.
When you said, I am no more in this body, I thought that because of the necessities of the Work some part of you had withdrawn.
Oh, no! Nothing withdrewit had already withdrawn a long time ago. The consciousness wasnt at all centered in the body. When I said I, for instance, it NEVER occurred to me that I was this (Mother points to her body). I, the I who spoke, was always a will ENTIRELY independent of the body, entirely independent.
--
It was a bit violent! (Mother laughs) And yet not so violent, because. Theres something I have never told anyone, but when the doctor was called. I was constantly fainting, you know: I would take a step andplop! So the doctor was called and they began watching over me (everything was supposedly going wrong, all the organs, everything breaking down), and he declared I was sick and wasnt to stir from my bed (for a while I wasnt even supposed to talk!). Well, at that point, something (not exactly what you would call my consciousness; it was far, far more eternal than my consciousness my consciousness is the consciousness of one form of the Manifestationwell, it was far more than that, beyond that) something said YES. And if That had not agreed, I could have gone on living almost as usual. That decreed, That decided I have never said anything about it.
Otherwise, you know, I would not have consented. If That had not agreed, I would have said to my body, Go on, keep going, move and it would have gone on. It stopped because That said yes. And then I understood that that whole so-called illness was necessary for the Work. So I let myself go. And then what I told you about happened: this body was consigned to the care of three people, who looked after it marvelously, by the wayreally, it filled me with constant admirationa selflessness, a care oh, it was wonderful! I was saying to the Lord the whole time, Truly, Lord, You have arranged all the material conditions in an absolutely marvelous, incredible way, bringing together whatever is necessary, and placing around me people beyond all praise. For at least two weeks they had a hard time of itquite hard. The body was a wreck, you know! (Mother laughs) They had to think of everything, decide everything, take care of everything. And they looked after it very, very wellreally very well.
Its a wonderful story, seen as I see it. And I have observed it very carefully: it isnt an ordinary story seen with an exceptional knowledge, but a true Knowledge and a true Consciousness witnessing an exceptional story. Those three people may not be aware of how utterly exceptional it is, but thats simply because their consciousness is not sufficiently awake. But they too have been, and continue to be, exceptional.
The whole story is a fairy tale.
--
I have even been forbidden to utilize my knowledge, power and force to annul the pain in the way I used to (and I used to do it very well). That has been totally forbidden. But I have seen that something else is in sight. Something else is in the making. It cant be called a miracle because its not a miracle, but its something wonderful the unknown. When will it come? How will it come? I dont know.
But its interesting.
0 1962-05-24, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But in any case, if it could be absolutely total (theres an if here), objective, scientific knowledge pushed to its extreme limits would certainly bring you to the threshold. Thats what Sri Aurobindo means. But he also says its fatal, because all those who went in for that knowledge believed in it as an absolute truth, thus closing the door to the other approach. In this respect it is fatal.
From my own experience, though, I could say to all those who believe EXCLUSIVELY in the spiritual approach, the approach through inner experience, that thisat least if its exclusiveis equally fatal. For it reveals to them ONE aspect, ONE truth of the Whole but not THE Whole. The other side seems just as indispensable to me, for when I was so utterly in that supreme Realization, this other falsified, outer realization was undeniably just a distortion (and probably accidental) of something EQUALLY TRUE.
--
These positions the spiritual and the materialist (if you can call it that) positionswhich consider themselves exclusive (exclusive and unique, and so each one denies the others value in the name of Truth) are inadequate, not only because neither one will accept the other, but because even accepting and uniting them both wont solve the problem. Something else is needed, a third position that isnt the result of these two but something still to be discovered, which will probably open the door to total Knowledge.
Well, thats where I stand.
0 1962-05-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You cant, you just cant try! You cant make an effort, you cant try to find out, because intellectual activity immediately comes in, and that has nothing to do with it.
So I have concluded that its something one must become, something one must be and live. But how? In what way? I dont know.
--
Recently these last few days in particular, because of this business with XIve been seeing the two persons that are in you. One of them is far more real to you than the other, because it has been given more expression; it is more realized, more conscious of itself, and its something you know well. The other being doesnt yet have the power to direct (how shall I put it?) to openly and consciously direct your destiny. Thats why you might still find yourself wandering in labyrinths.
For the moment I am in a seemingly neutral stateall I can say is, Well see. There is no definite no and no definite yesthere has been no definite approval, but there hasnt been the no that says, Its impossible. So it looks like that eternal Well see. How long will it be till we see? I dont know. It may be a few hours, a few days, a few minutes I dont know.
--
Let me put it to you more clearly: your physical body, for example, should have been either stronger or more supple or endowed with certain very strong vital compensations, so that you wouldnt suffer from your working conditions. Of course, for someone following a yogic ascent, whose soul is in the process of formation, the external conditions of life are normally what is best for inner development, whatever that may beeven if, on the surface, those conditions arent good. So the only advice you can give such a person is, Well, either renounce the spiritual life or else putup with it. But thats not your case. There is a Mission, a work, and a kind of gap between a certain physical formation and that Mission. So if you ask me plainly what I see, I can tell you plainly, instead of saying as I would to certain sadhaks or anyone sincerely wanting to do yoga, Take it or leave it; you must learn to transform yourself inwardly to the point where you can master the body and its needs. I cant tell you that, because thats not how it is for you.
I mean it may beit may be that even an inner transformation (a complete conversion of the vital being, for instance) wouldnt necessarily bring an improvement in your health. It is here where. Its not something I see imperatively. And to go back to ordinary life would be the end of everythingof your physical life and your inner life too.
--
But its because of this blockage that the body wonders, Whats the matter with me?
Maybe not. Maybe its something in the body itself. That maybe is what makes me hesitate.
--
All the same all the same, a kind of constant communication has been established [between you and me], and because of that, without even knowing it, you are in rapport with the experiences. And well my experiences clearly dont impel one to actionnot for the moment.
No, its not that. No, the one thing I dont like is your physical exhaustion.
--
I feel sort of impatient because there is no bridge between something that I feel I KNOW and the physical life. So Im going round in circles. Its always the same.
A link is missing. There (gesture above) one knows, here (gesture into Matter) one doesnt know, and theres always the feeling that a change of place or a change of physical conditions is going to establish the contact. It happenstrue, it does happen: suddenly, flash! But it happens under ANY circumstances. It doesnt depend on outer changes. I know very well that nothing in either the climate or the living conditions here is absolutely intolerableits only our ideas about it, our mental reactions (mental and vital). But if there were just that joy, the joy of total opening, all the rest would be all right.
0 1962-05-29, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And with pictures, mon petit! Pictures of all the outer activities, like a movie. A lovely magazine full of pictures. This seems to me the only thing that could really be said, because thats all that can be seen. So you show all this, saying: Yes but someone is trying to do something with all this. Look behind it, look at the lovely image, the lovely story behind. And he was trying to draw that story down to earth, and it is sure to come.
And if you like, you too can help make that story come down to earth.
--
No, I dont really feel any need for the mountains. The idea came to me because of this book.
Frankly, I dont believe thats the problem, mon petit. because I see this book, I feel it. And since I feel it so vividly, dont you think it would be easier to write it here than up there?
No, its solely a question of health. If I could. Listen, I also had a longing to go to the Himalayas, I had a great longing for it when I was in France. When I came here the first time it was fine, I was very happy, everything was beautiful, everything was perfect, but oh, to go to the Himalayas for a while! (I have always loved mountains.) I was living over there in the Dupleix house, and I used to meditate while walking back and forth. There was a small courtyard with a dividing wall, and shards of glass were stuck on top of the wall to keep out thieves. And I was meditatingmeditating on the spiritual lifewhen suddenly something caught my eye: a ray of sunlight on a sharp piece of blue glass on top of the wall. And positively, spontaneously, without thinking or reflecting or anything I saw the summits of the Himalayas: I was on the summits of the Himalayas.
0 1962-05-31, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
One day I will certainly use the same method on those room changes, but for that it will have to become very clear and distinct, well defined in the consciousness. because that change of room (intellectually you would call it a change of consciousness, but that means nothing at all; were dealing here with something very, very material) I have sometimes gone through it without experiencing ANY CHANGE OF EFFECT, which probably means I was centered not in the material consciousness but in a higher consciousness dwelling and looking on from elsewherea witness consciousness and I was in a state where everything flows flows like a river of tranquil peace. Truly, its marvelousall creation, all life, all movements, all things, and everything like a single mass, with the body in the midst of it all, blending homogeneously with the whole and it all flows on like a river of peace, peaceful and smiling, on to infinity. And then oops! You trip (gesture of inversion2) and once again find yourself SITUATEDyou ARE somewhere, at some specific moment of time; and then theres a pain here, a pain there, a pain. And sometimes I have seen, I have witnessed the change from the one to the other WITHOUT feeling the pains or experiencing the thing concretely, which means that I wasnt at all in the body, I wasnt BOUND to the body I was seeing, only seeing, just like a witness. And its always accompanied by the kind of observation an indulgent (but not blind) friend might make: But why? Why that again? Thats how it comes. Whats the use of that? And I cant catch hold of what makes it happen.
It will come.
It is very interesting because its very new.
Whats happening? Whats happening, whats going on?!
--
Several times ( because I am almost never alone in my room, though there may be many other reasons), I have noticed a slight change, a small movement in the consciousness of the person or persons in the room. But I always hesitate to throw the responsibility onto something external, because that takes three-quarters of the possibility of control away from you.
If only the mechanism could be found!
--
And its the same thing: whats needed is the path of vastness, widening, relaxation, ease, of BLOSSOMING in the vitalnot so much a censorial vital as as gentleness, a certain sweetness. The vital blossoming into beauty: sweetness and beauty. I dont want to speak of sentiments because oh, that lands us right in a quagmire! No, but a sweetness and charm and beauty but not there (in the head): here. And then restnot a stiff and stony and stagnant rest, a rest within the undulation. You let yourself float.3
(silence)
--
It represents what you put into ityour aspiration, mon petit. No, to me it can represent only ONE thing. I call it the Supreme, because you have to call it something, but that Something is the farthest limit of our aspiration, our aspiration in every sense, in all directions, on all occasions. Something that is the supreme summit of our aspiration, WHATEVER that aspiration may be, in whatever direction, in whatever realmbeyond, really beyond, Something beyond any form of activity.
For me, the most concrete approach to this is through the vibration of pure Love; not love for something, a love you give or receive, but Love in itself: Love. It is something self-existent. And it is certainly the most concrete approach for me. (But it isnt exclusiveit contains everything else within itself; it doesnt exclude all the other approaches, all the other contacts.)
You see, throughout my childhood and youth and the whole beginning of my yoga, there was a sort of refusal in my being to use the word God, because of all the falsehood behind that word (Sri Aurobindo rid me of that; in the same way he got rid of all limitations, he rid me of that one too). But its not a word that comes to me spontaneously.
But Love. At the moment of contact, when it goes like this (gesture)at that moment something surges up.
--
And yet I have noticed that to associate a certain state and a certain aspiration with a certain sound helps the body. No one told me the mantra; I had begun doing japa before we met X (it had come to me when I was trying to find a means of getting the body to take part in the experience the body itself, you know: THIS). And this help was certainly given to me, because the method imposed itself very, very imperiouslywhen I heard certain Words it was like an electric shock. And then, disregarding all Sanskrit rules, I made myself a sentence; it isnt really a Sanskrit sentence, or any kind of sentence at alla phrase made up of three Words. And these three Words are full of meaning for me. (I wouldnt mention it to a Sanskritist!) They have a full, living meaning. And they have been repeated literally millions and millions of times, I am not exaggerating they surge up from the body spontaneously.
It was the first sound that came from the body when I had that last experience [April 13]. Along with the first pain, came that first soundso it must be quite well rooted.6 And it brings in exactly that vibration of eternal Life: the first thing I felt, all of a sudden, was a kind of strong calm, confident and smiling.
0 1962-06-02, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It was a very interesting experienceespecially interesting for some people because I became aware of certain reincarnations. I was in a state that might be called a state of knowledge, where I knew things with certainty, without any doubt.
But whats strikingits connected to what I was telling you the other dayis that I was going to see some people who were on the other side of a river. Ordinarily the river water wasnt clean and you needed a boat or something to cross; but yesterday I was in a special state I just sat down on the water and said, I am going there. And then, quite naturally, a current of pure, crystal clear water simply took me where I wanted to go. It was a very pleasant sensation I was sitting on the water, all smiles, and prrt! I was taken to the other side. Oh, very good! I thought. Will it continue? And so once again I said, I am going there (that is, back to this side) and prrt! Back I came.
--
After that, the experience changed, other things happened. But what I have just related is certainly part and parcel of that experience the other day [the two rooms, one inside the other], because the two were coexistent.1
And the water was so real! The experience was so real that I could feel the coolness of the water; I had the pleasant sensation of sitting on something very soft and cool and swift, carrying me along.
--
And I know I was in a state of knowledge, because I suddenly knew who certain people herepeople I have known for a very, very long timewere the reincarnations of (I had never tried to find that out, it just came). I was almost calling them by their former names. Yes, a special state, a state of knowledge but not spiritual knowledge: a knowledge related to the material world. In such visions, water always represents the vital. When everything is harmonious with the water, it means the vital is harmonious.
It was delightful (it happened around 1:30 in the afternoon): sitting on the water the way you would sit on a chair! And the water was so clear, crystal clear, transparent, rippled with tiny waves; the depths were dark blue, but the surface was perfectly clear, transparent, almost colorless. Then when the big brother came, boasting that he knew how to do it too, and would take me across, the water began to get muddy, as river water always isa dirty grayish yellow.
--
Material knowledge, I think I mean the higher use of the physical mind, which keeps you from entering the true room.2 because I simply kept repeating, I have to say: I WANT TO GO THERE (in other words, it was a crystal clear, imperative will coming from the highest level) I have to say: I WANT TO GOnot that, not your methods! (Mother laughs.)
***
--
I have seen instances of people having quite unexpected experiences, experiences out of all proportion to their normal state of consciousness, and very clearly resulting from that movement. It wouldnt be kind to name them, because really, you would never expect them to have such experiences! And it certainly comes from that.
Yes, it has effectsfar and near. The people nearest to me dont seem to be the most receptive; but with them the action is much more complex and SOLIDI mean instead of a sudden experience thats almost, as I said, out of proportion to their normal condition, something is being progressively BUILT. I constantly find myself in the midst of constructions, immense constructions in the making. It was like that last night; I had to flounder about in something like cement, a kind of batter. And then I meet all sorts of people who are also more or less symbolic, but who sometimes have the features of a specific person. Its a whole WORLD of circumstances, symbolic down to the most minute details. I remember everything, but I would have to describe a whole world and an apparently uninteresting world, at that (outwardly uninteresting, I mean); but it gives me the key, from every point of view, to the present state of things, to the world now in the making.
Last night I spent almost all my time in such a building. And all the people who help the work were symbolized there but its always a material help, either work or money or. I remember being particularly struck by one character last night. (Again, there were a lot of aggravations, but someone or something was always on the scene when I arrived and it all sorted itself outit was the exact opposite of the dreams I was talking about the other day: all the difficulties sorted themselves out when I arrived.) Then I came to a rather difficult place to cross (you had to flounder about on slippery scaffoldings) and suddenly, facing me, there was a man (of course, it was probably a symbol rather than a man, but it might really be someone physical). He was one of the workers, a master mason (when I woke up this morning, I thought of the symbolism of Freemasonry and wondered if it might give a clue to the experience). Nearby, people were coming to supervise, observe, direct, people who thought themselves highly superior but they were never any help in solving practical problems! They were creating more problems than they were helping to solve. Anyway, this master mason appeared to be around fifty, with a beautiful facea workers face, beautiful and concentrated. There was a difficult place to cross, and he had worked the thing out very efficiently, with a lot of care. Then, when it was all done and I was able to go on my way, I felt a great surge of love go out to him, with neither gesture nor word and he received it, he felt and received it. His face lit up and he implored me, with wonderful humility, Never let me forget this moment, the most beautiful moment of my life. (I dont know what language he used because it didnt come to me in words.) It was such an intense experience. His humility, his receptivity, his response were all so beautiful and pure that when I woke upwhen I came out of the experience, at any rate I was left with a most delightful impression.
What he represents might be partly manifested by somebody here. A beautiful face a man around fifty. Or it may be symbolic: such characters are sometimes put together with features from several people, to make it very clear that they represent a state of consciousness and not an individual. Its far more often a state of consciousness than an individual.
--
You remember all the difficulties I encountered in those other visions at night. Well, this was very interesting because it was just the opposite: I was in a very complicated place full of obstacles and difficulties, but someone or something was always there when I arrivedeverything would get sorted out and I would go on my way. It all sorted itself out automatically the feeling of a power putting everything in order. And I remember when the mason arrived, just as I was facing that rather big obstacle, there was someone on my right (someone very official, wearing a dark coat) who thought (the contact was through thought rather than words), Oh! Shes always calling on the workers for help instead of. And I answered, The workers are more efficient and their goodwill (all that business of caste, you know, or of society or social position). The workers have simple hearts, I said, they are efficient in their work and have more goodwill than the people who think theyre so smart! It was funny. So this made two interesting experiences yesterday, one after the other.
The afternoon experience was very intriguing; I was busy working (organizing things for one of the departments, I no longer remember which) and then I said to the person I was with, Now I am going to my cousins place! When I was very young I had a cousin, the eldest son of one of my fathers brothers (he had a large family, such as you seldom see in France). This cousin became some kind of engineera civil engineer, maybe, or a mechanical engineer (he was an outstanding chemist). Anyway, this boy was very attracted to me. He went off to the war as an officer and caught some disease (I forget what) and died around 1915, at the time I returned to France. Well, in my experience yesterday afternoon, a certain family living HERE gave me exactly the same sensation I had had towards those people when I was young. And especially for this cousin (for the rest of the family it was more vague, like a background to the experience). I am going to their place, I said. They have a lovely estate here, just as they had a lovely estate in France before (they had Madame de Sevignes chateau at Sucy, near Parisa beautiful property). And it was all so concrete! It wasnt coming through the head; it wasnt a thought but a sensation. I have to go see him now, I said. And even as I was having my vision I was telling myself, You must be going crazy! Can they really be here in Pondicherry? This uncle with whom I had only rather distant relations and this cousin I never saw much of, but whom I knew to be very nice and very loyalAre they really here?! The sensation was most strange (the head wasnt functioning at all; it was a SENSATION). So off I went to see this cousin, and it was on the way to see him that I had the experience of crossing the river. And on the way back, after the discussion with the spiritual brother (whom I really told off: Get out of here! I dont need you!), after that, when I found myself back on the bank, I started collecting my consciousness again, telling myself, Look here now! Lets try to see clearly. And then I realized that the cousin who died prematurely during the war had reincarnated in someone here. How strange, I thought. And the dates coincided.
0 1962-06-06, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I am asking because last night I tried it was around four in the morning and I was concentrating on trying to build that bridge [between your waking consciousness and the other consciousness]. You didnt feel anything?
Its very vague.
--
It must give a sort of woolly effect to someone not used to it. You know, when you want to draw your consciousness withinwhat people call concentrating for meditation, for instance, or japa, well, to the sharp-edged surface consciousness the movement of interiorization is like entering something not exactly smoky, because it isnt dark, but woolly: the feeling of something with no angles, no precise demarcations. Dont you have that impression when you concentrate?
I dont see anything when I concentrate.
--
I had decided to tell you nothing because I really have nothing to sayits something thats going to need some time to become clear. But then this happened just now as I was waiting for you. So I looked, something above looked at what was happening in the body, as though asking it, Lets see, how does this feel to you? And I have told you how it feels.
(silence)
--
I havent changed, thats the thing I havent changed. because were it changed, it wouldnt come back; but they coexist. They coexist.2
If matter were changeable, it would have changed LONG ago.
--
because everything changes, but nothing disappears. You know, thinking the way we commonly do, it seems to us that the present state of the world will change and be replaced by something else. And on the other hand, we know from experience that whatever exists, exists eternally. So then what?
(long silence)
--
Petit, before you go to sleep, when you get into bed, simply think of me a little, with the will to receive what I send youjust for the space of a few seconds before you go to sleep, thats all. Dont try to concentrate and keep yourself awake, just formulate it, then go to sleep. because I am really trying!
Of course, I know youre trying! Im not accusing anyone Im the one thats blocked.
0 1962-06-09, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And so it becomes EVIDENT that immortality can be achieved! Things get destroyed simply because of their own rigidity and even then, its only a semblance of destruction; the essential element stays the same, everywhere, in everything, in decay just as much as in life.
It is extremely interesting!
0 1962-06-12, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But mon petit I havent told you everything that happened! Now hes telling everybody he had to cut with the Ashram because he was ill-treated.
Oh, so thats what hes saying.
--
When I spoke to him, you know, when I went to see him, it was just after my japa and I was in a state of absolute inner calmabsolute, with not a. I simply felt he had to be helped, because he was saying things that were going against him. So I had this feeling, a very strong feeling of affection, but an affection that states things clearly and unemotionally. I was very calm when I said all that. I did get upset afterwards, but I was upset mainly because he immediately had such an incredible reaction! So then I was at a loss. But the way I put things to him. Really, if he had the least. But even a man who has never done any yoga would have felt I was speaking from my heart, candidly. Even a man with no spiritual culture would have felt that. So how could he take it in such a way!
I am not sure he did.
--
Thats exactly it! I detest gossip, you know, so I never spread any, but he has told some people incredible things. I dont tell on him to you because I find it a kind of its something I dislike. Thats why I spoke to himin such a case, I always refer to something within, to the deep affection I had for him. I mean I was trying to help. I had NO OTHER kind of reaction. I saw him in a bad spot and tried to help him out, thats all.
Yes, but with the sort of people he had around him, you understand.
--
Yes. because I had seen you couldnt see it, but I saw that if you were to speak to him it would be catastrophic! (Mother laughs) And as soon as I saw that, I told you Dont say anything.
But I did it KNOWINGLY, because I saw he needed help.
A man in his position, with such a rudimentary degree of culture, CANNOT be helped. Especially since all his learning is based on a knowledge that denies progress. So how can he be helped to progress?
--
No, the Grace has made him an object of special attention, thrusting him into a world which, externally, was not his own. In a matter of a few years he has made a journey of several lifetimes, so it has been a little bit difficult. Truly, in a few years he has inwardly traveled many lifetimes. And he has had to face the necessity of an enormous progress, all the more difficult because he hadnt mentally accepted or foreseen it. So he doesnt understand any more, poor man! If I could only take him in my arms like a baby and say to him, My poor little dear, my dear little child and make him feel good, then all would be well. But its not possible theres a whole spiritual construction. So I do it from a distance, wordlessly, in silence. But what gets through all that crust? I dont know! Over and over, I keep saying one thing: To divine Love, all human confusions and misunderstandings are unknown. There. Well, we will see. Wherever divine Love is present, human confusions and misunderstandings cannot exist, cannot enter.
Thats the only solution.
--
There is a way of looking at thingsan all too human waywhich sees me as VERY dangerous, very dangerous. It has been said time and time again. There was an Englishwoman who came here after an unhappy love affair. She had come to India seeking consolation, and stumbled onto Pondicherry. It was right at the beginning (those English Conversations5 are things I said to her; I spoke in English and then translated itor rather said it all over again in French). And at the end of a years stay, this woman said to me (with such despair!), When I came here I was still able to love and feel goodwill towards people; but now that Ive become conscious, I am full of contempt and hatred! So I answered her, Go a bit farther on. Oh, no! she replied. Its enough for me as it is! And she added, You are a very dangerous person. because I was making people conscious! (Mother laughs) But its true! Once you start, you have to go right to the end; you mustnt stop on the wayon the way, it gets to be hard going.
I dont do it on purpose.
--
And I am more and more aware that people really panicked this time; they imagined I was going to die I could have died, had the Lord willed it. But it has been a sort of death, thats for suresure, sure, surealthough I dont say so, because. After all, one must have some regard for peoples common sense!
But really, if I let myself go one step further I would say that I was dead and have come back to life. But I dont say it.
--
That whole way of seeing, feeling and reacting belongs really to another world. Really to another world to such a degree that if I had no regard for peoples peace of mind I would say, I dont know whether I am dead or alive. because there is a life, a type of life vibration that is completely independent of. No, Ill put it another way: the way people ordinarily feel life, feel that they are alive, is intimately linked with a certain sensation they have of their bodies and of themselves. If you totally eliminate that sensation, the type of relation that allows people to say I am alive well, eliminate that, but then how can you say, I am alive, or I am not alive? The distinction NO LONGER EXISTS. Well, for me, it has been completely eliminated. That night April 12-13, it was definitively swept out of me. It has never come back. Its something that seems impossible now. So what they mean by I am alive is I cant say I am alive the way they doits something else entirely.
Better not keep thisin the end theyll be worrying about my sanity! (Mother laughs.)
0 1962-06-20, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I had thought I would be able to see X for his birthday in December, but I dont know if I will have resumed my active life by thenit would greatly surprise me. because, to tell the truth, if things are the way I have seen them (the way I have seen and felt them), then at the least a very serious beginning of transformation should be taking place and well, for that, you know years are nothing! Years are no time at all. Everybodys in a hurry, absolutely insisting I resume my life; for the moment, I see no possibility of it.
But I dont know anything.
0 1962-06-23, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It lasted more than an houroh, at least two hours. The body was in that experience, but I was going on as always with what I had to do while that being was there. I am telling you this because suddenly, in the midst of it all, I remembered you: Why, he wants to see! So I told that being, Go show yourself to Satprem, show him you are here.
I wondered if you saw anything.
--
I cant say I find it terribly interesting (!) but I am clearly meant to know about it. Not that I am seeking to see or know (my focus is rather on preparing the body and making it receptive; thats what I am actively doing), but what probably happens is that, in my contemplation, I suddenly exteriorize (or something of the sort) and then I see all kinds of things. But I DONT sleep, you see (I dont know how to explain it). I go from a state of conscious concentration to a more passive state in which I am made to take part in all kinds of scenes and visions, involving many people and many things, as if to complete my knowledge. Some of these visions are amusing, new and interesting, and I dont know, but I suspect Sri Aurobindo has something to do with it, because theres such a sense of humor running through it all! (Mother laughs) Things that make me laugh, comical things due mainly to the tremendous earnestness with which people take the most unimportant things; yes, the disproportionate importance people give to absolutely unimportant events!
(silence)
0 1962-06-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Everything that happened prior to the experience of April 13 has disappeared, as it were, and the usual functioning of the consciousness has been totally annulled; it is trying little by little to create a new mode of operationnot merely trying: it is in the PROCESS of doing so on a truer foundation; a truer foundation, or truer relations, or vibrations, or functionings (I dont know the right word for it: all these things at once). That presence the other day [the tall white Being] was nothing essentially newit had already intervened a good many times; and yet it was new, because the whole functioning was new. Its like my experience two nights ago [the recharging of batteries], I had it for months on end; well, it was new because it was based on a new functioning. And each time (is it out of habit, or to make me understand, to make me see the difference?), each time the old functioning starts up, first of all I really feel I am losing the true contact, that the TRUE thing is escaping, and then I wonder how anybody can function like that without going insane! Thats what strikes me nowthis feeling of going insane! I mean it grates, it scrapes, it makes no senseit misses the point. It is not the TRUE thing, its beside the point. It tries to imitate something inimitable. And so I ask myself, What is this? Am I going crazy? Am I losing my faculties? And then I realize its not that at all! Above theres a state of immutable and UNSHAKABLE concentration, constant and almighty, and with but a drop of That, a spark of That, all problems are solved. Then I see clearly that its only a demonstration to make me see the inadequacy of the old, habitual functioningto really and truly convince me that its inadequate. Its rather hard to bear, actually. Last night I had it, I have seen it again in recent days: it lasts a few secondsjust enough for a satisfactory lesson! It may also happen to make me understand, but afterwards I wonder, Well, if everybody is in this state they dont know it, but its just terrible! And I realize that the LEAST thing, the slightest circumstance, is COMPLETELY distorted, instantly distorted by the way people work it out, the way they cause events to develop.
Thats an ever-present experience.
But this is still a period of preparation; the best thing to do now is to look and look and look again, observe and observe and observe again; and to have experiences, lots of experiences, because all that is nothing the thing ITSELF must be grasped. Weve got to catch the tail of the true functioning, so it can be substituted for the other at will. Thats it exactly.
And that requires minute-to-minute observation.
--
Its obviously a very good test of peoples trust, because without trust they would. For someone who doesnt have my experience, it all appears like first-class incoherence! Oh, it can be explained (everything can be explained! Its not beyond all explanation), but it is a bit disconcerting at first glance.
Anyway.
--
If I didnt tell these things to you, they would all vanish, and thats a fact. because I have no opportunity to tell them to anyone elseas you can well imagine! Tomorrow there will be something else and something else again the day after, and it all recedes into the past and has none of the relevance the present has for me.
Yes, for YOU it has no relevance but what about the rest of us!
0 1962-06-30, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I found out many, many things about Joan of Arcmany things. And with stunning precision, which made it extremely interesting. I wont repeat them because I dont remember with exactness, and these things have no value unless they are exact. And then, for the Italian Renaissance: Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa; and for the French Renaissance: Franois I, Marguerite de Valois,2 and so forth.
Twice I knew that it wasnt just images but something that had happened to ME, but it took another form. Once (when I was older, around twenty) it happened at Versailles. I had been invited to dinner by a cousin who, with no warning, served me dry champagne during dinner and I drank it unsuspectingly (I who never drank at all, neither wine nor liquor!). When I had to get up and cross the crowded room, oh, how very difficult it became, so difficult! Then we went to a place near the chateau, with a view of the whole park. And I was staring at the park, when I saw I saw the park filling up with lights (the electric lights had vanished), with all kinds of lights, torches, lanterns and then crowds of people walking about in Louis XIV dress! I was staring at this with my eyes wide open, holding on to the balustrade to keep from falling down (I wasnt too sure of myself!). I was seeing it all, then I saw myself there, engrossed in conversation with some people (I dont remember now, but there were certain corrections here too). I mean I was a certain person (I dont remember who) and there were those two brothers who were sculptors (Mother vainly tries to recollect the names3) anyhow, all kinds of people were there and I saw myself talking, chatting. And I seem to have been sufficiently in control of myself, because when I related all that I had seen, there were some quite interesting details and corrections. That was one time.
There was another time at Blois. They make Anjou wine at Blois. It was the same story: I never drank anything but water or herb tea, but there was a luncheon and they served us sparkling Anjou wine it seemed so light! Afterwards (I was with an artist friend, we were all artists) we went to see the museum, and it appears I was sparkling with wit! And I suddenly halted in front of a painting by now lets see, who was it? Cou? No, Clouet! Clouet: the princess one of the princesses.4 And I started making a few remarks out loud (it took me a little while to notice that people were listening). Look at this! I was saying. Just look at this! Look what this fellow has done to me! See what hes done to meit wasnt at all like that! It was actually a beautiful painting, but I was quite unhappy about it: Look what hes done to me! Lookhe made this like that, but thats not at all how it was, it was LIKE THIS! Details. And then I became aware (I wasnt too conscious physically) I realized that people were standing around listening, so I got a grip on myself, and left without a word. But I told my friends, Listen, it was definitely me! It was MY portrait, it was ME!
--
None of those beings, those gods and deities of various pantheons, have the same rapport with the Supreme that man has; for man has a psychic being, in other words, the Supremes presence within him. These gods are emanationsindependent emanationscreated for a special purpose and a particular action which they fulfill SPONTANEOUSLY; they do it not with a sense of constant surrender to the Divine but simply because thats what they are, and why they are, and all they know is what they are. They dont have the conscious link with the Supreme that man hasman carries the Supreme within himself.
That makes a considerable difference.
--
Human experience, with this direct incarnation of the Supreme,9 is ultimately a UNIQUE experience, which has given a new orientation to universal history. Sri Aurobindo speaks of thishe speaks of the difference between the Vedic era, the Vedic way of relating to the Supreme, and the advent of Vedanta (I think its Vedanta): devotion, adoration, bhakti, the God within.10 Well, this aspect of rapport with the Supreme could exist ONLY WITH MAN, because man is a special being in universal History the divine Presence is in him. And several of those great gods have taken human bodies JUST TO HAVE THAT.11 But not many of themthey were so fully aware of their own perfect independence and their almightiness that they didnt NEED anything (unlike man, you see, struggling to escape his slavery): they were absolutely free.
And thats why. How many times Durga came! She would always come, and I had my eye on her (!), because in her presence I could clearly sense that there wasnt that rapport with the Supreme (she just didnt need it, she didnt need anything). And it wasnt that something acted on her consciously, deliberately, to obtain that result: it has been a contagion. I remember how she used to come, and my aspiration would be so intense, my inner attitude so concentrated and one day there was such a sense of power, of immensity, of ineffable bliss in the contact with the Supreme (it was a day when Durga was there), and she seemed to be taken and absorbed in it. And through that bliss she made her surrender.
Most interesting.
--
Has Mother confused Clouet with Corneille de Lyon? because it seems there is no Clouet at Blois, but there is a portrait of Madeleine of Scotland, daughter of Franois I, painted by Corneille de Lyon. Unless Mother confused Blois with another town and another chteau?
Here we have a choice between several chilling faces. Of the five portraits of doges by Titian, that of the doge Antonio Crimani, painted between 1555 and 1576, is one of the few that have remained in the Palazzo Ducale in Venice. Might this be the one?
0 1962-07-04, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Once again it made me realize that this last experience [of April 13] may in reality have come to free me from ALL past knowledge, and that to live the Truth none of it is needed. I need neither all this terminology nor Sri Aurobindos terminology nor, of course, anyone elses; I dont need all these classifications, I dont need all sorts of experiences I need ONE experience, the one I have. And I have it in all things and in all circumstances: the experience of eternal, infinite, absolute Oneness manifesting in the finite, the relative and the temporal. And the process of change I am pursuing seems less and less of a problem; after looking like the ultimate problem, it doesnt seem to be one any more, because but that that cant be utteredit pleases Him to be that way, so He is that way.
And the secret is simply to be in this It pleases Him.
--
There must be certain lawslaws expressing a Wisdom far beyond us for the experience seems to follow a sort of curve which, because I am in it, I dont understand. And it wont be understood till the end is reached; but I am right in the middle of it, or maybe at the very beginning.
(long silence)
--
To die unto death, to become incapable of dying because death has no more reality.
This is beginning to I cant say crystallize, thats much too hard. Its like a soft breeze condensing.
--
As you know, N.S. has left his body. It was the result of an accident (he had a weak heart, and he worried about it). He took a fall, probably because he fainted, and fractured his skull: loss of consciousness due to cerebral hemorrhage (thats modern science speaking!). When the accident occurred, he came to me (not in a precise form, but in a state of consciousness I immediately recognized), and stayed here motionless, in complete trust and blissful peacemotionless in every state of being, absolutely (gesture of surrender) total, total trust: what will be, will be; what is, is. No questions, not even a need to know. A cosy peace a great ease.
They tried, fought, operated: no movement, nothing moved. Then one day they declared him dead (by the way, according to doctors, when the body dies the heart beats on faintly for a few seconds; then it stops and its all over). In his case, those faint beats (not strong enough to pump blood) continued for half an hour the kind of heartbeats typical of the trance state. (They all seem to be crassly ignorant! But anyway, it doesnt matter.) And they all said, even the doctors, Oooh, he must be a great yogi, this only happens to yogis! I have no idea what they mean by that. But I do know that although those heartbeats arent strong enough to pump blood through the body (thus putting the body into a cataleptic state), they do suffice to maintain life, and thats how yogis can remain in trance for months on end. Well, I dont know what type of doctors they are (probably very modern), but theyre ignorant of this fact. Anyway, according to them he had those pulsations for half an hour (normally they last a few seconds). All right. Hence their remarks. And he was here the whole while, immutable. Then suddenly I felt a kind of shudder; I lookedhe was gone. I was busy and didnt note the time, but it was in the afternoon, thats all I know. Later I was told that they had decided to cremate him, and had done so at that time.
--
because they cremated him he was abruptly (Mother violently shudders) and violently thrown into contact with the destruction of the bodys form.4 It must have been the life of the form; when hurled so brutally out of the body, the life of the form must have thrown itself at him! So of course.
(silence)
--
I havent told anyone what happened when they cremated him, because it would have made them all quite upset and miserable. I said only that he came to me. So dont say a word; they mustnt know. Not that its irreparable, but still, its not a pleasant experience.
But it came as if to put me in contact with this possibility.
--
There has never been too great an attachment to this form. There was never any attachment (even in so-called full Ignorance) to anything but consciousness yes, something set great store by this consciousness, wouldnt let it be destroyed, saying, This is something precious. But the body. Its not even too good an instrument; simply modest, plastic, self-effacing, and molding itself to every necessity. An ability to mold itself to all points of view and to realize every ideal it deemed worthy of realizingthis very suppleness was its one virtue. And extremely modest, never wanting to impose itself on anything or anyone. Fully conscious of its incapacity, but capable of doing anything, of realizing anything. It was consciously formed with this make-up, because thats what was necessary. And nothing is too great or overwhelming, since there isnt the resistance put up by a small personality with the sense of its own smallness. No, none of that mattersCONSCIOUSNESS matters; consciousness vast as the universe, even vaster. And along with consciousness, the capacity to adaptto adapt and mold itself to every necessity.
Even now, my one feeling about this form is that its too rigid. Those stupendous inner revelations, those great movements of creative consciousness are constantly hampered by this. Its trying, its trying its best, but it is still governed by such appallingly rigid laws! Appalling. How long will it take to overcome this?
--
In this case, I let others decide because I dont attend to such matters; but I did suggest they keep him until the next day, and I would have done something during the night. They were in a hurrytheyre always in a hurry.
I dont even say not to cremate people, because in AT LEAST ninety-nine cases out of a hundred its the best thing to do.
The only solution is for people to grow wise, and theyre not wise. They accept a law, a principle, and then, having no wisdom, need to follow it blindly.
--
People say, He has lost consciousness. They made this assumption in N.S.s case because there were no vital signs and the consciousness in the body was reduced to a minimum; there was still some left ( because it did react!), but it was a bare minimum, without much reacting powerhe wasnt an accomplished yogi, after all, only an apprentice yogi. It would have been entirely different, for instance, and far more serious, for someone who had practiced hatha yoga. But I mean to say that N.S. was here beside me, fully conscious, and could have moved on to another mode of manifestation without having to go through the throes of death thats not at all indispensable! Such is my experience, and I find it very important, tremendously important.
Besides, this is the first time it has happened. All those (like I.B., for example) who were hurled violently out of their bodies through an accident have, after a time, become conscious again the consciousness gathers itself back together. But N.S.s consciousness never scattered, he never lost consciousness.
0 1962-07-07, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its simply to give some background. Still, I cant avoid saying whats new in what Sri Aurobindo brings, precisely because it has nothing to do with spiritual India. We cant avoid telling them this one way or another, can we?
Yes, youre telling them very intelligently.
--
No, thats where you have to give in. You have to put all this trying to make them understand out of the picture. If you want to include those things for your personal satisfaction, because it makes the thing more real, more living, I agree; but get rid of this trying to make them understand, its impossible. I tell you, as soon as you go beyond the matter-of-fact (Mother sticks her hand right under her nose), theyre lost. But tell them what they can see when they get off the train: All these houses, thats the Ashram; here is the library, those are the tennis courts, theres the sports ground, thats. Ah! They understand.
Its going well; it will be a very good book. But probably only a small portion of it will make them say, Ah, finally! Something practical!
0 1962-07-14, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In fact, this too is tied in with to die unto death. because, just imagine, why on earth do I invariably see the experience of the 12th to 13th on my left (gesture to the left)? And rather distant, as though I had returned along a LEVEL path (horizontal gesture) from there back to my body. Out there (to the left), I didnt have it any more! I didnt have it I existed in FULL consciousness, but I no longer had my body. Thats what makes me say my body was dead. I no longer had it. The experience was far, FAR away from here (I dont mean in the garden!) somewhere. Somewhere very far away to the left, in the physical consciousness. And when I had traveled back here along a level path, I noticed that there was still a body.2
But this body is no longer MY body it is A body.
--
And simultaneously there is an automatic perception of timeclock timewhich is rather curious (everything is regulated by the comings and goings of the people around me, you see: such a thing at this time, such a thing at that time), I dont need to hear the clock I am warned just before it strikes. I repeat one part of the japa in a particular way while lying down, because the Power is greater (these arent meditations, they are actions), and another part while walking. So I stay stretched out for a certain time, I walk for a certain time, and at a fixed hour this one goes, another comes, and so on. But none of them are people; I dont tell them so, but theyre not people: they are movements of the Lord. And its extremely interestingone of the Lords movements will have this particular character, another movement will have a different type of vibration, and they all harmonize very nicely into a whole. But I know what time it is just before the clock strikes: six oclock, 6:30, 7:00, 7:30, like that. Not with the words six, seven, but: its time, its time, its time. And along with thisthis clockwork precision I have that other notion of time which is quite different, its. Although its a very rigid convention, our time is a living formation with its own living power here in the world of action. The other time is the rhythm of consciousness. So according to the intensity of the Presence (theres a concentration and an expansion, I mean), according to this pulsationwhich can vary, its not regular and mechanicalwalking around the room takes either no time at all, or else an ENORMOUS amount of time. But this doesnt interfere with the other time, theres no contradiction. Our time is on a different plane, something far more external; but it has its usefulness and its own law, and the one doesnt hinder the other.4
And its gradually becoming foreseeable that.5
--
Asked later about this unfinished sentence, Mother said, "I stopped because it was an impression and not a certainty. We'll talk about it again later." Was Mother hinting at a stage when she would live in both times simultaneously?...
***
0 1962-07-18, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its like an image. You see, the body is stretched out here on the chaise longue. You know how it is when experiments are done on animals? Its something like that the body is there as the subject of an experiment. Then theres my consciousness, the part focused on the earthly experience and the present transformation (its what I mean when I say I). And then the Lord. I say the Lord Ive adopted that because its the best way of putting it and the easiest for me, but I never, NEVER think of a being. For me, its a simultaneous contact with the Eternal, the Infinite, the Vast, the Totality of everything the totality of everything: all that is, all that has been, all that will be, everything. Words spoil it, but its like thatautomaticallywith consciousness, sweetness and SOLICITUDE. With all the qualities a perfect Personality can offer (I dont know if you follow me, but thats the way it is). And That (I use all these words to say it, and three-fourths is left out) is a spontaneous, constant, immediate experience. So the I I spoke of asks that the body may have the experience, or at least an initial taste, even a shadow of the experience of this Love. And each time its asked for, it comes INSTANTLY. Then I see the three together1in my consciousness and perception the three are together and I see that this Love is dosed out and maintained in exact proportion to what the body can bear.
The body is aware of this and is a little sad about it. But immediately comes something soothing, calming, making it vast. The body instantly senses the immensity and regains its calm.
This experience I am describing is exactly what happened yesterday (it happens every day, but yesterday it was especially clear). And its still here I am seeing it as I saw it, its still here. Actually, it is always herealways herethough its more striking when the body is stretched out, motionless in the Yoga. The experience is slightly different when walking because that involves action. When the body walks, it acts on behalf of everything thats related to it, hence the action is vaster and more powerful. But when it is stretched out and asks the Lord to take possession of it, it really asks with all its aspiration. And the very intensity of the aspiration brings in the possibility of a slight emotional vibration. But it is immediately drowned in the immobile immensity of matter, which senses the Divine Descent like a leaven that makes dough rise thats it exactly, the terrestrial immensity of matter and the leavening action of the Divine Descent. The intensity of these vibrations is above and beyond anything we are used to feeling the vital seems dull and flat in comparison. And what a Wisdom! It knows how to make use of time that is, it actually changes itself into timeso as to minimize the possibilities of damage.
Its plain to see that, left to itself in its full power of transformation and progress, this flame of aspiration, this flame of Agni would have scant consideration for the result of the process the result of the process is that fire burns. And there could be mishaps in the functioning of the organs. All the organs must undergo a transformation, but were it too rapid and too sudden, well, everything would go out of whack. The machine would simply explode. But this Wisdom doesnt come from the universal consciousness (which I dont really think is so wise!), its infinitely higher: the Supreme Wisdom. Something so wonderful! It foresees things the universal forces in their universal play would overlooka wonder!
--
It is unimaginable because the body cant do it yet.
No and besides, you dont see. If my body resembled its consciousness ( because it Is conscious), if what you see with your eyes corresponded to what the body feels, it would probably look monstrous, hideous or terrifying!
--
But now the body the body itself, its very own selffeels it is WITHIN things or WITHIN people or WITHIN an action. There are no more limits, none of this (Mother touches the skin of her hands as if all separation had disappeared). Take this example: someone accidentally bumps me (it does happen) with an object or a part of his body. Well, it is NEVER something external: it happens INSIDE the bodys consciousness is much larger than my body. Yesterday, the table leg bumped my foot; so there was the ordinary outward reaction (it operates automatically and in a curious way the body jumped), and then the body-consciousness now I am speaking of the body-consciousness saw that an unexpected and involuntary collision of two objects had taken place INSIDE ITSELF. And it also saw that if it made a certain movement of concentration at that particular spot, inside itself, some pain or damage would result; but if it made the other movement of (how shall I put it?) of union, of abolishing all separation (which it can do very well), well, then the results of the blow would be annulled. And thats what happened, I did it. I was simply sitting down, and I let my body cope with the whole thing (while I watched with keen interest); and I noticed it really did feel the blow inside and not outsideit wasnt that something from outside had struck it, but that there had been an unexpected, or rather an unforeseen and involuntary collision of two things inside itself. And I clearly followed how the body made a more complete movement of identification (you see, someone with the sense of separation had moved the table, so the sense of separation accompanied the blow, and then of course there was all the regret,2 and so on and so forth); well, the body simply went into its usual state where theres no sense of separation, and the effect vanished instantaneously. Had I been asked, Where were you hit, what spot?, I couldnt have told, I dont know. All I know, because of words I heard spoken, is that the table leg bumped into my foot. But where? I cant say; I couldnt have said even five minutes after the incidentit had utterly disappeared, and disappeared through a VOLUNTARY movement.
This body-consciousness has a will; it is constantly, constantly calling upon the Lords will: Lord, take possession of this, take possession of that, take. Theres no question of taking possession of the will, that was done ages ago, but: Take possession of these cells, those cells, this, that. It is the BODYS aspiration. Well, the blow wasnt caused by this will acting in the body; the blow didnt come directly from the body, but from something that had slipped in through an unconscious element; and the body simply erased, or absorbed, digested this unconsciousness and the thing vanished without a trace!
--
I dont know how I looked (I was enjoying myself enormously), but she must have felt something (she didnt say a word), she must at least have felt something strange because a shudder went through her being. And I was told that when she left, she said, I may come back before I leave, but I wont ask to see Mother! (Mother laughs.)
But It was blueall blue. And That said, Little children dont know what theyre talking about.
0 1962-07-21, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
because theyre sincere.
Yes, they have a sincerity, on one level, which is not the same as spiritual sincerity. They have a material sincerity, a material HONESTY, and with that, once they understood, they would progress very quickly.
--
I know very well that Bengal is not really ready. The spiritual flood which has come is for the most part a new form of the old. It is not the real transformation. However this too was needed. Bengal has been awakening in itself the old yogas and exhausting their samskaras [old habitual tendencies], extracting their essence and with it fertilizing the soil. At first it was the time of VedantaAdwaita, Sannyasa, Shankaras Maya and the rest. It is now the turn of Vaishnava DharmaLila, love, the intoxication of emotional experience. All this is very old, unfitted for the new age and will not endure for such excitement has no capacity to last. But the merit of the Vaishnava Bhava [emotional enthusiasm] is that it keeps a connexion between God and the world and gives a meaning to life; but since it is a partial bhava the whole connexion, the full meaning is not there. The tendency to create sects which you have noticed was inevitable. The nature of the mind is to take a part and call it the whole and exclude all other parts. The Siddha [illuminated being] who brings the bhava, although he leans on its partial aspect, yet keeps some knowledge of the integral whole, even though he may not be able to give it form. But his disciples do not get that knowledge precisely because it is not in a form. They are tying up their little bundles, let them. The bundles will open of themselves when God manifests himself fully. These things are the signs of incompleteness and immaturity. I am not disturbed by them. Let the force of spirituality play in the country in whatever way and in as many sects as may be. Afterwards we shall see. This is the infancy or the embryonic condition of the new age. It is a first hint, not even the beginning.
The peculiarity of this yoga is that until there is siddhi above the foundation does not become perfect. Those who have been following my course had kept many of the old samskaras; some of them have dropped away, but others still remain. There was the samskara of Sannyasa, even the wish to create an Aravinda Math [Sri Aurobindo monastery]. Now the intellect has recognized that Sannyasa is not what is wanted, but the stamp of the old idea has not yet been effaced from the prana [breath, life energy]. And so there was next this talk of remaining in the midst of the world, as a man of worldly activities and yet a man of renunciation. The necessity of renouncing desire has been understood, but the harmony of renunciation of desire with enjoyment of Ananda has not been rightly seized by the mind. And they took up my Yoga because it was very natural to the Bengali temperament, not so much from the side of Knowledge as from the side of Bhakti and Karma [Works]. A little knowledge has come in, but the greater part has escaped; the mist of sentimentalism has not been dissipated, the groove of the sattwic bhava [religious fervor] has not been broken. There is still the ego. I am not in haste, I allow each to develop according to his nature. I do not want to fashion all in the same mould. That which is fundamental will indeed be one in all, but it will express itself in many forms. Everybody grows, forms from within. I do not want to build from outside. The basis is there, the rest will come.
What I am aiming at is not a society like the present rooted in division. What I have in view is a Samgha [community] founded in the spirit and in the image of its oneness. It is with this idea that the name Deva Samgha has been given the commune of those who want the divine life is the Deva Samgha. Such a Samgha will have to be established in one place at first and then spread all over the country. But if any shadow of egoism falls over this endeavor, then the Samgha will change into a sect. The idea may very naturally creep in that such and such a body is the one true Samgha of the future, the one and only centre, that all else must be its circumference, and that those outside its limits are not of the fold or even if they are, have gone astray, because they think differently.
You may say, what need is there of a Samgha? Let me be free and live in every vessel; let all become one without form and let whatever must be happen in the midst of that vast formlessness. There is a truth there, but only one side of the truth. Our business is not with the formless Spirit alone; we have also to direct the movement of life. And there can be no effective movement of life without form. It is the Formless that has taken form and that assumption of name and form is not a caprice of Maya. Form is there because it is indispensable. We do not want to rule out any activity of the world as beyond our province. Politics, industry, society, poetry, literature, art will all remain, but we must give them a new soul and a new form.
Why have I left politics? because the politics of the country is not a genuine thing belonging to India. It is an importation from Europe and an imitation. At one time there was a need of it. We also have done politics of the European kind. If we had not done it, the country would not have risen and we too would not have gained experience and attained full development. There is still some need of it, not so much in Bengal as in the other provinces of India. But the time has come to stop the shadow from extending and to seize on the reality. We must get to the true soul of India and in its image fashion all works.
People now talk of spiritualizing politics. Its result will be, if there be any permanent result, some kind of Indianized Bolshevism. Even to that kind of work I have no objection. Let each man do according to his inspiration. But that is not the real thing. If one pours the spiritual power into all these impure forms the water of the Causal ocean into raw vesselsei ther the raw vessels will break and the water will be spilt and lost or the spiritual power will evaporate and only the impure form remain. In all fields it is the same. I can give the spiritual power but that power will be expended in making the image of an ape and setting it up in the temple of Shiva. If the ape is endowed with life and made powerful, he may play the part of the devotee Hanuman and do much work for Rama,2 so long as that life and that power remain. But what we want in the Temple of India is not Hanuman, but the god, the avatar, Rama himself.
--
The meaning of this extraordinarily long talk is that I too am packing my bag. But I believe that this bundle is like the net of St. Peter, only crammed with the catch of the Infinite. I am not going to open the bag now. If I do that before its time, all would escape. Neither am I going back to Bengal now, not because Bengal is not ready, but because I am not ready. If the unripe goes amidst the unripe what work can he do?5
Your Sejda,6
0 1962-07-25, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
That is my first memoryat five years old. Its impact was more on the ethical side than the intellectual; and yet it took an intellectual form too, since. You see, apparently I was a child like any other, except that I was hard to handle. Hard in the sense that I had no interest in food, no interest in ordinary games, no liking for going to my friends houses for snacks, because eating cake wasnt the least bit interesting! And it was impossible to punish me because I really couldnt have cared less: being deprived of dessert was rather a relief for me! And then I flatly refused to learn reading, I refused to learn. And even bathing me was very hard, because I was put in the care of an English governess, and that meant cold bathsmy brother took it in stride, but I just howled! Later it was found to be bad for me (the doctor said so), but that was much later. So you get the picture.
But whenever there was unpleasantness with my relatives, with playmates or friends, I would feel all the nastiness or bad willall sorts of pretty ugly things that came (I was rather sensitive, for I instinctively nurtured an ideal of beauty and harmony, which all the circumstances of life kept denying) so whenever I felt sad, I was most careful not to say anything to my mother or father, because my father didnt give a hoot and my mother would scold me that was always the first thing she did. And so I would go to my room and sit down in my little armchair, and there I could concentrate and try to understand in my own way. And I remember that after quite a few probably fruitless attempts I wound up telling myself (I always used to talk to myself; I dont know why or how, but I would talk to myself just as I talked to others): Look here, you feel sad because so-and-so said something really disgusting to you but why does that make you cry? Why are you so sad? Hes the one who was bad, so he should be crying. You didnt do anything bad to him. Did you tell him nasty things? Did you fight with her, or with him? No, you didnt do anything, did you; well then, you neednt feel sad. You should only be sad if youve done something bad, but. So that settled it: I would never cry. With just a slight inward movement, or something that said, Youve done no wrong, there was no sadness.
But there was another side to this someone: it was watching me more and more, and as soon as I said one word or made one gesture too many, had one little bad thought, teased my brother or whatever, the smallest thing, it would say (Mother takes on a severe tone), Look out, be careful! At first I used to moan about it, but by and by it taught me: Dont lamentput right, mend. And when things could be mendedas they almost always could I would do so. All that on a five to seven-year-old childs scale of intelligence.
--
I have had a few brief moments of this kind of experience; but even then it seemed rather paltry. Paltry, a whole realm eludes you. I remember the period when I used to sit down at the organ at midnight on December 31, without the least notion of what I was going to play or sing, and I would let the Force comeit would play, then the sound, the voice came, and then in the voice, the words. I never wrote anything in advance. And its because people began noting down what I was saying (of course they got it all mixed up) that I started writing it down beforehand; that was much later, when I stopped coming at midnight. But in the early days, long, long ago when Sri Aurobindo was here, thats how it was; I didnt know what I was going to play or what I would say. And the sound came first, then the voice, and then in the voice, the wordslike something condensing, concretizing.
It was quite powerful, but incomplete. Incomplete.
--
I ask because its all I have to give! (Mother laughs.)
So see you Saturday then, with the consciousness.
--
Mother clarified: "Actually, a growth of consciousness was going on throughout those years of study; I didn't learn things by rote, I needed to understand them; and as soon as I understood something, I knew it. In other words, because the learning period was not yet intellectual, it can be considered part of the period of consciousness development."
Of course! We can dip into it with our head or with the tips of our toes, but everything bathes in this same river of Force (except what's shut up within the walls of our minds). At certain moments, or in certain places, we are less hardened and it naturally "enters" there. And so we call it the Shakti "From above" or the Shakti "from below" or "from within." But when the walls tumble down, there is neither high nor lowwe are drenched in it.
0 1962-07-28, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The dates I am no good at dates! And I dont have any papers left to give me precise details. But the realization of the inner Divine must have been in 1911, because thats when I started writing my Meditations.3 But since my earliest childhood, you know, this presence was always there, with an initial emphasis on consciousness, then on the vital and aesthetics, then on the mind and culminating here, in 1920, with action.
From 1911 or 12, up to 1914, there was the whole series of inner experiences, psychic experiences, preparing me to meet Sri Aurobindo (so this ran parallel to my mental development).
0 1962-07-31, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Heres what he says: I read with great interest the Introduction to your new book on Shri Aurobindo. I must confess that if I have been late in replying it is because I am still very hesitant. The text reads well, but it leaves doubts as to how well the book that follows will conform to the norms of our Spiritual Masters series. I greatly fear that we will both end up disappointed again. The book you want to write is, I feel, very personal, whereas this series must consist of books which are essentially expositions, introductions, tools of information: etc.
(After a silence) I am getting a sort of indication: when I turn the beacon to this side, the resistance suddenly seems to give waythere must be a means of making it give way.
--
Here, Ill give you an example: A. wrote to tell me, If you know how to get in touch with Agni,1 let me know, because I need him! I gave the natural reply, that whats needed is aspiration for progress, a will for perfection, and that you kindle the fire by burning your desires. I told him this in a way I call very concrete. Well, he answered (laughing), Ohhh! Youre living in abstractions. Thats not what I want, I want a living goda personality, you see!
Thats how people are.
--
I think its quite dangerous to be satisfied, because then the very best part of the being goes to sleep.
Whether were satisfied or not is altogether unimportant.
0 1962-08-04, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And each one is beginning to reveal its own particular nature. There are those stemming from peoples thoughts (I sense them in my body, not in the mind: the material consequence of peoples psychological state, and even their state of health). Some things are general and last a bit longer; others are momentary, lasting only a few seconds. The first step is to study the different vibrational qualitiesyou could practically draw diagrams: if we had a machine sensitive enough to record these things, it would produce all kinds of zigs and zags.2 Certain vibrations immediately stop or change or are dissolved or repelled. Others are adopted, as it were, and transformed. The majority are simply pushed back and worked on from a distancequite a distance! I keep them at a fair distance (Mother laughs). Very few are let in. But some are let in for the sake of the experience, to see how much they upset the body. Theres also the effect of peoples permanent auras: I know a certain person is arriving by his auras effect on the body; because (laughing) each vibration has its particular effect on the bodyperfectly prosaic things, maybe, but by studying them you realize that each thing has its own law.
The interchange of vibrations among people is something tremendous, and were swimming in it all, all, all the timeeven when were alone! because these things travel: for instance, its enough for someones thought to come and strike against yours, and for you to think of him (which means responding)there is an immediate effect in the body. So to imagine that solitude would make yoga any easier is sheer childishness.
The only possible solution is so perfect a union with the supreme Vibration that everything is automatically put under His influence; and in that case it is easier to feel wider, higher, vaster than the world (to take just the earth: the terrestrial world) than an individual.3 For it is easier to do this (embracing gesture), to take everything in, to embrace and change it from outside, than to change it from inside. At present, the two movements are simultaneous, and staying inside was4 the result of all those years of experience in drawing the Supreme Presence down into the most material world for that, you have to accept (how can I put it?) corporeal oneness.
--
And through certain things, I can perceive the very clear, precise and absolute Direction coming from the Supreme. And He is arranging all those thingsforms, various intellectual formsexactly as they should be. because here (pointing to the crown of the head), and even from here (lower) down to here (the forehead), its all immobile. All these vibrations come, pass through, whirl around, they come from everywhere, but here (the head) nothing moves, theres no response. And yet I have seen that on the intellectual level there are a number of what Sri Aurobindo calls frames, certain principles of organization6 giving a precise orientation to the yogas action. One of them, the strongest, is my translation of The Synthesis of Yoga. I do a page almost every day and on that page I invariably find an idea or a sentence that EXACTLY expresses the field of experiences I was in that day and the night before; and some of the details. And interestingly enough, certain points in the pages you read me today were the EXACT frame of a series of experiences Ive been havingalmost word for word, with the same words.7 That sort of thing. Its like intellectual forms being assembled to give the field of experience precision, because theres nothing here (the forehead), its blankyet some form is necessary! Well, the forms Sri Aurobindo has given predominate, but what you write has its place, and a very precise and interesting place: the way of thinking. And I see that theres an immense field of intellectual thought, intellectual formulation, with varying degrees of intensity and precision, serving as a SIEVE for the Supremes Will to pass through. And the sievethis sort of immense universal sieveis what gives the precision.8 Its very interesting. That way, the mind remains perfectly stillit has nothing to do, everything is done for it! It is nothing but a mirrora living mirror where everything gets inscribed and which can reflect back its image without becoming active.
The nature of my nights is changing, the nature of my days is changing.
0 1962-08-08, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
because I feel that things should be said with another kind of force. It seems like all these sentences could just as well be put one way as another, you understandits not inevitable at all. I could say things this way, but I could just as well say them differently.
Mon petit, I have told you twenty times and I will tell you again: if it were inevitable, nobody would understand!
--
And I have noticed that now. You see, the body used to be like a little child, complaining when things werent right; it wouldnt revolt, but it moaned. But this time its only reaction was, Why am I not transformed? Why am I not transformed? I want to be transformed, I want to be transformed. Not with words, because there was nothing mental about it, but simply with a kind of tension the tension you feel when the door to the psychic being is shut and you push, push, push to get to the other side. The same thing, the same kind of tension: pushing, pushing, pushing towards what? I dont know. We call it the transformation because we dont know what it isif we did know, it would mean we had already begun to realize it. Theres a faint impression of what that state could be (but its very, very faint). And theres this feeling of tension, of pushingpleading and imploring. That was the bodys only reaction this time, nothing else, not even any sorrow. because at one time something like fifty years agoit used to say, Why do I deserve this? and similar stupidities; thats been gone for more than fifty years. Then for a long while after, something disordered, unharmonious or nasty could bring me sorrow; thats gone too. But thats recent, it disappeared with the experience of April 13. And now: transformation, transformation, transformation; thats the only idea left, the only will.
(silence)
--
Ive had this great formative power ever since my earliest childhood, but I had channeled it and stopped it because I considered it useless. But it came back recently, along with the sure sign that it was coming from the very highest origin: This is it, this is how things will be. But thats for later, of course. To our external reason, those things seem totally unrealizable, but they will be realizable in perhaps a few hundred years, I dont knowits the future being prepared. And indeed, that vision has a tremendous power of creation and realization, and it is always felt physically (the rest is very still), its always physical. But it triggered a kind of very rapid movement of the physical consciousness (within the most material substance), and caused a dislocation. And so2 the day before yesterday, that old formation suddenly returned and made me understand one aspect of the bodys nature, the way the body is CONSTRUCTED and the usefulness of that construction. So now things are all right. It has been one more step.
But when you receive those bad vibrations affecting your body,3 are they exhausted by your accepting them?
--
But I understand your question. You want to know if this has an effect on all identical vibratory modes in the world. In principle, yes. But the effects may not be immediately visible; in the first place, our field of observation is nothingmaterially, what do we know? Only our immediate surroundings thats nothing. In 1920, for example, I had an experience of that type, which resulted in a symbolic but terrestrial action. It was a vision (I dont remember enough details to make it interesting) where each nation was represented by a symbolic entity, and there was a certain type of horrorof terror, rather. A certain will of terror was trying to manifest in that gathering of all nations. And I was witness to the whole thing. I remember it being a very conscious and rather long and detailed vision with a more intense reality than physical things have (it was in the subtle physical). And after it was over and I had done what needed to be done (I am not saying what because I dont remember all the details, and without accuracy it loses its value), when I came out of it I could say with TOTAL conviction: Terror has been overcome in the world. Of course, its not literally true, plenty of people still feel terror, but a certain type of terror was as if UNDERMINED at the foundations. What had already manifested kept on and is gradually being exhausted, but the terror that was trying to increase and dominate the life of nations was stopped cold.
I have had other similar experienceson Durgas day, for instance, when Sri Aurobindo was still here (you know, thats the day when Durga masters an asura; she doesnt kill him, she masters him). Well, each year one particular type of thing was undermined (and my experiences were never mental: the experience would suddenly come, and AFTERWARDS I would realize it was Durgas day), and each time I used to tell Sri Aurobindo, Looktoday this (or that) thing has been cut off at the roots. Thats how it works with the adverse forcesyes, like something being uprooted from the world. Whatever has already spread out keeps going and follows its karma, but the SOURCE is dried up. Thats also what happened (it was in 1904, I believe) when the Asura of Consciousness and Darkness made his surrender and was converted; he told me, I have millions and millions of emanations, and these will keep on living, but their source has now run dry.4 How much time will it take to exhaust it all? We cant say, but the source has dried up and that is something extremely important. In 1920, that terror was trying to spread all over the world and to become really catastrophic; and then in my inner vision I could see that a whole movement had dried up at its source. This means that little by little, little by little, little by little the karma is being exhausted.
--
Mother's cheek is swollen from an abscessed tooth.... Note that Satprem had assumed that "I never thought this would have any consequences" referred to the visit from the old formation. Mother corrected: "It is subtler than that! I didn't think THAT EXPERIENCE would have any consequences, because the old formation is meaningless nowit was connected with Sri Aurobindo (I didn't want to say it, but it was connected with Sri Aurobindo's physical presence), so now it has no more meaning, it cannot be realized. He did what was necessary to make its realization utterly impossible. But this experience is like a REMINDER of what was. I didn't think it would have any consequences, but it did!"
Mother touches her cheek.
