2. In its rational aspect, as developed especially by Plato and Aristotle, aristocracy is the rule of the best few, in a true, purposeful, law-abiding and constitutional sense. As a political ideal, it is a form of government by morally and intellectually superior men for the common good or in the general interests of the governed, but without participation of the latter. Owing to the difficulty of distinguishing the best men for directing the life of the community, and of setting in motion the process of training and selecting such models of human perfection, aristocracy becomes practically the rule of those who are thought to be the best. [Plato himself proposed his ideal State as "a model fixed in the heavens" for human imitation but not attainment; and in the Laws he offered a combination of monarchy and democracy as the best working form of government.] Though aristocracy is a type of government external to the governed, it is opposed to oligarchy (despotic) and to timocracy (militaristic). With monarchy and democracy, it exhausts the classification of the main forms of rational government.
a-avidya-siddhi ::: the perfection (siddhi) that is attainable under the conditions of vidya-avidya, where Knowledge is "inextricably intertwined with an original Ignorance".
Abhiseka: In Hinduism, the ceremonial bathing in sacred waters. In Buddhism, the tenth stage of perfection. The term is used also for the anointment of kings and high officials upon their ascension to power or as a recognition of some signal achievement.
absolute ::: adj. 1. Free from all imperfection or deficiency; complete, finished; perfect, consummate. 2. Of degree: Complete, entire; in the fullest sense. 3. Having ultimate power, governing totally; unlimited by a constitution or the concurrent authority of a parliament; arbitrary, despotic. 4. Existing without relation to any other being; self-existent; self-sufficing. 5. Capable of being thought or conceived by itself alone; unconditioned. 6. Considered independently of its being subjective or objective. n. 7. Something that is not dependent upon external conditions for existence or for its specific nature, size, etc. (opposed to relative). Absolute, Absolute"s, absolutes, absoluteness.
absolute ::: a. --> Loosed from any limitation or condition; uncontrolled; unrestricted; unconditional; as, absolute authority, monarchy, sovereignty, an absolute promise or command; absolute power; an absolute monarch.
Complete in itself; perfect; consummate; faultless; as, absolute perfection; absolute beauty.
Viewed apart from modifying influences or without comparison with other objects; actual; real; -- opposed to relative and
adhara-siddhi ::: [perfection of the adhara].
adhara-siddhi ::: the perfection of the mental-vital-physical system, adhara-siddhi consisting of the siddhi of the first four catus.t.ayas, so that the adhara "becomes a perfect instrument for the Purushottama, the Purusha and Shakti to carry on their Lila".
adj. 1. Beautiful. 2. Fine, bright, sunny. 3. Free from blemish, imperfection, or anything that impairs the appearance, quality, or character. 4. Of pleasing form or appearance. 5. Neither excellent nor poor; moderately or tolerably good. fairer.* *n. 6.* That which is fair (in senses of the adj.*).
Aesthetics. Any system or program of fine art emphasizing the ideal (s.) is Aesthetic Idealism. The view that the goal of fine art is an embodiment or reflection of the perfections of archetypal Ideas or timeless essences (Platonism). The view of art which emphasizes feeling, sentiment, and idealization (as opposed to "literal reproduction" of fact). The view of art which emphasizes cognitive content (as opposed to abstract feeling, primitive intuition, formal line or structure, mere color or tone). Psychology. The doctrine that ideas or judgments are causes of thought and behavior, and not mere effects or epiphenomena, is Psychological Idealism.
ah. (sapta hotráh) ::: the seven sacrificial energies or "Ladies of the offering", the powers of "the human sacrifice which has a sevenfold energy of its action because there is a sevenfold principle in our being which has to be fulfilled in its integral perfection".
akali-Mahasarasvati (Mahakali-Mahasaraswati; Mahakali Mahasaraswati) ::: the combination of Mahakali (bhava) and Mahasarasvati (bhava), in which Mahakali "imparts to the slow and difficult labour after perfection an impetus that multiplies the power and shortens the long way". For Sri Aurobindo"s sadhana as documented in the Record of Yoga, this was the most important of the various
aladr.s.t.i-siddhi (trikaldrishti-siddhi) ::: perfection of trikaladr.s.t.i.
alaks.mi-Mahasarasvati (Mahalakshmi-Mahasaraswati; Mahalaxmi-; Mahaluxmi-) ::: the combination of Mahalaks.mi (bhava) and Mahasarasvati (bhava), divine harmony and divine perfection, in which Mahalaks.mi "casts on perfection the charm that makes it endure for ever".
alchemy ::: AlchemyThe science, both physical and spiritual, of transforming base materials into superior forms, i.e. gold. Transmutation of base metals into gold was based on the belief that naturally occurring gold, silver and other precious substances were originally formed within the earth from lesser substances, and could be reconstituted through alchemical operations. The operations of alchemy were based on the Hermetic principle that everything on earth had a heavenly counterpart, and that through the 'principle of vibration', heavenly things could affect their earthly counterparts, and vice-versa. Consequently, each mineral, plant, and metal corresponded with a heavenly body, and thus contained the properties of its associated heavenly body. As a result, alchemical formulae for medicines were created, and the concept of spiritual development through alchemical work was developed. The Great Work became not simply transmuting base metals into precious ones, but the perfection of the divine in man himself.
Al-Hamid ::: The One who observes and evaluates His universal perfection on worldly forms manifested by His Name al-Waliyy.
Al-Jalil ::: The One who, with His magnificent comprehensiveness and perfection, is the sultan of the world of acts.
::: "All evolution is the progressive self-revelation of the One to himself in the terms of the Many out of the Inconscience through the Ignorance towards self-conscient perfection.” Essays Divine and Human **evolution"s, Evolution"s.**
“All evolution is the progressive self-revelation of the One to himself in the terms of the Many out of the Inconscience through the Ignorance towards self-conscient perfection.” Essays Divine and Human
All evolution is the progressive self-revelation of the One to himself in the terms of the Many out of the Inconscience through the Ignorance towards self-conscient perfection.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 12, Page: 219
amaya svapna siddhi (nidramaya swapna siddhi) ::: perfection of svapnasamadhi during sleep.
Amesha-Spentas (Avestan) Ameshā-Spentās [from a not + mesha, mara mortal, mutable + spenta benefactor, holy, soul-healing] Immortal benefactors; six in number: Vohu-Manah, Asha-Vahishta, Khshathra-Vayria, Spenta-Armaiti (love), Haurvatat (perfection), and Ameretat (immortality). The first three are attributes of Ahura-Mazda, abstractions without form. These male positive creative forces leave their impressions in the mental world and give birth to the second trinity, who lead man to freedom. “The Amshaspends, [are] our Dhyan-Chohans or the ‘Serpents of Wisdom.’ They are identical with, and yet separate from Ormazd (Ahura-Mazda). They are also the Angels of the Stars of the Christians — the Star-yazatas of the Zoroastrians — or again the seven planets (including the sun) of every religion. The epithet — ‘the shining having efficacious eyes’ — proves it. This on the physical and sidereal planes. On the spiritual, they are the divine powers of Ahura-Mazda; but on the astral or psychic plane again, they are the ‘Builders,’ the ‘watchers,’ the Pitar (fathers), and the first Preceptors of mankind” (SD 2:358).
"A mind of light will replace the present confusion and trouble of this earthly ignorance; it is likely that even those parts of humanity which cannot reach it will yet be aware of its possibility and consciously tend towards it; not only so, but the life of humanity will be enlightened, uplifted, governed, harmonised by this luminous principle and even the body become something much less powerless, obscure and animal in its propensities and capable instead of a new and harmonised perfection. It is this possibility that we have to look at and that would mean a new humanity uplifted into Light, capable of a spiritualised being and action, open to governance by some light of the Truth-consciousness, capable even on the mental level and in its own order of something that might be called the beginning of a divinised life.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“A mind of light will replace the present confusion and trouble of this earthly ignorance; it is likely that even those parts of humanity which cannot reach it will yet be aware of its possibility and consciously tend towards it; not only so, but the life of humanity will be enlightened, uplifted, governed, harmonised by this luminous principle and even the body become something much less powerless, obscure and animal in its propensities and capable instead of a new and harmonised perfection. It is this possibility that we have to look at and that would mean a new humanity uplifted into Light, capable of a spiritualised being and action, open to governance by some light of the Truth-consciousness, capable even on the mental level and in its own order of something that might be called the beginning of a divinised life.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Amrita-yana (Sanskrit) Amṛta-yāna [from a not + mṛta dead from the verbal root mṛ to die + yāna path, vehicle] The path of immortality; in The Voice of the Silence the path followed by the Buddhas of Compassion or of Perfection. It is the “secret path,” the arya (noble) path of the heart doctrine of esoteric wisdom. The Buddhas of Compassion instead of donning the dharmakaya vesture and then entering nirvana, as the Pratyeka Buddhas do, give up nirvana and assume the nirmanakaya robe, thus enabling them to work directly for all beings less evolved than they; and because of this great individual sacrifice, the nirmanakaya condition is in one sense the holiest of the trikaya (three vestures). The amrita-yana is thus a lofty spiritual pathway, and leads to the ineffable glories of self-conscious immortality in the cosmic manvantaric “eternity.”
anandakosa (anandakosha; ananda-kosha) ::: the sheath (kosa) coranandakosa responding to the plane of ananda, the "bliss-sheath" which is the spiritual body of the "bliss soul" and in which, together with the vijñanakosa, "all the perfection of a spiritual embodiment is to be found, a yet unmanifested divine law of the body".
anandasiddhi (anandasiddhi; ananda siddhi) ::: the perfection of anandasiddhi ananda, especially in the sense of sama ananda or any form of physical ananda.
Ananda: (Skr.) Joy, happiness, bliss, beatitude, associated in the thinking of many Indian philosophers with moksa (q.v.); a concomitant of perfection and divine consciousness (cf. sat-citananda). -- K.F.L.
anasiddhi (vijnanasiddhi; vijnana-siddhi; vijnana siddhi) ::: the perfection of the vijñana catus.t.aya. vij ñana ana suddha
Anchoret; anchorite: Greek for recluse. The term applied to an extreme type of Christian ascetics who sought spiritual perfection by withdrawing from the community, often exposing themselves to hardships.
A Programming Language ::: (language) (APL) A language designed originally by Ken Iverson at Harvard University in 1957-1960 as a notation for the concise expression of mathematical unimplemented for many years. Finally a subset, APL\360, was implemented in 1964.APL is an interactive array-oriented language and programming environment with many innovative features. It was originally written using a non-standard character set.It is dynamically typed with dynamic scope. APL introduced several functional forms but is not purely functional.Dyadic Systems APL/W is one of the languages that will be available under Microsoft's .NET initative.ISO 8485 is the 1989 standard defining the language.Versions: APL\360, APL SV, Dyalog APL, VS APL, Sharp APL, Sharp APL/PC, APL*PLUS, APL*PLUS/PC, APL*PLUS/PC II, MCM APL, Honeyapple, DEC APL, Cognos APL2000 , IBM APL2.See also Kamin's interpreters.APLWEB translates WEB to APL.Dijkstra said that APL was a language designed to perfection - in the wrong direction.[A Programming Language, Kenneth E. Iverson, Wiley, 1962].[APL: An Interactive Approach, 1976].(2004-02-13)
arogya (arogya; arogyam) ::: health; freedom from disease (roga) in all its forms, part of physical perfection (sarirasiddhi); the first member of the sarira catus.t.aya, "the state of being healthy", whose first stage is when "the system is normally healthy and only gets disturbed by exceptional causes", its second stage when "even exceptional causes or great overstrain cannot disturb the system", while its culmination would be immortality (amr.ta) in the body; same as arogyasakti.
arogyasiddhi (arogyasiddhi; arogya-siddhi; arogya siddhi) ::: the perarogyasiddhi fection of health (arogya); the movement towards this perfection or the power working to bring it about.
Aryaman ::: "the Aspirer", a Vedic god, one of the Four who represent the "working of the Truth in the human mind and temperament"; he is "the deity of the human journey" who "sums up in himself the whole aspiration and movement of man in a continual self-enlargement and . self-transcendence to his divine perfection", bringing to this movement a "mighty strength and perfectly-guided happy inner upsurging".
Aryaman ::: [Ved.]: the Aspirer; the aspiring power and action of the Truth; the Force of sacrifice, aspiration, battle, journey towards perfection and light and celestial bliss by which the path is created, travelled, pursued beyond all resistance and obscuration to its luminous and happy goal. [Later]: the chief of the Fathers [pitrs]. ::: Aryama [nominative]
Asceticism: (Gr. askesis, exercise) The view -- now and then appearing in conjunction with religion, particularly the Christian and Buddhistic one, or the striving for personal perfection or salvation, for self and others -- that the body is an evil and a detriment to a moral, spiritual, and god-pleasing life. Hence the negative adjustments to natural functions, desires, and even needs, manifesting themselves in abnegation of pleasures, denial of enjoyments, non-gratification of the senses, stifling of physical cravings, as well as self-torture which is meant to allay or kill off physical and worldly longings by destroying their root, in preparation for a happier, perhaps desireless future, in a post mortem existence. -- K.F.L.
asiddhi ::: failure; imperfection; negation of siddhi; denial of progress in yoga, relapse; the power that works against the achievement of perfection in the yoga or in any part of the yoga.
a siddhi ::: the perfection of samata or of the samata catus.t.aya.
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.
Astrology ::: The astrology of the ancients was indeed a great and noble science. It is a term which means the "scienceof the celestial bodies." Modern astrology is but the tattered and rejected outer coating of real, ancientastrology; for that truly sublime science was the doctrine of the origin, of the nature, of the being, and ofthe destiny of the solar bodies, of the planetary bodies, and of the beings who dwell on them. It alsotaught the science of the relations of the parts of kosmic nature among themselves, and more particularlyas applied to man and his destiny as forecast by the celestial orbs. From that great and noble sciencesprang up an exoteric pseudo-science, derived from the Mediterranean and Asian practice, eventuating inthe modern scheme called astrology -- a tattered remnant of ancient wisdom.In actual fact, genuine archaic astrology was one of the branches of the ancient Mysteries, and wasstudied to perfection in the ancient Mystery schools. It had throughout all ancient time the unqualifiedapproval and devotion of the noblest men and of the greatest sages. Instead of limiting itself as modernso-called astrology does to a system based practically entirely upon certain branches of mathematics, inarchaic days the main body of doctrine which astrology then contained was transcendental metaphysics,dealing with the greatest and most abstruse problems concerning the universe and man. The celestialbodies of the physical universe were considered in the archaic astrology to be not merely time markers,or to have vague relations of a psychomagnetic quality as among themselves -- although indeed this istrue -- but to be the vehicles of starry spirits, bright and living gods, whose very existence andcharacteristics, individually as well as collectively, made them the governors and expositors of destiny.
Atash, Atash-Azar (Persian) Ātash, Ātash-Āzar, Atur (Pahlavi) Ātur, Atar (Avestan) Ātar. Fire; the name of the ninth day of the month of the ancient Iranian calendar as well as the ninth month of the year (Sagittarius). Zoroaster uses the term in the Gathas in the sense of the life-giving force or the spiritual nature of the eternal truth. It is this fire which guides the universe as well as the individual towards its destiny — perfection.
"At every turn it is the divine Reality which we can discover behind that which we are yet compelled by the nature of the superficial consciousness in which we dwell to call undivine and in a sense are right in using that apellation; for these appearances are a veil over the Divine Perfection, a veil necessary for the present, but not at all the true and complete figure.” The Life Divine
“At every turn it is the divine Reality which we can discover behind that which we are yet compelled by the nature of the superficial consciousness in which we dwell to call undivine and in a sense are right in using that apellation; for these appearances are a veil over the Divine Perfection, a veil necessary for the present, but not at all the true and complete figure.” The Life Divine
Athena (Greek) Daughter of Metis (wisdom, wise counsel) and Zeus, said to have sprung fully-formed from her father’s head; with Zeus and Apollo one of a divine triad. Famed for wise counsel both in peace and war, Athena was the strategist, as Homer portrays her in the Iliad. As patron deity of Athens, she was the genius of statesmanship and civic policy. Certain archaic monuments show Athena assisting Prometheus (the intellectual fire-bringer) in shaping the first human body from the plastic stuff of earth. It is equally significant that she was connected with Apollo, the god of the seers and the sun personified, in producing climatic changes due to the shifting of the poles. Athena is to be found, variously named, in every theogony, as one of the kabeiria, those mighty beings “of both sexes, as also terrestrial, celestial and kosmic,” who when incarnated as initiate-teachers or kings, “were also, in the beginning of times, the rulers of mankind,” giving “the first impulse to civilizations” and directing “the mind with which they had endued men to the invention and perfection of all the arts and sciences” (SD 2:363-4).
At the beginning the soul in Nature, the psychic entity, whose unfolding is the first step towards a spiritual change, is an entirely veiled part of us, although it is that by which we exist and persist as individual beings in Nature. The other parts of our natural composition are not only mutable but perishable; but the psychic entity in us persists and is fundamentally the same always: it contains all essential possibilities of our manifestation but is not constituted by them; it is not limited by what it manifests, not contained by the incomplete forms of the manifestation, not tarnished by the imperfections and impurities, the defects and depravations of the surface being. It is an ever-pure flame of the divinity in things and nothing that comes to it, nothing that enters into our experience can pollute its purity or extinguish the flame. This spiritual stuff is immaculate and luminous and, because it is perfectly luminous, it is immediately, intimately, directly aware of truth of being and truth of nature; it is deeply conscious of truth and good and beauty because truth and good and beauty are akin to its own native character, forms of something that is inherent in its own substance. It is aware also of all that contradicts these things, of all that deviates from its own native character, of falsehood and evil and the ugly and the unseemly; but it does not become these things nor is it touched or changed by these opposites of itself which so powerfully affect its outer instrumentation of mind, life and body. For the soul, the permanent being in us, puts forth and uses mind, life and body.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 21-22, Page: 924-25
Attribute: Commonly, what is proper to a thing (Latm, ad-tribuere, to assign, to ascribe, to bestow). Loosely assimilated to a quality, a property, a characteristic, a peculiarity, a circumstance, a state, a category, a mode or an accident, though there are differences among all these terms. For example, a quality is an inherent property (the qualities of matter), while an attribute refers to the actual properties of a thing only indirectly known (the attributes of God). Another difference between attribute and quality is that the former refers to the characteristics of an infinite being, while the latter is used for the characteristics of a finite being. In metaphysics, an attribute is what is indispensable to a spiritual or material substance; or that which expresses the nature of a thing; or that without which a thing is unthinkable. As such, it implies necessarily a relation to some substance of which it is an aspect or conception. But it cannot be a substance, as it does not exist by itself. The transcendental attributes are those which belong to a being because it is a being: there are three of them, the one, the true and the good, each adding something positive to the idea of being. The word attribute has been and still is used more readily, with various implications, by substantialist systems. In the 17th century, for example, it denoted the actual manifestations of substance. [Thus, Descartes regarded extension and thought as the two ultimate, simple and original attributes of reality, all else being modifications of them. With Spinoza, extension and thought became the only known attributes of Deity, each expressing in a definite manner, though not exclusively, the infinite essence of God as the only substance. The change in the meaning of substance after Hume and Kant is best illustrated by this quotation from Whitehead: "We diverge from Descartes by holding that what he has described as primary attributes of physical bodies, are really the forms of internal relationships between actual occasions and within actual occasions" (Process and Reality, p. 471).] The use of the notion of attribute, however, is still favoured by contemporary thinkers. Thus, John Boodin speaks of the five attributes of reality, namely: Energy (source of activity), Space (extension), Time (change), Consciousness (active awareness), and Form (organization, structure). In theodicy, the term attribute is used for the essential characteristics of God. The divine attributes are the various aspects under which God is viewed, each being treated as a separate perfection. As God is free from composition, we know him only in a mediate and synthetic way thrgugh his attributes. In logic, an attribute is that which is predicated or anything, that which Is affirmed or denied of the subject of a proposition. More specifically, an attribute may be either a category or a predicable; but it cannot be an individual materially. Attributes may be essential or accidental, necessary or contingent. In grammar, an attribute is an adjective, or an adjectival clause, or an equivalent adjunct expressing a characteristic referred to a subject through a verb. Because of this reference, an attribute may also be a substantive, as a class-name, but not a proper name as a rule. An attribute is never a verb, thus differing from a predicate which may consist of a verb often having some object or qualifying words. In natural history, what is permanent and essential in a species, an individual or in its parts. In psychology, it denotes the way (such as intensity, duration or quality) in which sensations, feelings or images can differ from one another. In art, an attribute is a material or a conventional symbol, distinction or decoration.
A. While Nicholas of Cusa referred to God as "the absolute," the noun form of this term came into common use through the writings of Schelling and Hegel. Its adoption spread in France through Cousin and in Britain through Hamilton. According to Kant the Ideas of Reason seek both the absolute totality of conditions and their absolutely unconditioned Ground. This Ground of the Real Fichte identified with the Absolute Ego (q.v.). For Schelling the Absolute is a primordial World Ground, a spiritual unity behind all logical and ontological oppositions, the self-differentiating source of both Mind and Nature. For Hegel, however, the Absolute is the All conceived as a timeless, perfect, organic whole of self-thinking Thought. In England the Absolute has occasionally been identified with the Real considered as unrelated or "unconditioned" and hence as the "Unknowable" (Mansel, H. Spencer). Until recently, however, it was commonly appropriated by the Absolute Idealists to connote with Hegel the complete, the whole, the perfect, i.e. the Real conceived as an all-embracing unity that complements, fulfills, or transmutes into a higher synthesis the partial, fragmentary, and "self-contradictory" experiences, thoughts, purposes, values, and achievements of finite existence. The specific emphasis given to this all-inclusive perfection varies considerably, i.e. logical wholeness or concreteness (Hegel), metaphysical completeness (Hamilton), mystical feeling (Bradley), aesthetic completeness (Bosanquet), moral perfection (Royce). The Absolute is also variously conceived by this school as an all-inclusive Person, a Society of persons, and as an impersonal whole of Experience.
Bala2 ::: the name of a daitya or Titan, regarded by Sri Aurobindo as a force from the mahat, the plane of the vastness of vijñana, descended into the mental plane and there "disturbing evolution by a premature effort towards perfection".
Baumgarten, Alexander Gottlieb: (1714-1762) A German thinker of the pre-Kantian period and disciple of Christian Wolff whose encyclopaedic work he tried to continue. Among his works the best known is Aesthetica in which he analyzes the problem of beauty regarded by him as recognition of perfection by means of the senses. The name of aesthetics, as the philosophy of beauty and art, was introduced by him for the first time. -- R.B.W.
“Before man could become male and female physically, his prototype, the creating Elohim, had to arrange his Form on this sexual plane astrally. That is to say, the atoms and the organic forces, descending into the plane of the given differentiation, had to be marshaled in the order intended by Nature, so as to be ever carrying out, in an immaculate way, that law which the Kabala calls the balance, through which everything that exists does so as male and female in its final perfection, in this present stage of materiality. Chochmah, Wisdom, the Male Sephiroth, had to diffuse itself in, and through, Binah, intelligent Nature, or Understanding” (SD 2:84). After the separation, the third eye began to disappear, and death as we now understand it was not known until then.
Bhakti-marga: Sanskrit for path of devotion. The approach to spiritual perfection through loving devotion to God. (See: Bhakti yoga.)
bhas.asiddhi (bhashasiddhi) ::: perfection of the linguistic faculty. bhasasiddhi
B. In ontology, power is often synonymous with potency (q.v.) Aristotle, who is mainly responsible for the development of this notion (Metaph. IV (5) 12.), distinguishes three aspects of it as a source of change, as a capacity of performing, and as a state in virtue of which things are unchangeable by themselves. Hobbes accepts only the first of these meanings, namely that power is the source of motion. Various questions are involved in the analysis of the notion of power, as, for example, whether power is an accident or a perfection of substance, and whether it is distinct from it.
(b) In theology: Mediation is an important aspect of the doctrine and practice of many religions; particularly in Judaism and Christianity because of the Transcendency of God and the imperfection of men. Mediation is an important function of Christ; as the God-Man, He is eminently fitted to form the connecting link between God and creatures; His Incarnation is considered as supplying the means (i.e. media) of salvation to man. -- V.J.B.
Blavatsky wrote that astrology is the “science which defines the action of celestial bodies upon mundane affairs, and claims to foretell future events from the positions of the stars. Its antiquity is such as to place it among the very earliest records of human learning. It remained for long ages a secret science in the East, and its final expression remains so to this day, its exoteric application only having been brought to any degree of perfection in the West during the lapse of time since Varaha Mihira wrote his book on Astrology, some 1400 years ago. Claudius Ptolemy, the famous geographer and mathematician, founded the system of astronomy known under his name, wrote his Tetrabiblos which is still the basis of modern Astrology in 135 AD . . . As to the origin of the science, it is known on the one hand that Thebes claimed the honour of the invention of Astrology; whereas, on the other hand, all are agreed that it was the Chaldees who taught that science to the other nations. . . . If later on the name of Astrologer fell into disrepute in Rome and elsewhere, it was owing to the frauds of those who wanted to make money of that which was part and parcel of the Sacred Science of the Mysteries, and who, ignorant of the latter, evolved a system based entirely on mathematics, instead of transcendental metaphysics with the physical celestial bodies as its upadhi or material basis. Yet, all persecutions notwithstanding, the number of adherents to Astrology among the most intellectual and scientific minds was always very great. If Cardan and Kepler were among its ardent supporters, then later votaries have nothing to blush for, even in its now imperfect and distorted form” (Key 318-19).
bloom ::: n. --> A blossom; the flower of a plant; an expanded bud; flowers, collectively.
The opening of flowers in general; the state of blossoming or of having the flowers open; as, the cherry trees are in bloom.
A state or time of beauty, freshness, and vigor; an opening to higher perfection, analogous to that of buds into blossoms; as, the bloom of youth.
The delicate, powdery coating upon certain growing or
blur ::: v. t. --> To render obscure by making the form or outline of confused and uncertain, as by soiling; to smear; to make indistinct and confused; as, to blur manuscript by handling it while damp; to blur the impression of a woodcut by an excess of ink.
To cause imperfection of vision in; to dim; to darken.
To sully; to stain; to blemish, as reputation. ::: n.
Bodhisattva: Sanskrit for existence in wisdom. In Buddhist terminology, one who has gone through the ten stages (dasa-bhumi —q.v.) to spiritual perfection and is qualified to enter Nirvana and become a Buddha, but prefers to remain a Buddha-to-be in order to work for the salvation and deification of all beings.
perfectional ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to perfection; characterized by perfection.
perfection” and that then “those who have been taught are translated to archangelic authority.”
perfectionate ::: v. t. --> To perfect.
perfectionism ::: n. --> The doctrine of the Perfectionists.
perfectionist ::: n. --> One pretending to perfection; esp., one pretending to moral perfection; one who believes that persons may and do attain to moral perfection and sinlessness in this life.
perfectionment ::: n. --> The act of bringing to perfection, or the state of having attained to perfection.
perfection ::: n. --> The quality or state of being perfect or complete, so that nothing requisite is wanting; entire development; consummate culture, skill, or moral excellence; the highest attainable state or degree of excellence; maturity; as, perfection in an art, in a science, or in a system; perfection in form or degree; fruits in perfection.
A quality, endowment, or acquirement completely excellent; an ideal faultlessness; especially, the divine attribute of complete excellence.
perfection ::: “Perfection in the sense in which we use it in Yoga, means a growth out of a lower undivine into a higher divine nature. In terms of knowledge it is a putting on the being of the higher self and a casting away of the darker broken lower self or a transforming of our imperfect state into the rounded luminous fullness of our real and spiritual personality. In terms of devotion and adoration it is a growing into a likeness of the nature or the law of the being of the Divine, to be united with whom we aspire, …” The Synthesis of Yoga
perfection (siddhi) ::: "a growth out of a lower undivine into a higher divine nature." [S21:671]
perfection ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Perfection in the sense in which we use it in Yoga, means a growth out of a lower undivine into a higher divine nature. In terms of knowledge it is a putting on the being of the higher self and a casting away of the darker broken lower self or a transforming of our imperfect state into the rounded luminous fullness of our real and spiritual personality. In terms of devotion and adoration it is a growing into a likeness of the nature or the law of the being of the Divine, to be united with whom we aspire, . . . .” *The Synthesis of Yoga
**perfection"s.**
buddhisakti ::: [the full power (and perfection) of the buddhi]. ::: buddhisaktih [nominative]
But at the same time there is a fivefold grouping which in contrast with the sevenfold denotes evil and imperfection (cf SD 2:575-6).
Campanella, Tommaso: (1568-1639) A Dominican monk in revolt against Aristotelianism, and influenced by the naturalism of Telesio, he arrived at philosophic conclusions in some ways prophetic of Descartes. Distrusting both the reports of the senses and the results of reasoning as indications of the nature of Reality, he found nothing trustworthy except the fact of his own existence, and the inferences drawn from that fact. As certain as his awareness of his own existence was the awareness of an external world to which experience referred and by which it was caused. Again, since the nature of the part is representative of the nature of the whole to which it belongs, the Universe of which the self is part must, like the part, be possessed of knowledge, will, and power. Hence I may infer from my own existence the existence of a God. Again, I must infer other of the divine nature more or less perfect manifestations than myself descending from the hierarchy of angels above man to the form or structure of the world, the ultimate corporeal elements, and the sensible phenomena produced by these elements of the physical universe, below him in the scale of perfection.
çarira -) ::: physical perfection, consisting of the siddhi of the sarira catus.t.aya: "a perfection of the body as the outer instrument of a complete divine living on earth . . . effected by bringing in the law of the gnostic Purusha, vijñanamaya purus.a, and of that into which it opens, the Anandamaya, into the physical consciousness", leading to "a divinising of the law of the body".
Chih shan: Highest excellence; perfection; the ultimate good, the goal of Confucian ethics and education. -- W.T.C Ch'i hsueh: The intellectual movement in the state of Ch'i. See Chi Hsia. Chiliasm: Teaching and belief of some Jews and Christians that the Messiah will appear at the end of time to found a glorious kingdom on earth which is to last one thousand years; also called Millenarianism. -- J.J.R.
Chun tu: The superior man, the perfect man, the moral man, the noble man. "There may have been a superior man who is not a true man (jen), but there has never been an inferior man (hsiao jen) who is a true man." The superior man "makes upward progress," "understands profit," and "despises the ordinances of Heaven, great men, and the words of the sages." (Confucius.) "The superior man's moral order is on the increase, while the inferior man's moral order is on the decrease." "The superior man abides by what is internal, whereas the inferior man abides by what is external." (Ancient Confucianism ) "The superior man makes advance in the moral law, whereas the inferior man makes advance in profit." "The superior man enjoys in the fulfillment of the moral law, whereas the inferior man enjoys in the fulfillment of his desires." (Medieval Confucianism.) The superior man "sees what is great and far" and is interested in "helping things to perfection," whereas the inferior man "sees what is small and near" and is interested in destroying things." (Neo-Confucianism.) A ruler. Husband (as in the Odes).
citrination ::: n. --> The process by which anything becomes of the color of a lemon; esp., in alchemy, the state of perfection in the philosopher&
cittasakti (Chittashakti) ::: [the full power (and perfection) of the citta]. ::: cittasaktih [nominative]
cold-shut ::: a. --> Closed while too cold to become thoroughly welded; -- said of a forging or casting. ::: n. --> An imperfection caused by such insufficient welding.
complements ::: 1. Things that complete, make up a whole, or bring to perfection. 2. Things that complete each other when combined and complete the whole.
Conditions essfntitd for meditation ::: There are no essential external conditions, but solitude and seclusion at the time of meditation as as stillness of the body arc helpful, sometimes almost necessary to the beginner. Bui one should not bound b' external conditions. Once the habit of meditation is formed, it should be mads possible to do it in all circumstances, l.ving. sitting, walking, alone, in company, in silettce or in the midst of noise etc. The first imeroal condition necessary is concentration of the will against the obstacles to meditation. i.e. wandermg of the mind, forgetfulness, sfeep, phjsieal and nervous impatience and restlessness etc. The second is an increasing purity and calm of the inner consciousness (citia) out of which thought and emotion arise, i.e. a freedom frona all disturb i ng reactions, such as anger, grief, depression, anxiet>' about w-orldly happenings etc. Mental perfection and moral are always closely allied to each other.
Confucius spoke of the dragon as one who “feeds in the pure water of Wisdom and sports in the clear waters of Life”; while the Twan-ying-tu says of the yellow dragon, “His wisdom and virtue are unfathomable . . . he does not go in company and does not live in herds (he is an ascetic). He wanders in the wilds beyond the heavens. He goes and comes, fulfilling the decree (Karma); at the proper seasons if there is perfection he comes forth, if not he remains (invisible)” (SD 2:365).
Confucius taught that "it is man that can make truth great, and not truth that can make man great." Consequently he emphasized moral perfection, true manhood (jen), moral order (li) the Golden Mean (Chung Yung) and the superior man (chun tzu). To this end, knowledge must be directed, names must be rectified (cheng ming), and social relationships harmonized (wu lun). The whole program involved the investigation of things, the extension of knowledge, sincerity of the will, rectification of the heart, cultivation of the personal life, regulation of family life, national order, and finally, world peace. Mencius (371-289 B.C.) carried this further, holding that we not only should be good, but must be good, as human nature is originally good. True manhood (jen) and righteousness (i) are considered man's mind and path, respectively. Government must be established on the basis of benevolence (jen cheng) as against profit and force. Hsun Tzu (c 335-c 288 B.C.) believing human nature to be evil, stressed moral accumulation and education, especially through the rectification of names, music, and the rule of propriety (li). In the book of Chung Yung (Central Harmony, the Golden Mean, third or fourth century B.C.), the doctrine of central harmony is set forth. Our central self or moral being is conceived to be the great basis of existence and harmony or moral order is the universal law in the world. From then on, the relationship between man and the universe became one of direct correspondence. The idea of macrocosmos-rnicrocosmos relationship largely characterized the Confucianism of medieval China. The most glorious development of Confucianism is found in Neo-Confucianism, from the eleventh century to this day. For a summary of medieval Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism, see Chinese philosophy. -- W.T.C.
Consciousness ; there is a dynamic union of likeness or oneness of nature between That and our instrumental being here. The lirst is the liberation from the Ignorance and identification with the Real and Eternal, inokfa, sayuj}a. which is the characteristic aim of the Yoga of Knowledge. The second, the dwelling of the soul with or in the Divine, sdmipia, salokya, is the intense hope of all Yoga of love and beatitude. The third, identity in nature, likeness to the Divine, to be perfect as That is perfect, sadhannya, is the high intention of all Yoga of power and perfection or of divine works and service. The combined completeness of the three together, founded here on a multiple Unity of the self-
consummation ::: n. --> The act of consummating, or the state of being consummated; completed; completion; perfection; termination; end (as of the world or of life).
Dasa-bhumi: Sanskrit for ten stages. In Buddhist terminology, the ten stages of the spiritual development of a Bodhisattva (q.v.) toward Buddhahood. Each school of Buddhism has its own dasa-bhumi, but the most widely accepted set in Mahayana Buddhism is that set forth in the Dasa-bhumi Sastra, viz.: (1) The Stage of Joy, in which the Bodhisattva develops his holy nature and discards wrong views; (2) the Stage of Purity, in which he attains the Perfection of Morality; (3) the Stage of Illumination, in which he attains the Perfection of Patience or Humility, and also the deepest introspective insight; (4) the Stage of Flaming Wisdom, in which he achieves the Perfection of Meditation and realizes the harmony of the Worldly Truth and the Supreme Truth; (5) the Stage of Presence, in which he achieves the Perfection of Wisdom; (7) the Stage of Far-going, in which he attains the Perfection of Expediency by going afar and to save all beings; (8) the Stage of Immovability, in which he attains the Perfection of Vow and realizes the principle that all specific characters of elements (dharmas) are unreal; (9) the Stage of Good Wisdom, in which he achieves the Perfection of Effort, attains the Ten Holy Powers, and preaches both to the redeemable and the unredeemable; (10) the Stage of the Cloud of the Law, in which he attains mastery of Perfect Knowledge and preaches the Law to save all creatures, “like the cloud drops rain over all.”
3. Tikun is the spiritual process of liberating and retrieving the fragments of Divine light trapped within the material realm, unconscious of G-d&
decay ::: v. i. --> To pass gradually from a sound, prosperous, or perfect state, to one of imperfection, adversity, or dissolution; to waste away; to decline; to fail; to become weak, corrupt, or disintegrated; to rot; to perish; as, a tree decays; fortunes decay; hopes decay. ::: v. t. --> To cause to decay; to impair.
declination ::: n. --> The act or state of bending downward; inclination; as, declination of the head.
The act or state of falling off or declining from excellence or perfection; deterioration; decay; decline.
The act of deviating or turning aside; oblique motion; obliquity; withdrawal.
The act or state of declining or refusing; withdrawal; refusal; averseness.
defect ::: an imperfection that causes inadequacy or failure; a shortcoming.
defectibility ::: n. --> Deficiency; imperfection.
defect ::: n. --> Want or absence of something necessary for completeness or perfection; deficiency; -- opposed to superfluity.
Failing; fault; imperfection, whether physical or moral; blemish; as, a defect in the ear or eye; a defect in timber or iron; a defect of memory or judgment. ::: v. i.
defectuosity ::: n. --> Great imperfection.
deficiency ::: n. --> The state of being deficient; inadequacy; want; failure; imperfection; shortcoming; defect.
deform ::: v. t. --> To spoil the form of; to mar in form; to misshape; to disfigure.
To render displeasing; to deprive of comeliness, grace, or perfection; to dishonor. ::: a. --> Deformed; misshapen; shapeless; horrid.
dehasakti (Dehashakti) ::: [the full power (and perfection) of the body]. ::: dehasaktih [nominative]
dehasiddhi ::: the perfection of the body, which "has to submit to a mutation and be no longer the clamorous animal or the impeding clod it now is, but become instead a conscious servant and radiant instrument and living form of the spirit"; the siddhi of the sarira catus.t.aya.
demand and the full dedication of all you possess and receive and all your power of acquisition to the Divine Shakti and her work are the signs of this freedom. Any perturbation of mind with regard to money and its use, any claim, any grudging is a sure index of some imperfection or bondage.
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
Determination: (Lat. determinare, to limit) The limitation of a reality or thought to a narrower field than its original one. In a monistic philosophy the original, single principle must be considered as narrowed down to various genera and species, and eventually to individual existence if such be admitted, in order to introduce that differentiation of reality which is required in a multiple world. In Platonism, the Forms or Ideas are one for each type of thing but are "determined" to multiple existence by the addition of matter (Timaeus). Neo-Platonism is even more interested in real determination, since the One is the logical antecedent of the Many. Here determination is effected by the introduction of negations, or privations, into successive emanations of the One. With Boethius, mediaeval philosophy became concerned with the determination of being-in-general to an actual manifold of things. In Boethianism there is a fusion of the question of real determination with that of logical limitation of concepts. In modern thought, the problem is acute in Spinozism: universal substance (substantia, natura, Deus) must be reduced to an apparent manifold through attributes, modes to the individual. Determination is said to be by way of negation, according to Spinoza (Epist. 50), and this means that universal substance is in its perfect form indeterminate, but is thought to become determinate by a sort of logical loss of absolute perfection. The theory is brought to an almost absurd simplicity in the Ontology of Chr. Wolff, where being is pictured as successively determined to genera, species and individual. Determination is also an important factor in the developmental theories of Hegel and Bergson. -- V.J.B.
Dhyana(Sanskrit) ::: A term signifying profound spiritualintellectual contemplation with utter detachment from allobjects of a sensuous and lower mental character. In Buddhism it is one of the six paramitas ofperfection. One who is adept or expert in the practice of dhyana, which by the way is a wonderfulspiritual exercise if the proper idea of it be grasped, is carried in thought entirely out of all relations withthe material and merely psychological spheres of being and of consciousness, and into lofty spiritualplanes. Instead of dhyana being a subtraction from the elements of consciousness, it is rather a throwingoff or casting aside of the crippling sheaths of ethereal matter which surround the consciousness, thusallowing the dhyanin, or practicer of this form of true yoga, to enter into the highest parts of his ownconstitution and temporarily to become at one with and, therefore, to commune with the gods. It is atemporary becoming at one with the upper triad of man considered as a septenary, in other words, withhis monadic essence. Man's consciousness in this state or condition becomes purely buddhi, or ratherbuddhic, with the highest parts of the manas acting as upadhi or vehicle for the retention of what theconsciousness therein experiences. From this term is drawn the phrase dhyani-chohans ordhyani-buddhas -- words so frequently used in theosophical literature and so frequently misconceived asto their real meaning. (See also Samadhi)
divine ::: a. --> Of or belonging to God; as, divine perfections; the divine will.
Proceeding from God; as, divine judgments.
Appropriated to God, or celebrating his praise; religious; pious; holy; as, divine service; divine songs; divine worship.
Pertaining to, or proceeding from, a deity; partaking of the nature of a god or the gods.
Godlike; heavenly; excellent in the highest degree;
::: "Divinisation itself does not mean the destruction of the human elements; it means taking them up, showing them the way to their own perfection, raising them by purification and perfection to their full power and Ananda and that means the raising of the whole of earthly life to its full power and Ananda.” Letters on Yoga
“Divinisation itself does not mean the destruction of the human elements; it means taking them up, showing them the way to their own perfection, raising them by purification and perfection to their full power and Ananda and that means the raising of the whole of earthly life to its full power and Ananda.” Letters on Yoga
DIVINISATION. ::: Taking up of the human elements, show- ing them the way to their own perfection, raising them by purifi- cation and perfection to their full power and Ananda and that means the raising of the whole earthly life to its full power and Ananda.
This divinisation of the nature is a metamorphosis, a change from the falsehood of our ignorant nature into the truth of God- nature.
dosha&
dough-baked ::: a. --> Imperfectly baked; hence, not brought to perfection; unfinished; also, of weak or dull understanding.
Druses: A religious sect in Asia Minor, whose faith combines teachings of the Mosaic law, the Christian Gospels, the Koran and the Sufi allegories; they believe in one God, transmigration of the soul, constant spiritual evolution and final perfection.
During the sixth root-race, humanity will not be gigantic in size (as were the fourth and third root-races), for spirituality will be on the ascendancy and materiality decreasing, so that at the end of the sixth root-race the development of spirituality will be parallel to what it was at the beginning of the second root-race plus, however, the added evolutionary experience gained during the preceding root-races. The characteristics of sex will gradually disappear, and humanity will be slowly once again becoming androgynous. Offspring will be born in a manner generally similar to that which prevailed during the second and early third root-race periods: toward the close of the sixth, mankind will begin to manifest the first appearances of reproduction by kriyasakti (propagation by means of will and imagination). Toward the close of the sixth root-race, humanity will be showing a steadily increasing tendency to evolve out of fleshly into more ethereal physical vehicles. These various changes are presentments of what will in the due course be established in relative perfection during the sixth round — coming events cast their shadows before. Indeed the sixth root-race will be as compared with our own fifth far in advance, spiritually, intellectually, psychically, and even physically; and the attainment by mankind of adeptship or mahatmaship will be notably more easy than is the case at present.
Dzogchen ::: Sanskrit for "Great Perfection". A tradition within Tibetan Buddhism and within Bon that seeks a return to the primordial state of rigpa (i.e. non-duality) as the natural stage of awareness.
Eden ::: The Biblical land of perfection at the cusp of creation. On this site we consider it an allegory for the state of non-duality: before the Fall into dualistic suffering occurred based on the quest of consciousness to cleave Itself and diversify experience.
Egocentriclty ::: The main idea in it is always one’s own sadhana, one’s own endeavour, one’s own development, perfec- tion, siddhi. It is inevitable for most, for without that personal endeavour there would not be sufficient will or push to bring about the first necessary changes. But none of these things — development, perfection or siddhi — can really come in any degree of completeness or unmixed finality until this egocentric attitude changes into the God-centric, until it becomes the deve- lopment, perfection, siddhi of the Divine Consciousness, its will and its instrumentarion in this body — and that can only be when these things become secondary, and bhakti for the Divine,
Ein Sof ::: Name given to the Divine infinite in Kabbalistic thought. Early kabbalists conceived of the Ein Sof as the absolute perfection in which there is no distinction or plurality. While “God” may be thought of in relational or conceptual terms, the Ein Sof transcends these categories. Importantly, the infinite really is infinite — it does not end at the front of your brain, or anywhere else. Therefore, it is all there is.
elegant (From Mathematics) Combining simplicity, power, and a certain ineffable grace of design. Higher praise than "clever", "winning" or even {cuspy}. The French aviator, adventurer, and author Antoine de Saint-Exup'ery, probably best known for his classic children's book "The Little Prince", was also an aircraft designer. He gave us perhaps the best definition of engineering elegance when he said "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." [{Jargon File}] (1994-11-29)
elegant ::: (From Mathematics) Combining simplicity, power, and a certain ineffable grace of design. Higher praise than clever, winning or even cuspy.The French aviator, adventurer, and author Antoine de Saint-Exup'ery, probably best known for his classic children's book The Little Prince, was also an elegance when he said A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.[Jargon File] (1994-11-29)
emaculate ::: v. t. --> To clear from spots or stains, or from any imperfection.
Every orthodox Brahmin is supposed to repeat this archaic hymn, at least mentally, at both his morning and evening religious devotions. An explanatory paraphrase, giving the inner meaning of the Gayatri is: O thou golden sun of most excellent splendor, illumine our hearts and fill our minds, so that we, recognizing our oneness with the divinity which is the heart of the universe, may see the pathway before our feet, and tread it to those distant goals of perfection stimulated by thine own radiant light.
failing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Fail ::: n. --> A failing short; a becoming deficient; failure; deficiency; imperfection; weakness; lapse; fault; infirmity; as, a mental failing.
The act of becoming insolvent of bankrupt.
fair ::: superl. --> Free from spots, specks, dirt, or imperfection; unblemished; clean; pure.
Pleasing to the eye; handsome; beautiful.
Without a dark hue; light; clear; as, a fair skin.
Not overcast; cloudless; clear; pleasant; propitious; favorable; -- said of the sky, weather, or wind, etc.; as, a fair sky; a fair day.
Free from obstacles or hindrances; unobstructed;
fault ::: a defect, imperfection, flaw, failing.
fine ::: superl. --> Finished; brought to perfection; refined; hence, free from impurity; excellent; superior; elegant; worthy of admiration; accomplished; beautiful.
Aiming at show or effect; loaded with ornament; overdressed or overdecorated; showy.
Nice; delicate; subtle; exquisite; artful; skillful; dexterous.
Not coarse, gross, or heavy
finisher ::: n. --> One who finishes, puts an end to, completes, or perfects; esp. used in the trades, as in hatting, weaving, etc., for the workman who gives a finishing touch to the work, or any part of it, and brings it to perfection.
Something that gives the finishing touch to, or settles, anything.
First: (1) The prime form of a thing, in the sense of its essence or integrity. The second act is its operation. Thus the physical evil of blindness is the absence of the first act, i.e., a perfection due to man's integrity; while the moral evil of sin is an absence of the second act, i.e., a perfection demanded by righteous operation. (2) First act may also designate the faculty or principle of operation, as the will; while second act stands for its operations.
flaw ::: a feature that mars the perfection of something; an imperfection, defect, or blemish.
F. Logos: (Gr. logos) A term denoting either reason or one of the expressions of reason or order in words or things; such as word, discourse, definition, formula, principle, mathematical ratio. In its most important sense in philosophy it refers to a cosmic reason which gives order and intelligibility to the world. In this sense the doctrine first appears in Heraclitus, who affirms the reality of a Logos analogous to the reason in man that regulates all physical processes and is the source of all human law. The conception is developed more fully by the Stoics, who conceive of the world as a living unity, perfect in the adaptation of its parts to one another and to the whole, and animated by an immanent and purposive reason. As the creative source of this cosmic unity and perfection the world-reason is called the seminal reason (logos spermatikos), and is conceived as containing within itself a multitude of logoi spermatikoi, or intelligible and purposive forms operating in the world. As regulating all things, the Logos is identified with Fate (heimarmene); as directing all things toward the good, with Providence (pronoia); and as the ordered course of events, with Nature (physis). In Philo of Alexandria, in whom Hebrew modes of thought mingle with Greek concepts, the Logos becomes the immaterial instrument, and even at times the personal agency, through which the creative activity of the transcendent God is exerted upon the world. In Christian philosophy the Logos becomes the second person of the Trinity and its functions are identified with the creative, illuminating and redemptive work of Jesus Christ. Finally the Logos plays an important role in the system of Plotinus, where it appears as the creative and form-giving aspect of Intelligence (Nous), the second of the three Hypostases. -- G. R.
"For good is all that helps the individual and the world towards their divine fullness, and evil is all that retards or breaks up that increasing perfection.” The Synthesis of Yoga ::: *goodness.
“For good is all that helps the individual and the world towards their divine fullness, and evil is all that retards or breaks up that increasing perfection.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"For the supermind is a Truth-Consciousness in which the Divine Reality, fully manifested, no longer works with the instrumentation of the Ignorance; a truth of status of being which is absolute becomes dynamic in a truth of energy and activity of the being which is self-existent and perfect. Every movement there is a movement of the self-aware truth of Divine Being and every part is in entire harmony with the whole. Even the most limited and finite action is in the Truth-Consciousness a movement of the Eternal and Infinite and partakes of the inherent absoluteness and perfection of the Eternal and Infinite.” The Synthesis of Yoga
“For the supermind is a Truth-Consciousness in which the Divine Reality, fully manifested, no longer works with the instrumentation of the Ignorance; a truth of status of being which is absolute becomes dynamic in a truth of energy and activity of the being which is self-existent and perfect. Every movement there is a movement of the self-aware truth of Divine Being and every part is in entire harmony with the whole. Even the most limited and finite action is in the Truth-Consciousness a movement of the Eternal and Infinite and partakes of the inherent absoluteness and perfection of the Eternal and Infinite.” The Synthesis of Yoga
Four, the ::: same as the fourfold isvara; the four Vedic gods (Varun.a,Four Mitra, Aryaman and Bhaga) who "build up the whole divine state into its perfection by the natural interaction of its four essential elements", the four gods representing respectively "the all-pervading purity" of sat (Varun.a), "the all-uniting light" of cit (Mitra), "the movement and all-discerning force" of tapas (Aryaman) and "the allembracing joy" of ananda (Bhaga), thus being "practically the later
Gayatri or Savitri(Sanskrit) ::: A verse of the Rig-Veda (iii.62.10) which from immemorial time in India has been surroundedwith the attributes of quasi-divinity. The Sanskrit words of this verse are: Tat savitur varenyam bhargodevasya dhimahi, dhiyo yo nah prachodayat. Every orthodox Brahmana is supposed to repeat this archaichymn, at least mentally, at both his morning and evening religious exercises or devotions. A translationin explanatory paraphrase, giving the essential esoteric meaning of the Gayatri or Savitri, is thefollowing: "Oh thou golden sun of most excellent splendor, illumine our hearts and fill our minds, so thatwe, recognizing our oneness with the Divinity which is the heart of the universe, may see the pathwaybefore our feet, and tread it to those distant goals of perfection, stimulated by thine own radiant light."
gem ::: 1. A pearl or mineral that has been cut and polished for use as an ornament. 2. Something that is valued for its beauty or perfection. gems.
God: In metaphysical thinking a name for the highest, ultimate being, assumed by theology on the basis of authority, revelation, or the evidence of faith as absolutely necessary, but demonstrated as such by a number of philosophical systems, notably idealistic, monistic and dualistic ones. Proofs of the existence of God fall apart into those that are based on facts of experience (desire or need for perfection, dependence, love, salvation, etc.), facts of religious history (consensus gentium, etc.)), postulates of morality (belief in ultimate justice, instinct for an absolute good, conscience, the categorical imperative, sense of duty, need of an objective foundation of morality, etc.)), postulates of reason (cosmological, physico-theological, teleological, and ontological arguments), and the inconceivableness of the opposite. As to the nature of God, the great variety of opinions are best characterized by their several conceptions of the attributes of God which are either of a non-personal (pantheistic, etc.) or personal (theistic, etc.) kind, representing concepts known from experience raised to a superlative degree ("omniscient", "eternal", etc.). The reality, God, may be conceived as absolute or as relative to human values, as being an all-inclusive one, a duality, or a plurality. Concepts of God calling for unquestioning faith, belief in miracles, and worship or representing biographical and descriptive sketches of God and his creation, are rather theological than metaphysical, philosophers, on the whole, utilizing the idea of God or its linguistic equivalents in other languages, despite popular and church implications, in order not to lose the feeling-contact with the rather abstract world-ground. See Religion, Philosophy of. -- K.F.L.