0 1962-08-11, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And I said it because its quite natural for people reading in the light of their own experience to get the feeling of an individual being who is united with Thatit doesnt work that way with me, I cant do it! I cant. The other movement is natural, spontaneous, wonderful the delight of being and the delight of living. But as soon as the jiva comes, oh, I feel so hemmed in.2
***
0 1962-08-14, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The curves of life go this way and that (meandering gesture), and only by being the supramental arrow can you go beyond. What happened [with X] was necessary. But theres a step that goes beyond holding a grudge against someone because you were mistaken about him. Thats such an ordinary human thingits nonsense. Thats how it is, though. He is what he is and has been all alonghe has never pretended to be anything else. But (with an ironic smile for Satprem) the imagination has done a lot of gilding where there was nothing to begin with, and then through circumstances (which always result from the influence of consciousness), the gilding disappeared! But whatever you sincerely felt for him that wasnt the product of an effervescent imaginationall sincere feelingsshould remain.1
But they do!
--
For all the states of being, the mental, the vital, and even the subtle physical, that sense of separation has long been gone. But now I am speaking of the body. I say I, of course but what says I is its something as vast as the universe. And it CANNOT be otherwise. Its not that I want it this way, or because I insist on it, its not the result of a tapasya or not at all: it CANNOT BE OTHERWISE, thats how it is. Its my spontaneous way of being. The experience has become completely (how to put it?) externalized.
And thats what makes the ESSENTIAL difference for this body. Thats why it feels different from other bodies. Its (Mother shakes her head) no, its not the same thing, it distinctly feels its not the same because its reactions are different!
Perhaps there once was a jiva. I dont know, I dont remember; all I remember now is ultimately, an evolving universe, with a special concentration on the affairs of the earth, because the Lord has decided that the time has come to to change something. Thats all. To change something.
(silence)
--
Anyway, V. went there, sat down next to him, and after a while the man went into a sort of trance and began to tell V. about his life (the boys life, not his own!). So V. was interested and wanted to know more. Where do I come from? he asked. The man answered, Oh, from an ashram by the sea the sea is there. Then he began to speak (I must mention that outwardly he knew nothing about Sri Aurobindo or me or the Ashram, absolutely nothing at all), and he told V. that a great sage and the Mother were there, and that they wanted to do something on earth that had never been done before something very difficult. Then, I dont know whether he mentioned I was alone now (I have no idea), but he said, Oh, she has had to withdraw2 because the people around her dont understand and life there has become very difficult. It will be very difficult until 1964.
Perhaps he was reading the boys mind (I dont know), but not his conscious mind. And he said several times, They want to do something that has never been done before, its very difficultvery difficultand thats why they came, to do that.
0 1962-08-18, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And as for what happened here in Pondicherry, theres no need to make it very long. because from the time he withdrew to his room (to be exact, from about the time we moved from the house over there to this one1), his life no longer belonged to the public. And what happened well, it will be interesting in a hundred years. Not now.
***
--
I think some people must have felt itmaybe they didnt fully understand, since they lack total vision, but they may have felt as if he were descending into them. because in the afternoon, when everything had returned to normal (he is always here of course, but not that way! He is always here), there was a kind of wave of regret passing through the atmosphere, like something saying, Oh, this beautiful thing has come to an end! Oh, now August 15 is over, this beautiful thing is over. But it was like I described, something so more than concrete, I dont know how to express it, it was there was a sense of absoluteness about it.
I have often seen him in his supramental light; he has come very often (he used to come when I went to the balcony; sometimes he was above the Samadhi; he came very often). But that first of all, the proportions were enormoussitting down, I tell you, he extended beyond the compound; and he materialized in a way that could be PHYSICALLY felt. And there was such confidence, such joy, such certainty; everything was so sure, so altogether certain, as though all had been accomplished. There was none of that anguish, that tension for things to get done.
0 1962-08-25, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
No, not at all. I have time but I just cant do it. Its a shame, because it was a conscious hour. I would often go strolling by the sea.
You slept by the sea?
--
because I do rest, I remain in a very (whats the word?Mother tightens her fist) coagulated, undiluted, and powerful trance from twelve-thirty or twelve forty-five until a quarter to two: a good hour. So its a favorable time.
It sure is!
0 1962-08-28, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(It is extremely unfortunate that the beginning of this conversation, which would have thrown a clear light on what follows, was not kept. As far as Satprem remembers, the subject was his sleep. It seems Mother was saying that while his "strolls by the sea" took place during sleep and by passing into another state, for herand this is where the notes beginthere was no more "sleep" and no more "passing" into another state, from the ordinary physical to the subtle physical, because everything seemed to have become or was becoming one and the same continuous Matter. The true Matter, probably.)
Thats one thing thats happening. The two [the ordinary physical and the subtle physical] seem to be fusing more and more.
--
Its a very modest work, very modest, even from a purely intellectual vantage point. Its different from the sensation of knowing things because you ARE them, which gives you joy, a sense of progress. Its not even like that! It is VERY humble, a very humble and unglamorous work, but which keeps on very regularly, with extreme regularity and STUBBORNNESS.
It will surely stretch over a long period of time.
And at each step, its as though you had to take great care that nothing gets thrown off balance. The new combinations of vibrations, especially, are difficult for the body it must be very, very quiet, well under control, very peaceful, or else it panics. because its used to vibrations whose effects follow a regular pattern, so if the pattern changes theres a kind of frightened jolt. That must be avoided, the body has to be very gently kept under control.
What the mind thinks, what it expects to see, looks so childish in comparison, like yes, like theatrics, really. Its the difference between some grand extravaganza and the very modest life of each minute. Exactly that.
0 1962-08-31, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its not sleep, its a kind of peace that descends. It can begin as drowsiness, but it changes into a sort of inner immobilityimmobility of the Spirit. The body too becomes quiet, quiet, quiet, very still; and from there, if nothing disturbs you, you flow into a sense of eternity. Its a wonderful experience. The real sense of Eternity: everything stops, and then NOTHING. And if you have the gift of vision (its not necessary, but if you do), you see it all grow white and luminousall white. But that may well not happen because its its something youre born with.
All the cells open up and become conscious of their eternity.
--
because the other end is the new creation, so its clear that. How MANY steps will it take, how many incomplete or imperfect things, approximations, attemptshow many MINUSCULE realizations for you to simply acknowledge, Yes, indeed, were on the way? For how many oh, you could practically say centuries will it be like this before the glorious body of a supramental being appears? Something came yesterday evening (it seemed like mere excitation to me); it was a power of creative imagination attempting to visualize supramental forms, beings that live in other worlds, and all sorts of things like that. I saw many things. But it seemed so like champagne bubbles! Thats all very nice, I said, for widening my power of imagination so I can present these forms to the Lord. But its not necessary! (Mother laughs) It really seemed so. There was a time when I considered it a great creative power (and many things that I saw in those moments of super-creativity, super-imagination, were actually realized years later on earth), and this time it came again (perhaps to give me a little fun, a little spectacle along the way), it came and I looked at it; I could see all its power, I could see it was something trying to materialize in the future, and I said, What histrionics! Why go through all these theatrics? Jugglers.
And it was supramental light, it originated in supramental light. How beings from other worlds would relate with the future beings, and all sorts of similar thingsbedtime stories.
--
It can be, its possible. Its possible, I dont say it isnt; it is possible, it can happen, but more and more, the life allotted to this body is to do things without knowing it, to change the world without seeing it, and to to ignore all that, to be absolutely unconcerned with the results. And (to be perfectly explicit) I have a feeling that to have access to the highest and purest Power, the very notion of result must disappear completely the Supreme Power has no sense of result AT ALL. The sense of result is yet another rift between the essential, supreme Power, and the consciousness. In other words, its because the consciousness begins to separate slightly [from its identity with the Supreme Power], that the sense of result is created, but otherwise it doesnt exist.
Its as if everything had to be to be the Action, the eternal Action at each second of the Manifestation THE thing. At each pulsationwhich corresponds to time in the ManifestationTHAT alone is THE thing. And the idea of something having a result is already a distortion.
--
Its a kind of liberation I dont mean from worry or preoccupation, theres no question of that but from the very IDEA of a consequence: its this way because thats the way it is; it has to be this way, so it is. Thats all. And at each second its this way because it has to be, and so it is. And That repeats itself eternally, and it is this eternal Pulsation which is expressed in time by those gusts I feel this very strongly, very strongly. Its a constant, spontaneous and very natural experience for me. The idea of something behind or ahead in time and so on is a Truth changing from immutable Eternity into Eternity of manifestation. And it changes like this (Mother makes a pulsating gesture), exactly like gustspuff, puff, puff.
Irresponsible gusts, like a childs soap bubbles, you might say. No sense of consequencesnone, none whatsoever: puff, puff, puff like that.
0 1962-09-05, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
These illnesses are not of the same nature as the others, because GENERALLY (I am not making any absolute rule), generally their origin is not found to be viruses or bacteria, but a kind of disorder what is it called? They have a splendid word for it now. You know, an incapacity to bear something, a lack of harmony.
Allergy?
--
(Then Satprem reads a passage relating to the subtle physical and exteriorization; among other things, he cites the experience of D., who, when he exteriorized for the first time, was unable to get back into his body because he tried to reenter through the legs! Here is the story:)
I was lying on my chaise longue in concentration when all at once I found myself in my friend Zs house. He and several others were playing music. I could see everything very clearly, even more clearly than in the physical, and I moved around very quickly, unimpeded. I stayed there watching for a while, and even tried to attract their attention, but they were unaware of me. Then suddenly something pulled me, a sort of instinct: I must go back. I felt pain in my throat. I remember that to get out of their room, which was all closed except for one small opening high up, my form seemed to vaporize ( because I still had a form, though unlike our material onemore luminous, less opaque), and I went out like smoke through the open window. Then I found myself back in my room, next to my body, and I saw that my head was twisted and rigid against the cushion, and I was having trouble breathing. I wanted to get into my body: impossible. So I became afraid. I entered through the legs, and when I reached the knees I seemed to bounce back out; two, three times like that: the consciousness rose and then bounced back out like a spring. If I could only tip over this stool, I thought (there was a small stool under my feet), the noise would wake me up! But nothing doing. And I was breathing more and more heavily. I was terribly afraid. Suddenly I remembered Mother and cried out, Mother! Mother! and found myself back in my body, awake, with a stiff neck.
--
and we always want what we dont have. because we are made for an integral perfection, and until it becomes integral, we wont be satisfied.
It may comfort you to know that it will come to youin its own time.
--
For a long, long time, that was also the one thing I felt was worth living forConsciousness. When I met Thon and came to understand the mechanism, I also understood why I wasnt conscious at a certain level. I think Ive told you how I spent ten months one year working to connect two layerstwo layers of consciousness; the contact wasnt established and so I couldnt have the spontaneous experience of a whole spectrum of things. Madame Thon told me, Its because theres an undeveloped layer between this part and that part. I was very conscious of all the gradations: Thon had explained it all in the simplest terms, so you didnt need to be, as I said, a genius to understand. He had made a quadruple division, and each of them was divided into four, and then again into four, making innumerable divisions of the being; but with that mental simplification you could make in-depth psychological studies of your own being. And so by observation and elimination I eventually discovered that between this and that (gesture indicating two levels of Mothers consciousness), there was an undeveloped layerit wasnt conscious. So I worked for ten months on nothing but that: absolutely no results. I didnt care, I kept right on, telling myself, Well, it may take me fifty years to get anywhere, who knows. And then I left for the country (I was living in Paris at the time). I lay down on the grass, and all at once, with the contact of earth and grass, poof! There was a sort of inner explosion the link was established, and full consciousness came, along with all the ensuing experiences. Well, I said to myself, it was worth all the trouble!
And I am sure thats how the work is done, slowly, imperceptibly, like a chick being formed in the egg: you see the shell, you see only the shell, you dont know whats inside, whether its just an egg or a chick (normally, I meanof course, you could see through with special instruments) and then the beak goes peck-peck! And then cheep! Out comes the chick, just like that. Its the same thing exactly for the contact with the psychic being. For months on end, sometimes years, you may be sitting before a closed door, push, push, pushing, and feeling, feeling the pressure (it hurts!), and theres nothing, no results. Then all at once, you dont know why or how, you sit down and poof! Everything bursts wide open, everything is ready, everything is doneits over, you emerge into a full psychic consciousness and become intimate with your psychic being. Then everything changeseverything changesyour life completely changes, its a total reversal of your whole existence.
--
because youre still not in the realm where I go!
It is elsewhere.
0 1962-09-08, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It doesnt touch me because that whole realm has been completely set in order, but it does touch the atmosphere and puts me in contact with things I usually dont deal with. And as its a difficult time for the body now. As I told you in our last conversations, the physical is being penetrated by the subtle physical.
The body obviously doesnt need any more difficulties than it already has.
--
Although perhaps it means we are drawing closer to the knowledge of the thingby knowledge I mean the power to change it, of course. If you have power over something, its because you know it; knowing a thing means being able to create it, or change it, to make it last or cease to bein other words it is Power. Thats what knowing means. All the rest is explanations the mind gives to itself. And I can feel that something (something! Well, what Sri Aurobindo calls the Lord of Yoga: the part of the Supreme concerned with terrestrial evolution) is leading me towards the discovery of that Power that Knowledgenaturally by the only possible means: experience. And with great care, for I can feel that.
Its going as fast as it possibly can.
--
Little by little, what was bound to happen has happened: you have a relationship with an X who isnt the real X, but your OWN formation of X (I have already told you this), an ideal X youve set up inside yourself. Well, youd better stop associating your ideal with X, because they dont match!
But how should I act outwardly, what should I do?
--
Dont let this visit ruffle you. Essentially, his approach has always seemed peripheral to me, just one part of an immense whole. It represents ONE aspect of the quest for the Divine on earth,2 and it is part of an entire line, like all the sannyasins, all the saddhus, and so on. X happens to have come closer because he has worshipped the Goddess of Love so much, the Shaktis aspect of Love, and that naturally led him here, brought him close, but. I see it as part of a whole worldamong many other things. You know, theres that festival celebrated every ten years, I think, when all the saddhus go to ba the in the Ganges3; Ive seen all the photosits painful. Its its painful. It is no more beautiful or harmonious than a stampeding mob in a revolution. Its there is no special grace.
Now, do you remember the story of that man who has been living at the source of the Ganges for twenty-five years? Here he is (Mother shows his photo). He was in his cave and V. said to him, Id like to take your picture. All right, he answered, and came out and sat down in the snowstark naked.
--
He is ill because something is trying to make him go through several lifetimes in one. If it succeeds, well, he will eventually understand; if it doesnt succeed, we will have done what we could, he will have done what he could, and everything will be for the best. Thats all.
Ive come to a point where I can see the effort towards the Divine even in very unconscious little beings: puppies, kittens, little babies, a treeits visible. And that is the immense sadhana of the earth preparing itself to receive the Divine.
0 1962-09-15, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I dont want English. I dont want English! And more and more, I dont want English. For instance, the English translation of Prayers and Meditations is out of print and they wanted to reprint it. I said no: If you want, you can reprint what Sri Aurobindo HIMSELF translated (theres not much, just a thin volume). That, yes, because Sri Aurobindo translated it. But even at that, its not the same thing as my textits Sri Aurobindos, not mine.
Prayers and Meditations came to me, you knowit was dictated each time. I would write at the end of my concentration, and it didnt pass through the mind, it just came and it obviously came from someone interested in beautiful form. I used to keep it under lock and key so nobody would see it. But when I came here Sri Aurobindo asked about it, so I showed him a few pages and then he wanted to see the rest. Otherwise I would have always kept it locked away. I destroyed whatever was leftthere were five thick volumes in which I had written every single day (there was some repetition, of course): the outcome of my concentrations. So I chose which parts would be published (Sri Aurobindo helped in the choice), copied them out, and then I cut the pages up and had the rest burned.
--
It wasnt written for anyone and wasnt meant to be read. I showed it to Sri Aurobindo because he was speaking of certain things and I said, Ah, yes, thats the experience I had in. Then I showed him my notebook for that date (there was something written for each day).
Five thick notebooks, year after year. Even here I kept on writing for a while.
--
because its something else altogether. Untranslatable, not the same mentality! Like French humor and English humortheyre far, far apart so far apart that theyre usually impervious to each other!
***
0 1962-09-18, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So now I dont mind finishing The Synthesis. I was a little bothered because I have no other books by Sri Aurobindo to translate that can help me in my sadhana: there was only The Synthesis. As I said, it always came right on time, just when it was needed for a particular experience.
When this new translation is finished ( because I know Savitri, I know what it is), I know that when its finished either Ill be there or else things will take a very long time.1
0 1962-09-26, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
One day when you have time, Ill have to ask you some questions. because for the Supraconscient, some things arent too clear in my mind.
You may ask me questions, but you will find all the answers in what he has written, dont you think?
--
Yes, the supramental experience. He called it Narayana because he was Indian.
Its supramental, not overmental?
--
I think that once you are identified with the Supreme and He has chosen you to do a work on earth, then He quite naturally grants you all these things, because it increases your power of action, thats all. Thats all.
As for me, there are no more problems, no more problems!
--
Oh, yes! He used the word Narayana because he hadnt yet developed his own terminology; but he isnt referring to the gods: its the supramental experience.
***
0 1962-10-06, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
78When knowledge is fresh in us, then it is invincible; when it is old, it loses its virtue. This is because God moves always forward.
So, whats your question?
--
Sri Aurobindo is speaking here of knowledge through inspiration or revelation. In other words, when something suddenly descends and illuminates your understanding: all of a sudden, you feel you know a certain thing for the very first time, because it comes to you directly from the domain of Light, the domain of true knowledge, and it comes with all its innate force of truthit illuminates you. And indeed, when youve just received it, it seems as though nothing could resist that Light. And if you make sure to let it work in you, it brings about as much transformation as it can in its own domain.
It is a fairly common experience. When it occurs, and for some time afterwards (not very long), everything seems to organize itself quite naturally around that Light. Then, little by little, it blends with all the rest. The intellectual awareness of it remains, formulated in one way or another that much is left but its like an empty husk. It no longer has the driving force that transforms all movements of the being in the image of that Light. And this is what Sri Aurobindo means: the world moves fast, the Lord moves ever forward, and all that remains is but a trail He leaves in His wake: it no longer has the same instantaneous and almighty force it had at the MOMENT He projected it into the world.
--
At their maximum, at the height of their possibilities, human conceptions can at the VERY BEST express something or other of the overmind. For me it is very vivid, very familiar, because I have lived there a lot. But even so, I consider words too awkward to express italthough with poetic metaphors you might just manage to convey an impression of it. But as for speaking of the Other Thing, I am quite aware that. because even when youre right in the Experience, the only thing you feel like doing is keeping quiet. You cant talk. As soon as you utter a word, poof! It all clouds over. Its useless.
But physically, for instance, you see this object [Satprem picks up a paperweight]. Now, I see it in a certain way but you, with a supramental consciousness?
--
Its the same when I look at people: I dont see them as they see themselves, I see them with the vibration of all the forces that are in them and pass through them, and quite frequently with the supreme Vibration of the Presence. And thats why my physical sight is not exactly failing, but changing in character, for the physical precision that normal physical sight gives is its false for me. Instinctively (not because I think of it that way), thats how it Is. So I no longer have the precision of a vision designed to see just the superficial crust of things.
But this doesnt keep me from seeing physicallyalthough, yes, it does at times make me unsure of whos in front of me, because I see a vibration that is sometimes very similar, almost identical, in three or four people (who arent all necessarily present, but anyway). So theres a slight external difference theres a very great external difference in the way the form looks, of course, but in the combination of vibrations theres only a slight external difference. And so sometimes I am not sure, I dont know whether its this person or that one; thats why I often ask, Whos there? Its not that I dont see anything, but I dont see in the same way.
In a way, I think I see better. But in a particular way. If, for instance, I have to thread a needle (I have experimented with this kind of thing), well, if I try to thread the needle while looking at it, its literally impossible. But sometimes (when I am in a certain attitude), if I have to thread a needle, it threads itself I have nothing to do with it: I hold the needle, I hold the thread, and thats that.
I think (in fact, its quite simply a matter of experience), I think that if this state gets perfected one should be able to do everything in the OTHER way, the way that doesnt depend on external senses. And then, well, it will clearly be the beginning of a supramental expression. because its a sort of innate knowledge which DOES things. When That comes, you know, you can act.
But you mustnt think; the minute you start thinking or wanting to use your sense organs, it vanishes completely.
--
Im asking you questions because Ive got a book to write!
Oh, but dont speak of this in your book! People will say youre completely cracked (Mother laughs).
0 1962-10-12, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Thats exactly the impression: all our judgments are momentary. One moment one thing, the next moment something else. And errors exist for us because we see things in succession, one after the other; but that cant be how the Divine sees them, because everything is in Him.
Just try for a moment (laughing), try and imagine youre the Divine! Everything is in you; you simply play at bringing it all out in a certain order. But for you, in your consciousness, its all there simultaneously: there is no time, neither past, future, nor presentits all there together, every possible combination. Hes just playing at bringing out one thing and then another; but the poor devils down below see only a small part of the whole (about as much as this) and say, Heres an error! How is it an error? Simply because what they see is only a small part.
Its clear, isnt it? Its easy to understand. The notion of error belongs to time and space.
--
Many of these aphorisms were surely written at a time when the higher mind suddenly surged into the Supermind. It hasnt yet forgotten how things look in the ordinary way, but it now sees how they are in the supramental way. And as a result, theres this kind of thing, thats what gives this paradoxical form. because the one is not forgotten and the other is already perceived.
(long silence)
--
Yes, because we make it tragic. WE make it tragic.
Ive been focusing on this lately. Ive been looking at the difference between similar events in the lives of human beings and the lives of animals. If you identify with animals, you clearly see that they dont take things tragically at allexcept for those which have come into contact with man. (But then theyre not in their natural state; its a transitional state, they are beings in transition between animal and man.) And naturally the first things they pick up from man are his defects thats always whats easiest to pick up! And then they make themselves unhappy for nothing.
--
Yes, burned. Or shut up in a box without air and lightwhile FULLY CONSCIOUS. And just because they can no longer express themselves, people say they are dead. They dont waste any time declaring them dead! But they are conscious. They are conscious. Imagine someone who can no longer speak or moveaccording to human laws, he is dead. He is dead but he is conscious. He is conscious, so he sees the people around him: some of them are weeping, some of them are if hes a bit clairvoyant, he also sees that some of them are rejoicing. And then he sees himself put into a box, sees the lid nailed down, shutting him in: Ah, now its all over, theyre going to cover me with earth! Or hes taken over there [to the cremation ground], and then its fire in the mouthFULLY conscious.
I have lived this in recent days. I have seen it. Last night or the night before, I spent at least two hours in a world the subtle physical worldwhere the living mingle with the dead with no sense of difference, it makes absolutely no difference there. For instance, when Mridu1 was in her body I used to see her at night maybe once a year (maybe not even that much). For years she was utterly nonexistent in my consciousness but since she left her body, I see her almost every night! There she is, just as she was, you know (rotund gesture), but no longer troubled, thats all. No longer troubled. And there were both living and what we call the living and the deadthey were both there together, eating together, moving around together, having fun together; and all in a lovely, tranquil lightpleasant, very pleasant. There! I thought, and humans have drawn a sharp line, saying, Now hes dead! Dead! And what really takes the cake is the way they treat the body like an unconscious object, and its still conscious!
--
In fact theres no such thing as error. There are only things that seem impossible because we dont know that the Lord is all possibility and can do whatever He wants, any way He wants. We just cant get it through our heads: This can be, but that cant, we keep saying. But its not true! Everything is possible, and only our own stupidity says that something cant be.
Difficult to say anything reasonable for the Bulletin.
--
So you see, the only one whos not worried is the one watching the show, because he knows everything thats going to happen. He has an absolute knowledge of everything, everything that is happening, has happened or will happen for him, its all ONE presence. And then there are the actors, the poor actors, who dont even know their roles very well. They worry and fret because theyre being made to play something and they dont know what it is. Ive just had a very strong sense of this: were all playing parts in the comedy, but we dont know what the comedy is, nor where its going, where its coming from, nor what its all about. We just barely know (and poorly, at that) what were supposed to do at a given moment. And knowing it so poorly, we worry about it. But when you know everything, you cant worry any moreyou smile. He must be having great fun, but for us. And yet we are given the FULL POWER to have just as much fun as He does.
We just dont take the trouble to do it.
--
One does sometimes wonder why, why is this life so tragic? But in the first place, if it were a perpetual enchantment we wouldnt even appreciate it, because it would be completely natural thats mainly it: we wouldnt appreciate it because it would just be completely natural. And nothing says we wouldnt long for a little hullabaloo for a change! We just might.
This may be what the story of the earthly paradise is all about. People in that paradise had a spontaneous knowledge: they lived with the same sort of consciousness animals have, just enough of it to get a little joy out of life, to feel the joy of life. But then they started wanting to know the why and the how and where they were going and what they were supposed to do and so forth and so all their worries began they got tired of being peacefully happy.
--
Yes, out of habit it all tries to start up again. But all you need to say is, Look, Lord; see, see how it is. Thats all. Look at this, Lord, look at that, look at this idiot here and its over. Immediately. And the change comes automatically, mon petit, without the slightest effort. Simply simply be sincere, in other words, TRULY want the right thing. One is quite conscious of being powerless, utterly incompetent: more and more, I feel that this amalgam of matter, of cells and all the rest, is just pitiful! Pitiful. I dont know, under certain conditions people may feel powerful, wonderful, luminous, competent but as far as I am concerned, thats because they have no idea what theyre really like! When you really see what youre made of its nothing, really nothing. But its capable of anything, provided provided you let the Lord do it. The trouble is that something always wants to do things on its own. If it werent like that.
People come, letters arrive, various circumstances and problems arise (its over now, but at the timeeven a year ago that kind of thing was sometimes a problem for me). Well, right away, I (Mother opens her hands in front of her forehead, palms upwards, as though presenting the problem to the Lord): Here, Lord, look at this. All I am good for is (same gesture): I am presenting it to You, Lord. And then I keep still, I just keep still: I wont move unless You move me, I wont speak unless You make me speak. And then you stop thinking about it. You think about it just for a second, long enough to do this (same gesture). It comes in like this, then up it goes (gesture showing a problem coming to Mother from one side and being sent above). And later, you suddenly realize youre speaking or acting or making a decision or writing a letter or and He has done it all.
But one can be full of excellent goodwill and still want to Do things. And thats what complicates everything. Or else theres a lack of faith, a lack of belief in the Lords abilityyou think you have to do things yourself because He doesnt know how! (Mother laughs) This sort of stupidity is very widespread, you know: How can He see these things? Were living in a world of Falsehood, how can He see Falsehood? But in fact He does see things as they are!
And I am not talking about people with no intelligence, but about intelligent people, people who are trying. Theres still a sort of conviction in them somewhere, even in those who know that were living in a world of Ignorance and Falsehood and that theres a Lord who is all truth. Well, they reason that precisely because He is all truth, He wont understand (Mother laughs). He wont understand our falsehood, I have to deal with it on my own. This is a very predominant, very widespread attitude.
One sometimes even goes to a great deal of trouble to explain things to Him: Its this way, You see, thats how it is. And when youre finished, you realize. Oh, that reminds me of an experience I had one night two years ago. It was the first time the Supermind entered the cells of my body, and it had risen up to the brain. So the brain found itself in the presence of something (laughing) considerably more powerful than it was used to receiving! And, like the idiot it is, it got worried. As for me (gesture above or beyond), I saw it all, I saw that the brain was getting worried, so I tried to tell it what a nitwit it was and to just keep still. It did keep still, but you know, it was really seething away in there, as if it were about to explode. So I said, All right now, lets go see Sri Aurobindo and ask him what to do. Immediately everything became utterly calm and I woke up in Sri Aurobindos house in the subtle physicala very material sensation, with everything quite concrete. So I arrived, or rather not I but the body-consciousness arrived2 and started explaining to Sri Aurobindo what had happenedit was very excited, talking and talking. The response was a sort of inscrutable smile and then nothing. He simply looked. An inscrutable smilenot a word. All the excitement died away. A face out of eternity. The excitement died away. Then it was time for Sri Aurobindos lunch (people eat therein another way). So as not to disturb him, I went into the next room. He came in after some time and stood before me (Imy physical being, that is, my physical consciousness had had time to calm down). I knelt down and took his hand (a MUCH clearer sensation than anything physical, mon petit!); I kissed his hand. He simply said, Oh! This is better. (Mother laughs.)
--
I often wonder: when one prays to the Lord, when one wants to tell Him that somethings wrong, I always feel its necessary to concentrate very hard because its really something Far you have to call. But is this true? Or is it really.
It depends on us!
Personally, you know, I have come to feel Him everywhere, all the time, all the time, to the point of actual physical contact (its subtle physical, but physical): in things, in the air, in people, in like this (Mother presses her hands against her face). So I dont have far to go! I just have to do this (Mother turns her hands slightly inwards), one seconds concentration and there He is! because He is here, you know, He is everywhere.
He is far only if we think Hes far.
--
Indeed, He is far because you think He is far. If you could just, you know, think of Him being right here, like this (gesture close to the face), touching you if you could feel this. Its not like touching another person, its not like that. Its not something foreign, external, coming to you from outsideno! Its everywhere.
There was a period when I used to sort of curl up into a ball Within. For the least difficulty I became just like a circumference! All curled up into a ball Within.
0 1962-10-16, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I know this because when the body became like thatit was more than three-quarters dead1and people were taking care of me, doing everything for me, I was fully conscious, FULLY, but I couldnt. I was like a dead person. And it wasnt that I couldnt move, but I couldnt manifest anything I didnt want to! I was in a state of total bliss, and couldnt have cared less about what was going to happen. Well, thats what I think must happen to those who who die in a state of graceits true, some people die well and others dont. It all depends on ones state of consciousness.
If at death you withdraw from physical circumstances, from ordinary physical consciousness, and unite with the great universal Force, or the divine Presence, then all these little things. Its not that youre not conscious of themyou are very conscious: conscious of what others are doing, conscious of everything, but its not important.
--
Now, because of this, I cant say any more. I just cant say.
I have the feeling I am learning a lot of things about this transition called death. Its starting to become thinner and thinner, more and more unreal. It is very interesting.
0 1962-10-20, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I was wondering. Concerning whether people should be burned or buried, you said, A week ago, I would unhesitatingly have said buried. Now, because of this, I cant say any more. Which experience are you referring to?
Its because of what I am beginning to be aware of.
Do you mean that what you are learning tends to show you that its not necessarily best to be buried?
Yes. It depends on the case, on the country, on all kinds of things. There are people in Europe who ask to be burned because theyre afraid of being buried alive. Here, when people are convinced that a person is conscious, hes buried instead of burned.
Actually, each case is entirely individual.
--
All kinds of things. On each rack lay a number of notes on a particular subject. There were three rows at each level, one like that, one like that, one like that (on the upper part; I couldnt see the bottom because it was behind you). And the sheets of paper were lifting up slightly to show me there were several of them.
Its going to go into your head! (Mother laughs.)
0 1962-10-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Thus we have form, expressed in painting, sculpture or architecture; sound, expressed in musical themes; and thought, expressed in books, plays, novels, or even in philosophical and other kinds of intellectual theories (thats where you can send out ideas that will affect the whole world, because they influence receptive brains in any land, and are expressed by corresponding thoughts in the appropriate language). And above this zone, free of form, sound and though, is the play of forces appearing as colored lights. And when you go there and have the power, you can combine those forces so that they eventually materialize as creations on earth (it takes some time, its rarely immediate).
But those great waves of music you hear, which you said were beyond soundsare they part of that domain of luminous vibrations?
0 1962-10-30, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
H.S.1 has written to me, and there was a sentence in his letter that brought a certain problem to my attention. He said, I have done so many hours of translationits a mechanical task. I wondered what he meant by mechanical task because, as far as I am concerned, you cant translate unless you have the experienceif you start translating word for word, it no longer means anything at all. Unless you have the experience of what you translate, you cant translate it. Then I suddenly realized that the Chinese cant translate the way we do! In Chinese, each character represents an idea rather than a separate word; the basis is ideas, not words and their meanings, so translation must be a completely different kind of work for them. So I started identifying with H.S., to understand how he is translating Sri Aurobindos Synthesis of Yoga into Chinese charactershes had to find new characters! It was very interesting. He must have invented characters. Chinese characters are made up of root-signs, and the meaning changes according to the positions of the root-signs. Each root-sign can be simplified, depending on where its placed in combination with other root-signsat the top of the character, at the bottom, or to one side or the other. And so, finding the right combination for new ideas must be a fascinating task! (I dont know how many root-signs can be put in one character, but some characters are quite large and must contain a lot of them; as a matter of fact, I have been shown characters expressing new scientific discoveries, and they were very big.) But how interesting it must be to work with new ideas that way! And H.S. calls it a mechanical task.
The mans a genius!
--
I dont know if you can look at things from that angle, because its only one angle. Certainly if we asked the Lord, Whats the use of it? He would either say Its all the same to Me, or Its none of your business, or I get some fun out of it that would be enough for Him!
But.
--
Towards the end of the night, I suppose, because I woke up and I was I dont know, for a good two hours I was like someone in a state of shock. Its not possible, I was saying, its not possible. I really couldnt get over it.
Yes, thats an experience! (Mother laughs.)
--
To have it (just to give you an idea) took me a year of exclusive concentration on finding that within myself that is, to enter into contact with the immanent God. I did nothing but that, thought of nothing but that, wanted nothing but that. There was even a rather funny instance, because I had resolved to do it (I had already been working for a very long time, of course; Madame Thon had told me about my mission on earth and all that, so you can imagine I am talking about the psychic being belonging to this present creation, this formationMo ther touches her body) anyway, it was New Years Eve and I decided: Within the coming year. I had a large, almost square studio, a bit bigger than this room, with a door leading onto a patio. I opened the little door and looked at the sky and there, just as I looked, was a shooting star. You know the tradition: if you formulate an aspiration just as you see a shooting star, before the star disappears, it will be realized within the year. And there, just as I opened the door, was a shooting star I was totally in my aspiration: Union with the inner Divine. And before the end of December of the following year, I had the experience.
But I was entirely concentrated on that. I was in Paris, and I did nothing else but that; when I walked down the street, I was thinking only of that. One day, as I was crossing the Boulevard Saint Michel, I was almost run over (Ive told you this), because I was thinking of nothing but thatconcentrating, concentrating like sitting in front of a closed door, and it was painful! (intense gesture to the chest) Physically painful, from the pressure. And then suddenly, for no apparent reason I was neither more concentrated nor anything elsepoof! It opened. And with that. It didnt just last for hours, it lasted for months, mon petit! It didnt leave me, that light, that dazzling light, that light and immensity. And the sense of THAT willing, THAT knowing, THAT ruling the whole life, THAT guiding everythingsince then, this sense has never left me for a minute. And always, whenever I had a decision to make, I would simply stop for a second and receive the indication from there.
But that was ages ago. I have done a lot of things since then. It was long ago, in 1912. And now oh, this old carcass!
0 1962-11-03, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Mon petit, from that point of view my nights are abominable toothey cant really be abominable because I live in beatitude, but what I see, what I am forced to see each night is horrible. Just horrible. It seems like an attempt to make me thoroughly disgusted with my work. The subconscient is really a mass of horrors. And its been going on like this for at least six months.
Its a hell of a thing to wake up with!
--
But oh, what a tough work! And thankless too. Thankless because no sooner do you think youve come to the end of something (not that you really think so, you know what its like there, but you still hope), than it comes back in another form, which seems even worse than the previous one.
We must have endurance, mon petit.
And sometimes it becomes terribly personal, as if you were being personally attacked. I have a whole theme of such things which cant even be spoken about because theyre too personalpersonal in that they appear to involve this body. Last night (ah, by the way, I remember noticing I was physically youngit was in the subtle physical, of course, and I was quite young) but what a life I led, with so many oh, revolutions, battles; I was involved in everything, there was tremendous activity. But I was being personally harassed by four or five of the most vile and disgusting old swine, and I had to confront them, hold them in place, keep them under control and make them obey. Ohh, was I glad to wake up! (It was time to get up; these things always stop automatically because I make it a point to get out of there at four-thirty) But the images, the sensations that went along with it. Oh, how is it possible! And I was fully conscious of the usefulness of this work: I was keeping them under control.1 But the things it involves ugh! because for me, all knowledge is through identityeven in the subconscient its a knowledge through identityso you can imagine what that means.
Yes oh, there are some horrible beings there!
0 1962-11-07, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
After a while, it becomes almost automatic; I do it hundreds of times a day. Its difficult to describe, because the description makes it too concrete. But its a drawing back, an interiorizationa self-gathering. But all those words seem dense, heavy; too material, too heavy. Yet its a very concrete sensation, very concrete, which immediately brings about a kind of stabilizationeverything stops. Everything stops, to the point where even a vibration of pain is stopped, it doesnt exist any more. But when you leave this state, back it comes again. It gets cured only when you persist for some time; otherwise the two might continue to coexist.
The most superficial way of putting it is: to take a step back. But its not that, of course.
--
Thats really what it is: to go beyond this present condition and enter a state where everything is stabilized. You cant say immobilized, because that would mean the opposite of movementit isnt the opposite of movement! Its something else. You immediately have the sense of Eternity; not of something endlessly developing, no: everything stops. But everything stops implies the sense of something that moves, yet you no longer have that sense.1 And yet it is Existence, it is BEING: Being, pure Existence; full consciousness without an objectwithout an object of consciousness. Pure Existence without any development.
And its always here, it never leaves you, its always here; you dont have to go off looking for itit is always here. If you start thinking about it, you might say: without that, there can be no world; without that, there can be neither time nor space nor movement nor consciousness nothing. Therefore, it is everywhere.
0 1962-11-14, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
because my impression was that the higher I rise, the more I notice things below. I wasnt making a doctrine or theory of it, of course I got rid of that habit a long time ago. But I was looking at it, merely taking note of the fact, without telling myself it was for this or that reason (as you explain here in your book). I observed the phenomenon and was able to say: the more I feel this constant, luminous Presence, the more I see those things. So it has become very clear to me that it is impossible to manifest THAT integrally without everything below being offered up to the Light.
My method is essentially very simple: for each thing that comes, I say, Here, Lord, its for You; change it, transform it. A work of offering and dedication (gesture of presenting something to the Light). And this morning there was a sort of replynot exactly to a question, but as though I were wondering How do I do it? ( because the Lord tells me I am here for His work), How do I do His work? Whats the new way of doing the Work? We know all the old ways, but whats the new way? And the reply came, very concrete, without words: By bringing the two extremes together. Everything you see, everything that comes to you or that you discover is automatically put in the presence of the Most High, of the Supreme. You join the two extremes. Your whole work is to make the junction.
0 1962-11-17, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I even remarked to myself (it was a rather curious feeling), Well, its interesting to have such a close view of it. That is, I had the feeling that my station, as Sri Aurobindo calls it, for viewing the world was very high up, and Id had to come down to that place. And thats what made me say, Well, its interesting to have such a close view of things. (I didnt say it to that being, I thought it.) And he was there next to me, gloating, standing some distance off to my right (looking up, I could see his headMo ther looks up at the ceiling). He was jubilant, gloating: You see, you see, you see! Overjoyed. I kept absolutely still; everything was still, calm, motionless (the thought that came was like something passing through me: Its interesting to have such a close view of it). And then I stopped everything, like this (Mother remains as still as a statue, fists clenched). And very soon afterwards (I cant say exactly because time there isnt the same as here), very soon afterwards, everything stopped.1 The storms only purpose was to cause the two thunderbolts, and it stopped after they fell on the earth. And then the flames the whole area was set ablaze (it was like a huge city, but not a city: most likely it was symbolic of a country): vroom! It burst into flames; some flames were leaping up very, very high. But I simply did this, stopped everything (Mother remains motionless, eyes closed, fists clenched), and then looked out once againeverything had returned to order. Then I said (I dont know why, but I was speaking to him in English yes, its because he was speaking English, saying, You see, you see!), I said, Ah, that didnt last long. They quickly brought it under control. With that he turned his back on me (laughing); he went off one way and I the other. Then I regained my outer consciousness, which is why I remember everything exactly.
I believe they began fighting up there two or three days after it happened.
--
Ive had my eye on this gentleman since the Second World War (and even earlier), and I know thats just what he wants. He has foretold all sorts of catastrophic things. So I suppose thats what X is seeing too, without knowing where it comes from I dont know. I wonder. At any rate, he wrote it so categorically that you might nearly think he wanted it! I cant believe he wants it. I simply replied, Well, yes, its ONE possibility. Which of the two will prevail? That, I dont know. Its a secret the Lord doesnt reveal because He thinks (and this is altogether certain) that it wouldnt be good to know whats going to happenwe wouldnt do what had to be done. Its always that way: we dont know whats going to happen because then we wouldnt do what had to be done.
I do what He tells me to do, but He doesnt say what the consequences will be. And I dont ask Him; I know its none of my business.
--
because it can set things back thousands of years. For there are moments when things converge, and it is rare to have a MOMENT in this Story: it stretches over long, long, almost indefinite periods of time. So to get a MOMENT that becomes something actual in terrestrial life (Mother drives her fist into the Earth) is very difficult. And if that moment is passed by, is missed.
But I always wonder because Sri Aurobindo left without revealing his secret. He said he was leaving DELIBERATELYthat much he told me. He told me what I needed to know. But he never said the moment hadnt come (you see, he thought he came saying the time had come), he never said if hed seen that things were not sufficiently ready. He told me the world is not ready, that much he did say. He told me he was going away deliberately because it was necessary, and that I had to stay and continue the work, that I would continue. He said those three things. But he never told me whether or not I would succeed! He never told me whether or not I could bring the moment back.
And I must say I am past the point where its interesting to know these things, because I live a bit too much in the eternity of time for that to be very important.
But outwardly, from what I have seen, from all Ive observed (I mean the more I am IN the thing): the world is not ready. People they dont even understand what it is! So how could they. When you tell them something or show them something from up here (gesture above), they dont understand. They dont understand. To make it understandable, they immediately distort it, disfigure it. So I dont know whether.
--
Yet people have fought beforepeople have fought everywhere, havent they? Since the last war they have never stopped fighting in one place or another: in Africa, in Asia, everywhere. Theyve been constantly fighting. There was always something, constantly. This whole Algerian story terrible things went on there; and all the trouble in the Congo and so forthbattles everywhere. But I dont know why (its not that I wasnt concerned with these events, they were in my consciousness), but this time two things have happened: a greater Power has descended (something very concrete, almost tangible), a great Power has descended, has been especially sent; and also a certain receptivityeverywhere, even in the Chinese (I dont mean locally: its all over the world). Is it because, materially, theres some anxiety at the idea of? If a new world war starts, its obviously going to be something unspeakable, frightful, frightfulwhole civilizations will be swallowed up. It will put a stop to life on earth in a terrible way. Is that what made people? Has this awakened some aspiration? Possibly. Theres clearly a greater receptivity. I see this from the fact that whenever the Will spreads out (Mother makes a gesture of emanation), well, it has a more concrete and more immediate effect.
The other conflicts were really very superficial, like minor ailmentsskin diseases! Superficial things. There were some appalling horrors, utterly repugnant things, too, everywhere (I remember what happened in Algeria, I was kept informed and I knew what took place: horrible things) and yet they seemed yes, they seemed like skin diseases of the earth! They were very superficial. But then suddenly up there [in Nefa and Ladakh], oh, it became something different.
That was the impression: a very localized disease (anyone can catch it, but its still very localized). While here, this conflict seems to have FUNDAMENTALLY disrupted somethingprofoundly. Is it because people THINK it may have a global consequence? I dont know. Or is it truly the first sign of something very very momentous?
(silence)
--
Dont keep this. I dont want to keep political memories. I havent said anything about the world situation for a long time, because I dont want people to know (its not that I dont know, but I dont want it known). If I ever get involved in politicsif things take a positive turn, that is I will start saying what I know in 1967. But not before.
Prior to that: complete silence. I say nothing. I try to act, thats all.7
0 1962-11-20, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The only danger at the time was Japan, and Japan had officially declared it wouldnt bomb Pondicherry because of Sri Aurobindo. But at least there were still men in their planes, and they could choose not to bomb. But you dont tell a jet plane Dont crash here! It crashes wherever it can.
Yes, but its still hard to see why they would come here.
--
And all night long (or a good part of it in any case), Indira Gandhis thought was here, clinging to me (Indira Gandhi is Nehrus daughter), and the jewelry was sent to her.3 It was handed over to Nehru, who passed it on to Indira.4 And she wrote me a letter I received yesterdaya very (Mother searches for the proper word) a very amicable letter; a letter from someone who has understood that this gift was an important elementnot on a worldwide level (!), but because it was important that people know I have made a gesture of collaboration. But it didnt end there. The letter came yesterday; generally, of course, when I see a letter coming, I see it BEFORE receiving it; but here it was SHE, she herself, thinking [of Mother], thinking, thinking, thinking over and over again. (With Nehru, its always very blurred: he doesnt have sufficient mental power for his position, he lacks the required strength of mind, so its always hazy; when you tune in to him, thats the impression you getblurred gesturenot solid.) But with her, it kept coming and coming and coming. They must be feeling or beginning to feel that something other than what they have is required.
We shall see.
--
Personally, because every ten years (43, 53) something catastrophic has happened to me.
The qualifier5 we use depends on our limited individual vision, but the fact in itself is probably quite correct: there will be a serious upheaval. But this doesnt mean it will be catastrophic. You see, it may be precisely the opening to something higher, and a new birth to Truth. Personally, I am certain of a very rapid progress [for you], because I see it. But I dont see any personal catastrophes. I havent seen that at all.
Unless. Once, you know, when Sri Aurobindo was still here, I saw. But it was just a vision, and lots of visions come (this was especially true at that time) as possibilities formed in a given world and descending towards the terrestrial manifestation. They come for me to give them the support of my consent, if I find them interesting. So there are all kinds of things! And most of them get sorted out at that point. But anyway, I had a vision in which Pondicherry was completely engulfed by a bomb (in those days there werent such powerful bombsso the vision was partly premonitory). So if that happens! (Mother laughs) As a result of the bombing, I was trapped in a radioactive area (it had been buried underground but not flatteneda kind of cave had been formed), where I stayed for two thousand years.
I woke up after two thousand years with a rejuvenated body. It was a very amusing little story. And I say vision, but you dont watch these things like a movie: you LIVE them. I somehow extricated myself from that sort of sealed grotto, and where Pondicherry had once stood (it had been completely razed), I came upon some people working. They were VERY DIFFERENT, and quite bizarre. I myself must have looked funny, with a kind of costume totally alien to their epoch. (My clothing had also survived the destruction the whole thing was right out of a storybook!) So of course I attracted some curiosity and they tried to make me understand. Ah, yes I know one of them said (I understood them because I could understand their thoughtsthose two thousand years had enabled me to read peoples minds), and they led me to a very old sage, a wise old fellow. I spoke to him and he began leafing through all kinds of books (he had many, many books), and suddenly he exclaimed, Ah, French! An ancient language, you see (Mother laughs).
It was very funny. I told the story to Sri Aurobindo, and he had a good laugh.
0 1962-11-23, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its very, very true [one step up, one step down], very true, because its true even for the most material body-consciousness. And you realize the difficulties that represents. As soon as the body becomes more conscious of the divine Presence and Light, its immediately as though you touched the dregs of unconsciousness and yes, of unconsciousness and material inertia. And that makes the work very hard, very hard.
And just last time, when I told you I wasnt very well, it happened during the night, and it was the equivalent of what you write here, but purely material, in the body. In your book you describe it rather psychologically, like a phenomenon of consciousness, that is; but here its a phenomenon of the cells. So hurry to bring me the triumph! (Mother laughs) I was telling myself just this morning how exhausting it was, this perpetual battleoh, what a battle.
0 1962-11-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its because youre not going to the same place as before. You understand, youre going to places (laughing) youre still not very used to. The link isnt well established.
But I did see you, and you were very concreteit wasnt an image!
--
In order to be discernible, the cube was enveloped in something that looked like a kind of tulle, a tulle made of a pale gray substance, which expressed the individual nonexistence, the perfect humility that completely abolishes the ego: because of that there wasnt the least possibility of egoif you ask me why, I cant say, but thats how it was. And I was seeing that tulle all the time something extremely delicate, scarcely perceptible, yet maintaining the cubes form. It was perfect humility (in the divine sense) and total absence of egothere wasnt even the memory or idea of it, nothing whatever: the abolition of the ego. And it served to receive that immobile immensity which manifested through an action of the Power. And then, the action of the Power. I was conscious (I was consciouswhere was I? I dont know; the cube represented my physical being: I had been TOLD it was my physical being), and I was watching it without being situated I myself had no precise place but could see and understand the whole thing. And I could discern all the action being done through the cube: this action for that thing, this for that, this for that the whole earth (gesture expressing forces radiating outward, each for a special purpose), things from the past and things FAR into the future.
And it was so imperative!
--
And then the whole time, the bodys sensation was. You see, it no longer has the sense of its separate form is reduced to a minimum (Mother touches her hands as if seeking the bodys limits), but in that experience it had completely vanished. There wasnt even the sense of identity with the cube, because it was self-evidenteverything was self-evident. I cant even say I was lookingnothing was looking, everything was self-evident.5
And that was the Manifestation.
--
Yet speech does exist, the spoken word exists, because it has its place but how can it be made effective? That will probably come later.
Yes, the mantra.
--
One day, I dont remember on what occasion, I saw what had motivated the forefa thers who wrote the Vedas: it was the need for immortality; they were in quest of immortality.6 From there, I went on to Buddha and saw what had set the Buddha on his way: this kind of need for permanence, purely and simply; the vision of the impermanence of things had profoundly troubled him, and he felt the need for Permanence. His whole quest was to find the Permanent (why was he so anxious to have the Permanent?). There are a few things like that in human nature, in the deep human need. And then I saw another such need: a need for the Certitude which is security. I dont know how to explain it. because I had the experience of it, I saw it was one of the human needs; and I understood it very intensely, for when I met Sri Aurobindo, this Certitude is what made me feel I had found the Truth I needed. And I didnt realize how DEEP this need was until he left his bodyjust then, at the moment of the transition. Then the entire physical consciousness felt its certitude and security collapse. At that moment I saw (we spoke about it with Nolini a year later and he had had exactly the same impression), I saw this was similar to Buddhas experience when he realized that everything was impermanent and so all of life collapsed in other words, Something Else HAD to be found. Well, at that moment. Id already had all my experiences, but with Sri Aurobindo, for the thirty years I lived with him (a little more than thirty years), I lived in an absolute, an absolute of securitya sense of total security, even physical, even the most material security. A sense of absolute security, because Sri Aurobindo was there. And it held me up, you know, like this (gesture of being carried): not for ONE MINUTE in those thirty years did it leave me. That was why I could do my work with a Base, really, a Base of absolutenessof eternity and absoluteness. I realized it when he left: THAT suddenly collapsed.
And then I understood that it is one of lifes needs (there are several); and its what spurs the human being to get out of his present state and find another one. These needs are (whats the word?) the seeds, the germs of evolution. They compel us to progress. The whole time Sri Aurobindo was here, as I said, individual progress was automatic: all the progress Sri Aurobindo made, I made. But I was in a state of eternity, of absoluteness, with a feeling of such security, in every circumstance. Nothing, nothing unfortunate could happen, for he was there. So when he left, all at oncea fall into a pit. And thats what projected me wholly (Mother gestures forward).
--
As soon as I saw that I understood. Well, I told myself, if I were a philosopher I could write a thick book about this! It made me laugh. because its not just ONE thing: there are heaps of them, all the time, all the time. Things like this are happening all the time.
The Lord is enjoying himself!
0 1962-11-30, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Another prophet! (Mother hands Satprem a typed sheet.) India is full of prophets. But this one is rather interesting because hes the first who seems to have seen this [Sing-Indian] war from the standpoint of the inner action.
He seems to be a good man. He lives in Madras,
--
Ostensibly its because Kennedy told them to cease firing or he would send in troops.
It seems more likely that this cease-fire is a Chinese trick, that theyve got something up their sleeve.
--
I found it interesting because its seen from the other side.
What you read here has passed through two minds: first A.s, then M.s, who wrote down what A. told himso there must already be a double distortion. But the man evidently seems to have felt a Force at work behind the appearances.
0 1962-12-04, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its only because Sri Aurobindos conscious will entered into itleft one body and entered the other. I was standing facing his body, you know, and I materially felt the friction as his will entered into me (his knowledge and his will): You will accomplish my Work. He said to this body: You will accomplish my Work. Its the one thing that kept me alive.
Apart from that. Theres nothing, no physical destruction I can think of, comparable to that collapse.
--
Thats why I have never been given any assurance, because its only when one enters that consciousness that Death no longer makes sense.
Weve still got a long way to go.
0 1962-12-12, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Since 1950, I must say, it has been the same thing EVERY year at this time. And with the same suggestion (which they make not only to me but to everybody, to all those who listen): Sri Aurobindo has gone, whats she doing here? She should just leave! And some of them are relentless: She WANTS to leave, they say. Not She must leave, but Shes GOING to leave; take it from me, shes leaving, nows the time, shes going to leave. And surely you can see that none of this is real, it just doesnt make sense. Sri Aurobindo left because he was disgusted. He has gone, so logically she must go too. Thats the picture.
Actively, theres only one thing to do: Its not up to me, its the Lord who decides. Its the Lord who acts, its the Lord who organizes everything and to top it off, its even the Lord who sends you away! That irks them more than anything! (Mother laughs.)
Rightly or wrongly, Satprem did not keep the recording of this conversation, not to obey Mother, for he was never very obedient, but because the words that follow rent his heart. He didn't know at the time how very true they all were.
***
0 1962-12-15, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This B. seems to have had the idea that the perfect man, the immortal man, would be spherical! And then Thon always used to say (he told me the whole story himself): I told him it wasnt possible, it would be too impracticalpeople couldnt kiss! His idea of a joke. Thon also told me that when B. came to Tlemcen (they first met in Egypt, then again in Tlemcen), he saw the house Thon was building and asked, Why is your house painted red? Does it have some mystical significance? And Thon replied, No, its because red goes well with green! So you get the picture. But I dont remember his name any more; in his time he was very well known, he was a contemporary of the fellow who wrote The Great Initiates.
Schur?
--
Madame Thon, who was English, was the one who wrote, but she used to write stories, while this this looks like Barleys work to me, because I read something at the end, on the last page, which is rather. Its pathetic, actually, its all really pathetic.
(Mother leafs through the pages, laughing as she reads:)
--
Very. I dont think its worth wasting your time on. But it was interesting to find these first pages because look at the symbol (Mother shows Satprem the first page).
Yes, I saw it!
--
I am keeping this to show Pavitra, because thats what I had first tried to make. But obviously the one we have now is correct.
It was Theon who told me it was Solomons seal.
--
But to me this seems to come from his Jewish background. because Thon was Jewish, even though he never mentioned the fact (the Tlemcen officials made it known: when he arrived he had to tell them who he was). He never spoke of it and he had changed his name. They said he was of Jewish origin, but they could never say whether he was Polish or Russian. At least the person who told me never knew. But for the Jews its the Unthinkable, whose name must not be uttered (it is uttered only once a year, on the Day of Atonement; I think thats what its called). Its the word Yahveh, and it must not be uttered. But the prayers speak of the Elohim, and the Hebrew word Elohim is plural, meaning the invisible lords. So there was no one and only God for Thon, only the unthinkable Formless; and all the invisible beings who claimed to be one and only gods were Asuras.
He used to call Christ That young man! (Laughter) It was very funny.
--
Oh, I understand! because its true, you know, that an Asura is behind it allnot Christ! Sri Aurobindo considered Christ an Avatar (a minor form of Avatar). One emanation of the Divines aspect of Love, he always said. But what people have made of him! Besides, the religion was founded two hundred years after his death. And its nothing but a political construction, a tool for domination, built with the Lord of Falsehood in the background, who, in his usual fashion, took something true and twisted it.
Its a real hodgepodge, that religion the number of sects! The only common ground is the divinity of Christ, and it became asuric when he was made out to be unique: there has been but ONE incarnation, Christ. Thats just where it all went wrong.
0 1962-12-19, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
because the series continues; I mean everything everywhere seems to want to disintegrate: everything everywhere. But the Power is beginning to have an effect (thats putting it poorly, its not exactly that). Its as though I were presented with every possible opportunity to use the Power and theyre not coming one after the other but all at once, almost like a lessonin fact, to teach me how to do what needs to be done.
I have to admit that it always ends well, in that the Power always gets the upper hand, but its so (whats the word?) so repetitious, many-sided and coexistent that, you know, it feels a bit like charging along at a gallop for hours on end.
--
After twenty minutes, something said, Thats enough. And I saw that it was enough for the body, that it shouldnt exert itself further the formation withdrew. I couldnt have played a single note more! It was very interesting. And I realized that, truly, the will that moves my body isnt at all the same as before. Previously, it was the will of the being that had been placed into and formed in this body (it wasnt personal but still very individual). While now its not that: its a Will somewhere (somewhere which is everywhere and in everything), a Will somewhere that decides, and when it says Do, the body does; when it says No, nothing in the world could make the body move. And so, that conscious something somewhere, which is like an intermediary between the higher Will and the body and its outer life, has to tell the body, This is necessary. The body never protests, because that which speaks knows VERY WELL. It says, This is necessary, all right, the body does it. But when it says, Thats enough, now, the body stops. because (how can I express it?) FOR THE BODY, the Most High knows better than the intermediary. In regard to circumstances and the vision of the work to be done, its all one; but for taking care of and educating the body, That (gesture on high) knows best. The intermediary doesnt really care (!), but when That says do, its done; inished, and its finished. Its very interesting.
Naturally, the whole crowd and the people around me kept asking, Now that its all set up, when will there be balcony darshans again? ( because when I came back inside I said, So! Youve built a balcony, have you?). When are we going to have them again? So the intermediary said, I dont know, its not up to me. Consternation! Then I kept very quiet for a little while, listening on high, and from high, high up there came, very slowly (it comes practically drop by drop because you have to do it VERY quietlyit comes drop by drop), what That said I had to reply: Nothing definite. I was told, It depends. It all depends I clearly see that it all depends on the special work being done on my body and on the results of that work. And it isnt formulated: I am not told, I am not told whats going to happen; I am only told, Heres how it might be. (Mother laughs) All right. Thats fine, I said.
But it was funny; it was really an experience, because had you asked me my impression beforeh and (my, I mean what usually talks), my impression was that I just had to decide to go to the balcony and it would happen (the only impossibility I saw was finding time for it). But thats not how it is, thats not it AT ALL. Its something else, utterly new, something I dont know; I have absolutely no reference points, and decisions are made on the highest levelonly with regard to the body. I mean for the work in general, for the terrestrial vision and all that, theres no difference: its seen, its known. But for this special thing in the body, I am not consulted.
I was really amused.
--
Au revoir, mon petit; its goodits going well. Thats what Sri Aurobindo told me a few days ago (I spent two hours with him at night, with all sorts of very interesting things happening). He told me (in his joking way), You see! Ive got him doing the book that makes him progress. So I said, Good. because he has been there all along since you embarked on this book, and he seems to be guiding you according to a plan he has worked out. Thats what he told me. I have seen him with you very frequently (as Ive told you), but the other day he told me this positively.
Its good. Its very good this time.
0 1962-12-22, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I made no reply, not a word: in half an hour I had undone everything I undid it all, really everything, cut the connection between the gods and the people here, demolished absolutely everything. because you see, I knew it was so attractive for people (they were constantly seeing the most astonishing things) that the obvious temptation was to hang on to it and say, Well improve on itwhich was impossible. So I sat down quietly for half an hour, and I undid it all.
We had to start over again with something else.
But I said nothing, I told no one about it except Sri Aurobindo. At the time I let no one know, because they would have been completely discouraged.
***
--
If I spent the whole night writing, as Sri Aurobindo used to do, I might be able to keep up to date. But I have no intention of doing that, because my nights are very interesting!
I have had some rather strange things have been happening. I dont know whether you understand the difference between the memory of an inner experience (from the subtle physical, the subconscient, all the inner regions) and the memory of a physical fact. There is a very great difference in quality, the same difference that exists between inner vision and physical vision. Physical vision is precise, well defined, and at the same time flat I dont know how to explain it: its very flat, totally superficial, but very accurate, with the kind of accuracy and precision that defines things which are really not defined at all. Well, theres the same difference in quality between the two types of memory as between the two types of vision. And in the last few days Ive realized that I had the memory of having gone downstairs, of having seen certain people and things, spoken and organized certain thingsseveral different scenes of the PHYSICAL memory. Not at all things I saw with the inner vision while exteriorized, but the MATERIAL memory of having done certain things.
--
Heres how this should be, I would say, and it became like that. For example, if I told someone to put something in a certain place, he did it. The person doesnt know I told him, because hes not in the same consciousness as I am, but he did it.
And I found out about the immediate effects of it even before recalling it, for it all unfolded in reverse: when a certain thing was done, I thought, What on earth! This person is wonderful. And then I suddenly realized, But I told him to do that! I told him. Then the image came the image I dont mean the sort of memory one has of a vision, but the memory of something one has DONE. With that kind of image, its not that you look: it just enters into you quite naturally. It has a particular quality. Thats how I became aware of these changes. I noticed them on my own.
--
I havent said anything because people here tend to think I am going off my rocker, and I dont want to add to their impression! But even for me, it left me it took me a little while (it didnt happen just once, but two or three times, for different things), I kept very still for a while to look into the phenomenon and try to analyze it.
But I havent yet found the key.
--
So one doesnt say anything because. You see, when people are in Ignorance their immediate explanation is always the same:
Hes gone crazy.
0 1963-01-09, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But its very hard for the body to change. because it lives only from its habit of living. And every time something of the true way of living filters in, then without thinking, without reasoning or anything like an idea, practically without sensation, almost automatically, the cells panic at the newness of it. So, you understand, EVERYTHING has to be changed. Its no longer the heart that has to pump blood and receive the Force, no longer the stomach that has to digest, its not any of that any moreit all functions in another way. The base must be shifted, the functioning completely changed but then all those cells are so anxious to see that everything goes ACCORDING TO HABIT.
(silence)
--
You cant overdo it, because disruption is no good, of course! Ive been observing that lately. When you came last time, I was I was going through a upheaval.3
The consciousness is there (gesture, standing back), but it intervenes only if it is absolutely indispensable. Its just that it tries locally to make the cells (not understand, it isnt understand because theres no mind) have the right sensation, the right experience the right experienceuntil they start saying, Oh! Oh!
Some panic. Some have already had a few experiences, they know better and see clearer, they work to adapt to the new vibration. But others have yet to understand, and they feel so stupid, so stupid! And from above, something watches it all and finds it both (both at once) very funny, because really its exceedingly ridiculous, and at the same time so sad! Its so sad to see that EVERYTHING is like this: the WHOLE earth, the WHOLE earth! That this body is the object of a special concentration, a special effort, a special CHARGE, a special concern, a special carethis minuscule fragment, minuscule and theres the whole earth, the whole earth. And they all think themselves so wonderful, so smart!
I could keep talking for hours.
--
Even now I have to proceed very, very slowlynot to go off at a gallop. I am surrounded by people who say, Oh, shes seriously ill! Whats going to happen? and they make things difficult for me. because I still have to sweep it all aside with the Force: Keep quiet! Dont you go making formations that add to the difficulty.
You see how far we are from those romantic transformations where people emerge from their meditation rejuvenated, transfigured, luminousoh, dear me! That will be mere childs play. At the end, it will be nothing: well just have to do this (Mother blows one puff in the air), and it will be there.
0 1963-01-12, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Thats what made him lose his eyesight, you know; his eyes were overstrained. I know its due to that, because I heard him say so. Once, they had brought him a stack of books to sign and other things and, unaware that he could be heard, he exclaimed, Oh, they want to make me blind!1 Thats how I knew his eyes were tired. He was indeed losing his sight. At the end, he couldnt see a thing, he had to look at very close range.
So I am not giving in.
--
Which means it took twelve days for all his elements to form again. You see, they burned his body. (He was Christian, but his familyhis wife is alive and his brother toofound it less costly to let us handle it than to bury him as a Christian! So they had him cremated.) We cremated him, but I demanded a certain interval of time,4 although in his case it was really a gradual exhaustion and nothing much remained in his body; nonetheless, even then the consciousness is flung out of the cells violentlyit took twelve days to form again. It wasnt his soul (it had already left) but the spirit of his body that came to me, the body consciousness gathered in a well-dressed, neat Benjamin with his hair neatly brushed. He was quite trim when he came to me, just as he would have been in life: he always wanted to be well-groomed and impeccable to see me, that was his way. It took twelve days to gather together because I didnt see to it (I can do it in a few hours but only if I see to it), but in his case, his soul having been at rest for a long time, it didnt matter much. So over twelve days it took form again and when he was ready (laughing), he came to reoccupy his room! And there was no furniture left, nothing!
I found that very funny.
--
For instance, two or three nights ago (I dont remember), I was with Sri Aurobindo, we were doing a certain work (it was in a mental zone with certain vital reactions mixed in), well, a general work. I was with Sri Aurobindo and we were doing the work together. He wanted to explain to me how a particular movement is turned into a distorted movement; he was explaining this to me (but theres nothing mental or intellectual about it, nothing to do with theories). And without even (how can I put it?) without even a thought or an explanation to forewarn you, a true movement is changed into a movement that is not false but distorted. I was speaking to Sri Aurobindo and he was answering, then I turn my head away like this (not physicallyall this is an inner life, naturally), I turned my head as if to see the [vibratory] effect. Then I turn back and send Sri Aurobindo the movement necessary to carry on with the experience, and I receive a reply which surprises me because of the quality of its vibration (it was a reply of ignorance and weakness). So I turn my attention back again, and as a matter of fact in Sri Aurobindos place I saw the doctor. Then I understood! Superficially, one may say, So, Sri Aurobindo and the doctor are the same! (To people who would see such a thing it would occur that they are the sameof course its all, all the same! All is one, people just dont understand this complete oneness.) Naturally it didnt surprise me for the thousandth of a second, there wasnt any surprise, but oh, I understood! This way (Mother slightly tilts her hand to the left), its Sri Aurobindo, and that way (slightly to the right), its the doctor. This way its the Lord, and that way its a man!!
Really interesting.5
--
And I realize You see, I need physical help to relieve the body of all effort thats not strictly indispensable. But I cant make their [the attendants] life completely chaotic in appearance: there has to be some schedule. And a schedule means terrible limitations. I cant help it. I cant help it, because for the time being, simply the will expressing itself isnt enough to make matter respond. Once it is like that, time wont matter any more, butBUT.
We mustnt be impatient.
--
You see, Sri Aurobindo was explaining something to me, but the explanation wasn't like a theory: it's immediately translated into movements of matter, that is, movements of forms and forces. So I was listening (I was listening to him, we were talking), and I turned my head away to follow the demonstration of forces, of what he said; naturally it led to another movement which was the consequence, and then I described what I was seeing. When I began describing the consequence, I received a reply (it was a sort of dialogue between us, but without different voices and all the things we know physically), but the quality of the vibration was different, it had become ... instead of being supramental, if you like, it had become sattvic [moral], the reply was sattvic. In other words, a diminution, a limitation. I was surprised so I turned back again, and instead of finding Sri Aurobindo, I saw the doctor, with his hair very neatoh, a super-doctor, you know! But it was he, I mean at his best. So immediately I thought, "Here we are! Here is how things get more and more diminishedyes, diminished, altered, altering also physical appearanceshere is how the Lord changes all His physical appearances." Oh, it was really funny, because it was a practical and precise little illustration. But then there was immediately the feeling that everything, the whole universe is like this! That's how all forms are changed.
So now you see!
0 1963-01-14, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I count on the question to set off the movement, because for the moment theres nothing.
More and more its like that: I know what I must do at the time of doing it, I know what I must say at the time of saying it. I dont try, though once or twice I did try just to seeuseless, nothing comes. But when it has to come, it comes as if a tap were openedeffortlessly, without my having to do anything, it just comes.
--
The only way to make life perfect (I mean here life on earth, of course) is to look at it from a sufficient height to see it in its totality, not only its present totality, but over the whole past, present and future: what it has been, what it is, what it must beyou must be able to see it all at once. because thats the only way to put everything in its place. Nothing can be done away with, nothing SHOULD be done away with, but each thing must find its own place in total harmony with the rest. Then all those things that appear so evil, so reprehensible and unacceptable to the puritan mind would become movements of joy and freedom in a totally divine life. And then nothing would stop us from knowing, understanding, feeling and living this wonderful Laughter of the Supreme who takes infinite delight in watching Himself live infinitely.
This delight, this wonderful Laughter which dissolves all shadows, all pain, all suffering We only have to go deep enough into ourselves to find the inner Sun and let ourselves be bathed in it. Then everything is but a cascade of harmonious, luminous, sun-filled laughter which leaves no room for shadow and pain.
--
It is ultimately the most powerful means of dissolving difficulties, overcoming grief and getting rid of pain. The first two [difficulties and grief] are relatively easy (relatively), the last [pain] is more difficult because of our habit of regarding the body and its sensations as extremely concrete and positive but actually it is the same thing, its just that we havent been taught and accustomed to seeing our body as something fluid, plastic, uncertain, malleable. We havent learned to permeate it with this luminous Laughter which dissolves all shadows and difficulties, all discords, all disharmony, all that grates, cries and weeps.
(silence)
--
But especially all the prohibitions. For instance, let me quote you a statement from X which I heard from a third person: I will do a special puja to help money come. I will prepare a special yantram1 to bring money. But FOR GODS SAKE dont say anything [to Mother], dont do anything or give anything before January 14, because until January 14, a certain planet is in opposition to a certain other planet (Mother laughs), so things follow a downward trend and wont be successful. But afterwards, that particular planet will be ascending and everything will be successful! (Mother laughs) Something in me said spontaneously (something, well, someone), spontaneously and immediately, But why? I can always hear! And I laughed. So they thought I was making fun of him I dont make fun: I laugh, its not the same!
So, mon petit, thats all.
--
February 2 is C.s birthday, so Ill give him a meditation, because these are people who still believe in meditation! (Mother laughs)
It has become quite an entertaining little field of experiences, by the way. because nowadays I send people cards, and I have lots of cards, innumerable kinds of cards2 (C. spends his time preparing them), and automatically, whenever I have to write a card for someone, it isnt as I decided beforeh and ( because sometimes I decide beforehand), the choice is made at the last minute: THIS is the card I must send and THIS is what I must say. I neednt worry about it, it comes just in time. Then I only have to get up, go find the card, write, and its all over. People will tell me (precisely those who lead a spiritual life), What! You make such a trifle the object of a spiritual experience! And its the same with ALL small things: what object to be used, what perfume to put on, what bath salts, all manner of futile, frivolous, unimportant thingsHow shocking! I dont even make an effort to find out or to (think, thank God I dont think!), it just comes: this, that, that. Not saidKNOWN. It isnt even said, I am not told, Do this, never. Its KNOWN: Ah, here we are, thats it! And I choose and do itvery comfortable!
It was actually my experience (for a long, long time, many years) but, these last few days, concrete, in the bodys cells. There arent things in which the Lord is and things in which He isntthere are only fools who think so! He is ALWAYS there. He takes nothing seriously and has fun with everything. And He plays with you, if you know how to play but you dont, people dont know how to play. But how well He knows! How He plays with everything, with the smallest things: you have objects to put on your table? Dont think you have to ponder over how to arrange themno, well play: lets put this here, lets put that there, lets put this like that. Then some other day ( because people think, Now she has decided on this arrangement, so thats the way its going to bewell, not so!), some other day (they want to help you! They want to help you put things in order, so it just becomes a mess!), I stay still and quiet, and then we start playing: So! Lets put this here, and that there, and this there ah! (Mother laughs) Since I saw you last time it has been that way constantly, probably to prepare me for this aphorism!
--
And I very well see ( because I told Him several times, You know, it would be great fun if I had plenty of money to play with), so I see that He laughs, but He doesnt answer! He teaches me to be able to laugh at this difficulty, to see the cashier send me his book in which the figures are growing astronomical ([laughing] its by 50,000, 60,000, 80,000, 90,000), while the drawer is nearly empty! And He wants me to learn to laugh at it. The day when I can really laughlaugh, enjoy myselfSINCERELY (not through effortyou can do anything you want through effort), when it makes me laugh spontaneously, I think it will change. because otherwise its impossible. You see, we have fun with all sorts of things, theres no reason we couldnt have fun with more money than we need and do things in style! It will surely happen one day, but we shouldwe shouldnt be overwhelmed by the amount, and for that we shouldnt take money seriously.
We shouldnt take money seriously.
Its very hard nowadays, because all over the world people take money seriously, and that makes it very hard. Especially those who have money. Those who have money, how seriously they take it, oh, Lord! Thats why its difficult. We should be able to laughlaugh, laugh frankly and sincerely, then it would be over.
Well! All right, well talk about it again.
0 1963-01-18, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I think that as the Supramental descends, the subtle physical will have a greater and greater action on earth, because it is the world where the new creation will be formed before it descends, before it becomes absolutely visible and concrete.
I often have a sense that it would take only a very tiny thingwhich is hard to definea very tiny movement of materialization to make this new creation concrete to us as we are. And it is probablyit will probably be formed completely in that subtle world before it materializes.
0 1963-01-30, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I may even keep the manuscript in pencil: the temptation to correct is very bad. Very bad because its the surface understanding that wants to correctliterary taste, poetical sense and all those things that are down there (gesture down below). You know, its as if (I dont mean the words themselves), as if the CONTENT of the words were projected on a perfectly blank and still screen (Mother points to her forehead), as if the words were projected on it.
The trouble is writing, the materialization between the vision and the writing; the Force has to drive the hand and the pencil, and there is a slight theres still a very slight resistance. Otherwise, if I could write automatically, oh, how nice it would be!
There may be (I cant say, its all imagination because I dont know), there may come a few somewhat weird things. But there is an insistence on the need to keep to each line as though it stood all alone in the universe. No mixing up the line order, no, no, no! For when he wrote it, he SAW it that way I knew nothing about that, I didnt even know how he wrote it (he dictated it, I believe, for the most part), but thats what he tells me now. Everything comes to a stop, everything, and then, oh, how we enjoy ourselves! I enjoy myself! Its more enjoyable than anything. I even told him yesterday, But why write? Whats the use? Then he filled me with a sort of delight. Naturally, someone in the ordinary consciousness may say, Its very selfish, but And then its like a vision of the future (not too near, not extremely nearnot extremely far either) a future when this sort of white thingwhite and stillwould spread out, and then, with the help of this work, a larger number of minds may come to understand. But thats secondary; I do the translation simply for the joy of it, thats all. A satisfaction that may be called selfish, but when he is told, Its selfish, he replies that there is no one more selfish than the Lord, because all He does is for Himself!
There.
So I will go on. If there are corrections, they can only come through the same process, because at this point to correct anyhow would spoil it all. There is also the mixing (for the logical mind) of future and present tenses but that too is deliberate. It all seems to come in another way. And well, I cant say, I havent read any French for ages, I have no knowledge of modern literatureto me everything is in the rhythm of the sound. I dont know what rhythm they use now, nor have I read what Sri Aurobindo wrote in The Future Poetry. They tell me that Savitris verse follows a certain rule he explained on the number of stresses in each line (and for this you should pronounce in the pure English way, which somewhat puts me off), and perhaps some rule of this kind will emerge in French? We cant say. I dont know. Unless languages grow more fluid as the body and mind grow more plastic? Possible. Language too, maybe: instead of creating a new language, there may be transitional languages, as, for instance (not a particularly fortunate departure, but still), the way American is emerging from English. Maybe a new language will emerge in a similar way?
In my case it was from the age of twenty to thirty that I was concerned with French (before twenty I was more involved in vision: painting; and sound: music), but as regards language, literature, language sounds (written or spoken), it was approximately from twenty to thirty. The Prayers and Meditations were written spontaneously with that rhythm. If I stayed in an ordinary consciousness I would get the knack of that rhythm but now it doesnt work that way, it wont do!
--
But I would like us to revise the translation in the same way, because I am sure he will be herehe is always here when I translate. Then I will go back into that state, while you will do the work! (Laughing) You will write. And then, unless your vocabulary is very extensive (mine used to be extensive, but now it has become quite limited), well need a decent dictionary. But I am afraid none will have anything to offer.
I even find they should be avoided.
0 1963-02-15, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And, I must say, I was observing this because, originally, the first time I heard of it, this conception shocked me, in the sense that (I dont know, it wasnt an idea, it was a feeling), as though it meant lending reality to something which in my consciousness, for a very long time (at least millennia perhaps, I dont know), had been the Falsehood to be conquered. The Falsehood that must cease to exist. Its the aspect of Truth that must manifest itself, its not all that: doing anything whatsoever just for the fun of it, simply because you have the full power. You have the power to do everything, so you do everything, and knowing that there is a Truth behind, you dont give a damn about consequences. That was something something which, as far back as I can remember, I have fought against. I have known it, but it seems to me it was such a long, long time ago and I rejected it so strongly, saying, No, no! and implored the Lord so intensely that things may be otherwise, beseeched Him that his all-powerful Truth, his all-powerful Purity and his all-powerful Beauty may manifest and put an end to all that mess. And at first I was shocked when Sri Aurobindo told me that; previously, in this life, it hadnt even crossed my mind. In that sense Theons explanation had been much more (what should I say?) useful to me from the standpoint of action: the origin of disorder being the separation of the primal Powers but thats not it! HE is there, blissfully worshipping all this confusion!
And naturally this time around, when I started translating it came back. At first there was a shudder (Mother makes a gesture of stiffening). Then I told myself, Havent you got beyond that! And I let myself flow into the thing. Then I had a series of nights with Sri Aurobindo so marvelous! You understand, I see him constantly and I go into that subtle physical world where he has his abode; the contact is almost permanent (at any rate, thats how I spend all my nights: he shows me the work, everything), but still, after this translation of Savitri he seemed to be smiling at me and telling me, At last you have understood! (Mother laughs) I said, It isnt that I didnt understand, its that I didnt want it! I didnt want, I dont WANT things to be like that any more, for thousands of years I have wanted things to be otherwise!
--
Of course, it [this vision or conception] isnt allowed into action, because when you start accepting everything and loving everything and seeing Glory everywherewhy change!? This is why the Force that had been in me for so long for the world to progress further made me reject precisely all that legitimized things as they are by putting you into contact with the inner joy of livingas he puts it, His Joy is there, everywhere, so nobody wants to leave the world.
In short, I was able to see the situation from above, a little higher than the creative Forcefrom the other side.
0 1963-02-19, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Last night or the night before, I was in Sri Aurobindos house and he was telling me, Some things are going wrong. And he showed me around his house. There were some pipesbig pipes that had burst. You see, he told me, people have been careless. In some places they had taken away all the furniture and were cleaning up in a stupid way: See, he said, they dont do things the proper way. Then I understood it was the reflection of the way things happen here. And he was (not angry, he is never angry), but people gave him a lot of bother, they were preventing him from doing his work: I would come in a room and try to arrange a corner because he wanted to write, but it was impossible, the whole setup made it impossible for him to have even a decent corner where he could write then at other times, it would be quite fine. because it changes continuously. The layout of rooms has an inner meaningit MEANS somethingso it always stays the same as if the setting stayed unchanged ( because its not a house built from an architects plan! Its his own house, which he has arranged according to his taste, so it stays that way). But people seem to have unrestricted entry there, and everyone wants to do something, to make himself useful, (laughing) so its terrible! This is what erased my experience or pushed it back into the realm of memories. As though he were saying, Dont be too concerned with universal things, because over here (laughing) things arent too smooth!
***
--
After this experience, I was expecting to see some truly exceptional things these last few days, because really this Presence is so concrete, so concrete! But compared to that concrete, our concreteness is so thin and lifelesswhat we call life is some sort of of mushy thing!
(silence)
--
I wanted the book [The Adventure of Consciousness] to come out for February 21, 1964. That doesnt leave too much time, because Thats another marvel, it must have been one of the things Sri Aurobindo was showing me: at the [Ashram] Press, theyre behind schedule for everything and they work night and day! They have never worked so hard! Very clearly, seen from above, its a lack of organization; for something requiring an ounce of force they have to put in ten pounds, and still it doesnt work.
It grinds and grates.
--
Some are sluggish (theyre the best, because I can make them do what I want them to do); theyre like automatons, so you can get something out of them. But unfortunately they think they are they have the sense of their responsibility, so they think they are very superior then its terrible!
Anyway
--
I have made some experiments with French too. I wrote something: Pour chacun, le plus important est de savoir si on appartient au passe qui se perpetue, au present qui sepuise, lavenir qui veut natre. [The most important point for everyone is to know whether he belongs to the past perpetuating itself, to the present exhausting itself, or to the future trying to be born.] I gave it to Zhe didnt understand. So I told him, It doesnt mean our past, our present or our future. I wrote this when I was in that state [the experience Mother told at the beginning of this conversation], and it was in connection with a very sweet old lady who has just left her body. This is what I said to her. Everybody had been expecting her departure for more than a month or two, but I said, You will see, she is going to last; she will last for at least another month or two. because she knows how to live within, outside her body, and the body lives on out of habit, without jerks and jolts. That was her condition, and it could last a very long time. They had announced she would leave within two days, but I said, Its not true. I know her well, in the sense that she had come out of her body and there was a link with me. And I said to her, What do you care! (though she wasnt at all worried, she was staying peacefully with me), The whole point is to know whether one belongs to the past perpetuating itself, to the present exhausting itself, or to the future trying to be born. Sometimes what WE call the past is right here, its the future trying to be born; sometimes what WE call the present is something in advance, something that came ahead of time; but sometimes also its something that came late, that is still part of all that is to disappear I saw it all: people, things, circumstances, everything through that perception, the vibration that would go on transforming itself, the vibration that would exhaust itself and disappear, the vibration that, though manifested for a long time, would be entitled to continue, to persist that changes all notions! It was so interesting! So I wrote it down as it waswithout any explanations (you dont feel much like explaining in such a case, the thing is so self-evident!). Poor Z, he stared at meall at sea! So I told him, Dont try to understand. I am not speaking of the past, present and future as we know them, its something else. (Mother laughs)
But its amusing because I had never paid much attention to that [the questions of language], the experience is novel, almost the discovery of the truth behind expression. Before, my concern was to be as clear, exact and precise as possible; to say exactly what I meant and put each word in its proper place. But thats not it! Each word has its own life! Some are drawn together by affinity, others repel each other its very funny!
Pralaya: end of a world, apocalypse.
0 1963-02-23, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
We have a great mathematician here who comes from Madras regularly, Dr. V. (you know him, dont you?), and for my birthday,1 he played around with the figures of my date of birth and made up with them a square with small compartments (what a painstaking work it must be!): any way you read it, it always adds up to the same figure. Admirable. The figure is 116. Heavenly mathematics, all that (!) and it is supposed to be my number of years. But I find it a little on the short side. because if the present pace is any indication, 116 doesnt leave me many years, thirty years or so yes, some thirty years, thats all. What can you achieve in thirty years?! The way things are moving, oh! When Sri Aurobindo said three hundred years, I think he gave the minimum figure.
Well see.
--
Yesterday evening (was it yesterday? No, the day before), when I went out on the balcony-terrace,3 the difference in perception between the consciousness I have now and the one I had before felt enormous! Before, as I have always said, I would stay there, call the Lord, be in His presence, and only when He withdrew would I come in again thats how it was. And I had a certain relationship with people, things, the outside world (outside, well, not outsideanyway, the world). The day before yesterday, when I went to the balcony, I wasnt thinking of anything or observing anything, I simply went I didnt want to know what was going on, it didnt interest me, I wasnt observing. The other experience [of the previous balcony, one year ago] seemed to go back centuries! It was so much OTHER! And so spontaneous, so natural, and so immense too! The earth was tiny. Yet it was very much here: I wasnt over there, the BODY itself was feeling that way. And at the same time (I was two floors above people), every time I looked, I recognized scores and scores of people, they seemed to leap to my eyesa crystal clear vision, much sharper (the vision I had before was always a bit hazy because what I saw wasnt entirely physical: I saw the movement of forces), and yesterday, it was as if as if I had risen above the very possibility of haziness! It was far less physicalFAR MORE accurate.4
Formerly too, I used to sense the Force, the Consciousness, the Power concentrated in a particular point and then spreading out. While here, there was an IMMENSITY of Power, of Light, of Consciousness, of perception, concentrated in a tiny point: the people gathered there.
--
Fairly often, its Sri Aurobindo. But this time it was entirely impersonal. It was something that WILL NO LONGER tolerate in the world a certain kind of selfish stupidityto trample this childs finer feelings just because she isnt stupidly attached to her family (who didnt even give her a single thought all the time she was here, she didnt exist for them).
If you want your children to love you, you should at least love them a little, care for them a little, no? Its elementary, you dont have to be very bright to understand that but they wont understand: It is a childs DUTY to love his parents!! And if you dont fulfill your duty, youre put in jail.
--
The balcony is quite interesting. because it suddenly made me notice a change I was unaware of. Like a rapid rise I had been completely unaware of. My only awareness is that at EVERY moment, if I stop talking or listening or working, at every moment, its like great beatific wings, as vast as the world, beating slowly, like that.
A feeling of immense wingsnot two: all around and stretching out everywhere.
0 1963-03-06, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It will be transformed and will be an outline, as it were, of the new one. When this outline comes into being, the other, the perfect form, will appear. because both have their own beauty and purpose, and so both will be there.
The mind always tries to make an exclusive choice or decision thats not the way. Even the totality of what we are able to imagine is very little compared to what will be. The truth is, everyone with an intense aspiration and inner certitude will be called to realize it.
--
First, one may ask: What is a miracle? because Sri Aurobindo often says that there is no such thing as a miracle, but at the same time, in Savitri, for example, he says, Alls miracle here and can by miracle change.1
It depends which way you look at it: from this side or from the other side.
People only call miracles things they cant explain clearly, in mental terms. From that point of view, innumerable things that happen can be said to be miracles, because you cant explain the why or the how.
What would a real miracle be, then?
I dont see what a real miracle can be, because whats a miracle, ultimately?
A real miracle Its only the mind that has the notion of miracle, because following its own logic, the mind decides that given this and that condition, this or that circumstance can or cannot be. But these are merely the minds limitations. because from the Lords point of view, how could there be a miracle? All is but Himself objectifying Himself.
Here we come to the great problem of the road we travel, the eternal Road Sri Aurobindo refers to in Savitri. It is easy to imagine, of course, that what was first objectified had an inclination to objectification. The first point to accept, a logical point considering the principle of evolution, is that the objectification is progressive, it is not complete for all eternity. (silence) Its very hard to express, because we cannot free ourselves from our habit of seeing it as a finite quantity unfolding indefinitely and of thinking that only with a finite quantity can there be a beginning. We always have an idea (at least in our way of speaking) of a moment (laughing) when the Lord decides to objectify Himself. And put that way, the explanation is easy: He objectifies Himself gradually, progressively, with, as a result, a progressive evolution. But thats just a manner of speaking. because there is no beginning, no end, yet there is a progression. The sense of sequence, the sense of evolution and progress comes only with the Manifestation. And only when we speak of the earth can we explain things truthfully and rationally, because the earth had a beginningnot in its soul, but in its material reality.
A material universe probably has a beginning, too.
--
But the number of miracles Sri Aurobindo performed in the Mind is incalculable. Of course, only if you had a very honest, sincere and pure vision could you see them I saw them. Others too saw them. But he refused (this I know), he refused to perform any vital or material miracle, because of the admixture.
My own experience is like this: in the worlds present state, a direct miracle (vital or material, that is) must necessarily involve a number of fallacious elements which we cannot acceptthose miracles are necessarily fallacious miracles. And we cannot accept that. At least I always refused to do so. Ive seen what people call miracles. I saw many with Madame Thon, for instance, but it allowed a host of things to exist that to me are inadmissible.
0 1963-03-09, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
That was when he brought the supramental Force into the mental consciousness. He would bring into the mental consciousness (the mental consciousness that governs all material movements1) a supramental formation, or power, or force, that instantly altered the organization. With immediate results that appear illogical because the process doesnt follow the course set by mental logic.
He said it himself: it happened when he was in possession or in conscious comm and of the supramental Force and Power and when he put it on a particular spot for a particular purpose. It was irrevocable, inevitable: the effect was absolute.
--
But flung like that! For a very long time the memory of the SENSATION remained: something that went like this (same gesture of a leaf falling) and simply set me down on the road. When I worked with Thon, the memory came back, and I saw it was an entity: what people in Europe call angels (what do they call it?) guardian angels, thats right. An entity. Thon had told me of certain worlds (worlds of the higher intellect I dont remember, he had named all the different planes), and in that world are winged beingswho have wings of their own free choice, because they find it pretty! And Madame Thon had always seen two such beings with me. Yet she knew me more than ten years later. And it appears they were always with me. So I took a look and, sure enough, there they were. One even tried to draw: he asked me to lend him my hand to do drawings. I lent my hand, but when I saw the drawing (he did one), I told him, The ones I do without you are much better! So that was the end of the matter!
What did it depict?
--
There was another occurrence (less striking), once in a room as long as this one and wider,5 the salon in my familys house. Some little friends had come and we were playing. I told them, Ill show you how one should dance. I went to a corner of the room to get the longest distance to another corner, and I told them, One single step in the middle. And I did it! (Mother laughs) I sprang (I didnt even feel I was jumping, it was like dancing, you know, like when they dance on point), landed on the tips of my toes, bounced up and reached the other corneryou cant do that alone, even champions cannot. The length of the jump went beyond records, because afterwards I asked here, when we started physical exercises at the Ashram, I asked what the longest jump wasmine was longer! And they take a run up, you see, they run and then jump. But I didnt run: I was standing in the corner, and hop! up I went (I said hop! to myself, soundlessly), and frrrt! I landed on the tips of my toes, bounced and landed the other sidequite evidently I was carried.
All this took place before the age of thirteen or fourteen (from eight to thirteen or fourteen). Many things of the kind, all of which seemed to me perfectly naturalit didnt feel as though I was doing something miraculous. Perfectly natural.
--
The memory of all these things returned AFTERWARDS, when I met Thonlong afterwards, when I was more than twenty, that is, more than ten years later. I met Thon and got the explanation of these things, I understood. Then I remembered all that had happened to me, and I thought, Well! because Madame Thon said to me (I told her all my childhood stories), she said to me, Oh, but I know, you are THAT, the stamp of THAT is on you. I thought over what she had said, and I saw it was indeed true. All those experiences I had were very clear indications that there were certainly people in the invisible looking after me! (Mother laughs)
Interestingly there was nothing mental about it: I didnt know the existence of those things, I didnt know what meditation was I meditated without the least idea of what it was. I knew nothing, absolutely nothing, my mother had kept it all completely taboo: those matters are not to be touched, they drive you crazy!
--
because personally, I didnt quite understand what it meant and why Sri Aurobindo and you didnt perform any miracles. But I wont put everything you said today.
Oh, no, no, no! No need to Its only for our own enjoyment. And what about your book, how is it going on?
--
In the following conversation, Mother gave a very recent example of someone cured by the supramental force acting in the material mind: "After three warnings which he didn't heed, A. [a Paris disciple], one morning, found himself half-paralyzed. And the next day, it started spreading to the other side, the left side. At that point, he gave a callit struck him to see one side completely paralyzed and the other following suit, he saw himself going down, so he gave a call. And he says that inside a few minutes, a stupendous Force came into him and that Force said, "No!" And almost automatically, everything came to a stop. Nothing came over the left side, and the right side started to improve. And when I received the first telegram informing me that A. had to take to his bed because of an 'attack' (a 'heart attack,' they said, but it wasn't the heart, it was an embolism in the brain), with the telegram in my hands, I saw, written OVER the telegram's words: 'It's nothing, no need to worry'! So I said coolly, 'Oh' it's nothing, no need to worry.' (Mother laughs) Then the letter came with all the details: thrombosis, and so on. But he says he feels a Force [near Mother] that's not in his ordinary little life over there, he finds it makes all the differenceit's something which gives a LIFE that's not in his ordinary little life in France. Anyhow, this is something like a miracle."
Just what presides over the "inevitability" of accidents, including gravitation, illness and death.
0 1963-03-13, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But in Savitris case (I didnt look after it, you know), he had around him Purani, that Chinmayi, and (whats his name?) Nirodthey all swarmed around him. So I didnt look after Savitri. I read Savitri two years ago, I had never read it before. And I am so glad! because I read it at the time I could understand itand I realized that none of those people had understood ONE BIT of it. Both things at the same time.
(silence)
--
So you came (you see, its the answer) to manifest (its very good, I like this answer very much), to manifest the bliss above. You understand? He goes beyond all past attempts to unite with the Supreme, because none of them satisfies himhe aspires for something more. So when everything is annulled, he enters a Nothingness, then comes out of it with the capacity to unite with the new Bliss.
Thats it, its good!
0 1963-03-16, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Ive seen this phenomenon very often. For example, the impression people have in ordinary life (few are conscious of it, but everyone has the impression, I know that) of a Destiny or a Fate or a will hanging over them, a set of circumstances (it doesnt matter what you call it), something that weighs you down and tries to manifest through you. But weighing you down. That was the first of my experiences: emerging above (very long ago, at the beginning of the century). And it was that kind of experience: one second, but suddenly, oh, you find yourself above it all. I remember because at the time I told the people I knew (maybe I was already looking after the Cosmic Review, it was the beginning, or maybe just before), I told them: There is a state in which you are free to decide what you will do; when you say, I want this, it means it will happen. That was the impression I lived with. Instead of thinking Id like to do this, Id like that to happen, with the sense of the decision being left to Fate, the impression that you are above and you make the decision: things WILL BE like that, things WILL BE like that.
Thats my memory of the beginning of the century.
0 1963-03-19, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
because at the start, there is usually that vibration with all the colors, though with blue strongly predominant (the color I have come to call the Tantric power in Matter); thats immediately with you, its a sort of normal state of concentration. Then afterwards, you seemed to recede or stretch out into a vast Immensity of very quiet silvery whitenessvery quiet and unbroken. Like a receding from outer life and a stretching out into that state. And then there comes downliterally comes downa very intense golden light, very intense, almost (what could I call it?) a colorful gold, really golden, very, very intense, and as though atomizeda powdering. The three in succession. Dont you feel that way?
I feel the second movement: a sense of expanse, it is all white and open.
0 1963-03-23, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
No, at the end of March, I came upstairs not to go down again, that was on the 16th, I noted it. I noted it because my [translation] notebook stopped short on that day (!), I put a red mark.1 But it will soon be one year since the second experience, the pulsations, the starting point of the work I am doing now that was on April 13th. Slightly less than a month later. Well theres nothing to say. I am on the way, no doubt, theres no denying the steps made: I do go forward, not backward. But I mean, its like wanting to walk round the globe! Its endless.
Nothing spectacular whatsoeverspectacular, you know, thats what people enjoy. Nothing of the sort. For instance, there are two things that give you (and others too) a sense that youre making progress: one is the direct knowledge of whats happening in a given place; the other is the foreknowledge of coming events. Well, ever since the beginning of my Yoga, the two possibilities or capacities have been there, with all the admixture (as Sri Aurobindo says) of the movements of the mind, which befuddles everything. Already around 1910, not only was the capacity there (it would come off and on), but along with it, a discernment which showed me the mixture, and thus left me without any certainty. In this regard, therefore, I cant even say there has been a big change the change is in the proportion, its just a question of proportion: proportion in the certainty, proportion in the accuracy, proportion in the mixture. The mixture keeps decreasing, the certainty keeps increasing but thats all. With, now and then (but that has always happened), now and then, a clear, precise, definite indicationbang! Its a bit more frequent. Thats all. So? Sixty-three years. Sixty-three years of methodical effort, of constant will, of opportunities for the workpeople who want quick results, they make me laugh, you know!
--
I feel very strongly that things are that way because the Earth is that way.
Yes, quite clearly! Quite clearly.
--
One thing, though: suddenly I read (yesterday or the day before) a sermon delivered in the U.S.A. by an American (who is a rabbi, a pastor and even a Catholic priest all at the same time!). He heads a group, a group for the unity of religions. A fairly young man, and a preacher. He gives a sermon every week, I think. He came here with some other Americans, stayed for two days and went back. But then, he sent us the sermons he had given since his return, and in one of them he recounts his spiritual journey, as he calls it (a spiritual journey through China, Japan, Indochina, Malaysia, Indonesia, and so on up to India). What shocked him most in India was the povertyit was an almost unbearable experience for him (thats also what prompted the two persons who were with him to leave, and he left with them): poverty. Personally, I dont know because Ive seen poverty everywhere; I saw it wherever I went, but it seems Americans find it very shocking. Anyway, they came here, and in his sermon he gives his impression of the Ashram. I read it almost with astonishment. That man says that the minute he entered this place, he felt a peace, a calm, a stability he had never felt ANYWHERE else in his life. He met a man (he doesnt say who, he doesnt name him and I couldnt find out), who he says was such a monument of divine peace and quietude that I only wished to sit silently at his side. Who it is, I dont know (theres only Nolini who might, possibly, give that impression). He attended the meditationhe says he had never felt anything so wonderful anywhere. And he left with the feeling this was a unique place in the world from the point of view of the realization of divine Peace. I read that almost with surprise. And hes a man who, intellectually, is unable to understand or follow Sri Aurobindo (the horizon is quite narrow, he hasnt got beyond the unity of religions, thats the utmost he can conceive of). Well, in spite of that Those who already know all of Sri Aurobindo, who come here thinking they will see and who feel that Peace, I can understand. But thats not the case: he was enthralled at once!
Its the same with people who get cured. That I know, to some extent: the Power acts so forcefully that it is almost miraculousat a distance. The Power I am very conscious of the Power. But, I must say, I find it doesnt act here so well as it does far away. On government or national matters, on the terrestrial atmosphere, on great movements, also as inspirations on the level of thought (in certain people, to realize certain things), the Power is very clear. Also to save people or cure themit acts very strongly. But much more at a distance than here! (Although the receptivity has increased since I withdrew because, necessarily, it gave people the urge to find inside something they no longer had outside.) But here, the response is very erratic. And to distinguish between the proportion that comes from faith, sincerity, simplicity, and what comes from the Power Some people I am able to save (naturally, in my view, its because they COULD be saved), this is something that for a very long time I have been able to foresee. But now I dont try to know: it comes like this (gesture like a flash). If, for instance, I am told, So and so has fallen ill, well, immediately I know if he will recover (first if its nothing, some passing trouble), if he will recover, if it will take some time and struggle and difficulties, or if its fatalautomatically. And without trying to know, without even trying: the two things come together.2 This capacity has developed, first because I have more peace, and because, having more peace, things follow a more normal course. But there were two or three little instances where I said to the Lord (gesture of presenting something, palms open upward), I asked Him to do a certain thing, and then (not very often, it doesnt happen to me often; at times it comes as a necessity, a necessity to present the thing with a commentfrom morning to evening and evening to morning I present everything constantly, thats my movement [same gesture of presenting something] but here, there is a comment, as if I were asking, Couldnt this be done?), and then the result: yes, immediately. But I am not the one who presents the thing, you see: its just the way it is, it just happens that way, like everything else.3 So my conclusion is that its part of the Plan, I mean, a certain vibration is necessary, enters [into Mother], intervenes, and No stories to tell, mon petit! Nothing to fill people with enthusiasm or give them trust, nothing.
Three or four days ago, a very nice man, whom I like a lot, who has been very useful, fell ill. (He has in fact been ill for a long time, and he is struggling; for all sorts of reasons of family, milieu, activities and so on, he isnt taken care of the way he should be, he doesnt take care of his body the way he should.) He had a first attack and I saw him afterwards. But I saw him full of life: his body was full of life and of will to live. So I said, No need to worry. Then after some time, maybe not even a month, another attack, caused not by the same thing but by its consequences. I receive a letter in which I am informed that he has been taken to the hospital. I was surprised, I said, But no! He has in himself the will to live, so why? Why has this happened? The moment I was informed and made the contact, he recovered with fantastic speed! Almost in a few hours. He had been rushed to the hospital, they thought it was most serious, and two days later he was back home. The hospital doctor said, Why, he has received a new life! But thats not correct: I had put him back in contact with his bodys will, which, for some reason or other, he had forgotten. Things like that, yes, theyre very clear, they take place very consciously but anyway, nothing worth talking about!
But this mans faith is extraordinary, such faith! The first word he uttered when he regained consciousness: Has Mother permitted my being taken to the hospital? You understand. So I give him the full credit for his recovery. With people like that, yes, you can do something, but thats because they have faith!
Well, then. No stories to tell.
--
So the body thought, Oh, I havent got beyond that. If I have to do the right thing in the right way and right on the dot to keep my balance You understand, a sense of insecurity! And very strong, very strong. Of course, there is something like reason (not quite ordinary reason), something like reason that says, When you automatically and always do exactly what should be done, it will vanish. (Mother laughs) Thank you very much! But as it cannot be a mental decision, then how? You see, you can learn only through experience, and since everything is in perpetual motion, the experience of the past cannot help for the future: its a matter of every minute. So how can you know? It means well know that we are free from error only when we are all the time, all the time in perfect harmony! But then there will be no point in knowing it, it will be done! Thats the situation. If the body is transformed and lives naturally in the divine rhythm, why would I need to know it! (Laughing) It will be immaterial to me, because it will BE. We want to know things when they arent yet.
The body is like a child who needs encouragement, you know, Come on now, dont get in a state, things are fine, youre making progress, you need not worry. Oh, ridiculous!
0 1963-03-27, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The nations of the world legitimize that destructive madness of the arms race by saying its a way to prevent destruction through fear thats futile. As an argument, its futile, but thats the way they think. Its part of that same thirst or need for Security: nothing can be achieved except in peace, nothing can be arrived at except in peace, nothing can be realized except in peacewe need peace, individually, collectively, globally. So lets make horrifying weapons of destruction so that men will be so frightened that nothing will happenhow childish! But thats the current state of mind. It is still one of those in English they say device, a ploy (its not a ploy, its a meansbetween ploy and means) to urge the human race on towards its evolutionary goal. And for that, we must catch hold of the Divine: its a means of catching hold of the Divine. For there is nothingnothing, nothing exists from the point of view of Security, except the Supreme. If we ARE the Supreme, that is to say, the supreme Consciousness, supreme Power, supreme Existence, then there is Securityoutside of that, there is none. because everything is in perpetual motion. What exists at one moment in time, as Sri Aurobindo says (time is an unbroken succession of moments), what exists at a given moment no longer exists the next, so theres no security. Its the same experience, seen from another angle, as that of Buddha, who said there was no permanence. And basically, the Rishis saw only from the angle of human existence, thats why they were after Immortality. It all boils down to the same thing.
(Mother remains in contemplation)
0 1963-03-30, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It goes on every night. It takes the form of all sorts of scenes, of symbols, of memories, from words to images. It comes in groups and categories of tendencies, it represents the various human tendencies in detailits infinitesimal. Its only because they are multiplied millions of times that they can have some importance but theyre nothing! Mere nothings. Yet thats just what blocks the way.
It really isnt of interest.
--
But its so dull! So dull, so lackluster, so unchanging, souninteresting, really dull that the slightest light shines like a bright star! The smallest, slightest, tiniest progress seems like an extraordinary thing. Like, for example, the attitude in certain cells towards a physical disorder which, naturally, like all physical disorders, tends to recur. The attitude in the cells changesnot the disorder (!), the disorder changes only because of the cells reaction, thats what makes it change; but it recurs with clockwork regularity thats its job. It is the way its received by the cells, their reaction to it, that brings about the change. And there is now a difference in the cells reaction. The result of my observation (an impersonal, general observation) is that there are two types of change (I cant call it progress), two types of change in the reaction: a change that goes on improving, in the sense that the reaction grows less sharp, the cells are less affected and become not only more conscious but more IN COMMAND of the reaction (something people are not generally conscious of, but which is what brings about the cure). And, on the other hand, deterioration: under the unrelenting attack, the cells panic, become more and more affected and afraid, and it eventually results in a terrible mess and a catastrophe. Well, the whole thing is observed, studied, experienced; but (laughing) in ordinary medicine its explained away in two words! You see, what I see now is the process they dont know the process, only the result. And, well, I notice that as the consciousness grows, the cells panic less and less and a sort of mastery develops. Of course, its a pleasing observation, if I may say so, but it doesnt even make me happy! It seems rather obvious. Also the proportion is such that to get a really telling result, it would take years and years and years! Oh, how many years! How slow things are.
So I dont feel impelled to talk about it. Id rather concern myself with something else I do the work, but thats all.
0 1963-04-06, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I am conscious of the body, but it isnt the consciousness of this body (Mother touches her body): its the consciousness of THE Body it may be anyones body. I am conscious, for instance, of vibrations of disorder (most often they come in the form of suggestions of disorder) in order to see whether they are accepted and have an effect. Lets take the example of a suggestion of hemorrhage, or some such suggestion (I mention hemorrhage because it will soon come into the picture). Under the higher Influence, the body consciousness rejects it. Then begins the battle (all this takes place all the way down in the cells, in the material consciousness) between what we could call the will for hemorrhage, for example, and the reaction of the bodys cells. But its very like a real battle, a real confrontation. And all of a sudden, theres something like a general issuing a comm and and saying, Whats this! You understand, that general is conscious of the higher forces, the higher realities and the divine intervention in Matter; and after trying to use the will, this reaction, that feeling of peace and so on, suddenly he is SEIZED by a very strong determination and issues a commandin no time the effect begins to make itself felt, and little by little everything returns to order.
All this takes place in the material consciousness. Physically, the body has all the sensations but not the hemorrhage, you understand. But it does have the sensations, that is, the effects: all the sensory effects. It goes on for a while and then follows a whole curve. All right. Once the battle is over, I take a look and wonder (I observe the whole thing, I see my body, which has been fairly shaken, mind you), I say to myself, What in the world is all this? But just for a second, then I forget about it.
--
You see, its not a question of just these cells here: its a question of cells in, well, quite a lot of people, hundreds, maybe thousandsall that clings anywhere and in any way to the higher Consciousness. And since my mind is silent (I deliberately keep the mind absolutely still, trying not to react to all that constantly comes to it from outside, or trying to react almost subconsciously), nothing is there to think, Oh, its this ones body, its that ones body its THE Body! Thats what is so difficult for people to understand. It is THE bodythis (Mother touches her body) is not my body any more than other bodies (a bit more, in the sense that it is more directly the object of the concentration of the Force). So everything, all the sensations, the movements of consciousness, the battles, all of it is everywhere. And suddenly, with this little affair, oh, I understood a fantastic number of thingsand also the difficulty, mon petit! The difficulty because really, after this experience, the body was not ill but very tired. But then it is seized with such things all the time! All the time, all the time, all the time, you know, they spring up, brrm! pounce on it, brrm! from this side, that side, every which way. So I have to keep still (gesture of stopping, silent, in the midst of other activities), and then I start waging the battle.
(silence)
--
Mon petit, you are the only person to whom I can say all thisthere is not one, not one! Not one able to simply understand. Which makes things more difficult, because I am constantly weighed down by the stupidity of peoples thoughts (stupidity in the sense of incomprehension), the thoughts of all those around me, who think I am (I, what they call I, you know, me), who think I am ill and I cant tell them a thing! If I hadnt spoken to you today, it would be gone. I would never have said anything. Well, thats the way it is.
So looking at it from an ordinary viewpoint, its so fantastic, it means such a colossal work. Of course, its the Lord who does it, but will this hold out? (Mother touches her body) I cant say.
--
My only method is a kind of shield of mental silence (in the ordinary mind), so that all the peoples thoughts do not come and pester me all the time, without letup. But they creep underneath! With some people, the moment they enter the room, I feel exhausted, because of their attitude. It doesnt work through thought at all: its a special vibration in my body.
With others, on the contrary, its fine.
0 1963-04-16, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
He may influence you, because you were under his influence in the beginning. He does have the power to influence youto enclose you in his own atmosphere. But he cannot keep you imprisoned! Thats not possible, you are beyond his grasp! So, if (how can I put it?) if you can learn to receive his force without being enclosed in his thought, thats very good. Or rather to receive his force without being impressed or influenced by his thought the thought is very narrow, but the force is very strong.
He does put you in contact with a peace, its a facta boxed-in peace, but a peace all the same, a real peace, a concrete, concrete stillness. So the thing to be done ( because that peace is perceptible Ive had the experience of it so many times) is to remain very objective within that peace; then you can benefit from the peace without accepting its limits. You should, for instance, be able to keep that peace in the cells (the brain cells if you feel tired) without allowing yourself to be enclosed like that. There is no need to struggle, just remain turned upward. Its very hard to explain. But maybe you will experience it, then youll understand what I mean.
0 1963-04-20, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I told D. that I will teach him later, because its not good to be paralyzed like that: if someone came in abruptly, anything could happen.
But it requires some work.
--
No, I am certain that you went into trance, because I saw you, but you didnt know it.
In meditation?
--
In my case, I found out I had that capacity because it made me prone to faintingnot too often, but off and on it happened. When I was a child and didnt know a thing, I fainted a couple of times; the fainting, as it happened, wasnt unconsciousit was consciousand after a bit of practice (not the practice of fainting!), of occult practice, when I fainted I would see myself. Even before that, I had seen myself but without knowing what it all meant, I couldnt make head or tail of it. But I would see myself. And afterwards, whenever I would faint, the first thing I did was to see my body lying down in a ridiculous position. So I would rush back into it vigorously, and it would be all over.
Of course, I was probably born with some abilities! (laughter)
--
Oh, mon petit, theyre excellent, dont speak ill of your meditations, theyre perfect! I have rarely seen such peace. because I have seen many meditations with some peace, but generally a very tamasic, heavy peace. But this kind of peace that rises and turns into a white bliss, thats very rare. Very rare. And its the same every time: regular, automatic, effortless; its your natural state. I dont know if you had it before coming here, I cant say.
No, with you it becomes very concrete. When Im alone, the perception is more vague; with you, I almost seem to see.
But thats because when youre alone, it lacks some shakti! (laughter)
Yes, thats true.
--
The only thing Ive done since I started meditating with you is a broadening, because at the beginning, it was a bit limited.2 Its extremely difficult to have this white peace together with breadth. Sri Aurobindo said to me (when I told him about all those experiences), he always said to me that to have this FULL silenceconcrete, white, pure, absolutely pureTOGE THER WITH IMMENSITY there are not many who can have it. But I must say that I have broadened your silence a lot, quite a lot. Now I no longer feel hemmed in I dont like to feel hemmed in! I no longer feel like that: its a spreading out.
Its good. kilo, dont complain of what you have, some people work many LIVES to get that.
0 1963-05-03, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
because it happens CONSTANTLY. Its a constant phenomenon: passing from this to that, this to that, this to that, to such a pointits so strong that a second comes, or a minute, or anyway a certain interval of time (I dont know), when you are neither this nor that; then you have a feeling of nothingness. It lasts just an instant; if it lasted longer, it would probably result in fainting or something, I cant say what. But it happens all the time: this, that (oscillating gesture). And between this and that, there is a passage.
Life on the surface (what people see of it, what they are in contact with) is certainly a sort of mixture of the two, with something going on behind the screen, but what you see on the screen is a sort of combination of the twothey dont really combine, but the visual effect is odd [for Mother]. By visual, I dont mean just for the eyes but for the outer consciousness. Its a bizarre life, neither this nor that, nor a mixture of the two, nor a juxtaposition, but as though both were operating through each other. It must be intercellular: something that goes this way (Mother intertwines the fingers of one hand with the fingers of the other in a continuous movement of interpenetration), so that the mixture must be very microscopic, on the surface.
--
I forgot: immediately afterwards I swept everything clean. Except for what Ive just said, I dont remember what it was I dont remember what it was because I did NOT want it to exist. But it was horrible. And in the morning, there was such a painful impression! So I thought something was wrong over there, and when I received your letter, I understood. But it isnt limited to one person or another, one place or another: it seems to evoke a universal way of being, thats what troubles me. As if an entire way of being which Ive been resisting for for, well, more than seventy years at any rate, which Ive been keeping at arms length so it may no longer exist in a real way, as if it were all forced on me. Like a thing from a past that no longer has the right to exist.
Afterwards, it got better. That night was the worst.
0 1963-05-11, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
If I could only have the Word, as the Rishis said, the true mantra, I would keep at it, Id do hours of japa if necessary, but I would go right to the end. Its as if I were told, See this plot of land, there are ten million cubic feet of earth to dig, and at the end of it is freedom. Well, Id set to it, whatever the time needed, because Id know there is an end. But for that you need a pickaxe.
Nobody can give you the true mantra. Its not something that is given: its something that wells up from within. It must spring from within all of a sudden, spontaneously, like a profound, intense need of your being then it has power, because its not something that comes from outside, its your very own cry.
I saw, in my case, that my mantra has the power of immortality; whatever happens, if it is uttered, its the Supreme that has the upper hand, its no longer the lower law. And the words are irrelevant, they may not have any meaningto someone else, my mantra is meaningless, but to me its full, packed with meaning. And effective, because its my cry, the intense aspiration of my whole being.
A mantra given by a guru is only the power to realize the experience of the discoverer of the mantra. The power is automatically there, because the sound contains the experience. I saw that once in Paris, at a time when I knew nothing of India, absolutely nothing, only the usual nonsense. I didnt even know what a mantra was. I had gone to a lecture given by some fellow who was supposed to have practiced yoga for a year in the Himalayas and recounted his experience (none too interesting, either). All at once, in the course of his lecture, he uttered the sound OM. And I saw the entire room suddenly fill with light, a golden, vibrating light. I was probably the only one to notice it. I said to myself, Well! Then I didnt give it any more thought, I forgot about the story. But as it happened, the experience recurred in two or three different countries, with different people, and every time there was the sound OM, I would suddenly see the place fill with that same light. So I understood. That sound contains the vibration of thousands and thousands of years of spiritual aspiration there is in it the entire aspiration of men towards the Supreme. And the power is automatically there, because the experience is there.
Its the same with my mantra. When I wanted to translate the end of my mantra, Glory to You, O Lord, into Sanskrit, I asked for Nolinis help. He brought his Sanskrit translation, and when he read it to me, I immediately saw that the power was therenot because Nolini put his power into it (!), God knows he had no intention of giving me a mantra! But the power was there because my experience was there. We made a few adjustments and modifications, and thats the japa I do now I do it all the time, while sleeping, while walking, while eating, while working, all the time.1 And thats how a mantra has life: when it wells up all the time, spontaneously, like the cry of your beingthere is no need of effort or concentration: its your natural cry. Then it has full power, it is alive. It must well up from within. No guru can give you that.
Well up. Well, its a long way to go! I will need a great deal of paper for all those diagrams [Tantric diagrams given by X]: seventy-two every day.
--
The water would soak into it! because I have to write with chandanam mixed in water, you understand, and with a twig of Divine Love! [pomegranate]
Without a piece of cotton or anything?
--
Why not? It doesnt occur to him [X] because hes used to sitting and writing on the ground. Its the same as if I thought it impossible to meditate unless I sat cross-legged and bolt upright! Fortunately, I lived with Sri Aurobindo, who never used to sit cross-legged. He told me right away that it was all a question of habitssubconscious habits. It has no importance whatsoever. And how well he explained: if a posture is necessary for you, it will come by itself. And its perfectly true, for instance, that when necessary, the body will suddenly sit up straightit comes spontaneously. As he said, the important thing is not the external frame but the inner experience, and if there is a physical necessity and your inner experience is entirely sincere, that physical necessity will come ALL BY ITSELF.2 This is something I am absolutely sure of. And he gave me his own example (I had mine, too) of certain things considered dangerous or bad, which we both did independently and spontaneously, and which were a great help to us! Consequently, all those stories of posture and so on are the petty mechanical bounds of the human mind.
It came to me while I was walking [for the japa]. I had a kind of vision of you squatting askew and writing. And I thought, But thats awful! Hell ruin his health!
--
My eyes are no good, Ive lost all my power of expression because of that (Mother takes her magnifying glass to draw). Before, I used to do these letters so easily, and now I cant see any more.
Here.
--
The deeper significance of figures There are countless traditions, countless scriptures which I took great care not to follow. But the deeper significance of figures came to me in Tlemcen, when I was in the Overmind. I dont remember the names Thon used to give to those various worlds, but it was a world that corresponded to the highest and most luminous regions of Sri Aurobindos Overmind. It was above, just above the gods region. And it was something in accord with the Overmind creation the earth under the gods influence. That was where figures took on a living meaning for menot a mental speculation: a living meaning. That was where Madame Thon recognized me, because of the formation of twelve pearls she saw above my head; and she told me, You are that because you have this. Only that can have this! (Mother laughs) It hadnt even remotely occurred to me, thank God!
But figures are alive for me. They have a concrete reality.
--
Such is the case, for example, of Anandamayi-M, who was said to be hysterical because of the strange gestures she made during her meditations, until it turned out that they were ritual asanas and mudras which she performed spontaneously.
As long as Nature lasts, he too is there; For this is sure that he and she are one.
0 1963-05-15, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its the same idea, that opposition and opposites stimulate progress. because to say that without Cruelty, Love would be tepid The principle of Love, as it is beyond the Manifest and the Nonmanifest, has nothing to do with either tepidness or cruelty. But Sri Aurobindos idea, it seems, is that opposites are the most effective and rapid way to knead Matter so that it may intensify its manifestation.
As an experience, its absolutely certain: when you come in touch with eternal Love, supreme Love, the first, immediate (what should I say?) perception or sensation (its not an understanding, it is much more concrete) is that even the most enlightened, kneaded, prepared material consciousness is INCAPABLE of manifesting That! The first impression is that sort of incapacity. Then comes the experience of something manifesting a type of not exactly cruelty, because its not cruelty as we conceive it; but in the totality of circumstances, there is a vibration which is felt as a certain intensity of refusal of love as it is manifested here thats exactly the thing: something in the material world refuses the manifestation of love as it exists at present (I dont refer to the ordinary world but to the consciousness at its present highest). Its an experience, I am speaking of something that has taken place. Then the part of the consciousness that has been touched by that opposition calls out directly to Loves origin WITH AN INTENSITY IT COULD NOT HAVE HAD WITHOUT THE EXPERIENCE OF THE REFUSAL. Limits are broken, a flood descends which could NOT manifest before, and something is expressed which was not expressed before.
That happened not very long ago.
Seeing that, there is obviously a similar experience in connection with what is called life and death. Its a sort of overhanging (it comes to me in English, thats why I have difficulty) of that constant presence of Death or possibility of death. As he says in Savitri, we have a constant companion all the way from the cradle to the grave, we are constantly shadowed by the threat or presence of Death. Well, this gives the cells an intensity in their call for a Power of Eternity which would not be there without that constant threat. Then we understandwe begin to understand very concretely that all those things are only goads to make the Manifestation progress and grow more intense, more perfect. If the goads are crude, it is because the Manifestation is very crude. As it grows more and more perfect and apt to manifest something ETERNALLY PROGRESSIVE, those very crude methods will give way to more refined ones, and the world will progress without the need for such brutal oppositions. It is only because the world is in infancy and the human consciousness in its very early infancy.
Its a very concrete experience.
--
When Satprem later read to Mother the text of this conversation, she remarked, "Scientists will deny it, they will say I am talking nonsense; but that's because I don't use their language, it's just a question of vocabulary."
***
0 1963-05-18, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Of course, all these things are lights, so you cant reproduce them. But still, it must be a violet that is not dull and not dark (Mother starts from the most material Nature). What she has put is too red, but if its too blue, it wont be good eitheryou understand the difficulty? Then after violet there is blue, which must be truly blue, not too light, but it must be a bright blue. Not too light because there are three consecutive blues: there is the blue of the Mind, and then comes the Higher Mind, which is paler, and then the Illumined Mind, which is the color of the flag [Mothers flag], a silver blue, but naturally paler than that. And after this comes yellow, a yellow that is the yellow of the Intuitive Mind; it must not be golden, it must be the color of cadmium. Then after this yellow, which is pale, we have the Overmind with all the colors they must all be bright colors, not dark: blue, red, green, violet, purple, yellow, all of them, all the colors. And after that, we then have all the golds of the Supermind, with its three layers. And then, after that, there is one layer of golden whiteit is white, but a golden white. After this golden white, there is silver whitesilver white: how can I explain that? (H. has sent me some ridiculous pictures of a sun shining on waterit has nothing to do with that.) If you put silver, silver gray (Mother shows a silver box nearby shining brilliantly in the sun), silver gray together with white that is, it is white, but if you put the four whites together you see the difference. There is a white white, then there is a white with a touch of pink, then a silvery white and a golden white. It makes four worlds.
I have explained this [to H.] as I am explaining it to you, but H. has not seen it so she cant understand. I want to show her on paper. It is twelve different things [or twelve worlds], one after another.1
--
But there is always something which says that the risk is great for We are toostill too cautious. Or is it a lack of faith? But its a lack of knowledge more than a lack of faith, because if we say, Whatever happens is the Lords Will, and if the experiment dissolves the body, well, it only shows He willed it, then there is no need to worry. And its true, you live in this idea, you feel this way, you sense this way; but there is something on the outside or from the outside that says, Thats all very well, but is this need or inclination to experiment legitimate? Couldnt the same knowledge be obtained without running so great a risk?
Thats the kind of problem you have to face.
So personally, my attitude (all this has nothing to do with the Bulletin, by the way), my attitude is to watch it all: this opinion, that opinion, this attitude, that attitude, and I stay like this (gesture of a Witness completely outside and passive). I refrain from deciding or acting, I become exclusively a witnessa non-interfering witness. I say to the Lord, Its for You to decide; it isnt my business, You will decide. Whatever happens is Your concern. So far, this has always resulted in an intervention that restored order, but but with no positive proof that the order was restored in this way or that, because of this or that. There is no certainty.2
In this field, we know nothing. Oh, as soon as we get into the field even the field of sensation, the vital, all problems are solved. Nothing could be easier, theres nothing to discuss; in the field of feelings, the work was done long ago. Thats not what I mean: I mean when we get to the bottom of the problem. There, everything, everything is in a sort of incomprehension, of total ignorance, along with all the ideas that result from the intellectual and scientific development and are so sure of themselves, so full of impregnable certainty! The certainty of the material experience, of the thing you touch.
--
Probably its necessary because at times, when everything is in utter confusion, at times I ask for an Assurance and I see very well, very well that if my bodys cells, the body consciousness were told, You are immortal; all those difficulties are experiences; the pain you feel has no importance; this apparent decomposition has no importance; all those things are necessary experiences, and you will go on to the end of the experience, that is, to transformation, if it were told that, obviously it would be mere childs play, just enduring the difficulties thats nothing. So I wonder. But never have I been told that, never, never have I been given the Assurancenow and then the body is in a sort of STATE, a state of immortality, but it isnt constant, its dependent on other things; so the minute its dependent, it is no longer a supreme Assurance. There is at the same time a sort of discernment: very likely there would be a general slackening of the cells effort if they were told, Never mind, none of this is important, because you will last till the work is done. Maybe they would flag. The concentration of will in the battle would disappear. Which means one of the necessary conditions would be missing.
Then again something else comes and says, Oh, you always have very favorable explanations to comfort yourself! You see, I am like a spectator (Mother does the same gesture of great cosmic waves assailing her) at a sort of contest of all the different reactions. (I put it into words to make myself understood, but there are no wordsonly SENSATIONS; the verbal translation is just for explaining, but they are like sensations, or rather states of consciousness. They are all states of consciousness.) And they all run into each other (gesture of waves).
--
You saw last time how I lost my balance. When you touched my foot, there came down a not a column, it was a tornado! Of a light so white, so white! Not transparentsparkling white, white like milk. But such a powerful mass! It came so violently that I lost my balance. Thats all, I only lost my balance. And it remained there, it was thereyou saw how I stood a moment without raising my head, it was because I was looking at it. It was it was MUCH MORE SOLID THAN MATTER. Something very peculiar, it was solid! More solid, MORE MATERIAL THAN MATTER. And a power, a weight, a densityextraordinary! Like a great column, and everything became pure white. Absolutely white. Nothing but white, everywhere. It stayed on a few seconds. And the power of it threw me off balance.
I was in no condition to tell you all this at the time!
--
Mother means that there is no proof that the order was restored because of the Lord's intervention rather than by some other, "natural" mechanism.
Let us recall that it was in 1952 that the biochemist Stanley Miller discovered the structure of the DNA molecule.
0 1963-05-25, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have a strong impression and thats why Sri Aurobindo was so interested in the book and took such a part in it that it is the way of explaining things which those with a European education can best understand. Or those with a modern education, at any rate, with a modern turn of mind, because its very appropriate for America, too. And for the whole part of India thats under the influence of British education, it will put them in touch in a way they can understand.
Not for a second did I think they would publish itin fact, to tell you the truth, it wouldnt make me too happy either! Its not a book for their Collection. Their Collection is much too trite, too superficial.
Anyhow it wouldnt have been in their Collection because it has more than 300 pages and the books in their Collection have only 150. But it could have been outside the Collectionwell, it doesnt seem its going to happen. Id be curious to see their criticisms.
Oh, they wont understand anything anyway.
--
I say this because Thon always announced the coming of the new world. He didnt speak of Supermind, he said: There shall be new heavens and a new earth. That was his explanation. So it may be that, originally, in the origin of the Catholic religion, they too had the idea that after forty days (it could also mean forty centuries, maybe forty eons or forty ages), there would come the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of flames that would enter those who are ready. I find this explanation more logical.
Of course, the bird, the white dove they speak of, could be the Universal. Maybe it would manifest openly as a result of that descent?
0 1963-06-03, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
because its also through japa, mantras, the awakening of the physical consciousness, that the Tantric power operates.
I think their power comes from a higher layer [higher than the cellular mind]. because their action is very cerebral: its effect is always here (gesture at the forehead and temples), it takes you here (same gesture)its even painful!
Its cerebral.
But how does that power act in Matter? because they do have a power over Matter.
because its very material the brain is material! Its just a little less mechanical than the cellular mind. But it Is material; it isnt the higher mind, certainly: its a mind confined to the body (same gesture to the temples). But the mind I was speaking of, the body-mind, is EVERYWHERE, in every cell: every cell has it within it; whereas that power is specifically situated at the brain level. Its a very cerebral action, enveloping the forehead and the lower part of the face, not even down to the throat.
***
--
I put the Force in it, because I can SEE your yantram like this (Mother closes her eyes and says aloud): 6, 12, 30.
I see it, it exists.
0 1963-06-08, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I didnt know I didnt know anything any more, didnt understand anything any more, had no bearings any more; there was only a Force on the move, and what Force! It was a Force that came from beyond and acted upon all the forces of the earth: on big things, on small things, on small, precise points, on enormous things, and it was going on and on and on, on this point, that point, all points together and everywhere. I suppose that if the mind had been associated with the experience, it would have gone a bit mad! It gave that impression, you see, because it was so overwhelming that And all the time, all the time in the physical center (the physical center, that is, in the corporeal base), with something in an ecstatic state; it was very interesting how that ecstasyan ecstasy that sparkled like a diamondwas there, so sweet, so sweet, so peaceful, as though it were there all the while, telling the body, Dont be afraid, (laughing) dont worry, dont be afraid, all is well. As though the supreme Power were saying all the while, Dont worry, dont worry, leave it to me, leave it to me. It lasted more than three hours.
I wondered, What will my condition be like when I get up? Completely dazed, or what?Very quiet, nothing different, with only a sort of something that was smiling and saying, Oh, so things CAN be that way.
The mind was absolutely silent, absolutely: all the connections with all that people keep sending from everywhere were cutall of it was completely gone. There were only the universal forces in action, with something that came from above and impregnated them all, sent them all out. And with it, a pointit was like a point in that immensitya sparkling point, absolutely ecstatic, in such a peace! An extraordinary ecstasy, which was deliberately saying, Dont worry; you can see whats going on, cant you, so dont worry, dont worry, because certainly the thing had gone beyond all possible individual proportions.
Its the first time. Ive had currents of force, Ive had actions on the earth, Ive had forces coming to me, all sorts of things; but this was different: it was all of that together. It was everywhere at the same time, everything at the same time, with that Inrush, and it was There was certainly something that wanted me to be very quiet and not to worry. It was necessary that I should keep very quiet.
I had a feeling that I was given the awareness of something thats taking place right now. because at night, generally, I disconnect myself from everything and universalize myselfno, universalize isnt the word: I identify myself with the Lord. Thats my way of resting. I do it every night, it is the time when I have my deep rest. But now Ive been made aware of this Force at work. Often experiences come (there have been a number of them lately), but its the first time this one has come, because It was certainly something happening FOR the earth; but it didnt come from the center of forces that generally acts on the earth. It wasnt the usual working of forces on the earth. It was something happening. And it gave the sense that the earth was very small the movement was towards the earth, it was for the earth, but the earth was very small.
Very small.
--
There were no psychological perceptions (what I call psychological perceptions are, for instance, vibrations of love, vibrations of peace, vibrations of light, vibrations of knowledge, of power), they werent there in that form, it wasnt that. Still, all that must have been there, because there were many things, many things that were all one thing, but one thing which assumed different forms; but I didnt see the forms, I didnt see the colors. It was only a question of pure sensation. A pure vibratory sensation: only vibrations, vibrations, vibrations, on a colossal scale.
It is a new experience.
--
Obviously, there was there must have been a cause for alarm, because as soon as I became conscious of the experience (it started before I became conscious of it; when I did, it seemed to me it had already been going on for a long time; so when I say three hours, it means three hours during which I was conscious, but it had started long before; it was around eleven at night and lasted till three in the morning), so the second I was made conscious of the thing, obviously there was a cause for alarm, because immediately I was told, You see, this is what is going on, and it was thanks to that ecstasy in the body that there was no alarm: Oh, things are fine, everything is fine. And when the experience was over, it didnt end like an experience exhausting itself; it ended as if, very slowly, the thing were, not exactly veiled to my consciousness, but as if my consciousness were turned away from it, with the feeling, Dont worry. At the start and at the end. All the same, when I woke up, I thought ( because my head felt strange, there was a bizarre sensation as if I had become quite swollen! Swollen, inordinately swollen), I thought, Maybe when I get up tomorrow morning (I get up at 4:30), Ill find myself in a complete daze! Thats why I observed but everything was fine, there only remained that sort of feeling of being swollen. I feel (yet it was two nights ago, not last night), I feel as if my head were swollen! But the clear-headedness is the same as ever!! (laughing) Nothings been disturbed!
On the contrary, there is a sort of like an acuteness, something more acute in the perception, a little bit ironic I dont know why. A magnified impression that all the things in the world are much ado about nothing, a lot of fuss about nothing Ive had that feeling for for centuries, I could say, but there is in addition something ever so slightly acute and ironic.
--
You may have an experience for an hour, two hours sometimes, but here there was an impression that all of a sudden I was made aware. And that I participated: this (the body) was allowed to participate, because for some reason that I dont know (maybe because of the work going on in the body, I dont know, that must be why), it seemed necessary that I should participate. But the impression is that something stupendous is happening right now.