Gokard (Pahlavi) Gōkard. Also Geokar, Gaekarena. In the Bundahish the white haoma or Tree of Life which guards the tree of all seeds (Harawispa tohma). This tree of all germs was given forth and grew up in the Farakhkard (unbounded) ocean from which the germs of species of plants ever increased. And near it, the Gokard tree was produced for keeping away deformed decrepitude, and the full perfection of the world arose from this (Bundahis 9:5-6). It is described as a luxuriant tree in whose branches a serpent dwells. “But while the Macrocosmic tree is the Serpent of Eternity and of absolute Wisdom itself, those who dwell in the Microcosmic tree are the Serpents of the manifested Wisdom. One is the One and All; the others are its reflected parts. The ‘tree’ is man himself, of course, and the Serpents dwelling in each, the conscious Manas, the connecting link between Spirit and Matter, heaven and earth” (SD 2:98). See also HAOMA
Gold The king of metal, symbol of perfection, durability, and purity; of the real sun, the great masculine principle, the Father, the positive side of the solar cosmic life. Alchemists considered gold as being a deposit of solar light, regarding light as the emanative fire from the sun. The gold of human nature, which has to be purified by fire from its dross, is manas, the self-conscious element, when purified from contamination with the dross of the lower principles and united with buddhi. While divine alchemy seeks to purify the gold of human nature, physical alchemy seeks to derive gold by transmutation from baser metals. In contrast with gold, brass is mentioned as signifying the baser elements or the world of passional matter; and by another contrast, silver is the analog of the watery or feminine principle, whose planetary counterpart is the moon.
Gum's cr.padfiet ::: One can lia*c a Guru •■'/crK'f n tpiD- lual capacity (to onc\clf or to other Gunn) carry trp in h'-n tnjf) human imperfectiona and >cl, if ymi hue the faitS. ihf«rj;h attain to ■.p'mtual cspcticricc^. to ipnituai irafnatlfm. enm Srfo'r tlic Guru himveU.
HARMONY—Completeness and perfection resulting from
hasyasiddhi ::: the perfection of hasya; hasya as an element in the hasyasiddhi siddhi of the samata catus.t.aya.
hathayoga ::: a system of yoga which selects the body and the vital functionings as its instruments of perfection and realisation; the use of the body for the opening of the divine life on all of its planes.
. hat siddhi (brihat siddhi) ::: large perfection..
hellenism ::: n. --> A phrase or form of speech in accordance with genius and construction or idioms of the Greek language; a Grecism.
The type of character of the ancient Greeks, who aimed at culture, grace, and amenity, as the chief elements in human well-being and perfection.
Herder, Johann Gottfried: (1744-1803) A founder of modern religious humanism, he explained human history as a consequence of the nature of man and of man's physical environment. Held implicitly to the view that society is basically an organic whole. Accounted for the differences in culture and institutions of different peoples as being due to geographical conditions. Although history is a process of the education of the human species, it has no definite goal of perfection and development. The vehicle of living culture is a distinct Volk or Nation with its distinct language and traditions. As a child of the Enlightenment, Herder had a blind faith in nature, in man and in the ultimate development of reason and justice.
He taught that the primal cause, which he names Bythos (depth), manifested itself as the pleroma (fullness), the sum total of all manifestation. His teachings on pleroma are defined by a vast, intricate diagrammatic scheme, representing a process of emanation on a hierarchical plan with threefold, sevenfold, tenfold, and twelvefold hierarchies; mankind itself forming a lower branch of these hierarchies. Thus he is enabled to explain the origin of mixture or evil, and to reconcile the goodness of God with the imperfection of nature by pointing to minor demiurgic creators; thus too he can give the true meaning of Christ and redemption.
humility ::: n. --> The state or quality of being humble; freedom from pride and arrogance; lowliness of mind; a modest estimate of one&
Iddhi (Pali) Iddhi [from the verbal root sidh to succeed, attain an objective, reach accomplishment] Equivalent to the Sanskrit siddhi, used to signify the powers or attributes of perfection: powers of various kinds, spiritual and intellectual as well as astral and physical, acquired through training, discipline, initiation, and individual holiness. In Buddhism it is generally rendered “occult power.” There are two classes of iddhis, the higher of which, according to the Digha-Nikaya and other Buddhist works, are eight in number: 1) the power to project mind-made images of oneself; 2) to become invisible; 3) to pass through solid things, such as a wall; 4) to penetrate solid ground as if it were water; 5) to walk on water; 6) to fly through the air; 7) to touch sun and moon; and 8) to ascend into the highest heavens. The same work represents the Buddha as saying: “It is because I see danger in the practice of these mystic wonders that I loathe and abhor and am ashamed thereof” (1:213) — a true statement although iddhis are powers of the most desirable kind when pertaining to the higher nature, for they are of spiritual, intellectual, and higher psychical character. It is only when iddhis or siddhis are limited to the meaning of the gross astral psychic attributes that the Buddha properly condemns them as being dangerous always, and to the ambitious and selfish person extremely perilous. Further, it was an offense against the regulations of the Brotherhood (Samgha) for any member to display any powers before the laity.
ideality ::: n. --> The quality or state of being ideal.
The capacity to form ideals of beauty or perfection.
The conceptive faculty.
IDEALIZE—To render ideal, to conform to some mental standard as of perfection.
Ideal: Pertaining to ideas (q.v.) Mental. Possessing the character of completely satisfying a desire or volition. A state of perfection with respect to a standard or goal of will or desire. A norm, perfect type, or goal, an object of desire or will, whether or not conceived as attainable.
II. Metaphysics of History: The metaphysical interpretations of the meaning of history are either supra-mundane or intra-mundane (secular). The oldest extra-mundane, or theological, interpretation has been given by St. Augustine (Civitas Dei), Dante (Divma Commedia) and J. Milton (Paradise Lost and Regained). All historic events are seen as having a bearing upon the redemption of mankind through Christ which will find its completion at the end of this world. Owing to the secularistic tendencies of modern times the Enlightenment Period considered the final end of human history as the achievement of public welfare through the power of reason. Even the ideal of "humanity" of the classic humanists, advocated by Schiller, Goethe, Fichte, Rousseau, Lord Byron, is only a variety of the philosophy of the Enlightenment, and in the same line of thought we find A. Comte, H. Spencer ("human moral"), Engels and K. Marx. The German Idealism of Kant and Hegel saw in history the materialization of the "moral reign of freedom" which achieves its perfection in the "objective spirit of the State". As in the earlier systems of historical logic man lost his individuality before the forces of natural laws, so, according to Hegel, he is nothing but an instrument of the "idea" which develops itself through the three dialectic stages of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. (Example. Absolutism, Democracy, Constitutional Monarchy.) Even the great historian L. v. Ranke could not break the captivating power of the Hegelian mechanism. Ranke places every historical epoch into a relation to God and attributes to it a purpose and end for itself. Lotze and Troeltsch followed in his footsteps. Lately, the evolutionistic interpretation of H. Bergson is much discussed and disputed. His "vital impetus" accounts for the progressiveness of life, but fails to interpret the obvious setbacks and decadent civilizations. According to Kierkegaard and Spranger, merely human ideals prove to be too narrow a basis for the tendencies, accomplishments, norms, and defeats of historic life. It all points to a supra-mundane intelligence which unfolds itself in history. That does not make superfluous a natural interpretation, both views can be combined to understand history as an endless struggle between God's will and human will, or non-willing, for that matter. -- S.V.F.
Illness marks some imperfection or weakness or else opening to adverse touches in the physical nature and is often connected also with some obscurity or dlsbannony in the low'd vital or the phj^ical mind or elsewhere.
imperfection ::: 1. The quality or condition of being imperfect; incomplete; defective. 2. Something imperfect; a defect or flaw. imperfection"s, imperfections.
imperfection ::: a. --> The quality or condition of being imperfect; want of perfection; incompleteness; deficiency; fault or blemish.
". . . imperfection is not a thing to be at all deplored, but rather a privilege and a promise, for it opens out to us an immense vista of self-development and self-exceeding.” The Human Cycle etc.*
“… imperfection is not a thing to be at all deplored, but rather a privilege and a promise, for it opens out to us an immense vista of self-development and self-exceeding.” The Human Cycle etc.
imperfection ::: “… our imperfection is the sign of a transitional state, a growth not yet completed, an effort that is finding its way; …” The Life Divine
immature ::: a. --> Not mature; unripe; not arrived at perfection of full development; crude; unfinished; as, immature fruit; immature character; immature plans.
Premature; untimely; too early; as, an immature death.
Immortality ::: A term signifying continuous existence or being; but this understanding of the term is profoundlyillogical and contrary to nature, for there is nothing throughout nature's endless and multifarious realmsof being and existence which remains for two consecutive instants of time exactly the same.Consequently, immortality is a mere figment of the imagination, an illusory phantom of reality. When thestudent of the esoteric wisdom once realizes that continuous progress, i.e., continuous change inadvancement, is nature's fundamental procedure, he recognizes instantly that continuous remaining in anunchanging or immutable state of consciousness or being is not only impossible, but in the last analysis isthe last thing that is either desirable or comforting. Fancy continuing immortal in a state of imperfection such as we human beingsexemplify -- which is exactly what the usual acceptance of this term immortality means. The highest godin highest heaven, although seemingly immortal to us imperfect human beings, is nevertheless anevolving, growing, progressing entity in its own sublime realms or spheres, and therefore as the ages passleaves one condition or state to assume a succeeding condition or state of a nobler and higher type;precisely as the preceding condition or state had been the successor of another state before it.Continuous or unending immutability of any condition or state of an evolving entity is obviously animpossibility in nature; and when once pondered over it becomes clear that the ordinary acceptance ofimmortality involves an impossibility. All nature is an unending series of changes, which means all thehosts or multitudes of beings composing nature, for every individual unit of these hosts is growing,evolving, i.e., continuously changing, therefore never immortal. Immortality and evolution arecontradictions in terms. An evolving entity means a changing entity, signifying a continuous progresstowards better things; and evolution therefore is a succession of state of consciousness and being afteranother state of consciousness and being, and thus throughout duration. The Occidental idea of staticimmortality or even mutable immortality is thus seen to be both repellent and impossible.This doctrine is so difficult for the average Occidental easily to understand that it may be advisable onceand for all to point out without mincing of words that just as complete death, that is to say, entireannihilation of consciousness, is an impossibility in nature, just so is continuous and unchangingconsciousness in any one stage or phase of evolution likewise an impossibility, because progress ormovement or growth is continuous throughout eternity. There are, however, periods more or less long ofcontinuance in any stage or phase of consciousness that may be attained by an evolving entity; and thehigher the being is in evolution, the more its spiritual and intellectual faculties have been evolved orevoked, the longer do these periods of continuous individual, or perhaps personal, quasi-immortalitycontinue. There is, therefore, what may be called relative immortality, although this phrase is confessedlya misnomer.Master KH in The Mahatma Letters, on pages 128-30, uses the phrase ``panaeonic immortality" tosignify this same thing that I have just called relative immortality, an immortality -- falsely so called,however -- which lasts in the cases of certain highly evolved monadic egos for the entire period of amanvantara, but which of necessity ends with the succeeding pralaya of the solar system. Such a periodof time of continuous self-consciousness of so highly evolved a monadic entity is to us humans actually arelative immortality; but strictly and logically speaking it is no more immortality than is the ephemeralexistence of a butterfly. When the solar manvantara comes to an end and the solar pralaya begins, evensuch highly evolved monadic entities, full-blown gods, are swept out of manifested self-consciousexistence like the sere and dried leaves at the end of the autumn; and the divine entities thus passing outenter into still higher realms of superdivine activity, to reappear at the end of the pralaya and at the dawnof the next or succeeding solar manvantara.The entire matter is, therefore, a highly relative one. What seems immortal to us humans would seem tobe but as a wink of the eye to the vision of super-kosmic entities; while, on the other hand, the span ofthe average human life would seem to be immortal to a self-conscious entity inhabiting one of theelectrons of an atom of the human physical body.The thing to remember in this series of observations is the wondrous fact that consciousness frometernity to eternity is uninterrupted, although by the very nature of things undergoing continuous andunceasing change of phases in realization throughout endless duration. What men call unconsciousness ismerely a form of consciousness which is too subtle for our gross brain-minds to perceive or to sense or tograsp; and, secondly, strictly speaking, what men call death, whether of a universe or of their ownphysical bodies, is but the breaking up of worn-out vehicles and the transference of consciousness to ahigher plane. It is important to seize the spirit of this marvelous teaching, and not allow the imperfectbrain-mind to quibble over words, or to pause or hesitate at difficult terms.
IMPERFECTIONS. ::: To sec them clearly and acknowledge them is the first step ; to have the firm will to reject them is the next ; to separate yourself from them entirely so that if they enter at all it will be as foreign elements, no longer parts of your normal nature but suggestions from outside, brings their Iasi state ; even, once seen and rejected, they may automatically fall away and disappear.
Indeterminacy Used in science to mean that the investigation of intra-atomic phenomena has (for the time being) reached the limits of human power to determine the behavior of a particle. The Heisenberg principle of uncertainty states that it is impossible to increase the accuracy of measurement of the velocity of a particle without by this very observational act introducing an uncertainty into the determination of its position. The attempt to represent phenomena as a chain of cause and effect must lead sooner or later to a point where we can no longer trace the cause — not because causes vanish, but because of the imperfection of our observation and of our instruments, so that the chain of causation continues until we lose track of it because of incapacity. Hence we are unable to predict the behavior of a particle. Subsequent investigation may enable us to carry the chain of causation farther, but the process cannot go on indefinitely without carrying us beyond the physical plane. The standards of measurement successfully adopted for molar physics and for phenomena within terrestrial limits have proved inadequate for the definition of phenomena outside those limits; and both theory and experiment show that these standards are largely conceptual and must be changed to suit new conditions.
• individual being is subjected to Nature which acts here as the lower Prakriti, a force of Ignorance, Avidya. The Purusha in itself is divine, but exteriorised in the ignorance of Nature it is the individual apparent being imperfect with her imperfection.
infinity ::: n. --> Unlimited extent of time, space, or quantity; eternity; boundlessness; immensity.
Unlimited capacity, energy, excellence, or knowledge; as, the infinity of God and his perfections.
Endless or indefinite number; great multitude; as an infinity of beauties.
A quantity greater than any assignable quantity of the same kind.
infirmity ::: a. --> The state of being infirm; feebleness; an imperfection or weakness; esp., an unsound, unhealthy, or debilitated state; a disease; a malady; as, infirmity of body or mind.
A personal frailty or failing; foible; eccentricity; a weakness or defect.
In proportion as the surrender and self-consecration progress the sadhaka becomes conscious of the Divine Shakti doing the sadhana, pouring into him more and more of herself, founding in him the freedom and perfection of the Divine Nature. The more this conscious process replaces his own effort, the more rapid and true becomes his progress. But it cannot completely replace the necessity of personal effort until the surrender and consecration arc pure and complete from top to bottom.
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.
INTEGRATION. ::: Everybody is an amalgamation not of two, but of many personalities. It is part of the yogic perfection in this yoga to accord and transmute them so as to ' integrate ’ the penonality.
In the Ethics these basic principles are applied to the solution of the question of human good. The good for man is an actualization, or active exercise, of those faculties distinctive of man, that is the faculties of the rational, as distinct from the vegetative and sensitive souls. But human excellence thus defined shows itself in two forms, In the habitual subordination of sensitive and appetitive tendencies to rational rule and principle, and in the exercise of reason in the search for and contemplation of truth. The former type of excellence is expressed in the moral virtues, the latter in the dianoetic or intellectual virtues. A memorable feature of Aristotle's treatment of the moral virtues is his theory that each of them may be regarded as a mean between excess and defect; courage, for example, is a mean between cowardice and rashness, liberality a mean between stinginess and prodigality. In the Politics Aristotle sets forth the importance of the political community as the source and sustainer of the typically human life. But for Aristotle the highest good for man is found not in the political life, nor in any other form of practical activity, but in theoretical inquiry and contemplation of truth. This alone brings complete and continuous happiness, because it is the activity of the highest part of man's complex nature, and of that part which is least dependent upon externals, viz. the intuitive reason, or nous. In the contemplation of the first principles of knowledge and being man participates in that activity of pure thought which constitutes the eternal perfection of the divine nature.
In theosophy evolution is unfolding or emanational development from within outwards of the incarnating monads; and the bodies in which these monads incarnate are the least important part of the matter. The bodies slowly follow, in improving sensitivity and relatively continuous perfection of the nervous system, including the brain and spinal cord, the unfolding impulses from within, which thus guide these bodies to greater degrees of perfection. As the egos or monads unfold from themselves the latent powers of spirit and mind, as well as of the psychological nature, the bodies feel the inner and compelling urges and impulses, and very slowly through the ages conform to become vehicles fitted to express the inner fires.
ishwarabhava) ::: non-depression, swiftness, steadiness, mastery: the second general formula of the sakti catus.t.aya, consisting of qualities needed for the perfection of all parts of the psycho-physical system.
isitasiddhi (ishitasiddhi; ishita-siddhi) ::: the supernormal power (sidisitasiddhi dhi) called isita; perfection or fulfilment of this power; an instance of its use.
isvara (lilamaya ishwara) ::: the Lord of the cosmic lila, "the mighty Lord of Nature, who . . . enjoys with his universal delight this play of her figures of his own being"; the isvara as "our Playmate in the great world-game who has disguised himself throughout as friend and enemy, helper and opponent and, in all relations and in all workings that affect us, has led our steps towards our perfection and our release". lil lilamaya amaya isvaradarsana isvaradarsana (lilamaya ishwaradarshan; lilamaya ishwara
“It is admitted that, however inferior to the classical Sanskrit of Panini, the language of the oldest portions of Rig Veda, notwithstanding the antiquity of its grammatical forms, is the same as that of the latest texts. Every one sees — cannot fail to see and to know — that for a language so old and so perfect as the Sanskrit to have survived alone, among all languages, it must have had its cycles of perfection and its cycles of degeneration. And, if one had any intuition, he might have seen that what they call a ‘dead language’ being an anomaly, a useless thing in Nature, it would not have survived, even as a ‘dead’ tongue, had it not its special purpose in the reign of immutable cyclic laws; and that Sanskrit, which came to be nearly lost to the world, is now slowly spreading in Europe, and will one day have the extension it had thousands upon thousands of years back — that of a universal language. The same as to the Greek and the Latin: there will be a time when the Greek of Aeschylus (and more perfect still in its future form) will be spoken by all in Southern Europe, while Sanskrit will be resting in its periodical pralaya; and the Attic will be followed later by the Latin of Virgil. Something ought to have whispered to us that there was also a time — before the original Aryan settlers among the Dravidian and other aborigines, admitted within the fold of Brahmanical initiation, marred the purity of the sacred Sanskrita Bhasha — when Sanskrit was spoken in all its unalloyed subsequent purity, and therefore must have had more than once its rise and fall. The reason for it is simply this: classical Sanskrit was only restored, if in some things perfected, by Panini. Panini, Katyayana, or Patanjali did not create it; it has existed throughout cycles, and will pass through other cycles still” (Five Years of Theosophy 419-20).
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 He that has gone abroad — That which is bright, bodi-less, without scar of imperfection, without sinews, pure, unpierced by evil. The Seer, the Thinker,(1) the One who becomes everywhere, the Self-existent has ordered objects perfectly according to their nature from years sempiternal.” The Upanishads
“It is He that has gone abroad—That which is bright, bodi-less, without scar of imperfection, without sinews, pure, unpierced by evil. The Seer, the Thinker,(1) the One who becomes everywhere, the Self-existent has ordered objects perfectly according to their nature from years sempiternal.” The Upanishads
“It is indeed as a result of our evolution that we arrive at the possibility of this transformation. As Nature has evolved beyond Matter and manifested Life, beyond Life and manifested Mind, so she must evolve beyond Mind and manifest a consciousness and power of our existence free from the imperfection and limitation of our mental existence, a supramental or truth-consciousness and able to develop the power and perfection of the spirit. Here a slow and tardy change need no longer be the law or manner of our evolution; it will be only so to a greater or less extent so long as a mental ignorance clings and hampers our ascent; but once we have grown into the truth-consciousness its power of spiritual truth of being will determine all. Into that truth we shall be freed and it will transform mind and life and body. Light and bliss and beauty and a perfection of the spontaneous right action of all the being are there as native powers of the supramental truth-consciousness and these will in their very nature transform mind and life and body even here upon earth into a manifestation of the truth-conscious spirit. The obscurations of earth will not prevail against the supramental truth-consciousness, for even into the earth it can bring enough of the omniscient light and omnipotent force of the spirit conquer. All may not open to the fullness of its light and power, but whatever does open must that extent undergo the change. That will be the principle of transformation.” The Supramental Manifestation
It is indeed as a result of our evolution that we arrive at the possibility of this transformation. As Nature has evolved beyond Matter and manifested Life, beyond Life and manifested Mind, so she must evolve beyond Mind and manifest a consciousness and power of our existence free from the imperfection and limitation of our mental existence, a supramental or truthconsciousness, and able to develop the power and perfection of the spirit. Here a slow and tardy change need no longer be the law or manner of our evolution; it will be only so to a greater or less extent so long as a mental ignorance clings and hampers our ascent; but once we have grown into the truthconsciousness its power of spiritual truth of being will determine all. Into that truth we shall be freed and it will transform mind and life and body. Light and bliss and beauty and a perfection of the spontaneous right action of all the being are there as native powers of the supramental truth-consciousness and these will in their very nature transform mind and life and body even here upon earth into a manifestation of the truth-conscious spirit. The obscurations of earth will not prevail against the supramental truth-consciousness, for even into the earth it can bring enough of the omniscient light and omnipotent force of the spirit to conquer. All may not open to the fullness of its light and power, but whatever does open must to that extent undergo the change. That will be the principle of transformation.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 13, Page: 536-37
::: "It may be said that perfection is attained, though it remains progressive, when the receptivity from below is equal to the force from above which wants to manifest.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
“It may be said that perfection is attained, though it remains progressive, when the receptivity from below is equal to the force from above which wants to manifest.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
ITS 1. Incompatible {time-sharing} System An influential but highly idiosyncratic {operating system} written for the {PDP-6} and {PDP-10} at {MIT} and long used at the {MIT AI Lab}. Much AI-hacker jargon derives from ITS folklore, and to have been "an ITS hacker" qualifies one instantly as an old-timer of the most venerable sort. ITS pioneered many important innovations, including transparent file sharing between machines and terminal-independent I/O. After about 1982, most actual work was shifted to newer machines, with the remaining ITS boxes run essentially as a hobby and service to the hacker community. The shutdown of the lab's last ITS machine in May 1990 marked the end of an era and sent old-time hackers into mourning nationwide (see {high moby}). The Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden is maintaining one "live" ITS site at its computer museum (right next to the only {TOPS-10} system still on the {Internet}), so ITS is still alleged to hold the record for OS in longest continuous use (however, {WAITS} is a credible rival for this palm). 2. A mythical image of {operating system} perfection worshiped by a bizarre, fervent retro-cult of old-time hackers and ex-users (see {troglodyte}). ITS worshipers manage somehow to continue believing that an OS maintained by {assembly language} hand-hacking that supported only monocase 6-character filenames in one directory per account remains superior to today's state of commercial art (their venom against {Unix} is particularly intense). See also {holy wars}, {Weenix}. [{Jargon File}] (1994-12-15)
ITS ::: 1. Incompatible time-sharing SystemAn influential but highly idiosyncratic operating system written for the PDP-6 and PDP-10 at MIT and long used at the MIT AI Lab. Much AI-hacker jargon derives record for OS in longest continuous use (however, WAITS is a credible rival for this palm).2. A mythical image of operating system perfection worshiped by a bizarre, fervent retro-cult of old-time hackers and ex-users (see troglodyte). ITS filenames in one directory per account remains superior to today's state of commercial art (their venom against Unix is particularly intense).See also holy wars, Weenix.[Jargon File] (1994-12-15)
It selects the body and the vital functionings as its instruments of perfection and realisation.
It very often happens that when there is an exceptional power in the nature, there is found in the exterior being some contrary element which opens it to a quite opposite influence. It is this that makes the endeavour after a spiritual life so often a difficult struggle ; but the existence of this kind of contradiction even in an intense form does not make that life impossible. Doubt, struggle, efforts and failures, lapses, alternations of happy and unhappy or good and bad conditions, states of light and stales of darkness are the common lot of human beings. They are not created by yoga or by the effort after perfection ; only, in yoga one becomes conscious of their movements and their causes instead of feeling them blindly, and in the end one makes one’s way out of them into a clearer and happier consciousness.
Jainism: An Indian religion claiming great antiquity, the last of the great teachers (tirthankara) being Mahavira (6th cent. B.C.), embracing many philosophical elements of a pluralistic type of realism. It rejects Vedic (q.v.) authority and an absolute being, gods as well as men partaking of mortality, and holds the mythologically conceived world to be eternal and subject only to the fixed sequence of six ages, good and bad, but not periodic creation and destruction. There is an infinitude of indestructible individual souls or spiritual entities, each possessing by nature many properties inclusive of omniscience, unlimited energy and bliss which come to the fore upon attaining full independence. The non-spiritual substances are space and time, rest and motion, and matter composed of atoms and capable of being apprehended by the senses and combining to form the world of infinite variety. Matter also penetrates spiritual substance like a physician's pill, changing to karma and producing physical attachments. The good life consists in the acquisition of the three gems (triratna) of right faith (samyag-darsana), right knowledge (samyag-jnana), right conduct (samyag-caritra). Salvation, i.e., becoming a kevalin (cf. kevala), is an arduous task achieved in 14 stages of perfection, the last being bodiless existence in bliss and complete oblivion to the world and its ways. -- K.F.L.
Jhumur: “The Book of bliss is really the ultimate Satchitananda, the everlasting day when one has moved out of all contact with the unconscious and lives no longer in between sunlight and darkness but wholly in the light, wholly in the Divine. There was once a question that somebody asked Mother when She used to take our classes. She (the person) said that in our world there is a change from lesser to greater if one tries to progress. It is a constant change. When one enters the higher plane, the upper hemisphere as you call it, will there be no change, will it always be the same? Mother said,”No, it is not that. One perfection can then be manifested later in another kind of perfection.” There is a variety of different laws of perfection, hence the myriad volumes of the Book of Bliss. Delight has so many modes of expression, perfection or delight, they are all the same and there is not just one way of manifesting the Divine. There are infinite modes of expression of that delight.”
Jhumur: “The soul has made this sacrifice of entering into darkness and now it has to pay the price of pain and suffering and work its way up. But each time it makes some kind of forward progress, more darkness, constantly more unconscious movements, imperfections, pile up. One might say the price that the spirit has to pay for having made this daring descent keeps on going up. It is like a very long journey and she [Savitri] has come to strike that out.”
Jnana-darsana-suddhi (Sanskrit) Jñāna-darśana-śuddhi [from jñāna knowledge, wisdom + darśana vision, teaching + śuddhi purity, truth, perfection] Purity or perfection in the vision (or teaching) of knowledge or wisdom.
Jnana-marga: Sanskrit for path of knowledge. The approach to spiritual perfection through spiritual knowledge and understanding.
justification of the cosmic labour towards freedom, power and perfection in the human being.
kaliyuga (kaliyuga; kali yuga) ::: the last age in a caturyuga, whose master-spirit is the sūdra; a period of the world in which the harmony created in the satyayuga and maintained with increasing difficulty in the treta and dvapara "finally collapses and is destroyed", while at the same time "the necessary conditions are progressively built up for a new Satya, another harmony, a more advanced perfection".
kamananda ::: a form of sarirananda or physical ananda associkamananda ated with (suddha) kama or purified desire, also referred to as maithunananda (though that term is usually reserved for a high intensity of kamananda); a general term for ananda as experienced on the physical plane: "the joy of Matter released into a spiritual consciousness and thrilled with a constant ecstasy", realised as part of "the total perfection of the spiritualised body". Kamananda manifests both in the sūks.ma deha (subtle body) and the sthūla deha (gross body), and there is a subjective kamananda besides the physical kamananda that is more often meant by the word. The perfection of kamananda, as the "most central" form of physical ananda, depends on a "transformation of the sex-centre and its energy" so that this energy which "is the support in the body of all the mental, vital and physical forces of the nature" is "changed into a mass and a movement of intimate Light, creative Power, pure divine Ananda".
Karma-marga: Sanskrit for path of action. The term applied in Hindu philosophy to the approach to God and spiritual perfection through selfless and harmonious actions (cf. Karma; karma yoga).
karmanaiva hi samsiddhim asthita janakadayah ::: [it was indeed by works that Janaka and others attained to perfection]. [Gita 3.20]
karmasiddhi (karmasiddhi; karma-siddhi; karma siddhi) ::: success of action in the world; perfection of karma in all its parts as laid down by the adesa; fulfilment of the karma catus.t.aya, especially its effective half.
Karma Yoga ::: Aims at the dedication of every human activity to the supreme Will. It begins by the renunciation of all egoistic aim for our works, all pursuit of action for an interested aim or for the sake of a worldly result. By this renunciation it so purifies the mind and the will that we become easily conscious of the great universal Energy as the true doer of all our actions and the Lord of that Energy as their ruler and director with the individual as only a mask, an excuse, an instrument or, more positively, a conscious centre of action and phenomenal relation. The choice and direction of the act is more and more consciously left to this supreme Will and this universal Energy. To That our works as well as the results of our works are finally abandoned. The object is the release of the soul from its bondage to appearances and to the reaction of phenomenal activities. Karmayoga is used, like the other paths, to lead to liberation from phenomenal existence and a departure into the Supreme. But here too the exclusive result is not inevitable. The end of the path may be, equally, a perception of the Divine in all energies, in all happenings, in all activities, and a free and unegoistic participation of the soul in the cosmic action. So followed it will lead to the elevation of all human will and activity to the divine level, its spiritualisation and the justification of the cosmic labour towards freedom, power and perfection in the human being.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 23-24, Page: 39-40
kayasiddhi ::: perfection of the body (same as sarirasiddhi). kayasiddhi
kayasiddhi ::: [perfection (siddhi) of the body].
Kr.s.n.abhava (Krishnabhava) ::: oneness of the individual soul (jiva)Krsnabhava with Kr.s.n.a as the isvara or universal purus.a, a state which "comes by the increasing manifestation of the Divine, the Ishwara in all our being and action", reaching its perfection "when we are constantly and uninterruptedly aware of him . . . as the possessor of our being and above us as the ruler of all its workings and they become to us nothing but a manifestation of him in the existence of the Jiva"; a state of perception (bhava) of brahmadarsana in which Kr.s.n.a is seen everywhere.
Ladder of Life ::: A term frequently found in theosophical literature, briefly and neatly expressing the ascending grades orstages of manifested existences in the universe. In one sense the term ladder of life is interchangeablewith the other terms, the Hermetic Chain or the Golden Chain.The universe is imbodied consciousnesses; and these imbodied consciousnesses exist in a practicallyinfinite gradation of varying degrees of perfection -- a real ladder of life, or stair of life, stretchingendlessly in either direction, for our imagination can conceive of no limits except a hierarchical one; andsuch hierarchical limitation is but spacial and not actual, qualitative and formal. This ladder of life ismarked at certain intervals by landing places, so to say, which are what theosophists call the differentplanes of being -- the different spheres of consciousness, to put the thought in another manner.
::: "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
lipikausalya (lipikaushalya; lipi-kaushalya; lipi kaushalya) ::: skilfullipikausalya ness or formal perfection of lipi, consisting especially of the varied use of akashic material. lipi-trik lipi-trikaladrsti
Mahakali Mahasarasvati tapas (Mahakali Mahasaraswati tapas) —Mahakali the force of Mahakali-Mahasarasvati, a reconciliation of active and passive tapas in which the swiftness of Mahakali is one with the perfection of Mahasarasvati.Mah Mahakali akali pravr pravrtti
Mahasarasvati bhava (Mahasaraswati bhava) ::: the MahasarasvatiMahasarasvati aspect of devibhava; the temperament of Mahasarasvati, the personality of the sakti or devi who "is equipped with her close and profound capacity of intimate knowledge and careful flawless work and quiet and exact perfection in all things".Mah Mahasarasvati-Mahakali
Mahasarasvati (Mahasaraswati) ::: the goddess of divine skill and of the works of the Spirit; the Mother's Power of Work and her spirit of perfection and order; one of the four leading Powers and Personalities of the Mother.
majolica ::: n. --> A kind of pottery, with opaque glazing and showy, which reached its greatest perfection in Italy in the 16th century.
"Man is a transitional being, he is not final. He is too imperfect for that, too imperfect in capacity for knowledge, too imperfect in will and action, too imperfect in his turn towards joy and beauty, too imperfect in his will for freedom and his instinct for order. Even if he could perfect himself in his own type, his type is too low and small to satisfy the need of the universe. Something larger, higher, more capable of a rich all embracing universality is needed, a greater being, a greater consciousness summing up in itself all that the world set out to be. He has, as was pointed out by a half blind seer, to exceed himself; man must evolve out of himself the divine superman: he was born for transcendence. Humanity is not enough, it is only a strong stepping stone; the need of the world is a superhuman perfection of what the world can be, the goal of consciousness is divinity. The inmost need of man is not to perfect his humanity, but to be greater than himself, to be more than man, to be divine, even to be the Divine.” Essays Divine and Human
“Man is a transitional being, he is not final. He is too imperfect for that, too imperfect in capacity for knowledge, too imperfect in will and action, too imperfect in his turn towards joy and beauty, too imperfect in his will for freedom and his instinct for order. Even if he could perfect himself in his own type, his type is too low and small to satisfy the need of the universe. Something larger, higher, more capable of a rich all embracing universality is needed, a greater being, a greater consciousness summing up in itself all that the world set out to be. He has, as was pointed out by a half blind seer, to exceed himself; man must evolve out of himself the divine superman: he was born for transcendence. Humanity is not enough, it is only a strong stepping stone; the need of the world is a superhuman perfection of what the world can be, the goal of consciousness is divinity. The inmost need of man is not to perfect his humanity, but to be greater than himself, to be more than man, to be divine, even to be the Divine.” Essays Divine and Human
mantra&
Market imperfection - Any factor which hinders the free operation of markets, such as where one firm dominates resulting in exploitation.
Mars A legendary tragic failure, the archetypal Hacker Dream Gone Wrong. Mars was the code name for a family of PDP-10 compatible computers built by Systems Concepts (now, The SC Group): the multi-processor SC-30M, the small uniprocessor SC-25M, and the never-built superprocessor SC-40M. These machines were marvels of engineering design; although not much slower than the unique {Foonly} F-1, they were physically smaller and consumed less power than the much slower DEC KS10 or Foonly F-2, F-3, or F-4 machines. They were also completely compatible with the DEC KL10, and ran all KL10 binaries (including the operating system) with no modifications at about 2--3 times faster than a KL10. When DEC cancelled the Jupiter project in 1983, Systems Concepts should have made a bundle selling their machine into shops with a lot of software investment in PDP-10s, and in fact their spring 1984 announcement generated a great deal of excitement in the PDP-10 world. {TOPS-10} was running on the Mars by the summer of 1984, and {TOPS-20} by early fall. Unfortunately, the hackers running Systems Concepts were much better at designing machines than at mass producing or selling them; the company allowed itself to be sidetracked by a bout of perfectionism into continually improving the design, and lost credibility as delivery dates continued to slip. They also overpriced the product ridiculously; they believed they were competing with the KL10 and VAX 8600 and failed to reckon with the likes of Sun Microsystems and other hungry startups building workstations with power comparable to the KL10 at a fraction of the price. By the time SC shipped the first SC-30M to Stanford in late 1985, most customers had already made the traumatic decision to abandon the PDP-10, usually for VMS or Unix boxes. Most of the Mars computers built ended up being purchased by {CompuServe}. This tale and the related saga of {Foonly} hold a lesson for hackers: if you want to play in the {Real World}, you need to learn Real World moves. [{Jargon File}]
Matter: That the defining characteristic of which is extension, occupancy of space, mass, weight, motion, movability, inertia, resistance, impenetrability, attraction and repulsion, or their combinations; these characteristics or powers themselves; the extra-mental cause of sense experience; what composes the "sensible world"; the manipulate; the permanent (or relatively so); the public (accessible to more than one knower, non-pn'vate); the physical or non-mental; the physical, bodily, or non-spiritual; the relatively worthless or base; the inanimate; the worldly or natural (non-supernatural); the wholly or relatively indeterminate; potentiality for receiving form or what has that potentiality; that which in union with form constitutes an individual; differentiating content as against form; the particular as against the universal; the manifold of sensation; the given element in experience as against that supplied by mind; that of which something consists; that from which a thing develops or is made; the first existent or primordial stuff; what is under consideration. Philosophers conceive matter as appearance or privation of reality, as one or the only reality; as the principle of imperfection and limitation, as potentially or sometimes good; as substance, process, or content; as points, atoms, substrata, or other media endowed with powers mentioned above. -- M.T.K.
Maya(Sanskrit) ::: The word comes from the root ma, meaning "to measure," and by a figure of speech it alsocomes to mean "to effect," "to form," and hence "to limit." There is an English word mete, meaning "tomeasure out," from the same IndoEuropean root. It is found in the Anglo-Saxon as the root met, in theGreek as med, and it is found in the Latin also in the same form.Ages ago in the wonderful Brahmanical philosophy maya was understood very differently from what it isnow usually understood to be. As a technical term, maya has come to mean the fabrication by man's mindof ideas derived from interior and exterior impressions, hence the illusory aspect of man's thoughts as heconsiders and tries to interpret and understand life and his surroundings; and thence was derived thesense which it technically bears, "illusion." It does not mean that the exterior world is nonexistent; if itwere, it obviously could not be illusory. It exists, but is not. It is "measured out" or is "limited," or itstands out to the human spirit as a mirage. In other words, we do not see clearly and plainly and in theirreality the vision and the visions which our mind and senses present to the inner life and eye.The familiar illustrations of maya in the Vedanta, which is the highest form that the Brahmanicalteachings have taken and which is so near to our own teaching in many respects, were such as follows: Aman at eventide sees a coiled rope on the ground, and springs aside, thinking it a serpent. The rope isthere, but no serpent. The second illustration is what is called the "horns of the hare." The animal calledthe hare has no horns, but when it also is seen at eventide, its long ears seem to project from its head insuch fashion that it appears even to the seeing eye as being a creature with horns. The hare has no horns,but there is then in the mind an illusory belief that an animal with horns exists there.That is what maya means: not that a thing seen does not exist, but that we are blinded and our mindperverted by our own thoughts and our own imperfections, and do not as yet arrive at the realinterpretation and meaning of the world or of the universe around us. By ascending inwardly, by risingup, by inner aspiration, by an elevation of soul, we can reach upwards or rather inwards towards thatplane where truth abides in fullness.H. P. Blavatsky says on page 631 of the first volume of The Secret Doctrine:Esoteric philosophy, teaching an objective Idealism -- though it regards the objectiveUniverse and all in it as Maya, temporary illusion -- draws a practical distinction betweencollective illusion, Mahamaya, from the purely metaphysical standpoint, and the objectiverelations in it between various conscious Egos so long as this illusion lasts.The teaching is that maya is thus called from the action of mulaprakriti or root-nature, the coordinateprinciple of that other line of coactive consciousness which we call parabrahman. From the momentwhen manifestation begins, it acts dualistically, that is to say that everything in nature from that pointonwards is crossed by pairs of opposites, such as long and short, high and low, night and day, good andevil, consciousness and nonconsciousness, etc., and that all these things are essentially mayic or illusory-- real while they last, but the lasting is not eternal. It is through and by these pairs of opposites that theself-conscious soul learns truth. It might be said, in conclusion, that another and very convenient way ofconsidering maya is to understand it to mean "limitation," "restriction," and therefore imperfect cognitionand recognition of reality. The imperfect mind does not see perfect truth. It labors under an illusioncorresponding with its own imperfections, under a maya, a limitation. Magical practices are frequentlycalled maya in the ancient Hindu books.
MENTAL LIFE BETWEEN INCARNATIONS Upon the dissolution of the emotional envelope, the individual in his mental envelope leads a life of thought that is absolutely subjective, not suspecting the impossibility of apprehending objective reality in this world. But apprehension of reality, bliss, and perfection, omniscience and omnipotence are absolute.
The independent life of the mental envelope can vary from a minute or so (in the case of the barbarian) to thousands of years. It all depends on the number of ideas the individual has collected during physical life and how vital they are. K 1.34.32f
It is significant that it is precisely those who have had a long sojourn in the mental world in between incarnations who are easy prey to the philosophy of illusion
(which says that all matter is illusion). K 5.33.16
Messiah ::: ("anointed one"). Ancient priests and kings (and sometimes prophets) of Israel were anointed with oil. In early Judaism, the term came to mean a royal descendant of the dynasty of David who would restore the united kingdom of Israel and Judah and usher in an age of peace, justice and plenty; the redeemer figure. The concept developed in many directions over the centuries. The messianic age was believed by some Jews to be a time of perfection of human institutions; others believed it to be a time of radical new beginnings, a new heaven and earth, after divine judgment and destruction. The title came to be applied to Jesus/Joshua of Nazareth by his followers, who were soon called "Christians" in Greek and Latin usage. Jesus is also “Messiah” in Islam (e.g., Quran 3.45).
Millenarian ::: From the Latin for "1000" (see also chiliastic). Having to do with the expected millennium, or thousand-year reign of Christ prophesied in the New Testament book of Revelation (“the Apocalypse”), a time in which the world would be brought to perfection. Millenarian movements often grow up around predictions that this perfect time is about to begin. See eschatology.
MINERAL KINGDOM The first or lowest natural kingdom of evolution.
In the mineral kingdom the monad consciousness begins to be activated. In the lowest physical molecular kind (49:7) the monads learn to distinguish differences in temperature and pressure. It is in this kingdom that the vibrations become violent enough for a first apprehension of inner and outer. And thus begins that process of objectivization of consciousness which reaches its perfection in the animal kingdom. The monads gradually learn to apprehend external realities.
Consciousness in the mineral kingdom is gradually manifested as a tendency to repetition, after innumerable experiences becoming organized habit, or nature. Increased consciousness results in instinctive striving to adaptation.
By being absorbed by plants and experiencing the process of vitalization in these, mineral consciousness learns to receive and adapt itself to etheric vibrations... a condition of entering into the vegetable kingdom. K 1.33.2,5f
Modern Period. In the 17th century the move towards scientific materialism was tempered by a general reliance on Christian or liberal theism (Galileo, Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Gassendi, Toland, Hartley, Priestley, Boyle, Newton). The principle of gravitation was regarded by Newton, Boyle, and others, as an indication of the incompleteness of the mechanistic and materialistic account of the World, and as a direct proof of the existence of God. For Newton Space was the "divine sensorium". The road to pure modern idealism was laid by the epistemological idealism (epistemological subjectivism) of Campanella and Descartes. The theoretical basis of Descartes' system was God, upon whose moral perfection reliance must be placed ("God will not deceive us") to insure the reality of the physical world. Spinoza's impersonalistic pantheism is idealistic to the extent that space or extension (with modes of Body and Motion) is merely one of the infinity of attributes of Being. Leibniz founded pure modern idealism by his doctrine of the immateriality and self-active character of metaphysical individual substances (monads, souls), whose source and ground is God. Locke, a theist, gave chief impetus to the modern theory of the purely subjective character of ideas. The founder of pure objective idealism in Europe was Berkeley, who shares with Leibniz the creation of European immaterialism. According to him perception is due to the direct action of God on finite persons or souls. Nature consists of (a) the totality of percepts and their order, (b) the activity and thought of God. Hume later an implicit Naturalist, earlier subscribed ambiguously to pure idealistic phenomenalism or scepticism. Kant's epistemological, logical idealism (Transcendental or Critical Idealism) inspired the systems of pure speculative idealism of the 19th century. Knowledge, he held, is essentially logical and relational, a product of the synthetic activity of the logical self-consciousness. He also taught the ideality of space and time. Theism, logically undemonstrable, remains the choice of pure speculative reason, although beyond the province of science. It is also a practical implication of the moral life. In the Critique of Judgment Kant, marshalled facts from natural beauty and the apparent teleological character of the physical and biological world, to leave a stronger hint in favor of the theistic hypothesis. His suggestion thit reality, as well as Mind, is organic in character is reflected in the idealistic pantheisms of his followers: Fichte (abstract personalism or "Subjective Idealism"), Schellmg (aesthetic idealism, theism, "Objective Idealism"), Hegel (Absolute or logical Idealism), Schopenhauer (voluntaristic idealism), Schleiermacher (spiritual pantheism), Lotze ("Teleological Idealism"). 19th century French thought was grounder in the psychological idealism of Condillac and the voluntaristic personalism of Biran. Throughout the century it was essentially "spiritualistic" or personalistic (Cousin, Renouvier, Ravaisson, Boutroux, Lachelier, Bergson). British thought after Hume was largely theistic (A. Smith, Paley, J. S. Mill, Reid, Hamilton). In the latter 19th century, inspired largely by Kant and his metaphysical followers, it leaned heavily towards semi-monistic personalism (E. Caird, Green, Webb, Pringle-Pattison) or impersonalistic monism (Bradley, Bosanquet). Recently a more pluralistic personalism has developed (F. C. S. Schiller, A. E. Taylor, McTaggart, Ward, Sorley). Recent American idealism is represented by McCosh, Howison, Bowne, Royce, Wm. James (before 1904), Baldwin. German idealists of the past century include Fechner, Krause, von Hartmann, H. Cohen, Natorp, Windelband, Rickert, Dilthey, Brentano, Eucken. In Italy idealism is represented by Croce and Gentile, in Spain, by Unamuno and Ortega e Gasset; in Russia, by Lossky, in Sweden, by Boström; in Argentina, by Aznar. (For other representatives of recent or contemporary personalism, see Personalism.) -- W.L.
Mortal mind: In Christian Science, “that self-contradictory consciousness with which the individual mortal man identifies himself, unless by education and religious craving for metaphysical completeness he recognizes its fallacious character. It has a certain resemblance to Maya (q.v.). Christian Science explains that mortal mind consciousness is an erroneous point of view, and asserts that all imperfection, evil, physical objectivity seen as matter, are misrepresentations of a metaphysically perfect universe. Mortal mind stands in opposition to the ethical nature of the metaphysical universe.” (H. W. Steiger.)
Mother, four of her leading Powers and Personalities have stood in front in her guidance of this Universe and in her dealings with the terrestrial play. One is her personality of calm wideness and comprehending wisdom and tranquil benignity and inexhaustible compassion and sovereign and surpassing majesty and all-ruling greatness. Another embo&es her power of splendid strength and irresistible passion, her warrior mood, her overwhelming will, her impetuous swiftness and world-shaking force. A third is vivid and sweet and wonderful with her deep secret of beauty and harmony and fine rhythm, her intricate and subtle opulence, her compelling attraction and captivating grace. The fourth is equipped with her close and profound capacity of intimate knowledge and careful flawless work and quiet and exact per- fection in all things. Wisdom, Strength, Harmony, Perfection are their several attributes and it Is these powers that they bring with them into the world. To the four we give the four great names, Maheshvari, Mahakali, Mabalakshmi, Mahasarasvati.
Much of this Medieval usage is carried over and expanded in modern philosophy. Absolute and Absolutely signify perfection, completeness, universality, non-relativity, exemption from limitation or qualification, unconditionality; hence also the ineffable, unthinkable, indeterminable; strictly, literally, without reservation, not symbolically or metaphorically. E.g. "Absolute truth," "absolute space," "absolute Ego," "absolutely unconditioned," "absolutely true." -- W.L.
n. 1. A conception of something in its absolute perfection. adj. **2. One that is regarded as a standard or model of perfection or excellence. Ideal, ideal"s, Ideal"s, ideals.
Nature and kept within the narrow bounds of her normal ope- rations. Id the ancient tradition of Hatha Yoga it has always been supposed that this conquest could be pushed so far even as to conquer to a great extent the force of gravitation. By various subsidiary but elaborate processes the Hatha Yogin next contrives to keep the body free from all impurities and the ner- vous system unclogged for those exercises of respiration which are his most important instruments. These are called prana- yama, the control of the breath or vital power ; for breathing is the chief physical functioning of the vital forces. Prdnayaina, for the Hatha Yogin, serves a double purpose. First, it completes the perfection of the body. The vitality is liberated from many of the ordinary necessities of physical Nature ; robust health, prolonged youth, often an extraordinary longevity arc attained.
Nature ::: The consciousness side of nature is composed of vast hierarchies of gods, developed cosmical spirits,spiritual entities, cosmic graduates in the university of life. The material side of nature is theheterogeneous matter, the material world in its many various planes, in all stages of imperfection -- butall these stages filled with armies of entities evolving and growing. The proper term for nature in moderntheosophical usage is prakriti or still more accurately mulaprakriti -- the ever-living kosmic producer, theeternally fecund mother, of the universe. When a theosophist speaks of nature, unless he limits the termto the physical world, he never means the physical world alone, but the vast reaches of universal kosmosand more particularly the inner realms, the causal factors of the boundless All. Hence, a growingunderstanding of nature in this sense -- which is another way of saying an understanding of reality -obviously provides the only basis of a religion founded on the changeless realities.
Nirvana: In the Oriental philosophical doctrines, the absolute and final extinction of individuality, without loss of consciousness. In occult and esoteric philosophical terminology, the ultimate absolute existence and consciousness attained by the Ego of one who in his life achieved supreme perfection and holiness. It is defined as a condition in which all pain, suffering, mental anguish and, above all, samsara (q.v.) have ceased.
Nirvana(Sanskrit) ::: This is a compound: nir, "out," and vana, the past participle passive of the root va, "to blow,"literallly meaning "blown out." So badly has the significance of the ancient Indian thought (and even its language, the Sanskrit) been understood, that for many years erudite European scholars were discussingwhether being "blown out" meant actual entitative annihilation or not. But the being blown out refersonly to the lower principles in man.Nirvana is a very different thing from the "heavens." Nirvana is a state of utter bliss and complete,untrammeled consciousness, a state of absorption in pure kosmic Being, and is the wondrous destiny ofthose who have reached superhuman knowledge and purity and spiritual illumination. It really ispersonal-individual absorption into or rather identification with the Self -- the highest SELF. It is also thestate of the monadic entities in the period that intervenes between minor manvantaras or rounds of aplanetary chain; and more fully so between each seven-round period or Day of Brahma, and thesucceeding day or new kalpa of a planetary chain. At these last times, starting forth from the seventhsphere in the seventh round, the monadic entities will have progressed far beyond even the highest stateof devachan. Too pure and too far advanced even for such a condition as the devachanic felicity, they goto their appropriate sphere and condition, which latter is the nirvana following the end of the seventhround.Devachan and nirvana are not localities. They are states, states of the beings in those respective spiritualconditions. Devachan is the intermediate state; nirvana is the superspiritual state; and avichi, popularlycalled the lowest of the hells, is the nether pole of the spiritual condition. These three are states of beingshaving habitat in the lokas or talas, in the worlds of the kosmic egg.So far as the individual human being is concerned, the nirvanic state or condition may be attained to bygreat spiritual seers and sages, such as Gautama the Buddha, and even by men less progressed than he;because in these cases of the attaining of the nirvana even during a man's life on earth, the meaning isthat one so attaining has through evolution progressed so far along the path that all the lower personalpart of him is become thoroughly impersonalized, the personal has put on the garment of impersonality,and such a man thereafter lives in the nirvanic condition of the spiritual monad.As a concluding thought, it must be pointed out that nirvana, while the ultima thule of the perfection tobe attained by any human being, nevertheless stands less high in the estimate of mystics than thecondition of the bodhisattva. For the bodhisattva, although standing on the threshold of nirvana andseeing and understanding its ineffable glory and peace and rest, nevertheless retains his consciousness inthe worlds of men, in order to consecrate his vast faculties and powers to the service of all that is. Thebuddhas in their higher parts enter the nirvana, in other words, assume the dharmakaya state or vesture,whereas the bodhisattva assumes the nirmanakaya vesture, thereafter to become an ever-active andcompassionate and beneficent influence in the world. The buddha indeed may be said to act indirectlyand by long distance control, thus indeed helping the world diffusively or by diffusion; but thebodhisattva acts directly and positively and with a directing will in works of compassion, both for theworld and for individuals.
“Nirvana, while the Ultima Thule of the perfection to be attained by any human being, nevertheless stands less high in the estimate of mystics than the condition of the Bodhisattva. For the Bodhisattva, although standing on the threshold of Nirvana and seeing and understanding its ineffable glory and peace and rest, nevertheless retains his consciousness in the worlds of men, in order to consecrate his vast faculties and powers to the service of all that is. The Buddhas in their higher parts enter the Nirvana, in other words, assume the Dharmakaya-state or vesture, whereas the Bodhisattva assumes the Nirmanakaya-vesture, thereafter to become an ever-active and compassionate and beneficent influence in the world. The Buddha indeed may be said to act indirectly and by ‘long distance control,’ thus indeed helping the world diffusively or by diffusion; but the Bodhisattva acts directly and positively and with a directing will in works of compassion, both for the world and for individuals” (OG 116-17).