You see, when I had that experience of the pulsations of Love in April last year, I had the perception of the color, the psychological perception of the state I was in (how can I explain?), for instance, the quality of the vibration of Love (something that has absolutely nothing to do with earthly things). At the time, I was That, I was those vibrations, but I was fully aware of the quality of those vibrations, and remained so for monthsthis is completely different! It was nothing but an action. NOTHING but an action. And an action, you know, in which the human body is less than an ant. Much less than an ant: an imperceptible point. Yet there seemed to be ONLY this body! As if this body alone were there and it were going through that. This body was a body it was THE body! And that point that comforting point of ecstasywas very small. Very small. But it was there, quite insistent, very conscious, telling me, Dont interfere; leave it to me entirely, all is wellsee, all is well. Very small, very small. Yet it was my body: I tell you, my head still seems swollen!
--
I wondered. But the question isnt put correctly. It is something eternal which, because of what happened at that time (not at that minute, because, as I said, it must have been going on long before and long afterwards) it has become something new, for that reason, because of what happened.1 Coming back to all the things we know, we could say (but thats the usual idle talk) that it is something newly manifested.
But my impression was an impression of Eternity. An Eternity BEYOND TIME (not something that lasts forever: something timeless), yes, the word would be: manifesting, making itself perceptible, or becoming active thats not it, because Yes, acting, becoming perceptible because it acts.
That was my impression.
--
The feeling of something that can be neither withstood nor felt, because of its formidable state.
And it was quite clear that a solicitude, the supreme Solicitude, took great care to reassure me: All is well. Without that, obviously, the feeling was that everything, everything was going to be dissolved.
--
Mother probably means: because of the fact that she became aware of the thing.
Mother is referring to the "point" that sparkled like a diamond.
0 1963-06-15, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
He is not a great mind; he doesnt go beyond the idealistic intellect. But thats more than enough for people, because true spiritual power is completely above their headsof course, they are very sensitive to a little bit of vital power, mental-vital.
Hes a man who could have practiced some Tantrism in the way Woodroffe did; I cant say. There are also many people of that kind who were converted to Sufism they are very easily converted to Sufism. But true spiritual life, there arent many.
--
because do you know the story of that Romanian who was tortured by the Communists and had visions of Sri Aurobindo2 (he didnt see him as he is, in fact, he saw him according to his own conception: thin and ascetic), and finally the apparition told him, I am your soul, and so on? But he had never read Sri Aurobindos name, he only heard it, and he wrote it in a very odd way [Aurobin Dogos]. It SEEMS to be something of Sri Aurobindo. Anyhow it gave him the strength to go through all those torturesappalling tortures, unimaginable. And he was able to escape, somebody helped him escape (now he is safe in England). But before that, he suffered so much that he thought of letting himself die, and that voice, that apparition which came and spoke to him for hours, was what gave him courage and told him that the soul NEVER gets discouraged, it has something to do, and you must endure. He endured thanks to that voice.
Well, similar things may have happened elsewhere and some people may have received inspirationswe cannot say.
--
I didnt say anything. Somebody who was there spoke. And towards the end, I could see (I had given him a comfortable armchair), I could see he wanted to get out of his armchair, as if to say, Now I must go. So I simply told him, You need a little restyou should have seen the mans face: immediately everything relaxed. All the while, his fingers were fidgety like this (Mother drums her fingers on the chairs armrests), two fingers of his hand moving nonstop, even though I kept putting Peace and Quietness on him, but still his fingers were moving, because he was always active inside. And when I told him that, something relaxed in his face and the fingers stopped. But it was very late and everybody was waiting, so after a little while I let him go. It was very interesting: I simply told him, You need a little resteverything stopped.
But mentally, you know (Mother makes a gesture: completely obtuse). There is a prince of Kashmir who came here once, a young man3; he went to England, and there he wrote a thesis on Sri Aurobindos political life, Sri Aurobindo, Prophet of Indian Nationalism, with a preface by Jawaharlal Nehru. I read the preface, but afterwards, the day after I saw Nehruits awful! Understands nothing, he understands nothing, nothing, nothing, absolutely obtuse. Its very kind, but written by someone who understands nothing. I will tell you the thing: between my first and second visits here, while I was away in Japan and Gandhi was starting his campaign,4 he sent a telegram, then a messenger, to Sri Aurobindo here, asking him to be president of the Congressto which Sri Aurobindo answered No.
0 1963-06-19, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And my experience did not REACH there; there was no contact, I was powerless. What little light that turned on because of my presence and was considered as a dazzling sun was to me a mere street lamp. It was painful.
I thought, Why? Why am I not happy and quiet here, too? And something answered, because I want to change that. If I accepted it, I wouldnt even notice it; its because I want to change that darkness. So then then there will be joy only when we have FOUND the wayand how to find it? All the methods I use for the yoga and for transformation, all were useless, useless, useless, no action, no action, no effect, no effect. Ive never seen a place so unreceptive! No effect, none at all. And everybody VERY content with what he knew!
It is evidently a mental domain. A mental subconscient. But its horrible. Horrible.
--
Its perfectly obvious that people can live, that men can exist and live because they are unconscious. If they were conscious, really conscious of the state they live in, it would be intolerable. And I can see that there is a very difficult period when you go from that unconsciousness (unconsciousness of the habit of living in that state) to a conscious vision of the state you live in. When you become totally conscious of things as they areof what you are, of your condition and when you do not yet have the power to get out, like last night, its almost intolerable. And there was a very clear awareness, very precise, that it isnt a question of life or death: it doesnt depend on that sort of thing, which ultimately changes nothing but a wholly superficial appearance thats not it! You know, people who are unhappy think, Ah, a day will come when Ill die, and all my difficulties will be overtheyre simpletons! It wont be over at all, it will go on. It will go on until the time when they get out for good, that is, when they emerge from Ignorance into Knowledge. Its the only way out: to emerge from Ignorance into Knowledge. And you can die a thousand times, it wont get you out, its perfectly uselessit just goes on. Sometimes, on the contrary, it drags you even further down.
Thats the thing.
--
I suppose people without solid heads become unhinged. Although truly, there is a remarkable Grace, because people are given a dose of experiences exactly according to their capacity. But this morning there was an hour an hour when I was absolutely conscious, absolutely conscious, and conscious of one single thing: the powerlessness the powerlessness to get out of Ignorance. The will to get out of Ignorance and the powerlessness to do so. It gave me a whole hour of tension.
When I woke up, the tension was such that my head was like a boiling kettle; so immediately, I said, Lord, its Your concern, not mine; its not my business. And naturally, everything calmed down instantly.
--
Im not speaking of things of the higher mind, because there the key to the way out was found long ago, a long time ago: I mean down below, in the material world the material world. Thats why all those people, like the old man last night, go somewhere elseits all the same to them, why should they bother! Why do you want to change that? And dont try to give light here, its no use and in addition its a nuisance. Leave this Ignorance in peace.
It is very clearly symbolic. But its a frightful anguish, hard to bear.
--
It was very strange because I was in that state all the time, saying to myself, I must find something, I must find something, theres something to find. And I tried to call down the experiences of the higher beings,1 but it couldnt reach downit couldnt reach down, couldnt make contact. So when I saw that old man come (I knew perfectly well that he could do nothing whatsoever, but I thought, I must ask him, I must ask him just the same, I must ask him), I asked himalthough I knew perfectly well that he couldnt give me the key. There was that double thing: the knowledge that all that goes on there2 is useless, useless, that thats not where the solution lies; and yet you should neglect nothing, overlook nothing, leave no stone unturned. Give everything a try.
(silence)
0 1963-06-22, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
because it can cease only in order to become SOMETHING ELSE.
And to become something else, there must be that leaven of transformation.
--
There is somewhere a sort of capacity for acute discernment, which can very easily turn into a censor (its still there; probably it serves a purpose), and thats what demands certainties. The major part of the being says, Its not my concern. I am here because You want me to be here. If You didnt want me to be here, I wouldnt be here. There is nothing like an attachment or a desire. (That went away quite a while ago! But now it has become an almost cellular condition.) And since You keep me here, it means I am doing something here, and if I am doing something here, thats all I need, thats why You keep me here. It comes full circle, of course.
How long will it last? Thats not my concern. Maybe something would be a bit frightened if it were told the time it will take (we cant say, we cant foresee the reaction). So its best to keep quiet. But theres nothing of interest. Nothing to make interesting literaturenothing, nothing at all absolutely nothing.
0 1963-06-26b, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I was on a staircase that looked like the one leading to the meditation room. Two Ashram girls, about sixteen or seventeen years old, were there, waiting to go upstairs to see mother. When I heard that, I was seized by a sense of great danger. because I KNEW that You werent there. So I began to give instructions to the two girls, whom I knew, in fact, one especially. I dont remember what I told them but it was a matter of willof life and death. The girl who knew me well promised she would do as I said, the other didnt seem to understand, and time was running out. In fact, the first girl had hardly had time to understand when the door opened and the mother was there to receive us. I had a glimpse of her. She was shorter than You in size, but her face resembled yours, though not the look. Also she had all over her round black spots (not jet black, rather brownish black). But for that, she was white.
After that glimpse, I turned and went back, because, Little Mother, I felt that if that false Mother could lay her hands on me once, I would never come out alive. Whereas if I could go out of that place, I might find a way to save the life of at least one of the girls. So before my absence was noticed, I started downstairs. The staircase has become narrow. The door is shut and a dark-looking guard is there. He is surprised to see me and does not want to let me out. I insist that he must open the door. He asks whether I saw the Mother. I answer yes. He doesnt seem convinced. I add that she is covered with black spots. He is obliged to let me out but thinks that the second guard farther on may stop me. I go downstairs; I see the second guard but go another way; then there are closed doors everywhere, and I open some doors which, according to them, I should not have been able to open. Finally I come to a courtyard, with the last door closed behind me. I still had to cross the courtyard unseen and climb over the high walls that surrounded the house. At that point, I was awakened by servants before I knew whether or not I was able to get out.
With my pranams at your feet.
0 1963-06-29, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
because its progressive. There is no other reason.
***
--
Sri Aurobindo seems to have taken interest in the Popes successor because two nights ago (not in the night, at four in the morning), I was with him I spent a half hour with him (a half hour of OUR time, which is very long), he had just returned from a tour, in Italy especially. We didnt directly talk about it, but some people were there (there were all kinds of things, many things), and from his comments to this or that person, or on this or that, I knew he was returning from Italy, where he had gone for the nomination of the new Pope. And he said something like: Its the best that could be done under the present circumstances. That is, he appeared satisfied on the whole.
I told you, didnt I, that I saw the death of Pope [John XXIII] without even knowing he was ill? One night, I suddenly saw in the mental atmosphere of the EARTH quite an awesome movement, that is to say, quite global: there were great mental waves (nothing but mental), great waves of anxiety, as though all human thought were very upset; but it wasnt the anxiety of the believers, it was a very global movement the earths mental atmosphere was stirring with great movements of upheaval and anxiety (Mother draws waves in the air). I thought, Whats happening? Whats happening that can so upset men? (as would happen, for instance, with a world war or events of that kind), Whats happening that can draw the attention of the whole earths atmosphere, its mental atmosphere? And the next day, I was told that just at that time, the Pope died. So I thought, Indeed!
Afterwards ( because I am not concerned with all those things), I learned what he was doing: his Ecumenical Council and all his reforms, his attempt, in short, to bring everyone together as much as he could (all the Christians, at least), and the fact that he had become a friend of the Russians, etc. So then, I concentrated, because according to natural logic (the logic of Natures actions), the next Pope should be a horrible reactionaryin a word, it didnt bode well. I concentrated and tried to make things work out for the best. And I see that Sri Aurobindo did find the thing important, since he concentrated over there.
According to the little popular wisdom, it seems his successor is a man with still more progressive ideas. I saw his photo (but its a newspaper photo, theyre generally very bad: you cant have any contact, you only see this much [gesture on the surface]). The thing that struck me most is a sort of insincerity. A benevolent and ecclesiastical insincerityif you know what I mean?
--
Which means it seemed to be the man of his choice, because he certainly went to the conclave and saw the situation, thats how he workedhe influenced the vote. Among all those people ([laughing] there are eighty of them, mon petit!), among all those people, this one was probably the one the most likely to do what we want him to.
He may do it for unavowed reasons, but anyway It generally happens that way in the present state of the earth: peoples motives for doing things should not be taken too seriouslywhats important is what they do. And if you look at things from a certain height (where everything is DECIDED, you understand), people and things are COMPELLED to act in a certain way, but the conscious human motives that determine their actions are irrelevantirrelevant in the sense that theyre not always to put it more clearly: you VERY rarely do things from the TRUE motive.
--
But in reality, Catholicism finds its equilibrium because of Communism; so that the rapprochement between the two was a masterstroke. And I dont think the new man (who is a sly fox, I find) will want to lose the advantage the other had gained. The friendship with Russia is very clever. They are todays two platforms of influence in the earths atmosphere.
We shall see.
--
It was her sincerity that made her see the spots. And it was because she disclosed what she had seen that the guard was unable to stop her, because it was the sign of a power of inner sincerity.
It left me a bit pensive in the sense that I dont find it quite admissible that some persons [the false Mother] play that kind of gamethough I know it does happen, I know there are such persons.
--
Yes, I told her to write to you because, besides her, there were also two Ashram girls who seemed to be in danger.
Yes. Oh, but there are many who are in danger because theyre not sincere, anyone can deceive them. You know, in such cases, for occult danger, the ONE THING thats absolutely indispensable is sincerity. Its the safeguard and security. Sincerity is security. For example, in the presence of that being, insincere people would have said, Oh, its the Mother. They WOULD NOT HAVE SEEN, you understand. But she sawits her sincerity that saw.
--
You did well to ask her to write, it was important enough that I should know, because I have to cleanse the area a little. But I tell you, there are too many, too many insincerities, thats what opens the doorsinsincerity is just like a sentry who opens the door, its nothing but that. And unfortunately, there are lots and lots of insincerities.
But anyway she got off lightly.
0 1963-07-03, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Mother looks at the Time magazine photo again:) With these photos its very interesting, I have intriguing experiences: all at once Ill see crystal clear (much clearer than I see physically), Ill see the individual very clearlyhe comes alive, the eyes speak to meand Ill say, Oh, hes like this and like that. Everybody brings me photos, because I am used to reading peoples characters in their photos, thats very easy for me, elementary; but sometimes when I am given a photo, suddenly I see somebody and I say, Oh, but its such and such person, hes like this and like that. But if I am shown the SAME photo a few days afterwards, its just a photo and I see nothing. Its a method thats used to let me know certain things, and once I know them, its finished. For instance, the first time I saw this photo of the Pope, when they brought it to me, I saw the man (I know him, you see) JUST AS I see him over there. But if I look at it nowit doesnt evoke anything in me any more, only the kind of things you see in a photo: a mouth thats not good, far from it. Certainly, that he chose this photo means he LIKES authorityhe wants to be seen in his aspect of authority.
The odd thing is that he is seated [in the photo], while all the time I see him standing. He is seated with his hand on the armrest, but I keep seeing him standingholding his head high, facing life, standing. He must be fairly tall: the man I know is fairly tall, he looks very much like this one. Its unmistakable, I mean, when I saw the photo I saw the man I knew.
But I think not think, I see that his belief is, first, simply a question of habit, because he was born in that religion, and then a question of political necessity I dont think he has the conviction that it is the pure Truth. Whereas the previous Pope really believed in it. This one knows too much in his supraconscient to believe that Christianity is the pure and exclusive Truth. Only, you see, when youre lucky enough to be the Pope, youve got to believe that the Pope is the Pope! Try to imagine, look at the global situation from a distance: of course the whole world isnt Catholic, but there are Catholics all over the world.
What seems bizarre to those who have gone beyond the petty, purely terrestrial limitshuman terrestrial limitsis that belief in a SINGLE divine manifestation on the earth; all the religions are based on that, everyone says, Christ was the only one, or Buddha was the only one, or elsewhere Mohammed was the only one, and so forth. Well, that only one is something IMPOSSIBLE as soon as you rise a little above the ordinary earth atmosphere it appears childish. You can understand the thing and accept it only as a sort of recurrent movement of the divine Consciousness on the earth.
--
If, out of the need to enlarge, the Pope accepts, for instance, all the different sects (theyve already started to accept the Protestants), if he accepts all those sects, (laughing) little by little they will either break apart or be drowned! You follow, if we look at it from above Lets even assume its an Asuric powerit isnt (Mother hesitates) it isnt clearly and distinctly an Asuric power, because by his very position, the Pope is OBLIGED to recognize a god higher than himself; that god may, of course, be an Asura, but I have a sort of memory the memory of a very ancient story no one ever told me in which the first Asura challenged the supreme Lord and told him, I am as great as You! And the answer was, I wish you would become greater than I, because then there will be no more Asura.
This memory is very living, somewhere. If you become the Whole, its finishedyou see, the Asuras ambition is to be greater than the supreme Lord: Become greater than I, then there will be no more Asura.
--
When I realized that I knew this man [Paul VI], a thought came to me as if in jest: what if someone showed him my photo ( because I know some people who can do it), and if he himself said, But I know this woman! Then I saw that old instinct, that habit not to allow anyone even to say or express opinions contrary to theirs. And I saw the curve the curve we have traveled just the same towards freedom. He would be almost obliged to tolerate me. His predecessors predecessor [Pius XII] forbade the archbishop here to excommunicate people who came to the Ashram. (The archbishop wanted to do that, but he couldnt without the Popes permission, and the Pope answered him, Keep quiet.) The next archbishop renewed the excommunication here from his pulpit, but it didnt go beyond that. So I wondered, What will be the Popes attitude? because naturally, that kind of individual is quite capable of ordering the excommunication of something he considers and KNOWS to be true thats just what youre seeing in this photo [Satprems sense of repulsion]. Naturally, in them the political spirit overrides everything else.
Dont record all Ive said. I dont want to have it here, I dont want it kept. because the time hasnt come for me to meddle in these affairs.
Voil.
--
because you have a great combative power in the mind, very great, and thats immensely useful, but on the vital level Ive never seen anything in you like a warrior.
Oh, yes! To go about the world preaching, to go about fighting with ideas, like, for instance, the great sages here who fought through speech that, of course. But not as the general-in-chief of an army!
--
But the urge to fight! because I feel so strongly the Evil hidden there.
Oh!
0 1963-07-06, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But I can still see Sri Aurobindo, a little taller than me, and myself bent forward and smiling, pointing to the left, and he said, Yes. And I could see I saw lots of people. because its a strange thing, the eyesight is absolutely different (its in the subtle physical), the sight is absolutely different from physical sight: you see thousands of miles away and very near at the same time, and distance is implied only by a given place in the atmosphere (I dont know how to explain this), but whats far away is as near from the standpoint of action as whats very close by. You see, the action is just as concrete and close, but it is as though differently placed (Mother shows different levels in the atmosphere). I never gave it a thought, but probably in that activity of the subtle physical we are physically much taller, I think; yet the proportions remain the same; but things are smaller [than Mother or Sri Aurobindo]. Its the same for going up or down, it doesnt have the meaning it has here. And that country I was pointing to was to the left, a little not backward, a little forward and lower down, like this (gesture).
Sri Aurobindo was very tall there. But I, too, was tall.
--
For some time (I mean a year or maybe a year and a half), I have quite often been seeing some very ugly faces pass before me, and also all kinds of queer objectsthings I didnt use to see formerly. I had seen ugly beings only once, when I was with Sri Aurobindo: during the day I caught a sort of influenza (it was more vital than physical), because I had attended and, so to say, presided over the festival of arms2 of the workers here. And they threw all their woes on me, asking to be protected, relieved and so onthere is a sort of spontaneous sincerity in those people, and I answered straightforwardly, without protecting myself. I didnt even think for a minute of protecting myself: I answered all of them (inwardly, of course). I came back inside. In the night, I had a frightful fever. But in the midst of that fever I was entirely conscious; I had the fever people call delirium, and I saw what delirium is: there were hordes of beings from the most material vital rushing at me with such violence! It was a real battle against an army of beings from the lowest, most material and also most violent vitalthey came in waves and I kept throwing them back (which probably people are unable to do): one wave and I threw them back, another wave and I threw them back, and so on the whole night long. I had a fantastic fever. Sri Aurobindo was there, sitting beside my bed, and I told him, Well, thats what gives what people call delirium. It attacks the cerebral region, its really a frightful battle. The next morning, I had an influenza that looked like typhoid fever I knew where it was coming from, I had seen it, I saw the whole thing, you understand.
It happened once and then it was over: quite naturally the atmosphere gave protection. This time it had the same character, in the sense that twisted faces, very base instincts, very ugly things come and ENTER, which means there must be some work going on on that level, and for it to be done some contact is necessary (naturally when I have my white atmosphere around me, try as they may, they cannot touch it), but this time they entered. Well, I peered at the thing (laughing), not without some curiosity. (The first times, I was surprised, I thought, Why am I starting to see such ugly things! But then I soon understood it was because a work had to be done.) I peer at the thing with some curiosity, and I see I just have to do this (gesture like the flick of a feather duster), simply a little effortless movement and prrt! off it runs with fantastic speed.
But some of the faces I saw had come with the intention of making certain suggestions I saw that (I dont know what their suggestions were, it didnt interest me and I kept sweeping it all away, so it went away). I didnt attach any importance to it, except that I kept answering in the same way (the feather duster), and I thought, This must be putting order somewhere! But today, N. read me a letter and told me the story of a boy who was herea very nice boy who worked well and who suddenly was overcome by disquiet and fear and got so ill at ease that finally he said, My family is calling me, they want me, I must go. Then (I dont know when it happened, it was a while ago), he wrote that some time after he came back home (I dont recall the details), he came to know that a magician was regularly doing black magic against him (he was seeing ugly faces, incense burning, all kinds of odd little gestureshe tells the whole story in his letter and it affected him very much), and that the magician (who I believe was more or less connected with the family!) was doing that regularly to make him leave the Ashram. Then he went to see the magician, or rather someone went to see the magician and told him, The boy is back now, you need not continue, he is here, so there is no more reason to And from that moment on, everything immediately disappeared: his feeling of disquiet and all his visions. Anyway, it was clear proof that the magicians work had put him in that state, and that as soon as the magician stopped his work, everything ceased.
Well, I have lived many years, and we know those things to exist, but I didnt attach any importance to them because to me they seemed powerless. Indeed, they have never affected me (a few Tantrics did do some magic and succeeded in making me ill, but that had quite another character; this boys story is in the lowest, most material vital domain, you see), and only lately did I notice those little games. They didnt affect me in the leastit was like images shown on a cinema screen, unsightly images, and I just thought, Whats the point? Still, I did my cleanup, out of habit. But then, when I heard that story, I thought, Well, I must be teaching a good lesson or two to all those people who do dirty magic!
In other words, one domain after another, one difficulty after another, one kind of obstacle after another (obstacles that are either subconscious or in the most material consciousness or the lower vital), it all comes for an ACTION. An action which is very sustained and varied; even when some other thing (some other difficulty or problem) is in the foreground, predominant in the consciousness, everything is there [in the surrounding atmosphere], and all the time there is that Light (Mother makes a gesture of cleaning in the atmosphere) which has always been with meof which I became totally conscious with Madame Thon, who told me what it wasa Light I have always kept with me, a white Light, absolutely pure, so dazzlingly white that eyes cannot look at it, a Light which is
--
But it isnt total Victory, no. It isnt the power of transformation. The other day, I told you, I think, that one of my present activities consisted of a sort of conscious concentration on one person or another, one thing or another, to obtain the desired result. For years on end, the Will and Force acted from above, and the outer conscious being [of Mother] wasnt concerned with anything further, knowing that it would only make things more complicated instead of helping them, and that the Force left to itself, directly under the supreme Impulsion, worked things out far better and far more accurately. But over these last months, there have come a will and a tendency to make the material being [of Mother] participate consciously in the details of execution. It has a kind of passive obedience, and so, once that was willed [the need for Mothers material intervention], it began to happen. There was a case recently, with a very good friend of the Ashram, a man with an important position who has been very, very useful. He had to be operated on (I wont tell the whole story, it would be too long); we received two or three wires a day, I followed the thing step by step. There was a very powerful force of destructionit was a very grim battle and there was a will to keep him, because in this body he had been very useful, he was still very useful and could still be very useful. He had a great faith, a great trust, and he was conscious (his consciousness was very sufficiently developed: I saw him constantly and constantly he came to me). He fell into a butchers hands; anyway, it was a wretched thing. Still, even though everyone expected him to leave his body, he held on and was constantly saying (we were kept informed by his son) and feeling that it was I who was keeping him alive. I could even see what they should have done and constantly I sent the formation, the thought, But THIS is what should be done, insistently. Finally they caught my thought, but I think (I cant say, I dont know the details, the small material details), I think probably they didnt do exactly what they should have thats why I say they must have been butchers. Thus they performed three operations in a row, and after undergoing all that, he came to me (before also he used to come very oftenthey said he was drowsy all the time, in a semi-coma, but thats not it: he was living inwardly), he came to me, totally conscious as usual, but he said, I am afraid my body is irretrievably ruined, and if I survive now, instead of this body being a help and a tool of work, it will be a hindrance, an impediment, a source of difficulty, so I have come to ask to be freed I prefer to enter a new body. I answered immediately, But as you are, you are useful, very useful; the position you occupy makes you very useful; you are totally conscious; it would be good if you could recover. He listened, again insisted a little, I too insisted, and then he left.
The next morning, he was much better. I was hoping he had decided to stay, but we were without news for about twenty-four hours, till suddenly we were told he had stopped breathing and was being given oxygen. And then he left.
--
Now Ill try (I always say try because there are always ill-intentioned ears listening in!), anyway, the next step is to give him a new dwelling. This belongs to the domain of things that are not only feasible but done all the time.
He was very conscious, with a lovely faith. He was an active man, very energetic (a short man). How active! And very energetic, with great authority, oh! The idea of being dependent on people who would have to nurse him he preferred to leave. He was conscious enough to know that the essence of his being, of his experience, is not lost but still there is all that materially one has built painstakingly, and especially in his case, his position is the result of a whole life. I dont know.
0 1963-07-10, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Whats impossible to translate is the musical rhythm of the sentence thats impossible. because the English rhythm and the French rhythm are very different in character, and if you translate literally something that has a poetic rhythm in English, it may not come out poetic at all in French. So a translation is a translation, we have to settle for it. But there will still be quite enough ideas left to do people some good!
Yes, but sometimes it becomes quite jerky. The French has a staccato, powerful rhythm, so in English it gives an impression of small bits cut and pasted together. But anyway, I think she is doing as well as can be done.
But Sri Aurobindo always told me that French once translated makes good English, while English once translated makes poor French. because there is a precision in the language that comes from the translation, but that doesnt exist in natural English. Anyhow, I know it will do.
***
--
Ultimately, its simply a question of consciousness: people (ordinary people) have a consciousness that reaches up to a certain point (a point not very far away generally), and whats beyond it, to them, is the unconscious (although its full of consciousness!), but its unconscious to them because they cant make contact. Its the same as when at night you wake up in another state of being, become conscious and have a dream (what people call a dream, meaning an experience), then you return to your ordinary consciousness, and as there is no contact between the two consciousnesses, you dont even remember your dream. But you can, through methodical development, extend your consciousness and make a connection between the two; and the minute the connection is mader to bring you into contact with your soul, your psychic b, it takes very little to remember everything. But whats difficult is to extend your consciousness.
Basically, the gurus real power is to fill up the gaps! To bring you into contact: when you are in the higher planes, to bring you into contact with the Highest. Or to bring you into contact with your soul, your psychic being within, or to bring you into contact with the Supreme but that not many can do.
--
And that gives a clear sense of Unreality and Unconsciousness and of all the consequent disorder. because there is a CONSTANT Reality, a CONSTANT divine Order, and its only the incapacity to perceive it that makes the present Disorder and Falsehood.
The experiences go on multiplying. But then, outwardly, everyone seems to start squabbling and quarreling with each other (laughing) much more than before, even (!), over the most futile things in the world and most unnecessarily, without any ground, just like that. And then, to me the two sides become visible at once: the true thing and its deformation; the event as it should occur and its deformation. Yet the event REMAINS THE SAMEthe deformation is merely a sort of excrescence added on to it, which is absolutely unnecessary and complicates things atrociously, for no reason. And also which gives a strong impression of Falsehood (in the English sense of falsehood, not lie1): something without meaning or purpose, absolutely unnecessary and perfectly idiotic then why is it there?? Seized and twistedeverything is seized and twisted. Where does that habit of twisting things come from? I dont know.
--
Ill give you the example of what Pavitra told me yesterday: he always used to go out of his body in his aspiration and to rise very high I told him a hundred times that he shouldnt do it, it wasnt good (for HIM; to another I would have said to do it). He never understood, and every time he meditated, brrt! he would go out of his body. Then the other day he told me, Ah, now Ive understood! I was always seeking Mother up above, till suddenly I couldnt find anything any more. So I concentrated here [in the body], and I found Mother immediately. And he added, Its because now Mother is here! (Mother laughs) I didnt explain anything, but that was exactly the point!
I didnt tell him anything, but I smiled as though he had made a discovery!
--
And the Power I would have to tell a mountain of experiences. For years and years and years, the Power was like this (gesture above the head): the Consciousness is there and the Power acts from there (same gesture). But it takes a long time to materialize (it depends on the person, but anyway, it always takes some time to materialize), and it gets distorted on the way, so that whats left is a rather ineffective residue. And I was wondering within me, But for all that to change, a DIRECT power is needed! A power that would make itself felt directly, in other words, that would pass from cell to cell: vibrations of the same quality. Its beginning to come. But I was also wondering why it didnt come faster. Although I know very well: its because we distort everything; we are so accustomed to living in a MENTALIZED consciousness that we distort everything, and naturally the Power cannot come just to get distorted. So now, the lesson is this: the Power comes for a specific action, for instance, to act on someone the Power is here, it actsand at the same time, I am given the opportunity to observe, really to VISUALIZE the (how should I put it?) Sri Aurobindo uses the word accretion (outgrowth isnt the word, it gives the feeling of something growing from within out thats not it, its something that comes from outside and is added on). I visualize how deformation sets in and is automatically added on to the Powerwhich spoils everything. So the Power stops short, everything reverts to its place and it starts all over again.
It takes a very sharp, attentive, and above all impersonal observation (impersonal in the sense of objective, without any reaction) to see those things.
Only little by little, little by little do you learn the true functioning; because those things that are added on and spoil everything arent deliberate additions arising from a desire or impatience or overenthusiasmits none of that, its due to a habit. Its quite simply a habit. That is, the psychological element is purified and doesnt interfere: its just a habit. The SUBSTANCE has the habit of doing things that way, and so it does them that way. So it must be taught not to stir, to keep quiet, so that when the Vibration comes, the something that always rushes forward doesnt do so.
Its very interesting.
--
Sri Aurobindo said somewhere that miraculous realizations do not last (they do occur, but they dont last), and that transformation alone will effect a lasting changenow I understand! because some people happen, for some reason or other (a moment or a flash, or for a particular purpose), to receive the Force: all at once the Force comes, goes through them and acts, producing a fantastic result, but it doesnt recur. It cannot recur, because its like a combination of circumstances, nothing else. Its only when a modest work of this kind, a work of local transformation, so to speak, is completed and when there is the FULL consciousness with the FULL mastery of how to use the Force without anything interfering, that it will be like a chemistry experiment you have learned to perform correctly: you can repeat it at will every time its necessary.
Thats the period of work under way. Very interesting.
0 1963-07-17, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So, probably, someone more on the receiving side would call that Vibration Anandamaybe thats what people call the joy of life, I dont know. It has absolutely nothing to do with what human beings call joy. Its really the feeling of something full rather than emptylife as people live it, as I see them live it, is something hollow, empty, dry. Hollow. Hard and hollow together. And empty. So when I do that work, as I told you, all thats around me, all the work and everything is yes, it gives an impression of being dry and hollow; while when the other thing is there, you instantly get an impression of full-full-full-fullfull! Overflowing, you know, no more bounds. So full that all, but all bounds are swept away, erased, gone and there remains only That, that Something. Thats why the cells remain held togetherits because of That, for That, by That. For no other reason.
Its growing increasingly constant and evidentnatural, spontaneous. And the growing feeling that Youyou know, the You, the You of adorationYou is only for the fun of it! I dont know how to explain. Its almost like a burst of laughter so obvious is it that there is no difference. Yes, theres only this: Oh, its so much fun to say You! Thats how it is.
0 1963-07-20, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Anyway, this time Ive observed, carefully observed Xs arrival, stay and departure. because there were different opinions: some very unfavorable, that he always brought difficulties; others, that he always brought something positive. Well, to tell you the truth, there is nothing to it, ONLY what people think.
Yes.
--
But, no! Its because he doesnt know what to answer.
Maybe!
No, no, now I am sure! At the beginning I thought: maybe its because But, no. I am sure.
All right.
--
The end of December. The Force, the Power may act, mind youonly, X as an instrument is barely conscious. It may pass through him I dont say it wont. because the remarkable point in the meditations (I took a good look this time) is that at the moment of his best, most complete receptivity, I had to come down to Xs most material form to find a formall the rest, there was no more form. Which means the inner being isnt individualized: its identified, merged. And thats precisely what Sri Aurobindo explains so well: the difference between one who identifies with the Supreme through self-annihilation and one who can express the Supreme (gesture of pulling downward) in a perfected being and everywhere. Thats what makes the whole difference. Of X there remained only the outer husk, so to say (a coarse enough husk, besides, thick and heavy, with very heavy vibrations), it was there, sitting in front of me and empty: the consciousness was gone (gesture showing the consciousness spread out or dissolved in the Infinite). So his power acts in an almost mediumistic manner, which means that when it is X who speaks, its something quite ordinary, but the Force can come through him.
But curiously enough, that yantram seems to exasperate the physical mind.
--
Its because the action, the power of progress now acts in the thick of Matter. And down there, theres a long, long way to goa long way, oh!
We can only arm ourselves with patience, thats all.
--
because thats where the progress is taking place.
(silence)
--
So there is a period when you are in suspense: no longer this, not yet that, just in between. Its a difficult period when you have to be very quiet, very patient, and above allabove allnever become afraid or irritated or impatient, because thats catastrophic. And the difficulty is that from all quarters and without letup come all the idiotic suggestions of ordinary thinking: age, deterioration, the possibility of death, the constant threat of illness, of the slightest thingillness, dotage decay. It comes all the time, all the time, all the time; and all the time this poor harried body has to remain very quiet and not to listen, preoccupied only with maintaining its vibrations in a harmonious state.
Sometimes I catch it (that must be something quite common among human beings) in a sort of hastea haste, a kind of impatience, and also, I cant say fear or anxiety, but a sense of uncertainty. The two together: impatience to get out of the present moment to the immediately next, and at the same time uncertainty as to what that immediately next moment is going to bring. The whole thing makes a vibration of restlessnesswhats the word in French?
--
But it means constant vigilanceconstant. Its infinitely more difficult than when one worked even in the vital; in the vital, its nothing, its childs play in comparison. But here, phew! because, you see, in the mind or the vital, its all movements of organization, of action, of choice, of decisionits very easy to decide, to rule! But that cellular tension is there EVERY SECOND: its the activity inherent in material existence. Its only when you go into samadhi that it stops. That is, when outwardly you are in trance. Then it stops.
From time to timetwo, three times a day I am given a few minutes of it. Its a marvelous relaxation. But I always come out of it (I mean the BODY comes out of it) with an anxiety, in the sense that it says, Oh, Ive forgotten to live! Very odd. Only one second, but a second of anxiety: Oh, Ive forgotten to live!and the drama starts all over again.
--
It happens especially during daytime (between 12:30 and 1 oclocknot for long, a few minutes, I cant say; and between 5:30 and 6). At night its not the same, because (I think Ive told you already) as soon as I stretch out, the whole body is like a prayer. Its more than an aspiration, its an intense need: Lord, take hold of me ENTIRELY! So there may be nothing but You, and that always brings about a result [the trance]which may last more or less long, until (how can I put it?) the moment agreed upon comes! Then when I wake up, or rather when the body emerges from that state, it knows its agreed upon, it doesnt have that anxiety. I dont know how to explain. In terms of consciousness its almost like a child: very simple, very simple. No complications, no complications whatever, very simple: to do what is to be done in the proper way while expressing the supreme Will. That is, to bring as little mixture as possible to the supreme Will (its not a question of Will: the Movement, the Vibration), as little mixture or distortion or deterioration as possible to the Vibrationwe always translate into words that are too intellectual.
But the body is docile, full of goodwill. Only I find its a little bit of a whiner (that must be particular to this one, I am sure other bodies are different), it isnt spontaneously joyful. Not that it complains, not at all, but Perhaps its due to that sort of concentration of Force of progressits not a blissful satisfaction, far from it. Its a long time since it stopped enjoying ordinary satisfactions, like the sense of taste, of smell: it doesnt enjoy any of thatit is conscious, very conscious, it can discern things very clearly, but in an entirely objective way, without deriving any pleasure from them.
--
I have a kind of certitude (not quite formulated in words: a certitude in sensation, in feeling) that once this work is completed, the result will be almost like a thunderbolt. because the Powers action through the mind gets diluted, qualified, adapted, altered, and so on, and how much reaches down here? (gesture as of water disappearing into sand) While the day it acts through this matter (Mother touches her body), obviously it will be overwhelming. There isnt a shadow of doubt. But when will that be? After how long? I cant say. When you see the thing in detail, you know, it appears interminable.
I console myself with the thought that the ways of the Lord are unknown to us, and that the day it pleases Him to declare, Here, now its all changed, (Mother laughs) all well have to do is contemplate!
--
We must have endurance, patience, and trust tooto last and last and last. because ultimately, whatever way you look at it, thats the only solution. All the roundabout routes people follow (zigzag gesture as if to show the spiritual disciplines and all the usual human quests) are simply to give you the illusion that you are doing something.
Thats quite clear.
0 1963-07-24, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The importance of the body is obvious; it is because he has developed or been given a body and brain capable of receiving and serving a progressive mental illumination that man has risen above the animal. Equally, it can only be by developing a body or at least a functioning of the physical instrument capable of receiving and serving a still higher illumination that he will rise above himself and realise, not merely in thought and in his internal being but in life, a perfectly divine manhood. Otherwise either the promise of Life is cancelled, its meaning annulled and earthly being can only realise Sachchidananda by abolishing itself, by shedding from it mind, life and body and returning to the pure Infinite, or else man is not the divine instrument, there is a destined limit to the consciously progressive power which distinguishes him from all other terrestrial existences and as he has replaced them in the front of things, so another must eventually replace him and assume his heritage.
(The Life Divine, XVIII.231)
--
For the time being, the Chinese are quite clearly those who represent in the world the aggressive attitude; theyve even quarreled with the Russians because of thata serious quarrel. You know the story, I suppose.
(silence)
0 1963-07-27, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
A little before his death he had asked me for a new name. He had nearly died twice, but he was saved (the doctors were sure he would die), he was saved by his faith; he had such faith, such an irresistible faith that twice it pulled him through: he was paralyzed, couldnt see any more, it was terrible. And twice all his faculties came back (his eyes werent too good, but anyway he could talk and move around). The third time, he wanted to get completely cured, because he was a businessman and had made a resolve to earn ten lakhs1 of rupees for me (he had already given me four lakhs in the past, but he wanted to give me ten). So he absolutely wanted to live, but as he found himself not too well (he was quite deteriorated!), he called for one of those kaviraj (you know, those self-styled doctors), who finished him off: he couldnt eat or sleep any more. And the doctor went on telling him, Youre much better! While the poor man was sitting up all night in a chair. Finally, he was rushed to the hospital and died there. And the day of his death, about an hour later, I was informed that his son (hes not a child, hes a man) absolutely HAD to see me immediately. It was the time when I dont see people, but I said all right (I felt there was something to it), I said all right and went to receive him. It was 11:00 A.M. (I think he died at 9:30 A.M.). I go there (I dont remember if it was in the morning or early in the afternoon, anyhow it was very soon after his death), I sit down, the son is ushered in, and along with him comes a small boy, no taller than this (gesture), all golden, joyous, alive, happy! And he rushed to me. He stayed like that, leaning against me, quite still. And how he laughed! How happy he was!
It was M., his psychic being.
--
Ive seen thousands of cases, you know, but its the first time Ive seen that! And he had a remarkable knowledge, because in order not to risk any hitch, he clung to his son and urged him to come to me so as to make sure of reaching me without mishap, without any interference from the adverse forces, from currents and all sorts of things. He clung to his son, who was quite unaware of it, except that something in him WANTED him to come to me. And the poor son was crying; I told him, Dont worry, he is very happy! (Mother laughs)
And lovely! A lovely thing. The sight of it filled me with joyso happy, so happy, he seemed to be saying, At last I am with you! I wont budge now, no one can take me away. This small.
I told you the story of the other one who came to be operated on and died2 (that makes two in a row, among our best workers). The other one had an important government position and did us some incredible services (he was a very intelligent man and had been chief justice for a very long time), he was very helpful and full of faith and devotion. This one [M.] had even promised to lend some money, but he died just beforea few days before he was due to give it!3 But the first one was a conscious, highly mentalized being, with a very well-formed mental being; he knew a lot and he told me, I am very conscious and now I know that I am fully alive and fully conscious, so I dont want an impotent body that constantly requires someone to nurse it or move it around. I prefer to change. He asked me to find him a good one (!) This one didnt ask to take a new body, but the last thing he said (afterwards, he was paralyzed) was: I must live, because I want to give ten lakhs of rupees to the Mother. And he left with thatso an appropriate body has to be found.
But this one [M.] knew very little, he wasnt an intellectual, he was a man of action, very psychicvery much so! Lovely, oh, lovely! He was like a little child, naked, of course, a baby this big, with small arms, small legsdancing about, he was glad, laughing and laughing, he was happy. And all luminous. I immediately told his son (he did a pranam and rose with his eyes full of tears), I told him, Dont weep, he is now where he wants to be and perfectly at rest. I didnt tell him the storyhe wouldnt have understood a thing!
--
It is not advisable to discuss too much what it [the supermind] will do and how it will do it, because these are things the supermind itself will fix, acting out of the Divine Truth in it, and the mind must not try to fix for it grooves in which it will run. Naturally, the release from subconscient ignorance and from disease, duration of life at will, and a change in the functionings of the body must be among the ULTIMATE (Mother repeats) elements of a supramental change; but the details of these things must be left for the supramental Energy to work out according to the Truth of its own nature.
(XXII.8)
--
It isnt final, mind you, only a first contact: the experience recurs on another occasion and for another reason (they arent mental reasons, they are occasions), it recurs, but there is already a beginning of collaboration: the cells have LEARNED that with That, the state changed (very interestingly, they remember), so they begin to collaborate, and the Action is even more rapid. Then a third time, a few hours away, it recurs once again; but then THE CELLS THEMSELVES call and ask for the divine Action, because they remember. And then That comes in, gloriously, like something established.
Now Ive got it Ive got the knack! Its for training the cells, you understand! Its not just like a sick person who has to be cured once and for all: no, its a training of the cells, to teach them to live.
0 1963-07-31, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There was a sort of periodicity in the attackscan I call them physical? Theyre not physical, although theyre on the body. They didnt recur at exactly regular intervals, because the periods of time in between werent always the same, but there was a sort of analogy, of similarity in the circumstances. And now I have come to a kind of certainty.
The work consists, I could say, in either removing or transforming (I am not sure which of the two) all the bodys cells that are or have been under the influence of Falsehood (not lie but falsehood), of the state contrary to the Divine. But since probably a radical purge or transformation would have resulted in nothing but the bodys dissolution, the work goes on in stages, progressively (I am going very far back in time, to my first attacks). So the sequence is the following: first, a series of activities or visions (but those visions are always activities at the same time: both activities and visions) in the subconscious domain, showing in a very living and objective way the Falsehood that has to be removed (transformed or removed). At first, I took them as adverse attacks, but now I see they are states of falsehood to which certain elements in the physical being are linked (at the time, I thought, I am brought into contact with that because of the correspondence in me, and I worked on that level but its another way of seeing the same thing). And it produces certainly there is a dissolution there is a transformation, but a dissolution tooand that dissolution naturally brings about an extreme fatigue or a sort of exhaustion in the body; so between two of those stages of transformation, the body is given time to recover strength and energy.1 And I had noticed that those attacks always come after the observation (an observation I made these last few days) of a great increase in power, energy and force; when the body grows more and more solid, there always follows the next day or the day after, first, a series of nights I could call unpleasant (they are not, for theyre instructive), and then a terrible battle in the body. This time I was consciousnaturally, I am conscious every time, but (smiling) more so every time.
I had observed lately that the body was getting much stronger, much more solid, that it was even putting on weight (!), which is almost abnormal. Then, I had a first vision (not vision: an activity, but very clear), then another, and then a third. Last night, I was fed a subtle food, as if to tell me that I would need it because I wouldnt take any physical food2 (not that I thought about it, I simply noticed I had been fed, given certain foods). And with the visions I had the two preceding nights, I knew that at issue were certain elements forming part of the bodys construction (psychological construction), and that they had to be eliminated. So I worked hard for their elimination. And today, the battle was waged.
But then, as I had worked hard for the elimination, the battle was quite formidablewhen it exceeds a certain measure, the heart has trouble, and then I need to rest. Thats how it happened. But it was so clear, so obvious! And the entire process was SEEN from the beginning, every single step of it, its a marvel! A marvel of consciousness, of measure, of dosage, to allow the purification and transformation to take place without disrupting the balance, so that dissolution does not occur. Its based on the capacity to endure and withstand (naturally, if the body were unable to endure, that work couldnt be done).
--
I was unable to do my work3: the jolt was too strong. But I said I would see you because I wanted to tell you about it.
(silence)
--
because, with everybody, I feel as if I had to shout in order to be heard and its an effort, a considerable effort. There is a sort of mass, the color of brownish earth, weighing down on me, as though I were buried and had to shout. All the while I was speaking to you just now, I felt as if I were making an enormous effort to be heard.
Am I shouting or?
--
And I was told something this morning (I think it was this morning, or in the night, I dont remember); it was said to the body, not to me. The body was told that it would go on till complete purification, and that AT THAT POINT it will have the choice between continuing its work or You see, once it has attained complete purification from the cellular point of view (not what people call physical purity, thats not it), from the point of view of the divine Influence, which means that each cell will be under the exclusive influence of the Supreme (thats the work under way now), the body was told that that work would be done, and once it was completed, the body ITSELF, entirely under the Supremes influence, would decide whether it wants to continue or be dissolved. It was very interesting, because dissolution means a scattering, but to scatter (thats easy to understand) is a way to SPREAD the consciousness over a very large area. So the cells will be given the choice either to act in that way (gesture of diffusion) or to act in agglomeration (Mother makes a fist).
(silence)
--
Then thats not it, because according to what I was told, they were cellsthey remained cells. It must be something new. They remained cells, it was the cell that was given the choice either of staying in its present agglomeration or of spreading.
I dont know, but it seems to me they could persist only in agglomeration with other living beings.
--
But the specialized cells must be the ones in question, because those in question are fully conscious cellsthey are specialized cells.
So I dont see that they could go into animals, I dont think theyre the same kind.
--
So mon petit, Ill let you go now, because
***
--
A few days later, Mother added: "There is also something I left unsaid: an urgent need to cease all material activity in order to enable the body to receive fullyas fully as possible the divine Force that will replace what has been removed. There is something absolute about that need: to stay totally still, quiet, letting the Force descendpermeate the body, rather. All physical activity must be suspended in some way, and if the material organization, or the habit, tends to make it continue, a kind of material impossibility, an excessive fatigue or discomfort, comes to oblige the body to keep still. because simply to remove or change what shouldn't be there won't do; it must also be replaced by what SHOULD be there. Otherwise, there would be a dwindling or gradual reduction of substance resulting in dissolution. What has been sublimated or removed has to be replaced by something which is the true Vibration, the one that comes straight from the Supreme."
Mother did not eat anything this morning.
0 1963-08-03, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Physical Matter, physical substance the very elementary consciousness thats in physical substancehas been so ill-treated (since mans presence on earth, I suppose, because before man, there probably wasnt enough self-consciousness to be aware of being ill-treated; the substance wasnt conscious enough, I suppose, to make a distinction between a normal peaceful state and unfavorable conditions; but anyway, that goes back quite long time), so ill-treated that it finds it very hard to believe things can be different. That consciousness has an aspirationan aspiration especially for a LUMINOUS peace, something that isnt the dark peace of Unconsciousness, which it doesnt like (I dont know if it ever liked it, but it no longer does). It aspires to a luminous peace; not to a consciousness full of various things, not that: simply to a peaceful consciousness, very peaceful, very quiet, very luminous thats what it wants. Yet at the same time, it has some difficulty believing that its possible. I am experiencing it: the concrete and absolutely tangible intervention of the supreme Power, supreme Light and supreme Goodnessit [the consciousness in physical substance] has the experience of that, and every time it has a new sense of wonder, but in that sense of wonder I can see something like: Is it really possible?
It gives me the impression, you know, of a dog that has been beaten so much that it expects nothing but blows.
--
And it seems to be reflected in circumstances: everyone seems to be, if not at the peak of his difficulties, at least a good way up (!) Disharmony, conflict, chaos appear to have reached their highest (I hope they wont rise any higher, because as it is its hardly bearable). From morning till night, without letup, quarrels, discontent, demands oh, dissatisfaction, grumblings, all the time, all the time, with a sort of simmeringa simmering of disorder and dissatisfaction. (Mother points to a stack of letters): see all thatwhich I am supposed to answer, naturally.
***
--
because it doesnt want to be mentalized!
You shouldnt worry.
0 1963-08-07, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There is a state in which you dont feel anythinga state and a positive one, because its a state of peace; a kind of very tranquil and very happy peace; a peace which makes you feel like staying that way forever: Oh, if I could be that way forever! Or else theres a chaos in which everything clashes and denies and quarrelsas though everything were in an uproar. It reminds me of the very first experience I had when I was I really lived that Pulsation of Love and when it was decided I was to take my body again, to reenter my body; well, I had contact with my body, I knew I was in contact with my body, only through a pain. Contact with the body meant suffering.
I said that, in fact.
It seems to me (Ive been feeling that for a long time now, more than a year, almost a year and a half), it seems to me that all the work was done only to teach every single element of the body to have a physical, material consciousness, but at the same time to maintain that state of peacea positive, full, thoroughly comfortable peace: something that can last indefinitely. That is to say, I progressively teach the body what I could call all the divine states; I teach it to feel and live in the divine states. Well, the closest things (two things are close enough, but one is more comfortable, if I may say soits the word ease in Englishthan the other; the other is more tense [Mother makes a fist], there is a will in it) the closest things are the sense of eternity and the sense of silence. because behind the whole creation (I mean the material creation), there is a perfect Silence, not the opposite of noise but a positive silence, which is at the same time a complete immobility thats very good as an antidote to disorder. But the sense of eternity is still better, and it has a sweetness the other hasnt; the sense of eternity includes the sense of sweetness (but not sweetness as we understand it). Its extremely comfortable. That is, there is no reason why it should changeor cease or start anew. It is selfexistent, perfect in itself. And these are the best antidotes to the other state [of disorder]: peace, simple peace, isnt always sufficient.
After all, the body is an utterly wretched thing. Yesterday, I think, it was complaining, really complaining (I said it was a whiner, but yesterday it was complaining), really asking, Why, why was such a wretched thing ever made?Incapacity, incomprehension, oh! Nothing but limitations and impossibilities. A sterile goodwill, a complete lack of power, and as soon as some little vital power comes, its turned into violencedisgusting.
--
But if you stick your nose into it, you get worked up, because its chaos.
No, you should be able to stick your nose into it without getting worked up! And its quite possible. Its something the body has achieved, here, this body: it can intervene without getting worked up. But thats not the question! The question is something BEHIND that. Thats not it. The question is: if we leave disorder alone (if, to be precise, we let it reach its maximum), will the progress (what we call progress, that is, the change) not be greater?
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The Ren & Stimpy Show (1991 - 1996) - A cat and a dog living together with sick jokes... now that's what everybody wants to see. Ren and Stimpy ran for 5 years on Nickelodeon and then because of its crude jokes, was tossed around from network to network and landed on SpikeTV for a while. John K. tried a comeback in 2003 on SpikeTV cal...
Courage the Cowardly Dog (1999 - 2002) - A story about a cowardly dog called Courage. When he was new born he was abandoned as a puppy. Supposedly because his previous owners couldn't look after him. He was then found by Muriel and has then since been living in the middle of nowhere with Muriels husband or rather Courage's house enemy Eust...
The Smurfs (1981 - 1989) - Based on the comic books by Pierre Culliford "Peyo," the Hanna-Barbera series tells the adventures of the Smurfs, magical blue creatures who live deep in the forest. More than 100 Smurfs exist, all named after their unique personalities and led by Papa Smurf. Because of their many magical properties...
Growing Pains (1985 - 1992) - Dr. Jason Seaver is a psychiatrist who works at home because his wife, Maggie, has gone back to work. So it's Jason's turn to supervise the kids: Mike, 15, more interested in having a good time than in respon- sibility; Carol, 13, the smart one; and Ben, 9, no slouch himself at getting into scrapes....
New Kids On The Block (1990 - 1991) - The adventures of America's popular teenage boy band in their first animated series as they tried to get to their concerts in time but somehow always managed to get sidetracked by fans. This show was marketed as "The first MTV cartoon" because it features the fast-paced editing that came to be assoc...
Mummies Alive (1997 - 1997) - Four Egyptian mummies have woken up in an exhibit in current day San Francisco to protect the 12 year old Presley. Presley is the reincarnation of the Egyptian prince Rapses who knew the secret to eternal life. The mummies chose to wake up because Rapses' arch nemesis has also reincarnated, the evil...
Mutant League (1994 - 1996) - Welcome to Mutant League. The series delivers a new breed of ultimate athletes. Each episode that targeted a specific sport like basketball up to football. The teams were made up of mutant creatures who only cared about one thing, winning. Because of that, there were no rules in these games. The gam...
Sam and Max Freelance Police (1997 - 1998) - Though it was originally a comic book, the story is about a crime fighting dog named Sam, and his psychotic rabbit pal, Max. This show premiered on Fox Kids for a year because of the airing of the new Fox Family Channel.
Unico (1981 - 1985) - Unico the Unicorn has the amazing power to make anyone he meets happy. Whether it`s because of his personality or the powers of his horn, no one knows. However, the gods become jealous of Unico, thinking that only gods should be able to decide or let people be happy or not. Unico is banished to the...
Fame (1982 - 1987) - The Art School was always their dream.They want to dance, they want to sing, to play music, to act but above all they want to live their lives while they are still young and full of energy. Coco, Leroy, Danny, Jesse, Chris, and all the others try hard because they know that they've got a long way to...
In Search of..... (1976 - 1982) - This series explored various phenomena, legends, and mysteries and still holds up 20 years after it left the air. I just loved this show as a grade schooler in the seventies, because I was heavy into monsters and ghost stories and the show frequently profiled legends like vampires, werewolves, Bigfo...
Bottom (1991 - 1995) - Richard Richard & Edward Elizabeth Hitler, two men with no hope of fitting in with society. Two men who will forever fall foul of lifes little jokes, mainly because they are too stupid to avoid them! Same cast as The Young Ones.
Captain Kangaroo (1955 - 1998) - Hosted by Bob Keeshan (at one time, he played Howdy Doody's friend, Clarabell) from "The Treasure House" the Captain was so named because he always wore an overcoat with large, kangaroo-like pouches. Each show featured stories, skits, vaudeville acts, songs, games and other educational activities. C...
Bureau of Alien Detectors (1996 - 1996) - Bureau of Alien Detectors was a animated show that aired in 1996 on UPN as part of their Sunday Morning Programming Block, UPN Kids, which is now defunct because of apparent problems from UPN. This show only aired for one season and no second season was made.
Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines (1969 - 1969) - Dick Dastardly got very bored of the Wacky Races because he was losing all the time, so now he's in World War One flying machines trying to stop the pigeon!. The Dastardly duo flies very high with there own comedy act to make Muttley and Dastardly fans snicker with joy!
Run Joe, Run (1974 - 1976) - Joe, a Vietnam Veteran German Shepard, is accused of a crime he did not commit. For three tv seasons, Joe is on the lamb, er, RUN, because he thinks he did something wrong, or perhaps knows that he's innocent, but thinks The Man is out to get him.
The Joker's Wild (1972 - 2017) - The Joker's Wild is what some like to call the ultimate game of slots. Because on The Joker's Wild, two players pull a lever in front of them to spin a big slot machine on stage. Each of the three wheels has categories & jokers (which are wild (hence the title)). The first player to reach $500 or mo...
Fly Tales (1999 - 2003) - The TV show actually originated in Spain, not the UK. However, there was no specific language labelled to this wonderfully magic cartoon, everybody could understand it because, simply, there were no words!
Remington Steele (1982 - 1987) - Private investagator Laura Holt was once ignored by all, because they think a lady P.I. is nothing but too femine. So she decides to create a fictional detective named Remington Steele, and that obviously worked because since then people come into her office asking her to solve cases. But then one...
Captain Tsubasa (1983 - 1986) - Captain Tsubasa is based on the sport of soccer. Because it may have helped promote the sport, Captain Tsubasa was supported by the JFA: Japan Football Association during the development of the series with the objective to promove the sport in Japan.
Monster by Mistake (1996 - 2003) - Warren Patterson is an 8-year-old boy with allergies who has been enchanted by a magical jewel from a mysterious parallel world. Because of a spell that goes awry, Warren turns into a 7-foot-tall blue monster whenever he sneezes. He can't return to his normal form until he sneezes again, and it's an...
The Colbert Report (2005 - 2014) - A spin-off of The Daily Show created in 2005, former corespondent Stephen Colbert takes a humorous look at the news with a Conservative slant and in a similar format. The show became very popular in its 9 year run because of Steven Colbert's brand of humor. The show ended on December 18, 2014 shortl...
Early Edition (1996 - 2012) - A man wakes up every morning to a cat that brings him his newspaper, this cat brings him tomorrows newspaper today.He trys to stop bad things from happening before they happen because the paper tells him when where and what is going to happen.
Alias Smith and Jones (1971 - 1973) - Kid Curry and Hannibal Heyes were train robbers in the Old West, but they never killed anyone. Because of this, the president and governor pardoned them for their crimes, but it was kept secret. They assumed new identities (hence the name ALIAS SMITH AND JONES), and went from town to town getting...
Ned and Stacey (1995 - 1997) - Ned and Stacey get married after one week after meeting each other. He marries her to get a promotion. She marries him because she can't seem to find a place to live and likes his apartment. She hates his self-righteous attitude. He doesn't like her re-decorating his living room. Will their marriage...
Brookside (1982 - 2003) - Brookside, based in a cul-de-sac in Liverpool, first appeared on November 1982 with the launch of the fourth British terrestrial channel, Channel 4. It differed from other soap operas because it was filmed in real houses in a real street, in an attempt by the producers to add to the show's realism....
Branded (1965 - 1966) - In the 1880s, Jason McCord travels the country trying to prove he's no coward. He needs to do this because the military career of this West point graduate came to an end when he was thrown out of the army after being accused of cowardice.
Fairy Tail Zer (2016 - 2016) - Many years ago, Mavis Vermilion was a servant on Sirius Island, mistreated by a guild master and his daughter, Zera. But Mavis stayed positive, because her mother once told her that fairies never visit people who cry about their problems. When the guild came under attack, Mavis pulled Zera from the...
Bleach (2004 - 2012) - Ichigo Kurosaki is a 15-year-old-boy who has an ability to see ghosts/spirits. Because of his ability, he is able to meet a female death god (AKA Shinigami) named Rukia Kuchiki. To save his family and friends from unwanted soul-eating spirits (Hollows), Rukia transfers her Shinigami powers to Ichigo...
The Invisible Man (1958 - 1960) - A brittish scientist"Dr.Peter Brady"experiments with a machine that deals with light refection..but..because of a malfunction..A beam from the device makes him invisible.Stories depic "Dr.Brady's"efforts to help the Brittish government.
Azuki_Chan (1995 - 1998) - Azuki-chan (Japanese: ?) is an anime series about a young schoolgirl named Azusa Noyama, nicknamed Azuki-chan because when she was younger she was accidentally called Azuki. This Blackie Ponytail Girl look like kimiko from xialion showdown
He Is My Master (2005 - Current) - a television anime series in the harem genre[1] with a lolicon aspect.[2] The manga is authored by two individuals: Mattsu () who does the story and his ex-wife Asu Tsubaki () who does the artwork. Because of their acrimonious split, the manga will probably be drawn by someone else soon.Seven...
Hurra Deutschland (1989 - 1991) - (English: "Hurrah Germany") was a German satirical series running from 1989 to 1991, appearing regularly on TV station Das Erste.Hurra Deutschland was easily distinguished because of its use of rubber puppets modelled on politicians and celebrities, who were poked fun at in various sketches. The pup...
Klonoa lunatea:the animation (2019 - Current) - Anime base on the ps2 game by bandai,produced by satelight, I had portrayed the moment when Lolo was desperately clinging to Klonoa and hoping that he won't go... ;__; I still remember that moment when Lolo was so strong and confident to have Klonoa leaving them because his job was done in Lunatea,...
Magical Emi, the Magic Star (1985 - 1986) - Mai Kazuki is from a family of magicians. Her grandparents are leaders of a troupe, Magic Carat, and their daughter Mai's mother debuted under them. Naturally, Mai wants to become a magician herself, just like her hero, the fabulous legend Emily Howell. Unfortunately, because she is still a youn...
Blend S (2017 - Current) - A 12-episode anime television series adaptation by A-1 Pictures aired from October to December 2017.High school girl Maika Sakuranomiya has trouble finding a part-time job because of how scary she looks when smiling. However, she is scouted one day by an Italian man who is also the manager of Stile,...
Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993 - 2009) - Late Night with Conan O'Brien was a late-night talk show on NBC that first began in 1993 as hosted by comedian Conan O'Brien. The show was notably more edgier than other late-night talk shows because of its very late time-slot. The show was cancelled in 2009 after NBC made changes to the time-slot w...
Family Fortunes (1980 - 2012) - Family Fortunes is a long-running British game show, based on the American game show Family Feud. The programme began on ITV on January 6, 1980 and ran until 2002. The difference in the show title is because the producers thought the word "feud" too confrontational in the UK cultural context. In Mar...
Georgia Championship Wrestling on Superstation WTBS (1976 - 1984) - In 1976 , The Superstation TBS went national and brought Georgia Championship Wrestling to the forefront of the NWA. It was the first NWA territory to be broadcast nationally and because of the resaulting exsposure became a magnet for NWA stars. Soon everybody that was anybody was appearing on the p...
Cobra (1993 - 1994) - Former Navy SEAL and martial arts expert Robert "Scandal" Jackson (Michael Dudikoff) is discovered hiding in Alaska after going AWOL because he refused orders to blow up a military target occupied by civilians. He has established a new life for himself in a small village as T.J. Johnson, a boxer who...
Palace Guard (1991 - 1992) - After three years in prison, legendary jewel thief Tommy Logan (played by D.W. Moffett) is released on parole and hired, because of his criminal expertise, as a security expert by Arturo Taft (Tony LoBianco), owner of the world wide ultra luxurious Palace Hotel chain.
Inspector Gadget's Field Trip (1996 - 1998) - Grab your maps and hang on to your luggage, because in this History Channel spin-off of the classic cartoon, tour guide Inspector Gadget takes us around the world in search of adventure, with plenty of laughs, thrills and fun facts along the way. Go Go Gadget Field Trip!
George Shrinks (2000 - 2001) - Because of George's tiny size, even mundane activities, such as working around the house or playing outside, often become dramatic adventures. His primary mode of transportation is his Zooper Car, a multi-purpose miniature vehicle he built with his father that can do things like transform into a sub...
Halloween III: Season of the Witch(1982) - In this creative film, you get a look at John Carpenter's original concept for what Halloween sequels would be about. Originally he meant for each Halloween installment to be a totally different story. Unfortunately this film didn't get the unique recognition it deserved because to most fans, Hallow...
Cartoon All-Stars To The Rescue(1990) - The plot chronicles the exploits of Michael, a teenage boy who is using marijuana as well as stealing his father's beer. His sister, Corey, is worried about him because he's started acting differently than he used to. Many of her cartoon tie-in toys come to life, to help find her stolen piggy bank,...
Home Alone 3(1997) - Harry (Joe Pesci) And Marv (Daniel Stern) Acquire A Missile Guidance System Computer Chip And Smuggle It Through An Airport Inside A Remote Controlled Toy Car, Because Of Baggage Confusion, Kate (Catherine O'Hara) Gets The Toy Car, She Gives It To Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) Just Before Harr...
The Swan Princess(1994) - Princess Odette and Prince Derek are just kids...and their parents want to betroth them to unite their kingdoms. The problem is Odette and Derek despise each other-until they become adults. Prince Derek finds Odette irresistible and proposes to her. When she feels that he is only doing this because...
Balto(1995) - Balto Is A Wolf Shunned By The Town Of Nome, AL And The Wolves Because Of His Mixed Heritage, His Friends Are Boris, Muk And Luk And Jenna.