ṅkara-mukti-siddhi ::: the perfection of release from the ego (ahaṅkara), part of the mukti or liberation of the nature: "the transformation of the limited ego into a conscious centre of the divine unity and freedom" (caitanyakendra) through "an uncompromising abolition of the ego-sense at its very basis and source", leaving only an "individualisation for the purposes of the play of universal consciousness in an individual mind and frame".
Note that a tamasic surrender tefusit^ to fulfil the conditions and calling on God to do everything and save one all the trouble and struggle is a deception and does not lead to freedom and perfection.
Of the reasoned reason (rationis ratiocinatae): A distinction in which our mind conceives as distinct things that are not really distinct, when there is some foundation in reality for making such a distinction, e.g. perfections of God.
Once our minds are reasonably fixed in the central vision and our wills are on the whole converted to the single pursuit, Life becomes our helper. Intent, vi^lant, integrally conscious, iwe can take every detail of its forms and every incident of its move- ments as food for the sacrificial Fire within us. Victorious in the struggle, we can compel Earth herself to be an aid towards our perfection and can enrich our realisation with the booty torn from the powers that oppose us. ; , ,
". . . One Being and Consciousness is involved here in Matter. Evolution is the method by which it liberates itself; consciousness appears in what seems to be inconscient, and once having appeared is self-impelled to grow higher and higher and at the same time to enlarge and develop towards a greater and greater perfection. Life is the first step of this release of consciousness; mind is the second; but the evolution does not finish with mind, it awaits a release into something greater, a consciousness which is spiritual and supramental. The next step of the evolution must be towards the development of Supermind and Spirit as the dominant power in the conscious being. For only then will the involved Divinity in things release itself entirely and it become possible for life to manifest perfection.” On Himself
“… One Being and Consciousness is involved here in Matter. Evolution is the method by which it liberates itself; consciousness appears in what seems to be inconscient, and once having appeared is self-impelled to grow higher and higher and at the same time to enlarge and develop towards a greater and greater perfection. Life is the first step of this release of consciousness; mind is the second; but the evolution does not finish with mind, it awaits a release into something greater, a consciousness which is spiritual and supramental. The next step of the evolution must be towards the development of Supermind and Spirit as the dominant power in the conscious being. For only then will the involved Divinity in things release itself entirely and it become possible for life to manifest perfection.” On Himself
Order and organisation in work ::: Orderly harmony and orga- nisation In physical things is a necessary part of efficiency and perfection and make the instrument fit for whatever work is given to it.
Orderly harmony and organisation in physical things is a necessary part of efTicicncy and perfection and makes the instru- ment fit for whatever work is given to it.
Ordinary life and yoga ::: In the ordinary life a personal, social or traditional constructed rule, standard or ideal is the guide ; once the spiritual journey has begun, this must be replac- ed by an inner and outer rule or way of living necessary for our self-discipline, liberation and perfection, a way of living proper to the path we follow or enjoined by the spiritual guide and master, the Guru or else dictated by a Guide within us.
ordure ::: n. --> Dung; excrement; faeces.
Defect; imperfection; fault.
"Our sins are the misdirected steps of a seeking Power that aims, not at sin, but at perfection, at something that we might call a divine virtue. Often they are the veils of a quality that has to be transformed and delivered out of this ugly disguise: otherwise, in the perfect providence of things, they would not have been suffered to exist or to continue. The Master of our works is neither a blunderer nor an indifferent witness nor a dallier with the luxury of unneeded evils. He is wiser than our reason and wiser than our virtue.” The Synthesis of Yoga
“Our sins are the misdirected steps of a seeking Power that aims, not at sin, but at perfection, at something that we might call a divine virtue. Often they are the veils of a quality that has to be transformed and delivered out of this ugly disguise: otherwise, in the perfect providence of things, they would not have been suffered to exist or to continue. The Master of our works is neither a blunderer nor an indifferent witness nor a dallier with the luxury of unneeded evils. He is wiser than our reason and wiser than our virtue.” The Synthesis of Yoga
::: "Out of imperfection we have to construct perfection, out of limitation to discover infinity, out of death to find immortality, out of grief to recover divine bliss, out of ignorance to rescue divine self-knowledge, out of matter to reveal Spirit. To work out this end for ourselves and for humanity is the object of our Yogic practice.” *Essays Divine and Human
“Out of imperfection we have to construct perfection, out of limitation to discover infinity, out of death to find immortality, out of grief to recover divine bliss, out of ignorance to rescue divine self-knowledge, out of matter to reveal Spirit. To work out this end for ourselves and for humanity is the object of our Yogic practice.” Essays Divine and Human
“Pali is not a ‘washed-out Sanskrit.’ Sanskrit was rather a mystery-language which was ‘composed’ or ‘builded up’ to perfection by initiates of the Sanctuaries; and because it was thus constructed into an almost perfect expression of human thought, at least for that day, it was called samskrita, which means ‘composed,’ ‘constructed.’ Thus Pali is not a true child of Sanskrit, but is and was the literary form of one of the ancient languages of India popularly spoken over an apparently wide stretch of the Indian Peninsula, . . .” (SOPh 694-5).
paragon ::: n. --> A companion; a match; an equal.
Emulation; rivalry; competition.
A model or pattern; a pattern of excellence or perfection; as, a paragon of beauty or eloquence.
A size of type between great primer and double pica. See the Note under Type. ::: v. t.
Paramita (Sanskrit) Pāramitā [from pāram beyond + ita gone from the verbal root i to go] Gone or crossed to the other shore; derivatively, virtue or perfection. The paramitas vary in number according to the Buddhist school: some quoting six, others seven or ten; but they are the glorious or transcendental virtues — the keys to the portals of jnana (wisdom). Blavatsky gives these seven keys as (VS 47-8): 1) dana “the key of charity and love immortal”; 2) sila (good character), “the key of Harmony in word and act, the key that counterbalances the cause and the effect, and leaves no further room for Karmic action”; 3) kshanti, “patience sweet, that nought can ruffle”; 4) viraga, “indifference to pleasure and to pain, illusion conquered, truth alone perceived”; 5) virya (strength, power), “the dauntless energy that fights its way to the supernal TRUTH, out of the mire of lies terrestrial”; 6) dhyana (profound spiritual-intellectual contemplation, with utter detachment from all objects of sense and of a lower mental character), human consciousness in the higher reaches of this state becomes purely buddhic, with the summit of the manas acting as vehicle for the retention of what the percipient consciousness experiences; once the golden gate of dhyana is opened, the pathway stretching thence leads towards the realm of “Sat eternal”; and 7) prajna (understanding, wisdom), that part of the mind that functions when active as the vehicle of the higher self; “the key to which makes of man a god, creating him a Bodhisattva, son of the Dhyanis.”
param siddhim ::: [to the] supreme perfection. [Gita 14.1]
Paranishpanna, Parinishpanna (Sanskrit) Paraniṣpanna, Pariniṣpanna [from para or pari + niṣpanna finished, completed from nis + the verbal root pad to come forth, ripen, accomplish] The state of having gone forwards beyond; philosophically, the absolute perfection to which all existences attain at the close of a great period of activity (mahamanvantara). It is identical in meaning with paranirvana, and corresponds to the Tibetan yond-grub.
perfectibilian ::: n. --> A perfectionist.
perfectibilist ::: n. --> A perfectionist. See also Illuminati, 2.
Perfection in the sense in which we use it in Yoga, means a growth out of a lower undivine into a higher divine nature. In terms of knowledge it is a putting on the being of the higher self and a casting away of the darker broken lower self or a transforming of our imperfect state into the rounded luminous fullness of our real and spiritual personality. In terms of devotion and adoration it is a growing into a likeness of the nature or the law of the being of the Divine, to be united with whom we aspire.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 23-24, Page: 698
"Perfection is eternal; it is only the resistance of the world that makes it progressive.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
“Perfection is eternal; it is only the resistance of the world that makes it progressive.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
Perfectionism: The ethical theory that perfection, our own or that of others or both, is the end at which we ought to aim, where perfection involves virtue chiefly and sometimes also the cultivation of one's talents or endowments. -- W.K.F.
Perfection, Perfectibility Absolute perfection is applicable, not to infinity, but to the Absolute of a universe, and theosophy teaches that all existences are tending through ever-growing evolutionary stages towards the relative perfection which all reach at the close of a manvantara; a state called paranishpanna in Sanskrit and yong-grub in Tibetan. Paranirvana is described as a state of perfect rest insofar as activity in the lower manifested realms of a universe is concerned, but not perfect spiritual inactivity — entirely to the contrary. In a larger view comprehending a galaxy of universes, or a super-galaxy of galaxies, any notion that human intelligence can entertain of perfection is relative, for we cannot assign ends to evolutionary progress, growth, or expansion.
Perfection (Siddhi) ::: "Not by abstention from works does a man enjoy actionlessness, nor by mere renunciation (of works) does he attain to his perfection,"—to siddhi, the accomplishment of the aims of his self-discipline by Yoga.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 19, Page: 106
perfective ::: a. --> Tending or conducing to make perfect, or to bring to perfection; -- usually followed by of.
perfectly ::: adv. --> In a perfect manner or degree; in or to perfection; completely; wholly; throughly; faultlessly.
perfectness ::: n. --> The quality or state of being perfect; perfection.
Pleasure and pain: In philosophy these terms appear mostly in ethical discussions, where they have each two meanings not always clearly distinguished. "Pleasure" is used sometimes to refer to a certain hedonic quality of experiences, viz. pleasantness, and sometimes as a name for experiences which have that quality (here "pleasures" are "pleasant experiences" and "pleasure" is the entire class of such experiences). Mutatis mutandis, the same is true of "pain". Philosophers have given various accounts of the nature of pleasure and pain. E.g., Aristotle says that pleasure is a perfection supervening on ccrtain activities, pain the opposite. Spinoza defines pleasure as the feeling with which one passes from a lesser state of perfection to a greater, pain is the feeling with which one makes the reverse transition. Again, philosophers have raised various questions about pleasure and pain. Can they be identified with good and evil? Are our actions always determined by our own pleasure and pain actual or prospective? Can pleasures and pains be distinguished quantitatively, qualitatively? See Bentham, Epicureanism. -- W.K.F.
Power, Ananda, Peace, Knowledge, infinite Wideness and that must be possessed and descend into the whole being. Otherwise one can get multi but not perfection or transformation (except a relative psycho-spiritual change).
praise ::: v. --> To commend; to applaud; to express approbation of; to laud; -- applied to a person or his acts.
To extol in words or song; to magnify; to glorify on account of perfections or excellent works; to do honor to; to display the excellence of; -- applied especially to the Divine Being.
To value; to appraise.
Commendation for worth; approval expressed; honor rendered because of excellence or worth; laudation; approbation.
pranasakti (Prana Shakti) ::: 1. [life-energy]. ::: 2. [the full power (and perfection) of the life-force]. ::: pranasaktih [nominative]
progressionist ::: n. --> One who holds to a belief in the progression of society toward perfection.
One who maintains the doctrine of progression in organic forms; -- opposed to uniformitarian.
purify ::: v. t. --> To make pure or clear from material defilement, admixture, or imperfection; to free from extraneous or noxious matter; as, to purify liquors or metals; to purify the blood; to purify the air.
Hence, in figurative uses: (a) To free from guilt or moral defilement; as, to purify the heart.
To free from ceremonial or legal defilement.
To free from improprieties or barbarisms; as, to purify
purna yogin ::: [one who practises purna yoga], the sadhaka of the Divine Perfection.
Pythagorean philosophy regards the duad as evil, and the One as the only good; which symbolizes that manifested qualities are in pairs of opposites, so that contrast subsists not merely within the pair itself but also between the pair considered as a whole and the One which is superior to it. Since throughout nature we find such pairs of opposites, reconciled by a synthesizing unity, it follows that the words good and evil of necessity are used in a relative sense, and convey the notion of incompleteness as contrasted with an intuitively conceived perfection. We cannot suppose that things can be good or evil in themselves, except relatively, or even in their relations to other things.
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
RAJAYOGA. ::: It aims at the liberation and perfection of the mental being, the control of the emotional and sensational life, the mastery of the whole apparatus of thought and conscious- ness. It fixes its eyes on the citta, that stull of mental conscious- ness in which all these activities arise, and it seeks, even as
R.bhus (Ribhus) ::: the name of three Vedic gods or demigods, the "arRbhus tisans of Immortality"; they "are represented as human beings who have attained to the condition of godhead by power of knowledge and perfection in their works" and act as "energies of formation and upward progress who assist the gods in the divinising of man".
Reality ::: There is a Reality, a truth of all existence which is greater and more abiding than all its formations and manifestations; to find that truth and Reality and live in it, achieve the most perfect manifestation and formation possible of it, must be the secret of perfection whether of individual or communal being. This Reality is there within each thing and gives to each of its formations its power of being and value of being.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 21-22, Page: 489
renew ::: v. t. --> To make new again; to restore to freshness, perfection, or vigor; to give new life to; to rejuvenate; to re/stablish; to recreate; to rebuild.
Specifically, to substitute for (an old obligation or right) a new one of the same nature; to continue in force; to make again; as, to renew a lease, note, or patent.
To begin again; to recommence.
To repeat; to go over again.
rhathumia [Greek] ::: easy-going temper; a characteristic of Mahasarasvati: "the leaving things to take care of themselves instead of insisting by the ideal tapas upon perfection".
Riddhi (Sanskrit) Ṛddhi [from the verbal root ṛdh to increase, prosper] Increase, growth, good fortune, prosperity; also accomplishment, perfection, supernatural power.
ripeness ::: n. --> The state or quality of being ripe; maturity;; completeness; perfection; as, the ripeness of grain; ripeness of manhood; ripeness of judgment.
ripe ::: n. --> The bank of a river. ::: superl. --> Ready for reaping or gathering; having attained perfection; mature; -- said of fruits, seeds, etc.; as, ripe grain.
Advanced to the state of fitness for use; mellow; as, ripe cheese; ripe wine.
ripen ::: v. i. --> To grow ripe; to become mature, as grain, fruit, flowers, and the like; as, grapes ripen in the sun.
To approach or come to perfection. ::: v. t. --> To cause to mature; to make ripe; as, the warm days ripened the corn.
rishi ("s) ::: Sri Aurobindo: "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.” *Social and Political Thought
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
sadhana ::: the practice of yoga; the practice by which perfection (siddhi) is attained; spiritual self-training and exercise.
samsiddhi ::: absolute spiritual perfection. ::: samsiddhim [accusative]
samsiddhicatustaya (Samsiddhichatushtaya) ::: [the catustaya of absolute perfection]. ::: samsiddhicatustayam [nominative]
Samyak-Sambuddha (Sanskrit) Samyaksambuddha [from samyak, perfect + the verbal root budh to awaken with the prefix sam meaning excellence] One who is “fully awakened” and hence a “teacher of perfection.” One of the titles of excellence and reverence given to Gautama the Buddha.
satyayuga (satyayuga; satya yuga) ::: the "Age of Truth" or Golden Age; "a period of the world in which a harmony, stable and sufficient, is created and man realises for a time, under certain conditions and limitations, the perfection of his being", the first age in a caturyuga, whose master-spirit is the brahman.a.
saundarya (saundarya; saundaryam) ::: beauty; physical beauty as part of the perfection of the body, the third member of the sarira catus.t.aya, involving an attempt "of the psychic body to alter by mental force the physical sheath into its own image"; beauty in the world; short for . saundaryabodha.
saundaryasiddhi ::: perfection of physical beauty through "conscious action by the Will on the formed body", part of sarirasiddhi.
Seven The fundamental number of manifestation, frequently found in the different cosmogonies as well as in many religious dogmas and observances of the different ancient peoples. Although ten was called one of the perfect numbers by the Pythagoreans, seven was unique in their series of numbers because it has all the “perfection of the Unit — the number of numbers. For as absolute unity is uncreated, and impartite (hence number-less) and no number can produce it, so is the seven: no digit contained within the decade can beget or produce it” (SD 2:582). Seven is the number of the manifested universe, while ten or twelve is the number of the unmanifested universe.
Siddhas (Sanskrit) Siddha-s [from the verbal root sidh to attain] Perfected one, one who has attained relative perfection in this manvantara through self-devised efforts lasting through many imbodiments towards that end. A buddha is in this sense at times called a siddha. Generally, a hierarchy of dhyani-chohans who, according to Hindu mythology, inhabit the space between the earth and heaven (bhuvar-loka); the Vishnu-Purana states that there are 88,000 of them occupying the regions of the sky north of the sun and south of the seven rishis (the Great Bear). In later mythology they are confused with or take the place of the sadhyas, but in the Vedas the siddhas are those who are possessed from birth of superhuman powers — the eight siddhis — as also of knowledge and indifference to the world (Svetasvatara-Upanishad).
siddhi ::: 1. perfection, fulfilment, accomplishment of the aims of self-discipline by yoga. ::: 2. an extraordinary or occult power. ::: siddhih [nominative]
Siddhi ::: "Not by abstention from works does a man enjoy actionlessness, nor by mere renunciation (of works) does he attain to his perfection," — to siddhi, the accomplishment of the aims of his self-discipline by Yoga.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 19, Page: 106
Siddhi (Sanskrit) Siddhi [from the verbal root sidh to be fulfilled, perfected, attain an object] Perfect attainment, full accomplishment; philosophically, occult power or secret mystical power, “attributes of perfection’; phenomenal powers acquired through holiness by Yogis” (TG 298). Equivalent to the Pali iddhi.
siddhi ::: success; fulfilment; perfection, regarded not as a static condition, but as an automatically self-fulfilling movement of growth into a higher divine nature; accomplishment of the aims of self-discipline by yoga, the last member of the siddhi catus.t.aya; perfection of any element of the yoga; ("first siddhi", etc.) fulfilment of a particular catus.t.aya, referred to by its number in the sapta catus.t.aya; an occult power or supernormal faculty, especially any of the eight included in the as.t.asiddhi, grouped into two siddhis of knowledge, three siddhis of power and three siddhis of the body.
“Some students, in view of the sacredness of Tetraktis and the Tetragrammaton, mistake the mystic meaning of the Quaternary. The latter was with the ancients only a secondary ‘perfection,’ so to speak, because it related only to the manifested planes. Whereas it is the Triangle, the Greek delta, delta, which was the ‘vehicle of the unknown Deity’ ” (SD 2:582).
Spirituality Considering spirit and matter as contrasted aspects in the evolutionary process, as opposite poles in the kosmos, this word applied to the higher or causal aspect. The course of evolution, the monad begins as an unself-conscious god-spark and ends its evolutionary career in any one universe as a self-conscious god. The monads pass from spirit into matter, and then back again to spirit with the addition of evolved intellectual self-cognition or self-consciousness. So far as the rounds and races of our earth is concerned, the first two were characterized by direct but non-egoic spiritual qualities of consciousness, while in the third intellectuality and finally materiality began strongly to make their appearances, reaching the final evolutionary point for our planet in the fourth, when spirituality was nearly submerged by materiality. But these terms are relative, having varying meanings as applied to different planes and differing conditions of the rounds and races. Absolute spirituality or perfection in its very nature implies the loftiest type of spiritual and intellectual activity, with the relative quiescence of the enshrouding sheaths of consciousness. The distinction is to a certain degree that drawn between absolute thought or the All as opposed to the ratiocinative activity of mental action, which involves limitations and matters (SD 2:490).
"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: ". . . our imperfection is the sign of a transitional state, a growth not yet completed, an effort that is finding its way; . . . .” *The Life Divine
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: “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.” Social and Political Thought
Statement: See Meaning, Kinds of, 1. Statistics: The systematic study of quantitative facts, numerical data, comparative materials, obtained through description and interpretation of group phenomena. The method of using and interpreting processes of classification, enumeration, measurement and evaluation of group phenomena. In a restricted sense, the materials, facts or data referring to group phenomena and forming the subject of systematic computation and interpretation. The Ground of Statistics. Statistics have developed from a specialized application of the inductive principle which concludes from the characteristics of a large number of parts to those of the whole. When we make generalizations from empirical data, we are never certain of having expressed adequately the laws connecting all the relevant and efficient factors in the case under investigation. Not only have we to take into account the personal equation involved and the imperfection of our instru ments of observation and measurement, but also the complex character of physical, biological, psychological and social phenomena which cannot be subjected to an exhaustive analysis. Statistics reveals precisely definite trends and frequencies subject to approximate laws, in these various fields in which phenomena result from many independently varying factors and involve a multitude of numerical units of variable character. Statistics differs fiom probability insofar as it makes a more consistent use of empirical data objectively considered, and of methods directly inspired by the treatment of these data.
“Such is the Arya Path, Path of the Buddhas of perfection” (VS 69-70).
sukrtyaya ::: by perfection in the work. [Ved.]
Summum Bonum: (Lat. the supreme good) A term applied to an ultimate end of human conduct the worth of which is intrinsically and substantively good. It is some end that is not subordinate to anything else. Happiness, pleasure, virtue, self-realization, power, obedience to the voice of duty, to conscience, to the will of God, good will, perfection have been claimed as ultimate aims of human conduct in the history of ethical theory. Those who interpret all ethical problems in terms of a conception of good they hold to be the highest ignore all complexities of conduct, focus attention wholly upon goals towards which deeds are directed, restrict their study by constructing every good in one single pattern, center all goodness in one model and thus reduce all other types of good to their model. -- H.H.
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 Superniind sense cannot mislead or deviate into the grossnesses which are here its natural Imperfec- tions and the cause of reproach, distrust and misuse by our ignorance. Even an incomplete statement made by the Super- mind 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 false- hoods and uncertainties that are our lot ; it moves in safety towards its perfection. Once the tnith
Supermind ::: 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 th
refore 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 th
refore 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.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 13, Page: 558-62
Surrender ::: There must be a total and sincere surrender; there must be an exclusive self-opening to the divine Power; there must be a constant and integral choice of the Truth that is descending, a constant and integral rejection of the falsehood of the mental, vital and physical Powers and Appearances that still rule the earth-Nature.The surrender must be total and seize all the parts of the being. It is not enough that the psychics should respond and the higher mental accept or even the inner vital submit and the inner physical consciousness feel the influence. There must be inno part of the being, even the most external, anything that makes a reserve, anything that hides behind doubts, confusions and subterfuges, anything that revolts or
refuses.If part of the being surrenders, but another part reserves itself, follows its own way or makes its own conditions, then each time that that happens, you are yourself pushing the divine Grace away from you.If behind your devotion and surrender you make a cover for your desires, egoistic demands and vital insistences, if you put these things in place of the true aspiration or mix them with it and try to impose them on the Divine Shakti, then it is idle to invoke the divine Grace to transform you.If you open yourself on one side or in one part to the Truth and on another side are constantly opening the gates to hostile forces, it is vain to expect that the divine Grace will abide with you. You must keep the temple clean if you wish to install there the living Presence.If each time the Power intervenes and brings in the Truth, you turn your back on it and call in again the falsehood that has been expelled, it is not the divine Grace that you must blame for failing you, but the falsity of your own will and the imperfection of your own surrender.If you call for the Truth and yet something in you chooses what is false, ignorant and undivine or even simply is unwilling to reject it altogether, then always you will be open to attack and the Grace will recede from you. Detect first what is false or obscure in you and persistently reject it, then alone can you rightly call for the divine Power to transform you.Do not imagine that truth and falsehood, light and darkness, surrender and selfishness can be allowed to dwell together in the house consecrated to the Divine. The transformation must be integral, and integral th
refore the rejection of all that withstands it.The Mother
svapasyaya ::: by perfection in the work. [Ved.]
svapnasiddhi (swapnasiddhi; swapna siddhi) ::: the perfection of dream, converting it into internal vision in svapnasamadhi. svapna-sus svapna-susupti
Swabhava ::: Swabhava means one thing in the highest spiritual nature and takes quite another form and significance in the lower nature of the three gunas. There too it acts, but is not in full possession of itself, is seeking as it were for its own true law in a half light or a darkness and goes on its way through many lower forms, many false forms, endless imperfections, perversions, self-losings, self-findings, seekings after norm and rule before it arrives at self-discovery and perfection. Our nature here is amixed weft of knowledge and ignorance, of truth and falsehood, of success and failure, of right and wrong, of finding and losing, of sin and virtue.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 19, Page: 520-21
Tamiel (Tamel, Temel, Tamuel—“perfection
tantra ::: 1. a yogic system which is in its nature synthetical and starts from a great central principle of Nature, a great dynamic force of Nature: in the Vedic methods of yoga [i.e. the trimarga] the lord of the yoga is the purusa, the Conscious Soul, but in tantra it is rather prakrti, the Nature-Soul, the Energy, the Will-in-Power executive in the universe; it was by learning and applying the secrets of this Will-in-Power, its method, its tantra, that the tantrika yogin pursued the aims of his discipline-mastery, perfection, liberation, beatitude; the method of tantrika discipline is to raise Nature in man into manifest power of spirit. ::: 2. [a text of the tantrika system].
. t.aya (sansiddhi chatushtaya) ::: the quaternary of integral perfection; another name for the siddhi catus.t.aya.
. t.aya (sapta chatusthaya) ::: the seven catus.t.ayas or quater- naries, an enumeration of the elements of the yoga of self-perfection,Sri Aurobindo"s practice of which is documented in the Record of Yoga. sapta hotr hotrah
. t.aya (siddhichatusthaya; siddhi chatusthaya) ::: the seventh and last catus.t.aya, the quaternary of perfection, consisting of suddhi, mukti, bhukti and siddhi; also called the saṁsiddhi catus.t.aya or yoga catus.t.aya.
tejo balaṁ pravr.ttir mahattvam (tejo balam pravrittir mahattwam) ::: energy (tejas), strength (bala1), dynamism (pravr.tti), greatness (mahattva): the first general formula of the sakti catus.t.aya, consisting of qualities needed for the perfection of all four elements of virya.
Teleosis: Noun used in German by Ernst Haeckle (1834-1919) denoting organic improvement or perfection. -- J.J.R.
ternary ::: a. --> Proceeding by threes; consisting of three; as, the ternary number was anciently esteemed a symbol of perfection, and held in great veneration.
Containing, or consisting of, three different parts, as elements, atoms, groups, or radicals, which are regarded as having different functions or relations in the molecule; thus, sodic hydroxide, NaOH, is a ternary compound.
— the perfection of the traigun.ya or trigun.a: that part of the mukti or liberation of the nature in which, when the being has transcended the gun.as and is trigun.atita, the gun.as are transformed and unified so that "the three lower unequal modes pass into an equal triune mode"; tamas, rajas and sattva then "go back to their divine principles" in "three essential powers of the Divine", termed sama, tapas (or pravr.tti) and prakasa, "which are not merely existent in a perfect equilibrium of quietude, but unified in a perfect consensus of divine action".
The Divine, for us, is always the perfection not yet manifested, all the marvels not yet manifested, and which must keep on growing, of course.
"The end of the path may be, equally, a perception of the Divine in all energies, in all happenings, in all activities, and a free and unegoistic participation of the soul in the cosmic action. So followed it will lead to the elevation of all human will and activity to the divine level, its spiritualisation and the justification of the cosmic labour towards freedom, power and perfection in the human being.” The Synthesis of Yoga
“The end of the path may be, equally, a perception of the Divine in all energies, in all happenings, in all activities, and a free and unegoistic participation of the soul in the cosmic action. So followed it will lead to the elevation of all human will and activity to the divine level, its spiritualisation and the justification of the cosmic labour towards freedom, power and perfection in the human being.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"The first word of the supramental Yoga is surrender; its last word also is surrender. It is by a will to give oneself to the eternal Divine, for lifting into the divine consciousness, for perfection, for transformation, that the Yoga begins; it is in the entire giving that it culminates; for it is only when the self-giving is complete that there comes the finality of the Yoga, the entire taking up into the supramental Divine, the perfection of the being, the transformation of the nature.” Essays Divine and Human
“The first word of the supramental Yoga is surrender; its last word also is surrender. It is by a will to give oneself to the eternal Divine, for lifting into the divine consciousness, for perfection, for transformation, that the Yoga begins; it is in the entire giving that it culminates; for it is only when the self-giving is complete that there comes the finality of the Yoga, the entire taking up into the supramental Divine, the perfection of the being, the transformation of the nature.” Essays Divine and Human
The human body has “Manasic as well as Kamic organs,” so that the cells answer to physical, mental, and spiritual impulses. The higher ego cannot act directly on the body, as its consciousness belongs to another plane of ideation; it has to act through its alter ego — the personal self (BCW 12:368-9; or St in Oc 90-1). The inert physical body is built, cell for cell, upon the invisible substance of the astral model-body or linga-sarira. The latter contains the real organs of the senses and sensations, and it transmits the mental, emotional, and instinctual impulses to which the physical body reacts. The lower mind acts upon the physical organs and their cells; but only the higher mind can influence the atoms in these cells, and arouse the brain to a mental conception of spiritual ideas. That is to say, ideal, mental, and physiological wholeness depend upon the dominance of the atomic, spiritual impulses over the desires of the selfish kama-manasic nature. The personal nature is limited in action to the material, molecular cell. This subtle but practical interplay of his physical and superphysical nature points to the natural unity of purpose in the trend of ethics and physiology. With power to know good and evil, and free will to choose, man is responsible for refining and perfecting his material, personal nature into becoming a responsive and powerful medium for manifesting his spiritual and higher intellectual individuality. The inner man is ever acting with the cosmic evolutionary urge toward perfection of type. It is this reincarnating ego which directs the atomic life of the fertilized germ-cells in upbuilding the body according to pattern; this is the mysterious organizer which eludes all analyses of biological researchers. Likewise, the morally and intellectually irresponsible entities evolving in the lower kingdoms are impulsed, in addition to the urge of each individual entity’s monad, by the instinctual phase of the universal mind which is directed by celestial beings acting with the so-called laws of nature.
The Inconscience is an inverse reproduction of the supreme superconscience: it has the same absoluteness of being and automatic action, but in a vast involved trance; it is being lost in itself, plunged in its own abyss of infinity. Instead of a luminous absorption in self-existence there is a tenebrous involution in it, the darkness veiled within darkness of the Rig Veda, tamaasit tamasa gudham, which makes it look like Non-Existence; instead of a luminous inherent self-awareness there is a consciousness plunged into an abyss of self-oblivion, inherent in being but not awake in being. Yet is this involved consciousness still a concealed knowledge by identity; it carries in it the awareness of all the truths of existence hidden in its dark infinite and, when it acts and creates,—but it acts first as Energy and not as Consciousness,—everything is arranged with the precision and perfection of an intrinsic knowledge. In all material things reside a mute and involved Real-Idea, a substantial and self-effective intuition, an eyeless exact perception, an automatic intelligence working out its unexpressed and unthought conceptions, a blindly seeing sureness of sight, a dumb infallible sureness of suppressed feeling coated in insensibility, which effectuate all that has to be effected. All this state and action of the Inconscient corresponds very evidently with the same state and action of the pure Superconscience, but translated into terms of self-darkness in place of the original self-light. Intrinsic in the material form, these powers are not possessed by the form, but yet work in its mute subconscience.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 21-22, Page: 570
The influence of Pietism and of Rousseau's gospel of Nature are apparent in the essentially Christian and democratic direction in which Kant develops this rigorous ethics. The reality of God and the immortality of souls -- concerning which no theoretical demonstration was possible -- emerge now as postulates of practical reason; God, to assure the moral governance of a world in which virtue is crowned with happiness, the "summum bonum"; immortality, so that the pursuit of moral perfection may continue beyond the empirical life of man. These postulates, together with moral freedom and popular rights, provide the basis for Kant's assertion of the primacy of practical reason.
The last stage of this perfection will come when you are com* pletely identified with the Divine Mother and feel yourself to be no longer another and separate being, hstwmeM, sen'ani or worker but truly a child and eternal portion of her conscious- ness and force. Always she will be in you and you in her ; it will be your constant, simple and natural experience that all your thought and seeing and action, your very breathing or moving come from her and are here. You will know and see and feel that you are a person and power formed by her out of herself, put out from her for the play and yet always safe in her, being of her being, consciousness of her consciousness, force of her force, ananda of her Ananda. When this condition is entire and her supramental energies can freely move you then you will be perfect in divine works; knowledge, will, action will become sure, simple, luminous, spontaneous, flawless, an outflow from the Supreme, a divine movement of the Eternal.
"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.” The Synthesis of Yoga
“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.” The Synthesis of Yoga
The meaning of spirituality is a new and greater inner life of man founded in the consciousness of his true, his inmost, highest and largest self and spirit by which he receives the whole of existence as a progressive manifestation of the self in the universe and his own life as a field of a possible transformation in which its divine sense will be found, its potentialities highly evolved, the now imperfect forms changed into an image of the divine perfection, and an effort not only to see but to live out these greater possibilities of his being.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 26, Page: 270
::: ". . . the modern man, even the modern cultured man, is or tends to be to a degree quite unprecedented politikon zôon, a political, economic and social being valuing above all things the efficiency of the outward existence and the things of the mind and spirit mainly, when not exclusively, for their aid to humanity"s vital and mechanical progress: he has not that regard of the ancients which looked up towards the highest heights and regarded an achievement in the things of the mind and the spirit with an unquestioning admiration or a deep veneration for its own sake as the greatest possible contribution to human culture and progress. And although this modern tendency is exaggerated and ugly and degrading in its exaggeration, inimical to humanity"s spiritual evolution, it has this much of truth behind it that while the first value of a culture is its power to raise and enlarge the internal man, the mind, the soul, the spirit, its soundness is not complete unless it has shaped also his external existence and made of it a rhythm of advance towards high and great ideals. This is the true sense of progress and there must be as part of it a sound political, economic and social life, a power and efficiency enabling a people to survive, to grow and to move securely towards a collective perfection, and a vital elasticity and responsiveness that will give room for a constant advance in the outward expression of the mind and the spirit.” The Renaissance in India
“… the modern man, even the modern cultured man, is or tends to be to a degree quite unprecedented politikon zôon, a political, economic and social being valuing above all things the efficiency of the outward existence and the things of the mind and spirit mainly, when not exclusively, for their aid to humanity’s vital and mechanical progress: he has not that regard of the ancients which looked up towards the highest heights and regarded an achievement in the things of the mind and the spirit with an unquestioning admiration or a deep veneration for its own sake as the greatest possible contribution to human culture and progress. And although this modern tendency is exaggerated and ugly and degrading in its exaggeration, inimical to humanity’s spiritual evolution, it has this much of truth behind it that while the first value of a culture is its power to raise and enlarge the internal man, the mind, the soul, the spirit, its soundness is not complete unless it has shaped also his external existence and made of it a rhythm of advance towards high and great ideals. This is the true sense of progress and there must be as part of it a sound political, economic and social life, a power and efficiency enabling a people to survive, to grow and to move securely towards a collective perfection, and a vital elasticity and responsiveness that will give room for a constant advance in the outward expression of the mind and the spirit.” The Renaissance in India
The Mother: "In the physical world, of all things it is beauty that expresses best the Divine. the physical world is the world of form and the perfection of form is beauty. Beauty interprets, expresses, manifests the Eternal. Its role is to put all manifested nature in contact with the Eternal through the perfection of form, through harmony and a sense of the ideal which uplifts and leads towards something higher. On Education, MCW Vol. 12.
The Mother: “In the physical world, of all things it is beauty that expresses best the Divine. the physical world is the world of form and the perfection of form is beauty. Beauty interprets, expresses, manifests the Eternal. Its role is to put all manifested nature in contact with the Eternal through the perfection of form, through harmony and a sense of the ideal which uplifts and leads towards something higher. On Education, MCW Vol. 12.
::: The Mother: "Perfection is not a maximum or an extreme. It is an equilibrium and a harmonisation.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The Mother: “Perfection is not a maximum or an extreme. It is an equilibrium and a harmonisation.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
The necessity of assuming such a supreme form appears also from the side of physics. Since every movement or change implies a mover, and since the chain of causes cannot be infinite if the world is to be intelligible, there must be an unmoved first mover. Furthermore, since motion is eternal (for time is eternal, and time is but the measure of motion), the first mover must be eternal. This eternal unmoved first mover, whose existence is demanded by physical theory, is described in the Metaphysics as the philosophical equivalent of the god or gods of popular religion. Being one, he is the source of the unity of the world process. In himself he is pure actuality, the only form without matter, the only being without extension. His activity consists in pure thought, that is, thought which has thought for its object; and he influences the world not by mechanical impulse, but by virtue of the perfection of his being, which makes him not only the supreme object of all knowledge, but also the ultimate object of all desire.
theodicy ::: n. --> A vindication of the justice of God in ordaining or permitting natural and moral evil.
That department of philosophy which treats of the being, perfections, and government of God, and the immortality of the soul.
"The other parts of our natural composition are not only mutable but perishable; but the psychic entity in us persists and is fundamentally the same always: it contains all essential possibilities of our manifestation but is not constituted by them; it is not limited by what it manifests, not contained by the incomplete forms of the manifestation, not tarnished by the imperfections and impurities, the defects and depravations of the surface being. It is an ever-pure flame of the divinity in things and nothing that comes to it, nothing that enters into our experience can pollute its purity or extinguish the flame.” *The Life Divine
“The other parts of our natural composition are not only mutable but perishable; but the psychic entity in us persists and is fundamentally the same always: it contains all essential possibilities of our manifestation but is not constituted by them; it is not limited by what it manifests, not contained by the incomplete forms of the manifestation, not tarnished by the imperfections and impurities, the defects and depravations of the surface being. It is an ever-pure flame of the divinity in things and nothing that comes to it, nothing that enters into our experience can pollute its purity or extinguish the flame.” The Life Divine
The psychic part oS us is something that comes direct from the Divine and is in touch with the Divine. In its origin Jt is the nucleus pregnant with divine possibilities that supports this lower triple ma^estation of mind, life and body. There is this divine element in all living beings, but it stands bidden behind the ordinary cemsdousness, is not at first developed and, even when developed, is not always or often in the front ; it expresses itself so far as the imperfection of the instruments anon’s, by their means and imdcr their limitations. It grows in the cons- ciousness by Godward experience, gaining strength every time there is a Wgher movement in us, and, finally, by the accumu- lation of these deeper and higher movements, there is developed a psychic individuality, — that which we call usually the psychic being, ft is afways tius p^-chic hem? ffcif £f c&e reaf, often the secret cause of man’s turning to the spiritual life and his greatest help in it.
The Puranas ingeniously interweave allegory with cosmic facts and far later human events. “Puranic astronomy, with all its deliberate concealment and confusion for the purpose of leading the profane off the real track, was shown even by Bentley to be a real science; and those who are versed in the mysteries of Hindu astronomical treatises, will prove that the modern theories of the progressive condensation of nebulae, nebulous stars and sun, with the most minute details about the cyclic progress of asterisms — far more correct than Europeans have even now — for chronological and other purposes, were known in India to perfection.
There have been seven commonly accepted fire temples named after the seven heavenly bodies: 1) Azar-Mehr (Mithra’s fire); 2) Azar-Noush (fire of sweetness, healing) symbolizing Ab-e-Hayat or Water of Life; 3) Azar-Bahram (fire of victory) symbolizing creation of light; 4) Azar-Aeen or Azar Abteen (Apam-Napata, the universal self or the fire of glory that the son of the waters wishes to seize); 5) Azar-Khorin (the rule of the sun) symbolizing perfection; 6) Azar-Borzin (fire of the high); and 7) Azar-Zartusht (fire of Zoroaster, the eternal light).
There is an automatic phase of free will in the purposeful instinct which marks the various activities of even minute and lowly forms of life. The unself-conscious beasts are protected, and therefore guided, by the wills of celestial beings who make the so-called laws of nature, yet even the beasts instinctively choose to run true to their own inner types or svabhava. They unconsciously will to be themselves and to copy no other. They have free will exactly in proportion to their consciousness, just as any person has it in the higher degrees of his intelligence and more active intuition. Thus human beings have the power to work out their evolution, for the kingdom of heaven is taken by strength. The gods have gone ahead on the pathway towards omniscience — so far as our universe is concerned — by their own individual efforts consciously to act with an ever-enlarging measure of harmony with the one divine will. Thus the volume or power of free will is in strict proportion with the degree in which the entity has brought forth the central spark of divine willing fire which animates all that is. Nevertheless no single being or entity has completely unfettered and perfectly irresponsible free will, because of its relative imperfection and because of its inescapable subordination to greater wills, each such entity ever evolving from its stage of imperfection as it ascends along the scales of being: those on the higher rungs of the hierarchical ladder consciously willing in ever-enlarging degree to follow the greater divine will which holds all in its keeping.
The rudras here are collectively spoken of as an individual equivalent to Siva, who has always been recognized as the patron or chief of initiates and of occult training. He is often spoken of as the destroyer, whereas regenerator would be a better term. Rudra is truly the Siva of the Rig-Veda, and in many respects the Agni of later writings. Like Siva, Rudra is a beneficent deity (because regenerating), and a mistaken maleficent deity (because destroying falsehoods and imperfections at the same time). As the beneficent one or spiritual healer, Rudra is the higher human ego aspiring to its own spiritual pure state; and as the destroyer he is the same imprisoned higher human ego whose war against imperfection, evil, and sin make him the “roarer” or the “terrible.”
These kumaras are sometimes also called rudras, adityas, gandharvas, asuras, maruts, and vedhas. The seven kumaras — both as groups and as aggregated individuals — are intimately connected with the dhyani-buddhas who watch over the seven rounds of our planetary chain. The four groups of kumaras generally spoken of are connected equally intimately with the four celestial bodhisattvas of the four globes of our round, and by correspondence with the four completed root-races of our earth. They are identical with the angels of the seven planets, and their name shows their connection with the constellation Makara or Capricorn. Makara is connected with the birth of the spiritual microcosm, and the death or dissolution of the physical universe (its passage into the realm of the spiritual) as are the kumaras. Mara is the god of darkness, the Fallen one, and death, i.e., death of every physical thing; but through the karmic lessons learned also the quickener of the birth of the spiritual. The kumaras are connected also with the sage Narada. An allegory in the Puranas says that the kumaras, the first progeny of Brahma, were without desire or passion, inspired with the holy wisdom, and undesirous of progeny. They refused to create, but were compelled later on to complete divine man by incarnating in him. The barhishads or lunar pitris formed the “senseless” astral-physical humanity of the early root-races. Those beings possessing the living spiritual fire were the agnishvattas or solar pitris. The sons of Brahma, the kumaras, being originally themselves unconscious (in our sense) could be of no use in supplying the mental and kamic principles, as they did not possess them: they had attained no individual karmic elevation in merit of their own as had the agnishvattas. The perfection of the kumaras was passive and negative (nirguna). The kumaras eventually “sacrifice” themselves by incarnating in mankind, thus corresponding to the manasaputras and fallen angels cast into hell (material spheres, our earth).
The soul, on the contrary, is something. that comes down into birth and passes through death — although it does not itself die, for it is immortal — from one state to another, from the earth plane to other planes and back again to the earth'cxisteoce. ft goes on with this progression from life to life through an evolu- tion which leads it up to the human state and evolves through it all a being of itself which we call the psychic being that sup- ports the evolution and develops a physical, a vital, a mental human consciousness as its instruments of world-experience and of a disguised, imperfect, but growing self-expression. All this it does from behind a veil showing something of its divine self only in so far as the imperfection of the instrumental being will allow it. But a time comes when it is able to prepare to come out from behind the veil, take command and turn all the instru- mental nature towards a divine fulfilment. This is the beginning of the true spiritual life. The soul is able now to make itself ready for a higher evolution of manifested consciousness than the mental human — it can pass from the mental to the spiritual and through degrees of the spiritual to the supramental state. _ ,
"The Spirit is the truth of our being; mind and life and body in their imperfection are its masks, but in their perfection should be its moulds.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“The Spirit is the truth of our being; mind and life and body in their imperfection are its masks, but in their perfection should be its moulds.” Essays in Philosophy and 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 subconscient is not the whole foundation of the nature; it is only the lower basis of the Ignorance and affects mostly the lower vital and physical exterior consciousness and these again affect the higher parts of the nature. While it is well to see what it is and how it acts, one must not be too preoccupied with this dark side or this apparent aspect of the instrumental being. One should rather regard it as something not oneself, a mask of false nature imposed on the true being by the Ignorance. The true being is the inner with all its vast possibilities of reaching and expressing the Divine and especially the inmost, the soul, the psychic Purusha which is always in its essence pure, divine, turned to all that is good and true and beautiful. The exterior being has to be taken hold of by the inner being and turned into an instrument no longer of the upsurging of the ignorant subconscient Nature, but of the Divine. It is by remembering always that and opening the nature upwards that the Divine Consciousness can be reached and descend from above into the whole inner and outer existence, mental, vital, physical, the subconscient, the subliminal, all that we overtly or secretly are. This should be the main preoccupation. To dwell solely on the subconscient and the aspect of imperfection creates depression and should be avoided. One has to keep a right balance and stress on the positive side most, recognising the other but only to reject and change it. This and a constant faith and reliance on the Mother are what is needed for the transformation to come. P.S. It is certainly the abrupt and decisive breaking that is the easiest and best way for these things—vital habits.
Ref: SABCL Vol. 22-23-24, Page: 355
"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 supernormal power (siddhi) called aisvarya; perfection or fulfilment of this power; an instance of its use.
The theory is open to grave objections on several grounds. There is a complete lack of evidence of the existence of any such permanently cumulative effect; further, such variations are temporary, and procreation tends to a reversion to the standard type as soon as the environmental influence is withdrawn. Again, such a process would tend to produce the greatest diversity and divergence among the species, each variety differentiating more and more widely in its own special direction, without any tendency toward a mounting scale of perfection from ameba to man. Such natural selection in itself is but a process or a result, and cannot become operative as a cause or agent except in connection with some purposeful directive energy from within or without. When novel varieties of fruit and flowers are bred, a breeder is at work, with energy and ideas in his mind.
The true love for the Divine is a self-giving, free of demand, full of submission and surrender ; it makes no claim, imposes no condition, strikes no bargain, indulges in no violences of jealousy or pride or anger — for these things arc not in its composition. In return the Divine Mother also gives herself, but freely — and this represents itself in an inner giving — hei presence in your mind, your vital, your physical consciousness, her power recreating you in the divine nature, taking up aU the move'ments of your being and Erecting them towards perfection and fulfilment, her love enveloping you and carrying you in its arms Godwards.
The union has a threefold character. There is a union in spiritual essence, by identity; there is a union by the indwelling of our soul in this highest Being and Consciousness; there is a dynamic union of likeness or oneness of nature between That and our instrumental being here. The first is the liberation from the Ignorance and identification with the Real and Eternal, moksa, sayujya, which is the characteristic aim of the Yoga of Knowledge. The second, the dwelling of the soul with or in the Divine, samıpya, salokya, is the intense hope of all Yoga of love and beatitude. The third, identity in nature, likeness to the Divine, to be perfect as That is perfect, is the high intention of all Yoga of power and perfection or of divine works and service. The combined completeness of the three together, founded here on a multiple Unity of the self-manifesting Divine, is the complete result of the integral Yoga, the goal of its triple Path and the fruit of its triple sacrifice.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 23-24, Page: 131
“This fourth principle is like the sign Libra in the path of the Sun through the Zodiac; when the Sun (who is the real man) reaches that sign he trembles in the balance. Should he go back the worlds would be destroyed; he goes onward, and the whole human race is lifted up to perfection” (Ocean 45-7).
This is the transcendental, universal and individual Brahman, Lord, Continent and Indwelling Spirit, which is the object of all knowledge. Its realisation is the condition of perfection and the way of Immortality.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 17, Page: 30
This”little hillock” divinely ordained for the manifestation of the Life Divine must be nourished, protected, felt and ultimately realized as a conscious being and through the sincerity, prayer and efforts of souls attuned to her infinite possiblity of perfection, saved from the destruction and devastation man has wreaked upon her.
This represents four stages of evolution: a monad, a dual creative force or duad, the world of forms, and the world of complete and concrete manifestation. This arrangement of dots enables one to deduce any of the numbers from 1 to 10. It was held in such high esteem by the Pythagoreans that their most binding oath was made upon the Tetraktys. “it has a very mystic and varied signification . . . First of all it is Unity, or the ‘One’ under four different aspects; then it is the fundamental number Four, the Tetrad containing the Decad, or Ten, the number of perfection; finally it signifies the primeval Triad (or Triangle) merged in the divine Monad. . . . The mystic Decad, the resultant of the Tetraktys, or the 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10, is a way of expressing this idea. The One is the impersonal principle ‘God’; the Two, matter; the Three, combining Monad and Duad and partaking of the nature of both, is the phenomenal world; the Tetrad, or form of perfection, expresses the emptiness of all; and the Decad, or sum of all, involves the entire Kosmos” (TG 326).
This something larger is the cosmic drama written, staged, and acted by the Absolute, who is artist and actor as well as a rational intelligence, intent no less upon dramatic than upon intelligible unity and self-expression. The world-process is tragic, witness the sin and suffering and imperfection with which it is fraught. But in the infinite tragedy, as well as in the tragedies composed by men, evil is contributory to the perfection of the whole, and, when seen and accepted as such by the finite individual, not only loses its sting but produces a "catharsis" of his attitude towards it, in which he cheerfully accepts it, battles with it, and finds his triumph over it in nobly enduring it. This "catharsis," identifying him as it does with the meaning of the life of the Absolute, is his peace and his salvation. Main works: Logic, 1888; The Philosophical Theory of the State, 1899; Value and Destiny of the Individual, 1913. -- B.A.G.F.
"This universal aesthesis of beauty and delight does not ignore or fail to understand the differences and oppositions, the gradations, the harmony and disharmony obvious to the ordinary consciousness; but, first of all, it draws a Rasa from them and with that comes the enjoyment, Bhoga. and the touch or the mass of the Ananda. It sees that all things have their meaning, their value, their deeper or total significance which the mind does not see, for the mind is only concerned with a surface vision, surface contacts and its own surface reactions. When something expresses perfectly what it was meant to express, the completeness brings with it a sense of harmony, a sense of artistic perfection; it gives even to what is discordant a place in a system of cosmic concordances and the discords become part of a vast harmony, and wherever there is harmony, there is a sense of beauty. ” Letters on Savitri*
“This universal aesthesis of beauty and delight does not ignore or fail to understand the differences and oppositions, the gradations, the harmony and disharmony obvious to the ordinary consciousness; but, first of all, it draws a Rasa from them and with that comes the enjoyment, Bhoga. and the touch or the mass of the Ananda. It sees that all things have their meaning, their value, their deeper or total significance which the mind does not see, for the mind is only concerned with a surface vision, surface contacts and its own surface reactions. When something expresses perfectly what it was meant to express, the completeness brings with it a sense of harmony, a sense of artistic perfection; it gives even to what is discordant a place in a system of cosmic concordances and the discords become part of a vast harmony, and wherever there is harmony, there is a sense of beauty.” Letters on Savitri
Though fragments of the absolute experience, our minds somehow remain separate selves and persons. Though infinite and all-comprehensive in extent, and reviewing ad infinitum its own infinity in knowing that it knows that it knows, the Absolute is nevertheless a finished and closed whole. Though shot through and through with error and evil and sin and suffering, the Absolute is nevertheless perfect, and perfect because of them, since struggle with them and triumph over them is of the essence of its perfection. Though a temporal process, it is nevertheless overarches that process in a single act of comprehension in which past, present, and future are grasped, even as the successive notes of a musical phrase are grasped, as an eternally present completed fact.
"Though man is infinitely greater than the plant or the animal, he is not perfect in his own nature like the plant and the animal. This imperfection is not a thing to be at all deplored, but rather a privilege and a promise, for it opens out to us an immense vista of self-development and self-exceeding. Man at his highest is a half-god who has risen up out of the animal Nature and is splendidly abnormal in it, but the thing which he has started out to be, the whole god, is something so much greater than what he is that it seems to him as abnormal to himself as he is to the animal. This means a great and arduous labour of growth before him, but also a splendid crown of his race and his victory. A kingdom is offered to him beside which his present triumphs in the realms of mind or over external Nature will appear only as a rough hint and a poor beginning. The Human Cycle
“Though man is infinitely greater than the plant or the animal, he is not perfect in his own nature like the plant and the animal. This imperfection is not a thing to be at all deplored, but rather a privilege and a promise, for it opens out to us an immense vista of self-development and self-exceeding. Man at his highest is a half-god who has risen up out of the animal Nature and is splendidly abnormal in it, but the thing which he has started out to be, the whole god, is something so much greater than what he is that it seems to him as abnormal to himself as he is to the animal. This means a great and arduous labour of growth before him, but also a splendid crown of his race and his victory. A kingdom is offered to him beside which his present triumphs in the realms of mind or over external Nature will appear only as a rough hint and a poor beginning. The Human Cycle
thought-siddhi (thought-siddhi; thought siddhi) ::: the perfection of thought; the siddhi of jñana.