Charlotte's Web(1973) - Wilbur the pig is scared of the end of the season, because he knows that come that time, he will end up on the dinner table. He hatches a plan with Charlotte, a spider that lives in his pen, to ensure that this will neve
The Rescuers Down Under(1990) - A sequel to the 1977 movie "The Rescuers". Bernard and Miss Bianca go to Australia to rescue a boy named Cody, who gets kidnapped by an evil poacher named Percival McLeach because of him knowing the whereabouts of a golden eagle named Marahute. With help from Wilbur the albatross and Jake the kang...
Grease(1978) - Almost 30 years alter its premiere; Randal Kleiser's Grease is as popular as ever. To what do it owes its everlasting attraction? Maybe it's because this nostalgic musical vision of the fifties is one of those films where everything fits right int
Just One of the Guys(1985) - Terry Griffith's convinced that her teachers and peers don't take her seriously as a journalist because she's a girl. When she fails to secure an internship at a local paper, she decides to switch sides, literally! Posing as a boy at her brother's school, she's out to prove that the system's biase...
The Jerk(1979) - On Navin Johnson's 18th birthday he discovers he was adopted. (Which should appear obvious since he's the only white person in an all black family.) Navin decides to move out and try to make it in the world. While on his adventure he works at a gas station. But because of an assassination attempt he...
Princess Mononoke(1999) - In a time where Japanese gods and demons walked the earth as giant beasts, Prince Ashitaka of the Imishi People, is sent from his home because of an incurable curse. He has heard, though, of the Forest Spirit, who can heal as well as take life. He sets out "to see with eyes unclouded by hate" to fin...
3 Ninjas(1993) - Meet Samuel, Jeffrey and Michael Douglas! Their grandfather, Mori Tanaka, is highly skilled in the fields of Martial Arts and Ninjitsu. And for years he's been training these boys this technique. He even gave them names: Rocky because he's "solid and cool as granite rock"; Colt, because he's "fast a...
A Charlie Brown Christmas(1965) - Christmas time is here. And despite the fluffy snow, Christmas lights, and holiday spirit all around him, Charlie Brown feels numb to it. Maybe it's because everyone seems to see Christmas as a time to get, get, get. Snoopy enters a Christmas lights and display contest to win money. Sally asks Santa...
Falling Down(1993) - Michael Douglas plays a person having a very bad day because of a divorce that had turned him the wrong way. This man is trying to get along but certain issues are driving him away. An urban tale of a man at war with the every day life.
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer(1964) - Sam the snowman tells us the story of a young red-nosed reindeer who, after being ousted from the reindeer games because of his beaming honker, teams up with Hermey, an elf who wants to be a dentist, and Yukon Cornelius, the prospector. They run into the Abominable Snowman and find a whole island of...
GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords(1986) - Guradian GoBots join the Rock Lords' battle for control of the ultimate super weapon. And they'd better hurry, because the Guardian GoBots' all-time worst enemies, the Renegades, are out to use the super weapon for their own evi
The Shadow(1994) - The Shadow is a legendary superhero, who because of his unique past, knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men. In his newest adventure, he faces his most ruthless enemy Shiwan Khan, a barbarian planning to destroy the city with an atomic bomb.
The Fox and the Hound(1981) - A young fox named Todd befriends a young hound dog named Copper. As they get older they discover they cannot be friends because they're supposed to be enemies.
Mars Attacks!(1996) - The Martians decide to attack our planet and devastate everything. Why? Because it's fun!!! They enjoy killing people and destroy buildings; they even play bowling with the statues at Easter Isles and pose for photos in front of temples as they are blowing up. Will somebody find a way to stop them o...
Encino Man(1992) - Two losers find a frozen caveman after they an earthquake in Encino California. The reason the frozen cube man came out of the ground was because of the pool they were digging. At first scared, the caveman does not like his surroundings but soon enjoys everything the 90's has to offer at this point...
Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer(1985) - The universe is growing dark and on Earth it is eternal winter all because a selfish princess is trying to keep the diamond like planet Spectra to herself. Rainbow Brite, a girl in charge of changing the seasons and keeping the universe colorful, steps up to stop the princess. All of her friends hel...
The Blue Lagoon(1980) - Emmiline and Richard were young children that got shipwrecked on an island with an adult and he teaches them basic survival skills, but then after only a short while dies and they are left on their own. they don't really know much about anything, because they were barely educated, and then it jumps...
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs(1937) - A beautiful girl, Snow White, takes refuge in the forest in the house of seven dwarfs to hide from her stepmother, the wicked Queen. The Queen is jealous because she wants to be known as "the fairest in the land," and Snow White's beauty surpasses her own.
Bad Taste(1987) - Aliens come to earth because of humans as they would make a taste sensation fo
Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home(1995) - Two years ago the boy Jesse helped the whale Willy to jump into freedom. Jesse enjoys the life with his adoptive parents, when his half-brother Elvis arrives because the dead of their mother. During a holiday trip Jesse meets Willy again, as well as his indian friend Randolph. A tender love develope...
Avatar(2009) - In 2148, the depletion of Earth's natural resources has caused the human race to expand outwards to explore a far away moon called Pandora. Because of its poisonous atmosphere, the humans use avatars known as Na'vi who live in harmony with nature. A former marine and paraplegic replaces his deceased...
It's Pat(1994) - Pat Riley, an obnoxious busybody of undeterminable sex, meets and falls in love with Chris, a sensitive, caring person also of undeterminable sex. Their relationship suffers because Pat's a lout, and cannot decide on a direction for its life. Meanwhile, Pat's neighbor Kyle falls further and further...
Silent Night, Deadly Night(1984) - Offended parents and others protested this slasher film when it was released in 1984 because it portrays Billy (Robert Brian Wilson) as a toy-store Santa Claus who goes on a rampage and axes people to death while still in his Santa garb. Four sequels prove the adage that there is no such thing as ba...
The Doom Generation(1995) - Billed as "a heterosexual movie by Gregg Araki," The Doom Generation is the the director's self-styled bad taste teen film. Amy Blue (Rose McGowan) is an obnoxious teenage speed freak and her boyfriend Jordan White (James Duval) is a passive, slow-witted poseur who won't have sex with her because he...
Saving Private Ryan(1998) - During World War II, Captain John H. Miller has been given a mission to take a platoon of soldiers and retrieve Private Ryan from the battlefields and send him back home because his brothers have all died in the war.
Who's Harry Crumb?(1989) - Harry Crumb is a bumbling and inept private investigator who is hired to solve the kidnapping of a young heiress which he's not expected to solve because his employer is the mastermind behind the kidnapping.
The Blob(1988) - A Remake of a horror classic years before that became "the thing to do". This Blob is more voracious than the original 1958 creeping ooze. In the original film The Blob was only intimidating because of it's expansion in size. In this film, you can actually see it digest people.
Dog Day Afternoon(1975) - On a hot Brooklyn afternoon, two optimistic losers set out to rob a bank. Sonny (Al Pacino) is the mastermind, Sal (John Cazale) is the follower, and disaster is the result. Because the cops, crowds, TV cameras and even the pizza man have arrived. The "well planned" heist is now a circus.
Stella(1990) - Bette Midler stars in the title role of "Stella," a 1990's update of two previous tearjerkers. Brassy barmaid Stella Claire charms the pants off blueblood Stephen Dallas, and eventually they have a child. Because of their different values and personalities, Stella and Stephen do not marry. She, howe...
That Thing You Do!(1996) - Directed by Tom Hanks, the highly entertaining story about a band who dared to break the rules in the 1960s. Guy Patterson was supposed to just be a subsitute drummer for his friend's band. After they win a talent show because of Guy's instinct to speed up the beat and rock out, their lives are turn...
Pure Country(1992) - Goerge Stait's only movie, but not because he couldn't act. Goerge plays Dusty Chandler, a famouse country singer who's life and shows are getting too big for him. One day he walks off the stage after a fight with his manager (Lesley Ann Warren) and winds up going back to his hometown. After gett...
The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas(1996) - A squeal to Here Come the Munsters finds the Munsters having a little Christmas fun. They make a tree with all the decorations, but one problem is that Eddie feels down in the dumps, and doesn't believe in Santa, because he misses Transylvania. Herman, Lily, Grandpa, & Marilyn, try to find ways to...
Queen Kong(1976) - Yes, there is such film. It exists. Stop laughing. Shut up. In this hillaious British parody of the 1933 classic, the gender tables are switched. Now the reason why this film got lost was because of the battle over the rights of the original between Universal and Dino Dellaurentiis. The film ran in...
Ice Cream Man(1995) - When you hear the happy jingle of the ice cream truck driving down your neighborhood street, lock your doors and pray to the Dairy Queen that the Ice Cream Man doesn't stop to bring you a conebecause a soft-serve headache is nothing compared to the pain that this dairy demon will make you feel! As...
Colors(1988) - Colors stars Robert Duvall and Sean Penn as partners on the LAPD's gang crime division. Duvall had hoped to spend more time with his family, but he's pulled back into active service because of a step-up in gang activity. He makes no secret of his contempt for his novice partner Penn, but eventually...
The Getaway(1972) - Doc McCoy is put in prison because his partners chickened out and flew off without him after exchanging a prisoner with a lot of money. Doc knows Jack Benyon, a rich 'business'-man, is up to something big, so he tells his wife (Carol McCoy) to tell him that he's for sale if Benyon can get him out of...
The Glimmer Man(1996) - Two cops with almost nothing in common find themselves brought together to capture a psychotic murderer in this action thriller. Jack Cole (Steven Seagal) was once a government intelligence operative known as "The Glimmer Man," because he could move so quickly and quietly that his victims would only...
The Principal(1987) - Rick Latimer is a teacher who gets a job as the principal of a school with a very bad reputation. In fact, his transfer there is a kind of punishment because he beat his wife's boyfriend. So, Rick finds himself in a school where drugs, knives and guns are very usua
Flying Down To Rio(1933) - The Yankee Clippers get an engagement in Rio de Janeiro, after they are fired from a Miami hotel because band leader Roger Bond has flirted with Brazilian guest Belinha de Rezende. Roger gets Belinha to accompany him to Rio in his private plane. En route, the two land on a moonlit beach for repairs...
Armed and Dangerous(1986) - Frank Dooley is an ex-cop, thrown out of the force after being framed by corrupt colleagues. Herman Kane is an out of work attorney who quit because he lost his nerve. Both men turn to a private security firm to find employment, but everything goes quickly wrong when the first warehouse they guard g...
Andre(1994) - Toni Whitney and her family adopt a baby seal. When it grows and starts getting into mischief, it antagonizes some of the fisherman in the town. One of the fisherman, Mark Baker, is upset with the Whitney's because Toni's father, Harry, was appointed Harbor Master instead of him, partially because o...
The Long Riders(1980) - The origins, exploits and the ultimate fate of the Jesse James gang is told in a sympathetic portrayal of the bank robbers made up of brothers who begin their legendary bank raids because of revenge.
Bloody Birthday(1981) - In 1970, three children are born at the height of a total eclipse. Due to the sun and moon blocking Saturn, which controls emotions, they have become heartless killers ten years later, and are able to escape detection because of their youthful and innocent facades. A boy and his teenage sister becom...
The Other Sister(1999) - When Carla Tate, now a young woman, is 'graduated' out of the training school where she has resided for many years because she is mentally challenged, her hope is that she will be accepted for all that she can now do for herself. But Carla's family is wealthy which permits her mother, already blinde...
Some Kind of Wonderful(1987) - What would YOU do to win the girl of your dreams? Keith spends his college money and plans out the wazoo to make his date with the popular Amanda Jones one she'll remember. But could his best friend, tomboy Watts be a better match? Growing up was never easy, because sometimes the best things in li...
You Light Up My Life(1977) - Laurie has been in show business since she was a child. Her dream is to be a singer, songwriter and actress. Her father wants her to be a comedian like him and Laurie only tries because it pleases her father. But she is a lousy comedian. She auditions for everything and is engaged to Ken, but Ken do...
Pecker(1998) - John Waters wrote and directed this $6.5 million satire on the Manhattan art world, a rags-to-riches comedy about 18-year-old amateur photographer Pecker (so named because he pecks at his food). Pecker (Edward Furlong) is a blue-collar kid who works in a Baltimore sandwich shop and takes snapshots o...
Battle Arena Toshinden(1997) - While many American films inspire video games and other merchandise, this animated feature, like many from Japan, is based on the popular series of video games called Battle Arena Toshinden. Because the Toshinden video game is essentially a martial-arts fighting game in the tradition of Street Fight...
Miliardi(1991) - Leo Feretti is awfully rich and lives the glamorous life of a corporate magnate, travelling from one nest of luxury to another around the world. He is married to a loving, supportive woman, who is extremely loyal. That's good, because when he falls ill, his slimy low-down brother and his nephew cons...
Babylon 5: A Call to Arms(1999) - Five years after the events of the Babylon 5 series, a technomage named Galen predicts an imminent attack by the Drakh, the old allies of the Shadows. Through dreams, a thief, a captain, and a president are brought together to head them off. The president is John Sheridan. Because of his irrational...
Babylon 5: In the Beginning(1998) - Five years after the events of the Babylon 5 series, a technomage named Galen predicts an imminent attack by the Drakh, the old allies of the Shadows. Through dreams, a thief, a captain, and a president are brought together to head them off. The president is John Sheridan. Because of his irrational...
The Halloween That Almost Wasn't(1979) - Halloween is in danger of ending forever because the witch refuses to fly her broom over the moon at midnight on Halloween night. Dracula and his monsters must do what they can to convince the witch to fly over the moon and to save Halloween from being no more. Re-named in VHS releases as "The Night...
Slums of Beverly Hills(1998) - Being young is tough on many levels, but for Vivian Abromowitz (Natasha Lyonne), things are especially strenuous. It's 1976 and she and her family have moved to Beverly Hills, but not the glamorous Beverly Hills that everyone is familiar with. The reason for the constant moving is because her parent...
Streetwalkin'(1985) - A young woman named Cookie (Melissa Leo) has run away from home because of her troubled family life. She ends up in New York City as a hooker under the wing of an abusive pimp named Duke (Dale Midkiff).
It's the Pied Piper, Charlie Brown(2000) - It's the Pied Piper, Charlie Brown is a retelling to Sally by Charlie Brown of the story how the Pied Piper of Hamelin (portrayed by Snoopy) chased away all the mice (changed by Charlie Brown from rats because Sally is terrified of rats) from the town of Hamlet. The Peanuts kids substitute some char...
The Simpsons Movie(2007) - Based on the long-running and iconic animated series. The EPA has launched a plot to put all of Springfield under a dome and isolate them from the rest of the world because the town has become the single most polluted place in the world. Not wanting their home and their city destroyed and everyone t...
The Replacement Killers(1998) - chow yun-fat, in his best american film to date plays john lee, an assasin who during his last job dosnt go through with it because he dosnt want to shoot a kid. so, he seeks the help of meg couburn to forge passports for him and his family. but his former boss, mr. wei, sends his ''replacements'' a...
Nick Of Time(1995) - Gene Watson is a public accountant who arrives on a train at Union Station in Los Angeles, accompanied by his 6-year-old daughter Lynn. Because of his ordinary looks, he is approached by a pair of sinister people named Smith and Jones.
Terminal Velocity(1994) - Ditch Brodie is a maverick skydiving instructor. One day, a beautiful girl comes in, wanting to take her first jump. Up in the air, Ditch takes his eyes off her momentarily, then looks back to find out that she has fallen out, dying on impact. Ditch is suspicious that all is not as it seems, because...
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues(1993) - Sissy Hankshaw is born with thumbs that are larger than those of the average person. Missy sees her thumbs, as it says under the definition of thumbs, as greater freedom of movement. She uses them to hitchhike all over the country because she believes that is what she was born to do. A gay man named...
My Father the Hero(1994) - A 14-year-old New York girl goes to the Bahamas for vacation with her French father. She gives her dad a hard time because of his lack of attention over the years. When she becomes attracted to a boy who works at the hotel, she pretends that her father is her lover in order to impress him. The strat...
One Magic Christmas(1985) - Movie starring Mary Steenburgen as Ginny, the mother of two children, Abbie and Cal, and the wife of husband Jack (Gary Basaraba). The story is about how the family has come onto hard times during the Christmas season. Because of the difficult times, Abbie tries to send a letter to Santa, only to...
Looking for Mr. Goodbar(1977) - This film has gained historic value, being one of Richard Gere's very first in a major part as a bipolar, crazy sex-athlete - two years before 'American Gigolo'. But it is really Diane Keaton's film. Based on the novel from 1975 by Judith Rossner, which provoked much discussion, because a woman bac...
A Very Unlucky Leprechaun (1998)(1998) - hr. 32 min. Molly and her father have inherited a house in Ireland nicknamed "Misfortune Manor"(a house that brings misfortune to all residents). Soon Molly discovers a leprechaun living in the house, and she befriends him. Unfortunately he has no luck because he hasn't eaten a four-leaf clover in...
Jerky Boys: The Movie(1995) - Two guys from Queens wind up in trouble with the mob because of their fondness for prank phone calls in this quickie comedy. Stars Johnny Brennan and Kamal Ahmed first found fame as "The Jerky Boys" thanks to a series of comedy albums featuring real prank calls in which the duo assumed a variety of...
84 Charlie Mopic(1989) - 84 Charlie Mopic offers the Vietnam experience as seen through the eyes of a combat photographer (Mopic is slang for the Army Motion Picture Unit). Byron Thames plays a combat cameraman who has already been on two tours of duty; he goes on a third because he is intrigued by a reel of film found on t...
Money Train(1995) - A pair of New York City cops collaborate on a plan to rob a cash-packed subway train in this action-comedy. Charlie (Woody Harrelson) and John (Wesley Snipes) are not just co-workers and close friends but also foster brothers. Because of this family connection, the reluctant John becomes involved in...
Little Criminals(1995) - The story is mainly about an eleven year old kid called Des. He and his friends do all kinds of illegal things like vandalism, stealing, lighting fires, mug people and using drugs. They do this because of a law which says that they cannot be charged until the age of twelve. When Des meets Cory, they...
Just The Way You Are(1984) - Susan is a young, beautiful and successful flute player, but because of her physical handicap, a lame leg, she is having difficulties finding Mr. Right. While on tour in France, she decides to spend a few days on a ski resort wearing a fake cast around her lame leg to make sure her handicap goes unn...
The Satan Bug(1965) - A germ warfare lab has had an accident. The first theory is that one of the nasty germs has gotten free and killed several scientists. The big fear is that a more virulent strain, named The Satan Bug because all life can be killed off by it should it escape, may have been stolen.
One Nation Under God(2009) - Austin, Lawson, Michael, and Will are four college-aged Christians who have grown up in the bubble of Christianity. They realize that their faith is more religion and less relationship. Because they have been in the rut of mindless faith, they decide to expand their views on God, the world, and eter...
The Patience Stone(2012) - Somewhere, in Afghanistan or elsewhere, in a country torn apart by a war... A young woman in her thirties watches over her older husband in a decrepit room. He is reduced to the state of a vegetable because of a bullet in the neck. Not only is he abandoned by his companions of the Jihad, but also by...
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial(1982) - While visiting the Earth at Night, a group of alien botanists is discovered and disturbed by an approaching human task force. Because of the more than hasty take-off, one of the visitors is left behind. The little alien finds himself all alone on a very strange planet. Fortunately, the extra-terrest...
Porky's Revenge!(1985) - As graduation nears for the class of 1955 at Angel Beach High, the gang once again faces off against their old enemy, Porky, who wants them to throw the school's championship basketball game because he's betting on the opposing team.
Stick It(2006) - A cocky teenager learns some important lessons about playing by her own rules in this comedy drama. Haley Graham is a gifted 17-year-old gymnast with a strong rebellious streak -- strong enough that she walked away from her teammates on the eve of a major international tournament because she'd had e...
Fairy Tail the Movie: Phoenix Priestess(2012) - One day, a request flew in with the words "I want the leader of the bandit group that's eating the nest in a certain harbor town, Geese, to be apprehended". Natsu and the team, who are looking forward to the big reward, set out to the place of request in high spirits. However, because of a mistake L...
Love At Large(1990) - A down and out private detective is asked by a beautiful woman to follow her lover because she thinks he may be planning to kill her. Due to her poor description she's in danger. He ends up following the wrong man, but discovers the wrong man has some sleazy secrets himself. Meanwhile another detect...
Women & Men 2: In Love There Are No Rules(1991) - Three short stories about women and men relationship. The first about a successful boxer in New York City, whose wife only wants to return to her home town in Kansas. The second about a man who has to take care of his wife and children because the woman is alcoholic. The third about a brief but tort...
Race For The Yankee Zephyr(1981) - In a lake high in the mountains of New Zealand hunter Gibbie Gibson discovers a plane wreck from ww-ii. When he tells it around, a gang of crooks follows and threatens him and his daughter, because they know there are 50 million dollars in the wreck. Helicopter pilot Barney helps Gibbie against them...
Berserk: The Golden Age Arc II: The Battle for Dol(2012) - It was meant to be "Berserk: The Golden Age Arc II: The Battle for Doldrey", because the title's too long for th
Made In Heaven(1987) - After being dumped by his girlfriend, a boy runs away to California. But he ends up in heaven because he dies after trying to help a family from drowning in a river. In heaven he'll meet a beautiful girl, who has never reincarnated before.
Sexual Witchcraft(2011) - Sheri Williams and Carrie are sisters, and both are witches. When Carrie conjures Cleopatra so that the ancient queen can teach Sheri bedroom secrets to help her newlywed sister have a happy marriage, the duo get into a heap of trouble because people realize something strange is going on with the tw...
Hop-a-long Cassidy(1935) - An evil ranch foreman tries to provoke a range war by playing two cattlemen against each other while helping a gang to rustle the cattle. Each cattleman blames the other for missing cattle. With the help of Bill Cassidy (Hop-along, because of an earlier bullet wound) and Johnny Nelson, the warring c...
The White Gorilla(1945) - A white gorilla is snubbed by black gorillas because he is the wrong color. Cut off from his tribe he becomes lonely and angry. After troubling hunters and natives, the white gorilla fights the king of the black gorillas while we are told by a narrator that the fate of Africa hangs in the balance. T...
The Plague Of The Zombies(1966) - Young workers are dying because of a mysterious epidemic in a little village in Cornwall. Doctor Thompson is helpless and asks professor James Forbes for help. The professor and his daughter Sylvia travel to Thomson. Terrible things happen soon, beyond imagination or reality. Dead people are seen ne...
The Babysitter(1969) - A judge is about to sentence members of a motorcycle gang for murder when he gets blackmailed because of an affair with a teenage babysitter.
The Day Of The Locust(1975) - An art director in the 1930's falls in love and attempts to make a young woman an actress despite Hollywood who wants nothing to do with her because of her problems with an estranged man and her alcoholic father.
The Best Little Girl in the World(1981) - Casey Powell is a young teenage girl who is secretly suffering from anorexia nervosa, a mental and physical illness of deliberately starving herself or self-induced vomiting, because of her troubled home life and problems at school in which her bickering parents and her unwed, pregnant sister must p...
Ratatouille(2007) - Remy is a rat with a highly-gifted sense of taste and smell. He wants to become a chef like his idol, the recently deceased chef of a five-star french restaurant. Remy's large family objects because a rat would be feared upon as a common pest in the human world. He soon winds up separated from his c...
Toy Story 3(2010) - As an 18-year-old Andy is about to leave for college, his toys are left feeling abandoned because he has not played with them for years. Deciding to take only Woody to college with him, Andy leaves his other toys for storage in the attic and his mom unknowingly throws them out. Escaping from the tra...
Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman (1958)(1958) - When an abused wife grows to giant size because of an alien encounter and an aborted murder attempt, she goes after cheating husband with revenge on her mind.
Seven Days In May(1964) - US military leaders plot to overthrow the President because he supports a nuclear disarmament treaty and they fear a Soviet sneak attack.
Philadelphia(1993) - When a man with AIDS is fired by a conservative law firm because of his condition, he hires a homophobic small time lawyer as the only willing advocate for a wrongful dismissal suit.
Midnight(1982) - A teenage girl runs away from home because police officer/stepfather puts the moves on her. Hitchhiking to California, she's picked up by two guys who are also traveling cross-country. Along the way, they decide to camp out in the woods and run across a family of Satanists who keep their dead mother...
Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles(2001) - At the beginning of the film, protagonist Michael "Crocodile" Dundee (Paul Hogan) is living in the Australian Outback with Sue Charlton (Linda Kozlowski) and their young son Mikey (Serge Cockburn). Because Crocodile hunting has been made illegal, Mick is reduced to wrestling crocodiles for the enter...
What a Girl Wants(2003) - Daphne Reynolds (Amanda Bynes) lives a comfortable but unsatisfying life as a young American girl with a bright future. She has never met her father, who left her mother Libby (Kelly Preston) seventeen years ago because his family disapproved of thei
Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles(2001) - The third and final film in the trilogy. At the beginning of the film, protagonist Michael "Crocodile" Dundee (Paul Hogan) is living in the Australian Outback with Sue Charlton and their young son Mikey. Because Crocodile hunting has been made illegal, Mick is reduced to wrestling crocodiles for the...
He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown(1968) - When Snoopy begins causing mischief around the neighborhood, especially to the other kids, they all turn to Charlie Brown to do something. With nothing else to do, Charlie Brown decides to send Snoopy back to Daisy Hill Puppy Farm to get him trained. Because the trip is too long for one day, he and...
Hombre(1967) - John Russell, disdained by his "respectable" fellow stagecoach passengers because he was raised by Indians, becomes their only hope for survival when they are set upon by outlaws.
What A Way To Go!(1964) - A four-time widow discusses her four marriages, in which all of her husbands became incredibly rich and died prematurely because of their drive to be rich.
School of Rock(2003) - When rock singer Dewey Finn is removed from his rock band, No Vacancy because of his arrogance, he decides to get a new job as a fifth-grade teacher. Despite his lack of knowledge to be a teacher he soon discovers that his class is musically talented and decides to make a rock band out of them.
How to Eat Fried Worms(2006) - Billy Forrester is the new kid in town who is beginning a new life in a new school. He is quickly taken advantage of by the school bully and a few of his friends because of his weak stomach and tendency to easily vomit. After pulling a prank on the school bully, he is forced into a bet where he must...
The Love Guru(2008) - Darren Roanoke, the star player of the Toronto Maple Leafs, is suffering from stress because his wife, Prudence, has left him for Jacques "Le Coq" Grand, who is the goaltender of rival team Los Angeles Kings, his nickname apparently a nod to being exceedingly well-endowed. Roanoke's stress causes h...
Bend It Like Beckham(2002) - 18-year-old Jessminder "Jess" Bharma is infatuated with soccer but because she is female and Indian, her parents do not allow her to play. She spends her spare time playing in the park with her friends including her best friend, closet homosexual Tony. After seeing her skill, Tony recommends she try...
Be Kind Rewind(2008) - Mr. Fletcher is about to have his "Be Kind Rewind" video rental store demolished because he refuses to begin renting out DVDs and his claims that a famous person was born in the store prove untrue. After Mr. Fletcher goes on a vacation he entrusts the store to his sole employee, Mike and tells him t...
An American Carol(2008) - A take on the classic Charles Dickens story "A Christmas Carol" but set around Independence Day. Left-wing activist and filmmaker Michael Malone is campaigning across the country to end the Fourth of July holiday celebration because America's past and future should not be celebrated due to war. He i...
The Ladies' Man(2000) - Because of his salacious language, late-night radio advice-show host Leon Phelps, along with his sweet and loyal producer Julie, is fired from his Chicago gig. They can't find another job. About that time, two things happen: he gets a letter from a wealthy former lover who offers to take care of him...
The Shaggy Dog(1959) - Wilby Daniels is constantly misunderstood by his father, Wilson. Wilson thinks Wilby is crazy half the time because of his elder son's often dangerous inventions. As a retired mailman who often ran afoul of canines, he has a hatred of dogs, and he can't understand why his younger son, Montgomery "Mo...
The Weather Man(2005) - A successful weatherman at a Chicago news program, David Spritz (Nicolas Cage) is well paid but garners little respect from people in the area who throw fast food at him, David suspects, because they're resentful of how easy his high-paying job is. Dave also feels overshadowed by his father, Pulitze...
Because of Winn-Dixie(2005) - 10-year-old Opal Buloni has just moved to the small town of Naomi, Florida with her father, a preacher. While in the Winn-Dixie supermarket that summer, she encounters a scruffy dog that is wreaking havoc. She claims that it is hers, and names it Winn-Dixie. She discovers that Winn-Dixie becomes fri...
Immoral Women(1979) - 3 women and 3 erotic tales: **** 1- MARGHERITA: Did the great Renaissance painter Raphael Sanzio die because of the cold he took in the ruins of Rome? Or was it out of pleasure? Only one person knew the truth: Margherita Luti, the ardent and ambitious Roman daughter of a baker who, posing as a model...
The Wrong Guy(1997) - After his boss is murdered, Nelson is on the run for fear of prosecution. He hides out in a small town to avoid the police, which should be easy because they know he didn't do it and they aren't looking for him.
Fleshburn(1984) - A soldier who deserted because of spiritual beliefs was tried and evaluated by four psychiatrists, and they all concluded that he was unable to distinguish right from wrong, so he was sentenced to a mental hospital. One day, he escapes and kidnaps them and leaves them all in the middle of the desert...
To Have and to Hold(2006) - On the surface, Meg and Tom Davidson (Justine Bateman, Sebastian Spence) are in a happy marriage. There is, however, an underlying tension between the two because of Meg's part-time job as a real estate agent, which was originally but to lead her to a full-time job. Tom, a lawyer, sees as this neg...
From Hell It Came(1957) - A prince of a South Seas tribe is falsely accused of murder because of his connection to American scientists on the island. The prince's body buried underneath a tree which soon becomes exposed to nuclear radiation turning him into a "Tabonga". The tree monster soon takes his revenge on those that w...
Free Birds(2013) - Reggie is a turkey who has always feared Thanksgiving because turkeys have always been on the menu, but his incessant attempts to warn his flock have made him an outcast. When the other turkeys finally realize what is happening, they thoughtlessly throw Reggie outside in an attempt to save themselve...
Jack and Jill(2011) - Thanksgiving is usually a happy time, but ad executive Jack (Adam Sandler) dreads the holiday because his twin sister, Jill (also Sandler), makes her annual visit. When Jack and his sister get off on the wrong foot, the only way to make it right is to invite her to stay through Hanukkah. But, when a...
The Strawberry Shortcake Movie: Sky's the Limit(2009) - Strawberry has to move away because Berry Bitty City might get flattened by a rock.
Crystal Heart(1986) - A 22 year old man who has lived inside a crystal room because of a rare illness, meets an up and coming rock star, and the two fall in love.
Manny's Orphans(1978) - Manny coaches soccer for the fashionable Creighton Hall school, but is relieved of duty because he is 'not a good match' for the school. He finds a job at a Catholic home for orphans, where he forms a new soccer team, with the help of one very good player Pepe who turns out to be a girl. 'Pepe' is t...
Patti Rocks(1988) - It's Christmas time in the twin cities. Billy's working a lot of overtime, running barges on the Mississippi. He calls his friend Eddie, whom he hasn't seen in six months, and asks a favor: to drive with him to see his pregnant girlfriend, Patti, because Billy hasn't told her he's married and alread...
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35639/Just_Because -- Slice of Life, Drama, Romance, School
Ajin ::: TV-MA | 24min | Animation, Action, Adventure | TV Series (2016- ) Episode Guide 29 episodes Ajin Poster A high school student discovers he is an Ajin, a demi-human being. He ends up a fugitive on the run because of his powers. Creators: Tsuina Miura, Gamon Sakurai Stars:
Away from Her (2006) ::: 7.5/10 -- PG-13 | 1h 50min | Drama | 25 May 2007 (USA) -- A man coping with the institutionalization of his wife because of Alzheimer's disease faces an epiphany when she transfers her affections to another man, Aubrey, a wheelchair-bound mute who also is a patient at the nursing home. Director: Sarah Polley Writers:
Beavis and Butt-Head ::: TV-14 | 15min | Animation, Comedy, Music | TV Series (19932011) -- Animated MTV series about two teenage heavy-metal music fans who occasionally do idiotic things because they're bored. For them, everything is "cool" or "sucks." Creator:
Beyond the Boundary ::: Kyoukai no kanata (original tit ::: TV-PG | 24min | Animation, Action, Comedy | TV Series (2013- ) Episode Guide 18 episodes Beyond the Boundary Poster The dark fantasy follows a high school sophomore named Akihito Kanbara. Although the boy appears human, he is half Youmu and invulnerable to wounds because he can heal quickly. One day, ... S Stars: Kenichiro Ohashi, Risa Taneda, Minori Chihara
Breakfast on Pluto (2005) ::: 7.2/10 -- R | 2h 8min | Comedy, Drama | 6 January 2006 (USA) -- In the 1970s, a young trans woman, Patrick "Kitten" Braden, comes of age by leaving her Irish town for London, in part to look for her mother and in part because her gender identity is beyond the town's understanding. Director: Neil Jordan Writers:
Dumbo (1941) ::: 7.2/10 -- G | 1h 4min | Animation, Drama, Family | 31 October 1941 (USA) -- Ridiculed because of his enormous ears, a young circus elephant is assisted by a mouse to achieve his full potential. Directors: Samuel Armstrong (as Sam Armstrong), Norman Ferguson | 5 more credits Writers: Joe Grant (screen story by), Dick Huemer (screen story by) | 6 more
Go On ::: TV-PG | 22min | Comedy | TV Series (20122013) -- An irreverent sportscaster, pressured by his boss to join a support group because he can't move forward after the death of his wife, finds connection with the extremely varied members. Creator:
Guys with Kids -- 22min | Comedy | TV Series (20122013) ::: 30-something dads struggle as parents because they are still children at heart. Creators: Jimmy Fallon, Charlie Grandy, Amy Ozols
Hobson's Choice (1954) ::: 7.7/10 -- Not Rated | 1h 48min | Comedy, Drama, Romance | 19 April 1954 (Denmark) -- Henry Hobson (Charles Laughton) is a successful bootmaker, a widower and a tyrannical father of three daughters. The girls each want to leave their father by getting married, but Henry refuses because marriage traditions require him to pay out settlements. Director: David Lean Writers: Harold Brighouse (by), David Lean (screenplay) | 2 more credits
Hollywood Shuffle (1987) ::: 7.0/10 -- R | 1h 18min | Comedy | 20 March 1987 (USA) -- An actor limited to stereotypical roles because of his ethnicity, dreams of making it big as a highly respected performer. As he makes his rounds, the film takes a satiric look at African American actors in Hollywood. Director: Robert Townsend Writers: Robert Townsend, Keenen Ivory Wayans
Hombre (1967) ::: 7.4/10 -- Approved | 1h 51min | Western | 21 March 1967 (USA) -- John Russell, disdained by his "respectable" fellow stagecoach passengers because he was raised by Native Americans, becomes their only hope for survival when they are set upon by outlaws. Director: Martin Ritt Writers:
Hunter X Hunter OVA ::: Connections -- Episode Guide 8 episodes Hunter X Hunter OVA Poster Reuniting with Gon and his friends, Kurapika explains to them the risks he bears because of his abilities. He believes his target of revenge is no longer alive and the search for his fallen comrade's eyes could truly begin. Stars: Atsuko Bungo, Hozumi Gda, Akari Hibino Available on Amazon
iBoy (2017) ::: 6.0/10 -- TV-MA | 1h 30min | Action, Crime, Sci-Fi | 27 January 2017 (USA) -- After being shot, Tom wakes from a coma to discover that fragments of his smart phone have been embedded in his head, and worse, that returning to normal teenage life is impossible because he has developed a strange set of superpowers. Director: Adam Randall Writers: Joe Barton (screenplay), Joe Barton | 3 more credits
Kopps (2003) ::: 6.7/10 -- 1h 30min | Action, Comedy | 7 February 2003 (Sweden) -- When a small town police station is threatened with shutting down because of too little crime, the police realise that something has to be done... Director: Josef Fares Writers: Josef Fares, Mikael Hfstrm | 1 more credit Stars:
Leap Year (2010) ::: 6.5/10 -- PG | 1h 40min | Comedy, Romance | 8 January 2010 (USA) -- Anna Brady plans to travel to Dublin, Ireland to propose to her boyfriend Jeremy on February 29, leap day, because, according to Irish tradition, a man who receives a marriage proposal on a leap day must accept it. Director: Anand Tucker Writers:
Leaving Las Vegas (1995) ::: 7.5/10 -- R | 1h 51min | Drama, Romance | 9 February 1996 (USA) -- Ben Sanderson, a Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his alcoholism, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-interference pact with prostitute Sera. Director: Mike Figgis Writers:
L'Eclisse (1962) ::: 7.9/10 -- L'eclisse (original title) -- L'Eclisse Poster A young woman meets a vital young man, but their love affair is doomed because of the man's materialistic nature. Director: Michelangelo Antonioni Writers: Michelangelo Antonioni (scenario and dialogue), Tonino Guerra (scenario and dialogue) | 2 more credits
L'humanit (1999) ::: 6.9/10 -- Not Rated | 2h 21min | Drama, Mystery | 27 October 1999 (France) -- When an 11-year-old girl is brutally raped and murdered in a quiet French village, a police detective who has forgotten how to feel emotions--because of the death of his own family in some kind of accident--investigates the crime, which turns out to ask more questions than it answers. Director: Bruno Dumont Writer: Bruno Dumont
L'humanit (1999) ::: 6.9/10 -- Not Rated | 2h 21min | Drama, Mystery | 27 October 1999 (France) -- When an 11-year-old girl is brutally raped and murdered in a quiet French village, a police detective who has forgotten how to feel emotions--because of the death of his own family in some kind of accident--investigates the crime, which turns out to ask more questions than it answers.
Made in Heaven (1987) ::: 6.5/10 -- PG | 1h 43min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance | 6 November 1987 (USA) -- After being dumped by his girlfriend, a boy runs away to California. But he ends up in heaven because he dies after trying to help a family from drowning in a river. In heaven he'll meet a beautiful girl, who has never reincarnated before. Director: Alan Rudolph Writers:
Mockingbird Lane (2012) ::: 7.6/10 -- TV-14 | 40min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy | TV Movie 26 October 2012 -- Grandpa Sam Dracula is essentially Dracula who assembled Herman because no man was good enough for his daughter Lily, a sexy vampiress. Lily's niece Marilyn the freak is actually normal and... S Director: Bryan Singer Writers: Bryan Fuller, Norm Liebmann (written by "The Munsters") | 3 more credits
My Summer in Provence (2014) ::: 6.6/10 -- Avis de mistral (original title) -- My Summer in Provence Poster -- Lea, Adrian, and their little brother Theo, born deaf, go on holiday in Provence with their grandfather, Paul "Oliveron" they never met because of a family quarrel. Unfortunately, it is not... S Director: Rose Bosch Writer:
Nathan for You ::: TV-14 | 30min | Documentary, Comedy | TV Series (20132017) -- Nathan Fielder uses his business degree and life experiences to help real small businesses turn a profit. But because of his unorthodox approach, Nathan's genuine efforts to do good often draw real people into an experience far beyond what they signed up for. Creators:
No Tomorrow ::: TV-PG | 43min | Comedy, Drama, Romance | TV Series (20162017) -- Evie, a risk-averse quality-control assessor falls for free-spirited thrill seeker Xavier only to find out he lives his life that way because he believes the apocalypse is coming. Creators:
Patch Adams (1998) ::: 6.8/10 -- PG-13 | 1h 55min | Biography, Comedy, Drama | 25 December 1998 (USA) -- The true story of a heroic man, Hunter "Patch" Adams, determined to become a medical doctor because he enjoys helping people. He ventured where no doctor had ventured before, using humour and pathos. Director: Tom Shadyac Writers: Patch Adams (book) (as Hunter Doherty Adams), Maureen Mylander (book) | 1 more credit
Philadelphia (1993) ::: 7.7/10 -- PG-13 | 2h 5min | Drama | 14 January 1994 (USA) -- When a man with HIV is fired by his law firm because of his condition, he hires a homophobic small time lawyer as the only willing advocate for a wrongful dismissal suit. Director: Jonathan Demme Writer:
Roseanna's Grave (1997) ::: 7.2/10 -- PG-13 | 1h 38min | Comedy, Romance, Drama | 18 June 1997 (USA) -- Roseanna is dying of a heart condition, and all she wants is to be buried next to her daughter, in a cemetery that is getting full fast. The cemetery can't expand because Capestro, the man ... S Director: Paul Weiland Writer:
Sanctuary ::: TV-14 | 44min | Action, Drama, Fantasy | TV Series (2008-2011) Episode Guide 59 episodes Sanctuary Poster -- Stem cells, gene therapy, transplants, and cloning have changed the definition of "humanity" in the modern world, but the darker side contains monsters that only few are brave enough to face, because the future lies in their hands. Creator:
Sanctuary ::: TV-14 | 44min | Action, Drama, Fantasy | TV Series (20082011) -- Stem cells, gene therapy, transplants, and cloning have changed the definition of "humanity" in the modern world, but the darker side contains monsters that only few are brave enough to face, because the future lies in their hands. Creator:
Seven Days in May (1964) ::: 7.8/10 -- Approved | 1h 58min | Drama, Thriller | 13 February 1964 (USA) -- United States military leaders plot to overthrow the President because he supports a nuclear disarmament treaty and they fear a Soviet sneak attack. Director: John Frankenheimer Writers:
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) ::: 6.4/10 -- PG-13 | 1h 56min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi | 13 December 2002 (USA) -- The Enterprise is diverted to the Romulan homeworld Romulus, supposedly because they want to negotiate a peace treaty. Captain Picard and his crew discover a serious threat to the Federation once Praetor Shinzon plans to attack Earth. Director: Stuart Baird Writers:
Sunes sommar (1993) ::: 7.0/10 -- 1h 23min | Comedy, Family | 25 December 1993 (Sweden) -- It's summer and Sune Anderssons family is planning a holiday in Greece. Sunes father, Rudolf is sulking because then he won't be able to go on his beloved fishing trip. But after seeing how... S Director: Stephan Apelgren Writers: Stephan Apelgren, Anders Jacobsson (novel) | 3 more credits Stars:
The Big Combo (1955) ::: 7.4/10 -- Not Rated | 1h 27min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir | 13 February 1955 (USA) -- A police lt. is ordered to stop investigating deadly crime boss Mr. Brown, because he hasn't been able to get any hard evidence against him. He then goes after Brown's girlfriend who despises him, for information instead. Director: Joseph H. Lewis (as Joseph Lewis) Writer: Philip Yordan (by)
The Day of the Locust (1975) ::: 7.0/10 -- R | 2h 24min | Drama, Thriller | 12 June 1975 (UK) -- An art director in the 1930s falls in love and attempts to make a young woman an actress despite Hollywood who wants nothing to do with her because of her problems with an estranged man and her alcoholic father. Director: John Schlesinger Writers: Nathanael West (novel), Waldo Salt (screenplay) Stars:
The Fisher King (1991) ::: 7.5/10 -- R | 2h 17min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy | 27 September 1991 (USA) -- A former radio DJ, suicidally despondent because of a terrible mistake he made, finds redemption in helping a deranged homeless man who was an unwitting victim of that mistake. Director: Terry Gilliam Writer:
The Good Guys ::: TV-14 | 1h | Action, Comedy | TV Series (2010) Jack is a by-the-book detective whose habit of undermining himself has resulted in a dead-end position with the Police Dept. His partner Dan, a drunken, lecherous veteran hangs onto his job only because of one heroic act years ago. Creator: Matt Nix
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) ::: 7.6/10 -- Not Rated | 1h 21min | Horror, Sci-Fi | 17 May 1957 (France) -- When Scott Carey begins to shrink because of exposure to a combination of radiation and insecticide, medical science is powerless to help him. Director: Jack Arnold Writers: Richard Matheson (screenplay), Richard Matheson (novel)
The Librarian III: The Curse of the Judas Chalice (2008) ::: 6.5/10 -- The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice (original title) -- The Librarian III: The Curse of the Judas Chalice Poster -- Losing his girlfriend because he was at an auction dramatically getting the magical philosopher's stone instead of a date, he needs a vacation - New Orleans but finds himself busy saving Earth from the curse of the Judas chalice/vampires. Director: Jonathan Frakes
The Long Riders (1980) ::: 7.0/10 -- R | 1h 40min | Biography, Crime, Western | 16 May 1980 (USA) -- The origins, exploits and the ultimate fate of the Jesse James gang is told in a sympathetic portrayal of the bank robbers made up of brothers who begin their legendary bank raids because of revenge. Director: Walter Hill Writers:
The Notebook (2004) ::: 7.8/10 -- PG-13 | 2h 3min | Drama, Romance | 25 June 2004 (USA) -- A poor yet passionate young man falls in love with a rich young woman, giving her a sense of freedom, but they are soon separated because of their social differences. Director: Nick Cassavetes Writers:
The Notorious Bettie Page (2005) ::: 6.5/10 -- R | 1h 31min | Biography, Drama | 5 May 2006 (USA) -- The life of Bettie Page, a 1950s pin-up model and one of the first sex icons in America, who became the target of a Senate investigation because of her risqu bondage photos. Director: Mary Harron Writers:
The Plague of the Zombies (1966) ::: 6.6/10 -- Approved | 1h 30min | Horror | 12 January 1966 (USA) -- Young workers are dying because of a mysterious epidemic in a little village in Cornwall. Doctor Thompson is helpless and asks professor James Forbes for help. The professor and his ... S Director: John Gilling Writer:
The Set-Up (1949) ::: 7.9/10 -- Approved | 1h 13min | Crime, Film-Noir, Sport | 2 April 1949 (USA) -- Because aging boxer Bill Thompson always lost his past fights, his corrupt manager, without telling Thompson, takes bribes from a betting gangster, to ensure Thompson's pre-arranged dive-loss in the next match. Director: Robert Wise Writers: Art Cohn (screenplay), Joseph Moncure March (from the poem by)
The Untouchables (1987) ::: 7.9/10 -- R | 1h 59min | Crime, Drama, Thriller | 3 June 1987 (USA) -- During the era of Prohibition in the United States, Federal Agent Eliot Ness sets out to stop ruthless Chicago gangster Al Capone and, because of rampant corruption, assembles a small, hand-picked team to help him. Director: Brian De Palma Writers:
The Wrong Guy (1997) ::: 6.9/10 -- PG-13 | 1h 32min | Comedy, Thriller | 1 August 1997 (Canada) -- After his boss is murdered, Nelson is on the run for fear of prosecution. He hides out in a small town to avoid the police, which should be easy because they know he didn't do it and they aren't looking for him. Director: David Steinberg Writers: Dave Foley, David Anthony Higgins (as David Higgins) | 1 more credit
Tideland (2005) ::: 6.5/10 -- R | 2h | Drama, Fantasy, Horror | October 2006 (Canada) -- Because of the actions of her irresponsible parents, a young girl is left alone on a decrepit country estate and survives inside her fantastic imagination. Director: Terry Gilliam Writers:
Tsukimonogatari ::: 22min | Animation, Comedy, Fantasy | TV Mini-Series (2014- ) Episode Guide 4 episodes Tsukimonogatari Poster One day, Araragi Koyomi suddenly realize that he is no longer reflected in the mirror - one characteristic of vampire. That is because he used vampire power too often and now his body is ... S Stars: Takehito Koyasu, Saori Hayami, Hiroshi Kamiya
What a Way to Go! (1964) ::: 7.0/10 -- Approved | 1h 51min | Comedy, Romance | 26 June 1964 (Canada) -- A four-time widow discusses her four marriages, in which all of her husbands became incredibly rich and died prematurely because of their drive to be rich. Director: J. Lee Thompson Writers: Gwen Davis (story), Betty Comden (screenplay) | 1 more credit Stars:
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0-sen Hayato Pilot -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Military Historical -- 0-sen Hayato Pilot 0-sen Hayato Pilot -- The pilot episode of 0-sen Hayato released only on VHS and Betamax. Chronologically it is considered the 1st episode of the franchise. -- OVA - ??? ??, 1985 -- 297 N/A -- -- Hyaku-nengo no Aru Hi -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Original -- Military Sci-Fi Supernatural -- Hyaku-nengo no Aru Hi Hyaku-nengo no Aru Hi -- Mr. Ogino should have died during the war but his spirit was brought back to life by the power of science. He sees the world 100 years later during the year 2032 lead by one of his descendants. They decide to take a trip to Mars too and the ship malfunctions, because a spirit of the past was on the ship, it went out of control trying to reach Buddha's paradise instead. -- Movie - ??? ??, 1933 -- 295 5.53
Accel World -- -- Sunrise -- 24 eps -- Light novel -- Action Game Sci-Fi Romance School -- Accel World Accel World -- Haruyuki Arita is an overweight, bullied middle schooler who finds solace in playing online games. But his life takes a drastic turn one day, when he finds that all his high scores have been topped by Kuroyukihime, the popular vice president of the student council. She then invites him to the student lounge and introduces him to "Brain Burst," a program which allows the users to accelerate their brain waves to the point where time seems to stop. Brain Burst also functions as an augmented reality fighting game, and in order to get more points to accelerate, users must win duels against other players. However, if a user loses all their points, they will also lose access to Brain Burst forever. -- -- Kuroyukihime explains that she chose to show Haruyuki the program because she needs his help. She wants to meet the creator of Brain Burst and uncover the reason of why it was created, but that's easier said than done; to do so, she must defeat the "Six Kings of Pure Color," powerful faction leaders within the game, and reach level 10, the highest level attainable. After the girl helps Haruyuki overcome the bullies that torment him, he vows to help her realize her goal, and so begins the duo's fight to reach the top. -- -- -- Licensor: -- VIZ Media -- 612,411 7.30
A.F -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Original -- Action Sci-Fi Space Mecha -- A.F A.F -- A 20 minutes 100% CG animation presented by "buildup", a company that brought many japanese CG movies such as Godzilla vs Biollante, Stray Dog - Kerberos Panzer Cops, Godzilla vs King Ghidora, Kappa, Gundam Mission To The Rise and D. -- -- The story takes place in the future, the year is 2124. A dangerous container is to be secretly loaded into medical transport ship which goes into the earth orbit because it's forbidden to store dangerous container on earth. -- -- It's so secret that no crew members on the ship were told about the container's contents or any possible hazzards. The truth is, the container carries a dangerous living body in some form like liquid / worm which is capable of reading DNA information of other living beings and then transforms itself as an exact copy. Of course, the original object then will be killed. -- -- (Source: AniDB) -- Special - Sep 6, 2002 -- 1,081 4.42
Ai to Yuuki no Pig Girl Tonde Buurin -- -- Nippon Animation -- 51 eps -- Manga -- Parody Adventure Fantasy Magic Comedy Romance School Shoujo -- Ai to Yuuki no Pig Girl Tonde Buurin Ai to Yuuki no Pig Girl Tonde Buurin -- "Look! In the sky...It's a bird...It's a plane...It's Super Pig?!" -- -- One fateful day, Karin, a junior-high student, found what she thought was an injured piglet. However, the piglet was just exhausted from hunger. After the piglet regained his health by eating Karin's apple, he revealed that he is a prince, Tonrariano III, from a planet called Booringo. Tonrariano wanted to reward Karin for helping him and so he transformed her into a pig with superpowers. Karin was not at all pleased with the gift because she wanted to become a pretty superheroine like "Cutey Chao" (a parody of Cutey Honey), not Super Pig. Reluctantly, she became more interested in her role as Super Pig when she found out that she can turn into someone like "Cutey Chao" if she can collect 108 pearls through doing good deeds for other people. -- -- Licensor: -- Saban Entertainment -- 8,755 6.63
Akazukin Chacha -- -- Gallop -- 74 eps -- Manga -- Adventure Comedy Fantasy Magic Romance Shoujo -- Akazukin Chacha Akazukin Chacha -- Akazukin Chacha is the story of a young magical girl (Mahō Shōjo) named Chacha. Living with her guardian in a cottage on Mochi-mochi mountain is Seravi, who is her teacher and also the fictional world's greatest magician. Chacha is clumsy in casting her spells because, throughout the anime, when she summons something, it often turns out to be something that she didn't mean to cast, for example, spiders (kumo) instead of a cloud (also kumo). At times in the anime when she and her friends are in trouble, however, her spells do work. Living on the same mountain is a boy gifted with enormous strength named Riiya. It is described that Riiya came from a family of werewolves who can instantly change into a wolf whenever they want. Quite far from Mochi-mochi mountain lies Urizuri mountain. Dorothy, also a well known magician in her land, lives in a castle on Urizuri mountain. Living with her is Shiine, her student. Shiine is adept when it comes to casting spells. He is a young wizard and most of his knowledge about magic was taught to him by Dorothy. -- -- The first 2 seasons were originally created by the anime team. Most of the stories in season 3 are based on the manga. -- -- (Source: Wikipedia) -- 12,257 7.38
AKB0048 -- -- Satelight -- 13 eps -- Original -- Music Sci-Fi -- AKB0048 AKB0048 -- After an interplanetary war at the beginning of the 21st century, planet Earth has been left in ruins, with much of its ecosystem completely destroyed. Because it was no longer possible to live a normal life on this planet, the inhabitants are forced to move on to other planets where life will, hopefully, be more comfortable. -- -- The Deep Galactic Trade Organization, a totalitarian government that affects many of the newly inhabited planets, has somehow come to the conclusion that music is a source of evil, and that it must be banned and destroyed for good. The talent group AKB0048 is soon formed, based on the original AKB48 members that once lived on Earth. Even though their music is now considered universally illegal, they make it their mission to bring their music back to life by travelling from one planet to another and holding as many concerts as they possibly can. They must undergo a whole new set of training methods in order to become the best that they can possibly be, while also avoiding the constant danger of being arrested because of their music. Join interplanetary popstars AKB0048 as they try to save the world－with music! -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- TV - Apr 29, 2012 -- 54,878 7.38
Akikan! -- -- Brain's Base -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Comedy Ecchi Fantasy Romance -- Akikan! Akikan! -- Hobbies are often a great way of meeting new people, but how could Kakeru Diachi, who collects rare juice cans, have ever suspected that he'd meet a fascinating new girl when he attempted to DRINK her? Naming her Melon, because she's got great melon... soda, Kakeru quickly learns that she's an Akikan—a beautiful girl who's also a special can created to fight other Akikans in a strange experiment to determine what kind of container is better: steel or aluminum! -- -- Will becoming involved in this ridiculously twisted research project gone amuck complicate Kakeru's life incredibly? Of course it will, but because Melon's steel body needs carbon dioxide to breathe, he's now stuck with her since she's too CO2 dependent! And when his wealthy, attractive, best childhood friend Najimi gets HER own aluminum Akikan, the trouble really begins! -- -- (Source: Sentai Filmworks) -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- 110,783 6.17
Amnesia -- -- Brain's Base -- 12 eps -- Visual novel -- Harem Mystery Romance Fantasy -- Amnesia Amnesia -- After fainting at work, a young lady awakens in the back room of the café she works at with no memory of her life or those around her. Two of her friends, whom she soon learns are named Shin and Toma, are called to help her get home safely. Once she is alone, she meets a spectral boy named Orion that only she can see and hear. He explains that she lost her memories because of his chance visit to her world, so he vows to help her remember who she is. -- -- However, regaining her departed memories without worrying those around her may be more difficult than she realizes. In addition to the gloomy Shin and the protective Toma, she must be wary of arousing the suspicions of the captivating Ikki, the quick-witted Kent, and a mysterious man who lurks in the distance. As her amnesia entangles her in the lives of each of these men, her fragmented memories return piece by piece, and the mysteries of her circumstances slowly come to light. -- -- TV - Jan 7, 2013 -- 245,210 6.05
An Expression -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Original -- Dementia -- An Expression An Expression -- Symbolized an urban man with a triangle figure, a country woman with a circle, and represented the encounter between the two by movement. -- -- Director Shigenji Ogino tried to naturally color the movie via the kinema color technique. Due to being an early work, the technique isn't smooth. Because of this the film has a photosensitive epileptic seizure warning as there are high frequency flashes of red and green frames for the duration of the entire film. -- -- Please be careful while viewing. -- Movie - ??? ??, 1935 -- 615 4.41
Ao Haru Ride -- -- Production I.G -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Drama Romance School Shoujo Slice of Life -- Ao Haru Ride Ao Haru Ride -- Futaba Yoshioka used to be an attractive and popular middle-schooler—well liked by the opposite sex, but ostracized by the girls. Nevertheless, she was able to brush all that off, because the only opinion that truly mattered to her was that of Kou Tanaka, a classmate with whom she shared a shelter from rain once, followed by quite a few other precious and significant memories. She even succeeded at making plans to meet with the quiet and innocent boy at the summer festival, but a simple misunderstanding, and Tanaka's subsequent disappearance, left her walking the halls of her school friendless. -- -- Now in high school, Futaba is not your typical adolescent girl. Determined to become a class favorite this time, she avoids all unwanted attention and, instead of acting cute and feminine, only stands out through her tomboyish behavior and disheveled look. But still, her world is soon turned upside down when the only boy she ever liked unexpectedly comes into her life once again—except he goes by the name of Kou Mabuchi now, and it is not his name alone that has gone through a sea change. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- 638,266 7.66
Area 88 (TV) -- -- Group TAC -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Action Drama Military Romance Shounen -- Area 88 (TV) Area 88 (TV) -- Deep in the sandy plains of the Middle Eastern kingdom of Asran, Japanese photojournalist Makoto Shinjou travels to the remote airbase Area 88 to document the activities of the mercenaries who destroy the country's enemies for a living. Among their ranks is Shin Kazama, a Japanese ace pilot who was tricked by his former best friend into signing a contract with the Asran's fighter squad. Because of this, he lost his career as an airline pilot and the chance to marry his fiancee Ryoko Tsugumo. Now, Shin has three choices in order to leave Area 88 and return to Japan: serve the mercenary group for three years, earn US$1.5 million, or desert the base, risking imminent death. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- ADV Films -- TV - Jan 9, 2004 -- 11,840 7.03
Armitage III: Dual-Matrix -- -- AIC -- 1 ep -- Original -- Action Sci-Fi Adventure Mecha -- Armitage III: Dual-Matrix Armitage III: Dual-Matrix -- A few years after they first met, Naomi Armitage and Ross Syllabus have started a family. Despite their normal lives, they must keep their identities a secret because many people believe that Robots do not deserve equal status with humans. Ross has an opportunity to abolish these ideas on Earth through a vote, but organizations in the shadows are working so that it doesn't happen. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation, Geneon Entertainment USA -- Movie - Jun 25, 2002 -- 15,704 6.86
Arslan Senki -- -- animate Film, J.C.Staff -- 6 eps -- Light novel -- Action Adventure Drama Fantasy Historical -- Arslan Senki Arslan Senki -- In the medieval kingdom of Pars, young Prince Arslan confronts the hostility of his father and the disinterest of his mother, and yearns to learn more about the world. Despite being surrounded by poverty and slavery, Arslan persists in seeing the possibility of a nobler world. Everything changes when the neighboring nation of Lusitania invades Pars, and Arslan is forced to grow up in an instant. -- -- Arslan Senki follows Prince Arslan to war, where he struggles to save his nation and family with the help of a small but devoted circle of advisers. Along the way the young prince finds secrets around every corner and faces enemies who hate him because of what he is, but also finds friends where he least expects them. The story of nations at war, Arslan Senki is also the story of one boy's quest to stay himself in the most trying of circumstances. -- -- Licensor: -- Central Park Media -- OVA - Aug 17, 1991 -- 18,453 6.92
Asagiri no Miko -- -- Chaos Project, GANSIS -- 26 eps -- Manga -- Action Comedy Supernatural Fantasy Seinen -- Asagiri no Miko Asagiri no Miko -- Since childhood, Tadahiro Amatsu has two different-colored eyes - one brown and one light hazel. But because of a dark secret behind his left eye, he's become a target for the masked sorcerer Ayatara Miramune and his band of demons. To combat the demons appearing all over town, Yuzu Hieda, a priestess in training, recruits four other girls from her high school. Under the supervision of Yuzu's elder sister Kurako, the five young priestesses must undergo months of training to master their abilities. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- TV - Jul 4, 2002 -- 6,694 6.16
Baby Steps -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 25 eps -- Manga -- Romance School Shounen Sports -- Baby Steps Baby Steps -- Diligent and methodical honor student Eiichirou Maruo decides to exercise more during the little free time he has available because he is worried about his health. For this reason, after seeing a flyer, he joins the Southern Tennis Club at the beginning of his freshman year. -- -- During his free trial at the club, he meets Natsu Takasaki, another first year student, who is determined on becoming a professional tennis player due to her love for the sport. In contrast, Eiichirou's study-oriented life exists because he believes that it is what he has to do, not because he enjoys it. However, his monotonous days come to an end as the more he plays tennis, the more he becomes fascinated by it. -- -- Baby Steps is the story of a boy who makes the most of his hard-working and perfectionist nature to develop his own unique playing style. Little by little, Eiichirou's skills begin to improve, and he hopes to stand on equal footing with tennis' best players. -- -- TV - Apr 6, 2014 -- 124,951 7.84
Bakuten Shoot Beyblade 2002 -- -- Nippon Animation -- 51 eps -- Manga -- Action Adventure Comedy Sci-Fi Shounen Sports -- Bakuten Shoot Beyblade 2002 Bakuten Shoot Beyblade 2002 -- The Bladebreakers have to join forces once again because a mysterious group under the lead of Oozuma has defeated them, but the real enemy is not Oozuma. The real threath is formed by a group of people who use cyber-BitBeasts to capture the original ones from the Bladebreakers. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- Discotek Media, Nelvana -- 54,005 6.68
Black Clover Movie -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Action Comedy Magic Fantasy Shounen -- Black Clover Movie Black Clover Movie -- (No synopsis yet.) -- Movie - ??? ??, ???? -- 43,935 N/A -- -- Kamisama Kazoku -- -- Toei Animation -- 13 eps -- Light novel -- Fantasy Romance Comedy Drama -- Kamisama Kazoku Kamisama Kazoku -- Samatarou is not just an average high-school boy, the truth is that he is the son of a god, his mother is a goddess and his sisters are candidates to become goddesses. They are living in the human world, because they want their boy to learn about the human customs and the habits of the creatures that they are protecting, so that in this way Samatarou will become a better god. Tenko is a angel assigned to look after Samatarou. She's born the same day, same year as Samatarou and have been close friends ever since. Life seems normal but things start to change with the appearance of a transfer student named Kumiko. Samatarou falls in love with her and from now on, things will be a lot more different for him. His decision of making her fall in love with him without using his powers will put him in trouble. -- TV - May 18, 2006 -- 43,631 7.14
BNA -- -- Trigger -- 12 eps -- Original -- Action Super Power Fantasy -- BNA BNA -- Throughout history, humans have been at odds with Beastmen—a species capable of changing shape due to their genetic "Beast Factor." Because of this conflict, Beastmen have been forced into hiding. Anima City serves as a safe haven for these oppressed individuals to live free from human interference. -- -- During a festival celebrating the town's 10th anniversary, Michiru Kagemori, a human who suddenly turned into a tanuki, finds that Anima City is a far cry from paradise. After witnessing an explosion in the square, she is confronted by Shirou Ogami, a seemingly indestructible wolf and sworn protector of all Beastmen. As they pursue the criminals behind the bombing, the two discover that Michiru is anything but an ordinary Beastman, and look to investigate her mysterious past and uncanny abilities. Could she turn out to be the missing link between Humans and Beastmen? -- -- ONA - Apr 9, 2020 -- 235,099 7.43
Bokura ga Ita -- -- Artland -- 26 eps -- Manga -- Slice of Life Drama Romance Shoujo -- Bokura ga Ita Bokura ga Ita -- Going into her first year of high school, Nanami Takahashi is filled with the hope of making many new friends. After meeting the shy Yuri Yamamoto, she hears about a popular boy in their class: Yano Motoharu. Yuri cares little for Yano because of his past relationship with her older sister Nana, and at first, Nanami doesn't like his attitude either. However, Nanami soon begins to warm up to Yano and takes a liking to him. The two spend more of their time together and eventually decide to start dating. But their love is not without challenges; Yano has trouble opening up to Nanami, since his first girlfriend, Nana, died in a car accident the year before, and she had been with one of her ex-boyfriends at the time. -- -- Finding themselves living in the shadow of Yano's relationship with Nana, Nanami and Yano struggle to keep their relationship afloat amid misunderstandings and heartache with the certainty of their love for each other. -- -- 200,437 7.30
Bokura wa Minna Kawai-sou -- -- Brain's Base -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Slice of Life Comedy Romance School Seinen -- Bokura wa Minna Kawai-sou Bokura wa Minna Kawai-sou -- Kazunari Usa is a high school freshman who will start living alone due to his parents now working in a different area. Excited for his new independent life, he hopes to go about his teenage days without the worry of dealing with any strange people, but as he soon discovers, his new boarding house Kawai Complex is far from ordinary. -- -- The various tenants at Kawai Complex are all quite eccentric characters. Shirosaki, Kazunari's roommate, is a pervert and masochist; Mayumi Nishikino, a borderline alcoholic office lady, hates couples because of her unfortunate luck with men; and Sayaka Watanabe, a seemingly innocent college student, enjoys leading men on. Shocked with the lack of decent individuals at his new residence, Kazunari is about to leave when he runs into shy senior student Ritsu Kawai and finds himself slowly falling in love with her. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- TV - Apr 4, 2014 -- 314,210 7.71
Bokura wa Minna Kawai-sou -- -- Brain's Base -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Slice of Life Comedy Romance School Seinen -- Bokura wa Minna Kawai-sou Bokura wa Minna Kawai-sou -- Kazunari Usa is a high school freshman who will start living alone due to his parents now working in a different area. Excited for his new independent life, he hopes to go about his teenage days without the worry of dealing with any strange people, but as he soon discovers, his new boarding house Kawai Complex is far from ordinary. -- -- The various tenants at Kawai Complex are all quite eccentric characters. Shirosaki, Kazunari's roommate, is a pervert and masochist; Mayumi Nishikino, a borderline alcoholic office lady, hates couples because of her unfortunate luck with men; and Sayaka Watanabe, a seemingly innocent college student, enjoys leading men on. Shocked with the lack of decent individuals at his new residence, Kazunari is about to leave when he runs into shy senior student Ritsu Kawai and finds himself slowly falling in love with her. -- -- TV - Apr 4, 2014 -- 314,210 7.71
Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai! -- -- Arvo Animation, Silver -- 13 eps -- Manga -- Harem Comedy Romance School Shounen -- Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai! Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai! -- Under Nariyuki Yuiga's devoted tutelage, his classmates Rizu Ogata, Fumino Furuhashi, and Uruka Takemoto are finally pulling average test scores on their worst subjects. But time is ticking, and there is still a long way to go before the three geniuses of Ichinose Academy are ready for their upcoming university exams. Meanwhile, the girls still struggle to balance the pursuit of their dreams with their growing affections for their unsuspecting tutor. -- -- Joining them are Mafuyu Kirisu, a teacher with strong views about education and talent because of her past as a rising figure skater, and Asumi Kominami, a graduate from their school aiming to attend a national medical university. With these two additions, the group of six is livelier than ever before. Completely caught up in hilarious antics with his new friends, Yuiga finds that his last year of high school now includes a lot more than just going to class and studying. -- -- 188,621 7.35
Burn Up Scramble -- -- AIC -- 12 eps -- Original -- Action Comedy Drama Ecchi Police Sci-Fi Shounen -- Burn Up Scramble Burn Up Scramble -- AD. 2023, Tokyo. Because of the change of the society such as internationalization and enlargement of the trading, the dark side of the society also continues changing. The criminals are getting deep, and their organizations are increasing its size, then the peace and security is getting worse. -- -- The government takes it seriously, and decides to introduce an innovative system. In order to cope with the special criminals, an extralegal police is founded. -- -- It is a special criminal team, Warriors, which consists of a few elite members. -- -- (Source: AnimeNfo) -- -- Licensor: -- Geneon Entertainment USA -- TV - Jan 12, 2004 -- 8,302 6.18
Cardcaptor Sakura -- -- Madhouse -- 70 eps -- Manga -- Adventure Comedy Drama Magic Romance Fantasy School Shoujo -- Cardcaptor Sakura Cardcaptor Sakura -- Sakura Kinomoto is your garden-variety ten-year-old fourth grader, until one day, she stumbles upon a mysterious book containing a set of cards. Unfortunately, she has little time to divine what the cards mean because she accidentally stirs up a magical gust of wind and unintentionally scatters the cards all over the world. Suddenly awakened from the book, the Beast of the Seal, Keroberos (nicknamed Kero-chan), tells Sakura that she has released the mystical Clow Cards created by the sorcerer Clow Reed. The Cards are no ordinary playthings. Each of them possesses incredible powers, and because they like acting independently, Clow sealed all the Cards within a book. Now that the Cards are set free, they pose a grave danger upon the world, and it is up to Sakura to prevent the Cards from causing a catastrophe! -- -- Appointing Sakura the title of "the Cardcaptor" and granting her the Sealed Key, Keroberos tasks her with finding and recapturing all the Cards. Alongside her best friend Tomoyo Daidouji, and with Kero-chan's guidance, Sakura must learn to balance her new secret duty with the everyday troubles of a young girl involving love, family, and school, all while she takes flight on her magical adventures as Sakura the Cardcaptor. -- -- 347,666 8.16
Cardcaptor Sakura -- -- Madhouse -- 70 eps -- Manga -- Adventure Comedy Drama Magic Romance Fantasy School Shoujo -- Cardcaptor Sakura Cardcaptor Sakura -- Sakura Kinomoto is your garden-variety ten-year-old fourth grader, until one day, she stumbles upon a mysterious book containing a set of cards. Unfortunately, she has little time to divine what the cards mean because she accidentally stirs up a magical gust of wind and unintentionally scatters the cards all over the world. Suddenly awakened from the book, the Beast of the Seal, Keroberos (nicknamed Kero-chan), tells Sakura that she has released the mystical Clow Cards created by the sorcerer Clow Reed. The Cards are no ordinary playthings. Each of them possesses incredible powers, and because they like acting independently, Clow sealed all the Cards within a book. Now that the Cards are set free, they pose a grave danger upon the world, and it is up to Sakura to prevent the Cards from causing a catastrophe! -- -- Appointing Sakura the title of "the Cardcaptor" and granting her the Sealed Key, Keroberos tasks her with finding and recapturing all the Cards. Alongside her best friend Tomoyo Daidouji, and with Kero-chan's guidance, Sakura must learn to balance her new secret duty with the everyday troubles of a young girl involving love, family, and school, all while she takes flight on her magical adventures as Sakura the Cardcaptor. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Geneon Entertainment USA, Nelvana, NIS America, Inc. -- 347,666 8.16
Cardfight!! Vanguard: Asia Circuit-hen -- -- TMS Entertainment -- 39 eps -- Original -- Action Game Adventure Demons Shounen -- Cardfight!! Vanguard: Asia Circuit-hen Cardfight!! Vanguard: Asia Circuit-hen -- Aichi and his friends have won the National Tournament and decide to go their own ways until a mysterious boy named Takuto Tatsunagi appears. He reveals that the Royal Paladins, Dark Paladins, and Kagero leaders have been captured, and the only way to free Cray is for the Vanguard fighters to use a new power- Limit Break. Because the Royal Paladins lose the ability to fight, Aichi's deck is changed to be a Gold Paladin deck. Aichi and his friends must now win the Vanguard VF Circuit if they are to learn more about the occurrences on Cray and free their old friends. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- 20,277 6.82
Cluster Edge -- -- Sunrise -- 25 eps -- Original -- Action Fantasy Military Sci-Fi -- Cluster Edge Cluster Edge -- Cluster Edge Academy isn't just any school; it's THE school, where the offspring of the elite come together to prepare for their roles running a world where artificial soldiers and religious sects are major factors in the battle for total control. Which may be part of why new transfer student Agate Fluorite doesn't quite seem to fit in. It's not just that Agate's enthusiastic attitude stands out among the somber, brooding balance of the student body. There's something about him that demands notice, even from jaded honors students like Beryl Jasper, and from the moment of arrival he's been at the center of a series of mysteries that not even Agate understands. Because Agate's not just another student, he's part of a something so momentous, and dangerous, that the world that built Cluster Edge may not survive its passing. -- -- (Source: Sentai Filmworks) -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- 9,408 6.34
Corrector Yui -- -- Nippon Animation -- 52 eps -- Original -- Sci-Fi Adventure Comedy Magic -- Corrector Yui Corrector Yui -- Yui is an average schoolgirl who lives in a future where all computers are supported by a single global network known as COMNET. Yui is a computer-illiterate girl who after a computer-lab accident is approached by IR, a raccoon looking corrector computer program, which tells her she must save COMNET. She must stop the rogue A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) computer program known as Grosser and his hench-programs from taking over the world. Grosser was originally designed to be that manager of all of COMNET. At first she's very reluctant to play the heroine because of her complete lack of knowledge and ability with computers. To save COMNET she must find and gain the trust of the other seven wayward corrector programs. They must also find the creator or COMNET Professor Inukai, to help stop Grosser for good. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- VIZ Media -- 12,488 6.82
Crying Freeman -- -- Toei Animation -- 6 eps -- Manga -- Action Police Martial Arts Romance Drama Seinen -- Crying Freeman Crying Freeman -- Yo Hinomura was an ordinary Japanese potter when a run-in with a Chinese mafia changed his life forever. Now an assassin for the 108 Dragons, Yo is the perfect killing machine. As a sign for remorse over his victims, he sheds tears after eliminating his targets. Because of this, he is infamously known by the Dragons and every crime syndicate in the world as "Crying Freeman." -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- ADV Films, Discotek Media -- OVA - Nov 25, 1988 -- 8,733 6.49
Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai. -- -- feel. -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Comedy Supernatural Romance Ecchi -- Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai. Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai. -- NEVER make a deal with a wet goddess you've only just met. That's a lesson Ryosuke Kaga learns the hard way when he foolishly agrees to let Lisara Restole use some of his "essence" to stay in this world. Because despite her smoking hot appearance, Lisara's actually a Shinigami, a Goddess of Death. However, she DOESN'T steal years off his life like any decent Shinigami would do. Oh no, instead she sucks him dry of something much more perverse by leeching off his lecherous spirit and draining his ability to enjoy... er... the things that teenage boys normally spend most of their time thinking about! And now that he's been de-debased and de-debauched by her un-dirty trick, the poor regenerated degenerate's only hope of getting his licentiousness renewed is to join the queen of mental-clean on her quest, since when she leaves our mortal plane he regains his normal immorality! But the termination of the probation of his reprobation isn't guaranteed, because Goddesses of Death can be really harsh mistresses and it's going to be anything but easy to go back to being sleazy! -- -- (Source: Sentai Filmworks) -- 340,456 6.63
Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai. -- -- feel. -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Comedy Supernatural Romance Ecchi -- Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai. Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai. -- NEVER make a deal with a wet goddess you've only just met. That's a lesson Ryosuke Kaga learns the hard way when he foolishly agrees to let Lisara Restole use some of his "essence" to stay in this world. Because despite her smoking hot appearance, Lisara's actually a Shinigami, a Goddess of Death. However, she DOESN'T steal years off his life like any decent Shinigami would do. Oh no, instead she sucks him dry of something much more perverse by leeching off his lecherous spirit and draining his ability to enjoy... er... the things that teenage boys normally spend most of their time thinking about! And now that he's been de-debased and de-debauched by her un-dirty trick, the poor regenerated degenerate's only hope of getting his licentiousness renewed is to join the queen of mental-clean on her quest, since when she leaves our mortal plane he regains his normal immorality! But the termination of the probation of his reprobation isn't guaranteed, because Goddesses of Death can be really harsh mistresses and it's going to be anything but easy to go back to being sleazy! -- -- (Source: Sentai Filmworks) -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- 340,456 6.63
DearS -- -- Daume -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Sci-Fi Harem Comedy Romance Ecchi Shounen -- DearS DearS -- One year ago, a UFO containing 150 aliens crash-landed off the shores of Kasai. Because no one could fix their ship, the Japanese Government decided to bestow upon them the designation "DearS" and make them into Japanese citizens, teaching them the language, customs, and culture of Japan. However, in order for them to become more familiar with human society, a home-stay program has been enacted to allow them to mingle with other humans. -- -- One misty morning, a truck carrying a capsule that housed one of these aliens ends up dropping it into the riverbank, releasing her from her confinement. She is eventually found by a high school student named Takeya Ikuhara, who saves her from being hit by a truck and takes pity on her, despite being extremely distrustful of their race and wanting nothing to do with them. Upon being named Ren, she imprints upon him as her "Master" and serves as his personal "Slave," leaving him with a "DearS" who wants to remain with him no matter what and bringing his ordinary, alien-free days to an end. -- 130,613 6.61
DearS -- -- Daume -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Sci-Fi Harem Comedy Romance Ecchi Shounen -- DearS DearS -- One year ago, a UFO containing 150 aliens crash-landed off the shores of Kasai. Because no one could fix their ship, the Japanese Government decided to bestow upon them the designation "DearS" and make them into Japanese citizens, teaching them the language, customs, and culture of Japan. However, in order for them to become more familiar with human society, a home-stay program has been enacted to allow them to mingle with other humans. -- -- One misty morning, a truck carrying a capsule that housed one of these aliens ends up dropping it into the riverbank, releasing her from her confinement. She is eventually found by a high school student named Takeya Ikuhara, who saves her from being hit by a truck and takes pity on her, despite being extremely distrustful of their race and wanting nothing to do with them. Upon being named Ren, she imprints upon him as her "Master" and serves as his personal "Slave," leaving him with a "DearS" who wants to remain with him no matter what and bringing his ordinary, alien-free days to an end. -- -- Licensor: -- Discotek Media, Geneon Entertainment USA -- 130,613 6.61
Dirty Pair Flash -- -- Sunrise -- 6 eps -- Light novel -- Action Adventure Police Comedy Sci-Fi -- Dirty Pair Flash Dirty Pair Flash -- Kei and Yuri were originally junior auxiliary agents in the Worlds Works and Welfare Agency (W.W.W.A. or 3WA for short) when the two were paired together under the codename "Lovely Angels." Kei was coming off her fourth probation for something she had done, and Yuri's dating exploits were common knowledge, not to mention the two had an instant dislike for each other when they met. -- -- At first, Kei and Yuri refused to work with each other, and Kei even resigned from the 3WA. Afterwards, the two continued to work together, although they earned their nickname, "the Dirty Pair" because of all the collateral damage the two (unintentionally) cause in the completion of their cases. And even though the two now get along with one another, they continue to bicker and complain to each other. -- -- Although it is often said that these are younger versions of the original Lovely Angels Kei and Yuri, in truth this series is an alternate universe telling of Dirty Pair, set in the years 2248-49. -- -- (Source: Wikipedia) -- -- Licensor: -- ADV Films, Nozomi Entertainment -- OVA - Jan 21, 1994 -- 7,309 6.65
Divergence Eve 2: Misaki Chronicles -- -- Radix -- 13 eps -- Original -- Adventure Drama Mecha Military Sci-Fi Space -- Divergence Eve 2: Misaki Chronicles Divergence Eve 2: Misaki Chronicles -- Through the long distance warp called the "Exodus Project", Worns, Ryer and the -- other crew members of "Watchers Nest" manage to escape from the Earth. Misaki, who -- was attending the final battle with "Ghoul" at that time, isn't present there and -- before her eyes, the earth changes and gets enclosed by a time barrier. -- -- Ryer and the others search for a way to escape from this space time maze, but the -- earth changes to various forms. Innumerable "Nows" appear due to varying time axes. -- -- And also Misaki, who should have disappeared because of the Exodus Project incident, -- still afortiori. Before Ryer and the others, different forms of Misaki appear. The -- Misaki from training school, the Misaki from her childhood days. -- -- Are these reflections caused by the conflicts that exist inside Misaki? -- -- She awakens a second time and when she derives the response, that history is leading -- into a completely differnet direction now. -- -- Will Misaki, Ryer and the others be able to find a real happy end?! -- -- (Source: AnimeNfo) -- -- Licensor: -- ADV Films, Sentai Filmworks -- 6,478 6.28
Doraemon (1979) -- -- Shin-Ei Animation -- 1787 eps -- Manga -- Adventure Comedy Fantasy Kids Sci-Fi Shounen -- Doraemon (1979) Doraemon (1979) -- Nobita Nobi is a normal fourth grade student. This all changes, however, when a blue robotic cat appears from his desk drawer. Calling himself Doraemon, this robot tells Nobita that his future descendants from the 22nd century live in poverty because of all the mistakes he made. Therefore, they have sent Doraemon to serve as a guide and mentor to Nobita, so that their future may change for the better. What Doraemon comes to learn, though, is that Nobita is the weakest and laziest student in the whole school. -- -- To assist in his quest, Doraemon has a four-dimensional pocket with him, in which he keeps various machines and gadgets from the future. Unfortunately, these often result in even more trouble for Nobita. Will Doraemon really be able to achieve his mission of changing Nobita, or will he remain as he is? -- -- TV - Apr 2, 1979 -- 41,007 7.70
Eiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki The Animation -- -- Kinema Citrus -- 2 eps -- Game -- Action Adventure Fantasy -- Eiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki The Animation Eiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki The Animation -- Ten years ago, a massive invasion by the Erebonian Empire almost shattered the Kingdom of Liberl, piercing to the heart of Capital City before being driven back by a determined counteroffensive led by Cassius Bright. Now, as the invaders pace behind the northern borders, coveting the small kingdom's magic and high technology, Liberl slowly rebuilds with the aid of the Bracer's Guild, whose mystical use of "Craft" is even more intrinsic to the nation's defense than its own army. For young Estelle Bright, daughter of Cassius, this is all just ancient history that she and her adopted brother Joshua learned as kids. But history has a way of repeating itself, and as they prepare to join the Bracers Guild themselves, sinister forces are preparing to thrust them into the familiar family situation of being in the worst possible place when mayhem breaks out. Because when their father's airship goes suddenly missing, of course it only makes sense to two green, but extraordinarily capable, young teenagers to strike out on a rescue mission of their own! -- -- (Source: Sentai Filmworks) -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- OVA - Oct 10, 2011 -- 14,418 6.55
Element Hunters -- -- Heewon Entertainment, NHK Enterprises -- 39 eps -- Original -- Sci-Fi Shounen -- Element Hunters Element Hunters -- In 2029, a large scale ground sinkage occurred in the Mediterranean Sea. Chemical elements such as oxygen, carbon, gold, molybdenum, and cobalt disappeared from the earth's crust suddenly. The human population was decreased by 90% in sixty years. Researchers found out that the disappeared elements were drained into a planet "Nega Earth", located in another dimension. To save the Earth, a special team called the "Element Hunters" is organized. All of the members are under 13 years old, because young and flexible brains are needed to access "Nega Earth". -- 12,090 6.64
Endride -- -- Brain's Base -- 24 eps -- Original -- Adventure Fantasy -- Endride Endride -- Shun Asanaga is a 15-year-old junior high school student with an optimistic and bright personality. One day, he finds a mysterious crystal in the office of his father, who is a scientist and businessman. When Shun touches it, the world becomes distorted, and he is sent into the world of Endra. Emilio, a prince of the kingdom of Endra, is nearing his 16th birthday and despises the reigning king, Delzain. Since Emilio is now at the age when he can inherit the throne, he takes up a weapon and attempts revenge. However, because Emilio is too weak, he is captured by Delzain and put in prison. When Emilio is in grief, the wall of his cell becomes distorted and Shun appears from there with two goals: return to his own world, and complete Emilio's revenge. What future lies ahead for the two boys trying to survive in Endra, yet raised in two different worlds? -- -- (Source: MAL News) -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 63,061 5.64
Futari Ecchi -- -- Chaos Project -- 4 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Ecchi Romance Seinen Slice of Life -- Futari Ecchi Futari Ecchi -- Makoto and Yura Onoda are a newly-wed couple with zero sexual experience. Yura is a shy and naive 25-year-old woman whose good looks grab men's attention, something that she dislikes because she gets embarrassed very easily. Her husband Makoto is of the same age, but as opposed to his wife, he loves having dirty thoughts about other women. Physically though, Makoto is truly faithful to Yura. -- -- Both of them may be virgins, but now that they are married, they are ready to dive into the world of sex, "practicing" as often as possible. However, the world of sex is complex, so they need all the help they can get to find their way through it. Thankfully, their friends, acquaintances, and porn media lend them a helping hand. -- -- Licensor: -- Media Blasters -- OVA - Jul 26, 2002 -- 30,094 6.37
Fuuun Ishin Dai☆Shogun -- -- A.C.G.T., J.C.Staff -- 12 eps -- Original -- Action Historical Mecha -- Fuuun Ishin Dai☆Shogun Fuuun Ishin Dai☆Shogun -- In the late Edo period, Japan had experienced an unprecedented crisis by Kurofune (Black Ships), the ships from foreign countries. But a giant robot called Onigami, which has existed since ancient time, dispelled the Kurofune ships and the exclusion of foreigners was accomplished. The story begins in Japan where Meiji restoration in 1868 didn't happen. The tagline says, "I can be the greatest man in the world, because I am a virgin!!" -- -- (Source: Crunchyroll) -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- TV - Apr 10, 2014 -- 23,305 5.72
GetBackers -- -- Studio Deen -- 49 eps -- Manga -- Action Comedy Drama Mystery Shounen Super Power Supernatural -- GetBackers GetBackers -- Mido Ban and Amano Ginji are known as the Get Backers, retrievers with a success rate of 100%. Whatever is lost or stolen, they can definitely get it back. Despite their powerful abilities and enthusiastic behavior, Ban and Ginji are terminally broke no matter what they do simply because few people would actually desire to hire them. As a result, the pair of them tend to do dangerous jobs, often leading to unwanted re-encounters with their old (and dangerous) friends. -- 106,861 7.60
GetBackers -- -- Studio Deen -- 49 eps -- Manga -- Action Comedy Drama Mystery Shounen Super Power Supernatural -- GetBackers GetBackers -- Mido Ban and Amano Ginji are known as the Get Backers, retrievers with a success rate of 100%. Whatever is lost or stolen, they can definitely get it back. Despite their powerful abilities and enthusiastic behavior, Ban and Ginji are terminally broke no matter what they do simply because few people would actually desire to hire them. As a result, the pair of them tend to do dangerous jobs, often leading to unwanted re-encounters with their old (and dangerous) friends. -- -- Licensor: -- ADV Films, Sentai Filmworks -- 106,861 7.60
Ginga Hyouryuu Vifam -- -- Sunrise -- 46 eps -- Original -- Action Sci-Fi Adventure Space Mecha -- Ginga Hyouryuu Vifam Ginga Hyouryuu Vifam -- AD. 2058, on the Clayad which was the 3rd planet of the Ypserlon system, which was 43 light years away from Earth, suddently aliens raided the planet.The emigrants on the Clayad had to escape from the planet. Because of the confusion during the escape, the children were strayed from their parents and got in the training space ship, Janous. With a lot of sacrifices, they managed to arrive at 4th planet Belwick. However, the Belwick had been already in the war. Therefore, the 13 children had to go to the Earth by themselves. -- -- (Source: AnimeNfo) -- TV - Oct 21, 1983 -- 3,077 7.10
Ginga Tetsudou 999 -- -- Toei Animation -- 113 eps -- Manga -- Sci-Fi Adventure Space Drama -- Ginga Tetsudou 999 Ginga Tetsudou 999 -- In the distant future, humanity has found a way to live forever by purchasing mechanical bodies, but this way to immortality is extraordinarily expensive. An impoverished boy, Tetsurou Hoshino, desires to purchase a pass on the Galaxy Express 999—a train that travels throughout the universe—because it is said that at the end of the line, those aboard can obtain a mechanical body for free. When Tetsurou's mother is gunned down by the villainous machine-man hybrid Count Mecha, however, all seems lost. -- -- Tetsurou is then saved from certain death by the mysterious Maetel, a tall woman with blonde hair and a striking resemblance to his mother. She gives him a pass to the Galaxy Express under one condition: that they travel together. Thus, Tetsurou begins his journey across the universe to many unique planets and thrilling adventures, in hopes of being able to attain that which he most desires. -- -- 26,416 7.80
Ginga Tetsudou 999 -- -- Toei Animation -- 113 eps -- Manga -- Sci-Fi Adventure Space Drama -- Ginga Tetsudou 999 Ginga Tetsudou 999 -- In the distant future, humanity has found a way to live forever by purchasing mechanical bodies, but this way to immortality is extraordinarily expensive. An impoverished boy, Tetsurou Hoshino, desires to purchase a pass on the Galaxy Express 999—a train that travels throughout the universe—because it is said that at the end of the line, those aboard can obtain a mechanical body for free. When Tetsurou's mother is gunned down by the villainous machine-man hybrid Count Mecha, however, all seems lost. -- -- Tetsurou is then saved from certain death by the mysterious Maetel, a tall woman with blonde hair and a striking resemblance to his mother. She gives him a pass to the Galaxy Express under one condition: that they travel together. Thus, Tetsurou begins his journey across the universe to many unique planets and thrilling adventures, in hopes of being able to attain that which he most desires. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Discotek Media -- 26,416 7.80
Gokiburi-tachi no Tasogare -- -- Animation Staff Room, Madhouse -- 1 ep -- Original -- Drama Military -- Gokiburi-tachi no Tasogare Gokiburi-tachi no Tasogare -- Hybrid film with animated cockroaches interacting with live-action actors. -- -- In a trashy bachelor pad lived a colony of roaches who were able to roam freely for food or for games. Because of the homeowner being gentle with the roaches, they have no fear of traps, spray, or being stepped on. However when the homeowner starts bringing over a woman over, life starts to change for the roaches who are already living an easy life. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- Discotek Media -- Movie - Nov 21, 1987 -- 1,634 5.86
Great Teacher Onizuka -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 43 eps -- Manga -- Slice of Life Comedy Drama School Shounen -- Great Teacher Onizuka Great Teacher Onizuka -- Twenty-two-year-old Eikichi Onizuka—ex-biker gang leader, conqueror of Shonan, and virgin—has a dream: to become the greatest high school teacher in all of Japan. This isn't because of a passion for teaching, but because he wants a loving teenage wife when he's old and gray. Still, for a perverted, greedy, and lazy delinquent, there is more to Onizuka than meets the eye. So when he lands a job as the homeroom teacher of the Class 3-4 at the prestigious Holy Forest Academy—despite suplexing the Vice Principal—all of his talents are put to the test, as this class is particularly infamous. -- -- Due to their utter contempt for all teachers, the class' students use psychological warfare to mentally break any new homeroom teacher they get, forcing them to quit and leave school. However, Onizuka isn't your average teacher, and he's ready for any challenge in his way. -- -- Bullying, suicide, and sexual harassment are just a few of the issues his students face daily. By tackling the roots of their problems, Onizuka supports them with his unpredictable and unconventional methods—even if it means jumping off a building to save a suicidal child. Thanks to his eccentric charm and fun-loving nature, Class 3-4 slowly learns just how enjoyable school can be when you're the pupils of the Great Teacher Onizuka. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Discotek Media, Tokyopop -- 612,946 8.70
Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 3: Kurenai no Tsuki -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Visual novel -- Action Fantasy Military Historical Shoujo -- Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 3: Kurenai no Tsuki Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 3: Kurenai no Tsuki -- Another 100 years has passed since the end the end of Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 2 (200 years after the original anime). In the past that is, very little time has gone by in the future. One day, Kasuga Nozomi encounters a strange boy at her high school, who sends her across time and space to Kyou, a place in another world that bears a strong resemblance to Kyoto towards the end of the Heian period. There, the Minamoto clan ("Genji"), led by Minamoto no Yoritomo, is at war with the Taira clan ("Heike"), led by Taira no Kiyomori. The Heike hope to defeat the Genji by releasing vengeful spirits to disturb the earth`s natural flow of energy and to terrorize the land. The boy is revealed to be the human form of Hakuryuu, the White Dragon God that protects Kyou, who is weakened by the presence of the vengeful spirits. As the Hakuryuu no Miko (Priestess of the White Dragon God), Nozomi allies herself with the Genji because Hakuryuu cannot send her home until his power is restored... -- -- (Source: AniDB) -- Special - Dec 28, 2007 -- 3,192 6.78
Hatsukoi Monster -- -- Studio Deen -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Romance School Shoujo -- Hatsukoi Monster Hatsukoi Monster -- Freshman Kaho Nikaidou is from an influential family, and as such, no one has ever said anything even remotely mean to her, for fear of incurring her household's wrath. Wishing to be around people who will not treat her as special because of her background, she leaves home to live at a dormitory for her new school year. Shortly after arriving, Kaho accidentally wanders into traffic and is saved by a tall, handsome stranger. When she asks for his name, he tells her she is weird and walks away. Having finally met the only person to ever say an unkind word to her, Kaho falls head over heels for her savior. -- -- After meeting her rescuer yet again and discovering that his name is Kanade Takahashi, she confesses her love to him. Kanade says he would like for them to be a couple, but that Kaho may not want to date him after she finds out his secret. To her shock, Kaho discovers the startling truth: Kanade is a fifth grader! -- -- Deciding that she can't date a fifth grader, Kaho intends to break up with him. But as she spends more time with Kanade, she begins to care for him even more and continues dating him. Hatsukoi Monster follows Kaho's first steps into love with Kanade, her immature, yet kind, fifth grade boyfriend. -- -- 89,172 5.58
Hayate no Gotoku!!: Atsu ga Natsuize - Mizugi-hen! -- -- J.C.Staff -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Action Comedy Harem Parody Romance -- Hayate no Gotoku!!: Atsu ga Natsuize - Mizugi-hen! Hayate no Gotoku!!: Atsu ga Natsuize - Mizugi-hen! -- To encourage Nagi to swim and enjoy summer, Maria invites various friends to their Sanzenin family's private beach. While everyone is having fun, Nagi hesitates to wear swimsuits and come out because of her small breasts, and refuses to join... -- OVA - Mar 6, 2009 -- 35,002 7.33
Hidan no Aria AA -- -- Doga Kobo -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Action School Shoujo Ai -- Hidan no Aria AA Hidan no Aria AA -- Akari Mamiya, a first-year student from Tokyo Butei High, idolizes the S-rank Butei Aria Holmes Kanzaki and wishes to follow in her footsteps. Despite only being an inept E-rank Butei, Akari's resolve to improve remains strong. After the idea of having an Amica contract (a senior-student mentorship program) with Aria is brought up, Akari submits a request form attempting to establish said contract. Her classmates and friends do not expect Aria to accept Akari's request, mainly because of the girl's strict selection process, but to everyone's surprise, Aria gives Akari a chance through a test, which Akari miraculously passes! However, Aria will not officially make Akari her Amica until Akari meets her standards. -- -- Training under Aria will be no easy feat, as she has to concurrently manage her relationships with her friends. Will Akari have what it takes to walk down the same path as her idol? -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 83,790 6.23
Honoo no Mirage -- -- Madhouse -- 13 eps -- Light novel -- Action Historical Supernatural Drama Romance School Shounen Ai -- Honoo no Mirage Honoo no Mirage -- Takaya Ougi is just a typical high school guy who wants nothing more than to protect his best friend and live a normal life. Enter Nobutsuna Naoe, an older man who informs Takaya that he is in fact the reincarnation of Lord Kagetora. Naoe, himself a possessor, awakens Takaya's abilities to exorcise evil spirits and fight the Fuedal Underworld. While most possessors remember their former lives before being reincarnated, Takaya does not. Naoe is thankful for this, considering his passionate and abusive past with his Lord Kagetora. As Takaya improves his abilities, he also begins to remember what Naoe did because of his love for him. Meanwhile the dark forces of the Hojo and Fuma clans begin their attack as the Fuedal Underworld descends upon the living world. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- Media Blasters -- TV - Jan 7, 2002 -- 19,801 6.55
Honoo no Mirage -- -- Madhouse -- 13 eps -- Light novel -- Action Historical Supernatural Drama Romance School Shounen Ai -- Honoo no Mirage Honoo no Mirage -- Takaya Ougi is just a typical high school guy who wants nothing more than to protect his best friend and live a normal life. Enter Nobutsuna Naoe, an older man who informs Takaya that he is in fact the reincarnation of Lord Kagetora. Naoe, himself a possessor, awakens Takaya's abilities to exorcise evil spirits and fight the Fuedal Underworld. While most possessors remember their former lives before being reincarnated, Takaya does not. Naoe is thankful for this, considering his passionate and abusive past with his Lord Kagetora. As Takaya improves his abilities, he also begins to remember what Naoe did because of his love for him. Meanwhile the dark forces of the Hojo and Fuma clans begin their attack as the Fuedal Underworld descends upon the living world. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- TV - Jan 7, 2002 -- 19,801 6.55
Hori-san to Miyamura-kun -- -- Gonzo, Hoods Entertainment -- 6 eps -- Web manga -- Comedy Romance School Shounen -- Hori-san to Miyamura-kun Hori-san to Miyamura-kun -- Within everyone there exists a side preferably kept hidden, even from close friends. For the smart and popular Kyouko Hori, it's the fact that she has to do all the housework and care for her little brother, Souta, because of her parents' busy work schedules. For the gentle Izumi Miyamura, whom everybody sees as an otaku, it's his nine hidden piercings and large body tattoo. -- -- So what happens when they accidentally discover each other's hidden sides? Sharing parts of themselves that they couldn't with anyone else, strong bonds of friendship soon begin to form between Miyamura and Hori, as well as those around them. As their hidden personas start to dissipate, they slowly learn how to open up to others. -- -- OVA - Sep 26, 2012 -- 79,025 7.36
Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi -- -- Doga Kobo -- 12 eps -- Visual novel -- Comedy Ecchi Harem Romance School -- Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi -- Kazuma Hoshino is preparing himself for a new stage of his life as a teenager. Because of his brother Ayumu’s weaker than average health, their parents thought it best for the family to move out from the city to a more rural environment. Now the two brothers are off to the Yorozuyo Inn where they’ll be staying until their parents can settle affairs back in the city and set up their new home. -- -- Their arrival to the inn doesn’t go as planned though when they catch the wrong bus, wind up in the middle of nowhere, Ayumu gets his hat stolen by a wild monkey, and Kazuma gets lost in the woods trying to track the animal down. It all leads to a chance encounter with a spirited young girl named Ui, who Kazuma ends up accidentally falling onto and kissing while she tries leading him back to the bus stop. This hardly sits well with Ui’s friend Ibuki who swiftly kicks Kazuma and sends him on his way. Much to Kazuma’s continued horror, his bad luck is perpetuated at the inn thanks to its landlady Senka and her slightly perverted sense of humor, and then finding out that two of his classmates are the girls he embarrassed himself in front of back in the woods! -- -- Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi finds Kazuma adapting to his new school, dealing with the multiple women who have entered his life, providing emotional support for his younger brother, and coping with living with his new landlady. However, for some reason, something about this place is bringing whispers of the past into Kazuma's mind. Small flashes back to a more innocent time and a friendship long forgotten. What could this déjà vu mean? -- 149,537 6.76
Hoshizora Kiseki -- -- CoMix Wave Films -- 1 ep -- Original -- Romance Sci-Fi -- Hoshizora Kiseki Hoshizora Kiseki -- Kozue is a girl who loves astronomy, particularly the stars. One night, on an excursion to witness a meteorite, she meets Ginga, a boy who is able to help scientists discover more information about the stars through a mysterious ability of his. However, he is forced to stay in a protective suit in order to carry out his mission. Because of this, Kozue decides to convince Ginga to make his own decisions & to take off the suit using his own will. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- ONA - Jul 21, 2006 -- 10,629 5.79
Houseki no Kuni (TV) -- -- Orange -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Action Drama Fantasy Mystery Seinen -- Houseki no Kuni (TV) Houseki no Kuni (TV) -- In the mysterious future, crystalline organisms called Gems inhabit a world that has been destroyed by six meteors. Each Gem is assigned a role in order to fight against the Lunarians, a species who attacks them in order to shatter their bodies and use them as decorations. -- -- Phosphophyllite, also known as Phos, is a young and fragile Gem who dreams of helping their friends in the war effort. Instead, they are told to compile an encyclopedia because of their delicate condition. After begrudgingly embarking on this task, Phos meets Cinnabar, an intelligent gem who has been relegated to patrolling the isolated island at night because of the corrosive poison their body creates. After seeing how unhappy Cinnabar is, Phos decides to find a role that both of the rejected Gems can enjoy. Houseki no Kuni follows Phos' efforts to be useful and protect their fellow Gems. -- -- 318,646 8.41
Houseki no Kuni (TV) -- -- Orange -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Action Drama Fantasy Mystery Seinen -- Houseki no Kuni (TV) Houseki no Kuni (TV) -- In the mysterious future, crystalline organisms called Gems inhabit a world that has been destroyed by six meteors. Each Gem is assigned a role in order to fight against the Lunarians, a species who attacks them in order to shatter their bodies and use them as decorations. -- -- Phosphophyllite, also known as Phos, is a young and fragile Gem who dreams of helping their friends in the war effort. Instead, they are told to compile an encyclopedia because of their delicate condition. After begrudgingly embarking on this task, Phos meets Cinnabar, an intelligent gem who has been relegated to patrolling the isolated island at night because of the corrosive poison their body creates. After seeing how unhappy Cinnabar is, Phos decides to find a role that both of the rejected Gems can enjoy. Houseki no Kuni follows Phos' efforts to be useful and protect their fellow Gems. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- 318,646 8.41
Hunter x Hunter: Original Video Animation -- -- Nippon Animation -- 8 eps -- Manga -- Action Adventure Super Power Shounen -- Hunter x Hunter: Original Video Animation Hunter x Hunter: Original Video Animation -- After reuniting with Gon and his friends, Kurapika explained to them the risks he bears because of his abilities. Believing that his target of revenge is no longer alive and the search for his fallen comrade's eyes could truly begin, Kurapika soon after receives a message informing him that all the Spiders still lived. After much discussion between his friends, Gon, Kurapika and company decided to hunt after the one Spider member who's ability could ultimately result in Kurapika's defeat and death. Based on the manga by Togashi Yoshihiro. -- OVA - Jan 17, 2002 -- 104,317 8.32
iDOLM@STER Xenoglossia -- -- Sunrise -- 26 eps -- Original -- Action Comedy Mecha Sci-Fi -- iDOLM@STER Xenoglossia iDOLM@STER Xenoglossia -- 107 years ago, the Moon was destroyed in a massive cataclysm that shattered Earth's former satellite into 81 quintillion tons of orbital debris. However, thanks to super-science, the Earth itself was saved and today no one really thinks much about that century-past disaster. Which is why when teenage Haruka Amami auditions for something called the Idolmaster Project, she THINKS she's trying out to be a singing idol. Instead, Haruka finds herself at a secret school run by the Mondenkind Agency, living with a group of other girls who have also been selected as candidates to pilot an iDOL - an advanced robot specifically designed to intercept falling chunks of moon rock. Except, the people who run the Mondenkind Agency aren't exactly knights in shining armor. And then there's the question of whether the iDOLs are really JUST robots. Because from almost the first moment, Haruka starts to feel emotions resonating from within the iDOL called Imber. -- -- (Source: Sentai Filmworks) -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- 20,356 6.51
Inukami! -- -- Seven Arcs -- 26 eps -- Light novel -- Comedy Ecchi Romance Shounen Supernatural -- Inukami! Inukami! -- Kawahira Keita is a descendant of a historic Inukami tamer family; however, because he lacked in its ability, he was forsaken by the family. One day, an Inukami named Youko came. She looked graceful, obedient, above all, beautiful. Soon he contracted with her, and she paid homage to him. However, she was a problematic Inukami that no one had been able to control. -- -- This is a slap stick comedy of an Inukami Tamer, Keita and an Inukami, Youko. Keita is a man of worldly passions, and he likes money and girls very much. On the other hand, Youko likes to destroy things and is very jealous. -- -- (Source: AnimeNfo) -- -- Licensor: -- Discotek Media -- TV - Apr 6, 2006 -- 63,310 7.27
Inukami! -- -- Seven Arcs -- 26 eps -- Light novel -- Comedy Ecchi Romance Shounen Supernatural -- Inukami! Inukami! -- Kawahira Keita is a descendant of a historic Inukami tamer family; however, because he lacked in its ability, he was forsaken by the family. One day, an Inukami named Youko came. She looked graceful, obedient, above all, beautiful. Soon he contracted with her, and she paid homage to him. However, she was a problematic Inukami that no one had been able to control. -- -- This is a slap stick comedy of an Inukami Tamer, Keita and an Inukami, Youko. Keita is a man of worldly passions, and he likes money and girls very much. On the other hand, Youko likes to destroy things and is very jealous. -- -- (Source: AnimeNfo) -- TV - Apr 6, 2006 -- 63,310 7.27
Inuki Kanako Zekkyou Collection: Gakkou ga Kowai! -- -- Toei Animation -- 1 ep -- - -- Horror -- Inuki Kanako Zekkyou Collection: Gakkou ga Kowai! Inuki Kanako Zekkyou Collection: Gakkou ga Kowai! -- Based on the comic "Inuki Kanako Queen's Collection" by Inuki Kanako. -- -- Bukida is disliked by all the students in his class because of his unpleasant face. However, he loves a girl named Matsuko and so he stalks her. Though Matsuko rejects him, Bukida fancies she likes him at heart. One day, Bukida is killed in a traffic accident. Matsuko feels relieved. But Bukida appeared to her as the living dead. Bukida says, "I love you forever, even though I am dead!". -- OVA - Aug 6, 1999 -- 1,304 5.71
Isshuukan Friends. -- -- Brain's Base -- 12 eps -- 4-koma manga -- Slice of Life Comedy School Shounen -- Isshuukan Friends. Isshuukan Friends. -- Sixteen-year-old Yuuki Hase finally finds the courage to speak to his crush and ask her if she wants to become friends. The object of his affection, Kaori Fujimiya, is a quiet and reserved girl who cuts herself off from everyone and does not spare him the same blunt rejection she gives everybody else. -- -- Some time after, Yuuki finds her eating lunch on the roof where she secludes herself during break. He decides to start meeting with Kaori every day in the hopes of beginning to understand her better. The more time they spend together, the more she begins to open up to him. However, nearing the end of the week, she starts to push him away once more. It is then revealed to him the reason for Kaori's cold front: at the end of the week, her memories of those close to her, excluding her family, are forgotten, as they are reset every Monday. The result of an accident in middle school, the once popular and kind Kaori is now unable to make friends in fear of hurting the people dear to her. -- -- Determined to become more than just one week friends, Yuuki asks her the exact same question each Monday: "Would you like to be friends?" Because he knows that deep down, Kaori wishes for that more than anything. -- -- 259,203 7.56
Isshuukan Friends. -- -- Brain's Base -- 12 eps -- 4-koma manga -- Slice of Life Comedy School Shounen -- Isshuukan Friends. Isshuukan Friends. -- Sixteen-year-old Yuuki Hase finally finds the courage to speak to his crush and ask her if she wants to become friends. The object of his affection, Kaori Fujimiya, is a quiet and reserved girl who cuts herself off from everyone and does not spare him the same blunt rejection she gives everybody else. -- -- Some time after, Yuuki finds her eating lunch on the roof where she secludes herself during break. He decides to start meeting with Kaori every day in the hopes of beginning to understand her better. The more time they spend together, the more she begins to open up to him. However, nearing the end of the week, she starts to push him away once more. It is then revealed to him the reason for Kaori's cold front: at the end of the week, her memories of those close to her, excluding her family, are forgotten, as they are reset every Monday. The result of an accident in middle school, the once popular and kind Kaori is now unable to make friends in fear of hurting the people dear to her. -- -- Determined to become more than just one week friends, Yuuki asks her the exact same question each Monday: "Would you like to be friends?" Because he knows that deep down, Kaori wishes for that more than anything. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- 259,203 7.56
Isuca -- -- Arms -- 10 eps -- Manga -- Action Comedy Ecchi Romance School Seinen Supernatural -- Isuca Isuca -- Poor Shinichirou Asano has the worst of luck. His parents abandoned him and ran off to Europe. If that isn't bad enough on its own, they barely left him any money to take care of himself. In order to pay rent and keep a roof over his head, he has to work. Unfortunately, he was just fired from his last job and as a high school student, he doesn't have many other prospects. -- -- One evening, he's attacked by a centipede monster on his way home. Shinichirou is saved by a mysterious girl with a bow and arrow, who he later discovers is Sakuya Shimazu, a beautiful student who attends his school. But when he later helps an injured girl, he discovers two things. First, the injured girl isn't human at all but rather a nekomata, a two-tailed demon cat. And second, Sakuya comes from a family of exorcists, who've protected humanity from rogue monsters and spirits for generations. Because Shinichirou was responsible for releasing the nekomata, Sakuya enlists his help in recapturing the demon, but that's just the beginning of Shinichirou's relationship with Sakuya. It turns out the Shimazu family needs a housekeeper and it just so happens that Shinichirou excels at cooking and likes to clean! It may not be his dream job, but if it pays the rent and puts food on the table... -- 125,107 6.02
Isuca -- -- Arms -- 10 eps -- Manga -- Action Comedy Ecchi Romance School Seinen Supernatural -- Isuca Isuca -- Poor Shinichirou Asano has the worst of luck. His parents abandoned him and ran off to Europe. If that isn't bad enough on its own, they barely left him any money to take care of himself. In order to pay rent and keep a roof over his head, he has to work. Unfortunately, he was just fired from his last job and as a high school student, he doesn't have many other prospects. -- -- One evening, he's attacked by a centipede monster on his way home. Shinichirou is saved by a mysterious girl with a bow and arrow, who he later discovers is Sakuya Shimazu, a beautiful student who attends his school. But when he later helps an injured girl, he discovers two things. First, the injured girl isn't human at all but rather a nekomata, a two-tailed demon cat. And second, Sakuya comes from a family of exorcists, who've protected humanity from rogue monsters and spirits for generations. Because Shinichirou was responsible for releasing the nekomata, Sakuya enlists his help in recapturing the demon, but that's just the beginning of Shinichirou's relationship with Sakuya. It turns out the Shimazu family needs a housekeeper and it just so happens that Shinichirou excels at cooking and likes to clean! It may not be his dream job, but if it pays the rent and puts food on the table... -- -- Licensor: -- Discotek Media -- 125,107 6.02
Itazura na Kiss -- -- TMS Entertainment -- 25 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Romance Shoujo -- Itazura na Kiss Itazura na Kiss -- When her newly-built home is razed to the ground by an earthquake, low-achieving, clumsy, and troublesome third-year high school student Kotoko Aihara is forced to share a roof with the school's—and possibly Japan's—smartest student, Naoki Irie. Kotoko is not actually a complete stranger to Irie-kun; unfortunately, a single love letter that she tried to give him in the past has already sealed her fate as far as he is concerned. Throw in some quirky friends and a meddlesome mother, and Kotoko might not even have a snowball's chance in hell of winning the older Irie boy's heart. Yet Kotoko remains optimistic that, because she now lives in his house, her unattainable crush on the genius since the beginning of high school has never been more within reach. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Discotek Media -- 235,854 7.50
Je Bul Chal-ssi Iyagi -- -- - -- 1 ep -- - -- Comedy Horror Fantasy -- Je Bul Chal-ssi Iyagi Je Bul Chal-ssi Iyagi -- An unprecedented media show is on air at a TV broadcasting studio. The show is asking people whether a spider that drove an assemblyman crazy should be publicly executed or not. The spider in question is Je Bul-chal(meaning 'my mistake'), a hardworking young individual who became 'an ear cleaner' because of a precious memory he holds concerning his sister. In order to take a poll about his execution, the story of how Mr. Sorry became a spider is gradually revealed. -- -- (Source: Official website) -- Movie - Mar 12, 2009 -- 471 5.81
Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori -- -- Studio Deen -- 26 eps -- Original -- Mystery Horror Psychological Supernatural -- Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori -- Ai Enma and her companions continue to offer their service of revenge against those who have wronged others, and the price is as steep as ever—for damning the offender to hell, the person exacting vengeance is sent to the abyss as well. As they cast soul after soul into the darkness, a new sinister force is watching them: a little girl named Kikuri. -- -- While Ai continues her duties, she meets a boy named Takuma Kurebayashi, known as the "Devil's Child" because of the horrific events that occur around him. Unfortunately, Takuma's reputation leads the townspeople to use him as a scapegoat for those who have been ferried off to hell. When things quickly spiral out of control, Ai must find a way to bring an end to this senseless violence, as it poses a threat to her very existence. -- -- 136,905 7.93
Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori -- -- Studio Deen -- 26 eps -- Original -- Mystery Horror Psychological Supernatural -- Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori -- Ai Enma and her companions continue to offer their service of revenge against those who have wronged others, and the price is as steep as ever—for damning the offender to hell, the person exacting vengeance is sent to the abyss as well. As they cast soul after soul into the darkness, a new sinister force is watching them: a little girl named Kikuri. -- -- While Ai continues her duties, she meets a boy named Takuma Kurebayashi, known as the "Devil's Child" because of the horrific events that occur around him. Unfortunately, Takuma's reputation leads the townspeople to use him as a scapegoat for those who have been ferried off to hell. When things quickly spiral out of control, Ai must find a way to bring an end to this senseless violence, as it poses a threat to her very existence. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- 136,905 7.93
Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita -- -- AIC ASTA -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Adventure Comedy Fantasy -- Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita -- Because of the constantly declining birth rates over many decades, human civilization is all but extinct. With only a few humans remaining, they survive in this post-apocalyptic world with what was left behind by the previous generations. Earth is now dominated by fairies, tiny creatures with extremely advanced technology, an obsession with candy, and a complete disregard for human safety. -- -- A young girl who has just finished her studies returns to her hometown and is designated as an official United Nations arbitrator. Her duty is to serve as a link between mankind and fairies, reassuring each side that both races can live together peacefully. She imagines this task will be easy enough, but controlling the disasters created by the oblivious fairies in their pursuit of candy will require a lot more effort than she initially believes. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- TV - Jul 2, 2012 -- 161,405 7.77
Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita -- -- AIC ASTA -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Adventure Comedy Fantasy -- Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita -- Because of the constantly declining birth rates over many decades, human civilization is all but extinct. With only a few humans remaining, they survive in this post-apocalyptic world with what was left behind by the previous generations. Earth is now dominated by fairies, tiny creatures with extremely advanced technology, an obsession with candy, and a complete disregard for human safety. -- -- A young girl who has just finished her studies returns to her hometown and is designated as an official United Nations arbitrator. Her duty is to serve as a link between mankind and fairies, reassuring each side that both races can live together peacefully. She imagines this task will be easy enough, but controlling the disasters created by the oblivious fairies in their pursuit of candy will require a lot more effort than she initially believes. -- -- TV - Jul 2, 2012 -- 161,405 7.77
Jiok -- -- - -- 1 ep -- - -- Horror Drama Fantasy -- Jiok Jiok -- Jae-young, an ordinary woman in her mid-20s is sentenced to death by an angel, and ascends to Heaven. Going to Heaven means nothing to her because she assumes Heaven is devoid of reason and humanity. But she accepts her fate and proceeds to bid farewell to her mother and friend. During her farewells, the desire for life starts to torture her. -- -- (Source: KoBiz) -- Movie - Jul ??, 2006 -- 708 5.94
JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken: Adventure -- -- APPP -- 7 eps -- Manga -- Adventure Drama Fantasy Horror Shounen Supernatural Vampire -- JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken: Adventure JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken: Adventure -- Kujo Jotaro is a normal, popular Japanese high-schooler, until he thinks that he is possessed by a spirit, and locks himself in prison. After seeing his grandfather, Joseph Joestar, and fighting Joseph's friend Muhammad Abdul, Jotaro learns that the "Spirit" is actually Star Platinum, his Stand, or fighting energy given a semi-solid form. Later, his mother gains a Stand, and becomes sick. Jotaro learns that it is because the vampire Dio Brando has been revived 100 years after his defeat to Jonathan Joestar, Jotaro's great-great-grandfather. Jotaro decides to join Joseph and Abdul in a trip to Egypt to defeat Dio once and for all. -- -- Licensor: -- Super Techno Arts -- OVA - May 25, 2000 -- 59,139 7.19
JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken: Adventure -- -- APPP -- 7 eps -- Manga -- Adventure Drama Fantasy Horror Shounen Supernatural Vampire -- JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken: Adventure JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken: Adventure -- Kujo Jotaro is a normal, popular Japanese high-schooler, until he thinks that he is possessed by a spirit, and locks himself in prison. After seeing his grandfather, Joseph Joestar, and fighting Joseph's friend Muhammad Abdul, Jotaro learns that the "Spirit" is actually Star Platinum, his Stand, or fighting energy given a semi-solid form. Later, his mother gains a Stand, and becomes sick. Jotaro learns that it is because the vampire Dio Brando has been revived 100 years after his defeat to Jonathan Joestar, Jotaro's great-great-grandfather. Jotaro decides to join Joseph and Abdul in a trip to Egypt to defeat Dio once and for all. -- OVA - May 25, 2000 -- 59,139 7.19
JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken -- -- APPP -- 6 eps -- Manga -- Adventure Drama Fantasy Horror Shounen Supernatural Vampire -- JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken -- Kujo Jotaro is a normal, popular Japanese high-schooler, until he thinks that he is possessed by a spirit, and locks himself in prison. After seeing his grandfather, Joseph Joestar, and fighting Joseph's friend Muhammad Abdul, Jotaro learns that the "Spirit" is actually Star Platinum, his Stand, or fighting energy given a semi-solid form. Later, his mother gains a Stand, and becomes sick. Jotaro learns that it is because the vampire Dio Brando has been revived 100 years after his defeat to Jonathan Joestar, Jotaro's great-great-grandfather. Jotaro decides to join Joseph and Abdul in a trip to Egypt to defeat Dio once and for all. -- -- Licensor: -- Super Techno Arts -- OVA - Nov 19, 1993 -- 81,313 7.35
JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken -- -- APPP -- 6 eps -- Manga -- Adventure Drama Fantasy Horror Shounen Supernatural Vampire -- JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken -- Kujo Jotaro is a normal, popular Japanese high-schooler, until he thinks that he is possessed by a spirit, and locks himself in prison. After seeing his grandfather, Joseph Joestar, and fighting Joseph's friend Muhammad Abdul, Jotaro learns that the "Spirit" is actually Star Platinum, his Stand, or fighting energy given a semi-solid form. Later, his mother gains a Stand, and becomes sick. Jotaro learns that it is because the vampire Dio Brando has been revived 100 years after his defeat to Jonathan Joestar, Jotaro's great-great-grandfather. Jotaro decides to join Joseph and Abdul in a trip to Egypt to defeat Dio once and for all. -- OVA - Nov 19, 1993 -- 81,313 7.35
Just Because! -- -- Pine Jam -- 12 eps -- Original -- Slice of Life Drama Romance School -- Just Because! Just Because! -- As another school year begins drawing to a close, the third-year high school students move steadily toward the next milestone of their lives: graduation. Among them are Mio Natsume, a girl burdened with lingering feelings; Hazuki Morikawa, a member of the concert band but distant from the others; and Haruto Souma, an athlete obsessed with baseball. Meanwhile, second-year student Ena Komiya seeks to revive the photography club to its former glory, refusing to let the organization be disbanded. Though this group lacks a strong connection with one another, their lives suddenly cross paths with the arrival of a third-year transfer student. -- -- While a transfer so close to graduation is unusual for most, it is business as usual for Eita Izumi. Due to his father's work, he has never been able to stay in one place for very long. But as luck would have it, their most recent relocation has returned Eita to his hometown for his final semester of high school. For better or worse, it also sparks the rekindling of old relationships left behind in the past. -- -- With graduation already causing its own share of anxieties, Eita's sudden arrival brings these students' carefree days to an abrupt end. Long-forgotten memories, deeply buried emotions, and inspiring new passions—everything is brought to light in their bittersweet final semester. -- -- 225,913 7.28
Just Because! -- -- Pine Jam -- 12 eps -- Original -- Slice of Life Drama Romance School -- Just Because! Just Because! -- As another school year begins drawing to a close, the third-year high school students move steadily toward the next milestone of their lives: graduation. Among them are Mio Natsume, a girl burdened with lingering feelings; Hazuki Morikawa, a member of the concert band but distant from the others; and Haruto Souma, an athlete obsessed with baseball. Meanwhile, second-year student Ena Komiya seeks to revive the photography club to its former glory, refusing to let the organization be disbanded. Though this group lacks a strong connection with one another, their lives suddenly cross paths with the arrival of a third-year transfer student. -- -- While a transfer so close to graduation is unusual for most, it is business as usual for Eita Izumi. Due to his father's work, he has never been able to stay in one place for very long. But as luck would have it, their most recent relocation has returned Eita to his hometown for his final semester of high school. For better or worse, it also sparks the rekindling of old relationships left behind in the past. -- -- With graduation already causing its own share of anxieties, Eita's sudden arrival brings these students' carefree days to an abrupt end. Long-forgotten memories, deeply buried emotions, and inspiring new passions—everything is brought to light in their bittersweet final semester. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- 225,913 7.28
Juuni Kokuki -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 45 eps -- Novel -- Action Adventure Fantasy Magic Supernatural -- Juuni Kokuki Juuni Kokuki -- Youko Nakajima has only ever wanted to be normal. She does what she is asked, gets good grades, is the class president, and even helps her classmates whenever she can—but because of her red hair, she has never fit in. With her pushover attitude, Youko lets classmates take advantage of her, so she has nobody she can really call a friend. -- -- But on an otherwise ordinary day, a man who claims to be from another world barges into Youko's classroom and bows before her. This elegant blond-haired man, Keiki, claims that Youko is his master and belongs on the throne of his kingdom. However, their first meeting is cut short as Keiki has been followed by otherworldly beasts called youma. He is able to escape with Youko into his own realm, but two other classmates—Ikuya Asano and Yuka Sugimoto—are caught up in the madness as well. Unfortunately, their troubles have only just begun, as the youma attack leaves them separated from Keiki. Alone in this strange new land, these ordinary students must learn to fend for themselves or die. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Discotek Media, Media Blasters, Tokyopop -- TV - Apr 9, 2002 -- 116,713 8.05
Juuni Kokuki -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 45 eps -- Novel -- Action Adventure Fantasy Magic Supernatural -- Juuni Kokuki Juuni Kokuki -- Youko Nakajima has only ever wanted to be normal. She does what she is asked, gets good grades, is the class president, and even helps her classmates whenever she can—but because of her red hair, she has never fit in. With her pushover attitude, Youko lets classmates take advantage of her, so she has nobody she can really call a friend. -- -- But on an otherwise ordinary day, a man who claims to be from another world barges into Youko's classroom and bows before her. This elegant blond-haired man, Keiki, claims that Youko is his master and belongs on the throne of his kingdom. However, their first meeting is cut short as Keiki has been followed by otherworldly beasts called youma. He is able to escape with Youko into his own realm, but two other classmates—Ikuya Asano and Yuka Sugimoto—are caught up in the madness as well. Unfortunately, their troubles have only just begun, as the youma attack leaves them separated from Keiki. Alone in this strange new land, these ordinary students must learn to fend for themselves or die. -- -- TV - Apr 9, 2002 -- 116,713 8.05
Kakushigoto Movie -- -- Ajia-Do -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Slice of Life Comedy Shounen -- Kakushigoto Movie Kakushigoto Movie -- Compilation movie of the TV series which includes new scenes that were not adapted in the television anime, and different perspectives. -- -- Kakushi Gotou is a somewhat popular manga artist whose works are known for inappropriate content. Because of this raunchiness, when his daughter Hime was born, he vowed to keep his profession hidden from her, believing that she will be disillusioned if she finds out. -- -- This paranoia-induced belief leads Kakushi into hectic situations. Despite being a single father, he does his best and often resorts to extreme ends just to protect his secret, such as guising as a salaryman every day or holding emergency drills in case Hime somehow finds her way to his workplace. -- -- Kakushigoto tells the story of a father and daughter living side by side, maintaining their peaceful existence as the father attempts to preserve the status quo. However, there is a saying: "there are no secrets that time cannot reveal." In time, Hime must learn the reality behind the things she took for granted as she grew up. -- -- Movie - Jul 9, 2021 -- 14,440 N/A -- -- Sola Specials -- -- Nomad -- 2 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Romance Slice of Life Supernatural -- Sola Specials Sola Specials -- DVD-exclusive specials. The first takes place between episode 4 and 5 of the main series and and the second is a prologue to the series leading up to the events on the last day before the beginning of episode 1. -- -- (Source: AniDB) -- -- Licensor: -- Bandai Entertainment -- Special - Sep 25, 2007 -- 14,440 6.95
Kakushigoto Movie -- -- Ajia-Do -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Slice of Life Comedy Shounen -- Kakushigoto Movie Kakushigoto Movie -- Compilation movie of the TV series which includes new scenes that were not adapted in the television anime, and different perspectives. -- -- Kakushi Gotou is a somewhat popular manga artist whose works are known for inappropriate content. Because of this raunchiness, when his daughter Hime was born, he vowed to keep his profession hidden from her, believing that she will be disillusioned if she finds out. -- -- This paranoia-induced belief leads Kakushi into hectic situations. Despite being a single father, he does his best and often resorts to extreme ends just to protect his secret, such as guising as a salaryman every day or holding emergency drills in case Hime somehow finds her way to his workplace. -- -- Kakushigoto tells the story of a father and daughter living side by side, maintaining their peaceful existence as the father attempts to preserve the status quo. However, there is a saying: "there are no secrets that time cannot reveal." In time, Hime must learn the reality behind the things she took for granted as she grew up. -- -- Movie - Jul 9, 2021 -- 14,440 N/A -- -- Teekyuu 6 -- -- Millepensee -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Shounen Sports -- Teekyuu 6 Teekyuu 6 -- Sixth season of the Teekyuu series. -- 14,439 6.62
Kakushigoto (TV) -- -- Ajia-Do -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Slice of Life Comedy Shounen -- Kakushigoto (TV) Kakushigoto (TV) -- Kakushi Gotou is a somewhat popular manga artist whose works are known for inappropriate content. Because of this raunchiness, when his daughter Hime was born, he vowed to keep his profession hidden from her, believing that she will be disillusioned if she finds out. -- -- This paranoia-induced belief leads Kakushi into hectic situations. Despite being a single father, he does his best and often resorts to extreme ends just to protect his secret, such as guising as a salaryman every day or holding emergency drills in case Hime somehow finds her way to his workplace. -- -- Kakushigoto tells the story of a father and daughter living side by side, maintaining their peaceful existence as the father attempts to preserve the status quo. However, there is a saying: "there are no secrets that time cannot reveal." In time, Hime must learn the reality behind the things she took for granted as she grew up. -- -- 214,676 8.01
Kakushigoto (TV) -- -- Ajia-Do -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Slice of Life Comedy Shounen -- Kakushigoto (TV) Kakushigoto (TV) -- Kakushi Gotou is a somewhat popular manga artist whose works are known for inappropriate content. Because of this raunchiness, when his daughter Hime was born, he vowed to keep his profession hidden from her, believing that she will be disillusioned if she finds out. -- -- This paranoia-induced belief leads Kakushi into hectic situations. Despite being a single father, he does his best and often resorts to extreme ends just to protect his secret, such as guising as a salaryman every day or holding emergency drills in case Hime somehow finds her way to his workplace. -- -- Kakushigoto tells the story of a father and daughter living side by side, maintaining their peaceful existence as the father attempts to preserve the status quo. However, there is a saying: "there are no secrets that time cannot reveal." In time, Hime must learn the reality behind the things she took for granted as she grew up. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 214,676 8.01
Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai -- -- Manglobe -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Harem Romance Shounen Supernatural -- Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai -- Keima Katsuragi, known online as the legendary "God of Conquest," can conquer any girl's heart—in dating sim games, at least. In reality, he opts for the two-dimensional world of gaming over real life because he is an unhealthily obsessed otaku of galge games (a type of Japanese video game centered on interactions with attractive girls). -- -- When he arrogantly accepts an anonymous offer to prove his supremacy at dating sim games, Keima is misled into aiding a naïve and impish demon from hell named Elucia "Elsie" de Lute Ima with her mission: retrieving runaway evil spirits who have escaped from hell and scattered themselves throughout the human world. Keima discovers that the only way to capture these spirits is to conquer what he hates the most: the unpredictable hearts of three-dimensional girls! Shackled to Elsie via a deadly collar, Keima now has his title of "God of Conquest" put to the ultimate test as he is forced to navigate through the hearts of a multitude of real-life girls. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- 523,631 7.72