Three senses of "Ockhamism" may be distinguished: Logical, indicating usage of the terminology and technique of logical analysis developed by Ockham in his Summa totius logicae; in particular, use of the concept of supposition (suppositio) in the significative analysis of terms. Epistemological, indicating the thesis that universality is attributable only to terms and propositions, and not to things as existing apart from discourse. Theological, indicating the thesis that no tneological doctrines, such as those of God's existence or of the immortality of the soul, are evident or demonstrable philosophically, so that religious doctrine rests solely on faith, without metaphysical or scientific support. It is in this sense that Luther is often called an Ockhamist. Bibliography: B. Geyer, Ueberwegs Grundriss d. Gesch. d. Phil., Bd. II (11th ed., Berlin 1928), pp. 571-612 and 781-786; N. Abbagnano, Guglielmo di Ockham (Lanciano, Italy, 1931); E. A. Moody, The Logic of William of Ockham (N. Y. & London, 1935); F. Ehrle, Peter von Candia (Muenster, 1925); G. Ritter, Studien zur Spaetscholastik, I-II (Heidelberg, 1921-1922). --E.A.M. Om, aum: (Skr.) Mystic, holy syllable as a symbol for the indefinable Absolute. See Aksara, Vac, Sabda. --K.F.L. Omniscience: In philosophy and theology it means the complete and perfect knowledge of God, of Himself and of all other beings, past, present, and future, or merely possible, as well as all their activities, real or possible, including the future free actions of human beings. --J.J.R. One: Philosophically, not a number but equivalent to unit, unity, individuality, in contradistinction from multiplicity and the mani-foldness of sensory experience. In metaphysics, the Supreme Idea (Plato), the absolute first principle (Neo-platonism), the universe (Parmenides), Being as such and divine in nature (Plotinus), God (Nicolaus Cusanus), the soul (Lotze). Religious philosophy and mysticism, beginning with Indian philosophy (s.v.), has favored the designation of the One for the metaphysical world-ground, the ultimate icility, the world-soul, the principle of the world conceived as reason, nous, or more personally. The One may be conceived as an independent whole or as a sum, as analytic or synthetic, as principle or ontologically. Except by mysticism, it is rarely declared a fact of sensory experience, while its transcendent or transcendental, abstract nature is stressed, e.g., in epistemology where the "I" or self is considered the unitary background of personal experience, the identity of self-consciousness, or the unity of consciousness in the synthesis of the manifoldness of ideas (Kant). --K.F.L. One-one: A relation R is one-many if for every y in the converse domain there is a unique x such that xRy. A relation R is many-one if for every x in the domain there is a unique y such that xRy. (See the article relation.) A relation is one-one, or one-to-one, if it is at the same time one-many and many-one. A one-one relation is said to be, or to determine, a one-to-one correspondence between its domain and its converse domain. --A.C. On-handedness: (Ger. Vorhandenheit) Things exist in the mode of thereness, lying- passively in a neutral space. A "deficient" form of a more basic relationship, termed at-handedness (Zuhandenheit). (Heidegger.) --H.H. Ontological argument: Name by which later authors, especially Kant, designate the alleged proof for God's existence devised by Anselm of Canterbury. Under the name of God, so the argument runs, everyone understands that greater than which nothing can be thought. Since anything being the greatest and lacking existence is less then the greatest having also existence, the former is not really the greater. The greatest, therefore, has to exist. Anselm has been reproached, already by his contemporary Gaunilo, for unduly passing from the field of logical to the field of ontological or existential reasoning. This criticism has been repeated by many authors, among them Aquinas. The argument has, however, been used, if in a somewhat modified form, by Duns Scotus, Descartes, and Leibniz. --R.A. Ontological Object: (Gr. onta, existing things + logos, science) The real or existing object of an act of knowledge as distinguished from the epistemological object. See Epistemological Object. --L.W. Ontologism: (Gr. on, being) In contrast to psychologism, is called any speculative system which starts philosophizing by positing absolute being, or deriving the existence of entities independently of experience merely on the basis of their being thought, or assuming that we have immediate and certain knowledge of the ground of being or God. Generally speaking any rationalistic, a priori metaphysical doctrine, specifically the philosophies of Rosmini-Serbati and Vincenzo Gioberti. As a philosophic method censored by skeptics and criticists alike, as a scholastic doctrine formerly strongly supported, revived in Italy and Belgium in the 19th century, but no longer countenanced. --K.F.L. Ontology: (Gr. on, being + logos, logic) The theory of being qua being. For Aristotle, the First Philosophy, the science of the essence of things. Introduced as a term into philosophy by Wolff. The science of fundamental principles, the doctrine of the categories. Ultimate philosophy; rational cosmology. Syn. with metaphysics. See Cosmology, First Principles, Metaphysics, Theology. --J.K.F. Operation: "(Lit. operari, to work) Any act, mental or physical, constituting a phase of the reflective process, and performed with a view to acquiring1 knowledge or information about a certain subject-nntter. --A.C.B. In logic, see Operationism. In philosophy of science, see Pragmatism, Scientific Empiricism. Operationism: The doctrine that the meaning of a concept is given by a set of operations. 1. The operational meaning of a term (word or symbol) is given by a semantical rule relating the term to some concrete process, object or event, or to a class of such processes, objectj or events. 2. Sentences formed by combining operationally defined terms into propositions are operationally meaningful when the assertions are testable by means of performable operations. Thus, under operational rules, terms have semantical significance, propositions have empirical significance. Operationism makes explicit the distinction between formal (q.v.) and empirical sentences. Formal propositions are signs arranged according to syntactical rules but lacking operational reference. Such propositions, common in mathematics, logic and syntax, derive their sanction from convention, whereas an empirical proposition is acceptable (1) when its structure obeys syntactical rules and (2) when there exists a concrete procedure (a set of operations) for determining its truth or falsity (cf. Verification). Propositions purporting to be empirical are sometimes amenable to no operational test because they contain terms obeying no definite semantical rules. These sentences are sometimes called pseudo-propositions and are said to be operationally meaningless. They may, however, be 'meaningful" in other ways, e.g. emotionally or aesthetically (cf. Meaning). Unlike a formal statement, the "truth" of an empirical sentence is never absolute and its operational confirmation serves only to increase the degree of its validity. Similarly, the semantical rule comprising the operational definition of a term has never absolute precision. Ordinarily a term denotes a class of operations and the precision of its definition depends upon how definite are the rules governing inclusion in the class. The difference between Operationism and Logical Positivism (q.v.) is one of emphasis. Operationism's stress of empirical matters derives from the fact that it was first employed to purge physics of such concepts as absolute space and absolute time, when the theory of relativity had forced upon physicists the view that space and time are most profitably defined in terms of the operations by which they are measured. Although different methods of measuring length at first give rise to different concepts of length, wherever the equivalence of certain of these measures can be established by other operations, the concepts may legitimately be combined. In psychology the operational criterion of meaningfulness is commonly associated with a behavioristic point of view. See Behaviorism. Since only those propositions which are testable by public and repeatable operations are admissible in science, the definition of such concepti as mind and sensation must rest upon observable aspects of the organism or its behavior. Operational psychology deals with experience only as it is indicated by the operation of differential behavior, including verbal report. Discriminations, or the concrete differential reactions of organisms to internal or external environmental states, are by some authors regarded as the most basic of all operations. For a discussion of the role of operational definition in phvsics. see P. W. Bridgman, The Logic of Modern Physics, (New York, 1928) and The Nature of Physical Theory (Princeton, 1936). "The extension of operationism to psychology is discussed by C. C. Pratt in The Logic of Modem Psychology (New York. 1939.) For a discussion and annotated bibliography relating to Operationism and Logical Positivism, see S. S. Stevens, Psychology and the Science of Science, Psychol. Bull., 36, 1939, 221-263. --S.S.S. Ophelimity: Noun derived from the Greek, ophelimos useful, employed by Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) in economics as the equivalent of utility, or the capacity to provide satisfaction. --J.J.R. Opinion: (Lat. opinio, from opinor, to think) An hypothesis or proposition entertained on rational grounds but concerning which doubt can reasonably exist. A belief. See Hypothesis, Certainty, Knowledge. --J.K.F- Opposition: (Lat. oppositus, pp. of oppono, to oppose) Positive actual contradiction. One of Aristotle's Post-predicaments. In logic any contrariety or contradiction, illustrated by the "Square of Opposition". Syn. with: conflict. See Logic, formal, § 4. --J.K.F. Optimism: (Lat. optimus, the best) The view inspired by wishful thinking, success, faith, or philosophic reflection, that the world as it exists is not so bad or even the best possible, life is good, and man's destiny is bright. Philosophically most persuasively propounded by Leibniz in his Theodicee, according to which God in his wisdom would have created a better world had he known or willed such a one to exist. Not even he could remove moral wrong and evil unless he destroyed the power of self-determination and hence the basis of morality. All systems of ethics that recognize a supreme good (Plato and many idealists), subscribe to the doctrines of progressivism (Turgot, Herder, Comte, and others), regard evil as a fragmentary view (Josiah Royce et al.) or illusory, or believe in indemnification (Henry David Thoreau) or melioration (Emerson), are inclined optimistically. Practically all theologies advocating a plan of creation and salvation, are optimistic though they make the good or the better dependent on moral effort, right thinking, or belief, promising it in a future existence. Metaphysical speculation is optimistic if it provides for perfection, evolution to something higher, more valuable, or makes room for harmonies or a teleology. See Pessimism. --K.F.L. Order: A class is said to be partially ordered by a dyadic relation R if it coincides with the field of R, and R is transitive and reflexive, and xRy and yRx never both hold when x and y are different. If in addition R is connected, the class is said to be ordered (or simply ordered) by R, and R is called an ordering relation. Whitehcid and Russell apply the term serial relation to relations which are transitive, irreflexive, and connected (and, in consequence, also asymmetric). However, the use of serial relations in this sense, instead ordering relations as just defined, is awkward in connection with the notion of order for unit classes. Examples: The relation not greater than among leal numbers is an ordering relation. The relation less than among real numbers is a serial relation. The real numbers are simply ordered by the former relation. In the algebra of classes (logic formal, § 7), the classes are partially ordered by the relation of class inclusion. For explanation of the terminology used in making the above definitions, see the articles connexity, reflexivity, relation, symmetry, transitivity. --A.C. Order type: See relation-number. Ordinal number: A class b is well-ordered by a dyadic relation R if it is ordered by R (see order) and, for every class a such that a ⊂ b, there is a member x of a, such that xRy holds for every member y of a; and R is then called a well-ordering relation. The ordinal number of a class b well-ordered by a relation R, or of a well-ordering relation R, is defined to be the relation-number (q. v.) of R. The ordinal numbers of finite classes (well-ordered by appropriate relations) are called finite ordinal numbers. These are 0, 1, 2, ... (to be distinguished, of course, from the finite cardinal numbers 0, 1, 2, . . .). The first non-finite (transfinite or infinite) ordinal number is the ordinal number of the class of finite ordinal numbers, well-ordered in their natural order, 0, 1, 2, . . .; it is usually denoted by the small Greek letter omega. --A.C. G. Cantor, Contributions to the Founding of the Theory of Transfinite Numbers, translated and with an introduction by P. E. B. Jourdain, Chicago and London, 1915. (new ed. 1941); Whitehead and Russell, Princtpia Mathematica. vol. 3. Orexis: (Gr. orexis) Striving; desire; the conative aspect of mind, as distinguished from the cognitive and emotional (Aristotle). --G.R.M.. Organicism: A theory of biology that life consists in the organization or dynamic system of the organism. Opposed to mechanism and vitalism. --J.K.F. Organism: An individual animal or plant, biologically interpreted. A. N. Whitehead uses the term to include also physical bodies and to signify anything material spreading through space and enduring in time. --R.B.W. Organismic Psychology: (Lat. organum, from Gr. organon, an instrument) A system of theoretical psychology which construes the structure of the mind in organic rather than atomistic terms. See Gestalt Psychology; Psychological Atomism. --L.W. Organization: (Lat. organum, from Gr. organon, work) A structured whole. The systematic unity of parts in a purposive whole. A dynamic system. Order in something actual. --J.K.F. Organon: (Gr. organon) The title traditionally given to the body of Aristotle's logical treatises. The designation appears to have originated among the Peripatetics after Aristotle's time, and expresses their view that logic is not a part of philosophy (as the Stoics maintained) but rather the instrument (organon) of philosophical inquiry. See Aristotelianism. --G.R.M. In Kant. A system of principles by which pure knowledge may be acquired and established. Cf. Fr. Bacon's Novum Organum. --O.F.K. Oriental Philosophy: A general designation used loosely to cover philosophic tradition exclusive of that grown on Greek soil and including the beginnings of philosophical speculation in Egypt, Arabia, Iran, India, and China, the elaborate systems of India, Greater India, China, and Japan, and sometimes also the religion-bound thought of all these countries with that of the complex cultures of Asia Minor, extending far into antiquity. Oriental philosophy, though by no means presenting a homogeneous picture, nevertheless shares one characteristic, i.e., the practical outlook on life (ethics linked with metaphysics) and the absence of clear-cut distinctions between pure speculation and religious motivation, and on lower levels between folklore, folk-etymology, practical wisdom, pre-scientiiic speculation, even magic, and flashes of philosophic insight. Bonds with Western, particularly Greek philosophy have no doubt existed even in ancient times. Mutual influences have often been conjectured on the basis of striking similarities, but their scientific establishment is often difficult or even impossible. Comparative philosophy (see especially the work of Masson-Oursel) provides a useful method. Yet a thorough treatment of Oriental Philosophy is possible only when the many languages in which it is deposited have been more thoroughly studied, the psychological and historical elements involved in the various cultures better investigated, and translations of the relevant documents prepared not merely from a philological point of view or out of missionary zeal, but by competent philosophers who also have some linguistic training. Much has been accomplished in this direction in Indian and Chinese Philosophy (q.v.). A great deal remains to be done however before a definitive history of Oriental Philosophy may be written. See also Arabian, and Persian Philosophy. --K.F.L. Origen: (185-254) The principal founder of Christian theology who tried to enrich the ecclesiastic thought of his day by reconciling it with the treasures of Greek philosophy. Cf. Migne PL. --R.B.W. Ormazd: (New Persian) Same as Ahura Mazdah (q.v.), the good principle in Zoroastrianism, and opposed to Ahriman (q.v.). --K.F.L. Orphic Literature: The mystic writings, extant only in fragments, of a Greek religious-philosophical movement of the 6th century B.C., allegedly started by the mythical Orpheus. In their mysteries, in which mythology and rational thinking mingled, the Orphics concerned themselves with cosmogony, theogony, man's original creation and his destiny after death which they sought to influence to the better by pure living and austerity. They taught a symbolism in which, e.g., the relationship of the One to the many was clearly enunciated, and believed in the soul as involved in reincarnation. Pythagoras, Empedocles, and Plato were influenced by them. --K.F.L. Ortega y Gasset, Jose: Born in Madrid, May 9, 1883. At present in Buenos Aires, Argentine. Son of Ortega y Munillo, the famous Spanish journalist. Studied at the College of Jesuits in Miraflores and at the Central University of Madrid. In the latter he presented his Doctor's dissertation, El Milenario, in 1904, thereby obtaining his Ph.D. degree. After studies in Leipzig, Berlin, Marburg, under the special influence of Hermann Cohen, the great exponent of Kant, who taught him the love for the scientific method and awoke in him the interest in educational philosophy, Ortega came to Spain where, after the death of Nicolas Salmeron, he occupied the professorship of metaphysics at the Central University of Madrid. The following may be considered the most important works of Ortega y Gasset: Meditaciones del Quijote, 1914; El Espectador, I-VIII, 1916-1935; El Tema de Nuestro Tiempo, 1921; España Invertebrada, 1922; Kant, 1924; La Deshumanizacion del Arte, 1925; Espiritu de la Letra, 1927; La Rebelion de las Masas, 1929; Goethe desde Adentio, 1934; Estudios sobre el Amor, 1939; Ensimismamiento y Alteracion, 1939; El Libro de las Misiones, 1940; Ideas y Creencias, 1940; and others. Although brought up in the Marburg school of thought, Ortega is not exactly a neo-Kantian. At the basis of his Weltanschauung one finds a denial of the fundamental presuppositions which characterized European Rationalism. It is life and not thought which is primary. Things have a sense and a value which must be affirmed independently. Things, however, are to be conceived as the totality of situations which constitute the circumstances of a man's life. Hence, Ortega's first philosophical principle: "I am myself plus my circumstances". Life as a problem, however, is but one of the poles of his formula. Reason is the other. The two together function, not by dialectical opposition, but by necessary coexistence. Life, according to Ortega, does not consist in being, but rather, in coming to be, and as such it is of the nature of direction, program building, purpose to be achieved, value to be realized. In this sense the future as a time dimension acquires new dignity, and even the present and the past become articulate and meaning-full only in relation to the future. Even History demands a new point of departure and becomes militant with new visions. --J.A.F. Orthodoxy: Beliefs which are declared by a group to be true and normative. Heresy is a departure from and relative to a given orthodoxy. --V.S. Orthos Logos: See Right Reason. Ostensible Object: (Lat. ostendere, to show) The object envisaged by cognitive act irrespective of its actual existence. See Epistemological Object. --L.W. Ostensive: (Lat. ostendere, to show) Property of a concept or predicate by virtue of which it refers to and is clarified by reference to its instances. --A.C.B. Ostwald, Wilhelm: (1853-1932) German chemist. Winner of the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1909. In Die Uberwindung des wissenschaftlichen Materialistmus and in Naturphilosophie, his two best known works in the field of philosophy, he advocates a dynamic theory in opposition to materialism and mechanism. All properties of matter, and the psychic as well, are special forms of energy. --L.E.D. Oupnekhat: Anquetil Duperron's Latin translation of the Persian translation of 50 Upanishads (q.v.), a work praised by Schopenhauer as giving him complete consolation. --K.F.L. Outness: A term employed by Berkeley to express the experience of externality, that is the ideas of space and things placed at a distance. Hume used it in the sense of distance Hamilton understood it as the state of being outside of consciousness in a really existing world of material things. --J.J.R. Overindividual: Term used by H. Münsterberg to translate the German überindividuell. The term is applied to any cognitive or value object which transcends the individual subject. --L.W. P
Thummim (Hebrew) Tummīm [from tom innocence, integrity, truth] Truth, perfections; associated as an appurtenance with the breastplate of the Jewish high priest. In the casting of the Urim and Thummim, the latter showed a man’s innocence (cf 1 Sam 14:41, where tamin is translated “lots”). The urim and thummim
Thus maya means that our minds are blinded and perverted by our own preconceptions and imperfections, and so does not interpret the world as it is.
.Thus the soul or psychic essence, which is the Purusha entering into the evolution and supporting it, carries in itself all the divine potentialities ; but the individual psychic being which it puts forth as its representative assumes the imperfection of Nature and evolves in it till it has recovered its full psychic essence and united itself with the Self above of which the soul is the individual projection in the evolution. This duality in the being on all its planes, — for it is true in different ways not only of the Self and the psychic, but of the mental, vital and physical
Tikun (&
To the Confucians this is "the eternal law of the universe." See chung yung. To Chuang Tzu (between 399 and 295 B.C.) "the common and the ordinary are the natural function of all things, which expresses the common nature of the whole. Following the common nature of the whole, they are at ease. Being at ease, they are near perfection. This is letting nature take its course, without being conscious of the fact. This is Tao." -- W.T.C.
Transcendent: (L. transcendere to climb over, surpass, go beyond) That which is beyond, in any of several senses. The opposite of the immanent (q.v.). In Scholasticism notions are transcendent which cannot be subsumed under the Aristotelian categories. The definitive list of transcendentia comprises ens, unum, bonum, verum, res, and aliquid. For Kant whatever is beyond possible experience is transcendent, and hence unknowable. Metaphysics and Theology: God (or the Absolute) is said to be transcendent in the following senses: perfect, i e., beyond limitation or imperfection (Scholasticism); incomprehensible (negative theology, mysticism); remote from Nature (Deism); alienated from natural man (Barthianism). Pluralism posits the essential mutual transcendence of substances or reals. Epistemology: Epistemological dualism (q.v.) holds that the real transcends apprehending consciousness, i.e., is directly inaccessible to it. Thought is said to be "self-transcendent" when held to involve essentially reference beyond itself (s. intentionahty). Ethics. Moral idealism posits the transcendence of the will over Nature (see Freedom). --W.L. Transcendent Reference: The reference of a mental state to something beyond itself. See Reference. -- L.W.
Transformation ::: By transformation I do not mean some change of the nature—I do not mean for instance sainthood or ethical perfection or Yogic siddhis (like the Tantrik’s). I use transformation in a special sense, a change of consciousness radical and complete and of a certain specific kind which is so conceived as to bring about a strong and assured step forward in the spiritual evolution of the consciousness such as and greater than what took place when a mentalised being first appeared in a vital and material animal world.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 35, Page: 153
transformation ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Transformation means that the higher consciousness or nature is brought down into the mind, vital and body and takes the place of the lower. There is a higher consciousness of the true self, which is spiritual, but it is above; if one rises above into it, then one is free as long as one remains there, but if one comes down into or uses mind, vital or body — and if one keeps any connection with life, one has to do so, either to come down and act from the ordinary consciousness or else to be in the self but use mind, life and body, then the imperfections of these instruments have to be faced and mended — they can only be mended by transformation.” *Letters on Yoga
"‘Transformation" is a word that I have brought in myself (like ‘supermind") to express certain spiritual concepts and spiritual facts of the integral yoga. People are now taking them up and using them in senses which have nothing to do with the significance which I put into them. Purification of the nature by the ‘influence" of the Spirit is not what I mean by transformation; purification is only part of a psychic change or a psycho-spiritual change — the word besides has many senses and is very often given a moral or ethical meaning which is foreign to my purpose.” *Letters on Yoga
"It is indeed as a result of our evolution that we arrive at the possibility of this transformation. As Nature has evolved beyond Matter and manifested Life, beyond Life and manifested Mind, so she must evolve beyond Mind and manifest a consciousness and power of our existence free from the imperfection and limitation of our mental existence, a supramental or truth-consciousness and able to develop the power and perfection of the spirit. Here a slow and tardy change need no longer be the law or manner of our evolution; it will be only so to a greater or less extent so long as a mental ignorance clings and hampers our ascent; but once we have grown into the truth-consciousness its power of spiritual truth of being will determine all. Into that truth we shall be freed and it will transform mind and life and body. Light and bliss and beauty and a perfection of the spontaneous right action of all the being are there as native powers of the supramental truth-consciousness and these will in their very nature transform mind and life and body even here upon earth into a manifestation of the truth-conscious spirit. The obscurations of earth will not prevail against the supramental truth-consciousness, for even into the earth it can bring enough of the omniscient light and omnipotent force of the spirit conquer. All may not open to the fullness of its light and power, but whatever does open must that extent undergo the change. That will be the principle of transformation.” The Supramental Manifestation
The Mother: "Transformation. The change by which all the elements and all the movements of the being become ready to manifest the supramental Truth.”
"One thing you must know and never forget: in the work of transformation all that is true and sincere will always be kept; only what is false and insincere will disappear.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
transformation ::: “Transformation means that the higher consciousness or nature is brought down into the mind, vital and body and takes the place of the lower. There is a higher consciousness of the true self, which is spiritual, but it is above; if one rises above into it, then one is free as long as one remains there, but if one comes down into or uses mind, vital or body—and if one keeps any connection with life, one has to do so, either to come down and act from the ordinary consciousness or else to be in the self but use mind, life and body, then the imperfections of these instruments have to be faced and mended—they can only be mended by transformation.” Letters on Yoga
Transmutation of the body: The supreme goal of alchemy, the restoration of man to the state of beauty, perfection and physical immortality.
trikalasiddhi (trikalsiddhi) ::: the perfection of trikaladr.s.t.i. trikalasiddhi
Trikaya (Sanskrit) Trikāya [from tri three + kāya vesture, body] The three glorious vestures or states in which the consciousness of an adept clothes itself: 1) the nirmanakaya (Tibetan pru-lpai-ku) in which the bodhisattva after entering the path to nirvana by the six paramitas appears to mankind in order to teach and which thus is associated with the Buddhas of Compassion; 2) the sambhogakaya (Tibetan dzog-pai-ku) the body of bliss impervious to all material sensations assumed by one who has fulfilled the three conditions of spiritual, intellectual, and moral perfection; and 3) the dharmakaya (Tibetan chos-ku) the nirvanic body or robe in which all nirvanis and full Pratyeka Buddhas exist.
unperfection ::: n. --> Want of perfection; imperfection.
unperfect ::: v. t. --> To mar or destroy the perfection of. ::: a. --> Imperfect.
utopia: An imaginary location or government where political and social perfection has been reached: The people of such utopias are generally clean, virtuous, healthy, and happy. In essence, a utopian society is one that has been cured of all its social ills. See dystopia.
utopia ::: n. --> An imaginary island, represented by Sir Thomas More, in a work called Utopia, as enjoying the greatest perfection in politics, laws, and the like. See Utopia, in the Dictionary of Noted Names in Fiction.
Hence, any place or state of ideal perfection.
utopian ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to Utopia; resembling Utopia; hence, ideal; chimerical; fanciful; founded upon, or involving, imaginary perfections; as, Utopian projects; Utopian happiness. ::: n. --> An inhabitant of Utopia; hence, one who believes in the perfectibility of human society; a visionary; an idealist; an optimist.
utopianism ::: n. --> The ideas, views, aims, etc., of a Utopian; impracticable schemes of human perfection; optimism.
varisse ::: n. --> An imperfection on the inside of the hind leg in horses, different from a curb, but at the same height, and frequently injuring the sale of the animal by growing to an unsightly size.
vice ::: 1. An immoral or evil habit or practice. 2. Immoral conduct; depraved or degrading behaviour. 3. A flaw or imperfection; a defect. 4. Sexual immorality or depravity.
vice ::: n. --> A defect; a fault; an error; a blemish; an imperfection; as, the vices of a political constitution; the vices of a horse.
A moral fault or failing; especially, immoral conduct or habit, as in the indulgence of degrading appetites; customary deviation in a single respect, or in general, from a right standard, implying a defect of natural character, or the result of training and habits; a harmful custom; immorality; depravity; wickedness; as, a life of vice; the vice of intemperance.
vran.a ::: wound; flaw, "scar of imperfection". [Cf. Īsa Upanis.ad 8] vrana
waster ::: v. t. --> One who, or that which, wastes; one who squanders; one who consumes or expends extravagantly; a spendthrift; a prodigal.
An imperfection in the wick of a candle, causing it to waste; -- called also a thief.
A kind of cudgel; also, a blunt-edged sword used as a foil.
*What is meant here is the Divine in its essential manifestation which reveals itself to us as Light and Consciousness, Power, Love and Beauty. But in its actual cosmic manifestation the Supreme, being the Infinite and not bound by any limitation, can manifest in itself, in its consciousness of innumerable possibilities, something that seems to be the opposite of itself, something in which there can be Darkness, Inconscience, Inertia, Insensibility, Disharmony and Disintegration. It is this that we see at the basis of the material world and speak of nowadays as the Inconscient—the inconscient Ocean of the Rigveda in which the One was hidden and arose in the form of this Universe,— or, as it is sometimes called, the non-being, Asat. The Ignorance which is the characteristic of our mind and life is the result of this origin in the Inconscience. Moreover, in the evolution out of inconscient existence there rise up naturally powers and beings which are interested in the maintenance of all negations of the Divine, error and unconsciousness, pain, suffering, obscurity, death, weakness, illness, disharmony, evil. Hence the perversion of the manifestation here, its inability to reveal the true essence of the Divine. Yet in the very base of this evolution all that is divine is there involved and pressing to evolve, Light, Consciousness, Power, Perfection, Beauty, Love. For in the Inconscient itself and behind the perversions of the Ignorance Divine Consciousness lies concealed and works and must more and more appear, throwing off in the end its disguises. That is why it is said that the world is called to express the Divine.
When referring to causes containing the perfection of their effect. Formally, virtually, and eminently are said of causes according as they contain the perfection of their effect. For an effect is said to be contained formally in its cause, when the nature of the effect which is produced, is found in the cause itself, thus heat is contained formally in fire, because fire also contains in itself the heat which it produce. An effect is contained virtually in its cause when the cause can indeed produce such an effect, but the nature of the effect is not found in the cause itself, e.g. the statue is contained virtually in the artist. Lastly, an effect is contained eminently in its cause, when the cause is much more perfect than the effect and is without the imperfections which are found in the effect. E.g. God eminently contains the perfections of creatures. -- H.G.
"When the Peace is established, this higher or Divine Force from above can descend and work in us. It descends usually first into the head and liberates the inner mind centres, then into the heart centre and liberates fully the psychic and emotional being, then into the navel and other vital centres and liberates the inner vital, then into the Muladhara and below and liberates the inner physical being. It works at the same time for perfection as well as liberation; it takes up the whole nature part by part and deals with it, rejecting what has to be rejected, sublimating what has to be sublimated, creating what has to be created. It integrates, harmonises, establishes a new rhythm in the nature. It can bring down too a higher and yet higher force and range of the higher nature until, if that be the aim of the sadhana, it becomes possible to bring down the supramental force and existence. All this is prepared, assisted, farthered by the work of the psychic being in the heart centre; the more it is open, in front, active, the quicker, safer, easier the working of the Force can be. The more love and bhakti and surrender grow in the heart, the more rapid and perfect becomes the evolution of the sadhana. For the descent and transformation imply at the same time an increasing contact and union with the Divine.” Letters on Yoga
“When the Peace is established, this higher or Divine Force from above can descend and work in us. It descends usually first into the head and liberates the inner mind centres, then into the heart centre and liberates fully the psychic and emotional being, then into the navel and other vital centres and liberates the inner vital, then into the Muladhara and below and liberates the inner physical being. It works at the same time for perfection as well as liberation; it takes up the whole nature part by part and deals with it, rejecting what has to be rejected, sublimating what has to be sublimated, creating what has to be created. It integrates, harmonises, establishes a new rhythm in the nature. It can bring down too a higher and yet higher force and range of the higher nature until, if that be the aim of the sadhana, it becomes possible to bring down the supramental force and existence. All this is prepared, assisted, farthered by the work of the psychic being in the heart centre; the more it is open, in front, active, the quicker, safer, easier the working of the Force can be. The more love and bhakti and surrender grow in the heart, the more rapid and perfect becomes the evolution of the sadhana. For the descent and transformation imply at the same time an increasing contact and union with the Divine.” Letters on Yoga
"When the Peace is established, this higher or Divine Force from above can descend and work in us. It descends usually first into the head and liberates the inner mind centres, then into the heart centre and liberates fully the psychic and emotional being, then into the navel and other vital centres and liberates the inner vital, then into the Muladhara and below and liberates the inner physical being. It works at the same time for perfection as well as liberation; it takes up the whole nature part by part and deals with it, rejecting what has to be rejected, sublimating what has to be sublimated, creating what has to be created.” Letters on Yoga
“When the Peace is established, this higher or Divine Force from above can descend and work in us. It descends usually first into the head and liberates the inner mind centres, then into the heart centre and liberates fully the psychic and emotional being, then into the navel and other vital centres and liberates the inner vital, then into the Muladhara and below and liberates the inner physical being. It works at the same time for perfection as well as liberation; it takes up the whole nature part by part and deals with it, rejecting what has to be rejected, sublimating what has to be sublimated, creating what has to be created.” Letters on Yoga
Will, there are many tangfed knots that have to be loosened and cannot be cut abruptly asunder. The Asura and Rakshasa hold this evolving earthly nature and have to be met and conquered on their own terms in their own long-conquered fief and pro- vince ; the human in us has to be led and prepared to transcend its limits and is too weak and obscure to be lifted up suddenly to a form far beyond it. The Divine Consciousness and Force are there and do at each moment the thing that is needed in the conditions of the labour, take always the step that fs decreed and shape In the midst of imperfection the perfection that is to come. But only when the supermiod has descended in you can she deal directly as the supramental Shakti with supramental natures. If you follow your mind, it will not recognise the hiother even when she is manifest before you. Follow your soul and not your mind, your soul that answers to the Truth, not your mind that leaps at appearances ; trust the Divine Power and she will free the godlike elements in you and shape all into an expression of Divine Nature.
yoga ::: joining, union; the union of the soul with the immortal being and consciousness and delight of the Divine; a methodised effort towards self-perfection by the expression of the potentialities latent in the being and union of the human individual with the universal and transcendent existence; [as opposed to Samkhya]: the concrete and synthetical realisation of truth in our experience; [a system of philosophy systematised by Patanjali, one of the six darsanas].
yogaṅga ::: the limbs or divisions of the yoga of self-perfection. yoganga
yoga-siddhi ::: [the perfection which comes by the practice of yoga].
yogasiddhi (yogasiddhi; yoga-siddhi; yoga siddhi) ::: "the perfection that comes from the practice of Yoga"; the progressive or eventual attainment of perfection (siddhi) in yoga, especially in the yoga of selfperfection outlined in the sapta catus.t.aya, often not including karma or the effective half of the karma catus.t.aya.
Yoga Slddhl ; The perfection that comes from the practice ot yoga can be best attained by the combined working of four great instruments. There is, first, the knowledge of the truths, princi- ples, powers and processes that govern the realisation — sdstra.
yogatattva (yogatattwa) ::: the principles of yoga, especially the yoga of self-perfection outlined in the sapta catus.t.aya.
yoga ::: union; "the union of that which has become separated in the play of the universe with its own true self, origin and universality"; any of various methods of seeking for such a union; especially the path of pūrn.a yoga, culminating in a "Yoga of self-perfection" by which the "liberated individual being, united with the Divine in self and spirit, becomes in his natural being a self-perfecting instrument for the perfect outflowering of the Divine in humanity". In Sri Aurobindo"s diary, "the Yoga" usually refers to his practice of this Yoga of self-. perfection, whose elements are enumerated in the sapta catus.t.aya; but the effective half of the karma catus.t.aya is for some purposes treated as part of "life" or the lila, as distinct from the yoga. yoga catustaya
“Zarathushtra is the Divine Universal Force that directs everything within the universe towards perfection. This force is known as Amesha-Spenta” (Shahrestani, Al-Melal Va Al-Nehal). This force is equivalent to the Gnostic primeval ruler or governor, the closest being to the creator; the active mind or intellect which is the source of divine bliss and providence, with the Manichaen pure or holy spirits; the Hebrew elohim, the Arabic Malaeka (angels); the Koranic soul within the angels; and the theosophic dhyani-chohans or dhyani-buddhas. They are the rulers of the seven globes of the earth-chain.
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1:Perfection is achieved only on the point of collapse.
~ C N Parkinson,#KEYS
2:True perfection seems imperfect, yet it is perfectly itself. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.45, #KEYS
3:Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
~ Aristotle,#KEYS
4:Cease to be a knower, then there is perfection. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
5:Happy is the soul that reaches the level of perfection that God desires!" ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
6:Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem, in my opinion, to characterize our age.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
7:That which results in peace is the highest perfection. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
8:The principal mark of genius is not perfection but originality, the opening of new frontiers. ~ Arthur Koestler, #KEYS
9:and the Prophet Muhammad is Kamal [Perfection]." ~ IbnArabi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
10:The svapna-siddha attains perfection by means of dream inspiration. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
11:It is an absolute and virtually divine perfection to know how to enjoy our being rightfully.
~ Michel de Montaigne,#KEYS
12:The perfection of evil is to be ignorant of the Divine. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
13:Our perfection does not consist of doing extraordinary things, but to do the ordinary well." ~ Saint Gabriel Possenti, #KEYS
14:Replace the eagerness for fame by the aspiration for perfection.
~ The Mother, On Education,#KEYS
15:Our creation, our perfection are our own work. ~ Antoine the Healer, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
16:Aversion is not equality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of Equality, #KEYS
17:Knowledge of the Self, which knows all, is Knowledge in perfection. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
18:When the mind merges in the Heart, it will attain perfection as peace. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
19:When celestial nobility is cultivated to perfection, human nobility follows. What can compare to that good fortune? ~ Liu Yiming, #KEYS
20:Ego is the principal knot. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of the Mental Being, #KEYS
21:The mind pre-eminently is man; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #KEYS
22:hosoever is truly enlightened, cannot fail to arrive at perfection. ~ Confucius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
23:Equality is the very sign of liberation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of Equality, #KEYS
24:The mantra-siddha is one who attains perfection by means of some sacred text or mantra. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
25:What is God?
God is the perfection that we must aspire to realise.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
26:All things, by desiring their own perfection, desire God Himself ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.6.1ad2). #KEYS
27:All things, by desiring their own perfection, desire God Himself ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.6.1ad2)., #KEYS
28:3) perfection consists in the attaining of something else as its end ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.6.3)., #KEYS
29:Be master of thy thoughts, O thou who strivest for perfection. ~ Book of Golden Precepts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
30:Be master of thy thoughts, O thou who wrest lest for perfection. ~ Book of Golden Precepts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
31:Renunciation is an indispensable instrument of our perfection. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Renunciation, #KEYS
32:If we practice love of neighbor with great perfection, we will have done everything. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #KEYS
33:The supreme divine nature is founded on equality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of Equality, #KEYS
34:Perfection cannot come without self-knowledge and God-knowledge. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, Above the Gunas, #KEYS
35:One man's perfection still can save the world. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Finding of the Soul, #KEYS
36:The Master used to say that attainment of perfection means becoming gentle. Maintain your equanimity under all circumstances. ~ Swami Akhandananda, #KEYS
37:That which is perfect is called Perfection. Never forget the Truth underlying all phenomena. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
38:Essential mentality is idealistic and a seeker after perfection. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #KEYS
39:Perfection is progressive, evolutive in Time. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Standards of Conduct and Spiritual Freedom, #KEYS
40:A perfected community also can exist only by the perfection of its individuals. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
41:Each individual mind is bound to attain to freedom, and perfection through gradual experience; by going through the process of evolution. ~ SWAMI ABHEDANANDA, #KEYS
42:Prakriti has to reveal itself as shakti of the Purusha. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Psychology of Self-Perfection, #KEYS
43:Good is our nature, perfection is our nature, not imperfection, not impurity — and we should remember that. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
44:One who is not self-ruler, cannot be master of his surroundings. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of Equality, #KEYS
45:Yoga is the unravelling of the knot of Life's difficulty. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Psychology of Self-Perfection, #KEYS
46:Perfection is the end and the beginning of all things, and without perfection they could not be. ~ Confucius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
47:The Gita says: "Of thousands of people, one strives for perfection, and maybe one among these comes to know Me." ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
48:The beginning of wisdom, perfection and beatitude is the vision of the One. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad, Self-Realisation, #KEYS
49:They had gained this supreme perfection, to be totally masters of their thoughts. ~ The Lotus of the Good Law, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
50:Purification is an essential means towards self-perfection. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of the Mental Being, #KEYS
51:They had attained to the supreme perfection of being completely masters of their thought. ~ The Lotus of Bliss, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
52:Purification is not complete till it brings about liberation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of the Mental Being, #KEYS
53:If you do not learn to deny yourself, you can make no progress in perfection. ~ Saint John of the Cross, The Collected Works of Saint John of the Cross, (1991), [T9], #KEYS
54:The very first necessity for spiritual perfection is a perfect equality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of Equality, #KEYS
55:Purification and freedom are the indispensable antecedents of perfection. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Elements of Perfection, #KEYS
56:Perfection comes by renunciation of desires and surrender to a higher Will. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II, Practical Concerns in Work, #KEYS
57:The man who lives in the bosom of the temptations of the world and attains perfection, is the true hero. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
58:After one has reached perfection, one becomes incapable of doing anything wrong. A perfect dancer never makes a wrong step. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
59:The characteristic law of Spirit is self-existent perfection and immutable infinity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #KEYS
60:Several actions are required for the perfection of Penance: contrition, confession, and satisfaction ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.90.1)., #KEYS
61:The gunas have to be transcended if we would arrive at spiritual perfection. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Liberation of the Nature, #KEYS
62:The perfection of virtue consists in a certain equality of soul and of conduct which should remain un-alterable. ~ Seneca, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
63:When the school of God's law admits this power of reason, it cultivates it diligently, skillfully nurtures it, and with God's help brings it to perfection. ~ Basil the Great, #KEYS
64:The virtue of a man who has attained to the height of perfection, extends even to a foreknowledge of the future. ~ Confucius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
65:Desire is the impurity of the Prana, the life-principle, and its chain of bondage. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of Equality, #KEYS
66:The lotus of the eternal knowledge and the eternal perfection is a bud closed and folded up within us.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, [T5],#KEYS
67:True good can only be obtained by our effort towards spiritual perfection and this effort is always in our power. ~ Epictetus, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
68:The perfection of man lies in the unfolding of the ever-perfect Spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Necessity of the Spiritual Transformation, #KEYS
69:He who consecrates his life to spiritual perfection, cannot be ill-content; for what he desires is always in his power. ~ Pascal, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
70:Individual perfection and liberation are not the whole sense of God's intention in the world. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #KEYS
71:Personality is a composition of Nature,—but a mental Person, manomaya puruṣa. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of the Mental Being, #KEYS
72:I must attain perfection in this life! I must find God with a single utterance!" By such violent love, the Lord is quickly attracted. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
73:What is God?
God is the perfection that we must aspire to realise. 8 November 1969
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, "The Divine" and "Man" [17],#KEYS
74:The kripa-siddhas attain perfection through the manifest grace of God, they are like a poor man made wealthy by the kindness of a king. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
75:The Hathat-siddhas attains perfection suddenly, as a poor man may suddenly become rich by finding hidden treasure or marrying into money. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
76:The kingdom of heaven is already in existence if we will have it, that perfection is already in man if he will see it. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. VI. 354), #KEYS
77:A greater perfection can only be arrived at by a higher power entering in and taking up the whole action of the being.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#KEYS
78:Dzogchen teaches that if we practice today, we will awaken today, and if we practice tonight, we will awaken tonight. ~ Lama Surya Das, Natural Radiance: Awakening to Your Great Perfection, #KEYS
79:One with little knowledge will go about preaching, but when the perfection of knowledge is obtained, one ceases to make such a vain display. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
80:The ever-perfect are born as Siddhas, and all their seeming effort for perfection are merely for the sake of setting an example to humanity. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
81:The ever-perfect are born as siddhas, and all their seeming effort for perfection are merely for the sake of setting an example to humanity. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
82:The soul's salvation cannot come without the soul's perfection, without its growing into the divine nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, Above the Gunas, #KEYS
83:Open yourself more and more to the Divine's force and your work will progress steadily towards perfection. With my Blessings.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
84:The more you surrender to the Divine, the more will there be the possibility of perfection in you. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II, Practical Concerns in Work, #KEYS
85:The nature of art is to strive after a nobler beauty and more sustained perfection than life can give. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, Recent English Poetry - I, #KEYS
86:The perfect society will be that which most entirely favours the perfection of the individual. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Imperfection of Past Aggregates, #KEYS
87:Mental perfection and moral are always closely allied to each other. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, To N. K. Gogte, #KEYS
88:Is there anything more wondrous, delicious, and entertaining than an imperfect human being trying to describe perfection?" ~ Sri Gawn Tu Fahr, (Jean-Pierre Gregoire) "Love's True Home.,", (2010)., #KEYS
89:Tt is only by liberation and perfection and realisation of the truth of being that man can arrive at truth of living. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
90:Whatever work you do, do it as perfectly as you can. That is the best service to the Divine in man
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, Progress and Perfection in Work,#KEYS
91:Gnosis is the characteristic, illumined, significant action of spirit in its own native reality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Psychology of Self-Perfection, #KEYS
92:A perfect equality not only of the self, but in the nature is a condition of the Yoga of self-perfection. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of Equality, #KEYS
93:Purification, liberation, perfection, delight of being are four constituent elements of the Yoga. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of the Mental Being, #KEYS
94:Sadhana [means] the practice by which perfection, Siddhi, is attained; sadhaka, the Yogin who seeks by that practice the Siddhi.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, 45,#KEYS
95:An attentive scrutiny of thy being will reveal to thee that it is one with the very essence of absolute perfection. ~ Buddhist Writings in the Japanese, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
96:The deepest meaning of freedom is the power to expand and grow towards perfection by the law of one's own nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, Religion as the Law of Life, #KEYS
97:All things, by desiring their own perfection, desire God Himself, inasmuch as the perfections of all things are so many similitudes of the divine being. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I.6.1 ad 2, #KEYS
98:Dharma means every ideal which we can propose to ourselves and the law of its working out and its action. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #KEYS
99:Our justice… is such that in this life it consists in the forgiveness of sins rather than in the perfection of virtue. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, City of God xix.26, #KEYS
100:To Him belong Beauty, Majesty and Perfection. His Perfection can be attained only by whose imperfection has passed away. ~ Abul Qasim al-Qushayri (r), @Sufi_Path #KEYS
101:The liberation from an externalised ego sense is the first step towards the soul's freedom and mastery. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of the Mental Being, #KEYS
102:It is in the latter way that he withdraws some from the use of wine, that they may aim at perfection, even as from riches and the like ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.149.3ad3), #KEYS
103:For the awakened individual the realisation of his truth of being and his inner liberation and perfection must be his primary seeking. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
104:A day spent without the sight or sound of beauty, the contemplation of mystery, or the search of truth or perfection is a poverty-stricken day; and a succession of such days is fatal to human life. ~ Lewis Mumford, #KEYS
105:Placed on the borders of Time and Eternity...he holds himself somehow erect at the horizon of Nature...Spiritual perfection is his true destiny. ~ Giordano Bruno, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
106:The Divine is the perfection towards which we move. And if you like, I shall lead you to Him very willingly. Have confidence.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, "The Divine" and "Man",#KEYS
107:The emergence and growth of consciousness is the central motive of the evolution and the key to its secret purpose. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #KEYS
108:The happiness of each thing resides in its own proper perfection, and this perfection is nothing else for each individual than union with his own Cause. ~ Sallust, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
109:The silence of the Ineffable is a truth of divine being, but the Word which proceeds from that silence is also a truth. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of Equality, #KEYS
110:Regarding virtue, perfection consists in man not following the passions of the body, but moderating and controlling them in accordance with reason ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ScG 2.79), #KEYS
111:If you don't succeed in meditation, practice Japa. Japa leads to perfection. One attains perfection through Japa. If a meditative mood sets in well and good. If not, don't force your mind to meditate. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
112:One has to seek Beauty and Truth... As I always say to my pupils, you have to work to the finish. There's only one kind of painting. It is the painting that presents the eye with perfection... ~ William-Adolphe Bouguereau, #KEYS
113:Since this intelligence is Divine being, it isn't perfected by an added perfection. It is perfect thru itself. So the Divine substance is truth itself ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ScG 1.60)., #KEYS
114:All the movement and action of Rudra the Terrible is towards perfection and divine light and completeness. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Vision of the World-Spirit - The Double Aspect, #KEYS
115:He who labors as he prays lifts his heart to God with his hands. Whenever you begin any good work you should first of all make a most pressing appeal to Christ our Lord to bring it to perfection. ~ Saint Benedict of Nursia, #KEYS
116:In all forms in the world there is a force at work, unconsciously active or oppressed by inertia in its lower formulations. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #KEYS
117:God's creatures are perfect in their nature and order, and their perfection requires among other things that they be kept in existence by God ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (On God's Power 5.1ad1)., #KEYS
118:By practicing spiritual disciplines, you attain perfection by His grace. Of course some effort is necessary, but it ultimately ends in Realization of God and attainment of bliss. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
119:However high be your endeavors, unless you renounce and subjugate your own will - unless you forget yourself and all that pertains to yourself - not one step will you advance on the road to perfection. ~ Saint John of the Cross, #KEYS
120:To do at each moment the best we can and leave the result to the Divine's decision, is the surest way to peace, happiness, strength, progress and final perfection.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
121:We perceive that this miraculous development is not the result of our own efforts: an eternal Perfection is moulding us into its own image
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Four Aids [63],#KEYS
122:He alone knows the law of life. Whoever does not seek out clearly what is the true good, cannot correct himself with sincerity and does not arrive at true perfection. ~ Confucius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
123:Whosoever recognises at all times his faults of omission and cleanses himself by observing the ways of purity in each one of his actions, shall attain to perfection. ~ Udanavarga, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
124:Those who wish to attain God and progress in religious devotion, should particularly guard themselves against the snares of lust and wealth. Otherwise they can never attain perfection. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
125:The physical body is therefore a basis of action, pratiṣṭhā, which cannot be despised, neglected or excluded from the spiritual evolution. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Elements of Perfection, #KEYS
126:A divine life in a material world implies necessarily a union of the two ends of existence, the spiritual summit and the material base. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #KEYS
127:A perfection of the body as the outer instrument of a complete divine living on earth will be necessarily a part of the gnostic conversion. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Elements of Perfection, #KEYS
128:For even he who is most greedy for knowledge can achieve no greater perfection than to be thoroughly aware of his own ignorance in his particular field. The more be known, the more aware he will be of his ignorance. ~ Nicholas of Cusa, #KEYS
129:I judged not myself to know anything among you but Jesus Christ and him crucified" ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (1 Cor 2:2). For in the Cross is the perfection of all law and the whole art of living well., #KEYS
130: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
131:A still heart, a clear mind and untroubled nerves are the very first necessity for the perfection of our Yoga. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, To Motilal Roy, #KEYS
132:The harm that comes to souls from the lack of reading holy books makes me shudder . . . What power spiritual reading has to lead to a change of course, and to make even worldly people enter into the way of perfection." ~ Saint Padre Pio, #KEYS
133:Abnormality in Nature is no objection, no necessary sign of imperfection, but may well be an effort at a much greater perfection. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Necessity of the Spiritual Transformation, #KEYS
134:I pay homage to the Perfection of Wisdom. She is worthy of homage. She is unstained, and the entire world cannot stain her. She is a source of light, and from everyone in the triple world she removes darkness. ~ Ashta-sahasrika, VII, 170, #KEYS
135:What does matter is how well they perform and how smoothly they fit with other programs in the creation of still greater programs. The programmer must seek both perfection of part and adequacy of collection. ~ Alan Perlis, SICP, Foreward, #KEYS
136:Even in the most purely mental activities the fitness, readiness or perfect training of the bodily instrument is a condition indispensable. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #KEYS
137:He who contemplates the supreme Truth, contemplates the perfect Essence; only the vision of the spirit can see this nature of ineffable perfection. ~ Buddhist Mediations from the Japanese, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
138:21. God had opened my eyes; for I saw the nobility of the vulgar, the attractiveness of the repellent, the perfection of the maimed and the beauty of the hideous.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays Divine And Human, Jnana,#KEYS
139:His Mercy is so great that he hinders no one from drinking from the fountain of life. Indeed, he calls us loudly to do so (Jn 7:37). But he is so good that he will not force us to drink of it. ~ Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection ch. 20, #KEYS
140:Not all can attain to the perfection of wisdom as Solomon or Daniel did, but the spirit of wisdom is poured out on all according to their capacity, that is, on all the faithful. If you believe, you have the spirit of wisdom. ~ Saint Ambrose, #KEYS
141:The holy Eucharist is a great means through which to aspire to perfection. But we must receive it with the desire and intention of removing from the heart all that is displeasing to him with whom we wish to dwell. ~ Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
142:Matter is a formation of life that has no real existence apart from the informing universal spirit which gives it its energy and substance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Psychology of Self-Perfection, #KEYS
143:To seize the absolute in shapes that pass,
To fix the eternal's touch in time-made things,
This is the law of all perfection here. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdom of Subtle Matter,#KEYS
144:Whoever prays for the coming of the kingdom of God within himself is praying rightly, praying for the kingdom to dawn in him, bear fruit and reach perfection. For God reigns in every saint, and every saint obeys God's spiritual laws. ~ Origen, #KEYS
145:Perfection is the true aim of all culture, the spiritual and psychic, the mental, the vital and it must be the aim of our physical culture also. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #KEYS
146:The godhead in us is our spirit moving towards its own concealed perfection, must be a supreme spiritual law and truth of our nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Standards of Conduct and Spiritual Freedom, #KEYS
147:There is no culture, no civilisation ancient or modern which in its system has been entirely satisfactory to the need of perfection in man. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, Indian Spirituality and Life - IV, #KEYS
148:When the thought of a man is without attachment, when he has conquered himself and is rid of desire, by that renunciation he reaches a supreme perfection of quietude. ~ Bhagavad Gita XVIII. 49, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
149:Keep yourself open to the Mother and in perfect union with her. Make yourself entirely plastic to her touch and let her mould you swiftly towards perfection. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Mother With Letters On The Mother, [T2], #KEYS
150:One who during his contemplation is entirely inconscient of all external things to such a point that if birds made a nest in his hair he would not know it, has acquired the perfection of meditation. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
151:... the more one needs God the more perfect he is. To need God is nothing to be ashamed of but is perfection itself. It is the saddest thing in the world if a human being goes through life without discovering that he needs God! ~ Soren Kierkegaard, #KEYS
152:We will have to cover the whole universe by the Lord Himself. If we cannot do that how can we expect to reach perfection, how can we expect to realize the eternal and infinite ocean of wisdom as the foundation of this universe? ~ SWAMI ABHEDANANDA, #KEYS
153:A divine Descent no less than an ascent to the Divine is possible; there is a prospect of the bringing down of a future perfection and a present deliverance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Master of the Work, #KEYS
154:Do not lose heart. Obstacles are stepping stones to success. They will develop your will. Do not allow yourself to be crushed by them. Defects remind you of perfection. Sin reminds you of virtue. Chose the positive path. ~ Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #KEYS
155:Jnana does not come gradually, little by little, day by day.