Kamisama Kazoku -- -- Toei Animation -- 13 eps -- Light novel -- Fantasy Romance Comedy Drama -- Kamisama Kazoku Kamisama Kazoku -- Samatarou is not just an average high-school boy, the truth is that he is the son of a god, his mother is a goddess and his sisters are candidates to become goddesses. They are living in the human world, because they want their boy to learn about the human customs and the habits of the creatures that they are protecting, so that in this way Samatarou will become a better god. Tenko is a angel assigned to look after Samatarou. She's born the same day, same year as Samatarou and have been close friends ever since. Life seems normal but things start to change with the appearance of a transfer student named Kumiko. Samatarou falls in love with her and from now on, things will be a lot more different for him. His decision of making her fall in love with him without using his powers will put him in trouble. -- TV - May 18, 2006 -- 43,631 7.14
Kami-tachi ni Hirowareta Otoko -- -- Maho Film -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Adventure Slice of Life Magic Fantasy -- Kami-tachi ni Hirowareta Otoko Kami-tachi ni Hirowareta Otoko -- Deep in the forest, far from any human contact, there lives a child named Ryouma Takebayashi. He engages in the rather strange hobby of keeping various types of slimes as pets. Furthermore, despite his young age, he has a sturdy physique and good compatibility for magic. All of this is because, having endured much hardship in his previous life, three gods grace Ryouma with a second chance to pursue one goal: savor the wonders of life. -- -- After three years of comfortable solitude pass by, Ryouma meets people that will change his current life forever. When he encounters and helps some soldiers tend to their wounded comrade, the group convinces him to accompany them to visit the nearby town's ducal family. Ryouma agrees and soon embarks on a journey to explore the vast world beyond his home. -- -- 97,612 6.88
Kami-tachi ni Hirowareta Otoko -- -- Maho Film -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Adventure Slice of Life Magic Fantasy -- Kami-tachi ni Hirowareta Otoko Kami-tachi ni Hirowareta Otoko -- Deep in the forest, far from any human contact, there lives a child named Ryouma Takebayashi. He engages in the rather strange hobby of keeping various types of slimes as pets. Furthermore, despite his young age, he has a sturdy physique and good compatibility for magic. All of this is because, having endured much hardship in his previous life, three gods grace Ryouma with a second chance to pursue one goal: savor the wonders of life. -- -- After three years of comfortable solitude pass by, Ryouma meets people that will change his current life forever. When he encounters and helps some soldiers tend to their wounded comrade, the group convinces him to accompany them to visit the nearby town's ducal family. Ryouma agrees and soon embarks on a journey to explore the vast world beyond his home. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 97,612 6.88
Kanojo mo Kanojo -- -- Tezuka Productions -- ? eps -- Manga -- Slice of Life Comedy Romance School Shounen -- Kanojo mo Kanojo Kanojo mo Kanojo -- After harboring an unrequited love for years, Naoya Mukai finally gets to date his childhood friend, Saki Saki. However, just as he tries to commit himself to this relationship, he receives an abrupt confession from Nagisa Minase. -- -- At first, Naoya tries to reject her but is soon overcome by feelings of not wanting to hurt Nagisa. Trying to avoid betraying his girlfriend's trust in him, Naoya thinks up a "solution" to make both girls happy—two-timing. Naturally, Saki rebuffs this idea, but through Naoya's and Nagisa's persistence, she reluctantly submits. -- -- With this, a three-way affair begins between Naoya, his girlfriend, and his "other" girlfriend, as they develop a relationship that deviates from the social norm. -- -- TV - Jul ??, 2021 -- 14,817 N/A -- -- Gokinjo Monogatari -- -- Toei Animation -- 50 eps -- Manga -- Slice of Life Comedy Drama Romance Shoujo -- Gokinjo Monogatari Gokinjo Monogatari -- The protagonist, Kouda Mikako, is a student of "Yaza Gaku". Specialising in fashion design, Mikako dreams of becoming a fashion designer with her own brand. Living next to her is her childhood friend, Yamaguchi Tsutomu. Even though they have been close since they were young, they share a platonic friendship. However, Tsutomu has been gaining popularity, especially with the girls, because he seems to resemble a popular vocalist from a band and somehow, Mikako begins to see him in a different light. This is a story about how youths cope with dreams, love and friendship. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- TV - Sep 10, 1995 -- 14,813 7.49
Kanon -- -- Toei Animation -- 13 eps -- Visual novel -- Drama Romance Slice of Life Supernatural -- Kanon Kanon -- It’s been 7 years since Yuuichi Aizawa visited his aunt Akiko, but now that his parents have gone to Africa to pursue their careers, he is finally back in the little northern town. Yuuichi is not really overjoyed with the prospect of living here though, because all of his memories of this place and the people living in it have mysteriously vanished. His cute cousin Nayuki seems like a stranger as well, even though he used to play with her all the time when they were younger. -- -- On the day of moving into his new home, Yuuichi starts unpacking the boxes and stumbles upon a red headband that no one seems to recognize. This is one of the first clues that will make Yuuichi take a stroll through the snow-covered town and make him start recalling fragments of his past, broken promises and buried secrets. Yuuichi soon realizes that there is something supernatural going on, and all of his new female acquaintances seem to have links to his forgotten past. -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- TV - Jan 31, 2002 -- 56,479 7.11
Kanon -- -- Toei Animation -- 13 eps -- Visual novel -- Drama Romance Slice of Life Supernatural -- Kanon Kanon -- It’s been 7 years since Yuuichi Aizawa visited his aunt Akiko, but now that his parents have gone to Africa to pursue their careers, he is finally back in the little northern town. Yuuichi is not really overjoyed with the prospect of living here though, because all of his memories of this place and the people living in it have mysteriously vanished. His cute cousin Nayuki seems like a stranger as well, even though he used to play with her all the time when they were younger. -- -- On the day of moving into his new home, Yuuichi starts unpacking the boxes and stumbles upon a red headband that no one seems to recognize. This is one of the first clues that will make Yuuichi take a stroll through the snow-covered town and make him start recalling fragments of his past, broken promises and buried secrets. Yuuichi soon realizes that there is something supernatural going on, and all of his new female acquaintances seem to have links to his forgotten past. -- TV - Jan 31, 2002 -- 56,479 7.11
Kara no Kyoukai 2: Satsujin Kousatsu (Zen) -- -- ufotable -- 1 ep -- Light novel -- Action Mystery Supernatural Romance Thriller -- Kara no Kyoukai 2: Satsujin Kousatsu (Zen) Kara no Kyoukai 2: Satsujin Kousatsu (Zen) -- In the winter of 1995, Mikiya Kokutou passes a young woman during a late night stroll in the snow. Clad in a striking white kimono and bearing an enigmatic gaze, Shiki Ryougi smiles at Mikiya who stares back with curiosity. Later that spring, Mikiya notices Shiki at his high school entrance ceremony, and they become acquaintances through lunchtime conversations. As Shiki begins opening up to him, Mikiya learns about her unique upbringing. -- -- Meanwhile, a series of unprecedented murders takes place across Mifune City. Seemingly related, these murders are particularly brutal and warrant a large scale police investigation. Because of his cousin's work as a police investigator, Mikiya is given insight into the investigation. Concerned for Shiki's safety, Mikiya decides to monitor her actions, but in doing so, he stumbles upon a truly frightening discovery that changes his life forever. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Aniplex of America -- Movie - Dec 29, 2007 -- 195,099 7.84
Kara no Kyoukai 2: Satsujin Kousatsu (Zen) -- -- ufotable -- 1 ep -- Light novel -- Action Mystery Supernatural Romance Thriller -- Kara no Kyoukai 2: Satsujin Kousatsu (Zen) Kara no Kyoukai 2: Satsujin Kousatsu (Zen) -- In the winter of 1995, Mikiya Kokutou passes a young woman during a late night stroll in the snow. Clad in a striking white kimono and bearing an enigmatic gaze, Shiki Ryougi smiles at Mikiya who stares back with curiosity. Later that spring, Mikiya notices Shiki at his high school entrance ceremony, and they become acquaintances through lunchtime conversations. As Shiki begins opening up to him, Mikiya learns about her unique upbringing. -- -- Meanwhile, a series of unprecedented murders takes place across Mifune City. Seemingly related, these murders are particularly brutal and warrant a large scale police investigation. Because of his cousin's work as a police investigator, Mikiya is given insight into the investigation. Concerned for Shiki's safety, Mikiya decides to monitor her actions, but in doing so, he stumbles upon a truly frightening discovery that changes his life forever. -- -- Movie - Dec 29, 2007 -- 195,099 7.84
Kemonozume -- -- Madhouse -- 13 eps -- Original -- Action Demons Horror Romance Supernatural -- Kemonozume Kemonozume -- Creatures known as Shokujinki have been secretly living alongside humans for hundreds of years. Though they may look like humans, Shokujinki are able to transform into uncontrollable beasts with gigantic claws and consume humans to survive. The equally secretive Kifuuken dojo specializes in killing Shokujinki by cutting off their arms, and is the only force preventing unchecked Shokujinki domination. -- -- Toshihiko Momota, the son of the leader of the Kifuuken, is instantly charmed by a mysterious woman named Yuka Kamitsuki. Their relationship is complicated, however, because unbeknownst to them both, Yuka is a Shokujinki and Toshihiko is sworn to kill her. Meanwhile, the Kifuuken is having a crisis of confidence as Toshihiko's brother Kazuma pushes against tradition and tries to modernize the Kifuuken. As emotions are strained and the secrets of both the past and present are revealed, who will live, and who will be eaten? -- -- 61,064 7.39
Kenkou Zenrakei Suieibu Umishou -- -- Artland -- 13 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Sports Ecchi School Shounen -- Kenkou Zenrakei Suieibu Umishou Kenkou Zenrakei Suieibu Umishou -- Kaname Okiura, a student of Prefectoral Umineko Shougyou High ("Umishou" for short), joined the school's swimming club in order to learn how to swim, but the club is filled with weirdos, let alone who can teach him swimming. Then, a sunny, happy-go-lucky girl named Amuro Ninagawa who transferred from Okinawa joined the club. Her extraordinary underwater speed and unorthodox swimming style (plus her personal habit of nude swimming—a powerful magnet to teenage boys) surprised every club member, especially Okiura, because she reminds him of a mermaid-like creature he saw only once in his early childhood. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- TV - Jul 4, 2007 -- 34,608 7.15
Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World -- -- A.C.G.T. -- 13 eps -- Light novel -- Action Adventure Psychological Slice of Life -- Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World -- Kino, a 15-year-old traveler, forms a bond with Hermes, a talking motorcycle. Together, they wander the lands and venture through various countries and places, despite having no clear idea of what to expect. After all, life is a journey filled with the unknown. -- -- Throughout their journeys, they encounter different kinds of customs, from the morally gray to tragic and fascinating. They also meet many people: some who live to work, some who live to make others happy, and some who live to chase their dreams. Thus, in every country they visit, there is always something to learn from the way people carry out their lives. -- -- It is not up to Kino or Hermes to decide whether these asserted values are wrong or right, as they merely assume the roles of observers within this small world. They do not attempt to change or influence the places they visit, despite how absurd these values would appear. That's because in one way or another, they believe things are fine as they are, and that "the world is not beautiful; therefore, it is." -- -- 234,132 8.33
Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World -- -- A.C.G.T. -- 13 eps -- Light novel -- Action Adventure Psychological Slice of Life -- Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World -- Kino, a 15-year-old traveler, forms a bond with Hermes, a talking motorcycle. Together, they wander the lands and venture through various countries and places, despite having no clear idea of what to expect. After all, life is a journey filled with the unknown. -- -- Throughout their journeys, they encounter different kinds of customs, from the morally gray to tragic and fascinating. They also meet many people: some who live to work, some who live to make others happy, and some who live to chase their dreams. Thus, in every country they visit, there is always something to learn from the way people carry out their lives. -- -- It is not up to Kino or Hermes to decide whether these asserted values are wrong or right, as they merely assume the roles of observers within this small world. They do not attempt to change or influence the places they visit, despite how absurd these values would appear. That's because in one way or another, they believe things are fine as they are, and that "the world is not beautiful; therefore, it is." -- -- -- Licensor: -- ADV Films, Sentai Filmworks -- 234,132 8.33
Kirarin☆Revolution -- -- SynergySP -- 153 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Drama Romance Shoujo -- Kirarin☆Revolution Kirarin☆Revolution -- Kirari Tsukishima, a gluttonous 14-year-old beauty, is a girl who does not care about idols and the entertainment world because her mind is occupied by food. Her obsession with food only causes her to be clueless about love. -- -- One day, after saving a turtle that is stranded in a tree, Kirari meets with a handsome and gentle boy named Seiji, who gives her ticket to a SHIPS (a popular idol group) concert to show his gratitude for her saving his pet. Kirari then storms off to the concert and runs into another boy, who tears up her ticket and warns her to stay away from Seiji because she and Seiji live in different worlds. The outraged Kirari then sneaks into the concert, only to discover that Seiji and the boy who tore her ticket, named Hiroto, are actually members of SHIPS. -- -- Finally understanding the meaning of "different worlds" (Seiji is a popular idol while she is an average middle school student), Kirari refuses to give up. Filled with determination to be with Seiji, she declares that she will also become an idol. -- -- (Source: Wikipedia) -- 25,637 7.06
Kono Minikuku mo Utsukushii Sekai -- -- Gainax, Shaft -- 12 eps -- Original -- Sci-Fi Comedy Drama Magic Romance Ecchi -- Kono Minikuku mo Utsukushii Sekai Kono Minikuku mo Utsukushii Sekai -- High school student Takeru Takemoto works part time as a (motor)bike courier. During one of his deliveries, he saw a mysterious light passing him and fell into a forest. What he had found was a beautiful girl coming out from a glowing cocoon, calling herself "Hikari." While Takeru was quite embarrassed because of Hikari's nudity, a strange monster suddenly showed up and immediately attacked the two. Both Takeru and Hikari demonstrated the power of their other selves before Takeru had a clue of what's going on. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- ADV Films -- 54,697 6.75
Koushoku Ichidai Otoko -- -- Animation Staff Room, Grouper Productions -- 1 ep -- - -- Drama Hentai Historical Psychological -- Koushoku Ichidai Otoko Koushoku Ichidai Otoko -- The OVA is based on incidents in the novel Koshoku Ichidai Otoko (The Life of an Amorous Man) by Saikaku Ihara (1642-1693). -- -- The libertine Yonosuke has spent his life in quest of sexual pleasure. Disowned by his father when he is 18, 16 years full of changes and errantry begin for him. At the age of 34 he inherits great wealth after his father dies and forgives his son. -- -- When Yunosuke is 57, one of his tailors named Juzo comes to see him before setting out for Edo. Juzo has unwisely made a bet with a rich merchant that he will sleep with Komurasaki, the most renowned courtesan in Edo, at the first meeting. If he succeeds he will win a villa, but if he loses he will lose his manhood. Yunosuke is astounded as he knows how hard the high rank courtesans are to get. The best courtesans, tayu, as well as being beautiful, were highly cultured, being educated in poetry, calligraphy, painting, tea ceremony and other arts. They would sleep with a client only on the third night, the other two nights being taken up with greetings and other social niceties. Humble men, to whom they were 'untouchable' looked up to them with adoration and respect. -- -- Indignant, Yunosuke takes Juzo to Edo and enables him to meet Komurasaki. Juzo is a laughing-stock at the tea-house because of his nervousness, and soon becomes drunk. He clumsily spills wine over the courtesan's kimono. Unperturbed, she goes out and returns wearing a fresh, identical garment. -- -- (Source: AniDB) -- OVA - Jan 18, 1991 -- 3,063 6.08
Kuroko no Basket Movie 4: Last Game -- -- Production I.G -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Sports School Shounen -- Kuroko no Basket Movie 4: Last Game Kuroko no Basket Movie 4: Last Game -- Hailing from America, Jabberwock—a street basketball team with skills comparable to those of the NBA—has come to Japan to play an exhibition match against Strky, a team of former third-year students who once played in the Interhigh and Winter Cup. However, due to the vast difference in skill, Jabberwock easily wins. Their captain, Nash Gold Jr., mocks the basketball style of all players in Japan by comparing them to monkeys. -- -- Infuriated by the nasty comment, Kagetora Aida challenges them to a revenge match. Because of pride and the belief that the results will be no different, Nash accepts the challenge. Kagetora then assembles Vorpal Swords, a team composed of the Generation of Miracles, including Kuroko Tetsuya and Kagami Taiga, for they are the only ones who stand a chance against a foe that seems unbeatable from every angle. -- -- Movie - Mar 18, 2017 -- 183,918 8.07
Kuroshitsuji II -- -- A-1 Pictures -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Action Comedy Historical Demons Supernatural Shounen -- Kuroshitsuji II Kuroshitsuji II -- The stage of Kuroshitsuji II opens on the life of Alois Trancy, the young heir to the Trancy earldom. Though he is privileged now, such was not always the case for the hot-tempered boy. Kidnapped and forced into slavery at a young age, he was eventually rescued and returned home, only to have his beloved father pass away soon after. -- -- However, there are certain individuals who doubt Alois' story and legitimacy. And rightfully so, because things in the Trancy household are not as they appear, starting with Alois' black-clad butler with supernatural abilities, Claude Faustus. Who exactly is the mysterious Claude, and what connection does he have with Alois? -- -- Amid the web of lies and deceit running rampant in the mansion, the bond between Alois and Claude will be tested as hell itself arrives at their doorstep. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- TV - Jul 2, 2010 -- 453,724 7.21
Kuroshitsuji II -- -- A-1 Pictures -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Action Comedy Historical Demons Supernatural Shounen -- Kuroshitsuji II Kuroshitsuji II -- The stage of Kuroshitsuji II opens on the life of Alois Trancy, the young heir to the Trancy earldom. Though he is privileged now, such was not always the case for the hot-tempered boy. Kidnapped and forced into slavery at a young age, he was eventually rescued and returned home, only to have his beloved father pass away soon after. -- -- However, there are certain individuals who doubt Alois' story and legitimacy. And rightfully so, because things in the Trancy household are not as they appear, starting with Alois' black-clad butler with supernatural abilities, Claude Faustus. Who exactly is the mysterious Claude, and what connection does he have with Alois? -- -- Amid the web of lies and deceit running rampant in the mansion, the bond between Alois and Claude will be tested as hell itself arrives at their doorstep. -- -- TV - Jul 2, 2010 -- 453,724 7.21
Kuusen Madoushi Kouhosei no Kyoukan -- -- Diomedéa -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Action Drama Fantasy Magic School -- Kuusen Madoushi Kouhosei no Kyoukan Kuusen Madoushi Kouhosei no Kyoukan -- Years ago, humanity almost got wiped out by huge magical armored insects that had become too strong and aggressive to handle. Because of these giant bugs, humans do not live on the earth anymore, but in floating cities instead. However, this does not mean that everything is lost, because the wizards from prestigious floating wizard academies are fighting these monsters. -- -- Kanata Age is a young man now labelled as a traitor even though he was once praised as the "Black Master Swordsman." He gets a chance to repair his reputation by instructing the team E601, which seems to be facing some difficulties. It consists of three girls, Misora Whitale, Lecty Eisenach, and Rico Flamel, each with problems of their own. It appears that Kanata will get in deep waters more than once because of them... -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 204,840 6.38
Kyoukai no Rinne (TV) -- -- Brain's Base -- 25 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Supernatural Romance School Shounen -- Kyoukai no Rinne (TV) Kyoukai no Rinne (TV) -- Rinne Rokudou has bigger problems than going to school—namely, helping spirits pass over to the next life. Because of this responsibility, he often finds himself short on money and struggles to buy his necessities: food, clothes, and exorcism tools. -- -- Sakura Mamiya has been able to see ghosts since she was little. She hoped she would outgrow it, but even after starting high school, nothing has changed. To make matters worse, the first time her ever-absent classmate, Rinne, shows up for school, only Sakura can see him. She assumes, as anyone would, that he is a ghost. However, to Sakura's surprise, Rinne proceeds to attend school like normal the next day. Kyoukai no Rinne chronicles Sakura's journey as she learns of Rinne's true nature and the existence of a hidden supernatural world. -- -- 77,858 6.89
Kyou kara Maou! 3rd Series -- -- Studio Deen -- 39 eps -- Light novel -- Adventure Comedy Demons Fantasy Shoujo -- Kyou kara Maou! 3rd Series Kyou kara Maou! 3rd Series -- At the end of season 2. Yuuri defeats Shinou, but since Shinou had been defeated, Yuuri and Murata could no longer go to the Shin Makoku. However, because Yuuri had fought and defeated him, his powers had surpassed that of Shinou's, resulting in him being able to rely on his own power to return to Shin Makoku. -- -- After the ceremony at the age of 16, Yuuri slowly begins to discover that much has happened while he was away. The ten officials of the noble family have decided to make Wolfram the next Maou, but now that Yuuri has returned and taken back his role as Maou, complications arise when one noble disagrees with Yuuri returning to the throne. -- -- In addition, an ancient secret society that threatens the peace of both humans and Mazoku has risen, and a fight for the throne that now leaves the nobles wondering who is the legitimate Maou. -- -- Licensor: -- Discotek Media -- TV - Apr 3, 2008 -- 28,991 7.80
Loveless -- -- J.C.Staff -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Action Mystery Supernatural Drama Romance Fantasy Josei Shounen Ai -- Loveless Loveless -- In the world of Loveless, each person is born with cat ears and a tail, which disappear only if that person engages in a sexual intercourse. Because of this, they have come to symbolize virginity and innocence. Additionally, fighting is only done by "fighting pairs" or couples, where one is known as the Sacrifice and the other as the Fighter. The first receives the damage while the latter attacks. -- -- Ritsuka Aoyagi is a 12-year-old boy, who for some unknown reason suffers from amnesia. His brother got killed recently, and as if his life has not been hard enough lately, on his first day at the new school he gets approached by a stranger called Agatsuma Soubi, who claims to have known his late brother. Ritsuka finds out that Agatsuma and his brother used to be a fighting pair, and that Agatsuma has inherited Ritsuga now that his brother is gone. Together, they try to find the truth behind his brother's death and the organization known as the "Seven Moons," which may have been responsible for it. All the while, it seems that Ritsuka and Agatsuma are becoming closer than they intended to be… -- -- Licensor: -- Media Blasters -- TV - Apr 7, 2005 -- 123,001 6.84
Loveless -- -- J.C.Staff -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Action Mystery Supernatural Drama Romance Fantasy Josei Shounen Ai -- Loveless Loveless -- In the world of Loveless, each person is born with cat ears and a tail, which disappear only if that person engages in a sexual intercourse. Because of this, they have come to symbolize virginity and innocence. Additionally, fighting is only done by "fighting pairs" or couples, where one is known as the Sacrifice and the other as the Fighter. The first receives the damage while the latter attacks. -- -- Ritsuka Aoyagi is a 12-year-old boy, who for some unknown reason suffers from amnesia. His brother got killed recently, and as if his life has not been hard enough lately, on his first day at the new school he gets approached by a stranger called Agatsuma Soubi, who claims to have known his late brother. Ritsuka finds out that Agatsuma and his brother used to be a fighting pair, and that Agatsuma has inherited Ritsuga now that his brother is gone. Together, they try to find the truth behind his brother's death and the organization known as the "Seven Moons," which may have been responsible for it. All the while, it seems that Ritsuka and Agatsuma are becoming closer than they intended to be… -- TV - Apr 7, 2005 -- 123,001 6.84
Love Stage!! -- -- J.C.Staff -- 10 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Romance Shounen Ai -- Love Stage!! Love Stage!! -- With an actress mother, producer father, and rockstar brother, anyone would expect Izumi Sena to eventually enter showbiz himself. However, aside from a commercial for a wedding magazine when he was a child, Izumi has never been in the spotlight; instead, he aims to become a manga artist. -- -- But a decade after the shoot, the magazine calls for a 10th anniversary ad, requesting the original child actors for the project. This reunites Izumi with Ryouma Ichijou, now a popular actor who, much to Izumi's shock, has been in love with him ever since their first meeting! However, due to Izumi's feminine appearance and unisex name, Ryouma believed the boy was a girl and continues to do so to this day. Izumi's troubles are just beginning, because even after discovering the truth, Ryouma can't seem to shake off his feelings... -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- 202,144 7.29
Machikado Mazoku 2nd Season -- -- - -- ? eps -- 4-koma manga -- Slice of Life Comedy Magic -- Machikado Mazoku 2nd Season Machikado Mazoku 2nd Season -- Second season of Machikado Mazoku. -- TV - ??? ??, ???? -- 16,976 N/A -- -- Slayers Gorgeous -- -- J.C.Staff -- 1 ep -- Light novel -- Adventure Comedy Fantasy Magic Supernatural -- Slayers Gorgeous Slayers Gorgeous -- Sorceresses Lina Inverse and Naga the Serpent are enjoying a meal in a villiage when the residents suddenly retreat indoors and two armies - one of men and one of a young girl and a tribe of dragons. Although the ruler of the town originally tries to convince Lina that this is because of a dark legacy, in truth the dragon army is led by his daughter and their battles are over her allowance. Lina agrees to help the ruler while Naga joins his daughter, Marlene. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- ADV Films -- Movie - Aug 1, 1998 -- 16,918 7.33
Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: Tsuioku-hen -- -- - -- ? eps -- Light novel -- Sci-Fi Supernatural Magic -- Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: Tsuioku-hen Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: Tsuioku-hen -- Looking at Miyuki and Tatsuya now, it might be hard to imagine them as anything other than loving siblings. But it wasn't always this way.. -- -- Three years ago, Miyuki was always uncomfortable around her older brother. The rest of their family treated him no better than a lowly servant, even though he was the perfect Guardian, watching over Miyuki while she lived a normal middle school life. But what really bothered her was that he never showed any emotions or thoughts of his own. -- -- However, when danger comes calling during a fateful trip to Okinawa, their relationship as brother and sister will change forever… -- -- (Source: Yen Press) -- - - ??? ??, ???? -- 25,203 N/ASakasama no Patema: Beginning of the Day -- -- Purple Cow Studio Japan, Studio Rikka -- 4 eps -- - -- Sci-Fi -- Sakasama no Patema: Beginning of the Day Sakasama no Patema: Beginning of the Day -- This is an online distribution of the prologue of the movie, illustrating the first day of the entire story. -- -- A world, forever beyond your expectations. -- -- In a dark, cramped, underground world of endless tunnels and shafts, people wear protective suits and live out their modest yet happy lives. The princess of the underground community, Patema, goes out exploring as always, inspired by her curiosity of the unknown depths of the world. -- -- Her favorite spot is the "danger zone," an area forbidden by the "rule" of the community. Despite being frequently chastised by her caretaker Jii, she cannot hold back her curiosity for the reason behind the rule, because no one would tell her what the "danger" was. When she approaches the hidden "secret," the story begins. -- -- (Source: translation of a synopsis from the nicovideo news) -- Special - Feb 26, 2012 -- 25,203 7.38
Mahou Shoujo Ai -- -- - -- 5 eps -- Visual novel -- Action Hentai Horror Supernatural -- Mahou Shoujo Ai Mahou Shoujo Ai -- In a certain town, there were consecutive phantom assaults. Because the incidents were extraordinarily, there was a rumor that a ghost or supernatural creature caused them. The students in the school which Akitoshi went to were frightened. One day, an unknown girl appeared in the school. However, all the students except Akitoshi thought they had known her. Feeling strange, he shadowed her in order to investigate her but he lost sight of her. At that moment, he heard the scream of a woman from the nearby material yard and went to the place where the scream came from. There he found the beautiful girl of the school, Mikage. Mikage was surrounded by monsters "Yuragi" (fluctuation), and she was hanged naked. Yuragi noticed Akitoshi and began to attack him. Then, the fighter, Ai, appeared and cut them down. -- Akitoshi stared at Ai. What was her true character, an enemy or an ally? -- -- (Source: AnimeNfo) -- OVA - Aug 25, 2003 -- 7,532 6.53
Mahou Shoujo Ore -- -- Pierrot Plus -- 12 eps -- Web manga -- Comedy Fantasy Magic -- Mahou Shoujo Ore Mahou Shoujo Ore -- Saki Uno is an average 15-year-old girl with a side hustle as a member of the exceptionally unpopular idol duo Magical Twins. Despite this, she absolutely loves the time she spends with her best friend Sakuyo Mikage as she strives to become closer with her childhood crush, Sakuyo's brother Mohiro. Her peaceful life, however, unravels when she finds a yakuza-looking thug trying to enter her house. Forced to invite him inside, Saki learns that her mother used to be a demon fighting Magical Girl, and that her brutish guest is actually a mascot named Kokoro-chan looking to recruit a replacement. Dumbfounded and skeptical, Saki is hesitant accept the request until Kokoro-chan reveals that Mohiro is a target of some cute, squirrel-tailed demons. -- -- Rushing to his side, Saki's overwhelming desire to save Mohiro activates her Love Power, and a daring confession awakens her as a Magical Girl. However, because her body is not suitable for combat, Saki's transformation turns her into a muscle-bound man clad in a pretty dress. Now, as a fully-fledged Magical Girl, Saki must team up with Sakuyo to protect the love of her life from the fluffy, demonic menaces that run rampant in her world. -- -- 69,914 6.64
Mahou Shoujo Pretty Sammy (1996) -- -- AIC -- 26 eps -- - -- Comedy Parody Magic Fantasy Seinen -- Mahou Shoujo Pretty Sammy (1996) Mahou Shoujo Pretty Sammy (1996) -- The carefree Tsunami is next in line to rule over the Magical Kingdom of Juraihelm. But before she is officially crowned as queen, she must restore balance to the universe that has come to favor darkness. To accomplish her goal, Tsunami gives the ordinary Sasami Kawai a magical baton that can transform her into a magical girl. She also appoints the rabbit-like creature Ryou-Ouki to aid Sasami in the battle against evil. -- -- However, Sasami refuses to become a magical girl—not because she is scared, but because she finds it too embarrassing! Meanwhile, the arrogant Ramia is plotting to overthrow Tsunami by enlisting her own magical girl—the eccentric Pixy Misa—to cause chaos and ensure that balance is never restored. As Pixy Misa terrorizes the planet with her Love-Love monsters, Sasami must learn to swallow her pride and accept her role as the universe's champion of justice, Pretty Sammy. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Geneon Entertainment USA -- 6,072 6.72
Mamotte Shugogetten! -- -- Toei Animation -- 22 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Fantasy Magic Romance Shounen -- Mamotte Shugogetten! Mamotte Shugogetten! -- Tasuke Shichiri is the envy of his friends because since his parents are always traveling he can do as he pleases. It's a surprise present from his father that keeps him from being lonely: an odd ring known as the shitenrin. From it comes a moon goddess named Shaorin, dedicated to protecting her "master" -- no matter how much of a mess she makes doing it! -- 7,228 6.66
Maria†Holic -- -- Shaft -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Parody School Shoujo Ai -- Maria†Holic Maria†Holic -- In search of true love, Kanako Miyamae transfers to Ame no Kisaki Catholic school, inspired by how her parents fell in love with each other there. There is just one difference, though: because men make Kanako break into hives, she has actually come to the all-girls school to find a partner of the same sex. -- -- When she meets the beautiful Mariya Shidou, Kanako believes she has found that special someone; however, there's more to Mariya than meets the eye—it turns out that Kanako's first love is actually a cross-dressing boy. Mariya threatens to expose Kanako's impure intentions unless she keeps his real gender a secret, and to make things worse, he also replaces her original roommate so that he can now keep a close eye on her. -- -- Maria†Holic follows Kanako as she looks for love in all the wrong places and searches for the girl of her dreams—that is, if she can survive being Mariya's roommate! -- -- TV - Jan 4, 2009 -- 150,996 7.04
Maryuu Senki -- -- AIC -- 3 eps -- Original -- Fantasy Horror -- Maryuu Senki Maryuu Senki -- Once upon a time, there was a certain family having strong influence on the rule of the Imperial Court. They had their own might called "Kidou" and yet got hated because of the might itself. At last, the patriarch of the family was entrapped to his death, and all the family was doomed to ruin... The present day — the survived descendants of this family, now calling themselves "Kidousyuu" schemed to resurrect their murdered patriarch once again, and the ferocious evil spell went into action. -- -- (Source: BakaBT) -- OVA - Mar 5, 1987 -- 2,215 5.21
Mayo Chiki! -- -- feel. -- 13 eps -- Light novel -- Harem Comedy Romance Ecchi School -- Mayo Chiki! Mayo Chiki! -- Due to his mother and sister, who both love professional wrestling, Kinjirou Sakamachi developed a resilient body that could take hard punches, aggressive kicks, and even deadly vehicle bumps, in order to survive their various grappling positions and locks. However, he also developed gynophobia, an abnormal fear of women. With just one touch from a girl, his nose bleeds uncontrollably, he sweats excessively, and in rare cases, faints abruptly. -- -- His life changes for the worse because of a fated meeting in the restroom. While trying to escape from a girl, he discovers that the most popular student in their school, Subaru Konoe—the butler of the headmaster’s daughter, Kanade Suzutsuki—is actually female! Surprised, Subaru violently assaults Kinjirou, dealing significant damage and knocking him unconscious. When he comes to, he meets Kanade. In exchange for his silence, she promises to help cure his phobia. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- TV - Jul 8, 2011 -- 403,110 7.30
Midori no Hibi -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 13 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Drama Romance Ecchi Shounen -- Midori no Hibi Midori no Hibi -- There isn't a single person in Sakuradamon High who hasn't heard the legends about Seiji "The Mad Dog" Sawamura's demonically powerful right hand. His reputation makes it fairly difficult for him to approach girls, and after being rejected 20 times straight, he half-jokingly vows to finish high school with his right hand for a girlfriend. -- -- Much to his surprise, after waking up the next morning, Seiji discovers that his demon right hand has mysteriously turned into a miniature girl, Midori Kasugano, who reveals that she has had a crush on Seiji for the past three years. Because their situation is not ideal for either of them, Seiji attempts to return Midori to normal. But after causing a big misunderstanding at the Kasugano household, the pair decide to keep their predicament between them until a solution is found. Thus begins an odd relationship, and what could be the only chance for Midori to finally be with the one she loves. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Media Blasters, NYAV Post -- TV - Apr 4, 2004 -- 139,618 7.28
Midori no Hibi -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 13 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Drama Romance Ecchi Shounen -- Midori no Hibi Midori no Hibi -- There isn't a single person in Sakuradamon High who hasn't heard the legends about Seiji "The Mad Dog" Sawamura's demonically powerful right hand. His reputation makes it fairly difficult for him to approach girls, and after being rejected 20 times straight, he half-jokingly vows to finish high school with his right hand for a girlfriend. -- -- Much to his surprise, after waking up the next morning, Seiji discovers that his demon right hand has mysteriously turned into a miniature girl, Midori Kasugano, who reveals that she has had a crush on Seiji for the past three years. Because their situation is not ideal for either of them, Seiji attempts to return Midori to normal. But after causing a big misunderstanding at the Kasugano household, the pair decide to keep their predicament between them until a solution is found. Thus begins an odd relationship, and what could be the only chance for Midori to finally be with the one she loves. -- -- TV - Apr 4, 2004 -- 139,618 7.28
Mix -- -- OLM -- 24 eps -- Manga -- Drama Romance School Shounen Sports -- Mix Mix -- Because of the legend left by Tatsuya Uesugi, Meisei Academy High School was well-known for their strong baseball team. But 26 years after their glory, the team has not been able to keep their record and has since lost their fame. -- -- Two stepbrothers, Souichirou and Touma Tachibana, aim to revive of the once-strong Meisei Academy baseball team and enter the National High School Baseball Championship. -- -- Souichirou and Touma are second years in Meisei Academy Middle School. Both boys are talented baseball players. Souichirou has shown excellent skill as a catcher and batter. Though having an extraordinary skill as a pitcher, Touma no longer pitches due to a certain reason. -- -- Once the two enter high school, they pair as a battery and aim to enter the National High School Baseball Championship! -- -- (Source: YTV, edited) -- 17,728 7.25
Mnemosyne: Mnemosyne no Musume-tachi -- -- Xebec -- 6 eps -- Original -- Action Horror Sci-Fi Shoujo Ai Supernatural -- Mnemosyne: Mnemosyne no Musume-tachi Mnemosyne: Mnemosyne no Musume-tachi -- Immortality is something many people would wish for. But would it be such a coveted ability if people knew they would be subject to countless attacks because of it? Such is the case for Rin Asougi, an immortal private investigator, because there is no shortage of people who want her dead. Over the centuries, she has met many grisly ends, but each time, she returns to life as if nothing had happened. -- -- In 1990, while looking for a lost cat, Rin runs into Kouki Maeno, a man who feels that his memories are wrong. Agreeing to help him, Rin discovers that Kouki is not what he seems, all the while drawing closer to her true enemy. This adversary knows Rin and her kind all too well, and if she dies by his hand, she may stay dead permanently. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- TV - Feb 4, 2008 -- 155,149 7.31
Mnemosyne: Mnemosyne no Musume-tachi -- -- Xebec -- 6 eps -- Original -- Action Horror Sci-Fi Shoujo Ai Supernatural -- Mnemosyne: Mnemosyne no Musume-tachi Mnemosyne: Mnemosyne no Musume-tachi -- Immortality is something many people would wish for. But would it be such a coveted ability if people knew they would be subject to countless attacks because of it? Such is the case for Rin Asougi, an immortal private investigator, because there is no shortage of people who want her dead. Over the centuries, she has met many grisly ends, but each time, she returns to life as if nothing had happened. -- -- In 1990, while looking for a lost cat, Rin runs into Kouki Maeno, a man who feels that his memories are wrong. Agreeing to help him, Rin discovers that Kouki is not what he seems, all the while drawing closer to her true enemy. This adversary knows Rin and her kind all too well, and if she dies by his hand, she may stay dead permanently. -- -- TV - Feb 4, 2008 -- 155,149 7.31
Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory - The Mayfly of Space -- -- Sunrise -- 1 ep -- Radio -- Action Military Sci-Fi Space Drama Mecha -- Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory - The Mayfly of Space Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory - The Mayfly of Space -- Mayfly reveals Cima's backstory in flashbacks as she reflects on her past prior to the events of Episode 13. It reveals that Cima and her unit poisoned a Side 5 colony using G-3 nerve gas, under orders, but were treated as pariahs afterwards by their own countrymen for committing such an atrocity. At the end of the war her superior refused to let her retreat to Axis. Because their home colony Mahal had been converted into a weapon, Cima and her men were left stranded and homeless. -- -- (Source: Wikipedia) -- Special - ??? ??, 1992 -- 5,628 6.00
Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE:0096 -- -- Sunrise -- 22 eps -- Novel -- Action Drama Mecha Military Sci-Fi Space -- Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE:0096 Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE:0096 -- By the year 0096 of the Universal Century, a fragile peace emerges from the ashes of conflict. Sixteen-year-old student Banagher Links visits the Industrial 7 space colony on a school field trip, but because of a broken shuttle, he is left completely stranded. -- -- To Banagher, who has always lived a normal life, war had always been a distant, almost mythical part of history; but within minutes, fantasy becomes reality when he rescues a girl named Audrey Burne, who urgently needs to meet with the leader of the nearby Vist Foundation, Cardeas Vist. She hopes to persuade him to withhold the "Laplace's Box," an object that holds the potential to destroy the world. History is set in motion as galactic forces converge on Industrial 7, each vying for possession of the Laplace's Box. As Neo Zeon remnants clash with Earth Federation Forces around the colony, Cardeas, in his final moments, gives Banagher the key to the Box, a mobile suit dubbed "The Unicorn Gundam." -- -- Packed with explosive action and rising tension, Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE:0096 follows Banagher as his conviction is tested and the destiny that has laid dormant for more than a century is finally realized. -- -- 25,583 7.58
Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE:0096 -- -- Sunrise -- 22 eps -- Novel -- Action Drama Mecha Military Sci-Fi Space -- Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE:0096 Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE:0096 -- By the year 0096 of the Universal Century, a fragile peace emerges from the ashes of conflict. Sixteen-year-old student Banagher Links visits the Industrial 7 space colony on a school field trip, but because of a broken shuttle, he is left completely stranded. -- -- To Banagher, who has always lived a normal life, war had always been a distant, almost mythical part of history; but within minutes, fantasy becomes reality when he rescues a girl named Audrey Burne, who urgently needs to meet with the leader of the nearby Vist Foundation, Cardeas Vist. She hopes to persuade him to withhold the "Laplace's Box," an object that holds the potential to destroy the world. History is set in motion as galactic forces converge on Industrial 7, each vying for possession of the Laplace's Box. As Neo Zeon remnants clash with Earth Federation Forces around the colony, Cardeas, in his final moments, gives Banagher the key to the Box, a mobile suit dubbed "The Unicorn Gundam." -- -- Packed with explosive action and rising tension, Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE:0096 follows Banagher as his conviction is tested and the destiny that has laid dormant for more than a century is finally realized. -- -- -- Licensor: -- NYAV Post -- 25,583 7.58
Monster -- -- Madhouse -- 74 eps -- Manga -- Drama Horror Mystery Police Psychological Seinen Thriller -- Monster Monster -- Dr. Kenzou Tenma, an elite neurosurgeon recently engaged to his hospital director's daughter, is well on his way to ascending the hospital hierarchy. That is until one night, a seemingly small event changes Dr. Tenma's life forever. While preparing to perform surgery on someone, he gets a call from the hospital director telling him to switch patients and instead perform life-saving brain surgery on a famous performer. His fellow doctors, fiancée, and the hospital director applaud his accomplishment; but because of the switch, a poor immigrant worker is dead, causing Dr. Tenma to have a crisis of conscience. -- -- So when a similar situation arises, Dr. Tenma stands his ground and chooses to perform surgery on the young boy Johan Liebert instead of the town's mayor. Unfortunately, this choice leads to serious ramifications for Dr. Tenma—losing his social standing being one of them. However, with the mysterious death of the director and two other doctors, Dr. Tenma's position is restored. With no evidence to convict him, he is released and goes on to attain the position of hospital director. -- -- Nine years later when Dr. Tenma saves the life of a criminal, his past comes back to haunt him—once again, he comes face to face with the monster he operated on. He must now embark on a quest of pursuit to make amends for the havoc spread by the one he saved. -- -- -- Licensor: -- VIZ Media -- 657,585 8.77
Morita-san wa Mukuchi. -- -- Seven -- 13 eps -- 4-koma manga -- Comedy School Slice of Life -- Morita-san wa Mukuchi. Morita-san wa Mukuchi. -- Morita Mayu, a high school girl. She is extremely reticent and her silence and habit of looking at people's eyes straightly sometimes cause misunderstanding. The reason behind it is not because she doesn’t like to talk nor because she has nothing to say. The reason she rarely speaks is due to the fact she thinks too much before speaking, thus losing the timing to speak altogether. But she lives a happy school life with her classmates. -- TV - Jul 6, 2011 -- 21,221 6.53
Morita-san wa Mukuchi -- -- Seven -- 1 ep -- 4-koma manga -- Comedy School Slice of Life -- Morita-san wa Mukuchi Morita-san wa Mukuchi -- OVA bundled with the special edition of manga volume 3. -- -- Morita Mayu is a high school girl. She is extremely reticent and her silence and habit of looking at people's eyes straightly sometimes cause misunderstanding. The reason behind it is not because she doesn’t like to talk nor because she has nothing to say. The reason she rarely speaks is due to the fact she thinks too much before speaking, thus losing the timing to speak altogether. Despite this, she lives a happy school life with her classmates. -- OVA - Mar 26, 2011 -- 8,592 6.58
Moshidora -- -- Production I.G -- 10 eps -- Novel -- Drama Sports -- Moshidora Moshidora -- Minami joins her High School baseball team as a team manager after finding out that her best friend Yuuki is in the hospital and can't be a team manager any more. In order to try to fill in for Yuuki and to help out the team the best she can, she goes out to find a book on how to manage a baseball team. -- -- Unfortunately, she accidentally buys Peter Drucker's book called "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices" which is actually about how to properly manage a business. Because she couldn't return the book, she decides to read it anyway and to try to apply the business management concepts to the baseball team so that way they can go on and win the Nationals. -- 19,829 6.91
Mushishi -- -- Artland -- 26 eps -- Manga -- Adventure Slice of Life Mystery Historical Supernatural Fantasy Seinen -- Mushishi Mushishi -- "Mushi": the most basic forms of life in the world. They exist without any goals or purposes aside from simply "being." They are beyond the shackles of the words "good" and "evil." Mushi can exist in countless forms and are capable of mimicking things from the natural world such as plants, diseases, and even phenomena like rainbows. -- -- This is, however, just a vague definition of these entities that inhabit the vibrant world of Mushishi, as to even call them a form of life would be an oversimplification. Detailed information on Mushi is scarce because the majority of humans are unaware of their existence. -- -- So what are Mushi and why do they exist? This is the question that a "Mushishi," Ginko, ponders constantly. Mushishi are those who research Mushi in hopes of understanding their place in the world's hierarchy of life. -- -- Ginko chases rumors of occurrences that could be tied to Mushi, all for the sake of finding an answer. -- -- It could, after all, lead to the meaning of life itself. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 641,581 8.69
Naruto -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 220 eps -- Manga -- Action Adventure Comedy Super Power Martial Arts Shounen -- Naruto Naruto -- Moments prior to Naruto Uzumaki's birth, a huge demon known as the Kyuubi, the Nine-Tailed Fox, attacked Konohagakure, the Hidden Leaf Village, and wreaked havoc. In order to put an end to the Kyuubi's rampage, the leader of the village, the Fourth Hokage, sacrificed his life and sealed the monstrous beast inside the newborn Naruto. -- -- Now, Naruto is a hyperactive and knuckle-headed ninja still living in Konohagakure. Shunned because of the Kyuubi inside him, Naruto struggles to find his place in the village, while his burning desire to become the Hokage of Konohagakure leads him not only to some great new friends, but also some deadly foes. -- -- -- Licensor: -- VIZ Media -- 1,972,081 7.92
Negima!? Haru Special!? -- -- Shaft -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Ecchi Fantasy Magic Comedy Harem Romance Super Power Shounen -- Negima!? Haru Special!? Negima!? Haru Special!? -- Sometime after all the events which took place during Negi's first year as a teacher, Class 2-A goes on a school trip to a beautiful island for Spring break. Everything is fine now, but troubles continue for Negi, because he's still the main atraction of the class. But he has something else to worry about, Asuna is angry at him because he told her she had nothing to do with his studies as a wizard. During the trip, the situation gets intense as Asuna's friends try to help Negi make up with her. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- OVA - Oct 25, 2006 -- 18,222 7.10
Negima!? Haru Special!? -- -- Shaft -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Ecchi Fantasy Magic Comedy Harem Romance Super Power Shounen -- Negima!? Haru Special!? Negima!? Haru Special!? -- Sometime after all the events which took place during Negi's first year as a teacher, Class 2-A goes on a school trip to a beautiful island for Spring break. Everything is fine now, but troubles continue for Negi, because he's still the main atraction of the class. But he has something else to worry about, Asuna is angry at him because he told her she had nothing to do with his studies as a wizard. During the trip, the situation gets intense as Asuna's friends try to help Negi make up with her. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- OVA - Oct 25, 2006 -- 18,222 7.10
Nemure Omoigo, Sora no Shitone ni -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Original -- Adventure Space Drama -- Nemure Omoigo, Sora no Shitone ni Nemure Omoigo, Sora no Shitone ni -- A family was riding a car on their way home from a maternity hospital. Satomi and Yasunori were taking their newborn baby named "Orine" home and were filled with happy expectation. However, a sudden accident attacked them. Orine lost her parents, and she became alone. -- -- Nineteen years have passed, and she has grown up. She was pursued by the police because of an incident. She continued to escape, but Yuri Aoshima, a member of a shady organization, tried to contact her. Orine agreed to Yuri's demand, which was going to an experimental space station. Yuri will help her to escape, instead. -- -- Somehow, only Orine can enter an unmanned space station. Surprisingly, the person who was waiting for Orine was her mother, Satomi. She appeared in the similitude of her twenties. Orine was perplexed, and Yuri demanded to turn the power off of the station. Unwillingly, she started to place the shut-down device, but she believed that it will solve the mystery and help her mother. -- -- As Orine and Satomi spend time together, they made up for their lost time. Yuri's aim, Satomi's true identity, and a man called "SENSEI" who is involved in taking over the station. -- -- While the mystery deepens, Orine gets closer to the "truth"... -- -- (Source: Official website) -- Movie - Apr 12, 2014 -- 1,445 5.41
Nezha Zhi Mo Tong Jiang Shi -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Other -- Action Comedy Drama Fantasy Historical -- Nezha Zhi Mo Tong Jiang Shi Nezha Zhi Mo Tong Jiang Shi -- From the heavenly object known as the Chaos Pearl, two elements are extracted: the Spirit Pearl and the Demon Orb. In an attempt to suppress their power, the Lord of Heaven sends the Spirit Pearl to Earth to reincarnate as Ne Zha, the third son of Li Jing, while the Demon Orb is scheduled to be destroyed by a lightning strike. However, because of a conspiracy by the Dragon King to steal the Spirit Pearl for his own son, Ne Zha is instead reincarnated with the Demon Orb. -- -- With no way to remove the cursed effects of the Demon Orb, Ne Zha is raised under the belief that he will become the great demon hunter the Spirit Pearl destined for him to be. Fighting against his chaotic and mischievous nature, Ne Zha must decide whether to accept his evil fate or repel against it to prove he is worthy of the future his parents foretold. -- -- Movie - Jul 26, 2019 -- 8,578 7.66
Night Head Genesis -- -- Bee Media -- 24 eps -- Manga -- Sci-Fi Mystery Psychological Supernatural Drama -- Night Head Genesis Night Head Genesis -- It is said that 70% of the human brain capacity is unused. If humans possess incredible power, it is strongly believed to be lying dormant within this region. This unused 70% brain capacity is known as "Night Head". -- -- The famous work 'NIGHT HEAD' is going to break the silence. They were abandoned by their parents because of the psychic power they possessed. They are the Kirihara brothers, who lived in a laboratory within a barrier-protected forest. They have escaped from the laboratory, and a new wave of 'Revolution' is about to arise. -- -- A new "Night Head" is about to be awakened. -- -- Licensor: -- Media Blasters -- TV - Jun 17, 2006 -- 26,476 6.77
Night Head Genesis -- -- Bee Media -- 24 eps -- Manga -- Sci-Fi Mystery Psychological Supernatural Drama -- Night Head Genesis Night Head Genesis -- It is said that 70% of the human brain capacity is unused. If humans possess incredible power, it is strongly believed to be lying dormant within this region. This unused 70% brain capacity is known as "Night Head". -- -- The famous work 'NIGHT HEAD' is going to break the silence. They were abandoned by their parents because of the psychic power they possessed. They are the Kirihara brothers, who lived in a laboratory within a barrier-protected forest. They have escaped from the laboratory, and a new wave of 'Revolution' is about to arise. -- -- A new "Night Head" is about to be awakened. -- TV - Jun 17, 2006 -- 26,476 6.77
Nijuu Mensou no Musume -- -- Bones, Telecom Animation Film -- 22 eps -- Manga -- Action Adventure Mystery -- Nijuu Mensou no Musume Nijuu Mensou no Musume -- Chiko is the daughter of the wealthy Mikamo family who has to live with her aunt and uncle after her parents passed away. Because her aunt wants to inherit the Mikamo family's wealth, she gives Chiko poisoned food. One day, however, she's kidnapped by the Nijuu Mensou (20 Faces) and decides to join his clan. -- -- (Source: ZOMG) -- TV - Apr 13, 2008 -- 30,732 7.57
No.6 -- -- Bones -- 11 eps -- Novel -- Action Sci-Fi Mystery Drama -- No.6 No.6 -- Many years ago, after the end of a bloody world war, mankind took shelter in six city-states that were peaceful and perfect... at least on the surface. However, Shion—an elite resident of the city-state No. 6—gained a new perspective on the world he lives in, thanks to a chance encounter with a mysterious boy, Nezumi. Nezumi turned out to be just one of many who lived in the desolate wasteland beyond the walls of the supposed utopia. But despite knowing that the other boy was a fugitive, Shion decided to take him in for the night and protect him, which resulted in drastic consequences: because of his actions, Shion and his mother lost their status as elites and were relocated elsewhere, and the darker side of the city began to make itself known. -- -- Now, a long time after their life-altering first meeting, Shion and Nezumi are finally brought together once again—the former elite and the boy on the run are about to embark on an adventure that will, in time, reveal the shattering secrets of No. 6. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- 342,870 7.57
No Game No Life: Zero -- -- Madhouse -- 1 ep -- Light novel -- Game Supernatural Drama Romance Fantasy -- No Game No Life: Zero No Game No Life: Zero -- In ancient Disboard, Riku is an angry, young warrior intent on saving humanity from the warring Exceed, the sixteen sentient species, fighting to establish the "One True God" amongst the Old Deus. In a lawless land, humanity's lack of magic and weak bodies have made them easy targets for the other Exceed, leaving the humans on the brink of extinction. One day, however, hope returns to humanity when Riku finds a powerful female Ex-machina, whom he names Schwi, in an abandoned elf city. Exiled from her Cluster because of her research into human emotions, Schwi is convinced that humanity has only survived due to the power of these feelings and is determined to understand the human heart. Forming an unlikely partnership in the midst of the overwhelming chaos, Riku and Schwi must now find the answers to their individual shortcomings in each other, and discover for themselves what it truly means to be human as they fight for their lives together against all odds. Each with a powerful new ally in tow, it is now up to them to prevent the extinction of the human race and establish peace throughout Disboard! -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- Movie - Jul 15, 2017 -- 638,129 8.29
Nyan Koi! -- -- AIC -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Harem Comedy Romance -- Nyan Koi! Nyan Koi! -- Junpei Kousaka is a second-year high school student who has an allergy for cats—a predicament that has made him hate cats and everything related to them. Unfortunately for him, though, he is surrounded by cat lovers: his family, his estranged childhood friend, and even his crush Kaede Mizuno. -- -- One day, while returning home from school, Junpei nonchalantly attempts to kick an empty can into the trash, but miserably misses. Instead of making it to the garbage, the can ends up breaking off the head of a cat deity statue. That fateful day, he is cursed with the ability to understand cat speech. However, he must keep his curse a secret from everyone else, because anyone who finds out will become more accident-prone and share the same fate as him. -- -- With the guidance of his cat Nyamsus and with no other choice left, Junpei now has to do a hundred good deeds for cats to lift the curse. If he is unable to complete this task, he will turn into a cat, and considering his allergy, that would be a death sentence for him! -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- TV - Oct 2, 2009 -- 228,166 7.18
Oban Star-Racers -- -- Hal Film Maker -- 26 eps -- Original -- Adventure Mecha Sci-Fi Shounen -- Oban Star-Racers Oban Star-Racers -- Eva's birthday has just passed, and she hasn't heard from her father. Despising the Boarding School she attends, she escapes using her Rocket Bike that she just completed. Taking on the alias "Molly," Eva sneaks with the Earth team to Alwas for the Great Race because the winner of the race gets any one wish granted. Little does the Earth Team know what danger awaits them... -- TV - Apr 12, 2006 -- 42,966 7.51
Okusama wa Mahou Shoujo -- -- J.C.Staff -- 13 eps -- Original -- Magic Romance -- Okusama wa Mahou Shoujo Okusama wa Mahou Shoujo -- Ureshiko Asaba, 26 years old, married. Few people know the fact that she is a magical girl named "Agnes", and she is actually the guardian of the town where she lives. One day she meets Sayaka Kurenai, aka "Cruje", another magical girl appointed by the magic realm as the legitimate sucessor to her position, but Agnes is reluctant in letting her assume because she knows that Cruje has orders to erase the whole place, including its human inhabitants with the purpose of creating a new one. To complicate matters, Ureshiko must deal with the growing distance between her and her husband, Tamotsu, her crescent feelings for Tatsumi Kagura, a young man who is now living as a tenant in her home, and the fact that in the moment she ever kisses a common human, she would lose her powers forever. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- 7,919 6.34
One Piece: Oounabara ni Hirake! Dekkai Dekkai Chichi no Yume! -- -- Toei Animation -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Action Adventure Comedy Fantasy Shounen Super Power -- One Piece: Oounabara ni Hirake! Dekkai Dekkai Chichi no Yume! One Piece: Oounabara ni Hirake! Dekkai Dekkai Chichi no Yume! -- The story opens on Pirate Zap's ship, where two of his crew, Bonnie and Max, are tired and want to escape, but unfortunately they have no money. Three children were being held captive on the ship overhear them. The eldest, Amanda, who's father was a pro treasure hunter, knows the whereabouts of a great treasure, and offers them a deal. If they help them make a clean escape, they could take all the treasure they wanted. They agree, and the five of them barely escape and make it onto a small island where they meet Luffy and his crew. Unfortunately they were pursued and Luffy and Amanda are captured and brought back to their boss, the head of the Bayan Pirates, who is also after the treasure. Now Luffy and the others must battle the Bayan pirates and find the treasure that Amanda's father had left for his children. Amanda, who has always resented adventure and treasure because her father was constantly gone in search for it, finally understands his feelings. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- Special - Apr 6, 2003 -- 25,373 7.28
Ore dake Haireru Kakushi Dungeon -- -- Okuruto Noboru -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Action Adventure Harem Ecchi Fantasy -- Ore dake Haireru Kakushi Dungeon Ore dake Haireru Kakushi Dungeon -- Despite his noble title, Noir Starga is at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Because of this, his fellow nobles oppress him and treat him like garbage. However, he possesses a rare yet powerful ability to communicate with the Great Sage, an oracle who grants Noir the answer to absolutely anything. -- -- After failing to secure a job as a librarian, Noir decides to join the Hero Academy. He knows he must become stronger to enter the institution. The Great Sage advises him to explore a hidden dungeon deep within the mountains. There, Noir meets Olivia Servant, a beautiful yet enchained maiden trapped within the labyrinth. Olivia bestows upon Noir a set of ridiculously powerful skills that grants him virtually total control over reality. Naturally, there is a catch—every time Noir attempts to use his powers, his life points decrease, putting his life at risk. To replenish his energy, he must give in to worldly pleasures such as kissing his childhood friend! -- -- With his newfound powers, Noir begins his journey as a student in the Hero Academy, meeting new acquaintances and helping them through the dire situations ahead. -- -- 189,648 6.26
Orenchi no Furo Jijou -- -- Asahi Production -- 13 eps -- 4-koma manga -- Comedy Fantasy Josei -- Orenchi no Furo Jijou Orenchi no Furo Jijou -- On his way home from school, Tatsumi sees a man collapsed near a lake. When he approaches him, Tatsumi notices something strange: the person in need of help is actually a beautiful merman named Wakasa! Because Wakasa's home has become too polluted to live in, Tatsumi graciously offers his bathtub as a refuge. -- -- With a boisterous merman as his new roommate, Tatsumi's normal life won't be returning anytime soon, not to mention Wakasa's aquatic friends—Takasu, Mikuni, and Maki—often show up uninvited, making them all quite a handful for the high school student. As he humors their curiosity for human life, Tatsumi sometimes finds himself enjoying their childish antics, but he will have to keep his cool if he intends to keep up with his daily life and newfound friendship. -- -- TV - Oct 6, 2014 -- 89,388 6.99
Ou Dorobou Jing -- -- Studio Deen -- 13 eps -- Manga -- Adventure Comedy Fantasy Sci-Fi Shounen -- Ou Dorobou Jing Ou Dorobou Jing -- Jing may appear to be a young boy, but his remarkable skills make him one of the most feared thieves on the planet. Along with his feathered partner Kir, Jing travels from town to town, stealing anything of value regardless of the amount of security. But when he's in a pinch, he has one more trick up his sleeve: Kir bonds with Jing's right arm to perform the effectively deadly "Kir Royale" attack. And because of all this, Jing is infamously known by many as the "King of Bandits." -- -- Licensor: -- ADV Films -- TV - May 15, 2002 -- 33,425 7.22
Ouritsu Uchuugun: Honneamise no Tsubasa -- -- Gainax -- 1 ep -- Original -- Action Drama Military Sci-Fi Space -- Ouritsu Uchuugun: Honneamise no Tsubasa Ouritsu Uchuugun: Honneamise no Tsubasa -- Shirotsugh "Shiro" Lhadatt may be a cadet in the Kingdom of Honneamise's Royal Space Force (RSF), but he has never been in space before—in fact, nobody has. The RSF is often regarded as a failure both by the country's citizens and a government more interested in precipitating a war with a neighboring country than scientific achievement. Following the funeral of a fellow cadet, an unmotivated Shiro is walking in the city one night, when he bumps into Riquinni Nonderaiko, a young, pious woman, genuinely enthusiastic about the significance of space exploration. -- -- As the two gradually bond, Riquinni's encouragement inspires Shiro to volunteer as a pilot for a prospective rocket ship, potentially becoming Honneamise's first man in space. Shiro and the RSF are soon joined by a team of elderly but eager scientists and engineers, and together, they embark on a mission to mold their nation's space program into a success. However, their efforts soon catch the attention of the government, which seems to have a different plan for the RSF in mind. Even as the odds are stacked against them, these men and women continue to stubbornly look to the sky, because somewhere among the frontiers of space may lie humanity's last chance at redemption. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Bandai Visual USA, Maiden Japan, Manga Entertainment -- Movie - Mar 14, 1987 -- 35,422 7.52
Princess Princess -- -- Studio Deen -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Drama School Shoujo -- Princess Princess Princess Princess -- Tooru Kouno's attractive appearance draws unexpected attention on his first day at an all-boys school. Having to transfer to a school without girls has been bad enough, but adding to his list of frustrations are boys staring at him all day long. However, he hopes that there may be girls around, since he ran into a lovely pink-haired girl on campus earlier that day. -- -- After being escorted to his dorm by his classmate, Yuujirou Shihoudani, he meets a student named Mikoto Yutaka, who looks eerily similar to the girl he saw previously. To his shock, he realizes Mikoto is the girl and confronts him about this revelation. Yuujirou divulges that he and Mikoto crossdress as part of their job: a school tradition in which attractive first years are chosen as idols called "Princesses" in order to boost the morale of the students—and because of his looks, Tooru has been chosen by the student council as their third Princess! -- -- -- Licensor: -- Media Blasters -- 56,246 7.01
Psycho-Pass Movie -- -- Production I.G -- 1 ep -- Original -- Action Military Police Sci-Fi -- Psycho-Pass Movie Psycho-Pass Movie -- Due to the incredible success of the Sibyl System, Japan has begun exporting the technology to other countries with the hope that it will one day be used all around the world. In order to test its effectiveness in a foreign location, the war-torn state of the South East Asian Union (SEAUn) decides to implement the system, hoping to bring peace and stability to the town of Shambala Float and keep the population in check. -- -- However, a group of anti-Sibyl terrorists arrive in Japan, and the Ministry of Welfare's Public Safety Bureau discovers significant evidence that the invaders are being aided by Shinya Kougami, a former Enforcer who went rogue. Because of their past relationship, Akane Tsunemori is sent to SEAUn to bring him back, but with their last meeting years in the past, their reunion might not go quite as planned. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- Movie - Jan 9, 2015 -- 218,101 7.73
Rail Wars! -- -- Passione -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Action Harem Police Ecchi -- Rail Wars! Rail Wars! -- Rail Wars! takes place in an alternate universe where the Japanese government remains in control of the nation's railway systems. Because of the stability afforded by the leadership of the government, the railway system is allowed to flourish. -- -- Naoto Takayama aspires to become an employee for Japan National Railways because of the comfortable life that it will enable him to live. In order to accomplish this he enters its training program, where students must demonstrate their knowledge of trains as well as their ability to be ready for any challenge that might arise. -- -- During this time period he will encounter other students such as the athletically gifted Aoi Sakura, the constantly hungry Sho Iwaizumi, and the human encyclopedia Haruka Komi. Together they will work towards surviving their trainee period, all the while taking on purse snatchers, bomb threats, and the looming specter of the extremist “RJ” group who wants to privatize the railway system. -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- TV - Jul 4, 2014 -- 172,395 6.40
Rekka no Honoo -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 42 eps -- Manga -- Action Adventure Martial Arts Shounen Super Power -- Rekka no Honoo Rekka no Honoo -- Most people think that ninjas are a thing of the past, but Rekka Hanabishi wishes otherwise. Although he comes from a family that makes fireworks, he likes to think of himself as a self-styled, modern-day ninja. Sounds like fun, right? Maybe not. Rekka ends up in lots of fights because he once made the bold announcement that if someone can defeat him, he will become their servant. -- -- Then one day, Rekka meets Yanagi Sakoshita, a gentle girl with the ability to heal any wound or injury. Their meeting sets off a chain of events, which culminate into a shocking discovery. Rekka is the last surviving member of a legendary ninja clan that was wiped out centuries ago. Even more astonishing than being an actual ninja, he also wields the power to control fire. What does this mean for Rekka? Who are these strange people after him and Yanagi? Find out in Rekka no Honoo! -- -- Licensor: -- Discotek Media, VIZ Media -- 55,567 7.36