It blazes forth all at once in all its fullness,
when the practice has matured to perfection.
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Sri Ramana Gita, ch 17, v3,#KEYS
156:An idea,
Each deemed Truth's intimate fount and summit force,
The heart of the meaning of the universe,
Perfection's key, passport to Paradise. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Heavens of the Ideal,#KEYS
157:Whenever a name taken from any created perfection is attributed to God, it must be separated in its signification from all that belongs to that imperfect mode proper to creatures ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.14.1ad1)., #KEYS
158: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
159:It is not by books that Sri Aurobindo ought to be studied but by subjects - what he has said on the Divine, on Unity, on religion, on evolution, on education, on self-perfection, on supermind, etc., etc.
~ The Mother, On Education, 205,#KEYS
160:One who during his contemplation is entirely inconscient of all external things to such a point that if birds made a nest in his hair he would not know it, has acquired the perfection of meditation. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
161:There are higher levels of the mind than any we now conceive and to these we must one day reach and rise beyond them to the heights of a greater, a spiritual existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #KEYS
162:The widest synthesis of perfection possible to thought is the sole effort entirely worthy of those whose dedicated vision perceives that God dwells concealed in humanity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Synthesis of the Systems, #KEYS
163:The Spirit raises our hearts to heaven, guides the steps of the weak, and brings to perfection those who are making progress. He enlightens those who have been cleansed from every stain of sin and makes them spiritual by communion with himself. ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
164:The sacrifice and the divine return for our sacrifice then become a gladly accepted means towards our last perfection; for it is recognised now as the road to the fulfilment in us of the eternal purpose.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#KEYS
165:Beloved, see what a marvellous thing love is; its perfection is beyond our expression. Who can truly love save those to whom God grants it? We ought to beg and beseech him in his mercy that our love may be genuine, unmarred by any too human inclination. ~ Pope St. Clement I, #KEYS
166:The building up of the church by the conversion of faithful does not pertain to the perfection of Christ, whereby He is perfect in Himself, but inasmuch as it leads others to a share of His perfection ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.7.4ad3)., #KEYS
167:A circuit ending where it first began
Is dubbed the forward and eternal march
Of progress on perfection's unknown road. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.06,#KEYS
168:What we call the Inconscient is an appearance, a dwelling place, an instrument of a secret Consciousness or a Superconscient which has created the miracle we call the universe. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #KEYS
169:None is greater than he. The gods themselves will have to descend upon earth and it is in a human form that they will get their salvation. Man alone reaches the perfection of which the gods themselves are ignorant. ~ Vivekananda, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
170:A Divine perfection of the human being is our aim. We must know then first what are the essential elements that constitute man's total perfection; secondly, what we mean by a divine as distinguished from a human perfection of our being.
~ Sri Aurobindo,#KEYS
171:It is difficult to become a saint. Difficult, but not impossible. The road to perfection is long, as long as one's lifetime. Along the way, consolation becomes rest; but as soon as your strength is restored, you must diligently get up and resume the trip. ~ Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
172:If a man chooses a certain Way and seems to have no particular talent for this Way, he can still become a master if he so chooses. By keeping at a particular form of study a man can attain perfection either in this life or the next (if a next life is believed in). ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
173:In the totality of the change we have to achieve, human means and forces too have to be taken up, not dropped but used and magnified to their utmost possibility as part of the new life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #KEYS
174:Japa brings perfection & fulfillment, this is certainly true. When japa becomes very absorbing, meditation & holding the mind become spontaneous. Like an unbroken stream of oil, japa flows incessantly. Then the external japa comes to an end; japa continues within ~ Swami Adbhutananda, #KEYS
175:Human perfection resides in this: that the love of God should conquer a man's heart and possess it wholly, and even if it does not possess it wholly it should predominate in the heart over the love of all other things. ~ Imam Al Ghazali, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
176:But it is in itself a secondary aim[transcending the ego]; to find, know and possess the Divine existence, consciousness and nature and to live in it for the Divine is our true aim and the one perfection to which we must aspire.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#KEYS
177:To cease to be identified with the body, to separate oneself from the body-consciousness, is a recognised and necessary step whether towards spiritual liberation or towards spiritual perfection and mastery over Nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Gnostic Being, #KEYS
178:This bright perfection of her inner state
Poured overflowing into her outward scene,
Made beautiful dull common natural things
And action wonderful and time divine. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Nirvana and the Discovery of the All-Negating Absolute,#KEYS
179:All that man does comes to its perfection in knowledge. That do thou learn by prostration to the wise and by questioning and by serving them; they who have the knowledge and see the truths of things shall instruct thee in the knowledge. ~ Bhagavadgita IV-33-34, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
180: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
181:Man's law of progress progress perfection man
He [man] needs the help of the secret Divine above his mentality in his superconscient self; he needs the help also of the secret Divine around him in Nature and in his fellow-men. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Ideal Law of Social Development,#KEYS
182:Four roads to perfection: the way of the novice, the way of the warrior, the way of the conqueror, the way of the saint. Four conditions that we may enter into the way: the society of the just, an ear given to instruction, vigilance, a life of righteousness. ~ Anguttara Nikaya, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
183:If we walk in the path of true wisdom avoiding the two errors (asceticism and mortifications and the sensual life) we shall attain to the highest perfection. If religion consisted solely in mortifications and asceticism, it could never lead n.; to Peace. ~ Fo-sho-hing-san king, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
184:Having attained to that unalterable calm which nothing can trouble one can afterwards meditate and form an assured judgment on the essence of things; when one has meditated and formed a sure judgment on the essence of things, afterwards one can attain to the desired state of perfection. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
185:But all life, when we look behind its appearances, is a vast Yoga of Nature who attempts in the conscious and the subconscious to realise her perfection in an ever-increasing expression of her yet unrealised potentialities and to unite herself with her own divine reality.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, 6,#KEYS
186:A Mother-wisdom works in Nature's breast
To pour delight on the heart of toil and want
And press perfection on life's stumbling powers,
Impose heaven-sentience on the obscure abyss
And make dumb Matter conscious of its God. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Birth and Childhood of the Flame,#KEYS
187:It is the way of complete God-realisation, a complete Self-realisation, a complete fulfillment of our being and consciousness, a complete transformation of our nature - and this implies a complete perfection of life here and not only a return to an eternal perfection elsewhere
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays Divine And Human,#KEYS
188:Having attained to that unalterable calm which nothing can trouble one can afterwards meditate and form an assured judgment on the essence of things; when one has meditated and formed a sure judgment on the essence of things, afterwards one can attain to the desired state of perfection. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
189:We should cast aside all childish games that fetter and exhaust body, speech and mind. Stretching out in inconceivable nonaction, in the unstructured matrix, the actuality of emptiness, where the natural perfection of reality lies, we should gaze at the uncontrived sameness of every experience, all conditioning and ambition resolved with finality. ~ Longchenpa, #KEYS
190:On every plane the hieratic Power,
Initiate of unspoken verities,
Dreams to transcribe and make a part of life
In its own native style and living tongue
Some trait of the perfection of the Unborn,
Some vision seen in the omniscient Light,
Some ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdom of Subtle Matter,#KEYS
191:The Self in man enlarging light and knowledge and harmonising will with light and knowledge so as to fulfil in life what he has seen in his increasing vision and idea of the Self, this is man's source and law of progress and the secret of his impulse towards perfection. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle: The Ideal Law of Social Development #KEYS
192:He feels himself to be master of the universe, his "I" floats in power above this gulf and Will range across eternity above these infinite vicissitudes. His spirit endeavours to announce and spread harmony. And through endless ages his union with Self and his creation which surrounds him will increase in perfection. ~ Novalis, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
193:Whoever wishes to attain to the highest perfection of his being and to the vision of the supreme good, must have a knowledge of himself as of the things about him to the very core. It is only so that he can arrive at the supreme clarity. Therefore learn to know thyself, that is better for thee than to know all the powers of the creation. ~ Maitre Eckhart, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
194:All worshipped marvellingly, none dared to claim.
Her mind sat high pouring its golden beams,
Her heart was a crowded temple of delight.
A single lamp lit in perfection's house,
A bright pure image in a priestless shrine,
Midst those encircling lives her spirit dwelt,
Apart in herself until her hour of fate. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 4:2,#KEYS
195:Every man has in him something divine, something his own, a chance of strength and perfection in however small a sphere, which God offers him to take or refuse. The task is to find it, develop it, use it. The chief aim of education should be to help the growing soul to draw out that in itself which is best and make it perfect for a noble use. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Early Cultural Writings, #KEYS
196:For those who are afraid of a word: This is what we mean by Divine: all the knowledge we have to acquire, all the power we have to obtain, all the love we have to become, all the perfection we have to achieve, all the harmonious and progressive poise we have to manifest in light and joy, all the new and unknown splendours that have to be realised.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
197:The aim of a human perfection must include, if it is to deserve the name, two things, self-mastery and a mastery of the surroundings; it must seek for them in the greatest degree of these powers which is at all attainable by our human nature. Man's urge of self-perfection is to be, in the ancient language, svarat and samrat, self-ruler and king.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#KEYS
198:UB 1:4.1. The infinity of the perfection of God is such that it eternally constitutes him mystery. And the greatest of all the unfathomable mysteries of God is the phenomenon of the divine indwelling of mortal minds. The manner in which the Universal Father sojourns with the creatures of time is the most profound of all universe mysteries; the divine presence in the mind of man is the mystery of mysteries. ~ The Urantia Papers, #KEYS
199:Only those years that are passed uselessly make you grow old.
A year spent uselessly is a year during which no progress has been accomplished, no growth in consciousness has been achieved, no further step has been taken towards perfection.
Consecrate your life to the realisation of something higher and broader than yourself and you will never feel the weight of the passing years. ~ The Mother, Words of the Mother III#KEYS
200:upon a supramental collective :::
But if a collectivity or group could be formed of those who had reached the supramental perfection, there indeed some divine creation could take shape; a new earth could descend that would be a new heaven, a world of supamental light could be created here amidst the receding darkness of this terrestrial ignorance.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Divine Works, Standards of Conduct and Spiritual Freedom,#KEYS
201:Help yourself during this troubled period by reading holy books. This reading provides excellent food for the soul and conduces to great progress along the path of perfection. By no means is it inferior to what we obtain through prayer and holy meditation. In prayer and meditation it is ourselves who speak to the Lord, while in holy reading it is God who speaks to us. Before beginning to read, raise your mind to the Lord and implore Him to guide your mind Himself, to speak to your heart and move your will. ~ Saint Padre Pio, #KEYS
202:We have come from God, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, will also reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God. Indeed only by myth-making, only by becoming 'sub-creator' and inventing stories, can Man aspire to the state of perfection that he knew before the Fall. Our myths may be misguided, but they steer however shakily towards the true harbour, while materialistic 'progress' leads only to a yawning abyss and the Iron Crown of the power of evil. ~ J.R.R. Tolkien #KEYS
203:The centre of the Mother's symbol represent the Divine Consciousness, the Supreme Mother, the Mahashakti.
The four petals of the Mother's symbol represent the four Aspects or Personalities of the Mother; Maheshwari (Wisdom), Mahalakshmi(Harmony), Mahakali(Strength) and Mahasaraswati (Perfection).
The twelve petals of the Mother's symbol represent; Sincerity, Humility, Gratitude, Perseverance, Aspiration, Receptivity, Progress, Courage, Goodness, Generosity, Equality, Peace.
~ ?, https://www.auroville.com/silver-ring-mother-s-symbol.html, [T5],#KEYS
204:States of consciousness there are in which Death is only a change in immortal Life, pain a violent backwash of the waters of universal delight, limitation a turning of the Infinite upon itself, evil a circling of the good around its own perfection; and this not in abstract conception only, but in actual vision and in constant and substantial experience. To arrive at such states of consciousness may, for the individual, be one of the most important and indispensable steps of his progress towards self-perfection.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,#KEYS
205: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
206:Mind, heart, life, body are to do the works of the Divine, all the works which they do now and yet more, but to do them divinely, as now they do not do them. This is the first appearance of the problem before him on which the seeker of perfection has to lay hold, that it is not a negative, prohibitory, passive or quietistic, but a positive, affirmative, active purity which is his object. A divine quietism discovered the immaculate eternity of the Spirit, a divine kinetism adds to it the right pure undeviating action of the soul, mind and body.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#KEYS
207:The Divine is in his essence infinite and his manifestation too is multitudinously infinite. If that is so, it is not likely that our true integral perfection in being and in nature can come by one kind of realisation alone; it must combine many different strands of divine experience. It cannot be reached by the exclusive pursuit of a single line of identity till that is raised to its absolute; it must harmonise many aspects of the Infinite. An integral consciousness with a multiform dynamic experience is essential for the complete transformation of our nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, p. 114, #KEYS
208:There exist two extremes, O my brothers, to which he who aspires to liberation should never abandon himself. One of these extremes is the continual seeking after the satisfaction of the passions and the sensuality; that is vile, coarse, debasing and fatal, that is the road of the children of this world. The other extreme is a life consecrated to mortifications and asceticism; that is full of sorrow, suffering and inutility. Alone the middle path which the Perfect has discovered, avoids these two blind-alleys, accords clearsightedness, opens the intelligence and conducts to liberation, wisdom and perfection. ~ Mahavaga, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
209:I am not a philosopher, I am not a scholar, I am not a savant, and I declare it very loudly: neither a philosopher nor a scholar nor a savant. And no pretension. Nor a littérateur, nor an artist - I am nothing at all. I am truly convinced of this. And it's absolutely unimportant - that's perfection for human beings. There is no greater joy than to know that you can do nothing and are absolutely helpless, that you're not the one who does, and that what little is done - little or big, it doesn't matter - is done by the Lord; and the responsibility is fully His. That makes you happy. With that, you are happy. Voilà.
~ The Mother, Agenda Vol 5, Satprem,#KEYS
210:Hermetic philosophy is complex and many-layered. At the heart, the Hermetics profess the drive to perfection. This drive manifests through trials, tests, self-discovery, and the rejoining of fragmented patterns like disparate languages or mathematical conundrums. Ideally, each individual has a Word, a divine imperative that drives the figure's revelations. By exploring the boundaries of that Word and all of its meanings, the individual rises to his inner nature, then beyond. Each step in the process is a challenge that requires a leap of perception but also opens the way to the next path. Eventually, the human passes far enough to become something cosmically divine. ~ Mage the Ascension, Order of Hermes, #KEYS
211:It is therefore sufficient to start by one of them and find the point at which it meets the other at first parallel lines of advance and melts into them by its own widenings. At the same time a more difficult, complex, wholly powerful process would be to start, as it were, on three lines together, on a triple wheel of soul-power But the consideration of this possibility must be postponed till we have seen what are the conditions and means of the Yoga of self-perfection. For we shall see that this also need not be postponed entirely, but a certain preparation of it is part of and a certain initiation into it proceeds by the growth of the divine works, love and knowledge.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#KEYS
212:all life is yoga.. :::
In the right view both of life and of Yoga all life is either consciously or subconsciously a Yoga. For we mean by this term a methodised effort towards self-perfection by the expression of the secret potentialities latent in the being and - highest condition of victory in that effort - union of the human individual with the universal and transcendent Existence we see partially expressed in man and in the Cosmos. But all life, when we look behind its appearances, is a vast Yoga of Nature who attempts in the conscious and the subconscious to realise her perfection in an ever-increasing expression of her yet unrealised potentialities and to unite herself with her own divine reality.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, 6,#KEYS
213:But his most important capacity is that of developing the powers of the higher principles in himself, a greater power of life, a purer light of mind, the illumination of supermind, the infinite being, consciousness and delight of spirit. By an ascending movement he can develop his human imperfection towards that greater perfection. But whatever his aim, however exalted his aspiration, he has to begin from the law of his present imperfection, to take full account of it and see how it can be converted to the law of a possible perfection. This present law of his being starts from the inconscience of the material universe, an involution of the soul in form and subjection to material nature; and
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Psychology Of Perfection,#KEYS
214:the threefold character of the union :::
The first is the liberation from the Ignorance and identification with the Real and Eternal, moksa, sayujya, which is the characteristic aim of the Yoga of Knowledge. The second, the dwelling of the soul with or in the Divine, samipya, salokya, is the intense hope of all Yoga of love and beatitude, The third, identity in nature, likeness to the Divine, to be perfect as That is perfect, is the highest intention of all Yoga of power and perfection or of divine works and service. The combined completeness of the three together, founded here on a multiple Unity of the self-manifesting Divine, is the complete result of the integral Yoga, the goal of its triple Path and the fruit of its triple sacrifice.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#KEYS
215:The full recognition of this inner Guide, Master of the Yoga, lord, light, enjoyer and goal of all sacrifice and effort, is of the utmost importance in the path of integral perfection. It is immaterial whether he is first seen as an impersonal Wisdom, Love and Power behind all things, as an Absolute manifesting in the relative and attracting it, as one's highest Self and the highest Self of all, as a Divine Person within us and in the world, in one of his-or her-numerous forms and names or as the ideal which the mind conceives. In the end we perceive that he is all and more than all these things together. The mind's door of entry to the conception of him must necessarily vary according to the past evolution and the present nature.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Four Aids, 62,#KEYS
216:The Soul watches the ceaselessly changing universe and follows all the fate of all its works: this is its life, and it knows no respite from this care, but is ever labouring to bring about perfection, planning to lead all to an unending state of excellence- like a farmer, first sowing and planting and then constantly setting to rights where rainstorms and long frosts and high gales have played havoc... Well, perhaps even the less good has its contributory value in the All. Perhaps there is no need that everything be good. Contraries may co-operate; and without opposites there could be no ordered Universe: all living beings of the partial realm include contraries. The better elements are compelled into existence and moulded to their function by the Reason-Principle directly
~ Plotinus, 2 Ennead 3:16,#KEYS
217:But what Nature aims at for the mass in a slow evolution, Yoga effects for the individual by a rapid revolution. It works by a quickening of all her energies, a sublimation of all her faculties. While she develops the spiritual life with difficulty and has constantly to fall back from it for the sake of her lower realisations, the sublimated force, the concentrated method of Yoga can attain directly and carry with it the perfection of the mind and even, if she will, the perfection of the body. Nature seeks the Divine in her own symbols: Yoga goes beyond Nature to the Lord of Nature, beyond universe to the Transcendent and can return with the transcendent light and power, with the fiat of the Omnipotent.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Conditions Of The Synthesis, The Threefold Life, 29,#KEYS
218:[the four aids ::: YOGA-SIDDHI, the perfection that comes from the practice of Yoga, can be best attained by the combined working of four great instruments. There is, first, the knowledge of the truths, principles, powers and processes that govern the realisation - sastra. Next comes a patient and persistent action on the lines laid down by this knowledge, the force of our personal effort - utsaha. There intervenes, third, uplifting our knowledge and effort into the domain of spiritual experience, the direct suggestion, example and influence of the Teacher - guru. Last comes the instrumentality of Time - kala; for in all things there is a cycle of their action and a period of the divine movement.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Divine Works, The Four Aids, 53 [T0],#KEYS
219:Above her little finite steps she feels,
Careless of knot or pause, worlds which weave out
A strange perfection beyond law and rule,
A universe of self-found felicity,
An inexpressible rhythm of timeless beats,
The many-movemented heart-beats of the One,
Magic of the boundless harmonies of self,
Order of the freedom of the infinite,
The wonder-plastics of the Absolute.
There is the All-Truth and there the timeless bliss.
But hers are fragments of a star-lost gleam,
Hers are but careless visits of the gods.
They are a Light that fails, a Word soon hushed
And nothing they mean can stay for long on earth.
There are high glimpses, not the lasting sight.
A few can climb to an unperishing sun,
Or live on the edges of the mystic moon
And channel to earth-mind the wizard ray. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Eternal Day,#KEYS
220:This third and unknown, this tertium quid, he names God; and by the word he means somewhat or someone who is the Supreme, the Divine, the Cause, the All, one of these things or all of them at once, the perfection or the totality of all that here is partial or imperfect, the absolute of all these myriad relativities, the Unknown by learning of whom the real secret of the known can become to him more and more intelligible. Man has tried to deny all these categories, - he has tried to deny his own real existence, he has tried to deny the real existence of the cosmos, he has tried to deny the real existence of God. But behind all these denials we see the same constant necessity of his attempt at knowledge; for he feels the need of arriving at a unity of these three terms, even if it can only be done by suppressing two of them or merging them in the other that is left.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,#KEYS
221:The method we have to pursue, then, 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 Sadhaka of the sadhana 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.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Conditions of the Synthesis, The Synthesis of the Systems, 45,#KEYS
222:55: 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
223:burden and advantage to an Integral Yoga; :::
...The hope of an integral transformation forbids us to take a short cut or to make ourselves light for the race by throwing away our impedimenta. For we have set out to conquer all ourselves and the world for God; ... Our compensation is that even if the path is that even if the path is more rugged, the effort more complex and baffling arduous, yet after a certain point we gain an immense advantage. For once our minds are reasonably fixed in the central vision and our wills are on the whole converted to the single pursuit, Life becomes our helper. Intent, vigilant, integrally conscious, we can take every detail of its forms and every incident of its movements as food for the sacrificial Fire within us. Victorious in the struggle, we can compel Earth herself to be an aid towards our perfection and can enrich our realisation with the booty torn from the Powers that oppose us.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, 74,#KEYS
224:For ages this idea has been proclaimed in the consummately wise teachings of religion, probably not alone as a means of ensuring peace and harmony among men, but as a deeply founded truth. The Buddhist expresses it in one way, the Christian in another, but both say the same: We are all one. Metaphysical proofs are, however, not the only ones which we are able to bring forth in support of this idea. Science, too, recognizes this connectedness of separate individuals, though not quite in the same sense as it admits that the suns, planets, and moons of a constellation are one body, and there can be no doubt that it will be experimentally confirmed in times to come, when our means and methods for investigating psychical and other states and phenomena shall have been brought to great perfection. Still more: this one human being lives on and on. The individual is ephemeral, races and nations come and pass away, but man remains. Therein lies the profound difference between the individual and the whole. ~ Nikola Tesla, #KEYS
225:Four Powers Of The Mother
In talking about the four powers of the Mother, it helps to know that in India, traditionally, the evolutionary principle of creation is approached, and adored, as the great Mother. Sri Aurobindo distinguishes four main powers and personalities through which this evolutionary force manifests.
Maheshwari - One is her personality of calm wideness and comprehending wisdom and tranquil benignity and inexhaustible compassion and sovereign and surpassing majesty and all-ruling greatness.
Mahakali - Another embodies her power of splendid strength and irresistible passion, her warrior mood, her overwhelming will, her impetuous swiftness and world-shaking force.
Mahalakshmi - A third is vivid and sweet and wonderful with her deep secret of beauty and harmony and fine rhythm, her intricate and subtle opulence, her compelling attraction and captivating grace.
Mahasaraswati - The fourth is equipped with her close and profound capacity of intimate knowledge and careful flawless work and quiet and exact perfection in all things.
~ ?, https://www.auroville.com/silver-ring-mother-s-symbol.html,#KEYS
226:the supreme third period of greater divine equality :::
If we can pass through these two stages of the inner change without being arrested or fixed in either, we are admitted to a greater divine equality which is capable of a spiritual ardour and tranquil passion of delight, a rapturous, all-understanding and all-possessing equality of the perfected soul, an intense and even wideness and fullness of its being embracing all things. This is the supreme period and the passage to it is through the joy of a total self-giving to the Divine and to the universal Mother. For strength is then crowned by a happy mastery, peace deepens into bliss, the possession of the divine calm is uplifted and made the ground for the possession of the divine movement. But if this greater perfection is to arrive, the soul's impartial high-seatedness looking down from above on the flux of forms and personalities and movements and forces must be modified and change into a new sense of strong and calm submission and a powerful and intense surrender. ...
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Equality and the Annihilation of Ego,#KEYS
227:Do not be over-eager for experience, - for experiences you can always get, having once broken the barrier between the physical mind and the subtle planes. What you have to aspire for most is the improved quality of the recipient consciousness in you - discrimination in the mind, the unattached impersonal Witness look on all that goes on in you and around you, purity in the vital, calm equanimity, enduring patience, absence of pride and the sense of greatness - and more especially, the development of the psychic being in you - surrender, self-giving, psychic humility, devotion. It is a consciousness made up of these things, cast in this mould that can bear without breaking, stumbling or deviation into error the rush of lights, powers and experiences from the supraphysical planes. An entire perfection in these respects is hardly possible until the whole nature from the highest mind to the subconscient physical is made one in the light that is greater than Mind; but a sufficient foundation and a consciousness always self-observant, vigilant and growing in these things is indispensable
- for perfect purification is the basis of the perfect siddhi. ~ ?,#KEYS
228: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
229:In Hathayoga the instrument is the body and life. All the power of the body is stilled, collected, purified, heightened, concentrated to its utmost limits or beyond any limits by Asana and other physical processes; the power of the life too is similarly purified, heightened, concentrated by Asana and Pranayama. This concentration of powers is then directed towards that physical centre in which the divine consciousness sits concealed in the human body. The power of Life, Nature-power, coiled up with all its secret forces asleep in the lowest nervous plexus of the earth-being,-for only so much escapes into waking action in our normal operations as is sufficient for the limited uses of human life,-rises awakened through centre after centre and awakens, too, in its ascent and passage the forces of each successive nodus of our being, the nervous life, the heart of emotion and ordinary mentality, the speech, sight, will, the higher knowledge, till through and above the brain it meets with and it becomes one with the divine consciousness.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Self-Perfection, The Principle of the Integral Yoga, 609,#KEYS
230:Find That Something :::
We can, simply by a sincere aspiration, open a sealed door in us and find... that Something which will change the whole significance of life, reply to all our questions, solve all our problems and lead us to the perfection we aspire for without knowing it, to that Reality which alone can satisfy us and give us lasting joy, equilibrium, strength, life.
All have heard it - Oh! there are even some here who are so used to it that for them it seems to be the same thing as drinking a glass of water or opening a window to let in the sunlight....
We have tried a little, but now we are going to try seriously!
The starting-point: to want it, truly want it, to need it. The next step: to think, above all, of that. A day comes, very quickly, when one is unable to think of anything else.
That is the one thing which counts. And then... One formulates one's aspiration, lets the true prayer spring up from one's heart, the prayer which expresses the sincerity of the need. And then... well, one will see what happens.
Something will happen. Surely something will happen. For each one it will take a different form.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1957-1958,#KEYS
231: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
232:five schools of yoga :::
For if, leaving aside the complexities of their particular processes, we fix our regard on the central principle of the chief schools of Yoga still prevalent in India, we find that they arrange themselves in an ascending order which starts from the lowest rung of the ladder, the body, and ascends to the direct contact between the individual soul and the transcendent and universal Self. Hathayoga selects the body and the vital functionings as its instruments of perfection and realisation; its concern is with the gross body. Rajayoga selects the mental being in its different parts as its lever-power; it concentrates on the subtle body. The triple Path of Works, of Love and of Knowledge uses some part of the mental being, will, heart or intellect as a starting-point and seeks by its conversion to arrive at the liberating Truth, Beatitude and Infinity which are the nature of the spiritual life.Its method is a direct commerce between the human Purusha in the individual body and the divine Purusha who dwells in everybody and yet transcends all form and name.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Introduction - The Conditions of the Synthesis, The Systems of Yoga,#KEYS
233:I accept, will not give up, and will practice each of the Three Jewels,
And will not let go of my guru or my yidam deity.
As the samaya of the Buddha, first among the Three Jewels,
I will apply myself to the true, essential reality.
As the samaya of sacred Dharma, second among the Three Jewels,
I will distill the very essence of all the vehicles' teachings.
As the samaya of the Sangha, the third and final Jewel,
I will look upon reality; I will behold pure awareness.
And as the samaya of the guru and the yidam deity,
I will take my very own mind, my pure mind, as a witness.
Generally speaking, the Three Jewels should be regarded as the ultimate place to take refuge. As was taught in the section on taking refuge, your mind should be focused one-pointedly, with all your hopes and trust placed in their care. The gurus are a lamp that dispels the darkness of ignorance.
As the guides who lead you along the path to liberation, they are your sole source of refuge and protection, from now until you attain enlightenment.
For these reasons, you should act with unwavering faith, pure view and devotion, and engage in the approach and accomplishment of the divine yidam deity. ~ Dzogchen Rinpoche III, Great Perfection Outer and Inner Preliminaries,#KEYS
234:all is the method of God's workings; all life is Yoga :::
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 recognize in ourselves with opened eyes the method of God in the world, His purpose of light in the obscure, of the 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 self-conscious 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 there for right completion in the individual. It is a gathering up and concentration of the movements dispersed and loosely combined in the lower evolution.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Conditions of the Synthesis [47] [T1],#KEYS
235:He is the friend, the adviser, helper, saviour in trouble and distress, the defender from enemies, the hero who fights our battles for us or under whose shield we fight, the charioteer, the pilot of our ways. And here we come at once to a closer intimacy; he is the comrade and eternal companion, the playmate of the game of living. But still there is so far a certain division, however pleasant, and friendship is too much limited by the appearance of beneficence. The lover can wound, abandon, be wroth with us, seem to betray, yet our love endures and even grows by these oppositions; they increase the joy of reunion and the joy of possession; through them the lover remains the friend, and all that he does, we find in the end, has been done by the lover and helper of our being for our souls perfection as well as for his joy in us. These contradictions lead to a greater intimacy. He is the father and mother too of our being, its source and protector and its indulgent cherisher and giver of our desires. He is the child born to our desire whom we cherish and rear. All these things the lover takes up; his love in its intimacy and oneness keeps in it the paternal and maternal care and lends itself to our demands upon it. All is unified in that deepest many-sided relation.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Divine Love,#KEYS
236:
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
237:When the Peace is established, this higher or Divine Force from above can descend and work in us. It descends usually first into the head and liberates the inner mind mind centres, then into the heart centre and liberates fully the psychic and emotional being, then into the navel and other vital centres and liberates the inner vital, then into the Muladhara and below and liberates the inner vital, then into the navel and other vital centres and liberates the inner physical being. It works at the same time for perfection as well as liberation; it takes up the whole nature part by part and deals with it, rejecting what has to be rejected, sublimating what has to be sublimated, creating what has to be created. It integrates, harmonises, establishes a new rhythm in the nature. It can bring down too a higher and yet higher force and range of the higher nature until, if that be the aim of the sadhana, it becomes possible to bring down the supramental force and existence. All this is prepared, assistance, farthered by the work of the psychic being in the heart centre; the more it is open, in front, active, the quicker, safer, easier the working of the Force can be. The more love and bhakti and surrender grow in the heart, the more rapid and perfect becomes the evolution of the sadhana. For the descent and transformation imply at the same time an increasing contact and union with the Divine. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Mother With Letters On The Mother, #KEYS
238:In Rajayoga the chosen instrument is the mind. our ordinary mentality is first disciplined, purified and directed towards the divine Being, then by a summary process of Asana and Pranayama the physical force of our being is stilled and concentrated, the life-force released into a rhythmic movement capable of cessation and concentrated into a higher power of its upward action, the mind, supported and strengthened by this greater action and concentration of the body and life upon which it rests, is itself purified of all its unrest and emotion and its habitual thought-waves, liberated from distraction and dispersion, given its highest force of concentration, gathered up into a trance of absorption. Two objects, the one temporal, the other eternal,are gained by this discipline. Mind-power develops in another concentrated action abnormal capacities of knowledge, effective will, deep light of reception, powerful light of thought-radiation which are altogether beyond the narrow range of our normal mentality; it arrives at the Yogic or occult powers around which there has been woven so much quite dispensable and yet perhaps salutary mystery. But the one final end and the one all-important gain is that the mind, stilled and cast into a concentrated trance, can lose itself in the divine consciousness and the soul be made free to unite with the divine Being.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Self-Perfection, The Principle of the Integral Yoga, 609,#KEYS
239:In terms of energy - there are three characteristic ways in which the energy manifests - Dang, Rolpa, and rTsal (gDang, rol pa, and rTsal). Dang is the energy in which 'internal' and 'external' are not divided from that which manifests. It is symbolised by the crystal sphere which becomes the colour of whatever it is placed upon. Rolpa is the energy which manifests internally as vision. It is symbolised by the mirror. The image of the reflection always appears as if it is inside the mirror. rTsal is externally manifested energy which radiates. It is symbolised by the refractive capacity of the faceted crystal. For a realised being, this energy is inseparable in its manifestation from the dimension of manifest reality. Dang, Rolpa, and rTsal are not divided.
Dang, Rolpa and rTsal are not divided and neither are the ku-sum (sKu gSum - the trikaya) the three spheres of being. Cho-ku (chos sKu - Dharmakaya), the sphere of unconditioned potentiality, is the creative space from which the essence of the elements arises as long-ku (longs sKu - Sambhogakaya) the sphere of intangible appearances - light and rays, non material forms only perceivable by those with visionary clarity. Trülku (sPrul sKu - Nirmanakaya), the sphere of realised manifestation, is the level of matter in apparently solid material forms. The primordial base manifests these three distinct yet indivisible modes. ~ Sam Van Schaik, Approaching the Great Perfection: Simultaneous and Gradual Methods of Dzogchen Practice in the Longchen Nyingtig,#KEYS
240:Inspiration is always a very uncertain thing; it comes when it chooses, stops suddenly before it has finished its work, refuses to descend when it is called. This is a well-known affliction, perhaps of all artists, but certainly of poets. There are some who can command it at will; those who, I think, are more full of an abundant poetic energy than careful for perfection; others who oblige it to come whenever they put pen to paper but with these the inspiration is either not of a high order or quite unequal in its levels. Again there are some who try to give it a habit of coming by always writing at the same time; Virgil with his nine lines first written, then perfected every morning, Milton with his fifty epic lines a day, are said to have succeeded in regularising their inspiration. It is, I suppose, the same principle which makes Gurus in India prescribe for their disciples a meditation at the same fixed hour every day. It succeeds partially of course, for some entirely, but not for everybody. For myself, when the inspiration did not come with a rush or in a stream,-for then there is no difficulty,-I had only one way, to allow a certain kind of incubation in which a large form of the thing to be done threw itself on the mind and then wait for the white heat in which the entire transcription could rapidly take place. But I think each poet has his own way of working and finds his own issue out of inspiration's incertitudes.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, Inspiration and Effort - I,#KEYS
241:challenge for the Integral Yogin :::
Nor is the seeker of the integral fulfilment permitted to solve too arbitrarily even the conflict of his own inner members. He has to harmonise deliberate knowledge with unquestioning faith; he must conciliate the gentle soul of love with the formidable need of power; the passivity of the soul that lives content in transcendent calm has to be fused with the activity of the divine helper and the divine warrior. To him as to all seekers of the spirit there are offered for solution the oppositions of the reason, the clinging hold of the senses, the perturbations of the heart, the ambush of the desires, the clog of the physical body; but he has to deal in another fashion with their mutual and internal conflicts and their hindrance to his aim, for he must arrive at an infinitely more difficult perfection in the handling of all this rebel matter. Accepting them as instruments for the divine realisation and manifestation, he has to convert their jangling discords, to enlighten their thick darknesses, to transfigure them separately and all together, harmonising them in themselves and with each other, -- integrally, omitting no grain or strand or vibration, leaving no iota of imperfection anywhere. All exclusive concentration, or even a succession of concentrations of that kind, can be in his complex work only a temporary convenience; it has to be abandoned as soon as its utility is over. An all-inclusive concentration is the difficult achievement towards which he must labour.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, 78, [T9],#KEYS
242:need for the soul's spiritualization :::
And yet even the leading of the inmost psychic being is not found sufficient until it has succeeded in raising itself out of this mass of inferior Nature to the highest spiritual levels and the divine spark and flame descended here have rejoined themselves to their original fiery Ether. For there is there no longer a spiritual consciousness still imperfect and half lost to itself in the thick sheaths of human mind, life and body, but the full spiritual consciousness in its purity, freedom and intense wideness. There, as it is the eternal Knower that becomes the Knower in us and mover and user of all knowledge, so it is the eternal All-Blissful who is the Adored attracting to himself the eternal divine portion of his being and joy that has gone out into the play of the universe, the infinite Lover pouring himself out in the multiplicity of his own manifested selves in a happy Oneness. All Beauty in the world is there the beauty of the Beloved, and all forms of beauty have to stand under the light of that eternal Beauty and submit themselves to the sublimating and transfiguring power of the unveiled Divine Perfection. All Bliss and Joy are there of the All-Blissful, and all inferior forms of enjoyment, happiness or pleasure are subjected to the shock of the intensity of its floods or currents and either they are broken to pieces as inadequate things under its convicting stress or compelled to transmute themselves into the forms of the Divine Ananda. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Ascent of the Sacrifice - 2, 168,#KEYS
243:Karma Yoga, the Path of Works; :::
The Path of Works aims at the dedication of every human activity to the supreme Will. It begins by the renunciation of all egoistic aim for our works, all pursuit of action for an interested aim or for the sake of a worldly result. By this renunciation it so purifies the mind and the will that we become easily conscious of the great universal Energy as the true doer of all our actions and the Lord of that Energy as their ruler and director with the individual as only a mask, an excuse, an instrument or, more positively, a conscious centre of action and phenomenal relation. The choice and direction of the act is more and more consciously left to this supreme Will and this universal Energy. To That our works as well as the results of our works are finally abandoned. The object is the release of the soul from its bondage to appearances and to the reaction of phenomenal activities. Karmayoga is used, like the other paths, to lead to liberation from phenomenal existence and a departure into the Supreme. But here too the exclusive result is not inevitable. The end of the path may be, equally, a perception of the divine in all energies, in all happenings, in all activities, and a free and unegoistic participation of the soul in the cosmic action. So followed it will lead to the elevation of all human will and activity to the divine level, its spiritualisation and the justification of the cosmic labour towards freedom, power and perfection in the human being.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Conditions of the Synthesis, The Systems of Yoga, 39,#KEYS
244:Often in the beginning of the action this can be done; but as one gets engrossed in the work, one forgets. How is one to remember?
The condition to be aimed at, the real achievement of Yoga, the final perfection and attainment, for which all else is only a preparation, is a consciousness in which it is impossible to do anything without the Divine; for then, if you are without the Divine, the very source of your action disappears; knowledge, power, all are gone. But so long as you feel that the powers you use are your own, you will not miss the Divine support.
In the beginning of the Yoga you are apt to forget the Divine very often. But by constant aspiration you increase your remembrance and you diminish the forgetfulness. But this should not be done as a severe discipline or a duty; it must be a movement of love and joy. Then very soon a stage will come when, if you do not feel the presence of the Divine at every moment and whatever you are doing, you feel at once lonely and sad and miserable.
Whenever you find that you can do something without feeling the presence of the Divine and yet be perfectly comfortable, you must understand that you are not consecrated in that part of your being. That is the way of the ordinary humanity which does not feel any need of the Divine. But for a seeker of the Divine Life it is very different. And when you have entirely realised unity with the Divine, then, if the Divine were only for a second to withdraw from you, you would simply drop dead; for the Divine is now the Life of your life, your whole existence, your single and complete support. If the Divine is not there, nothing is left. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1929-1931,#KEYS
245:The Lord has veiled himself and his absolute wisdom and eternal consciousness in ignorant Nature-Force and suffers her to drive the individual being, with its complicity, as the ego; this lower action of Nature continues to prevail, often even in spite of man's half-lit imperfect efforts at a nobler motive and a purer self-knowledge. Our human effort at perfection fails, or progresses very incompletely, owing to the force of Nature's past actions in us, her past formations, her long-rooted associations; it turns towards a true and high-climbing success only when a greater Knowledge and Power than our own breaks through the lid of our ignorance and guides or takes up our personal will. For our human will is a misled and wandering ray that has parted from the supreme Puissance. The period of slow emergence out of this lower working into a higher light and purer force is the valley of the shadow of death for the striver after perfection; it is a dreadful passage full of trials, sufferings, sorrows, obscurations, stumblings, errors, pitfalls. To abridge and alleviate this ordeal or to penetrate it with the divine delight faith is necessary, an increasing surrender of the mind to the knowledge that imposes itself from within and, above all, a true aspiration and a right and unfaltering and sincere practice. "Practise unfalteringly," says the Gita, "with a heart free from despondency," the Yoga; for even though in the earlier stage of the path we drink deep of the bitter poison of internal discord and suffering, the last taste of this cup is the sweetness of the nectar of immortality and the honey-wine of an eternal Ananda. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Supreme Will, 219, #KEYS
246:[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
247: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
248:But this is only one side of the force that works for perfection. The process of the integral Yoga has three stages, not indeed sharply distinguished or separate, but in a certain measure successive. There must be, first, the effort towards at least an initial and enabling self-transcendence and contact with the Divine; next, the reception of that which transcends, that with which we have gained communion, into ourselves for the transformation of our whole conscious being; last, the utilisation of our transformed humanity as a divine centre in the world. So long as the contact with the Divine is not in some considerable degree established, so long as there is not some measure of sustained identity, sayujya, the element of personal effort must normally predominate. But in proportion as this contact establishes itself, the sadhaka must become conscious that a force other than his own, a force transcending his egoistic endeavour and capacity, is at work in him and to this Power he learns progressively to submit himself and delivers up to it the charge of his Yoga. In the end his own will and force become one with the higher Power; he merges them in the divineWill and its transcendent and universal Force. He finds it thenceforward presiding over the necessary transformation of his mental, vital and physical being with an impartial wisdom and provident effectivity of which the eager and interested ego is not capable. It is when this identification and this self-merging are complete that the divine centre in the world is ready. Purified, liberated, plastic, illumined, it can begin to serve as a means for the direct action of a supreme Power in the larger Yoga of humanity or superhumanity, of the earth's spiritual progression or its transformation.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, [T2],#KEYS
249:What is "the heavenly archetype of the lotus"?
It means the primal idea of the lotus.
Each thing that is expressed physically was conceived somewhere before being realised materially.
There is an entire world which is the world of the fashioners, where all conceptions are made. And this world is very high, much higher than all the worlds of the mind; and from there these formations, these creations, these types which have been conceived by the fashioners come down and are expressed in physical realisations. And there is always a great distance between the perfection of the idea and what is materialised. Very often the materialised things are like caricatures in comparison with the primal idea. This is what he calls the archetype. This takes place in worlds... not always the same ones, it depends on the things; but for many things in the physical, the primal ideas, these archetypes, were in what Sri Aurobindo calls the Overmind.
But there is a still higher domain than this where the origins are still purer, and if one reaches this, attains this, one finds the absolutely pure types of what is manifested upon earth. And then it is very interesting to compare, to see to what an extent earthly creation is a frightful distortion. And moreover, it is only when one can reach these regions and see the reality of things in their essence that one can work with knowledge to transform them here; otherwise on what can we take our stand to conceive a better world, more perfect, more beautiful than the existing one? It can't be on our imagination which is itself something very poor and very material. But if one can enter that consciousness, rise right up to these higher worlds of creation, then with this in one's consciousness one can work at making material things take their real form. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1955, 121,#KEYS
250:19 - When I had the dividing reason, I shrank from many things; after I had lost it in sight, I hunted through the world for the ugly and the repellent, but I could no longer find them. - Sri Aurobindo
Is there really nothing ugly and repellent in the world? Is it our reason alone that sees things in that way?
To understand truly what Sri Aurobindo means here, you must yourself have had the experience of transcending reason and establishing your consciousness in a world higher than the mental intelligence. For from up there you can see, firstly, that everything that exists in the universe is an expression of Sachchidananda (Being-Consciousness-Bliss) and therefore behind any appearance whatever, if you go deeply enough, you can perceive Sachchidananda, which is the principle of Supreme Beauty.
Secondly, you see that everything in the manifested universe is relative, so much so that there is no beauty which may not appear ugly in comparison with a greater beauty, no ugliness which may not appear beautiful in comparison with a yet uglier ugliness.
When you can see and feel in this way, you immediately become aware of the extreme relativity of these impressions and their unreality from the absolute point of view. However, so long as we dwell in the rational consciousness, it is, in a way, natural that everything that offends our aspiration for perfection, our will for progress, everything we seek to transcend and surmount, should seem ugly and repellent to us, since we are in search of a greater ideal and we want to rise higher.
And yet it is still only a half-wisdom which is very far from the true wisdom, a wisdom that appears wise only in the midst of ignorance and unconsciousness.
In the Truth everything is different, and the Divine shines in all things. 17 February 1960 ~ The Mother, On Thoughts And Aphorisms,#KEYS
251:Shastra is the knowledge and teaching laid down by intuition, experience and wisdom, the science and art and ethic of life, the best standards available to the race. The half-awakened man who leaves the observance of its rule to follow the guidance of his instincts and desires, can get pleasure but not happiness; for the inner happiness can only come by right living. He cannot move to perfection, cannot acquire the highest spiritual status. The law of instinct and desire seems to come first in the animal world, but the manhood of man grows by the pursuit of truth and religion and knowledge and a right life. The Shastra, the recognised Right that he has set up to govern his lower members by his reason and intelligent will, must therefore first be observed and made the authority for conduct and works and for what should or should not be done, till the instinctive desire nature is schooled and abated and put down by the habit of self-control and man is ready first for a freer intelligent self-guidance and then for the highest supreme law and supreme liberty of the spiritual nature.
For the Shastra in its ordinary aspect is not that spiritual law, although at its loftiest point, when it becomes a science and art of spiritual living, Adhyatma-shastra, - the Gita itself describes its own teaching as the highest and most secret Shastra, - it formulates a rule of the self-transcendence of the sattwic nature and develops the discipline which leads to spiritual transmutation. Yet all Shastra is built on a number of preparatory conditions, dharmas; it is a means, not an end. The supreme end is the freedom of the spirit when abandoning all dharmas the soul turns to God for its sole law of action, acts straight from the divine will and lives in the freedom of the divine nature, not in the Law, but in the Spirit. This is the development of the teaching which is prepared by the next question of Arjuna. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays On The Gita,#KEYS
252:This inner Guide is often veiled at first by the very intensity of our personal effort and by the ego's preoccupation with itself and its aims. As we gain in clarity and the turmoil of egoistic effort gives place to a calmer self-knowledge, we recognise the source of the growing light within us. We recognise it retrospectively as we realise how all our obscure and conflicting movements have been determined towards an end that we only now begin to perceive, how even before our entrance into the path of the Yoga the evolution of our life has been designedly led towards its turning point. For now we begin to understand the sense of our struggles and efforts, successes and failures. At last we are able to seize the meaning of our ordeals and sufferings and can appreciate the help that was given us by all that hurt and resisted and the utility of our very falls and stumblings. We recognise this divine leading afterwards, not retrospectively but immediately, in the moulding of our thoughts by a transcendent Seer, of our will and actions by an all-embracing Power, of our emotional life by an all-attracting and all-assimilating Bliss and Love. We recognise it too in a more personal relation that from the first touched us or at the last seizes us; we feel the eternal presence of a supreme Master, Friend, Lover, Teacher. We recognise it in the essence of our being as that develops into likeness and oneness with a greater and wider existence; for we perceive that this miraculous development is not the result of our own efforts; an eternal Perfection is moulding us into its own image. One who is the Lord or Ishwara of the Yogic philosophies, the Guide in the conscious being ( caitya guru or antaryamin ), the Absolute of the thinker, the Unknowable of the Agnostic, the universal Force of the materialist, the supreme Soul and the supreme Shakti, the One who is differently named and imaged by the religions, is the Master of our Yoga.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Four Aids, 62 [T1],#KEYS
253:What is the most useful idea to spread and what is the best example to set?
The question can be considered in two ways, a very general one applicable to the whole earth, and another specific one which concerns our present social environment.
From the general point of view, it seems to me that the most useful idea to spread is twofold:
1) Man carries within himself perfect power, perfect wisdom and perfect knowledge, and if he wants to possess them, he must discover them in the depth of his being, by introspection and concentration.
2) These divine qualities are identical at the centre, at the heart of all beings; this implies the essential unity of all, and all the consequences of solidarity and fraternity that follow from it.
The best example to give would be the unalloyed serenity and immutably peaceful happiness which belong to one who knows how to live integrally this thought of the One God in all.
From the point of view of our present environment, here is the idea which, it seems to me, it is most useful to spread:
True progressive evolution, an evolution which can lead man to his rightful happiness, does not lie in any external means, material improvement or social change. Only a deep and inner process of individual self-perfection can make for real progress and completely transform the present state of things, and change suffering and misery into a serene and lasting contentment.
Consequently, the best example is one that shows the first stage of individual self-perfection which makes possible all the rest, the first victory to be won over the egoistic personality: disinterestedness.
At a time when all rush upon money as the means to sat- isfy their innumerable cravings, one who remains indifferent to wealth and acts, not for the sake of gain, but solely to follow a disinterested ideal, is probably setting the example which is most useful at present.
~ The Mother, Words Of Long Ago, Volume-2, 22-06-1912, page no.66-67,#KEYS
254:indifference to things of the body :::
This detachment of the mind must be strengthened by a certain attitude of indifference to the things of the body; we must not care essentially about its sleep or its waking, its movement or its rest, its pain or its pleasure, its health or ill-health, its vigour or its fatigue, its comfort or its discomfort, or what it eats or drinks. This does not mean that we shall not keep the body in right order so far as we can; we have not to fall into violent asceticisms or a positive neglect of the physical frame. But we have not either to be affected in mind by hunger or thirst or discomfort or ill-health or attach the importance which the physical and vital man attaches to the things of the body, or indeed any but a quite subordinate and purely instrumental importance. Nor must this instrumental importance be allowed to assume the proportions of a necessity; we must not for instance imagine that the purity of the mind depends on the things we eat or drink, although during a certain stage restrictions in eating and drinking are useful to our inner progress; nor on the other hand must we continue to think that the dependence of the mind or even of the life on food and drink is anything more than a habit, a customary relation which Nature has set up between these principles. As a matter of fact the food we take can be reduced by contrary habit and new relation to a minimum without the mental or vital vigour being in any way reduced; even on the contrary with a judicious development they can be trained to a greater potentiality of vigour by learning to rely on the secret fountains of mental and vital energy with which they are connected more than upon the minor aid of physical aliments. This aspect of self-discipline is however more important in the Yoga of self-perfection than here; for our present purpose the important point is the renunciation by the mind of attachment to or dependence on the things of the body.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from Subjection to the Body,#KEYS
255:The way of integral knowledge supposes that we are intended to arrive at an integral self-fulfilment and the only thing that is to be eliminated is our own unconsciousness, the Ignorance and the results of the Ignorance. Eliminate the falsity of the being which figures as the ego; then our true being can manifest in us. Eliminate the falsity of the life which figures as mere vital craving and the mechanical round of our corporeal existence; our true life in the power of the Godhead and the joy of the Infinite will appear. Eliminate the falsity of the senses with their subjection to material shows and to dual sensations; there is a greater sense in us that can open through these to the Divine in things and divinely reply to it. Eliminate the falsity of the heart with its turbid passions and desires and its dual emotions; a deeper heart in us can open with its divine love for all creatures and its infinite passion and yearning for the responses of the Infinite. Eliminate the falsity of the thought with its imperfect mental constructions, its arrogant assertions and denials, its limited and exclusive concentrations; a greater faculty of knowledge is behind that can open to the true Truth of God and the soul and Nature and the universe. An integral self-fulfilment, - an absolute, a culmination for the experiences of the heart, for its instinct of love, joy, devotion and worship; an absolute, a culmination for the senses, for their pursuit of divine beauty and good and delight in the forms of things; an absolute, a culmination for the life, for its pursuit of works, of divine power, mastery and perfection; an absolute, a culmination beyond its own limits for the thought, for its hunger after truth and light and divine wisdom and knowledge. Not something quite other than themselves from which they are all cast away is the end of these things in our nature, but something supreme in which they at once transcend themselves and find their own absolutes and infinitudes, their harmonies beyond measure.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Object of Knowledge,#KEYS
256:the characteristics of Life, Mind and Spirit :::
The characteristic energy of bodily Life is not so much in progress as in persistence, not so much in individual self-enlargement as in self-repetition. There is, indeed, in physical Nature a progression from type to type, from the vegetable to the animal, from the animal to man; for even in inanimate Matter Mind is at work. But once a type is marked off physically, the chief immediate preoccupation of the terrestrial Mother seems to be to keep it in being by a constant reproduction. For Life always seeks immortality; but since individual form is impermanent and only the idea of a form is permanent in the consciousness that creates the universe, -for there it does not perish,- such constant reproduction is the only possible material immortality. Self-preservation, self-repetition, self-multiplication are necessarily, then, the predominant instincts of all material existence.
The characteristic energy of pure Mind is change and the more it acquires elevation and organisation, the more this law of Mind assumes the aspect of a continual enlargement, improvement and better arrangement of its gains and so of a continual passage from a smaller and simpler to a larger and more complex perfection. For Mind, unlike bodily life, is infinite in its field, elastic in its expansion, easily variable in its formations. Change, then, self-enlargement and self-improvement are its proper instincts. Its faith is perfectibility, its watchword is progress.
The characteristic law of Spirit is self-existent perfection and immutable infinity. It possesses always and in its own right the immortality which is the aim of Life and the perfection which is the goal of Mind. The attainment of the eternal and the realisation of that which is the same in all things and beyond all things, equally blissful in universe and outside it, untouched by the imperfections and limitations of the forms and activities in which it dwells, are the glory of the spiritual life.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Introduction - The Conditions Of the Synthesis, The Threefold Life,#KEYS
257: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
258: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
259:But now thou askest me how thou mayest destroy this naked knowing and feeling of thine own being. For peradventure thou thinkest that if it were destroyed, all other hindrances were destroyed ; and if thou thinkest thus, thou thinkest right truly. But to this I answer thee and I say, that without a full special grace full freely given by God, and also a full according ableness on thy part to receive this grace, this naked knowing and feeling of thy being may in nowise be destroyed. And this ableness is nought else but a strong and a deep ghostly sorrow. ... All men have matter of sorrow; but most specially he feeleth matter of sorrow that knoweth and feeleth that he is. All other sorrows in comparison to this be but as it were game to earnest. For he may make sorrow earnestly that knoweth and feeleth not only what he is, but that he is. And whoso felt never this sorrow, let him make sorrow; for he hath never yet felt perfect sorrow. This sorrow, when it is had, cleanseth the soul, not only of sin, but also of pain that it hath deserved for sin ; and also it maketh a soul able to receive that joy, the which reave th from a man all knowing and feeling of his being. This sorrow, if it be truly conceived, is full of holy desire; and else a man might never in this life abide it or bear it. For were it not that a soul were somewhat fed with a manner of comfort by his right working, he should not be able to bear that pain that he hath by the knowing and feeling of his being. For as oft as he would have a true knowing and a feeling of his God in purity of spirit (as it may be here), and then feeleth that he may not for he findeth evermore his knowing and his feeling as it were occupied and filled with a foul stinking lump of himself, the which must always be hated and despised and forsaken, if he shall be God's perfect disciple, taught by Himself in the mount of perfection so oft he goeth nigh mad for sorrow. . . . This sorrow and this desire must every soul have and feel in itself (either in this manner or in another), as God vouchsafed! to teach his ghostly disciples according to his good will and their according ableness in body and in soul, in degree and disposition, ere the time be that they may perfectly be oned unto God in perfect charity such as may be had here, if God vouchsafed!.
~ Anonymous, The Cloud Of Unknowing,#KEYS
260:This is the real sense and drive of what we see as evolution: the multiplication and variation of forms is only the means of its process. Each gradation contains the possibility and the certainty of the grades beyond it: the emergence of more and more developed forms and powers points to more perfected forms and greater powers beyond them, and each emergence of consciousness and the conscious beings proper to it enables the rise to a greater consciousness beyond and the greater order of beings up to the ultimate godheads of which Nature is striving and is destined to show herself capable. Matter developed its organised forms until it became capable of embodying living organisms; then life rose from the subconscience of the plant into conscious animal formations and through them to the thinking life of man. Mind founded in life developed intellect, developed its types of knowledge and ignorance, truth and error till it reached the spiritual perception and illumination and now can see as in a glass dimly the possibility of supermind and a truthconscious existence. In this inevitable ascent the mind of Light is a gradation, an inevitable stage. As an evolving principle it will mark a stage in the human ascent and evolve a new type of human being; this development must carry in it an ascending gradation of its own powers and types of an ascending humanity which will embody more and more the turn towards spirituality, capacity for Light, a climb towards a divinised manhood and the divine life.
In the birth of the mind of Light and its ascension into its own recognisable self and its true status and right province there must be, in the very nature of things as they are and very nature of the evolutionary process as it is at present, two stages. In the first, we can see the mind of Light gathering itself out of the Ignorance, assembling its constituent elements, building up its shapes and types, however imperfect at first, and pushing them towards perfection till it can cross the border of the Ignorance and appear in the Light, in its own Light. In the second stage we can see it developing itself in that greater natural light, taking its higher shapes and forms till it joins the supermind and lives as its subordinate portion or its delegate.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, Mind of Light, 587,#KEYS
261: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
262:The general characteristics and attributions of these Grades are indicated by their correspondences on the Tree of Life, as may be studied in detail in the Book 777.
Student. -- His business is to acquire a general intellectual knowledge of all systems of attainment, as declared in the prescribed books. (See curriculum in Appendix I.) {231}
Probationer. -- His principal business is to begin such practices as he my prefer, and to write a careful record of the same for one year.
Neophyte. -- Has to acquire perfect control of the Astral Plane.
Zelator. -- His main work is to achieve complete success in Asana and Pranayama. He also begins to study the formula of the Rosy Cross.
Practicus. -- Is expected to complete his intellectual training, and in particular to study the Qabalah.
Philosophus. -- Is expected to complete his moral training. He is tested in Devotion to the Order.
Dominus Liminis. -- Is expected to show mastery of Pratyahara and Dharana.
Adeptus (without). -- is expected to perform the Great Work and to attain the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.
Adeptus (within). -- Is admitted to the practice of the formula of the Rosy Cross on entering the College of the Holy Ghost.
Adeptus (Major). -- Obtains a general mastery of practical Magick, though without comprehension.
Adeptus (Exemptus). -- Completes in perfection all these matters. He then either ("a") becomes a Brother of the Left Hand Path or, ("b") is stripped of all his attainments and of himself as well, even of his Holy Guardian Angel, and becomes a babe of the Abyss, who, having transcended the Reason, does nothing but grow in the womb of its mother. It then finds itself a
Magister Templi. -- (Master of the Temple): whose functions are fully described in Liber 418, as is this whole initiation from Adeptus Exemptus. See also "Aha!". His principal business is to tend his "garden" of disciples, and to obtain a perfect understanding of the Universe. He is a Master of Samadhi. {232}
Magus. -- Attains to wisdom, declares his law (See Liber I, vel Magi) and is a Master of all Magick in its greatest and highest sense.
Ipsissimus. -- Is beyond all this and beyond all comprehension of those of lower degrees. ~ Aleister Crowley, Liber ABA,#KEYS
263:The one high and reasonable course for the individual human being, - unless indeed he is satisfied with pursuing his personal purposes or somehow living his life until it passes out of him, - is to study the laws of the Becoming and take the best advantage of them to realise, rationally or intuitionally, inwardly or in the dynamism of life, its potentialities in himself or for himself or in or for the race of which he is a member; his business is to make the most of such actualities as exist and to seize on or to advance towards the highest possibilities that can be developed here or are in the making. Only mankind as a whole can do this with entire effect, by the mass of individual and collective action, in the process of time, in the evolution of the race experience: but the individual man can help towards it in his own limits, can do all these things for himself to a certain extent in the brief space of life allotted to him; but, especially, his thought and action can be a contribution towards the present intellectual, moral and vital welfare and the future progress of the race. He is capable of a certain nobility of being; an acceptance of his inevitable and early individual annihilation does not preclude him from making a high use of the will and thought which have been developed in him or from directing them to great ends which shall or may be worked out by humanity. Even the temporary character of the collective being of humanity does not so very much matter, - except in the most materialist view of existence; for so long as the universal Becoming takes the form of human body and mind, the thought, the will it has developed in its human creature will work itself out and to follow that intelligently is the natural law and best rule of human life. Humanity and its welfare and progress during its persistence on earth provide the largest field and the natural limits for the terrestrial aim of our being; the superior persistence of the race and the greatness and importance of the collective life should determine the nature and scope of our ideals. But if the progress or welfare of humanity be excluded as not our business or as a delusion, the individual is there; to achieve his greatest possible perfection or make the most of his life in whatever way his nature demands will then be life's significance.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, [T1],#KEYS
264:requirements for the psychic :::
At a certain stage in the Yoga when the mind is sufficiently quieted and no longer supports itself at every step on the sufficiency of its mental certitudes, when the vital has been steadied and subdued and is no longer constantly insistent on its own rash will, demand and desire, when the physical has been sufficiently altered not to bury altogether the inner flame under the mass of its outwardness, obscurity or inertia, an inmost being hidden within and felt only in its rare influences is able to come forward and illumine the rest and take up the lead of the sadhana. Its character is a one-pointed orientation towards the Divine or the Highest, one-pointed and yet plastic in action and movement; it does not create a rigidity of direction like the one-pointed intellect or a bigotry of the regnant idea or impulse like the one-pointed vital force; it is at every moment and with a supple sureness that it points the way to the Truth, automatically distinguishes the right step from the false, extricates the divine or Godward movement from the clinging mixture of the undivine. Its action is like a searchlight showing up all that has to be changed in the nature; it has in it a flame of will insistent on perfection, on an alchemic transmutation of all the inner and outer existence. It sees the divine essence everywhere but rejects the mere mask and the disguising figure. It insists on Truth, on will and strength and mastery, on Joy and Love and Beauty, but on a Truth of abiding Knowledge that surpasses the mere practical momentary truth of the Ignorance, on an inward joy and not on mere vital pleasure, -- for it prefers rather a purifying suffering and sorrow to degrading satisfactions, -- on love winged upward and not tied to the stake of egoistic craving or with its feet sunk in the mire, on beauty restored to its priesthood of interpretation of the Eternal, on strength and will and mastery as instruments not of the ego but of the Spirit. Its will is for the divinisation of life, the expression through it of a higher Truth, its dedication to the Divine and the Eternal.
But the most intimate character of the psychic is its pressure towards the Divine through a sacred love, joy and oneness. It is the divine Love that it seeks most, it is the love of the Divine that is its spur, its goal, its star of Truth shining over the luminous cave of the nascent or the still obscure cradle of the new-born godhead within us.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Ascent of the Sacrifice - 1,#KEYS
265:The Godhead, the spirit manifested in Nature appears in a sea of infinite quality, Ananta-guna. But the executive or mechanical prakriti is of the threefold Guna, Sattwa, Rajas, Tamas, and the Ananta-guna, the spiritual play of infinite quality, modifies itself in this mechanical nature into the type of these three gunas. And in the soul-force in man this Godhead in Nature represents itself as a fourfold effective Power, caturvyuha , a Power for knowledge, a Power for strength, a Power for mutuality and active and productive relation and interchange, a Power for works and labour and service, and its presence casts all human life into a nexus and inner and outer operation of these four things. The ancient thought of India conscious of this fourfold type of active human personality and nature, built out of it the four types of the Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra, each with its spiritual turn, ethical ideal, suitable upbringing, fixed function in society and place in the evolutionary scale of the spirit. As always tends to be the case when we too much externalise and mechanise the more subtle truths of our nature, this became a hard and fast system inconsistent with the freedom and variability and complexity of the finer developing spirit in man. Nevertheless the truth behind it exists and is one of some considerable importance in the perfection of our power of nature; but we have to take it in its inner aspects, first, personality, character, temperament, soul-type, then the soul-force which lies behind them and wears these forms, and lastly the play of the free spiritual shakti in which they find their culmination and unity beyond all modes. For the crude external idea that a man is born as a Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya or Sudra and that alone, is not a psychological truth of our being. The psychological fact is that there are these four active powers and tendencies of the Spirit and its executive shakti within us and the predominance of one or the other in the more well-formed part of our personality gives us our main tendencies, dominant qualities and capacities, effective turn in action and life. But they are more or less present in an men, here manifest, there latent, here developed, there subdued and depressed or subordinate, and in the perfect man will be raised up to a fullness and harmony which in the spiritual freedom will burst out into the free play of the infinite quality of the spirit in the inner and outer life and in the self-enjoying creative play of the Purusha with his and the world's Nature-Power. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, 4:15 - Soul-Force and the Fourfold Personality, #KEYS
266: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
267:10000 :::
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
268: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
269: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
270:the process of unification, the perfecting our one's instrumental being, the help one needs to reach the goal :::
If we truly want to progress and acquire the capacity of knowing the truth of our being, that is to say, what we are truly created for, what we can call our mission upon earth, then we must, in a very regular and constant manner, reject from us or eliminate in us whatever contradicts the truth of our existence, whatever is opposed to it. In this way, little by little, all the parts, all the elements of our being can be organised into a homogeneous whole around our psychic centre. This work of unification requires much time to be brought to some degree of perfection. Therefore, in order to accomplish it, we must arm ourselves with patience and endurance, with a determination to prolong our life as long as necessary for the success of our endeavor.
As you pursue this labor of purification and unification, you must at the same time take great care to perfect the external and instrumental part of your being. When the higher truth manifests, it must find in you a mind that is supple and rich enough to be able to give the idea that seeks to express itself a form of thought which preserves its force and clarity. This thought, again, when it seeks to clothe itself in words, must find in you a sufficient power of expression so that the words reveal the thought and do not deform it. And the formula in which you embody the truth should be manifested in all your feelings, all your acts of will, all your actions, in all movements of your being. Finally, these movements themselves should, by constant effort, attain their highest perfection. ... It is therefore of capital importance to become conscious of its presence in us [the psychic being], to concentrate on this presence until it becomes a living fact for us and we can identify ourselves with it.
In various times and places many methods have been prescribed for attaining this perfection and ultimately achieving this identification. Some methods are psychological, some religious, some even mechanical. In reality, everyone has to find the one which suits him best, and if one has an ardent and steadfast aspiration, a persistent and dynamic will, one is sure to meet, in one way or another - outwardly through reading and study, inwardly through concentration, meditation, revelation and experience - the help one needs to reach the goal. Only one thing is absolutely indispensable: the will to discover and to realize. This discovery and realization should be the primary preoccupation of our being, the pearl of great price which we must acquire at any cost. Whatever you do, whatever your occupations and activities, the will to find the truth of your being and to unite with it must be always living and present behind all that you do, all that you feel, all that you think.
~ The Mother, On Education, [T1],#KEYS
271:An integral Yoga includes as a vital and indispensable element in its total and ultimate aim the conversion of the whole being into a higher spiritual consciousness and a larger divine existence. Our parts of will and action, our parts of knowledge, our thinking being, our emotional being, our being of life, all our self and nature must seek the Divine, enter into the Infinite, unite with the Eternal. But mans present nature is limited, divided, unequal, -- it is easiest for him to concentrate in the strongest part of his being and follow a definite line of progress proper to his nature: only rare individuals have the strength to take a large immediate plunge straight into the sea of the Divine Infinity. Some therefore must choose as a starting-point a concentration in thought or contemplation or the minds one-pointedness to find the eternal reality of the Self in them; others can more easily withdraw into the heart to meet there the Divine, the Eternal: yet others are predominantly dynamic and active; for these it is best to centre themselves in the will and enlarge their being through works. United with the Self and source of all by their surrender of their will into its infinity, guided in their works by the secret Divinity within or surrendered to the Lord of the cosmic action as the master and mover of all their energies of thought, feeling, act, becoming by this enlargement of being selfless and universal, they can reach by works some first fullness of a spiritual status. But the path, whatever its point of starting, must debouch into a vaster dominion; it must proceed in the end through a totality of integrated knowledge, emotion, will of dynamic action, perfection of the being and the entire nature. In the supramental consciousness, on the level of the supramental existence this integration becomes consummate; there knowledge, will, emotion, the perfection of the self and the dynamic nature rise each to its absolute of itself and all to their perfect harmony and fusion with each other, to a divine integrality, a divine perfection. For the supermind is a Truth-Consciousness in which the Divine Reality, fully manifested, no longer works with the instrumentation of the Ignorance; a truth of status of being which is absolute becomes dynamic in a truth of energy and activity of the being which is self-existent and perfect. Every movement there is a movement of the self-aware truth of Divine Being and every part is in entire harmony with the whole. Even the most limited and finite action is in the Truth-Consciousness a movement of the Eternal and Infinite and partakes of the inherent absoluteness and perfection of the Eternal and Infinite. An ascent into the supramental Truth not only raises our spiritual and essential consciousness to that height but brings about a descent of this Light and Truth into all our being and all our parts of nature. All then becomes part of the Divine Truth, an element and means of the supreme union and oneness; this ascent and descent must be therefore an ultimate aim of this Yoga.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Divine Works, The Supermind and the Yoga of Works [279-280],#KEYS
272:[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
273:It is thus by an integralisation of our divided being that the Divine Shakti in the Yoga will proceed to its object; for liberation, perfection, mastery are dependent on this integralisation, since the little wave on the surface cannot control its own movement, much less have any true control over the vast life around it. The Shakti, the power of the Infinite and the Eternal descends within us, works, breaks up our present psychological formations, shatters every wall, widens, liberates, presents us with always newer and greater powers of vision, ideation, perception and newer and greater life-motives, enlarges and newmodels increasingly the soul and its instruments, confronts us with every imperfection in order to convict and destroy it, opens to a greater perfection, does in a brief period the work of many lives or ages so that new births and new vistas open constantly within us. Expansive in her action, she frees the consciousness from confinement in the body; it can go out in trance or sleep or even waking and enter into worlds or other regions of this world and act there or carry back its experience. It spreads out, feeling the body only as a small part of itself, and begins to contain what before contained it; it achieves the cosmic consciousness and extends itself to be commensurate with the universe. It begins to know inwardly and directly and not merely by external observation and contact the forces at play in the world, feels their movement, distinguishes their functioning and can operate immediately upon them as the scientist operates upon physical forces, accept their action and results in our mind, life, body or reject them or modify, change, reshape, create immense new powers and movements in place of the old small functionings of the nature. We begin to perceive the working of the forces of universal Mind and to know how our thoughts are created by that working, separate from within the truth and falsehood of our perceptions, enlarge their field, extend and illumine their significance, become master of our own minds and active to shape the movements of Mind in the world around us. We begin to perceive the flow and surge of the universal life-forces, detect the origin and law of our feelings, emotions, sensations, passions, are free to accept, reject, new-create, open to wider, rise to higher planes of Life-Power. We begin to perceive too the key to the enigma of Matter, follow the interplay of Mind and Life and Consciousness upon it, discover more and more its instrumental and resultant function and detect ultimately the last secret of Matter as a form not merely of Energy but of involved and arrested or unstably fixed and restricted consciousness and begin to see too the possibility of its liberation and plasticity of response to higher Powers, its possibilities for the conscious and no longer the more than half-inconscient incarnation and self-expression of the Spirit. All this and more becomes more and more possible as the working of the Divine Shakti increases in us and, against much resistance or labour to respond of our obscure consciousness, through much struggle and movement of progress and regression and renewed progress necessitated by the work of intensive transformation of a half-inconscient into a conscious substance, moves to a greater purity, truth, height, range. All depends on the psychic awakening in us, the completeness of our response to her and our growing surrender. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Ascent of the Sacrifice - 2, 183, #KEYS
274: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
275:The principle of Yoga is the turning of one or of all powers of our human existence into a means of reaching the divine Being. In an ordinary Yoga one main power of being or one group of its powers is made the means, vehicle, path. In a synthetic Yoga all powers will be combined and included in the transmuting instrumentation.
In Hathayoga the instrument is the body and life. All the power of the body is stilled, collected, purified, heightened, concentrated to its utmost limits or beyond any limits by Asana and other physical processes; the power of the life too is similarly purified, heightened, concentrated by Asana and Pranayama. This concentration of powers is then directed towards that physical centre in which the divine consciousness sits concealed in the human body. The power of Life, Nature-power, coiled up with all its secret forces asleep in the lowest nervous plexus of the earth-being,-for only so much escapes into waking action in our normal operations as is sufficient for the limited uses of human life,-rises awakened through centre after centre and awakens, too, in its ascent and passage the forces of each successive nodus of our being, the nervous life, the heart of emotion and ordinary mentality, the speech, sight, will, the higher knowledge, till through and above the brain it meets with and it becomes one with the divine consciousness.
In Rajayoga the chosen instrument is the mind. our ordinary mentality is first disciplined, purified and directed towards the divine Being, then by a summary process of Asana and Pranayama the physical force of our being is stilled and concentrated, the life-force released into a rhythmic movement capable of cessation and concentrated into a higher power of its upward action, the mind, supported and strengthened by this greater action and concentration of the body and life upon which it rests, is itself purified of all its unrest and emotion and its habitual thought-waves, liberated from distraction and dispersion, given its highest force of concentration, gathered up into a trance of absorption. Two objects, the one temporal, the other eternal,are gained by this discipline. Mind-power develops in another concentrated action abnormal capacities of knowledge, effective will, deep light of reception, powerful light of thought-radiation which are altogether beyond the narrow range of our normal mentality; it arrives at the Yogic or occult powers around which there has been woven so much quite dispensable and yet perhaps salutary mystery. But the one final end and the one all-important gain is that the mind, stilled and cast into a concentrated trance, can lose itself in the divine consciousness and the soul be made free to unite with the divine Being.
The triple way takes for its chosen instruments the three main powers of the mental soul-life of the human being. Knowledge selects the reason and the mental vision and it makes them by purification, concentration and a certain discipline of a Goddirected seeking its means for the greatest knowledge and the greatest vision of all, God-knowledge and God-vision. Its aim is to see, know and be the Divine. Works, action selects for its instrument the will of the doer of works; it makes life an offering of sacrifice to the Godhead and by purification, concentration and a certain discipline of subjection to the divine Will a means for contact and increasing unity of the soul of man with the divine Master of the universe. Devotion selects the emotional and aesthetic powers of the soul and by turning them all Godward in a perfect purity, intensity, infinite passion of seeking makes them a means of God-possession in one or many relations of unity with the Divine Being. All aim in their own way at a union or unity of the human soul with the supreme Spirit.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Self-Perfection, The Principle of the Integral Yoga, 609,#KEYS
276:The perfect supramental action will not follow any single principle or limited rule.It is not likely to satisfy the standard either of the individual egoist or of any organised group-mind. It will conform to the demand neither of the positive practical man of the world nor of the formal moralist nor of the patriot nor of the sentimental philanthropist nor of the idealising philosopher. It will proceed by a spontaneous outflowing from the summits in the totality of an illumined and uplifted being, will and knowledge and not by the selected, calculated and standardised action which is all that the intellectual reason or ethical will can achieve. Its sole aim will be the expression of the divine in us and the keeping together of the world and its progress towards the Manifestation that is to be. This even will not be so much an aim and purpose as a spontaneous law of the being and an intuitive determination of the action by the Light of the divine Truth and its automatic influence. It will proceed like the action of Nature from a total will and knowledge behind her, but a will and knowledge enlightened in a conscious supreme Nature and no longer obscure in this ignorant Prakriti. It will be an action not bound by the dualities but full and large in the spirit's impartial joy of existence. The happy and inspired movement of a divine Power and Wisdom guiding and impelling us will replace the perplexities and stumblings of the suffering and ignorant ego.
If by some miracle of divine intervention all mankind at once could be raised to this level, we should have something on earth like the Golden Age of the traditions, Satya Yuga, the Age of Truth or true existence. For the sign of the Satya Yuga is that the Law is spontaneous and conscious in each creature and does its own works in a perfect harmony and freedom. Unity and universality, not separative division, would be the foundation of the consciousness of the race; love would be absolute; equality would be consistent with hierarchy and perfect in difference; absolute justice would be secured by the spontaneous action of the being in harmony with the truth of things and the truth of himself and others and therefore sure of true and right result; right reason, no longer mental but supramental, would be satisfied not by the observation of artificial standards but by the free automatic perception of right relations and their inevitable execution in the act. The quarrel between the individual and society or disastrous struggle between one community and another could not exist: the cosmic consciousness imbedded in embodied beings would assure a harmonious diversity in oneness.
In the actual state of humanity, it is the individual who must climb to this height as a pioneer and precursor. His isolation will necessarily give a determination and a form to his outward activities that must be quite other than those of a consciously divine collective action. The inner state, the root of his acts, will be the same; but the acts themselves may well be very different from what they would be on an earth liberated from ignorance. Nevertheless his consciousness and the divine mechanism of his conduct, if such a word can be used of so free a thing, would be such as has been described, free from that subjection to vital impurity and desire and wrong impulse which we call sin, unbound by that rule of prescribed moral formulas which we call virtue, spontaneously sure and pure and perfect in a greater consciousness than the mind's, governed in all its steps by the light and truth of the Spirit. But if a collectivity or group could be formed of those who had reached the supramental perfection, there indeed some divine creation could take shape; a new earth could descend that would be a new heaven, a world of supramental light could be created here amidst the receding darkness of this terrestrial ignorance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Standards of Conduct and Spiritual Freedom, 206,#KEYS
277:summary of the entire process of psychic awakening :::
You have asked what is the discipline to be followed in order to convert the mental seeking into a living spiritual experience. The first necessity is the practice of concentration of your consciousness within yourself. The ordinary human mind has an activity on the surface which veils the real Self. But there is another, a hidden consciousness within behind the surface one in which we can become aware of the real Self and of a larger deeper truth of nature, can realise the Self and liberate and transform the nature. To quiet the surface mind and begin to live within is the object of this concentration. Of this true consciousness other then the superficial there are two main centres, one in the heart (not the physical heart, but the cardiac centre in the middle of the chest), one in the head. The concentration in the heart opens within and by following this inward opening and going deep one becomes aware of the soul or psychic being, the divine element in the individual. This being unveiled begins to come forward, to govern the nature, to turn it an d all its movements towards the Truth, towards the Divine, and to call down into it all that is above. It brings the consciousness of the Presence, the dedication of the being to the Highest and invites the descent into our nature of a greater Force and Consciousness which is waiting above us. To concentrate in the heart centre with the offering of oneself to the Divine and the aspiration for this inward opening and for the Presence in the heart is the first way and, if it can be done, the natural beginning; for its result once obtained makes the spiritual path far more easy and safe than if one begins the other way.
That other way is the concentration in the head, in the mental centre. This, if it brings about the silence of the surface mind, opens up an inner, larger, deeper mind within which is more capable of receiving spiritual experience and spiritual knowledge. But once concentrated here one must open the silent mental consciousness upward to all that is above mind. After a time one feels the consciousness rising upward and it the end it rises beyond the lid which has so long kept it tied in the body and finds a centre above the head where it is liberated into the Infinite. There it behind to come into contact with the universal Self, the Divine Peace, Light, Power, Knowledge, Bliss, to enter into that and become that, to feel the descent of these things into the nature. To concentrate in the head with the aspiration for quietude in the mind and the realisation of the Self and Divine above is the second way of concentration. It is important, however, to remember that the concentration of the consciousness in the head is only a preparation for its rising to the centre above; otherwise, one may get shut up in one's own mind and its experiences or at best attain only to a reflection of the Truth above instead of rising into the spiritual transcendence to live there. For some the mental consciousness is easier, for some the concentration in the heart centre; some are capable of doing both alternatively - but to begin with the heart centre, if one can do it, is the more desirable.
The other side of the discipline is with regard to the activities of the nature, of the mind, of the life-self or vital, of the physical being. Here the principle is to accord the nature with the inner realisation so that one may not be divided into two discordant parts. There are here several disciplines or processes possible. One is to offer all the activities to the Divine and call for the inner guidance and the taking up of one's nature by a Higher Power. If there is the inward soul-opening, if the psychic being comes forward, then there is no great difficulty - there comes with it a psychic discrimination, a constant intimation, finally a governance which discloses and quietly and patiently removes all imperfections, bring the right mental and vital movements and reshapes the physical consciousness also. Another method is to stand back detached from the movements of the mind, life, physical being, to regard their activities as only a habitual formation of general Nature in the individual imposed on us by past workings, not as any part of our real being; in proportion as one succeeds in this, becomes detached, sees mind and its activities as not oneself, life and its activities as not oneself, the body and its activities as not oneself, one becomes aware of an inner Being within us - inner mental, inner vital, inner physical - silent, calm, unbound, unattached which reflects the true Self above and can be its direct representative; from this inner silent Being proceeds a rejection of all that is to be rejected, an acceptance only of what can be kept and transformed, an inmost Will to perfection or a call to the Divine Power to do at each step what is necessary for the change of the Nature. It can also open mind, life and body to the inmost psychic entity and its guiding influence or its direct guidance. In most cases these two methods emerge and work together and finally fuse into one. But one can being with either, the one that one feels most natural and easy to follow.
Finally, in all difficulties where personal effort is hampered, the help of the Teacher can intervene and bring above what is needed for the realisation or for the immediate step that is necessary.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II, 6, {871},#KEYS
278:To what gods shall the sacrifice be offered? Who shall be invoked to manifest and protect in the human being this increasing godhead?
Agni first, for without him the sacrificial flame cannot burn on the altar of the soul. That flame of Agni is the seven-tongued power of the Will, a Force of God instinct with Knowledge. This conscious and forceful will is the immortal guest in our mortality, a pure priest and a divine worker, the mediator between earth and heaven. It carries what we offer to the higher Powers and brings back in return their force and light and joy into our humanity.
Indra, the Puissant next, who is the power of pure Existence self-manifested as the Divine Mind. As Agni is one pole of Force instinct with knowledge that sends its current upward from earth to heaven, so Indra is the other pole of Light instinct with force which descends from heaven to earth. He comes down into our world as the Hero with the shining horses and slays darkness and division with his lightnings, pours down the life-giving heavenly waters, finds in the trace of the hound, Intuition, the lost or hidden illuminations, makes the Sun of Truth mount high in the heaven of our mentality.
Surya, the Sun, is the master of that supreme Truth, - truth of being, truth of knowledge, truth of process and act and movement and functioning. He is therefore the creator or rather the manifester of all things - for creation is out-bringing, expression by the Truth and Will - and the father, fosterer, enlightener of our souls. The illuminations we seek are the herds of this Sun who comes to us in the track of the divine Dawn and releases and reveals in us night-hidden world after world up to the highest Beatitude.
Of that beatitude Soma is the representative deity. The wine of his ecstasy is concealed in the growths of earth, in the waters of existence; even here in our physical being are his immortalising juices and they have to be pressed out and offered to all the gods; for in that strength these shall increase and conquer.
Each of these primary deities has others associated with him who fulfil functions that arise from his own. For if the truth of Surya is to be established firmly in our mortal nature, there are previous conditions that are indispensable; a vast purity and clear wideness destructive of all sin and crooked falsehood, - and this is Varuna; a luminous power of love and comprehension leading and forming into harmony all our thoughts, acts and impulses, - this is Mitra; an immortal puissance of clear-discerning aspiration and endeavour, - this is Aryaman; a happy spontaneity of the right enjoyment of all things dispelling the evil dream of sin and error and suffering, - this is Bhaga. These four are powers of the Truth of Surya. For the whole bliss of Soma to be established perfectly in our nature a happy and enlightened and unmaimed condition of mind, vitality and body are necessary. This condition is given to us by the twin Ashwins; wedded to the daughter of Light, drinkers of honey, bringers of perfect satisfactions, healers of maim and malady they occupy our parts of knowledge and parts of action and prepare our mental, vital and physical being for an easy and victorious ascension.
Indra, the Divine Mind, as the shaper of mental forms has for his assistants, his artisans, the Ribhus, human powers who by the work of sacrifice and their brilliant ascension to the high dwelling-place of the Sun have attained to immortality and help mankind to repeat their achievement. They shape by the mind Indra's horses, the chariot of the Ashwins, the weapons of the Gods, all the means of the journey and the battle. But as giver of the Light of Truth and as Vritra-slayer Indra is aided by the Maruts, who are powers of will and nervous or vital Force that have attained to the light of thought and the voice of self-expression. They are behind all thought and speech as its impellers and they battle towards the Light, Truth and Bliss of the supreme Consciousness.
There are also female energies; for the Deva is both Male and Female and the gods also are either activising souls or passively executive and methodising energies. Aditi, infinite Mother of the Gods, comes first; and there are besides five powers of the Truthconsciousness, - Mahi or Bharati, the vast Word that brings us all things out of the divine source; Ila, the strong primal word of the Truth who gives us its active vision; Saraswati, its streaming current and the word of its inspiration; Sarama, the Intuition, hound of heaven who descends into the cavern of the subconscient and finds there the concealed illuminations; Dakshina, whose function is to discern rightly, dispose the action and the offering and distribute in the sacrifice to each godhead its portion. Each god, too, has his female energy.
All this action and struggle and ascension is supported by Heaven our Father and Earth our Mother Parents of the Gods, who sustain respectively the purely mental and psychic and the physical consciousness. Their large and free scope is the condition of our achievement. Vayu, master of life, links them together by the mid-air, the region of vital force. And there are other deities, - Parjanya, giver of the rain of heaven; Dadhikravan, the divine war-horse, a power of Agni; the mystic Dragon of the Foundations; Trita Aptya who on the third plane of existence consummates our triple being; and more besides.
The development of all these godheads is necessary to our perfection. And that perfection must be attained on all our levels, - in the wideness of earth, our physical being and consciousness; in the full force of vital speed and action and enjoyment and nervous vibration, typified as the Horse which must be brought forward to upbear our endeavour; in the perfect gladness of the heart of emotion and a brilliant heat and clarity of the mind throughout our intellectual and psychical being; in the coming of the supramental Light, the Dawn and the Sun and the shining Mother of the herds, to transform all our existence; for so comes to us the possession of the Truth, by the Truth the admirable surge of the Bliss, in the Bliss infinite Consciousness of absolute being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Hymns to the Mystic Fire, The Doctrine of the Mystics,#KEYS
279: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
280:The Science of Living
To know oneself and to control oneself
AN AIMLESS life is always a miserable life.
Every one of you should have an aim. But do not forget that on the quality of your aim will depend the quality of your life.
Your aim should be high and wide, generous and disinterested; this will make your life precious to yourself and to others.
But whatever your ideal, it cannot be perfectly realised unless you have realised perfection in yourself.
To work for your perfection, the first step is to become conscious of yourself, of the different parts of your being and their respective activities. You must learn to distinguish these different parts one from another, so that you may become clearly aware of the origin of the movements that occur in you, the many impulses, reactions and conflicting wills that drive you to action. It is an assiduous study which demands much perseverance and sincerity. For man's nature, especially his mental nature, has a spontaneous tendency to give a favourable explanation for everything he thinks, feels, says and does. It is only by observing these movements with great care, by bringing them, as it were, before the tribunal of our highest ideal, with a sincere will to submit to its judgment, that we can hope to form in ourselves a discernment that never errs. For if we truly want to progress and acquire the capacity of knowing the truth of our being, that is to say, what we are truly created for, what we can call our mission upon earth, then we must, in a very regular and constant manner, reject from us or eliminate in us whatever contradicts the truth of our existence, whatever is opposed to it. In this way, little by little, all the parts, all the elements of our being can be organised into a homogeneous whole around our psychic centre. This work of unification requires much time to be brought to some degree of perfection. Therefore, in order to accomplish it, we must arm ourselves with patience and endurance, with a determination to prolong our life as long as necessary for the success of our endeavour.
As you pursue this labour of purification and unification, you must at the same time take great care to perfect the external and instrumental part of your being. When the higher truth manifests, it must find in you a mind that is supple and rich enough to be able to give the idea that seeks to express itself a form of thought which preserves its force and clarity. This thought, again, when it seeks to clothe itself in words, must find in you a sufficient power of expression so that the words reveal the thought and do not deform it. And the formula in which you embody the truth should be manifested in all your feelings, all your acts of will, all your actions, in all the movements of your being. Finally, these movements themselves should, by constant effort, attain their highest perfection.
All this can be realised by means of a fourfold discipline, the general outline of which is given here. The four aspects of the discipline do not exclude each other, and can be followed at the same time; indeed, this is preferable. The starting-point is what can be called the psychic discipline. We give the name "psychic" to the psychological centre of our being, the seat within us of the highest truth of our existence, that which can know this truth and set it in movement. It is therefore of capital importance to become conscious of its presence in us, to concentrate on this presence until it becomes a living fact for us and we can identify ourselves with it.
In various times and places many methods have been prescribed for attaining this perception and ultimately achieving this identification. Some methods are psychological, some religious, some even mechanical. In reality, everyone has to find the one which suits him best, and if one has an ardent and steadfast aspiration, a persistent and dynamic will, one is sure to meet, in one way or another - outwardly through reading and study, inwardly through concentration, meditation, revelation and experience - the help one needs to reach the goal. Only one thing is absolutely indispensable: the will to discover and to realise. This discovery and realisation should be the primary preoccupation of our being, the pearl of great price which we must acquire at any cost. Whatever you do, whatever your occupations and activities, the will to find the truth of your being and to unite with it must be always living and present behind all that you do, all that you feel, all that you think.
To complement this movement of inner discovery, it would be good not to neglect the development of the mind. For the mental instrument can equally be a great help or a great hindrance. In its natural state the human mind is always limited in its vision, narrow in its understanding, rigid in its conceptions, and a constant effort is therefore needed to widen it, to make it more supple and profound. So it is very necessary to consider everything from as many points of view as possible. Towards this end, there is an exercise which gives great suppleness and elevation to the thought. It is as follows: a clearly formulated thesis is set; against it is opposed its antithesis, formulated with the same precision. Then by careful reflection the problem must be widened or transcended until a synthesis is found which unites the two contraries in a larger, higher and more comprehensive idea.
Many other exercises of the same kind can be undertaken; some have a beneficial effect on the character and so possess a double advantage: that of educating the mind and that of establishing control over the feelings and their consequences. For example, you must never allow your mind to judge things and people, for the mind is not an instrument of knowledge; it is incapable of finding knowledge, but it must be moved by knowledge. Knowledge belongs to a much higher domain than that of the human mind, far above the region of pure ideas. The mind has to be silent and attentive to receive knowledge from above and manifest it. For it is an instrument of formation, of organisation and action, and it is in these functions that it attains its full value and real usefulness.
There is another practice which can be very helpful to the progress of the consciousness. Whenever there is a disagreement on any matter, such as a decision to be taken, or an action to be carried out, one must never remain closed up in one's own conception or point of view. On the contrary, one must make an effort to understand the other's point of view, to put oneself in his place and, instead of quarrelling or even fighting, find the solution which can reasonably satisfy both parties; there always is one for men of goodwill.
Here we must mention the discipline of the vital. The vital being in us is the seat of impulses and desires, of enthusiasm and violence, of dynamic energy and desperate depressions, of passions and revolts. It can set everything in motion, build and realise; but it can also destroy and mar everything. Thus it may be the most difficult part to discipline in the human being. It is a long and exacting labour requiring great patience and perfect sincerity, for without sincerity you will deceive yourself from the very outset, and all endeavour for progress will be in vain. With the collaboration of the vital no realisation seems impossible, no transformation impracticable. But the difficulty lies in securing this constant collaboration. The vital is a good worker, but most often it seeks its own satisfaction. If that is refused, totally or even partially, the vital gets vexed, sulks and goes on strike. Its energy disappears more or less completely and in its place leaves disgust for people and things, discouragement or revolt, depression and dissatisfaction. At such moments it is good to remain quiet and refuse to act; for these are the times when one does stupid things and in a few moments one can destroy or spoil the progress that has been made during months of regular effort. These crises are shorter and less dangerous for those who have established a contact with their psychic being which is sufficient to keep alive in them the flame of aspiration and the consciousness of the ideal to be realised. They can, with the help of this consciousness, deal with their vital as one deals with a rebellious child, with patience and perseverance, showing it the truth and light, endeavouring to convince it and awaken in it the goodwill which has been veiled for a time. By means of such patient intervention each crisis can be turned into a new progress, into one more step towards the goal. Progress may be slow, relapses may be frequent, but if a courageous will is maintained, one is sure to triumph one day and see all difficulties melt and vanish before the radiance of the truth-consciousness.
Lastly, by means of a rational and discerning physical education, we must make our body strong and supple enough to become a fit instrument in the material world for the truth-force which wants to manifest through us.
In fact, the body must not rule, it must obey. By its very nature it is a docile and faithful servant. Unfortunately, it rarely has the capacity of discernment it ought to have with regard to its masters, the mind and the vital. It obeys them blindly, at the cost of its own well-being. The mind with its dogmas, its rigid and arbitrary principles, the vital with its passions, its excesses and dissipations soon destroy the natural balance of the body and create in it fatigue, exhaustion and disease. It must be freed from this tyranny and this can be done only through a constant union with the psychic centre of the being. The body has a wonderful capacity of adaptation and endurance. It is able to do so many more things than one usually imagines. If, instead of the ignorant and despotic masters that now govern it, it is ruled by the central truth of the being, you will be amazed at what it is capable of doing. Calm and quiet, strong and poised, at every minute it will be able to put forth the effort that is demanded of it, for it will have learnt to find rest in action and to recuperate, through contact with the universal forces, the energies it expends consciously and usefully. In this sound and balanced life a new harmony will manifest in the body, reflecting the harmony of the higher regions, which will give it perfect proportions and ideal beauty of form. And this harmony will be progressive, for the truth of the being is never static; it is a perpetual unfolding of a growing perfection that is more and more total and comprehensive. As soon as the body has learnt to follow this movement of progressive harmony, it will be possible for it to escape, through a continuous process of transformation, from the necessity of disintegration and destruction. Thus the irrevocable law of death will no longer have any reason to exist.
When we reach this degree of perfection which is our goal, we shall perceive that the truth we seek is made up of four major aspects: Love, Knowledge, Power and Beauty. These four attributes of the Truth will express themselves spontaneously in our being. The psychic will be the vehicle of true and pure love, the mind will be the vehicle of infallible knowledge, the vital will manifest an invincible power and strength and the body will be the expression of a perfect beauty and harmony.
Bulletin, November 1950
~ The Mother, On Education,#KEYS
281: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
282: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.
But you must not read it as you read other books or newspapers. You must read with an empty head, a blank and vacant mind, without there being any other thought; you must concentrate much, remain empty, calm and open; then the words, rhythms, vibrations will penetrate directly to this white page, will put their stamp upon the brain, will explain themselves without your making any effort.
Savitri alone is sufficient to make you climb to the highest peaks. If truly one knows how to meditate on Savitri, one will receive all the help one needs. For him who wishes to follow this path, it is a concrete help as though the Lord himself were taking you by the hand and leading you to the destined goal. And then, every question, however personal it may be, has its answer here, every difficulty finds its solution herein; indeed there is everything that is necessary for doing the Yoga.
*He has crammed the whole universe in a single book.* It is a marvellous work, magnificent and of an incomparable perfection.
You know, before writing Savitri Sri Aurobindo said to me, *I am impelled to launch on a new adventure; I was hesitant in the beginning, but now I am decided. Still, I do not know how far I shall succeed. I pray for help.* And you know what it was? It was - before beginning, I warn you in advance - it was His way of speaking, so full of divine humility and modesty. He never... *asserted Himself*. And the day He actually began it, He told me: *I have launched myself in a rudderless boat upon the vastness of the Infinite.* And once having started, He wrote page after page without intermission, as though it were a thing already complete up there and He had only to transcribe it in ink down here on these pages.
In truth, the entire form of Savitri has descended "en masse" from the highest region and Sri Aurobindo with His genius only arranged the lines - in a superb and magnificent style. Sometimes entire lines were revealed and He has left them intact; He worked hard, untiringly, so that the inspiration could come from the highest possible summit. And what a work He has created! Yes, it is a true creation in itself. It is an unequalled work. Everything is there, and it is put in such a simple, such a clear form; verses perfectly harmonious, limpid and eternally true. My child, I have read so many things, but I have never come across anything which could be compared with Savitri. I have studied the best works in Greek, Latin, English and of course French literature, also in German and all the great creations of the West and the East, including the great epics; but I repeat it, I have not found anywhere anything comparable with Savitri. All these literary works seems to me empty, flat, hollow, without any deep reality - apart from a few rare exceptions, and these too represent only a small fraction of what Savitri is. What grandeur, what amplitude, what reality: it is something immortal and eternal He has created. I tell you once again there is nothing like in it the whole world. Even if one puts aside the vision of the reality, that is, the essential substance which is the heart of the inspiration, and considers only the lines in themselves, one will find them unique, of the highest classical kind. What He has created is something man cannot imagine. For, everything is there, everything.
It may then be said that Savitri is a revelation, it is a meditation, it is a quest of the Infinite, the Eternal. If it is read with this aspiration for Immortality, the reading itself will serve as a guide to Immortality. To read Savitri is indeed to practice Yoga, spiritual concentration; one can find there all that is needed to realise the Divine. Each step of Yoga is noted here, including the secret of all other Yogas. Surely, if one sincerely follows what is revealed here in each line one will reach finally the transformation of the Supramental Yoga. It is truly the infallible guide who never abandons you; its support is always there for him who wants to follow the path. Each verse of Savitri is like a revealed Mantra which surpasses all that man possessed by way of knowledge, and I repeat this, the words are expressed and arranged in such a way that the sonority of the rhythm leads you to the origin of sound, which is OM.
My child, yes, everything is there: mysticism, occultism, philosophy, the history of evolution, the history of man, of the gods, of creation, of Nature. How the universe was created, why, for what purpose, what destiny - all is there. You can find all the answers to all your questions there. Everything is explained, even the future of man and of the evolution, all that nobody yet knows. He has described it all in beautiful and clear words so that spiritual adventurers who wish to solve the mysteries of the world may understand it more easily. But this mystery is well hidden behind the words and lines and one must rise to the required level of true consciousness to discover it. All prophesies, all that is going to come is presented with the precise and wonderful clarity. Sri Aurobindo gives you here the key to find the Truth, to discover the Consciousness, to solve the problem of what the universe is. He has also indicated how to open the door of the Inconscience so that the light may penetrate there and transform it. He has shown the path, the way to liberate oneself from the ignorance and climb up to the superconscience; each stage, each plane of consciousness, how they can be scaled, how one can cross even the barrier of death and attain immortality. You will find the whole journey in detail, and as you go forward you can discover things altogether unknown to man. That is Savitri and much more yet. It is a real experience - reading Savitri. All the secrets that man possessed, He has revealed, - as well as all that awaits him in the future; all this is found in the depth of Savitri. But one must have the knowledge to discover it all, the experience of the planes of consciousness, the experience of the Supermind, even the experience of the conquest of Death. He has noted all the stages, marked each step in order to advance integrally in the integral Yoga.
All this is His own experience, and what is most surprising is that it is my own experience also. It is my sadhana which He has worked out. Each object, each event, each realisation, all the descriptions, even the colours are exactly what I saw and the words, phrases are also exactly what I heard. And all this before having read the book. I read Savitri many times afterwards, but earlier, when He was writing He used to read it to me. Every morning I used to hear Him read Savitri. During the night He would write and in the morning read it to me. And I observed something curious, that day after day the experiences He read out to me in the morning were those I had had the previous night, word by word. Yes, all the descriptions, the colours, the pictures I had seen, the words I had heard, all, all, I heard it all, put by Him into poetry, into miraculous poetry. Yes, they were exactly my experiences of the previous night which He read out to me the following morning. And it was not just one day by chance, but for days and days together. And every time I used to compare what He said with my previous experiences and they were always the same. I repeat, it was not that I had told Him my experiences and that He had noted them down afterwards, no, He knew already what I had seen. It is my experiences He has presented at length and they were His experiences also. It is, moreover, the picture of Our joint adventure into the unknown or rather into the Supermind.
These are experiences lived by Him, realities, supracosmic truths. He experienced all these as one experiences joy or sorrow, physically. He walked in the darkness of inconscience, even in the neighborhood of death, endured the sufferings of perdition, and emerged from the mud, the world-misery to breathe the sovereign plenitude and enter the supreme Ananda. He crossed all these realms, went through the consequences, suffered and endured physically what one cannot imagine. Nobody till today has suffered like Him. He accepted suffering to transform suffering into the joy of union with the Supreme. It is something unique and incomparable in the history of the world. It is something that has never happened before, He is the first to have traced the path in the Unknown, so that we may be able to walk with certitude towards the Supermind. He has made the work easy for us. Savitri is His whole Yoga of transformation, and this Yoga appears now for the first time in the earth-consciousness.
And I think that man is not yet ready to receive it. It is too high and too vast for him. He cannot understand it, grasp it, for it is not by the mind that one can understand Savitri. One needs spiritual experiences in order to understand and assimilate it. The farther one advances on the path of Yoga, the more does one assimilate and the better. No, it is something which will be appreciated only in the future, it is the poetry of tomorrow of which He has spoken in The Future Poetry. It is too subtle, too refined, - it is not in the mind or through the mind, it is in meditation that Savitri is revealed.
And men have the audacity to compare it with the work of Virgil or Homer and to find it inferior. They do not understand, they cannot understand. What do they know? Nothing at all. And it is useless to try to make them understand. Men will know what it is, but in a distant future. It is only the new race with a new consciousness which will be able to understand. I assure you there is nothing under the blue sky to compare with Savitri. It is the mystery of mysteries. It is a *super-epic,* it is super-literature, super-poetry, super-vision, it is a super-work even if one considers the number of lines He has written. No, these human words are not adequate to describe Savitri. Yes, one needs superlatives, hyperboles to describe it. It is a hyper-epic. No, words express nothing of what Savitri is, at least I do not find them. It is of immense value - spiritual value and all other values; it is eternal in its subject, and infinite in its appeal, miraculous in its mode and power of execution; it is a unique thing, the more you come into contact with it, the higher will you be uplifted. Ah, truly it is something! It is the most beautiful thing He has left for man, the highest possible. What is it? When will man know it? When is he going to lead a life of truth? When is he going to accept this in his life? This yet remains to be seen.
My child, every day you are going to read Savitri; read properly, with the right attitude, concentrating a little before opening the pages and trying to keep the mind as empty as possible, absolutely without a thought. The direct road is through the heart. I tell you, if you try to really concentrate with this aspiration you can light the flame, the psychic flame, the flame of purification in a very short time, perhaps in a few days. What you cannot do normally, you can do with the help of Savitri. Try and you will see how very different it is, how new, if you read with this attitude, with this something at the back of your consciousness; as though it were an offering to Sri Aurobindo. You know it is charged, fully charged with consciousness; as if Savitri were a being, a real guide. I tell you, whoever, wanting to practice Yoga, tries sincerely and feels the necessity for it, will be able to climb with the help of Savitri to the highest rung of the ladder of Yoga, will be able to find the secret that Savitri represents. And this without the help of a Guru. And he will be able to practice it anywhere. For him Savitri alone will be the guide, for all that he needs he will find Savitri. If he remains very quiet when before a difficulty, or when he does not know where to turn to go forward and how to overcome obstacles, for all these hesitations and incertitudes which overwhelm us at every moment, he will have the necessary indications, and the necessary concrete help. If he remains very calm, open, if he aspires sincerely, always he will be as if lead by the hand. If he has faith, the will to give himself and essential sincerity he will reach the final goal.