Renai Boukun -- -- EMT Squared -- 12 eps -- Web manga -- Harem Comedy Supernatural Romance Ecchi School -- Renai Boukun Renai Boukun -- When a strange girl named Guri comes knocking at Seiji Aino's door, he quickly finds himself thrust into a world of romantic troubles. Claiming that she will die if he doesn't kiss someone within 24 hours, Guri's pleas of desperation are misunderstood as pleas for love, leading Seiji to kiss the cute stranger that came barging into his house. In actuality, it turns out that this cosplaying cupid is the wielder of a Kiss Note, in which any pairing of names she writes will kiss and become a couple. Guri explains that she misspelt and accidentally wrote Seiji's name while indulging in her yaoi fantasies, but because she had yet to pair him with anyone, their kiss was meaningless. Even worse, Guri reveals that if Seiji is not coupled with anyone soon, not only will she die, but Seiji will remain a virgin for eternity! -- -- Eager to escape his fate, Seiji sets his sights on the beautiful and popular Akane Hiyama. But after Akane hears that he kissed Guri, she reveals the obsessive and psychopathic feelings that she holds for the unfortunate boy and proceeds to viciously attack them. In the ensuing confusion, Guri is able to pair Seiji with Akane in the Kiss Note, temporarily saving Seiji from any further bodily harm. But to complicate matters, Guri's newfound feelings lead her to also pair the two of them with herself. Just when the situation could not get any more convoluted, this new coupling with Guri has turned Seiji and Akane into temporary angels, forcing them into assisting the cupid with her work of pairing humans, lest they be cast into hell. With all semblance of normality snatched from his life, Seiji gets to work at matchmaking with these eccentric girls by his side. -- -- 278,587 6.68
Renai Boukun -- -- EMT Squared -- 12 eps -- Web manga -- Harem Comedy Supernatural Romance Ecchi School -- Renai Boukun Renai Boukun -- When a strange girl named Guri comes knocking at Seiji Aino's door, he quickly finds himself thrust into a world of romantic troubles. Claiming that she will die if he doesn't kiss someone within 24 hours, Guri's pleas of desperation are misunderstood as pleas for love, leading Seiji to kiss the cute stranger that came barging into his house. In actuality, it turns out that this cosplaying cupid is the wielder of a Kiss Note, in which any pairing of names she writes will kiss and become a couple. Guri explains that she misspelt and accidentally wrote Seiji's name while indulging in her yaoi fantasies, but because she had yet to pair him with anyone, their kiss was meaningless. Even worse, Guri reveals that if Seiji is not coupled with anyone soon, not only will she die, but Seiji will remain a virgin for eternity! -- -- Eager to escape his fate, Seiji sets his sights on the beautiful and popular Akane Hiyama. But after Akane hears that he kissed Guri, she reveals the obsessive and psychopathic feelings that she holds for the unfortunate boy and proceeds to viciously attack them. In the ensuing confusion, Guri is able to pair Seiji with Akane in the Kiss Note, temporarily saving Seiji from any further bodily harm. But to complicate matters, Guri's newfound feelings lead her to also pair the two of them with herself. Just when the situation could not get any more convoluted, this new coupling with Guri has turned Seiji and Akane into temporary angels, forcing them into assisting the cupid with her work of pairing humans, lest they be cast into hell. With all semblance of normality snatched from his life, Seiji gets to work at matchmaking with these eccentric girls by his side. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 278,587 6.68
Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu - Hyouketsu no Kizuna -- -- White Fox -- 1 ep -- Light novel -- Psychological Drama Thriller Fantasy -- Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu - Hyouketsu no Kizuna Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu - Hyouketsu no Kizuna -- Covered in ice and snow, Elior Forest is the home to dangerous magical beasts and 50 elves frozen in ice. One day, the great spirit Puck helps a young girl break out of her ice prison. Her name is Emilia, a half-elf born with silver hair, long ears, and amethyst eyes—features that resemble the evil Witch who destroyed half the world long ago. -- -- Shunned by society because of her appearance, Emilia dwells in the forest with Puck as her sole companion and family. Burdened with a sin of destruction she does not remember committing, she spends her days trying to find a way to help her frozen kin. But when the great spirit Melakuera, the Arbitrator of the world, finds Emilia, her right to stay alive is brought into question. Will the bonds of ice she formed with Puck prove to be the warm thread that defies fate? -- -- Movie - Nov 8, 2019 -- 157,555 7.61
Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu - Memory Snow -- -- White Fox -- 1 ep -- Light novel -- Drama Fantasy -- Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu - Memory Snow Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu - Memory Snow -- Subaru Natsuki finally gets to take a breather, but he does not waste any time as he prepares for a date with his beloved Emilia. He scouts the nearby village for the right dating spot, and with the help of the village children, he finds a wonderful location. With that, he is well prepared for his date! -- -- Unfortunately for Subaru, cold weather suddenly sweeps across Roswaal's mansion on his important day, leaving him with no choice but to postpone the date. Overnight, it becomes even colder and unbearable. Subaru must get to the bottom of this because, at this rate, his date will be the least of his worries. -- -- Movie - Oct 6, 2018 -- 206,473 7.55
Rosario to Vampire -- -- Gonzo -- 13 eps -- Manga -- Harem Comedy Romance Ecchi Vampire Fantasy School Shounen -- Rosario to Vampire Rosario to Vampire -- Youkai Academy is a seemingly normal boarding school, except that its pupils are monsters learning to coexist with humans. All students attend in human form and take normal academic subjects, such as literature, gym, foreign language, and mathematics. However, there is one golden rule at Youkai Academy—all humans found on school grounds are to be executed immediately! -- -- Tsukune Aono is an average teenager who is unable to get into any high school because of his bad grades. His parents inadvertently enroll him into Youkai Academy as a last-ditch effort to secure his education. As Tsukune unknowingly enters this new world, he has a run-in with the most attractive girl on campus, Moka Akashiya. Deciding to stay in the perilous realm in order to further his relationship with Moka, he does not realize that beneath her beauty lies a menacing monster—a vampire. -- -- Rosario to Vampire is a supernatural school comedy that explores Tsukune's romantic exploits, experiences, and misadventures with a bevy of beautiful but dangerous creatures. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 561,832 6.82
Sabage-bu! -- -- Pierrot Plus -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Action Military Comedy Shoujo -- Sabage-bu! Sabage-bu! -- Draw your weapons and take aim, because Sabagebu! is coming at you! -- -- Momoka Sonokawa was just minding her own business on the train one day when she encountered a pervert. Before she could do anything about it, a girl named Miou appears, brandishing two pistols and and scaring him off, only to be arrested herself a few minutes later for possessing firearms. -- -- Later Momoka sees this same girl at her school and follows her to a run down building. It turns out Miou is the president of the school's Survival Game Club, and it doesn't take long for Miou to capture Momoka and force her into joining them. -- -- Over the course of the series, Momoka and her new “friends” will take part in multiple battles against enemies from other schools, a rival from the same school who wants to see the club shut down and even each other (on multiple occasions). With friends and classmates like these, will Momoka even make it to graduation? -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- TV - Jul 6, 2014 -- 131,385 7.37
Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut -- -- Lerche -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Action Harem Supernatural Romance Ecchi Fantasy Mecha School -- Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut -- Lux, a former prince of an empire named Arcadia that was overthrown via a rebellion five years earlier, accidentally trespasses in a female dormitory's bathing area, sees the kingdom's new princess Lisesharte naked, incurring her wrath. Lisesharte then challenges Lux to a Drag-Ride duel. Drag-Rides are ancient armored mechanical weapons that have been excavated from ruins all around the world. Lux used to be called the strongest Drag-Knight, but now he's known as the "undefeated weakest" Drag-Knight because he will absolutely not attack in battle. After his duel with Lisesharte, Lux ends up attending the female-only academy that trains royals to be Drag-Knights. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- 294,676 6.59
Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut -- -- Lerche -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Action Harem Supernatural Romance Ecchi Fantasy Mecha School -- Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut -- Lux, a former prince of an empire named Arcadia that was overthrown via a rebellion five years earlier, accidentally trespasses in a female dormitory's bathing area, sees the kingdom's new princess Lisesharte naked, incurring her wrath. Lisesharte then challenges Lux to a Drag-Ride duel. Drag-Rides are ancient armored mechanical weapons that have been excavated from ruins all around the world. Lux used to be called the strongest Drag-Knight, but now he's known as the "undefeated weakest" Drag-Knight because he will absolutely not attack in battle. After his duel with Lisesharte, Lux ends up attending the female-only academy that trains royals to be Drag-Knights. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- 294,676 6.59
Saikin, Imouto no Yousu ga Chotto Okashiinda ga. -- -- Project No.9 -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Ecchi Romance Shounen Supernatural -- Saikin, Imouto no Yousu ga Chotto Okashiinda ga. Saikin, Imouto no Yousu ga Chotto Okashiinda ga. -- Saikin, Imouto no Yousu ga Chotto Okashiinda ga. follows a family just starting to rebuild. When they marry, Mr. and Mrs. Kanzaki bring a teenage son and daughter along for the ride. But high school freshman Mitsuki Kanzaki is less than thrilled. Stinging from a history of absent and abusive father figures, she is slow to accept her stepfather and stepbrother. -- -- But after an accident lands Mitsuki in the hospital, she finds herself possessed by the ghost of Hiyori Kotobuki, a girl her age who was deeply in love with Mitsuki's stepbrother Yuuya. Hiyori cannot pass on to her final reward because of her unrequited love for Yuuya, meaning she's got to consummate it... in Mitsuki's body?! -- -- Now, Mitsuki's life depends on getting Hiyori to Heaven. But will she get used to sharing herself with a pushy, amorous ghost? Can she overcome her distrust of her new family? Can she bring herself to fulfill Hiyori's feelings for Yuuya? And might she be hiding some feelings of her own? -- -- Licensor: -- Crunchyroll, Discotek Media -- TV - Jan 4, 2014 -- 140,422 6.26
Saikin, Imouto no Yousu ga Chotto Okashiinda ga. -- -- Project No.9 -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Ecchi Romance Shounen Supernatural -- Saikin, Imouto no Yousu ga Chotto Okashiinda ga. Saikin, Imouto no Yousu ga Chotto Okashiinda ga. -- Saikin, Imouto no Yousu ga Chotto Okashiinda ga. follows a family just starting to rebuild. When they marry, Mr. and Mrs. Kanzaki bring a teenage son and daughter along for the ride. But high school freshman Mitsuki Kanzaki is less than thrilled. Stinging from a history of absent and abusive father figures, she is slow to accept her stepfather and stepbrother. -- -- But after an accident lands Mitsuki in the hospital, she finds herself possessed by the ghost of Hiyori Kotobuki, a girl her age who was deeply in love with Mitsuki's stepbrother Yuuya. Hiyori cannot pass on to her final reward because of her unrequited love for Yuuya, meaning she's got to consummate it... in Mitsuki's body?! -- -- Now, Mitsuki's life depends on getting Hiyori to Heaven. But will she get used to sharing herself with a pushy, amorous ghost? Can she overcome her distrust of her new family? Can she bring herself to fulfill Hiyori's feelings for Yuuya? And might she be hiding some feelings of her own? -- TV - Jan 4, 2014 -- 140,422 6.26
Seikoku no Dragonar -- -- C-Station -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Comedy Ecchi Fantasy School -- Seikoku no Dragonar Seikoku no Dragonar -- Learning to ride and tame dragons comes easy to most students at Ansarivan Dragonar Academy—except for first-year student Ash Blake, who is known by his fellow classmates as the "number one problem child." Poor Ash is the laughing stock at school because, despite his unfashionably large star-shaped brand that marks him as a future dragon master, he has nothing to show for it. His dragon has never appeared. -- -- Until now, that is. One fateful day, Ash's dragon awakes in full glory, but appears different than any dragon ever seen before—in the form of a beautiful girl! What's worse, Ash soon discovers that this new dragon has attitude to spare, as she promptly informs him that she is the master, and he, the servant. -- -- Ash's problems with dragon riding have only just begun. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- TV - Apr 5, 2014 -- 174,937 6.50
Seikoku no Dragonar -- -- C-Station -- 12 eps -- Light novel -- Comedy Ecchi Fantasy School -- Seikoku no Dragonar Seikoku no Dragonar -- Learning to ride and tame dragons comes easy to most students at Ansarivan Dragonar Academy—except for first-year student Ash Blake, who is known by his fellow classmates as the "number one problem child." Poor Ash is the laughing stock at school because, despite his unfashionably large star-shaped brand that marks him as a future dragon master, he has nothing to show for it. His dragon has never appeared. -- -- Until now, that is. One fateful day, Ash's dragon awakes in full glory, but appears different than any dragon ever seen before—in the form of a beautiful girl! What's worse, Ash soon discovers that this new dragon has attitude to spare, as she promptly informs him that she is the master, and he, the servant. -- -- Ash's problems with dragon riding have only just begun. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- TV - Apr 5, 2014 -- 174,937 6.50
Sekai Saikou no Ansatsusha, Isekai Kizoku ni Tensei suru -- -- SILVER LINK., Studio Palette -- ? eps -- Light novel -- Action Fantasy -- Sekai Saikou no Ansatsusha, Isekai Kizoku ni Tensei suru Sekai Saikou no Ansatsusha, Isekai Kizoku ni Tensei suru -- "I'm going to live for myself!" -- -- The greatest assassin on Earth knew only how to live as a tool for his employers—until they stopped letting him live. Reborn by the grace of a goddess into a world of swords and sorcery, he's offered a chance to do things differently this time around, but there's a catch...He has to eliminate a super-powerful hero who will bring about the end of the world unless he is stopped. -- -- Now known as Lugh Tuatha Dé, the master assassin certainly has his hands full, particularly because of all the beautiful girls who constantly surround him. Lugh may have been an incomparable killer, but how will he fare against foes with powerful magic? -- -- (Source: Yen Press) -- TV - Jul ??, 2021 -- 10,570 N/A -- -- Karen Senki -- -- Next Media Animation -- 11 eps -- Original -- Action Sci-Fi -- Karen Senki Karen Senki -- In the post-apocalyptic aftermath of a war between machines and their creators, machines rule while humans exist in a state of servitude. Titular character Karen leads Resistance Group 11, an eclectic group of humans who find themselves fighting for their lives as they are hunted by the robots in each episode. Is this the end of humanity? Are they fighting a losing battle? -- -- Through Karen, we delve into a struggle between right and wrong, between indifference and love that explores some of the deepest questions about humanity. What is the difference between a thinking machine and a human being? What is a soul? -- -- (Source: Crunchyroll) -- ONA - Sep 27, 2014 -- 10,550 5.78
Shelter -- -- A-1 Pictures -- 1 ep -- Music -- Sci-Fi Music -- Shelter Shelter -- Day 2539: Rin wakes up alone again with blurred memories and still no contact from any other human. She's not bored, however, because in her arms lies a tablet capable of creating any world her heart desires. Day after day, Rin crafts a wonderful reality—one utopia at a time—to shelter her from loneliness, hoping to one day reveal the truth behind her very existence. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Crunchyroll -- Music - Oct 18, 2016 -- 274,088 8.33
Shin Kimagure Orange☆Road: Soshite, Ano Natsu no Hajimari -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Ecchi Slice of Life Fantasy Magic Comedy Romance Drama Shounen -- Shin Kimagure Orange☆Road: Soshite, Ano Natsu no Hajimari Shin Kimagure Orange☆Road: Soshite, Ano Natsu no Hajimari -- It's been several years and Kyosuke Kasuga is now 19. A mysterious phone call warns him of oncoming cars but he doesn't listen. Ironically, he gets hit by a car and because of his telepathic abilities, gets sent three years into the future. His 22 year old future self is now a photographer who is lost in Bosnia and believed to be dead. Kyosuke must find his 22 year old future self and restore himself, the 19 year old, to his correct time. Along the way he reunites with Hikaru who is now a professional and famous dancer. Madoka is also there, distraught over both Kyosuke, the 22 year old, going missing in Bosnia and Kyosuke, the 19 year old, getting hit by a car. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- ADV Films -- Movie - Nov 2, 1996 -- 7,103 7.42
Shin Tennis no Ouji-sama -- -- M.S.C, Production I.G -- 13 eps -- Manga -- Action Comedy Sports Shounen -- Shin Tennis no Ouji-sama Shin Tennis no Ouji-sama -- It takes a lot to reach the top when it comes to tennis. No one knows that better than Ryouma Echizen, a young prodigy tennis player, and his teammates at the Seishun Academy. It was only because they pushed themselves to the limit, spending countless hours preparing for every pulse-pounding match, that they managed to claim victory in the All-Japan National Tournament. -- -- New Prince of Tennis begins with Ryouma and his teammates heading to the U-17 Selection training camp, after receiving a special invitation due to their victory in the Nationals. The training camp is renowned for producing strong tennis players, so the boys of Seishun Academy can’t wait to take their game to the next level. However, not everyone is happy to have them among their ranks, and they’ll have to weather the intense training to prove they belong among the best of the up-and-coming players of their generation. -- TV - Jan 5, 2012 -- 50,376 7.56
Shuumatsu no Walküre -- -- Graphinica -- ? eps -- Manga -- Action Super Power Supernatural Drama Seinen -- Shuumatsu no Walküre Shuumatsu no Walküre -- High above the realm of man, the gods of the world have convened to decide on a single matter: the continued existence of mankind. Under the head of Zeus, the deities of Ancient Greece, Norse mythology, and Hinduism, among others, call assembly every one thousand years to decide the fate of humanity. Because of their unrelenting abuse toward each other and the planet, this time the gods vote unanimously in favor of ending the human race. -- -- But before the mandate passes, Brunhild, one of the 13 demigod Valkyries, puts forth an alternate proposal: rather than anticlimactically annihilating mankind, why not give them a fighting chance and enact Ragnarök, a one-on-one showdown between man and god? Spurred on by the audacity of the challenge, the divine council quickly accepts, fully confident that this contest will display the utter might of the gods. To stand a chance against the mighty heavens, Brunhild will need to assemble history's greatest individuals, otherwise the death knell will surely be sounded for mankind. -- -- ONA - Jun ??, 2021 -- 29,841 N/A -- -- Gintama: Dai Hanseikai -- -- Sunrise -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Action Comedy Parody Samurai -- Gintama: Dai Hanseikai Gintama: Dai Hanseikai -- Some of the characters get together and talk about "regrets" they have after 4 years of anime Gintama. Soon they fight over who gets more screen time. Special animation shown at the Gintama Haru Matsuri 2010 live event. -- Special - Mar 25, 2010 -- 29,677 8.07
Shuumatsu no Walküre -- -- Graphinica -- ? eps -- Manga -- Action Super Power Supernatural Drama Seinen -- Shuumatsu no Walküre Shuumatsu no Walküre -- High above the realm of man, the gods of the world have convened to decide on a single matter: the continued existence of mankind. Under the head of Zeus, the deities of Ancient Greece, Norse mythology, and Hinduism, among others, call assembly every one thousand years to decide the fate of humanity. Because of their unrelenting abuse toward each other and the planet, this time the gods vote unanimously in favor of ending the human race. -- -- But before the mandate passes, Brunhild, one of the 13 demigod Valkyries, puts forth an alternate proposal: rather than anticlimactically annihilating mankind, why not give them a fighting chance and enact Ragnarök, a one-on-one showdown between man and god? Spurred on by the audacity of the challenge, the divine council quickly accepts, fully confident that this contest will display the utter might of the gods. To stand a chance against the mighty heavens, Brunhild will need to assemble history's greatest individuals, otherwise the death knell will surely be sounded for mankind. -- -- ONA - Jun ??, 2021 -- 29,841 N/A -- -- Hyakujitsu no Bara -- -- PrimeTime -- 2 eps -- Manga -- Drama Yaoi -- Hyakujitsu no Bara Hyakujitsu no Bara -- Two soldiers from warring countries are bound by a pledge as master and servant. Taki Reizen is a Commander of sublime beauty, shouldering the fate of his nation. Called "Mad Dog" because of his rough temperament, Klaus has sworn his loyalty to him as a knight. Despite this, those around them are cold and disapproving, full of various misgivings. For all their genuine feelings, what will come of love made cruel by the violence of war? -- OVA - May 29, 2009 -- 29,624 6.61
Shuumatsu no Walküre -- -- Graphinica -- ? eps -- Manga -- Action Super Power Supernatural Drama Seinen -- Shuumatsu no Walküre Shuumatsu no Walküre -- High above the realm of man, the gods of the world have convened to decide on a single matter: the continued existence of mankind. Under the head of Zeus, the deities of Ancient Greece, Norse mythology, and Hinduism, among others, call assembly every one thousand years to decide the fate of humanity. Because of their unrelenting abuse toward each other and the planet, this time the gods vote unanimously in favor of ending the human race. -- -- But before the mandate passes, Brunhild, one of the 13 demigod Valkyries, puts forth an alternate proposal: rather than anticlimactically annihilating mankind, why not give them a fighting chance and enact Ragnarök, a one-on-one showdown between man and god? Spurred on by the audacity of the challenge, the divine council quickly accepts, fully confident that this contest will display the utter might of the gods. To stand a chance against the mighty heavens, Brunhild will need to assemble history's greatest individuals, otherwise the death knell will surely be sounded for mankind. -- -- ONA - Jun ??, 2021 -- 29,841 N/A -- -- Kannagi: Moshimo Kannagi ga Attara... -- -- A-1 Pictures, Ordet -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Comedy School Shounen Supernatural -- Kannagi: Moshimo Kannagi ga Attara... Kannagi: Moshimo Kannagi ga Attara... -- Unaired episode included in DVD Vol.7. -- -- In this episode they attempt to make a movie with some money they found lying on the ground. -- -- Licensor: -- Bandai Entertainment -- Special - May 27, 2009 -- 29,660 7.08
Sister Princess -- -- Zexcs -- 26 eps -- Light novel -- Comedy Drama Harem Romance Slice of Life -- Sister Princess Sister Princess -- Wataru Minakami is a top student who failed his high school entrance exam because of a computer glitch. He later discovered that he was accepted to Stargazer Hill Academy, which is located at a mysterious place called Promised Island. At the request of his father, Wataru is whisked away to the island, and before he can settle in, a dozen of cute and charming girls start to flock him and claim to be his younger sisters. As Wataru gets closer to his newfound siblings, a deeper mystery as to why they were sent to the island comes to play. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- ADV Films, Discotek Media -- TV - Apr 4, 2001 -- 21,313 6.41
Slayers Gorgeous -- -- J.C.Staff -- 1 ep -- Light novel -- Adventure Comedy Fantasy Magic Supernatural -- Slayers Gorgeous Slayers Gorgeous -- Sorceresses Lina Inverse and Naga the Serpent are enjoying a meal in a villiage when the residents suddenly retreat indoors and two armies - one of men and one of a young girl and a tribe of dragons. Although the ruler of the town originally tries to convince Lina that this is because of a dark legacy, in truth the dragon army is led by his daughter and their battles are over her allowance. Lina agrees to help the ruler while Naga joins his daughter, Marlene. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- Movie - Aug 1, 1998 -- 16,918 7.33
Sora no Aosa wo Shiru Hito yo -- -- CloverWorks -- 1 ep -- Original -- Drama -- Sora no Aosa wo Shiru Hito yo Sora no Aosa wo Shiru Hito yo -- High school student Aoi Aioi lives with her elder sister, Akane, after a tragic accident took their parents away 13 years ago. Because Akane has since been taking care of her single-handedly, Aoi wants to move to Tokyo after her graduation to relieve her sister's burden and pursue a musical career, inspired by Akane's ex-boyfriend Shinnosuke "Shinno" Kanamuro. Shinno was part of a band until he left for Tokyo to become a professional guitarist after the sisters' parents passed away, and he was never to be seen again. -- -- One afternoon, while Aoi practices her bass in a guest house, she gets startled by the 18-year-old version of Shinno from 13 years ago! As if by coincidence, the current 31-year-old Shinno also returns to the town, but he has changed drastically. There are now two Shinno's in existence, but why is the Shinno from the past present? -- -- Sora no Aosa wo Shiru Hito yo revolves around these four individuals as they confront their inner feelings toward each other and make decisions that will affect their lives from here on out. -- -- Movie - Oct 11, 2019 -- 60,630 7.53
Sora no Otoshimono: Project Pink -- -- AIC ASTA -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Sci-Fi Harem Comedy Supernatural Ecchi Shounen -- Sora no Otoshimono: Project Pink Sora no Otoshimono: Project Pink -- The gang goes to an indoor swimming pool for some fun in the sun. As expected, all hell breaks loose when Tomoki goes on one of his perverted missions. -- -- Meanwhile, Nymph is having some issues with the loss of her master and considers asking Tomoki to be her replacement master. -- -- This episode was not aired on TV because it was deemed too dangerous... -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- OVA - Sep 9, 2010 -- 95,920 7.42
Sora no Otoshimono: Project Pink -- -- AIC ASTA -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Sci-Fi Harem Comedy Supernatural Ecchi Shounen -- Sora no Otoshimono: Project Pink Sora no Otoshimono: Project Pink -- The gang goes to an indoor swimming pool for some fun in the sun. As expected, all hell breaks loose when Tomoki goes on one of his perverted missions. -- -- Meanwhile, Nymph is having some issues with the loss of her master and considers asking Tomoki to be her replacement master. -- -- This episode was not aired on TV because it was deemed too dangerous... -- OVA - Sep 9, 2010 -- 95,920 7.42
Soukihei MD Geist -- -- Zero-G Room -- 1 ep -- Original -- Action Military Sci-Fi Mecha -- Soukihei MD Geist Soukihei MD Geist -- In the distant future, mankind has colonized other planets in the universe. While many planets lived in peace, the planet Jerra has been ravaged by decades of war. Geist is an M.D.S. (Most Dangerous Soldier), an enhanced human with unsurpassed combat capabilities and an insatiable lust for battle. Because of his uncontrollable nature, Geist is cryogenically frozen and locked in a satellite. Several years later, the satellite crashes and Geist wakes up from his sleep to engage in another war. This time, to help the army stop the planet's central computer from activating a doomsday device that will lead to total annihilation of all life on Jerra. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- ADV Films, Central Park Media -- OVA - May 21, 1986 -- 13,229 5.32
Space☆Dandy 2nd Season -- -- Bones -- 13 eps -- Original -- Space Comedy Sci-Fi -- Space☆Dandy 2nd Season Space☆Dandy 2nd Season -- Second season of Space Dandy. -- -- Space Dandy is a dandy guy, in space! This dreamy adventurer with a to-die-for pompadour travels across the galaxy in search of aliens no one has ever laid eyes on. Each new species he discovers earns him a hefty reward, but this dandy has to be quick on his feet because it's first come, first served! Accompanied by his sidekicks, a rundown robot named QT and Meow the cat-looking space alien, Dandy bravely explores unknown worlds inhabited by a variety of aliens. Join the best dressed alien hunter in all of space and time as he embarks on an adventure that ends at the edge of the universe! -- -- (Source: Bandai Visual) -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- TV - Jul 6, 2014 -- 134,454 8.26
Starship Troopers: Red Planet -- -- Sola Digital Arts -- 1 ep -- Original -- Action Military Sci-Fi -- Starship Troopers: Red Planet Starship Troopers: Red Planet -- After the events of Invasion, Johnny Rico has been demoted to the rank of colonel and relocated to a Martian satellite to train a new batch of troopers. Unfortunately, these troopers are some of the worst low-performing Rico has ever trained as they're Martians and don't take the war seriously. Mars overall has low support for the war as they see their planet unaffected by the bug conflict and even suggested pulling out from the war. Because of their laid back attitude, the denizens of Mars wasn't ready when the bugs attacked. Unknown to everyone, Sky Marshall Amy Snapp executes her plans for power. -- -- (Source: Wikipedia) -- Movie - Feb 10, 2018 -- 1,915 6.50
Street Fighter II Movie -- -- Group TAC -- 1 ep -- Game -- Action Martial Arts Shounen -- Street Fighter II Movie Street Fighter II Movie -- Get your quarters ready, because the world's top fighters are about to go head to head in this explosive animated adaptation of the classic Street Fighter II arcade game! M. Bison's plan to crush those who would oppose his organization, Shadowloo, is simple: brainwash the strongest martial artists around with his dreaded psycho power, and turn them into living weapons! To stop him, Interpol agent Chun-Li must team up with Major Guile of the United States Air Force, but that's no small feat. -- -- They'll have to put aside their differences and learn to work together, and fast. Bison is closing in on Ryu, a traveling vagabond said to be the best fighter in the world. Fortunately (or not), Ryu is a hard man to find, but the same can't be said of his eternal rival, Ken. And it might just be through Ken that Bison will get what he wants! Can the World Warriors beat Bison to the punch? -- -- (Source: Discotek) -- -- Licensor: -- Discotek Media -- Movie - Aug 6, 1994 -- 24,371 7.17
Street Fighter II Movie -- -- Group TAC -- 1 ep -- Game -- Action Martial Arts Shounen -- Street Fighter II Movie Street Fighter II Movie -- Get your quarters ready, because the world's top fighters are about to go head to head in this explosive animated adaptation of the classic Street Fighter II arcade game! M. Bison's plan to crush those who would oppose his organization, Shadowloo, is simple: brainwash the strongest martial artists around with his dreaded psycho power, and turn them into living weapons! To stop him, Interpol agent Chun-Li must team up with Major Guile of the United States Air Force, but that's no small feat. -- -- They'll have to put aside their differences and learn to work together, and fast. Bison is closing in on Ryu, a traveling vagabond said to be the best fighter in the world. Fortunately (or not), Ryu is a hard man to find, but the same can't be said of his eternal rival, Ken. And it might just be through Ken that Bison will get what he wants! Can the World Warriors beat Bison to the punch? -- -- (Source: Discotek) -- Movie - Aug 6, 1994 -- 24,371 7.17
Suki na Mono wa Suki Dakara Shou ga Nai!! -- -- Zexcs -- 12 eps -- Visual novel -- Comedy Drama Romance Shoujo Shounen Ai Slice of Life -- Suki na Mono wa Suki Dakara Shou ga Nai!! Suki na Mono wa Suki Dakara Shou ga Nai!! -- Hashiba Sora has fallen from a 4th story window and has lost all of his memories. When Fujimori Sunao comes to his school as his new room mate, Fujimori tells Hashiba that he is called Ran. Fujimori and Hashiba both have a split personality which they developed in their youth. Their split personalities, Yoru and Ran, are deeply in love. Even though it creeps Fujimori and Hashiba out what their other selves do with each other at night, they also start to fall for each other. Because of their relationship, Hashiba Sora finds out a lot of shocking facts about their youth. -- -- Licensor: -- Media Blasters -- TV - Jan 9, 2005 -- 44,011 6.69
Summer Wars -- -- Madhouse -- 1 ep -- Original -- Sci-Fi Comedy -- Summer Wars Summer Wars -- OZ, a virtual world connected to the internet, has become extremely popular worldwide as a spot for people to engage in a large variety of activities, such as playing sports or shopping, through avatars created and customized by the user. OZ also possesses a near impenetrable security due to its strong encryption, ensuring that any personal data transmitted through the networks will be kept safe in order to protect those who use it. Because of its convenient applications, the majority of society has become highly dependent on the simulated reality, even going as far as entrusting the system with bringing back the unmanned asteroid explorer, Arawashi. -- -- Kenji Koiso is a 17-year-old math genius and part-time OZ moderator who is invited by his crush Natsuki Shinohara on a summer trip. But unbeknownst to him, this adventure requires him to act as her fiancé. Shortly after arriving at Natsuki's family's estate, which is preparing for her great-grandmother's 90th birthday, he receives a strange, coded message on his cell phone from an unknown sender who challenges him to solve it. Kenji is able to crack the code, but little does he know that his math expertise has just put Earth in great danger. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation, GKIDS, Warner Bros. Japan -- Movie - Aug 1, 2009 -- 435,444 8.08
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu (2009) -- -- Kyoto Animation -- 14 eps -- Light novel -- Comedy Mystery Parody Romance School Sci-Fi Slice of Life -- Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu (2009) Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu (2009) -- Kyon has found himself dragged through many adventures as of late—all because of the SOS Brigade club and its excitable leader, Haruhi Suzumiya. He has stopped believing in the supernatural long ago, but after being forced to join this club based solely on that, he has seen things that cannot be explained logically. -- -- Joining Kyon on his various misadventures is the shy and soft-spoken Mikuru Asahina, the bookish Yuki Nagato, and the ever-cheerful Itsuki Koizumi. Whether it is summer vacation or a school festival, things involving their club and Haruhi herself always end up becoming strange. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Bandai Entertainment, Funimation -- 438,915 7.23
Tailenders -- -- Picograph -- 1 ep -- Original -- Action Adventure Cars Sci-Fi -- Tailenders Tailenders -- Tomoe Shiro, a formidable racer with a very promising career, experiments a U-turn when a serious accident puts his life at stake. He recovers miraculously though when his heart is replaced with the engine of his own racing car. However, because of that very reason, race regulations demote him to the category of a mere mechanical part of the vehicle and is deprived from the right to participate as a pilot in regular races. Only in a far away colonial planet, along with a multitude of other charismatic pilots also vetoed from participating in regular competitions, will he be given the opportunity to race for his pride and the money of the prize. And so this exciting rally starts!! -- -- (Source: Official website) -- Movie - Oct 16, 2009 -- 17,018 6.74
Tari Tari -- -- P.A. Works -- 13 eps -- Original -- Music Slice of Life School -- Tari Tari Tari Tari -- At Shirahamazaka High School, a special recital is held every year in which music students are able to showcase their talents in front of professionals and other prestigious guests. A third year, Konatsu Miyamoto desperately wants to sing in her last high school recital, but because she screwed up the year before, the vice principal has barred her from participating. -- -- That's when Konatsu comes up with a new plan to get involved; instead of joining the official choir, she'll form her own singing club with her friends! Unfortunately this proves to be harder than she imagined. Her friend Wakana Sakai, has given up on singing, for one, and Konatsu needs more than just two members. With only a month left until the recital, will Konatsu be able to find enough members for her club and actually be ready to sing at one of the most important events of the school year and graduate without regrets? -- 135,669 7.32
Tennis no Ouji-sama Movie 2: Eikokushiki Teikyuu Shiro Kessen! -- -- M.S.C, Production I.G -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Action Comedy Sports School Shounen -- Tennis no Ouji-sama Movie 2: Eikokushiki Teikyuu Shiro Kessen! Tennis no Ouji-sama Movie 2: Eikokushiki Teikyuu Shiro Kessen! -- Seigaku travels to England to play a tournament representing Japan but they are attacked by a group of street tennis players who were banned from playing official tournaments because of their rough play. -- -- Note: 10th Anniversary Movie of the Prince of Tennis anime. -- Movie - Sep 3, 2011 -- 9,468 7.47
Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken 2nd Season Part 2 -- -- 8bit -- ? eps -- Light novel -- Action Adventure Comedy Demons Magic Fantasy -- Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken 2nd Season Part 2 Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken 2nd Season Part 2 -- Second half of Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken 2nd Season. -- TV - Jul ??, 2021 -- 125,503 N/A -- -- Isuca -- -- Arms -- 10 eps -- Manga -- Action Comedy Ecchi Romance School Seinen Supernatural -- Isuca Isuca -- Poor Shinichirou Asano has the worst of luck. His parents abandoned him and ran off to Europe. If that isn't bad enough on its own, they barely left him any money to take care of himself. In order to pay rent and keep a roof over his head, he has to work. Unfortunately, he was just fired from his last job and as a high school student, he doesn't have many other prospects. -- -- One evening, he's attacked by a centipede monster on his way home. Shinichirou is saved by a mysterious girl with a bow and arrow, who he later discovers is Sakuya Shimazu, a beautiful student who attends his school. But when he later helps an injured girl, he discovers two things. First, the injured girl isn't human at all but rather a nekomata, a two-tailed demon cat. And second, Sakuya comes from a family of exorcists, who've protected humanity from rogue monsters and spirits for generations. Because Shinichirou was responsible for releasing the nekomata, Sakuya enlists his help in recapturing the demon, but that's just the beginning of Shinichirou's relationship with Sakuya. It turns out the Shimazu family needs a housekeeper and it just so happens that Shinichirou excels at cooking and likes to clean! It may not be his dream job, but if it pays the rent and puts food on the table... -- -- Licensor: -- Discotek Media -- 125,107 6.02
The Third: Aoi Hitomi no Shoujo -- -- Xebec -- 24 eps -- Light novel -- Action Adventure Sci-Fi Seinen -- The Third: Aoi Hitomi no Shoujo The Third: Aoi Hitomi no Shoujo -- In the distant future, because of an interplanetary war that had continued on for centuries, civilizations were ruined. Human beings have lost everything, and only 1/5th of the population survived. A strange breed of humans, ''The Third'' is said to have appeared just after the war. They possess a third eye, as their name suggests, that appear as oval-shaped red pupils called "space eyes'' over their conventional two eyes. Using them, they can control computer systems and so on, and as such, rule the world by their superior power over technology. -- -- In this world, there is a young woman named Honoka; she is a "jack-of-all-trades" sellsword, and she accepts any job except murder. One day, she happens to find and rescue a young man named Ikus in the desert. Entering his world, and accepting a job from him, the adventure begins for Honoka and Ikus. -- -- (Source: BestAnime, modified) -- -- Licensor: -- Kadokawa Pictures USA, Nozomi Entertainment -- TV - Apr 14, 2006 -- 19,122 7.32
Tide-Line Blue -- -- Telecom Animation Film -- 12 eps -- Original -- Action Military Adventure Drama Shounen -- Tide-Line Blue Tide-Line Blue -- The catastrophe, "Hammer of Eden," resulted in the loss of six billion lives and the flooding of 90% of the land. The New United Nations were formed to pursue peace on the ruined lands 14 years later. Keel is a boy living in a town called Yabitsu, an area which prospered due to the energy from the nuclear generator brought by the catastrophe. His next kin, Aoi, is the secretary general of the New United Nations. She views the catastrophe as an opportunity to create a new world in which nations can help one another overcome differences in races and religions. However, her efforts to realise that vision fail because of the unwillingness of the nations to change. Gould, a military officer, feels that the only way to make an order is through the military. Using Ulysses, a nuclear submarine, along with his crew, including Keel's brother Tean, Gould carries out a coup to declare war against the New United Nations in his attack on Yabitsu. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- Bandai Entertainment -- 6,487 6.65
To LOVE-Ru OVA -- -- Xebec -- 6 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Ecchi Harem School Sci-Fi Shounen -- To LOVE-Ru OVA To LOVE-Ru OVA -- Episode 01: Rito becomes a Woman -- Lala invents a gizmo to make her bust bigger. However, this invention of hers accidentally turns Rito into a woman. -- -- Episode 02: Rito and Mikan -- Feeling lonely because Rito is always spending time with Lala, Mikan storms out of the house. While Rito and Lala are out looking for her a few flashbacks from the past, showing Rito and Mikan as kids, are shown. -- -- Episode 03: Welcome to the Southern Resort!! -- Haruna wins an island resort trip for ten females. Rito gets turned into a dog by one of Lala's inventions and somehow ends up on the island as well. -- -- Episode 04: Trouble Quest -- Rito and the girls become trapped inside an RPG game where the objective is to save Lala and defeat the evil witch Kyouko. -- -- Episode 05: Nana and Momo -- Lala's sisters cause mischief for Rito and his harem at a cherry blossom viewing. -- -- Episode 06: Draft, Metamorphose, Hand & Tail -- Yami and Yui confront with a senior, causing Yui to lose her panties. -- -- Mikan finds Peke taking snapshots of new clothing while shopping. Suddenly, a stranger steals her bag. -- -- As Rito tries to explore Lala's cleaned-up bedroom, he accidentally activates one of Lala's invention, fusing his hand to Lala's tail. -- OVA - Apr 3, 2009 -- 145,159 7.30
Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun -- -- Brain's Base -- 13 eps -- Manga -- Slice of Life Comedy Romance School Shoujo -- Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun -- Shizuku Mizutani is apathetic towards her classmates, only caring about her grades. However, her cold view of life begins to change when she meets Haru Yoshida, a violent troublemaker who stopped attending class after getting into a fight early in the school year. He is not much different from her, though—he too understands little about human nature and does not have any friends. Much to Shizuku's surprise, he proclaims that she will be his friend and immediately confesses his feelings towards her upon meeting her. -- -- Because of her lack of friends and social interaction, Shizuku has a hard time understanding her relationship with Haru. But slowly, their friendship begins to progress, and she discovers that there is more to Haru than violence. She begins to develop feelings for him, but is unsure what kind of emotions she is experiencing. Together, Shizuku and Haru explore the true nature of their relationship and emotions. -- -- -- Licensor: -- NIS America, Inc. -- TV - Oct 2, 2012 -- 803,824 7.53
Tsukumogami Kashimasu -- -- Telecom Animation Film -- 12 eps -- Novel -- Slice of Life Comedy Historical Demons Supernatural -- Tsukumogami Kashimasu Tsukumogami Kashimasu -- The series is set during the Edo period, in the Fukagawa ward of old Edo (present-day Tokyo). Because the area is prone to fire and flooding, residents rent everyday items like pots, futons, and clothing from shops instead of purchasing them, so as not to impede them when they flee. Obeni and Seiji, an older sister and younger brother, run one such rental shop called Izumoya. However, mixed in with their inventory are tsukumogami, objects that have turned into spirits after a hundred years of existence. The siblings sometimes lend these sentient items to customers. Both Obeni and Seiji can see and talk to these spirits, and other tsukumogami often come to the store after hearing of the famed siblings. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- 14,147 6.70
Twinkle Heart: Gingakei made Todokanai -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Original -- Adventure Comedy Space -- Twinkle Heart: Gingakei made Todokanai Twinkle Heart: Gingakei made Todokanai -- Love, Heaven's greatest treasure went missing and to get it back, the Great God decides to send his two daughters Lemon and Cherry, as well as their governess Berry to find it. However, their search doesn't go so well, mainly because they decide they like it at planet Earth and prefer to work in a hamburger shop (Sic!). -- -- In the one-episode OVA, the girls end up searching for the Love treasure on an exotic planet, however they find magical living plushies instead, having to fight their way through them to recover "Essence of Life," which an evil organisation wants to use for nefarious purposes. -- -- (Source: BakaBT) -- OVA - Dec 5, 1986 -- 981 5.30
Uchuu Senkan Yamato: Aratanaru Tabidachi -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Original -- Action Military Sci-Fi Space Drama -- Uchuu Senkan Yamato: Aratanaru Tabidachi Uchuu Senkan Yamato: Aratanaru Tabidachi -- It is the year 2201. The Yamato has returned from the devastating battle with Emperor Zordar and the Comet Empire. Sanada, Aihara, and Shima are released from the hospital, and go to pay their respects to the fallen crew members at Okita's memorial. They meet Tokugawa's son Tasuke, who says that he will be joining the crew once he graduates from cadet school. The next day at his graduation, he ends up capsizing a boat full of new cadets because they are all too busy staring at the Yamato to watch where they are going. -- -- After some problems during launch due to the new engine crew hitting the wrong switches and stalling the ship, the Yamato departs on what should be a simple training mission. -- -- (Source: AniDB) -- Special - Jul 31, 1979 -- 3,012 6.69
Ueno-san wa Bukiyou -- -- Lesprit -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Romance Seinen -- Ueno-san wa Bukiyou Ueno-san wa Bukiyou -- As the head of her middle school's science club, it's only fitting that Ueno is also a brilliant inventor. With devices that can convert any liquid into drinkable water, deodorize the most foul smells, or even generate dark matter to be used as a means of concealment, it seems like nothing is beyond Ueno's capabilities. However, she doesn't invent these devices for the advancement of mankind. Rather, the one force that motivates her is love, the only phenomenon she can't quite figure out. -- -- Ueno is head over heels for Tanaka, her nonchalant fellow club member. Yet, because she is too nervous to confess her love and he is too oblivious to notice her affection, her love life is completely stagnant. In Ueno's mind, if she could just expose him to perverted situations, then surely he'd get flustered and fall for her, right? Assisted by her stone-faced classmate and dedicated wingwoman Yamashita, Ueno employs her many inventions on Tanaka in a lewd manner in hopes that he may one day understand how she feels. -- -- 87,391 6.62
UFO Princess Valkyrie -- -- TNK -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Ecchi Magic Sci-Fi -- UFO Princess Valkyrie UFO Princess Valkyrie -- UFO Princess Warukyure, aka UFO Princess Walkyrie is about a princess from outer space who accidentally crashes on earth, where Kazuto desperately tries to maintain the public bath of his grandfather. Due to circumstances, Kazuto receives part of princess Walkyrie's soul which forces her to stay there with him. But that's not the only problem ... because her soul lost strength, the princess transforms both mentally and physically into a little kid! -- -- (Source: AniDB) -- -- Licensor: -- ADV Films -- 17,350 6.74
Umineko no Naku Koro ni -- -- Studio Deen -- 26 eps -- Visual novel -- Mystery Horror Psychological Supernatural -- Umineko no Naku Koro ni Umineko no Naku Koro ni -- Considered as the third installment in the highly popular When They Cry series by 07th Expansion, Umineko no Naku Koro ni takes place on the island of Rokkenjima, owned by the immensely wealthy Ushiromiya family. As customary per year, the entire family is gathering on the island for a conference that discusses the current financial situations of each respective person. Because of the family head's poor health, this year involves the topic of the head of the family's inheritance and how it will be distributed. -- -- However, the family is unaware that the distribution of his wealth is the least of Ushiromiya Kinzou's (family head) concerns for this year's family conference. After being told that his end was approaching by his longtime friend and physician, Kinzou is desperate to meet his life's true love one last time: the Golden Witch, Beatrice. Having immersed himself in black magic for many of the later years in his life, Kinzou instigates a ceremony to revive his beloved upon his family's arrival on Rokkenjima. Soon after, a violent typhoon traps the family on the island and a string of mysterious murders commence, forcing the eighteen people on the island to fight for their lives in a deadly struggle between fantasy and reality. -- -- -- Licensor: -- NIS America, Inc. -- TV - Jul 2, 2009 -- 187,996 7.11
Umineko no Naku Koro ni -- -- Studio Deen -- 26 eps -- Visual novel -- Mystery Horror Psychological Supernatural -- Umineko no Naku Koro ni Umineko no Naku Koro ni -- Considered as the third installment in the highly popular When They Cry series by 07th Expansion, Umineko no Naku Koro ni takes place on the island of Rokkenjima, owned by the immensely wealthy Ushiromiya family. As customary per year, the entire family is gathering on the island for a conference that discusses the current financial situations of each respective person. Because of the family head's poor health, this year involves the topic of the head of the family's inheritance and how it will be distributed. -- -- However, the family is unaware that the distribution of his wealth is the least of Ushiromiya Kinzou's (family head) concerns for this year's family conference. After being told that his end was approaching by his longtime friend and physician, Kinzou is desperate to meet his life's true love one last time: the Golden Witch, Beatrice. Having immersed himself in black magic for many of the later years in his life, Kinzou instigates a ceremony to revive his beloved upon his family's arrival on Rokkenjima. Soon after, a violent typhoon traps the family on the island and a string of mysterious murders commence, forcing the eighteen people on the island to fight for their lives in a deadly struggle between fantasy and reality. -- -- TV - Jul 2, 2009 -- 187,996 7.11
Wakaba*Girl -- -- Nexus -- 13 eps -- 4-koma manga -- Comedy School Slice of Life -- Wakaba*Girl Wakaba*Girl -- Wakaba Kohashi, a sheltered rich girl, dreams of becoming a fashionable and trendy gyaru because she admires their outgoing and carefree nature. With this goal in mind, Wakaba begins the school year hoping to make her high school debut as a gyaru. On the first day of class, she meets the pure Moeko Tokita, the serious Nao Mashiba, and the eccentric Mao Kurokawa, and the four of them quickly become friends as they learn about and imitate each other's lifestyles. -- -- Wakaba*Girl follows the adventures of these four friends while they experience events like school festivals, waterpark trips, and gym class tests. Along the way, Wakaba discovers what it is like to live as a regular student while Nao, Moeka, and Mao catch a glimpse into the life of a rich family. With never a dull moment in their lives, the four girls make sure to live each day to the fullest. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- 37,406 6.89
Wangan Midnight -- -- A.C.G.T. -- 26 eps -- Manga -- Action Cars Seinen Sports -- Wangan Midnight Wangan Midnight -- Based on a seinen manga by Kusunoki Michiharu serialised in Young Magazine. -- -- The story gets its roots from the actual street racing that occurs on Tokyo's Shuto Expressway, one stretch of which is known as the "Wangan", literally meaning "bay side" (although it is generally used to refer to the freeway), the longest, straightest road in the entire country. Of course, there's also lots of traffic to contend with, including a fair number of heavy trucks. Because of this, the action is inherently hazardous, and wrecks are common. Blown engines are also a frequent hazard, especially with the extreme-high power engines. -- -- One day, Akio Asakura, a third year high school student, is driving his Fairlady Z (Z31) and is challenged by Tatsuya Shima, a doctor, in his black Porsche 964 Turbo (nicknamed the "BlackBird"). With a friend in the passenger seat and two girls in the back, Akio pitifully tries to win, but is defeated. Determined to become faster, he goes to the junkyard to buy parts for his car, when he sees a pristine, unscratched midnight blue Fairlady Z (S30) in the junkyard. Intrigued as to why such a machine is about to be junked, he buys it. He soon finds that the car is unnaturally fast due to a tuned L28 engine, bored and stroked to 3.1 liters combined with twin turbos, which produces 620bhp. He also finds that all of the car's previous owners had unfortunate accidents in it, starting with the first owner's death. The manga follows Akio's various encounters, though the central plot revolves around his constant battle with the BlackBird for superiority. -- -- (Source: AniDB) -- TV - Jun 15, 2007 -- 27,214 7.45
Wata no Kuni Hoshi -- -- Mushi Production -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Drama Fantasy Psychological Romance Shoujo -- Wata no Kuni Hoshi Wata no Kuni Hoshi -- After two-month-old kitten Chibi-neko is abandoned by her former owners, she is found by 18-year-old Tokio. Although his mother is allergic to cats and has a great fear of them, she agrees to let him keep the kitten because she fears he is becoming too withdrawn after failing his university entrance exams. Chibi-neko soon falls in love with Tokio. -- -- In her own mind, Chibi-neko is a small human who speaks in human words, although people only ever seem to hear her meow, and she believes that all humans were once kittens like her. A stray cat tells Chibi-neko of a paradise called Cottonland, where dreams can come true. -- -- (Source: Wikipedia) -- Movie - Feb 11, 1984 -- 4,390 6.88
Witchblade -- -- Gonzo -- 24 eps -- Other -- Action Sci-Fi Super Power -- Witchblade Witchblade -- Masane Amaha and her daughter Rihoko are on the run from a government child welfare agency that wants to take Rihoko away from her mother. They are caught and Rihoko is taken away. Meanwhile, Masane is attacked by an advanced weapon that can disguise itself as a human being. When faced with the danger, a strange light emits from her wrist and she transforms into a powerful being. She destroys the weapon and consequently becomes involved in a power struggle between powerful organizations, with her at the center of their attention. Because she holds the greatest power of them all, the legendary Witchblade. -- -- (Source: AniDB) -- 98,884 7.26
Witchblade -- -- Gonzo -- 24 eps -- Other -- Action Sci-Fi Super Power -- Witchblade Witchblade -- Masane Amaha and her daughter Rihoko are on the run from a government child welfare agency that wants to take Rihoko away from her mother. They are caught and Rihoko is taken away. Meanwhile, Masane is attacked by an advanced weapon that can disguise itself as a human being. When faced with the danger, a strange light emits from her wrist and she transforms into a powerful being. She destroys the weapon and consequently becomes involved in a power struggle between powerful organizations, with her at the center of their attention. Because she holds the greatest power of them all, the legendary Witchblade. -- -- (Source: AniDB) -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 98,884 7.26
Wonder Beat Scramble -- -- Mushi Production -- 26 eps -- - -- Action Space Sci-Fi -- Wonder Beat Scramble Wonder Beat Scramble -- In 2119, the spaceship Green Sleeves found 3 planets attacked by X23, a moving planet heading Earth. The Earth government ordered Green Sleeves to attack X23, but Dr. Sugita, the captain of Green Sleeves, refused because he believed they could co-exist. Then, the communication with Green Sleeves was cut abruptly... -- -- In 2121, Susumu, the son of Dr. Sugita, is visited by strangers. The take him to Dr. Miya, one of the few supporters to Dr. Sugita's decision, while most blamed him as a traitor. Dr. Miya recommends Susumu to join White Pegasus, a team of special medical recuers. Their Micronizer System can shrink human so that they can cure from the inside of the body. Shortly afterwards, X23 has come in visual range at last. Hues - the aliens of X23 - choose Susumu's friend as their first target. Susumu and the other members of White Pegasus manage to defeat Hues inside of his body. But Susumu finds the signals emitted from the chips within Hues are the music composed by himself and his mother, as a gift to Dr. Sugita... -- -- (Source: sazuma.com) -- TV - Apr 16, 1986 -- 855 6.50
Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii -- -- A-1 Pictures -- 11 eps -- Web manga -- Comedy Romance Slice of Life -- Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii -- Having slept through all four of her alarms, the energetic Narumi Momose finds herself running late for her first day of work at a new office. As she races to catch her train, she makes a promise to herself that none of her coworkers will find out about her dark secret: that she is an otaku and a fujoshi. Her plan goes instantly awry, though, when she runs into Hirotaka Nifuji, an old friend from middle school. Although she tries to keep her secret by inviting him out for drinks after work, her cover is blown when he casually asks her whether or not she will be attending the upcoming Summer Comiket. Luckily for her, the only witnesses—Hanako Koyanagi and Tarou Kabakura—are otaku as well. -- -- Later that night, the pair go out for drinks so that they can catch up after all the years apart. After Narumi complains about her previous boyfriend breaking up with her because he refused to date a fujoshi, Hirotaka suggests that she try dating a fellow otaku, specifically himself. He makes a solemn promise to always be there for her, to support her, and to help her farm for rare drops in Monster Hunter. Blown away by the proposal, Narumi agrees immediately. Thus the two otaku start dating, and their adorably awkward romance begins. -- -- 584,085 7.96
W: Wish -- -- Picture Magic, Trinet Entertainment -- 13 eps -- Visual novel -- Drama Harem Romance School Slice of Life -- W: Wish W: Wish -- Based on a game by Princess Soft -- -- The main character, Junna has a twin sister Senna. He is an ordinal student of an elite school. However, in the past, a traffic accident deprived him of his parents and his memory. Junna survived the accident, and he has lived only with his sister though he has been looked after by his relatives. -- -- And present... -- The life with Senna in the same high school is so pleasant that he can forget the severe past. Because he has been in the world where there is only Senna, his lives in this town, such as the beginning of a new life, new environments, and the meetings, are so refreshing. -- -- However, he begins to recall the memories he lost in the accident. Though he enjoys happy and pleasant days, he is tossed by the past, the present, and the future. What is the truth hidden in his memory? -- -- (Source: AniDB) -- TV - Oct 3, 2004 -- 13,847 6.18
Xue Se Cang Qiong -- -- CG Year -- 26 eps -- Web manga -- Action Adventure Mystery Horror Thriller Fantasy -- Xue Se Cang Qiong Xue Se Cang Qiong -- Li Mingyang was originally an ordinary office worker. Because of a strange QR code, he was trapped in a killing city. Here everyone is forced to participate in a survival game that is going to kill or be killed. In the process of finding a way out of the city, the mastermind behind the whole incident surfaced step by step. -- ONA - Aug 18, 2017 -- 1,955 6.32
Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho Picture Drama -- -- Studio Pierrot -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Action Martial Arts Comedy Demons Shounen -- Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho Picture Drama Yuu☆Yuu☆Hakusho Picture Drama -- Because the Demon World Tournament winner has requested it, Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama get together in front of an audience for each of them to record a morning and evening greeting. -- -- The problem is how to get Hiei to do the same. -- Special - Oct 27, 2009 -- 9,001 6.60
Zombie Clay Animation: Life of the Dead -- -- Studio Binzo -- 4 eps -- Original -- Comedy Horror -- Zombie Clay Animation: Life of the Dead Zombie Clay Animation: Life of the Dead -- Clay animation about a guy stuck in a room during zombie apocalypse. -- OVA - ??? ??, 2011 -- 292 N/A -- -- The Girl and the Monster -- -- - -- ? eps -- Original -- Comedy Horror -- The Girl and the Monster The Girl and the Monster -- A girl quietly reads a book in her room. Suddenly, a monster comes crawling out from under her bed! Is it friend or foe? -- ONA - Jul 26, 2019 -- 291 N/A -- -- Heisei Matsue Kaidan: Ayashi -- -- DLE -- 2 eps -- Original -- Comedy Historical Parody Horror Supernatural -- Heisei Matsue Kaidan: Ayashi Heisei Matsue Kaidan: Ayashi -- A Matsue City collaboration anime with Eagle Talon. Yoshida book-ends the story as horror tales, both modern and historical, originated within the city are narrated by another person. -- ONA - Mar 17, 2017 -- 289 N/A -- -- 3-bu de Wakaru Koizumi Yakumo no Kaidan -- -- - -- 7 eps -- Book -- Historical Horror Parody Supernatural -- 3-bu de Wakaru Koizumi Yakumo no Kaidan 3-bu de Wakaru Koizumi Yakumo no Kaidan -- Stories from Patrick Lafcadio Hearn's book Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. The Greek-American author was known as Koizumi Yakumo in Japan and is renowned for collecting and publishing stories of Japanese folklore and legends. -- -- The shorts were made for a Matsue City tourism promotion, as Hearn taught, lived, and married there. His home is a museum people can visit. -- ONA - May 9, 2014 -- 287 N/A -- -- Kimoshiba -- -- Jinnis Animation Studios, TMS Entertainment -- 13 eps -- Original -- Comedy Horror Kids Supernatural -- Kimoshiba Kimoshiba -- Kimoshiba is a weird type of life form with the shape of an oversize shiba inu, loves eating curry (particularly curry breads), and works at a funeral home. Similar life forms include yamishiba and onishiba. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- 284 N/A -- -- Ehon Yose -- -- - -- 50 eps -- Other -- Historical Horror Kids -- Ehon Yose Ehon Yose -- Anime rakugo of classic Japanese horror tales shown in a wide variety of art styles. -- TV - ??? ??, 2006 -- 279 N/A -- -- Higanjima X: Aniki -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Manga -- Fantasy Horror Seinen Vampire -- Higanjima X: Aniki Higanjima X: Aniki -- A new episode of Higanjima X that was included in Blu-ray. -- Special - Aug 30, 2017 -- 277 N/A -- -- Yamiyo no Jidaigeki -- -- Sunrise -- 2 eps -- - -- Historical Horror -- Yamiyo no Jidaigeki Yamiyo no Jidaigeki -- Tales include: -- -- The Hill of Old Age, which tells of a conspiracy hatched against Japan's unifier, Oda Nobunaga. -- -- Seeing the Truth, about the assassin sent to murder Nobunaga's successor leyasu Tokugawa. -- -- The broadcast was a part of the Neo Hyper Kids program. -- -- (Source: Anime Encyclopedia) -- Special - Feb 19, 1995 -- 275 N/A -- -- Youkai Ningen Bem: Part II -- -- Topcraft -- 2 eps -- Original -- Demons Horror -- Youkai Ningen Bem: Part II Youkai Ningen Bem: Part II -- For 1982 a 26-episode TV series sequel to Youkai Ningen Bem was planned. Because the original producers disbanded, the animation was done by Topcraft. 2 episodes were created and the project shut down without airing on television. The episodes were released to the public on a LD-Box Set a decade later. 2,000 units were printed and all were sold out. -- Special - Oct 21, 1992 -- 268 N/A -- -- Kaibutsu-kun: Kaibutsu Land e no Shoutai -- -- Shin-Ei Animation -- 1 ep -- - -- Comedy Horror Kids Shounen -- Kaibutsu-kun: Kaibutsu Land e no Shoutai Kaibutsu-kun: Kaibutsu Land e no Shoutai -- Based on the shounen manga by Fujiko Fujio. -- -- Note: Screened as a double feature with Doraemon: Nobita no Uchuu Kaitakushi. -- -- (Source: AniDB) -- Movie - Mar 14, 1981 -- 266 N/A -- -- Ushiro no Hyakutarou -- -- - -- 2 eps -- - -- Horror School Supernatural -- Ushiro no Hyakutarou Ushiro no Hyakutarou -- Horror OVA based on the manga by Jirou Tsunoda. The title roughly means "Hyakutarou behind". -- -- A boy named Ichitarou Ushiro deals with various horrifying phenomena with the help of his guardian spirit Hyakutarou. -- -- 2 episodes: "Kokkuri Satsujin Jiken", "Yuutai Ridatsu". -- -- (Source: AniDB) -- OVA - Aug 21, 1991 -- 254 N/A -- -- Zombie Clay Animation: I'm Stuck!! -- -- Studio Binzo -- 4 eps -- Original -- Comedy Horror -- Zombie Clay Animation: I'm Stuck!! Zombie Clay Animation: I'm Stuck!! -- Spin-off series of Zombie Clay Animation: Life of the Dead. -- ONA - Mar 2, 2014 -- 247 N/A -- -- Shou-chan Sora wo Tobu -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Novel -- Horror Sci-Fi -- Shou-chan Sora wo Tobu Shou-chan Sora wo Tobu -- An anime version of Ikkei Makina's horror novel of the same name. It aired at the same time as the live-action adaptation. -- Movie - Nov 14, 1992 -- 235 N/A -- -- Matsue Kankou Taishi Sanri ga Iku! Matsue Ghost Tour -- -- DLE -- 2 eps -- Original -- Comedy Historical Parody Horror -- Matsue Kankou Taishi Sanri ga Iku! Matsue Ghost Tour Matsue Kankou Taishi Sanri ga Iku! Matsue Ghost Tour -- An accompaniment to Heisei Matsue Kaidan: Ayashi. This ghost tour takes a more realistic approach featuring Yoshia (the fictional Eagle Talon character), Kihara Hirokatsu (horror and mystery novelist), Chafurin (voice actor and Shimae Prefecture ambassador), and Frogman (Ryou Ono's caricature; real-life director of the anime studio DLE). The quartet travels around Matsue City exploring horror/haunted real life locations talking about the history and how it became a paranormal focus. -- -- The end of the episode promotes ticket sale and times for a real ghost tour watchers can partake in. -- ONA - Mar 16, 2017 -- 227 N/A -- -- Yamiyo no Jidaigeki (OVA) -- -- Sunrise -- 2 eps -- - -- Historical Horror -- Yamiyo no Jidaigeki (OVA) Yamiyo no Jidaigeki (OVA) -- A direct sequel that was put straight to video. -- -- The Ear of Jinsuke, about a wandering swordsman saving a damsel in distress from evil spirits. -- -- Prints from the Fall of the Bakufu, features a tomboy from a woodcut works charged with making a print of the young warrior Okita Soji. -- -- (Source: Anime Encyclopedia) -- -- OVA - Aug 2, 1995 -- 227 N/A -- -- Inunaki-mura x Taka no Tsume-dan -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Other -- Comedy Horror Parody -- Inunaki-mura x Taka no Tsume-dan Inunaki-mura x Taka no Tsume-dan -- A collaboration between the live-action horror film Inunaki-mura slated to be released in theaters February 7, 2020 and the Eagle Talon franchise. The film is based on the urban legend of the real-life abandoned Inunaki Village and the old tunnel that cut through the area. -- ONA - Jan 17, 2020 -- 226 N/A -- -- Echigo no Mukashibanashi: Attaten Ganoo -- -- - -- 1 ep -- - -- Demons Horror Kids -- Echigo no Mukashibanashi: Attaten Ganoo Echigo no Mukashibanashi: Attaten Ganoo -- A collection of four folk tales from Koshiji (from 2005, part of Nagaoka), Niigata prefecture (Echigo is the old name of Niigata). -- -- Episode 1: The Azuki Mochi and the Frog -- A mean old woman tells an azuki mochi to turn into a frog, if her daughter-in-law wants to eat it. The daughter-in-law hears this, and... -- -- Episode 2: Satori -- A woodcutter warms himself at the fire of deadwood, when a spirit in the form of an eyeball appears in front of him. The spirit guesses each of the woodcutter's thoughts right... -- -- Episode 3: The Fox's Lantern -- An old man, who got lost in the night streets, finds a lantern with a beautiful pattern, which was lost by a fox spirit. The next day, he returns it reluctantly, and what he sees... -- -- Episode 4: The Three Paper Charms -- An apprentice priest, who lost his way, accidentally puts up at the hut of the mountain witch. To avoid being eaten, he uses three paper charms to get back to the temple... -- -- (Source: Official site) -- OVA - May ??, 2000 -- 221 N/A -- -- Jigoku Koushien -- -- - -- 1 ep -- - -- Sports Comedy Horror Shounen -- Jigoku Koushien Jigoku Koushien -- (No synopsis yet.) -- OVA - Feb 13, 2009 -- 220 N/A -- -- Nanja Monja Obake -- -- - -- 1 ep -- - -- Kids Horror -- Nanja Monja Obake Nanja Monja Obake -- An anime made entirely in sumi-e following a child fox spirit and his morphing ability for haunting but he ends up getting scared himself. -- Special - Dec 6, 1994 -- 215 N/A -- -- Heisei Matsue Kaidan -- -- DLE -- 7 eps -- Original -- Horror Parody Supernatural -- Heisei Matsue Kaidan Heisei Matsue Kaidan -- A Matsue City collaboration anime with Eagle Talon. Yoshida book-ends the story as modern horror tales, originated within the city, are narrated by another person. The shorts are meant to promote the Patrick Lafcadio Hearn's Ghost Tour offered by the city. -- -- Some episodes feature biographical segments of the Matsue Kankou Taishi Sanri ga Iku! Matsue Ghost Tour group. -- ONA - Apr 9, 2015 -- 211 N/A -- -- Akuma no Organ -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Music -- Music Horror Demons -- Akuma no Organ Akuma no Organ -- Music video for Devil's Organ by GREAT3. From Climax E.P. (2003) -- Music - ??? ??, 2003 -- 210 5.16
Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I Don't Know!
All Because of Agatha
All Because of Love
All Because of the Dog
All Because of You
All Because of You (Lisa Whelchel album)
All Because of You (Puffy song)
Because
Because (Beatles song)
Because, Because of a Woman
BECAUSE (conference)
Because (Demis Roussos song)
Because (Guy d'Hardelot and Edward Teschemacher song)
Because Her Beauty Is Raw and Wild
Because I Am a Girl
Because I Can (Mice album)
Because I could not stop for Death
Because I Got High
Because I Love It
Because I Love You
Because I Love You (1928 film)
Because I Love You (The Postman Song)
Because I Said So
Because I Said So (film)
Because I Said So (TV series)
Because It's There
Because I Was in Love
Because of a Flower
Because of Ghosts
Because of Love
Because of Mr Darrow
Because of Romek
Because of That War
Because of the Cats
Because of the Times
Because of Winn-Dixie
Because of Winn-Dixie (film)
Because of You
Because of You (1940 song)
Because of You (98 Degrees song)
Because of You (Kelly Clarkson song)
Because of You (Marques Houston song)
Because of You (Ne-Yo album)
Because of Your Love
Because of You (Tony Bennett album)
Because of You (TV series)
Because (The Dave Clark Five song)
Because the Night
Because This Is My First Life
Because We Believe (Ama Credi E Vai)
Because We Can
Because We Can (concert tour)
Because You Left
Because You Loved Me
Expelled Because of Color
For Certain Because
Harvard Works Because We Do
Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good)
...I Care Because You Do
I Love You Because
I Love You Because (song)
I Travel Because I Have to, I Come Back Because I Love You
Just Because
Just Because I'm a Woman
Just Because I'm a Woman (1968 album)
Just Because I'm a Woman: Songs of Dolly Parton
Just Because (Nelstone's Hawaiians song)
Kill Me Because I'm Dying!
Living Is a Problem Because Everything Dies
She Smiles Because She Presses the Button
We're Here Because We're Here
We're Here Because We're Here (album)
We're Here Because We're Here (art event)
Whybecause analysis
You Didn't Like It Because You Didn't Think of It
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