Indeed, Savitri is something concrete, living, it is all replete, packed with consciousness, it is the supreme knowledge above all human philosophies and religions. It is the spiritual path, it is Yoga, Tapasya, Sadhana, in its single body. Savitri has an extraordinary power, it gives out vibrations for him who can receive them, the true vibrations of each stage of consciousness. It is incomparable, it is truth in its plenitude, the Truth Sri Aurobindo brought down on the earth. My child, one must try to find the secret that Savitri represents, the prophetic message Sri Aurobindo reveals there for us. This is the work before you, it is hard but it is worth the trouble. - 5 November 1967
~ The Mother, Sweet Mother, The Mother to Mona Sarkar, [T0],#KEYS
*** WISDOM TROVE ***
1:Meandering leads to perfection. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 2:A man's perfection is his work. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 3:Perfection is always infinite. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 4:Art is a shadow of Divine perfection. ~ michelangelo, @wisdomtrove 5:Perfection is an impossible destination ~ tim-ferris, @wisdomtrove 6:Perfection can be had by everybody. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 7:The universe doesn't allow perfection. ~ stephen-hawking, @wisdomtrove 8:Strive for excellence, not perfection. ~ h-jackson-brown-jr, @wisdomtrove 9:Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 10:Perfection can never be attained by work. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 11:Our goal is to enjoy, not to achieve perfection. ~ susan-jeffers, @wisdomtrove 12:A moment is all you can expect from perfection. ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove 13:If you look for perfection, you'll never be content. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 14:Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it. ~ salvador-dali, @wisdomtrove 15:If perfection is stagnation, then Heaven is a swamp. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 16:My body represents perfection. I am vibrantly healthy. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 17:Your generosity is more important than your perfection. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 18:In creation alone there is the possibility of perfection. ~ anais-nin, @wisdomtrove 19:There is a perfection in everything that cannot be owned. ~ anais-nin, @wisdomtrove 20:All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 21:Do not stop trying just because perfection eludes you. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 22:Numbers are limits, and perfection doesn't have limits. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 23:Trifles make perfection but perfection is not a trifle. ~ michelangelo, @wisdomtrove 24:You would attain to the divine perfection. ~ henry-wadsworth-longfellow, @wisdomtrove 25:Gratitude is pure happiness. Happiness is sure perfection. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 26:Do not be afraid of perfection - you will never attain it. ~ salvador-dali, @wisdomtrove 27:Don't let perfection become procrastination . Do it now. ~ danielle-laporte, @wisdomtrove 28:Don't let your want for perfection become procrastination ~ danielle-laporte, @wisdomtrove 29:Infinite perfection is in every man, though unmanifested. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 30:The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection. ~ michelangelo, @wisdomtrove 31:Perfection is not to be attained, it is already within us. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 32:And pictures of perfection, as you know, make me sick and wicked. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 33:Friendship is the highest degree of perfection in society. ~ michel-de-montaigne, @wisdomtrove 34:Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time. ~ voltaire, @wisdomtrove 35:The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 36:Humility is courage, the open acceptance of your own perfection. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 37:Not seeing people permits us to imagine them with every perfection. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 38:Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 39:The development of man is a return to an original perfection. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 40:Perfectionists demand perfection from themselves first and foremost. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 41:What makes a Christian a Christian is not perfection but forgiveness. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 42:Perfection belongs to the Gods; the most we can hope for is excellence. ~ carl-jung, @wisdomtrove 43:Perfection. Patience. Power. Prioritize your passion. It keeps you sane. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove 44:The condition of perfection is idleness: the aim of perfection is youth. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 45:Big things are accomplished only through the perfection of minor details. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 46:For a married couple to expect perfection for each other is unrealistic. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 47:Jesus took your punishment, and God gave you credit for Jesus' perfection. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 48:The true perfection of man lies not in what man has, but in what man does. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 49:This perfection must come through the practice of holiness and love. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 50:Education is the manifestation of perfection already existing in man. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 51:While real perfection is only one, relative perfections must be many. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 52:Humor has justly been regarded as the finest perfection of poetic genius. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 53:It is through art, and through art only, that we can realise our perfection. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 54:Perfection of means and confusion of ends seems to characterise our age. ~ albert-einstein, @wisdomtrove 55:The cruelest thing a man can do to a woman is to portray her as perfection. ~ d-h-lawrence, @wisdomtrove 56:This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections. ~ saint-augustine, @wisdomtrove 57:Only gods can safely risk perfection ... it's a dangerous thing for a man. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 58:Many things impossible to thought have been by need to full perfection brought. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 59:Strive for excellence, not perfection, because we don't live in a perfect world. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 60:Ego is impurity. Be selfless. Consecrate and dedicate your life to perfection. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 61:Perfection does not exist - you can always do better and you can always grow. ~ les-brown, @wisdomtrove 62:Producing perfection from imperfection is, after all, the highest of art forms. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 63:The work never matches the dream of perfection the artist has to start with. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 64:Absolute perfection is here and now, not in some future, near or far. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 65:Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence. ~ vince-lombardi, @wisdomtrove 66:I learned about love from your perfection. I learned about poetry and song from your beauty. ~ rumi, @wisdomtrove 67:There is only one prayer and that is prayer for light, for purity, for perfection. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 68:Not hammer-strokes, but dance of the water, sings the pebbles into perfection. ~ rabindranath-tagore, @wisdomtrove 69:Perfection is not when there is no more to add, but no more to take away. ~ antoine-de-saint-exupery, @wisdomtrove 70:If we practice love of neighbor with great perfection, we will have done everything. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 71:Perfection of moral virtue does not wholly take away the passions, but regulates them. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 72:He is the whole and also the part. The whole and part together make up real Perfection. ~ anandamayi-ma, @wisdomtrove 73:Perfection in war lies in so sapping your opponents will that he surrenders without fighting. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 74:Perfection of moral virtue does not wholly take away the passions, but regulates them. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 75:Pride makes us do things well. But it is love that makes us do them to perfection. ~ h-jackson-brown-jr, @wisdomtrove 76:A master understands that life is perfection and always prefers what is occurring. ~ neale-donald-walsch, @wisdomtrove 77:True perfection is unattainable, but if you chase perfection you will catch excellence! ~ vince-lombardi, @wisdomtrove 78:Striving for excellence is a positive quality. Striving for perfection is self-defeating. ~ melody-beattie, @wisdomtrove 79:We must take human nature as we find it, perfection falls not to the share of mortals. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 80:The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection. ~ johann-wolfgang-von-goethe, @wisdomtrove 81:Heaven is beautiful because it is the expression of that which is the perfection of beauty. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 82:Perfection is the measure of heaven, and the wish to be perfect the measure of man. ~ johann-wolfgang-von-goethe, @wisdomtrove 83:Ethics is the activity of man directed to secure the inner perfection of his own personality. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 84:God has set the type of marriage through creation. Each creature seeks its perfection in another. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 85:There's no such thing as Perfection. But, in striving for perfection, we can achieve excellence. ~ vince-lombardi, @wisdomtrove 86:Even if they can find a lover they demand perfection, and the love is destroyed because of that demand. ~ rajneesh, @wisdomtrove 87:Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it. ~ vince-lombardi, @wisdomtrove 88:Perfection is attained, not when no more can be added, but when no more can be removed. ~ antoine-de-saint-exupery, @wisdomtrove 89:So, to detract from the perfection of creatures is to detract from the perfection of divine power. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 90:It is all right to make mistakes; nothing is perfect because with perfection, we would not exist. ~ stephen-hawking, @wisdomtrove 91:So, to detract from the perfection of creatures is to detract from the perfection of divine power. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 92:Consciously or unconsciously, we are all striving for perfection. Every being must attain to it. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 93:It is nature that is driving us towards perfection, and eventually she will bring everyone there. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 94:A certain type of perfection can only be realized through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 95:Sin and virtue are a game of resistance we play with God in His efforts to draw us towards perfection. ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove 96:A good artist ought never to allow impatience to overcome his sense of the main end of art – perfection. ~ michelangelo, @wisdomtrove 97:Enlightenment does not ask you to be perfect; it simply asks you to find perfection right where you stand. ~ alan-cohen, @wisdomtrove 98:Every individual has in himself perfection. It lies within the dark recesses of his physical being. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 99:Perfection is impossibility but striving for perfection is not. Do the best you can. That is what counts. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 100:Perfection is reachednot when there's nothing to add, but when there's nothing to take away. ~ antoine-de-saint-exupery, @wisdomtrove 101:Relentlessly pursue perfection knowing we won't catch it, but in the process we'll achieve excellence. ~ vince-lombardi, @wisdomtrove 102:Perhaps the crescent moon smiles in doubt at being told that it is a fragment awaiting perfection. ~ rabindranath-tagore, @wisdomtrove 103:To be more free is the goal of all our efforts, for only in perfect freedom can there be perfection. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 104:If you seek to carry no other crosses but those whose reason you understand, perfection is not for you. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 105:Perfection is impossible without humility. Why should I strive for perfection, if I am already good enough? ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 106:Where the natural perfection of reality lies, we should gaze at the uncontrived sameness of every experience. ~ longchenpa, @wisdomtrove 107:A minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection. ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove 108:Each man is perfect by his nature; prophets have manifested this perfection, but it is potential in us. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 109:Every soul is destined to be perfect, and every being, in the end, will attain the state of perfection. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 110:Perfection is one thing and enjoyment another; these two having different ends, engage men differently. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 111:If a man should happen to reach perfection in this world, he would have to die immediately to enjoy himself. ~ josh-billings, @wisdomtrove 112:Happiness consists in always aspiring perfection, the pause in any level in perfection is the pause of happiness ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 113:Stop waiting for the perfect day or the perfect moment. Take this day, this moment and lead it to perfection. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 114:The highest perfection of human life consists in the mind of man being detached from care, for the sake of God. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 115:The highest perfection of human life consists in the mind of man being detached from care, for the sake of God. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 116:Works of Art can only be produc'd in Perfection where the Man is either in Affluence or is Above the Care of it. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 117:Each time you fall He'll pick you up. He knows your own efforts are never going to bring you anywhere near perfection ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 118:Eternity gives life to all and sustains all, transforms all on the wheel of dharma - until all attain perfection. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 119:Everybody has to start somewhere. You have your whole future ahead of you. Perfection doesn't happen right away. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 120:I like Australia less and less. The hateful newness, the democratic conceit, every man a little pope of perfection. ~ d-h-lawrence, @wisdomtrove 121:... the Power who gave a power, by its mere existence, signifies that it must be brought out towards perfection. ~ margaret-fuller, @wisdomtrove 122:Morality is the struggle of the bound will to get free and is the proof that we have come from perfection. . . . ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 123:Perfectionism is self destructive simply because there's no such thing as perfect. Perfection is an unattainable goal. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 124:It is necessary for the perfection of human society that there should be men who devote their lives to contemplation. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 125:It is necessary for the perfection of human society that there should be men who devote their lives to contemplation. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 126:It seems that the creative faculty and the critical faculty cannot exist together in their highest perfection. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 127:When a man is perfect, he sees perfection in others. When he sees imperfection, it is his own mind projecting itself. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 128:As creators, our pursuit of perfection might be misguided, particularly if it comes at the expense of the things that matter. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 129:At the beginning and the middle and the end of all things, there is only the perfection of enlightenment that is nirvana. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 130:The kingdom of heaven is already in existence if we will have it, that perfection is already in man if he will see it. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 131:There is nothing that isn't perfect, the only reason we don't see that perfection constantly is because we lack humility. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 132:Jonathan is that brilliant little fire that burns within us all, that lives only for those moments when we reach perfection. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 133:Our happiness consists in sharing the happiness of God, the perfection of His unlimited freedom, the perfection of His love. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 134:All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the base of our splendid failure to do the impossible. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 135:It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 136:For every one step that you take in the pursuit of higher knowledge, take three steps in the perfection of your own character ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove 137:We will be relentless in our pursuit for perfection. We won't ever be perfect - but in the process we will achieve greatness. ~ vince-lombardi, @wisdomtrove 138:You'll see more and more perfection of that - computer as servant. But the next thing is going to be computer as a guide or agent. ~ steve-jobs, @wisdomtrove 139:Perfection is always infinite. We are the Infinite already. You and I, and all beings, are trying to manifest that infinity. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 140:To do as one would be done by, and to love one's neighbour as oneself, constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality ~ john-stuart-mill, @wisdomtrove 141:Both the artist and the lover know that perfection is not loveable. It is the clumsiness of a fault that makes a person lovable. ~ joseph-campbell, @wisdomtrove 142:Heaven will be the perfection we've always longed for. All the things that made Earth unlovely and tragic will be absent in heaven. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 143:Original sin is that thing about man which makes him capable of conceiving of his own perfection and incapable of achieving it. ~ reinhold-niebuhr, @wisdomtrove 144:As you become more aware of your own imperfections, you simultaneously become more aware of the overall perfection of the universe. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 145:This is moral perfection: to live each day as though it were the last; to be tranquil, sincere, yet not indifferent to one's fate. ~ marcus-aurelius, @wisdomtrove 146:My confidence is in the idea that I may be wrong on this or that. No man in this life should ever have to bear the burden of perfection. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove 147:Advance, and never halt, for advancing is perfection. Advance and do not fear the thorns in the path, for they draw only corrupt blood. ~ kahlil-gibran, @wisdomtrove 148:Are you still to learn that the end and perfection of our victories is to avoid the vices and infirmities of those whom we subdue? ~ alexander-the-great, @wisdomtrove 149:The potentiality of perfection outweighs actual contradictions... Existence in itself is here to prove that it cannot be an evil. ~ rabindranath-tagore, @wisdomtrove 150:Things get destroyed by their own perfection. A perfect society is necessarily static and, therefore, it stagnates and decays. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 151:Vegetarianism serves as the criterion by which we know that the pursuit of moral perfection on the part of humanity is genuine and sincere. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 152:A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. ~ antoine-de-saint-exupery, @wisdomtrove 153:March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path. ~ kahlil-gibran, @wisdomtrove 154:Perfection, n. An imaginary state of quality distinguished from the actual by an element known as excellence; an attribute of the critic. ~ ambrose-bierce, @wisdomtrove 155:The perfection of conversation is not to play a regular sonata, but, like the AEolian harp, to await the inspiration of the passing breeze. ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 156:The result of law inviolate is perfection‚Äìright‚Äìnegative happiness. The result of law violate is imperfection, wrong, positive pain. ~ edgar-allan-poe, @wisdomtrove 157:Disregard whatever you think yourself to be and act as if you were absolutely perfect - whatever your idea of perfection may be. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 158:Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 159:Quality involves living the message of the possibility of perfection and infinite improvement, living it day in and day out, decade by decade. ~ tom-peters, @wisdomtrove 160:At some point there’s no more struggle, just the deep peace that comes from surrendering to a perfection that is beyond your comprehension. ~ michael-singer, @wisdomtrove 161:Choose to achieve perfection. We won't achieve it because perfection is impossible. But by pursuing perfection, we will achieve excellence. ~ vince-lombardi, @wisdomtrove 162:Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 163:You know you've achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away. ~ antoine-de-saint-exupery, @wisdomtrove 164:True perfection consists in the love of God and our neighbour, and the better we keep both these commandments, the more perfect we shall be. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 165:To achieve perfection, one must first begin by not understanding many things! And if we understand too quickly, we may not understand well. ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 166:We are not to expect perfection in this world; but mankind, in modern times, have apparently made some progress in the science of government. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 167:We need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven. The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 168:All progress and power are already in every man; perfection is man's nature, only it is barred in and prevented from taking its proper course. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 169:As natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress toward perfection. ~ charles-darwin, @wisdomtrove 170:I fully realize that this gratitude of mine is not in the least a sign of perfection: it must be my nature - I could be suborned with a sardine. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 171:In this broad earth of ours, Amid the measureless grossness and the slag, Enclosed and safe within its central heart, Nestles the seed of perfection. ~ walt-whitman, @wisdomtrove 172:Society is indeed a contract. ... It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection. ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 173:Complete and total perfection will come about only when we feel that our perfection is no perfections as long as the rest of humanity remains imperfect. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 174:Sometimes sorrow, sometimes joy. But beneath it all remember the innate perfection of your life unfolding. That is the secret of unreasonable happiness. ~ dan-millman, @wisdomtrove 175:The gulls who scorn perfection for the sake of travel go nowhere, slowly. Those who put aside travel for the sake of perfection go anywhere, instantly. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 176:Quality is not an absolute measure. It doesn't mean & 177:We differ only in the contents of our dreams. You are after perfection - in the future. We are intent on finding it - in the now. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 178:We cannot possess the truth fully until it has entered into the very substance of our life by good habits, and by a certain perfection of moral activity. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 179:Everything is already perfect. And if you can accept that everything is already perfect, the imperfection is a part of the perfection. What's to worry about? ~ alice-walker, @wisdomtrove 180:One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn't exist... ..Without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist ~ stephen-hawking, @wisdomtrove 181:Has creation a final purpose at all, and if so why is it not attained immediately, why does perfection not exist from the very beginning? ~ friedrich-wilhelm-joseph-schelling, @wisdomtrove 182:I happen to think we’ve set our ideal on the wrong objects; I happen to think that the greatest ideal man can set before himself is self-perfection. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 183:The idea which... shuts out the Second Coming from our minds, the idea of the world slowly ripening to perfection, is a myth, not a generalization from experience. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 184:You can simulate perfection, but it's not the same. Some one can do a copy of Rembrandt, but it's not a Rembrandt. It doesn't have the vibration or the power. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 185:The means of obtaining as much variety as possible, but with the greatest possible order... is the means of obtaining as much perfection as possible. ~ gottfried-wilhelm-leibniz, @wisdomtrove 186:We should amuse our evening hours of life in cultivating the tender plants, and bringing them to perfection, before they are transplanted to a happier clime. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 187:Only the ego can fear, experience hate, lust and jealousy. Humility experiences none of these things - it merges into the transcendental awareness of perfection. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 188:The heart is the perfection of the whole organism. Therefore, the principles of the power of perception and the soul's ability to nourish itself must lie in the heart. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 189:Two possibilities: making oneself infinitely small or being so. The second is perfection, that is to say, inactivity, the first is beginning, that is to say, action. ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove 190:All perfection is there already in the soul. But this perfection has been covered up by nature; layer after layer of nature is covering this purity of the soul. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 191:Gentlemen, we will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence. ~ vince-lombardi, @wisdomtrove 192:Gough never pretended to perfection or to sainthood - well, hardly ever. Although when he set off the metal detector at airport security, he would blame his aura. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 193:Let the states of equilibrium and harmony exist in perfection, and a happy order will prevail throughout heaven and earth, and all things will be nourished and flourish. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 194:A principle is the expression of perfection, and as imperfect beings like us cannot practise perfection, we devise every moment limits of its compromise in practice. ~ mahatma-gandhi, @wisdomtrove 195:When you see a successful individual, a champion, you can be very sure that you are looking at an individual who pays great attention to the perfection of minor details. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 196:The great accomplishment of Jobs's life is how effectively he put his idiosyncrasies - his petulance, his narcissism, and his rudeness - in the service of perfection. ~ malcolm-gladwell, @wisdomtrove 197:Perfection does not come from belief or faith. Talk does not count for anything. Parrots can do that. Perfection comes through the disinterested performance of action. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 198:The habit of looking for beauty in everything makes us notice the shortcomings of things, our sense, hungry for complete satisfaction, misses the perfection it demands. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 199:All the joys in all the worlds of all beings who have ever been or will ever be, will never equal the perfection of one moment of absorption into the stillness of nirvana. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 200:Most people tend to think the best of those who are blessed with beauty; we have difficulty imagining that physical perfection can conceal twisted emotions or a damaged mind. ~ dean-koontz, @wisdomtrove 201:To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 202:To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 203:People who work to bring about perfection see work as an extension of themselves. The point is to do a good job. That will empower you. To do a poor job will make you weaker. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 204:The comfort of certainty and perfection vs. the fear of uncertainty and being suboptimal. This is the struggle. Let me let you in on a secret: no one is free from this struggle. ~ leo-babauta, @wisdomtrove 205:The mind, the soul, becomes ennobled by the endeavour to create something perfect, for God is perfection, and whoever strives after perfection is striving for something divine. ~ michelangelo, @wisdomtrove 206:To be constant is to be useful. To be useful is to realize one's true nature. Realization of one's true nature is happiness. When one reaches happiness, one is close to perfection. ~ zhuangzi, @wisdomtrove 207:[Perfection] is only possible if the mind of man is changed, if he, of his own sweet will, changes his mind; and the great difficulty is, neither can he force his own mind. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 208:All these practices and struggles to become religious are only negative work, to take off the bars, and open the doors to that perfection which is our birthright, our nature. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 209:Tantra is the perception of the oneness and the perfection of all things. Not just the perception of light, but the perception of darkness, seeing God in both beauty and horror. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 210:One of the most essential things you need to do for yourself is to choose a goal that is important to you. Perfection does not exist - you can always do better and you can always grow. ~ les-brown, @wisdomtrove 211:The ultimate destiny of the human race is the greatest moral perfection, provided that it is achieved through human freedom, whereby alone man is capable of the greatest happiness. ~ immanuel-kant, @wisdomtrove 212:Chaos is everywhere and chaos is wonderful. That's all there really is. There is no today. There is no tomorrow. There is only eternity, perfection, consciousness, power, and light. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 213:If you sit with an enlightened teacher and silent your mind as they go into nirvana, suchness, the pure power of their aura will bring you on a journey into the world of perfection. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 214:Those who wish to attain God and progress in religious devotion, should particularly guard themselves against the snares of lust and wealth. Otherwise they can never attain perfection. ~ sri-ramakrishna, @wisdomtrove 215:Each of us is merely one human being, merely an experiment, a way station. But each of us should be on the way toward perfection, should be striving to reach the center, not the periphery. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 216:Alow immortality to work through you. Be but a mere instrument. And that instrument should be so absorbed in the perfect perfection of existence, that it knows not even that it is absorbed. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 217:If you think you are a vile slime, that means that you aspire to something higher... It's because you have a sense of perfection, and you obviously want that, that you find something wrong. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 218:Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness. ~ antoine-de-saint-exupery, @wisdomtrove 219:The individual problem is the world problem. Therefore let us return to the problem of individual perfection and the establishing of peace in the heart and in the mind of the individual. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 220:We want to see the universe in its absolute, pure, naked, perfection. We want to know its wonder. We want to know the totality of ourselves. That's done in steps and degrees and not in one day. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 221:It is necessary to go through all the daily tasks and bring perfection to them, to learn to be perfect in your meditation, and to win in all your endeavors so that one day you will complete again. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 222:Q: We love only ourselves. M: Were it so, it would be splendid! Love your self wisely and you will reach the summit of perfection. Everybody loves his body, but few love their real being. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 223:Refecting on the high divorce rate in America as contrasted with England "American women expect to find in their husbands a perfection that English women only hope to find in their butlers ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 224:The intuition of the moral sentiment is an insight of the perfection of the laws of the soul. These laws execute themselves. They are out of time, out of space, and not subject to circumstance. ~ ralph-waldo-emerson, @wisdomtrove 225:Our Soul is a spark of the Divine. It is pure and perfect. Evil deeds merely obstruct our vision of the true nature of our Soul. Through good deeds we can become conscious of this perfection again. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 226:If virtue promises happiness, prosperity and peace, then progress in virtue is progress in each of these for to whatever point the perfection of anything brings us, progress is always an approach toward it. ~ epictetus, @wisdomtrove 227:Those who direct the maximum force of their desires toward the center, toward true being, toward perfection, seem quieter than the passionate souls because the flame of their fervor cannot always be seen. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 228:A few rules include all that is necessary for the perfection of the definitions, the axioms, and the demonstrations, and consequently of the entire method of the geometrical proofs of the art of persuading. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 229:What does not come and go - remains. It is the ever greedy mind that creates ideas of progress and evolution towards perfection. It disturbs and talks of order, destroys and seeks security. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 230:Nearly all creators of Utopia have resembled the man who has toothache, and therefore thinks happiness consists in not having toothache... Whoever tries to imagine perfection simply reveals his own emptiness. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 231:Not only we can, but some have reached perfection; so no matter what finer bodies come, they could only be on the relative plane and could do no more than we, for to attain freedom is all that can be done. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 232:Whence it follows that God is absolutely perfect, since perfection is nothing but magnitude of positive reality, in the strict sense, setting aside the limits or bounds in things which are limited. ~ gottfried-wilhelm-leibniz, @wisdomtrove 233:To arrive at perfection, a man should have very sincere friends or inveterate enemies; because he would be made sensible of his good or ill conduct, either by the censures of the one or the admonitions of the other. ~ diogenes, @wisdomtrove 234:The difference in men does not lie in the size of their hands, nor in the perfection of their bodies, but in this one sublime ability of concentration: to throw the weight in one blow, to live eternity in an hour. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 235:There is such a thing as perfection... and our purpose for living is to find that perfection and show it forth... .Each of us is in truth an unlimited idea of freedom. Everything that limits us we have to put aside. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 236:Trying to be good enough for them, we create an image of perfection, but we don’t fit this image. We create this image, but this image is not real. We are never going to be perfect from this point of view. Never! ~ don-miguel-ruiz, @wisdomtrove 237:Our expectations about what our lives should be like are greater than ever before; we believe that we can do anything, and we are profoundly disappointed when reality doesn’t meet or even come close to perfection. ~ sonja-lyubomirsky, @wisdomtrove 238:The greatest of all heroes is One& 239:So the second thing to remember is never to demand perfection. You have no right to demand anything from anybody. If somebody loves you, be thankful, but don’t demand anything—because the other has no obligation to love you. ~ rajneesh, @wisdomtrove 240:The surest foundation in which this perfection may rest is humility; whatever here crawls in the deepest abjectness, that the Spirit lifts to the very heights of God, for love brings suffering and suffering brings love. ~ meister-eckhart, @wisdomtrove 241:Humble people can do great things with uncommon perfection because they are no longer concerned about their own interests and their own reputation, and therefore they no longer need to waste their efforts in defending them. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 242:If a thing happens once, it can happen again. If any human being has ever realised perfection, we too can do so. If we cannot become perfect here and now, we never can in any state or heaven or condition we may imagine. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 243:Matter is redeemed, spirit - revealed. The two are seen as one. They were always one, but the imperfect mind saw them as two. Perfection of the mind is the human task, for matter and spirit meet in the mind. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 244:Study is to study what cannot be studied. Undertaking means undertaking what cannot be undertaken. Philosophizing is to philosophize about what cannot be philosophized about. Knowing that knowing is unknowable is true perfection. ~ zhuangzi, @wisdomtrove 245:Businesses that grow by development and improvement do not die. But when a business ceases to be creative, when it believes it has reached perfection and needs to do nothing but produce no improvement, no development, it is done ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 246:The superior person tries to promote music as a means to the perfection of human culture. When such music prevails, and people's minds are led towards the right ideals and aspirations, we may see the appearance of a great nation. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 247:Winning is an approach to life. The place it starts is not on the playing field or in the business organization; nor is it competitive. We are trying to do our best to bring perfection into whatever we turn our attention to. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 248:Not complete inaction, which is an error, a confusion, a self-delusion, an impossibility, but action full and free done without subjection to sense and passion, desireless and unattached works, are the first secret of perfection. ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove 249:... the more one needs God the more perfect he is. To need God is nothing to be ashamed of but is perfection itself. It is the saddest thing in the world if a human being goes through life without discovering that he needs God! ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 250:God didn't overlook your sins, lest he endorse them. He didn't punish you, lest he destroy you. He instead found a way to punish the sin and preserve the sinner. Jesus took your punishment, and God gave you credit for Jesus' perfection. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 251:When you strive for perfection, you compare different versions of what could be instead of being present with what is. Perfectionism is an attempt to inhabit an imaginary world in order to avoid experiencing the world in which you live. ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove 252:But in the expression of the countenance, which was beaming all over with smiles, there still lurked (incomprehensible anomalyl) that fitful strain of melancholy which will ever be found inseparable from the perfection of the beautiful. ~ edgar-allan-poe, @wisdomtrove 253:The division of labor, which has brought such perfection in mechanical industries, is altogether fatal when applied to productions of the mind. All work of the mind is superior in proportion as the mind that produces it is universal. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 254:The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection. And we must not select a few favorite passages to the exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 255:When confronted with a situation that appears fragmented or impossible, step back, close your eyes, and envision perfection where you saw brokenness. Go to the inner place where there is no problem, and abide in the consciousness of well-being. ~ alan-cohen, @wisdomtrove 256:Many people seem to think that the journey of awakening is ultimately about achieving some sort of spiritual perfection. But I want to suggest that to be human is necessarily to be imperfect. We all have our flaws and foibles… even the best of us. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 257:Infinite perfection is in every man, though unmanifested. Every man has in him the potentiality of attaining to perfect saintliness, Rishihood, or to the most exalted position of an Avat√¢ra, or to the greatness of a hero in material discoveries. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 258:One can't understand everything at once, we can't begin with perfection all at once! In order to reach perfection one must begin by being ignorant of a great deal. And if we understand things too quickly, perhaps we shan't understand them thoroughly. ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 259:What we call our joy, God calls our perfection. Each human being has come into the world with the message of perfection. Each human being will one day realize the highest Truth. Each human being is destined to be fulfilled. It is the birthright of our soul. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 260:The saddest thing in the world was that human beings, for all their ardent striving and desire, could never achieve physical, emotional, or intellectual perfection. The species was doomed to imperfection; it thrashed forever in despair or denial of that fact. ~ dean-koontz, @wisdomtrove 261:Business is not the supreme virtue, and sanctity is not measured by the amount of work we accomplish. Perfection is found in the purity of our love for God, and this pure love is a delicate plant that grows best where there is plenty of time for it to mature ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 262:I respect everything in change and the solemn beauty of life and death... and therefore, while man is amidst the immense beauty of objective bodies, he must possess the capacity of self-perfection and must observe and represent his world with full confidence. ~ amsel-adams, @wisdomtrove 263:That would be a glorious life, to addict oneself to perfection; to follow the curve of the sentence wherever it might lead, into deserts, under drifts of sand, regardless of lures, of seductions; to be poor always and unkempt; to be ridiculous in Piccadilly. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 264:Thus Gotama [Buddha] walked toward the town to gather alms, and the two samanas recognized him solely by the perfection of his repose, by the calmness of his figure, in which there was no trace of seeking, desiring, imitating, or striving, only light and peace ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 265:When that strange race nears the dust and is condemned as untouchable, then nature remembers the physical perfection that she accomplished elsewhere, and throws out a god-not many, but one here and there, to prove to society how little its categories impress her. ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 266:Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world and one of the most natural things of the world that has been brought to the greatest perfection, and it offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than, possibly, any other purely sensory thing. ~ ernest-hemingway, @wisdomtrove 267:In the great battle of life, no brilliancy of intellect, no perfection of bodily development, will count when weighed in the balance against the assemblage of virtues, active and passive, of moral qualities which we group together under the name of character. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 268:The Vedas teach that the soul is divine, only held in the bondage of matter; perfection will be reached when this bond will burst, and the word they use for it is, therefore, Mukti - freedom, freedom from the bonds of imperfection, freedom from death and misery. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 269:Am I better off making up an alternate reality in my mind and then fighting with reality to make it be my way, or am I better off letting go of what I want and serving the same forces of reality that managed to create the entire perfection of the universe around me? ~ michael-singer, @wisdomtrove 270:Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good. ~ vince-lombardi, @wisdomtrove 271:Why do we meditate? We meditate precisely because this world of ours has disappointed us and because failure looms large in our day-to-day life. We want fulfillment. We want joy, peace, bliss and perfection within and without. Meditation is the answer, the only answer. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 272:Arts and sciences in one and the same century have arrived at great perfection; and no wonder, since every age has a kind of universal genius, which inclines those that live in it to some particular studies; the work then, being pushed on by many hands, must go forward. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 273:Yes, flexibility of body and physical perfection for Yogasana is important. However more important is the state of your mind, Meditative mind. Your flexibility might be excellent but if your mind is not attentive, you are merely doing some physical exercise, not Yoga. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 274:The world is not imperfect or slowly evolving along a long path to perfection. No, it is perfect at every moment; every sin already carries grace within it, all small children are potential old men, all sucklings have death within them, all dying people — eternal life. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 275:He educated Maurice, or rather his spirit educated Maurice's spirit, for they themselves became equal. Neither thought "Am I led; am I leading?" Love had caught him out of triviality and Maurice out of bewilderment in order that two imperfect souls might touch perfection. ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 276:I do not care what philosophy you take up; only I am ready to prove here that throughout the whole of India, there runs a mutual and cordial string of eternal faith in the perfection of humanity, and I believe in it myself. And let that faith be spread over the whole land. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 277:So I made up my mind I was going to find someone who would love me unconditionally three hundred and sixty-five days a year. Watanabe: Wow, and did your search pay off? M: That's the hard part. I guess I've been waiting so long I'm looking for perfection. That makes it tough. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 278:Fledgeby deserved Mr. Alfred Lammle's eulogium. He was the meanest cur existing, with a single pair of legs. And instinct (a word we all clearly understand) going largely on four legs, and reason always on two, meanness on four legs never attains the perfection of meanness on two. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 279:M: Your sincerity will guide you. Devotion to the goal of freedom and perfection will make you abandon all theories and systems and live by wisdom, intelligence and active love. Theories may be good as starting points, but must be abandoned, the sooner - the better. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 280:And you will, by the dignity of your Conduct, afford occasion for Posterity to say, when speaking of the glorious example you have exhibited to Mankind, had this day been wanting, the World had never seen the last stage of perfection to which human nature is capable of attaining. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 281:You are loved just for being who you are, just for existing. You don't have to do anything to earn it. Your shortcomings, your lack of self-esteem, physical perfection, or social and economic success- none of that matters. No one can take this love away from you, and it will always be here. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 282:You will begin to touch heaven, Jonathan, in the moment that you touch perfect speed. And that isn’t flying a thousand miles an hour, or a million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit, and perfection doesn’t have limits. Perfect speed, my son, is being there. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 283:The Bhagavad Gita‚ that ancient Indian Yogic text‚ says that it is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection. So now I have started living my own life. Imperfect and clumsy as it may look, it is resembling me now, thoroughly. ~ elizabeth-gilbert, @wisdomtrove 284:The world, Govinda my friend, is not imperfect, not to be seen as on a slow path toward perfection: No, it is perfect in every moment, all transgression already bears grace within itself, all little children already have the aged in themselves, all the sucklings death, all the dying eternal life. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 285:The beginning, middle, and end of the birth, growth, and perfection of whatever we behold is from contraries, by contraries, and to contraries; and whatever contrariety is, there is action and reaction, there is motion, diversity, multitude, and order, there are degrees, succession and vicissitude. ~ giordano-bruno, @wisdomtrove 286:The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of other men! A weird life it is, indeed, to be living always in somebody else's imagination, as if that were the only place in which one could at last become real! ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 287:There is truth, my boy. But the doctrine you desire, absolute, perfect dogma that alone provides wisdom, does not exist. Nor should you long for a perfect doctrine, my friend. Rather, you should long for the perfection of yourself. The deity is within you, not in ideas and books. Truth is lived, not taught. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 288:Self-culture has been loudly and boastfully proclaimed as sufficient for all our ideals of perfection. But if we listen to the best men and women everywhere ... they will say that science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all - the apathy of human beings. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 289:Perfection is crucial in building an aircraft, a bridge, or a high-speed train. The code and mathematics residing just below the surface of the Internet is also this way. Things are either perfectly right or they will not work. So much of the world we work and live in is based upon being correct, being perfect. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 290:I met another man who considered himself perfect, but he was thoroughly mad; and I do not believe that any of the pretenders to perfection are better than good maniacs... for while a man has got a spark of reason left in him, he cannot, unless he is the most impudent of impostors, talk about being perfect. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 291:This is not a haphazard Universe in which you live. It is a very well defined, perfectly organized Universe. Your only work is get in alignment with the perfection of it, which means that you must believe that all is well, and in the moment that you believe that all is well – everything that touches you is well. ~ esther-hicks, @wisdomtrove 292:You are God in a physical body. You are Spirit in the flesh. You are Eternal Life expressing Itself as You. You are a cosmic being. You are all power. You are all wisdom. You are all intelligence. You are perfection. You are magnificence. You are the creator, and you are creating the creation of You on this planet ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 293:Mistrust all, until you are convinced. The true Guru will never humiliate you, nor will he estrange you from yourself. He will constantly bring you back to the fact of your inherent perfection and encourage you to seek within. He knows you need nothing, not even him, and is never tired of reminding you. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 294:We tend to credit those who create an idea, not those who perfect it, forgetting that it is often only in the perfection of an idea that true progress occurs. Putting sixty-four transistors on a chip allowed people to dream of the future. Putting four million transistors on a chip actually gave them the future. ~ malcolm-gladwell, @wisdomtrove 295:The perfection of the effect demonstrates the perfection of the cause, for a greater power brings about a more perfect effect. But God is the most perfect agent. Therefore, things created by Him obtain perfection from Him. So, to detract from the perfection of creatures is to detract from the perfection of divine power. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 296:... Even so, we say that the air is darkened around us by a deficiency and absence of the light; while yet the light is itself always light and illumines the darkness. Therefore, evil inheres not in the devils or in us, as evil, but only as a deficiency and lack of the perfection of our proper virtues. ~ pseudo-dionysius-the-areopagite, @wisdomtrove 297:Perfection isn't human. Human beings are not perfect. What evokes our love& 298:The perfection of the effect demonstrates the perfection of the cause, for a greater power brings about a more perfect effect. But God is the most perfect agent. Therefore, things created by Him obtain perfection from Him. So, to detract from the perfection of creatures is to detract from the perfection of divine power. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 299:He moves not through distance, but through the ranges of satisfaction that come from hauling himself up into the air with complete and utter control; from knowing himself and knowing his airplane so well that he can come somewhere close to touching, in his own special and solitary way, that thing that is called perfection. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 300:Yet again, the more you strive for some kind of perfection or mastery‚Äîin morals, in art or in spirituality‚Äîthe more you see that you are playing a rarified and lofty form of the old ego-game, and that your attainment of any height is apparent to yourself and to others only by contrast with someone else's depth or failure. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove 301:Well has it been said that man is the only animal that naturally looks upwards; every other animal naturally looks down. That looking upward and going upward and seeking perfection are what is called salvation; and the sooner a man begins to go higher, the sooner he raises himself towards this idea of truth as salvation. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 302:It is true that we shall not be able to reach perfection, but in our struggle toward it we shall strengthen our characters and give stability to our ideas, so that, whilst ever advancing calmly in the same direction, we shall be rendered capable of applying the faculties with which we have been gifted to the best possible account. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 303:Part of making good decisions in business is recognizing the poor decisions you've made and why they were poor. I've made lots of mistakes. I'm going to make more. It's the name of the game. You don't want to expect perfection in yourself. You want to strive to do your best. It's too demanding to expect perfection in yourself. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 304:Our divine perfection - not registered by the physical eye but only by the heart’s knowing - is who we truly are. Our mortal imperfections - registered by the physical senses - are not who we truly are. Yet we keep trying, in love, to find each other’s perfection within the world of imperfection. And it simply is not there. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 305:Want is a bitter and a hateful good, Because its virtues are not understood; Yet many things, impossible to thought, Have been by need to full perfection brought. The daring of the soul proceeds from thence, Sharpness of wit, and active diligence; Prudence at once, and fortitude it gives; And, if in patience taken, mends our lives. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 306:Perfectionism is self-destructive simply because there is no such thing as perfect. Perfection is an unattainable goal. Additionally, perfectionism is more about perception - we want to be perceived as perfect. Again, this is unattainable - there is no way to control perception, regardless of how much time and energy we spend trying. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 307:Tell a scoundrel, three or four times a day, that he is the pink of probity, and you make him at least the perfection of "respectability" in good earnest. On the other hand, accuse an honorable man, too petinaciously, of being a villain, and you fill him with a perverse ambition to show you that you are not altogether in the wrong. ~ edgar-allan-poe, @wisdomtrove 308:To my taste, the men in Rome are ridiculously, hurtfully, stupidly beautiful. More beautiful even than Roman women, to be honest. Italian men are beautiful in the same way as French women, which is to say& 309:For those who feel it, nothing makes the soul so religious and pure as the endeavor to create something perfect; for God is perfection, and whoever strives after it, is striving after something divine. True painting is only the image of the perfection of God, a shadow of the pencil with which he paints, a melody, a striving after harmony. ~ michelangelo, @wisdomtrove 310:Nothing happens in life by accident. Nothing. Nothing occurs in your life by chance. Nothing. Nothing takes place without producing the opportunity for real and lasting benefit to you. Nothing at all. The perfection of every moment may not be apparent to you, yet that will make the moment no less perfect. It will be no less a gift. ~ neale-donald-walsch, @wisdomtrove 311:Natural law is not applicable to the unseen world behind the symbols, because it is unadapted to anything except symbols, and its perfection is a perfection of symbolic linkage. You cannot apply such a scheme to the parts of our personality which are not measurable by symbols any more than you can extract the square root of a sonnet. ~ sir-arthur-eddington, @wisdomtrove 312:Alas! we know that ideals can never be completely embodied in practice. Ideals must ever lie a great way off& 313:Why, when we know that there's no such thing as perfect, do most of us spend an incredible amount of time and energy trying to be everything to everyone? Is it that we really admire perfection? No - the truth is that we are actually drawn to people who are real and down-to-earth. We love authenticity and we know that life is messy and imperfect. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 314:We should cast aside all childish games that fetter and exhaust body, speech and mind. Stretching out in inconceivable nonaction, in the unstructured matrix, the actuality of emptiness, where the natural perfection of reality lies, we should gaze at the uncontrived sameness of every experience, all conditioning and ambition resolved with finality. ~ longchenpa, @wisdomtrove 315:Everyone has in him something divine, something his own, a chance of perfection and strength in however small a sphere which God offers him to take or refuse. The task is to find it, develop it & use it. The chief aim of education should be to help the growing soul to draw out that in itself which is best and make it perfect for a noble use. ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove 316:Eroticism, hallucinogenic drugs, nuclear science, Gaudi's Gothic architecture, my love of gold - there is a common denominator in all of it: God is present in everything. The same magic is at the heart of all things, and all roads lead to the same revelation: we are children of God, and the entire universe tends towards the perfection of mankind. ~ salvador-dali, @wisdomtrove 317:Nowadays the world is becoming increasingly materialistic, and mankind is reaching toward the very zenith of external progress, driven by an insatiable desire for power and vast possessions. Yet by this vain striving for perfection in a world where everything is relative, they wander even further away from inward peace and happiness of the mind. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 318:e should cast aside all childish games that fetter and exhaust body, speech and mind; and stretching out in inconceivable nonaction, in the unstructured matrix, the actuality of emptiness, where the natural perfection of reality lies, we should gaze at the uncontrived sameness of every experience, all conditioning and ambition resolved with finality. ~ longchenpa, @wisdomtrove 319:We search for happiness everywhere, but we are like Tolstoy's fabled beggar who spent his life sitting on a pot of gold, under him the whole time. Your treasure& 320:For the superior morality, of which we hear so much, we too would desire to be thankful: at the same time, it were but blindness to deny that this superior morality is properly rather an inferior criminality, produced not by greater love of Virtue, but by greater perfection of Police; and of that far subtler and stronger Police, called Public Opinion. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 321:With respect to love we speak continually about perfection and the perfect person. With respect to love Christianity also speaks continually about perfection and the perfect person. Alas, but we men talk about finding the perfect person in order to love him. Christianity speaks about being the perfect person who limitlessly loves the person he sees. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 322:If you give yourself one complete minute of focused presence, to simply stop; even to listen to your heart beating, it will take you out of your head and introduce you to the moment which is complete in itself. It is not on the way to another moment. It is not a bridge to another opportunity. It is the timeless perfection So stopand sink into this timeless moment. ~ mooji, @wisdomtrove 323:A photograph that is merely a superficial record of the subject fails as an aesthetic expression of that subject. The expression must be an emotional amplification, and this emotional amplification relates to point of view, organization, revelation of substance through textures, tonal relations, and the perfection of the technical expression of all these elements. ~ amsel-adams, @wisdomtrove 324:Life and perfection, joy and repose and whatever all the senses desire, lie in the distinguishing spirit, and from it they have everything that they have. Even if the organs lose in power and the life in them decreases in activity, it does not decrease in the distinguishing spirit, from which they receive the same life, when the fault or infirmity is removed. ~ nicholas-of-cusa, @wisdomtrove 325:It is too often believed that a person in his progress towards perfection passes from error to truth; that when he passes on from one thought to another, he must necessarily reject the first. But no error can lead to truth. The soul passing through its different stages goes from truth to truth, and each stage is true; it goes from lower truth to higher truth. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 326:Society is indeed a contract. It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection. As the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born. ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 327:I am really not "cyclonic" at all. Far from it. What I want is not here, nor can I longer bear this "cyclonic" atmosphere. This is the way to perfection, to strive to be perfect, and to strive to make perfect a few men and women. My idea of doing good is this: to evolve out a few giants, and not to strew pearls before swine, and so lose time, health, and energy. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 328:Let there be two possible things, A and B, one of which is such that it is necessary that it exists, and let us assume that there is more perfection in A than in B. Then, at least, we can explain why A should exist rather than B and can foresee which of them will exist; indeed, this can be demonstrated, that is, rendered certain from the nature of the thing. ~ gottfried-wilhelm-leibniz, @wisdomtrove 329:All of us have failed to match our dream of perfection. I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible. If I could write all my work again, I'm convinced I could do it better. This is the healthiest condition for an artist. That's why he keeps working, trying again: he believes each time that this time he will do it, bring it off. Of course he won't. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 330:Ruth and I don't have a perfect marriage, but we have a great one. How can I say two things that seem so contradictory? In a perfect marriage, everything is always the finest and best imaginable; like a Greek statue, the proportions are exact and the finish is unblemished. Who knows any human being lke that? For a marriage couple to expect perfection in each other is unrealistic. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 331:My desire is to strive toward perfection; to be as much in harmony with God's will as possible; to live up to the highest light I have. I'm still not perfect, of course, but I grow daily... I am able to do everything I am called to do, and I do know what I need to know to do my part in the Divine Plan. And I do experience the happiness of living in harmony with God's will for me. ~ peace-pilgrim, @wisdomtrove 332:When your heart's gratitude comes to the fore, when you become all gratitude, this gratitude is like a flow, a flow of consciousness. When your consciousness is flowing, feel that this gratitude-flow is like a river that is watering the root of the tree and the tree itself. It is always through gratitude that your consciousness-river will grow and water the perfection-tree inside you. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 333:The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, that one is sometimes willing to commit sins for the sake of loyalty, that one does not push asceticism to the point where it makes friendly intercourse impossible, and that one is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by life, which is the inevitable price of fastening one's love upon other human individuals. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 334:As long as you identify with the universe - which is perfect and can correct material conditions to bring them back into alignment with that Divine perfection - as long as that is where your mind is aligned, it's as though there were two parallel universes. You decide with every thought you think which one you're going to inhabit. Two parallel universes of experience, as it were. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 335:An aimless life is always a troubled life. Every individual should have an aim. But do not forget that the quality of your aim will depend the quality of your life. Your aim should be high and wide, generous and disinterested; this will make your life precious to yourself and to others. Whatever your ideal, it cannot be perfectly realized unless you have realized perfection in yourself. ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove 336:Forgiveness is a selective remembering. It is a conscious choice to focus on someone's innocence instead of his or her mistakes... This serves *you*... Your body was not created to bear the burden of your overattachment to it, but was created as a container for the light of your spirit. It will more easily remember how to function perfectly when you remember the perfection in everyone. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 337:You haven't yet opened your heart fully, to life, to each moment. The peaceful warrior's way is not about invulnerability, but absolute vulnerability& 338:There are too many people today who instead of feeling hurt are acting out their hurt; instead of acknowledging pain, they’re inflicting pain on others. Rather than risking feeling disappointed, they’re choosing to live disappointed. Emotional stoicism is not badassery. Blustery posturing is not badassery. Swagger is not badassery. Perfection is about the furthest thing in the world from badassery. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 339:As natural selection acts by competition, it adapts the inhabitants of each country only in relation to the degree of perfection of their associates; so that we need feel no surprise at the inhabitants of any one country, although on the ordinary view supposed to have been specially created and adapted for that country, being beaten and supplanted by the naturalised productions from another land. ~ charles-darwin, @wisdomtrove 340:Then from the world all spirituality will be extinct, all moral perfection will be extinct, all sweet-souled sympathy for religion will be extinct, all ideality will be extinct; and in its place will reign the duality of lust and luxury as the male and female deities, with money as its priest, fraud, force, and competition its ceremonies, and the human soul its sacrifice. Such a thing can never be. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 341:Our sadness won' be of the searing kind but more like a blend of joy and melancholy: joy at the perfection we see before us, melancholy at an awareness of how seldom we are sufficiently blessed to encounter anything of its kind. The flawless object throws into perspective the mediocrity that surrounds it. We are reminded of the way we would wish things always to be and of how incomplete our lives remain. ~ alain-de-botton, @wisdomtrove 342:The basis of artistic creation is not what is, but what might be; not the real, but the possible. Artists create according to the same principles as nature, but they apply them to individual entities, while nature, to use a Goethean expression, thinks nothing of individual things. She is always building and destroying, because she wants to achieve perfection, not in the individual thing, but in the whole. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove 343:God is without form, without quality as well as with form and quality. Watch and see with what endless variety of beautiful forms He plays the play of his maya with Himself alone. The lila of the all pervading One goes on and on in this way in infinite diversity. He is without beginning and without end. He is the whole and also the part. The whole and part together make up real Perfection. Sri Anandamayi Ma ~ anandamayi-ma, @wisdomtrove 344:... he was "God-intoxicated." He felt that the Divine Excellence had its abode in the very heart of Nature and within his own body and spirit. Indwelling in every dewdrop as in the innumerable host of heaven, in the humblest flower and in the mind of man, he found the living spirit of God, setting forth the Divine glory, making the Divine perfection and inspiring with the Divine love. William Boulting (about ) ~ giordano-bruno, @wisdomtrove 345:I'm always amused by the idea that certain people have about technique, which translate into an immoderate taste for the sharpness of the image. It is a passion for detail, for perfection, or do they hope to get closer to reality with this trompe I'oeil? They are, by the way, as far away from the real issues as other generations of photographers were when they obscured their subject in soft-focus effects. ~ henri-cartier-bresson, @wisdomtrove 346:There are such beings in the world - perhaps one in a thousand - as the creature you and I should think perfection; where grace and spirit are united to worth, where the manners are equal to the heart and understanding; but such a person may not come in your way, or, if he does, he may not be the eldest son of a man of fortune, the near relation of your particular friend, and belonging to your own county. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 347:When there's a strong desire within you to express or create something, know that this feeling is Divine discontent. Your longing is your calling- and no matter what it is, if you go with it, you'll be guided, guarded, and assured of success. When a purpose or path is laid before you, you have the choice to just trust and let it flow, or remain stuck in fear. Trusting the perfection that resides within you is the key. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 348:The vegetarian movement ought to fill with gladness the souls of those who have at heart the realization of God's kingdom upon earth, not because vegetarianism itself is such an important step towards the realization of this kingdom (all real steps are equally important or unimportant), but because it serves as a criterion by which we know that the pursuit of moral perfection on the part of man is genuine and sincere. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 349:The Americans, who are the most efficient people on the earth, have carried [phrase-making] to such a height of perfection and have invented so wide a range of pithy and hackneyed phrases that they can carry on an amusing and animated conversation without giving a moment’s reflection to what they are saying and so leave their minds free to consider the more important matters of big business and fornication. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 350:For, above all, I hold a notion of possibility and necessity according to which there are some things that are possible, but yet not necessary, and which do not really exist. From this it follows that a reason that always forces a free mind to choose one thing over another (whether that reason derives from the perfection of a thing, as it does in God, or from our imperfection) does not eliminate our freedom. ~ gottfried-wilhelm-leibniz, @wisdomtrove 351:Renounce and give up. What did Christ say? "He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Again and again did he preach renunciation as the only way to perfection. There comes a time when the mind awakes from this long and dreary dream-the child gives up its play and wants to go back to its mother. Renunciation is not asceticism. Are all beggars Christ? Poverty is not a synonym for holiness; often the reverse. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 352:The Earth school is not a concept. It is an an ongoing 3-dimesional, full colour, hi-fidelity, interactive multi-media experience that does not end until your soul goes home (until you die). Every moment in the earth school offers you important opportunities to learn about yourself. Those things have to do with your soul. The Earth school operates with exquisite perfection and efficiency whether you are aware of it or not. ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove 353:It is true that all manifestation is in the opposites. Pleasure and pain, good and bad, high and low, progress and regress, rest and strife they all come and go together - and as long as there is a world, its contradictions will be there. There may also be periods of perfect harmony, of bliss and beauty, but only for a time. What is perfect, returns to the source of all perfection and the opposites play on. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 354:I tell you, I am in every flower, every rainbow, every star in the heavens, and everything in and on every planet rotating around every star. I am the whisper of the wind, the warmth of your sun, the incredible individuality and the extraordinary perfection of every snowflake. I am the majesty in the soaring flight of eagles, and the innocence of the doe in the field; the courage of lions, the wisdom of the ancient ones. ~ neale-donald-walsch, @wisdomtrove 355:Now, as there is an infinity of possible universes in the Ideas of God, and as only one of them can exist, there must be a sufficient reason for God's choice, which determines him toward one rather than another. And this reason can be found only in the fitness, or the degrees of perfection, that these worlds contain, since each possible thing has the right to claim existence in proportion to the perfection it involves. ~ gottfried-wilhelm-leibniz, @wisdomtrove 356:Let us realise [that] we are the infinite power. Who put a limit to the power of mind? Let us realise we are all mind. Every drop has the whole of the ocean in it. That is the mind of man. The Indian mind reflects upon these [powers and potentialities] and wants to bring [them] all out. For himself he doesn't care what happens. It will take a great length of time [to reach perfection]. If it takes fifty thousand years, what of that! ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 357:Perhapsthemost sublimeinsights oftheJewishprophets and the Christian gospel is the knowledge that since perfection is love, the apprehension of perfection is at once the means of seeing one's imperfections and the consoling assurance of grace which makes this realization bearable. This ultimate paradox of high religion is not an invention of theologians or priests. It is constantly validated by the most searching experiences of life. ~ reinhold-niebuhr, @wisdomtrove 358:Acquisition of [higher] knowledge is not the end, but the means to the end; the end consists of the attainment, thanks to this knowledge of the higher worlds, of greater and truer self-confidence, a higher degree of courage, and a magnanimity and perseverance such as cannot, as a rule, be acquired in the lower world.For every one step that you take in the pursuit of higher knowledge, take three steps in the perfection of your own character. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove 359:Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and everything shall be added unto you. This is the one great duty, this is renunciation. Live for an ideal, and leave no place in the mind for anything else. Let us put forth all our energies to acquire that which never fails-our spiritual perfection. If we have true yearning for realization, we must struggle, and through struggle growth will come. We shall make mistakes, but they may be angels unawares. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 360:Each religion has helped mankind. Paganism increased in man the light of beauty, the largeness and height of his life, his aim at a many-sided perfection; Christianity gave him some vision of divine love and charity; Buddhism has shown him a noble way to be wiser, gentler, purer, Judaism and Islam how to be religiously faithful in action and zealously devoted to God; Hinduism has opened to him the largest and profoundest spiritual possibilities. ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove 361:A person who makes full use of and exploits his talents, potentialities, and capacities. Such a person seems to be fulfilling himself and doing the best he is capable of doing. The self-actualized person must find in his life those qualities that make his living rich and rewarding. He must find meaningfulness, self-sufficiency, effortlessness, playfulness, richness, simplicity, completion, necessity, perfection, individuality, beauty, and truth. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove 362:The many-voiced song of the river echoed softly. Siddhartha looked into the river and saw many pictures in the flowing water. The river's voice was sorrowful. It sang with yearning and sadness, flowing towards its goal ... Siddhartha was now listening intently... to this song of a thousand voices ... then the great song of a thousand voices consisted of one word: Om - Perfection ... From that hour Siddhartha ceased to fight against his destiny. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 363:[It is appropriate that the Body and Blood of Christ be truly present in this Sacrament] because of the perfection of the New Covenant. The sacrifices of the Old Covenant contained the true sacrifice of Christ's Passion only in symbol... .Therefore it was necessary that the sacrifice of the New Covenant, instituted by Christ, have something more, namely, that it contain Christ Himself who has suffered and contain Him not only in symbol but in reality. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 364:[It is appropriate that the Body and Blood of Christ be truly present in this Sacrament] because of the perfection of the New Covenant. The sacrifices of the Old Covenant contained the true sacrifice of Christ's Passion only in symbol... .Therefore it was necessary that the sacrifice of the New Covenant, instituted by Christ, have something more, namely, that it contain Christ Himself who has suffered and contain Him not only in symbol but in reality. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 365:The objective universe has structure, is orderly and beautiful. Nobody can deny it. But structure and pattern, imply constraint and compulsion. My world is absolutely free; everything in it is self-determined. Therefore, I keep on saying that all happens by itself. There is order in my world too, but it is not Imposed from outside. It comes spontaneously and immediately, because of its timelessness. Perfection is not in the future. It is now. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 366:Sorrow and happiness are the heresies of virtue; joy and anger lead astray from TAO; love and hate cause loss of virtue. The heart unconscious of sorrow and happiness - that is perfect virtue. One, without change - that is perfect repose. Without any obstruction - that is the perfection of the unconditioned. Holding no relations with the external world, - that is perfection of the negative state. Without blemish of any kind, - that is the perfection of purity. ~ zhuangzi, @wisdomtrove 367:Patanjali, declares that the true secret of evolution is the manifestation of the perfection which is already in every being; that this perfection has been barred and the infinite tide behind is struggling to express itself. These struggles and competitions are but the results of our ignorance, because we do not know the proper way to unlock the gate and let the water in. This infinite tide behind must express itself; it is the cause of all manifestation. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 368:The real questions for parents should be: "Are you engaged? Are you paying attention?" If so, plan to make lots of mistakes and bad decisions. Imperfect parenting moments turn into gifts as our children watch us try to figure out what went wrong and how we can do better next time. The mandate is not to be perfect and raise happy children. Perfection doesn't exist, and I've found what makes children happy doesn't always prepare them to be courageous, engaged adults. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 369:Worship is to feel in the heart . . . it is an attitude and a state of mind. It is a sustained act, subject to varying degrees of intensity and perfection . . . Real worship is, among other things, a feeling about the Lord our God . . . It is in our hearts. And we must be willing to express it in an appropriate manner. If we love the Lord and are led by His Holy Spirit, our worship will always bring a delighted sense of admiring awe and a sincere humility on our part. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 370:It is not humility to insist on being someone that you are not. It is as much as saying that you know better than God who you are and who you ought to be. How do you expect to arrive at the end of your own journey if you take the road to another man's city? How do you expect to reach your own perfection by leading somebody else's life? His sanctity will never be yours; you must have the humility to work out your own salvation in a darkness where you are absolutely alone... ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 371:What sets Christian spiritual activity apart from all other religions is that they have knowledge of Christ as their goal; not moral perfection (although you will become more moral), not tranquility (although your life will be remarkably more peaceful). And because of the grace you have in Christ, the disciplines will do nothing to make you more accepted by the Father. You cannot be more accepted than you already are in Christ, since He has already done it all for you! ~ charles-r-swindoll, @wisdomtrove 372:Heaven does nothing: its non-doing is its serenity. Earth does nothing: its non-doing is its rest. From the union of these two non-doings All actions proceed. All things are made. How vast, how invisible This coming-to-be! All things come from nowhere! How vast, how invisible No way to explain it! All beings in their perfection Are born of non-doing. Hence it is said: Heaven and earth do nothing Yet there is nothing they do not do. Where is the man who can attain To this non-doing? ~ zhuangzi, @wisdomtrove 373:Regarding perfection, that's a very difficult question. I can say that I have superseded most in my sadhana [practice]. I am in it, and my mind and my intelligence gets better in my sadhana, and it reaches a certain place. When I stretch, I stretch in such a way that my awareness moves, and a gate of awareness finally opens... My body is a laboratory, you can say. I don't stretch my body as if it is an object. I do yoga from the self towards the body, not the other way around. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 374:What is & 375:There cannot be two almighty beings in this world. [Imagine having] two or three Gods; one will create the world, another says, "I will destroy the world." It [can] never happen. There must be one God. The soul attains to perfection; [it becomes] almost omnipotent [and] omniscient. This is the worshipper. Who is the worshipped? He, the Lord God Himself, the Omnipresent, the Omniscient, and so on. And above all, He is Love. How is [the soul] to attain this perfection? By worship. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 376:You Europeans know nothing about America. Because we amass large fortunes you think we care for nothing but money. We are nothing for it; the moment we have it we spend it, sometimes well, sometimes ill, but we spend it. Money is nothing to us; it's merely the symbol of success. We are the greatest idealists in the world; I happen to think that we've set our ideal on the wrong objects; I happen to think that the greatest ideal man can set before himself is self-perfection. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 377:Unless and until we have peace deep within us, we can never hope to have peace in the outer world. You and I create the world by the vibrations that we offer to it. If we can invoke peace and then offer it to somebody else, we will see how peace expands from one to two persons, and gradually to the world at large. Peace will come about in the world from the perfection of individuals. If you have peace, I have peace, he has peace, and she has peace, then automatically universal peace will dawn. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 378:Divine happiness, even the tiniest particle of a grain of it, never leaves one again; and when one attains to the essence of things and finds one's Self-this is supreme happiness. When it is found, nothing else remains to be found; the sense of want will not awaken anymore, and the heart's torment will be stilled forever. Do not be satisfied with fragmentary happiness, which is invariably interrupted by shocks and blows of fate; but become complete, and having attained to perfection, be YOURSELF. ~ anandamayi-ma, @wisdomtrove 379:How will you get God's grace? When you discipline yourself. How will you know how to discipline? By observing others that had walked the path successfully to the goal of perfection. Who are these men who had walked to the goal? It is these that are known as Gurus. So you need their help, their personal example, their encouragement and their grace. Thus, we have come round to the answer that a Guru is necessary as well as his grace. Everything is necessary& 380:The unqualified truth is, that when I loved Estella with the love of a man, I loved her simply because I found her irresistible. Once for all; I knew to my sorrow, often and often, if not always, that I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be. Once for all; I love her none the less because I knew it, and it had no more influence in restraining me, than if I had devoutly believed her to be human perfection. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 381:All things are linked with one another, and this oneness is sacred; there is nothing that is not interconnected with everything else. For things are interdependent, and they combine to form this universal order. There is only one universe made up of all things, and one creator who pervades them; there is one substance and one law, namely, common reason in all thinking creatures, and all truth is one -if, as we believe, there is only one path of perfection for all beings who share the same mind. ~ marcus-aurelius, @wisdomtrove 382:& 383:Nearly all creators of Utopia have resembled the man who has toothache, and therefore thinks happiness consists in not having toothache. They wanted to produce a perfect society by an endless continuation of something that had only been valuable because it was temporary. The wider course would be to say that there are certain lines along which humanity must move, the grand strategy is mapped out, but detailed prophecy is not our business. Whoever tries to imagine perfection simply reveals his own emptiness. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 384:Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, where knowledge is free. Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls. Where words come out from the depth of truth, where tireless striving stretches its arms toward perfection. Where the clear stream of reason has not lost it's way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit. Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever widening thought and action. In to that heaven of freedom, my father, LET MY COUNTRY AWAKE! ~ rabindranath-tagore, @wisdomtrove 385:You are only as powerful as that for which you stand. Do you stand for more money in the bank and a bigger house? Do you stand for an attractive mate? Do you stand for imposing your way of thinking upon others? These are the stands of the personality seeking to satisfy its wants. Do you stand for perfection, for the beauty and compassion of each soul? Do you stand for forgiveness and humbleness? These are the stands of the personality that has aligned itself with its soul. This is the position of a truly powerful Personality. ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove 386:I do not deny that medicine is a gift of God, nor do I refuse to acknowledge science in the skill of many physicians; but, take the best of them, how far are they from perfection? A sound regimen produces excellent effects. When I feel indisposed, by observing a strict diet and going to bed early, I generally manage to get round again, that is, if I can keep my mind tolerably at rest. I have no objection to the doctors acting upon certain theories, but, at the same time, they must not expect us to be the slaves of their fancies. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 387:We have come from God, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, will also reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God. Indeed only by myth-making, only by becoming & 388:Every fall into love involves the triumph of hope over self-knowledge. We fall in love hoping we won't find in another what we know is in ourselves, all the cowardice, weakness, laziness, dishonesty, compromise, and stupidity. We throw a cordon of love around the chosen one and decide that everything within it will somehow be free of our faults. We locate inside another a perfection that eludes us within ourselves, and through our union with the beloved hope to maintain (against the evidence of all self-knowledge) a precarious faith in our species. ~ alain-de-botton, @wisdomtrove 389:My prayer today is to not be negative about anything for one day. It is so easy to be disappointed, critical, cynical. Nothing is easier than to be a negative person. It takes effort to be hopeful and positive. People will say that you have to have a reason to be positive - what reason do the poor or lonely have to be positive? If we all waited for perfect conditions in our life before we felt hopeful, we would have very few days in life to celebrate. Perfection is rare. Hope means no matter how bleak, all things can and do change in the blink of an eye. ~ caroline-myss, @wisdomtrove 390:The ballet. I saw in the fugitive beauty of a dancer's gesture a symbol of life. It was achieved at the cost of unending effort but, with all the forces of gravity against it, a fleeting poise in mid-air, a lovely attitude worthy to be made immortal in a bas-relief, it was lost as soon as it was gained and there remained no more than the memory of an exquisite emotion. So life, lived variously and largely, becomes a work of art only when brought to its beautiful conclusion and is reduced to nothingness in the moment when it arrives at perfection. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 391:My prayer today is to not be negative about anything for one day. It is so easy to be disappointed, critical, cynical. Nothing is easier than to be a negative person. It takes effort to be hopeful and positive. People will say that you have to have a reason to be positive - what reason do the poor or lonely have to be positive? If we all waited for perfect conditions in our life before we felt hopeful, we would have very few days in life to celebrate. Perfection is rare. Hope means no matter how bleak, all things can and do change in the blink of an eye. ~ norman-vincent-peale, @wisdomtrove 392:People believe themselves to be dependent on what happens for their happiness. They don’t realize that what happens is the most unstable thing in the universe. It changes constantly. They look upon the present moment as either marred by something that has happened and shouldn’t have or as deficient because of something that has not happened but should have. And so they miss the deeper perfection that is inherent in life itself, a perfection that lies beyond what is happening or not happening. Accept the present moment and find the perfection that is untouched by time. ~ eckhart-tolle, @wisdomtrove 393:I often ask myself, & 394:That's why I like listening to Schubert while I'm driving. Like I said, it's because all his performances are imperfect. A dense, artistic kind of imperfection stimulates your consciousness, keeps you alert. If I listen to some utterly perfect performance of an utterly perfect piece while I'm driving, I might want to close my eyes and die right then and there. But listening to the D major, I can feel the limits of what humans are capable of - that a certain type of perfection can only be realized through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect. And personally I find that encouraging. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 395:I have sent you nothing but angels and miracles. See the perfection in this moment. Your soul chose your life to create the opportunity to fulfil your soul's agenda. There is no such thing as a chance encounter. Everything is occurring in perfect order, as it should be. You are creating it so. There is always a reason at the soul level why your life is as it is. You are a spiritual being and you came to your body to experience Who You Are. To do this, you are, every moment, drawing to yourself the exact and perfect people, places and events to experience exactly what you came to your physical body to experience. ~ neale-donald-walsch, @wisdomtrove 396:The desires of the flesh, the ideas of the mind, and the luminosities of the soul — all are perfect expressions of the radiant Spirit that alone inhabits the universe, sublime gestures of that Great Perfection that alone outshines the world. There is only One Taste in the entire Kosmos, and that taste is Divine, whether it appears in the flesh, in the mind, in the soul. Resting in that One Taste, transported beyond the mundane, the world arises in the purest Freedom and radiant Release, happy to infinity, lost in all eternity, and hopeless in the original face of the unrelenting mystery. From One Taste all things issue, to One Taste all things return — and in between, which is the story of this moment, there is only the dream, and sometimes the nightmare, from which we would do well to awaken. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove 397:When I rest in simple, clear, ever-present awareness, I am resting in intrinsic Spirit; I am in fact nothing other than witnessing Spirit itself. I do not become Spirit; I simply recognize the Spirit that I always already am. When I rest in simple, clear, ever-present awareness, I am the Witness of the World. I am the eye of Spirit. I see the world as God sees it. I see the world as the Goddess sees it. I see the world as Spirit sees it: every object an object of Beauty, every thing and event a gesture of the Great Perfection, every process a ripple in the pond of my own eternal Being, so much so that I do not stand apart as a separate witness, but find the witness is one taste with all that arises within it. The entire Kosmos arises in the eye of Spirit, in the I of Spirit, in my own intrinsic awareness, this simple ever-present state, and I am simply that. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:Perfection is static, ~ Anais Nin, #NFDB
2:Brutal perfection. It’s us ~ Ker Dukey, #NFDB
3:Progress not perfection. ~ Court McGee, #NFDB
4:Meandering leads to perfection. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
5:Progress not perfection. ~ Louise Penny, #NFDB
6:True perfection seems imperfect, ~ Laozi, #NFDB
7:Godliness is not perfection. ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
8:Perfection doesn't exist. ~ Andres Iniesta, #NFDB
9:Perfection is only chance. ~ Tibor Fischer, #NFDB
10:Imperfection is true perfection. ~ T A Uner, #NFDB
11:There's no soul in perfection. ~ Keith Urban, #NFDB
12:aiming for perfection just once. ~ Marie Kond, #NFDB
13:I am not strong on perfection. ~ Jasper Johns, #NFDB
14:Perfection comes at a sacrifice, ~ Kevin Kwan, #NFDB
15:The perfection of rottenness. ~ William James, #NFDB
16:Art has no end but its own perfection. ~ Plato, #NFDB
17:Perfection! HA HA HA HA HA!! ~ Richard Roberts, #NFDB
18:Perfection is really boring! ~ Erin Heatherton, #NFDB
19:Perfection is the child of time. ~ Joseph Hall, #NFDB
20:Think progress, not perfection. ~ Ryan Holiday, #NFDB
21:I expect perfection from myself. ~ Bryce Harper, #NFDB
22:I will never reach perfection. ~ Misty Copeland, #NFDB
23:Love is the bond of perfection. ~ John Winthrop, #NFDB
24:No confession brings perfection. ~ Oscar Romero, #NFDB
25:Perfection is hard to stomach. ~ Elissa Washuta, #NFDB
26:Perfection is not very communicative ~ Yo Yo Ma, #NFDB
27:The very pink of perfection. ~ Oliver Goldsmith, #NFDB
28:A man's perfection is his work. ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
29:Imperfections define perfection ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
30:Nobody wants to watch perfection. ~ Nicolas Cage, #NFDB
31:Perfection is an unattainable goal. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
32:There is no perfection only life ~ Milan Kundera, #NFDB
33:The trap had a ghastly perfection ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
34:Perfection with an imperfect heart. ~ Tillie Cole, #NFDB
35:Perfection is always infinite. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
36:The Law ... is perfection of reason. ~ Edward Coke, #NFDB
37:Substance should outweigh perfection. ~ Phil Ramone, #NFDB
38:Art is a shadow of Divine perfection. ~ Michelangelo, #NFDB
39:Imperfection means perfection hid. ~ Robert Browning, #NFDB
40:Memory is your image of perfection. ~ Barbara Kruger, #NFDB
41:The height of perfection is mediocrity. ~ Pitigrilli, #NFDB
42:There is no perfection but in chance ~ Michael Cisco, #NFDB
43:Excellence does not require perfection. ~ Henry James, #NFDB
44:Perfection belongs to the Gods; the most ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
45:Perfection is an impossible destination ~ Tim Ferriss, #NFDB
46:Perfection is insignificant. Is boring. ~ Robert Reed, #NFDB
47:The goal is progress, not perfection! ~ Kathy Freston, #NFDB
48:The perfection of art is to conceal art. ~ Quintilian, #NFDB
49:Expect progress, not perfection. ~ John F MacArthur Jr, #NFDB
50:It's all about perfection, isn't it? ~ Keira Knightley, #NFDB
51:My ambition is peace and perfection. ~ DeForest Kelley, #NFDB
52:Perfection doesn’t exist, but beauty does ~ L H Cosway, #NFDB
53:Perfection is a disease of a nation. ~ Beyonce Knowles, #NFDB
54:Perfection is the willingness to be imperfect. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
55:Perfection itself is imperfection. ~ Vladimir Horowitz, #NFDB
56:Quick and dirty wins the race. Perfection ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
57:It is absurd to look for perfection. ~ Camille Pissarro, #NFDB
58:I truly am the reflection of perfection. ~ Ricky Martin, #NFDB
59:Life is about connection, not perfection. ~ Luke Taylor, #NFDB
60:Perfection can be had by everybody. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
61:Reality and perfection are synonymous. ~ Baruch Spinoza, #NFDB
62:You're ... exquisite. You're perfection ~ Stylo Fantome, #NFDB
63:He is Englishness carried to perfection ~ Susanna Clarke, #NFDB
64:Perfection can mask imperfection. ~ Khang Kijarro Nguyen, #NFDB
65:Perfection is the willingness to be imperfect. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
66:There is no simple beauty in perfection. ~ Rebecca Serle, #NFDB
67:There's nothing as boring as perfection ~ Tess Gerritsen, #NFDB
68:The universe doesn't allow perfection. ~ Stephen Hawking, #NFDB
69:We all know what a snooze perfection can be. ~ Tim Tharp, #NFDB
70:Don’t aim for perfection, aim for success. ~ Eike Batista, #NFDB
71:I believe that perfection handicaps cinema. ~ Jean Renoir, #NFDB
72:Progress is more important than perfection. ~ Simon Sinek, #NFDB
73:We have to create perfection through love ~ Bernie Siegel, #NFDB
74:Life is too short to look for perfection. ~ J T Geissinger, #NFDB
75:My mother is fine. For me it perfection. ~ Michael Jackson, #NFDB
76:Perfection can hide a lot of warts. ~ Khang Kijarro Nguyen, #NFDB
77:all of life is a movement toward perfection, ~ Wayne W Dyer, #NFDB
78:I've always gone for a kind of perfection. ~ Laurie Simmons, #NFDB
79:I was born to make mistakes, not to fake perfection ~ Drake, #NFDB
80:One can never help being born into perfection. ~ Kiera Cass, #NFDB
81:You want perfection, go to a bowling alley! ~ John Calipari, #NFDB
82:Flawed can be more perfect than perfection. ~ Gretchen Rubin, #NFDB
83:Nature attains perfection, but man never does. ~ Eric Hoffer, #NFDB
84:Our perfection lies in our imperfection. ~ Sandor Ellix Katz, #NFDB
85:Perfection is, after all, a form of banality. ~ Elisa Braden, #NFDB
86:Perfection is static, and I am in full progress. ~ Ana s Nin, #NFDB
87:Perfection should not have come quite so soon. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
88:Perfection takes time but comes for sure ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, #NFDB
89:Picture of perfection make me sick and wicked. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
90:Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
91:Psychic perfection means co smile at everything. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
92:If people reach perfection they vanish, you know. ~ T H White, #NFDB
93:Perfection can never be attained by work. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
94:Perfection is the antithesis of authenticity. ~ Willie Garson, #NFDB
95:Pictures of perfection make me sick and wicked. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
96:The course is perfection and it asks perfection. ~ Nick Faldo, #NFDB
97:The day of perfection is not scheduled on earth. ~ Naty Matos, #NFDB
98:The illusion of perfection is an illusion anyway. ~ Amy Adams, #NFDB
99:There is often no line between perfection and evil. ~ Ken Liu, #NFDB
100:You are Perfection and Imperfection's Love Child. ~ Sera Beak, #NFDB
101:Paranoia begat perfection in the wetboy's trade. ~ Brent Weeks, #NFDB
102:Progressive improvement beats delayed perfection. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
103:Style is the perfection of a point of view. ~ Richard Eberhart, #NFDB
104:The person seeing perfection is the Master. ~ Baird T Spalding, #NFDB
105:The world is a mirror, an imaging of Love's perfection. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
106:You are my idea of perfection, Beatrix Heloise. ~ Lisa Kleypas, #NFDB
107:Be intent upon the perfection of the present day. ~ William Law, #NFDB
108:I would with such perfection govern, sir, ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
109:Our goal is to enjoy, not to achieve perfection ~ Susan Jeffers, #NFDB
110:Perfection is different to every viewer. ~ Mary Robinette Kowal, #NFDB
111:Perfection is terrible, it cannot have children. ~ Sylvia Plath, #NFDB
112:Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
~ Aristotle,#NFDB
113:She was 3/4 perfection and 1/4 broken glass. ~ Jonathan Carroll, #NFDB
114:There are no shortcuts in the quest for perfection. ~ Ben Hogan, #NFDB
115:Where there is perfection there is no story to tell. ~ Ben Okri, #NFDB
116:Imperfection is an end. Perfection is only an aim. ~ Ivor Cutler, #NFDB
117:Life calls not for perfection, but for completeness. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
118:My mother's wonderful. To me she's perfection. ~ Michael Jackson, #NFDB
119:Perfection is a polished collection of errors. ~ Mario Benedetti, #NFDB
120:The perfection of evil is to be ignorant of the Divine. ~ Hermes, #NFDB
121:The purpose of Zen is the perfection of character. ~ Yamada Koun, #NFDB
122:Vegetarianism is a link to perfection and peace. ~ River Phoenix, #NFDB
123:You prefer her faults to other people’s perfection. ~ Anne Bront, #NFDB
124:A moment is all you can expect from perfection. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
125:Be content with nothing less than perfection. ~ Walter J Phillips, #NFDB
126:By reality and perfection I mean the same thing. ~ Baruch Spinoza, #NFDB
127:Perfection can be a mask for imperfection. ~ Khang Kijarro Nguyen, #NFDB
128:Perfection is overrated. Perfection is boring ~ Stephanie Perkins, #NFDB
129:Perfection's awesome... So I strive for it every day. ~ Frank Mir, #NFDB
130:Sometimes perfection reveals the lie, not the truth. ~ Kasie West, #NFDB
131:Where is perfection? Where I cannot reach. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley, #NFDB
132:APL is a mistake, carried through to perfection. ~ Edsger Dijkstra, #NFDB
133:Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it. ~ Salvador Dal, #NFDB
134:If you look for perfection, you'll never be content. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
135:Minimalism means not trying to improve perfection. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
136:Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving. ~ Neil Gaiman, #NFDB
137:The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement. ~ George Will, #NFDB
138:What happens when perfection isn't good enough? ~ Scott Westerfeld, #NFDB
139:Beauty is the attractive power of perfection. ~ Ananda Coomaraswamy, #NFDB
140:Beauty with character ages better than perfection. ~ Karl Lagerfeld, #NFDB
141:Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it. ~ Salvador Dali, #NFDB
142:If perfection is stagnation, then Heaven is a swamp. ~ Richard Bach, #NFDB
143:My body represents perfection. I am vibrantly healthy. ~ Louise Hay, #NFDB
144:Our creation, our perfection are our own work. ~ Antoine the Healer, #NFDB
145:Perfection does not exist - only God is perfect. ~ Carolina Herrera, #NFDB
146:The summer night is like a perfection of thought. ~ Wallace Stevens, #NFDB
147:Angels trying to scar themselves, bored of perfection. ~ Leah Raeder, #NFDB
148:Christianity is the highest perfection of humanity. ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
149:He was glorious in his perfection, like a dark angel. ~ Natasha Boyd, #NFDB
150:I don't believe in perfection. I don't think it exists. ~ Mila Kunis, #NFDB
151:If you look for perfection, you will never be content. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
152:Perfection is both innate and a work in progress. ~ Rasheed Ogunlaru, #NFDB
153:Perfection is no more a requisite to art than to heroes. ~ Ned Rorem, #NFDB
154:Perfection is not a prerequisite for anything but pain. ~ Tara Brach, #NFDB
155:Perfection’s unattainable but it isn’t unapproachable. ~ Peter Watts, #NFDB
156:Shining anal queen of perfection, she says, “Fuck. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
157:The way to perfection is through a series of disgusts ~ Walter Pater, #NFDB
158:Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle. ~ Michelangelo, #NFDB
159:We ask for progress, not perfection. Just do your best. ~ James Frey, #NFDB
160:Your generosity is more important than your perfection. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
161:Autumn lingered on as if fond of its own perfection. ~ Winston Graham, #NFDB
162:Cease to be a knower, then there is perfection. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
163:Envisioning perfection inhibits more than it inspires. ~ Dana K White, #NFDB
164:If you look for perfection,you will never be satisfied. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
165:In creation alone there is the possibility of perfection. ~ Anais Nin, #NFDB
166:Our erected wit maketh us to know what perfection is. ~ Philip Sidney, #NFDB
167:Perfection cannot endure in an imperfect world. ~ Stephen R Donaldson, #NFDB
168:The greater the diversity, the greater the perfection. ~ Thomas Berry, #NFDB
169:There is a perfection in everything that cannot be owned, ~ Ana s Nin, #NFDB
170:There is a perfection in everything that cannot be owned. ~ Ana s Nin, #NFDB
171:Trifles make perfection but perfection is not a trifle ~ Michelangelo, #NFDB
172:All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. ~ William Faulkner, #NFDB
173:Artists who approach perfection do not have many ideas. ~ Odilon Redon, #NFDB
174:Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
175:Do not stop trying just because perfection eludes you. ~ B K S Iyengar, #NFDB
176:If you look for perfection, you will never be satisfied. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
177:... imperfection would get me farther than perfection. ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
178:Numbers are limits, and perfection doesn't have limits. ~ Richard Bach, #NFDB
179:Perfection is being happy with what you are right now. ~ Michael Poore, #NFDB
180:Sometimes perfection reveals the lie, ..., not the truth. ~ Kasie West, #NFDB
181:You’re my perfection. I’m all of those things for you, ~ Jamie McGuire, #NFDB
182:Perfection is a stick with which to beat the possible. ~ Rebecca Solnit, #NFDB
183:Perfection is shallow, unreal, and fatally uninteresting. ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
184:Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired. ~ Martha Graham, #NFDB
185:Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection. ~ Kim Collins, #NFDB
186:The egg is the symbol of perfection. Do you want an egg? ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
187:You would attain to the divine perfection. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, #NFDB
188:All things change. Cultivate flexibility rather than perfection. ~ Jewel, #NFDB
189:If you look for perfection, you will never be satisfied. ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
190:In silence there is a perfection which any toil injures. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
191:Nothing is invented and brought to perfection all at once. ~ Thomas Cole, #NFDB
192:Perfection is achieved only on the point of collapse.
~ C N Parkinson,#NFDB
193:Perfection is invented by evil people to paralyze you. ~ Stefan Molyneux, #NFDB
194:Perfection’s unattainable but it isn’t unapproachable, you ~ Peter Watts, #NFDB
195:That which prematurely arrives at perfection soon perishes. ~ Quintilian, #NFDB
196:The past had a perfection that the future could never hold ~ Nick Cutter, #NFDB
197:The Qur'an does not ask for human perfection, but rather ~ Jeffrey Lang, #NFDB
198:What is perfection, anyway? It's the death of creativity. ~ Diane Keaton, #NFDB
199:I do believe deeply in perfection. I'm never satisfied. ~ Michael Jackson, #NFDB
200:I looked for perfection, and I found something better. ~ Orson Scott Card, #NFDB
201:In works aspiration towards Perfection is true spirituality. ~ The Mother, #NFDB
202:Lamborghini is refinement, luxury and perfection. ~ Ferruccio Lamborghini, #NFDB
203:Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection. ~ Sheryl Sandberg, #NFDB
204:No one understands the lonely perfection of my dreams. ~ Alan Dean Foster, #NFDB
205:Perfection belongs to narrated events, not to those we live. ~ Primo Levi, #NFDB
206:The Gospels: God's perfection consists in non-intervention. ~ Simone Weil, #NFDB
207:The past had a perfection that the future could never hold. ~ Nick Cutter, #NFDB
208:There will never be any more perfection than there is now. ~ Walt Whitman, #NFDB
209:A moment it the most you can ever expect from perfection ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
210:Do not be afraid of perfection - you will never attain it. ~ Salvador Dali, #NFDB
211:In works, aspiration towards Perfection is true spirituality. ~ The Mother, #NFDB
212:It's not about perfection; it's about the joy of striving. ~ Thomas Keller, #NFDB
213:Love itself describes its own perfection. Be speechless and listen. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
214:Perfectionism rarely begets perfection—only disappointment. ~ Ryan Holiday, #NFDB
215:Skip perfection. A lame drawing is better than no drawing. ~ Danny Gregory, #NFDB
216:Gratitude is pure happiness.
Happiness is sure perfection. ~ Sri Chinmoy,#NFDB
217:If I waited for perfection... I would never write a word. ~ Margaret Atwood, #NFDB
218:I have begun to wonder if perfection might be its own flaw. ~ Marissa Meyer, #NFDB
219:Imperfection is underrated. Perfection is overrated. ~ Helena Bonham Carter, #NFDB
220:Masculine with a hint of pretty he was perfection in his flaws. ~ Rhys Ford, #NFDB
221:Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull. ~ W Somerset Maugham, #NFDB
222:Perfection is a myth. People who hunger for it die hungry. ~ Christie Craig, #NFDB
223:Perfection is everywhere if we only choose to recognise it. ~ Kakuz Okakura, #NFDB
224:Perfection is unattainable, so I like to live in imperfection. ~ Nikki Sixx, #NFDB
225:Remember - try to stay focused on progress, not perfection. ~ Matthew Kelly, #NFDB
226:Resilency, not perfection, is the signature of greatness. ~ James C Collins, #NFDB
227:The mind of the soul doesn’t seek perfection, it seeks harmony. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
228:there is nothing so brittle as someone else’s perfection. ~ William Lashner, #NFDB
229:Begin with perfecting your daily life. That’s the way to perfection. ~ Sri M, #NFDB
230:Details make perfection, and perfection is not a detail. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
231:Perfection is everywhere if we only choose to recognise it. ~ Okakura Kakuzo, #NFDB
232:Perfection is never achieved, so you need to go on working. ~ Azzedine Alaia, #NFDB
233:Perfection isn’t welcomed here; I’d like to see your flaws. ~ Alexandra Elle, #NFDB
234:perfection. She’s pink and pretty and glistening and perfect. ~ Elle Kennedy, #NFDB
235:That which results in peace is the highest perfection. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
236:There’s no such thing as perfection, and life is not a race. ~ Doug Marlette, #NFDB
237:Too clear, too clean. The problem was precision, perfection. ~ Jennifer Egan, #NFDB
238:Too clear, too clean. The problem was precision, perfection; ~ Jennifer Egan, #NFDB
239:a moment is the most you could ever expect from perfection. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
240:An action is the perfection and publication of thought. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
241:Beauty and ingenuity beat perfection hands down, every time. ~ Nalo Hopkinson, #NFDB
242:Humanity, divine limitation; Divinity, human perfection. ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan, #NFDB
243:If you don't seek perfection, you can never reach excellence. ~ Ken Blanchard, #NFDB
244:I'm what?
Everything. Perfection. Mine?
Gorgeous. ~ Aly Martinez,#NFDB
245:Infinite perfection is in every man, though unmanifested. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
246:Pain and perfection. It was the only path to redemption he knew. ~ Robin Hobb, #NFDB
247:perfection is not a requirement for creating great relationships. ~ John Gray, #NFDB
248:Perfection never exists in reality, but only in our dreams. ~ Rudolf Dreikurs, #NFDB
249:Strive not for perfection..but for lives and loves that matter. ~ Debora Spar, #NFDB
250:The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection. ~ Michelangelo, #NFDB
251:Usher is amazing. He's perfection to me as a performer. He gets down. ~ Ciara, #NFDB
252:A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
253:Happiness is no other than soundness and perfection of mind. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
254:I never competed against athletes. I competed against perfection. ~ Carl Lewis, #NFDB
255:It goes as it does,Argetlam.You cannot hurry perfection. ~ Christopher Paolini, #NFDB
256:It had been a perfect fit, but perfection can be an illusion. ~ Kerry Lonsdale, #NFDB
257:Perfection is not to be attained, it is already within us. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
258:She strives, understanding the futility of it, for perfection. ~ Robert Coover, #NFDB
259:To live is to change, and to obtain perfection is to change often. ~ Ed Parker, #NFDB
260:Always aim at perfection for only then will you achieve excellence ~ J R D Tata, #NFDB
261:And pictures of perfection, as you know, make me sick and wicked. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
262:Comparisons are easily done, once you've had a taste of perfection ~ Katy Perry, #NFDB
263:Do not seek perfection. None exists. All we can do is strive. ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
264:Falling short of perfection is a process that just never stops. ~ William Shawn, #NFDB
265:Healing is awakening to the perfection that already is ours. ~ Baird T Spalding, #NFDB
266:Ignorance clarifies. It selects and omits with placid perfection. ~ Kate Morton, #NFDB
267:Perfection is no small thing, but it is made up of small things. ~ Michelangelo, #NFDB
268:Progress, not perfection, is the goal. I’m a gold-star junkie, ~ Gretchen Rubin, #NFDB
269:The perfection in theater is that it's over the second it's done ~ William Hurt, #NFDB
270:There is no perfection in human things, only in the world of Forms. ~ Jo Walton, #NFDB
271:The rose-garden world of perfection is a lie and a bore too! ~ Joanne Greenberg, #NFDB
272:Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle. ~ Michelangelo Buonarroti, #NFDB
273:Friendship is the highest degree of perfection in society. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #NFDB
274:Nobility is the perfection in each thing of its proper nature. ~ Dante Alighieri, #NFDB
275:Perfection is about the furthest thing in the world from badassery. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
276:Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
277:The closest you can get to perfection is constant improvement. ~ Brendan Brazier, #NFDB
278:The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection. ~ George Orwell, #NFDB
279:The fleetest beast to bear you to perfection is suffering. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
280:The perfection of intention. In the end, it is all that matters. ~ Andrew X Pham, #NFDB
281:There is no perfection, only beautiful versions of brokenness. ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
282:The Rosary is a school for learning true Christian perfection. ~ Pope John XXIII, #NFDB
283:Whosoever is truly enlightened, cannot fail to arrive at perfection. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
284:Why would anyone want perfection when growth comes from flaws? ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
285:Beyond all judgments of good and bad ...is perfection - Vivian Amis ~ Vivian Amis, #NFDB
286:He'd learned long ago: perfection isn't what families are all about. ~ Jamie Ford, #NFDB
287:Humanity is at its greatest perfection in the race of the whites. ~ Immanuel Kant, #NFDB
288:Humility is courage, the open acceptance of your own perfection. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
289:Love springs from the ability to prefer imperfection over perfection. ~ Rein Raud, #NFDB
290:Not seeing people permits us to imagine them with every perfection. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
291:Perfection is a promise, and a reassurance that we are not wrong. ~ Lauren Oliver, #NFDB
292:Perfection is boring. It makes life boring, and love even more so. ~ Kate Stewart, #NFDB
293:Perfection is nothing more than a phantom shadow we’re all chasing ~ Julie Murphy, #NFDB
294:Perfection spawns doctrines, dictators and totalitarian ideas. ~ Antonio Tabucchi, #NFDB
295:Plans are practice; life makes no allowances for perfection. ~ Scott James Magner, #NFDB
296:Switching off perfection switched on the human quality ~ Ahmir Questlove Thompson, #NFDB
297:The development of man is a return to an original perfection. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
298:The pursuit of perfection prevents achievement of the satisfactory. ~ George Will, #NFDB
299:When you aim for perfection, you discover it's a moving target. ~ Geoffrey Fisher, #NFDB
300:All we know is that you are, if you will, the acme of perfection. ~ Fred Alan Wolf, #NFDB
301:And a moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
302:People who expect perfection in a mate miss a lot of fun—and sweetness. ~ J D Robb, #NFDB
303:The principal mark of genius is not perfection, but originality. ~ Robert Schumann, #NFDB
304:Well, I am nothing like perfection.” “You’re better. You’re you. ~ Jennifer Ashley, #NFDB
305:What is creative is the seeking of perfection - and not attaining it. ~ Semir Zeki, #NFDB
306:What makes a Christian a Christian is not perfection but forgiveness. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
307:a blossom past its perfection, shedding petals like a sad metaphor ~ Matthew Hughes, #NFDB
308:A friend of mine says that perfection is a road, not a destination. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
309:He owned his emotions without missing a beat. Damn, he was perfection. ~ Jaymin Eve, #NFDB
310:I look for persistence—rather than perfection—in your walk with Me. P ~ Sarah Young, #NFDB
311:Indiscriminate pursuit of perfection infallibly leads to mediocrity. ~ Henry Fuseli, #NFDB
312:I want more from David Beckham. I want him to improve on perfection. ~ Kevin Keegan, #NFDB
313:Loving isn’t finding perfection, but forgiving horrible faults. ~ Rosamunde Pilcher, #NFDB
314:Nothing was out of place. Perfection was my favorite form of control. ~ Celia Aaron, #NFDB
315:Our perfection certainly consists in knowing God and ourselves. ~ Angela of Foligno, #NFDB
316:People may be in awe of perfection, but they warm to humanity. ~ Kathie Lee Gifford, #NFDB
317:Perfection is boring. If a face doesn't have mistakes, it's nothing. ~ Kevyn Aucoin, #NFDB
318:Perfection is not just about control, it is also about letting go. ~ Vincent Cassel, #NFDB
319:Perfection was not always beautiful: sometimes, it was terrifying. ~ Meredith Duran, #NFDB
320:Progress, not perfection, is what we should be asking of ourselves. ~ Julia Cameron, #NFDB
321:The greater the emphasis on perfection, the further it recedes. ~ Haridas Chaudhuri, #NFDB
322:The rose-garden world of perfection is a lie... and a bore, too! ~ Joanne Greenberg, #NFDB
323:WITHOUT GRACE, MINIMALISM IS ANOTHER METRIC FOR PERFECTION. Chasing ~ Erin Loechner, #NFDB
324:Even as damaged as I knew he was, this gorgeous man was my perfection. ~ A L Jackson, #NFDB
325:I know of only two alternatives to hypocrisy: perfection or honesty. ~ Philip Yancey, #NFDB
326:I'm somewhat of a perfectionist, I think, and I strive for perfection. ~ Sam Claflin, #NFDB
327:Perfection stands still while mortals walk past. - Quentin "Q" Jacobsen ~ John Green, #NFDB
328:The body must be perfection before the will is a functioning unit ~ Carlos Castaneda, #NFDB
329:What is perfect? From the Zen mind, perfection is not being there. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
330:With our own perfection grows in us a generous understanding of others. ~ The Mother, #NFDB
331:Bonhoeffer did not expect his life to be a tidy edifice of perfection. ~ Samuel Wells, #NFDB
332:Consciously or unconsciously, we are all striving for perfection. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
333:Mosca sniffed at perfection. Perfection had no pulse and no heart. ~ Frances Hardinge, #NFDB
334:Never try to be other than you are. You are perfection, just as you are. ~ Penny Reid, #NFDB
335:packages of perfection; relationships come in packages of potential. ~ Lysa TerKeurst, #NFDB
336:Perfection is an illusion we create to convince the soul to trust. ~ Corinne Michaels, #NFDB
337:Some people strive for perfection, but I often find perfection boring ~ Mario Testino, #NFDB
338:The best way to help mankind is through the perfection of yourself. ~ Joseph Campbell, #NFDB
339:To find its perfection
the soul must reveal
its imperfections. ~ Ivan M Granger,#NFDB
340:When you demand perfection within yourself, you become more fallible. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
341:Does the real thing ever have the perfection of a stage performance? ~ Agatha Christie, #NFDB
342:it is much easier to strive for perfection when you are never bored. ~ Daniel Kahneman, #NFDB
343:perfection consists not in consolations, but in the increase of love; ~ Teresa of vila, #NFDB
344:Perfection is a promise, and a reassurance that we are not wrong. Mrs. ~ Lauren Oliver, #NFDB
345:Perfection only exists in the mind. It’s not real. Imagine, create, improve. ~ Unknown, #NFDB
346:The condition of perfection is idleness: the aim of perfection is youth. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
347:The true perfection of man lies not in what man has, but in what man is. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
348:You clean and organize; you demand perfection—did you ever wonder why? ~ John Eldredge, #NFDB
349:And what is death, if not a face at peace - its artistic perfection. ~ Vladimir Nabokov, #NFDB
350:Culture is the study of perfection, and the constant effort to achieve it. ~ Allen Tate, #NFDB
351:Every thing that grows / Holds in perfection but a little moment. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
352:For a married couple to expect perfection for each other is unrealistic. ~ Billy Graham, #NFDB
353:I don't believe in perfection. I don't think there is such a thing. ~ Reese Witherspoon, #NFDB
354:I don't want to call myself a perfectionist because perfection is imperfection. ~ Ne Yo, #NFDB
355:It is the function of perfection to make one know one's imperfection. ~ Saint Augustine, #NFDB
356:Jesus took your punishment, and God gave you credit for Jesus' perfection. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
357:Military discipline is merely a perfection of social servitude. ~ Alexis de Tocqueville, #NFDB
358:She’s ten years from a hundred and still thinks she deserves perfection, ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
359:There is a danger of changing too much in the search for perfection. ~ Agnetha Faltskog, #NFDB
360:To be human is to seek perfection, and find joy in never attaining it. ~ Lupita Nyong o, #NFDB
361:Be master of thy thoughts, O thou who strivest for perfection. ~ Book of Golden Precepts, #NFDB
362:Don’t aim for perfection. Evolution, and life, only happen through mistakes. ~ Matt Haig, #NFDB
363:Don't be bothered by perfection. Replace the word 'Perfection' by 'Totality. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
364:Everyone knows rock n' roll attained perfection in 1974. It's a scientific fact. ~ Homer, #NFDB
365:God always ignores the present perfection for the ultimate perfection. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
366:I can’t help it." I sighed. "One can never help being born into perfection. ~ Kiera Cass, #NFDB
367:I'm still waiting for perfection. In the meantime, I'll settle for persistence ~ Bo Ryan, #NFDB
368:I wish I could convey the perfection... But language founders in such seas ~ Yann Martel, #NFDB
369:Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection.” ~ Kim Collins ~ Stephen Guise, #NFDB
370:The pursuit of perfection, then, is the pursuit of sweetness and light. ~ Matthew Arnold, #NFDB
371:This perfection must come through the practice of holiness and love. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
372:Education is the manifestation of perfection already existing in man. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
373:Excellence is the asymptotic state that never quite reaches perfection. ~ Andy Hargreaves, #NFDB
374:Fortunately perfection is not a requirement for creating great relationships. ~ John Gray, #NFDB
375:I'm definitely on the pursuit of perfection...I will always be learning. ~ Conor McGregor, #NFDB
376:It's the job of intellectuals and writers to cast doubt on perfection. ~ Antonio Tabucchi, #NFDB
377:I was jealous of your perfection. And now I’m jealous that you’re Flawed. ~ Cecelia Ahern, #NFDB
378:Knowledge of the Self, which knows all, is Knowledge in perfection. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
379:Redemption is not perfection. The redeemed must realize their imperfections. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
380:Simplicity, without which no human performance can arrive at perfection. ~ Jonathan Swift, #NFDB
381:The goal of the human soul is conquest, perfection, security, superiority. ~ Alfred Adler, #NFDB
382:The perfection of loneliness is you can do whatever you want by yourself. ~ M F Moonzajer, #NFDB
383:While real perfection is only one, relative perfections must be many. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
384:Aiming for perfection causes frustration at best and paralysis at worst. ~ Sheryl Sandberg, #NFDB
385:Alas, that they are so!
To die even when they to perfection grow! ~ William Shakespeare,#NFDB
386:Be master of thy thoughts, O thou who wrest lest for perfection. ~ Book of Golden Precepts, #NFDB
387:But if you serve the work—if you perform each task to its utmost perfection ~ David Brooks, #NFDB
388:Humor has justly been regarded as the finest perfection of poetic genius. ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
389:It is through art, and through art only, that we can realise our perfection. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
390:Life is about refinement, not perfection. And you still have refining to do. ~ Dan Millman, #NFDB
391:Maybe, just maybe, the perfection of the world was found in the imperfection. ~ Peter Monn, #NFDB
392:Measure not by the scale of perfection the meager product of reality. ~ Friedrich Schiller, #NFDB
393:Only gods can safely risk perfection ... it's a dangerous thing for a man. ~ Frank Herbert, #NFDB
394:Perfection does not exist -- you can always do better and you can always grow. ~ Les Brown, #NFDB
395:Self reliance, the height and perfection of man, is reliance on God. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
396:The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing. ~ Eugene Delacroix, #NFDB
397:The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing. ~ Eug ne Delacroix, #NFDB
398:The cruelest thing a man can do to a woman is to portray her as perfection. ~ D H Lawrence, #NFDB
399:The true work of art
is but a shadow of the divine perfection ~ Michelangelo Buonarroti,#NFDB
400:This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections. ~ Saint Augustine, #NFDB
401:Adopt the standard of perfection, because it is a perfect universe. ~ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, #NFDB
402:Art is life seen through man's inner craving for perfection and beauty-- ~ Paul Outerbridge, #NFDB
403:Behind the perfection of a man's style, must lie the passion of a man's soul. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
404:It's about progress, no perfection. [...] I'm proud to be a work in progress. ~ Hannah Hart, #NFDB
405:I've never believed in seeking perfection at the risk of losing everything. ~ Jean Chretien, #NFDB
406:The maxim, "Nothing prevails but perfection," may be spelled PARALYSIS. ~ Winston Churchill, #NFDB
407:There is perfection in the process-and all life arises out of choice. ~ Neale Donald Walsch, #NFDB
408:The Thrive Diet is not about perfection or idealism, it’s about progress. ~ Brendan Brazier, #NFDB
409:Writers strive for the impossible: perfection. Even the universe is flawed. ~ Chloe Thurlow, #NFDB
410:A selfie has nothing to do with ego. It is a constant search for perfection. ~ Chloe Thurlow, #NFDB
411:But no perfection is so absolute, That some impurity doth not pollute. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
412:Expecting perfection from ourselves or others is not what holiness is about. ~ Kevin DeYoung, #NFDB
413:Her beauty was a kind of sealed vessel of perfection—uncracked and uncrackable. ~ John Green, #NFDB
414:If we provide the right incentive, all things are possible, even perfection. ~ Gail Carriger, #NFDB
415:In order that two imperfect souls might touch perfection. E. M. Forster ~ Kimberly McCreight, #NFDB
416:I think seeking perfection in human affairs is a perfect way to destroy them. ~ Jaron Lanier, #NFDB
417:It is not enough to simply "do your best". You must strive for perfection. ~ Subir Chowdhury, #NFDB
418:People can live up to high standards, but they can't live up to perfection. ~ Temple Grandin, #NFDB
419:The perfection of means and the confusion of ends seems to be our problem. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
420:When the mind merges in the Heart, it will attain perfection as peace. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
421:96. I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment is exceeding broad. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
422:All growth toward perfection is but a returning to original existence. ~ Wilhelm von Humboldt, #NFDB
423:A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
424:Aversion is not equality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of Equality, #NFDB
425:Clinging to our ideas of perfection isolates us from life and is a barrier. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
426:Don’t let your obsession with perfection become the enemy of being good enough. ~ Evan Currie, #NFDB
427:I see perfection in things that are likely considered imperfections by others. ~ Jessica Park, #NFDB
428:Many things impossible to thought have been by need to full perfection brought. ~ John Dryden, #NFDB
429:Maybe it’s not in the perfection of life that things make sense, but in the chaos ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
430:The maxim, "Nothing prevails but perfection," may be spelled PARALYSIS. ~ Winston S Churchill, #NFDB
431:We don't have time for perfect. In any event, perfection is unachievable. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, #NFDB
432:We don’t have time for perfect. In any event, perfection is unachievable: ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, #NFDB
433:But no perfection is so absolute
That some inpurity doth not pollute. ~ William Shakespeare,#NFDB
434:Don't aim for perfect. Aim for complete. Perfection is an unattainable illusion. ~ Lisa Genova, #NFDB
435:Maybe it’s not in the perfection of life that things make sense, but in the chaos. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
436:Replace the eagerness for fame by the aspiration for perfection.
~ The Mother, On Education,#NFDB
437:Strive for excellence, not perfection, because we don't live in a perfect world. ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
438:The closest to perfection people ever come is when they write their resumes . ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
439:The maxim "Nothing avails but perfection" may be spelt p-a-r-a-l-y-s-i-s ~ Winston S Churchill, #NFDB
440:The perfection of any matter, the highest or the lowest, touches on the divine. ~ Martin Buber, #NFDB
441:Deploring other people--their lack of perfection--had always been our sport. ~ Jonathan Franzen, #NFDB
442:Ego is impurity. Be selfless. Consecrate and dedicate your life to perfection. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
443:Elections are when you have to make a choice. Perfection not often attainable! ~ Rupert Murdoch, #NFDB
444:If you demand perfection or nothing, you will always end up with nothing. ~ Francis A Schaeffer, #NFDB
445:If you do not learn to deny yourself, you can make no progress in perfection. ~ Juan de la Cruz, #NFDB
446:Instead of waiting for perfection, run with what you've got, and fix it as you go. ~ Paul Arden, #NFDB
447:Nothing — the only perfection, the only absolute. Infinite and eternal nothing. ~ Aldous Huxley, #NFDB
448:Perfection is an admirable thing to strive for. But so is knowing when to stop. ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
449:Producing perfection from imperfection is, after all, the highest of art forms. ~ Frank Herbert, #NFDB
450:The intellect of man is forced to choose
Perfection of the life, or of the work. ~ W B Yeats,#NFDB
451:The work never matches the dream of perfection the artist has to start with. ~ William Faulkner, #NFDB
452:Absolute perfection is here and now, not in some future, near or far. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #NFDB
453:He may have been hell-sent, but he had been put together with heavenly perfection. ~ Celia Aaron, #NFDB
454:It is necessary to go through all the daily tasks and bring perfection to them. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
455:I want these tiny snippets of perfection between us to be our constant reality. ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
456:Margo’s beauty was a kind of sealed vessel of perfection—uncracked and uncrackable. ~ John Green, #NFDB
457:Perfection lies in intensity, and what is most intense cannot be endured long. ~ Walter Kaufmann, #NFDB
458:True perfection has to be imperfect. I know that sounds foolish, but it's true. ~ Noel Gallagher, #NFDB
459:Au premier mariage on cherche la perfection, au second on cherche la vérité. ~ Fr d ric Beigbeder, #NFDB
460:ever there was a woman who was all perfection, that one is my poor wronged darling. ~ Bram Stoker, #NFDB
461:Flowers always have it - poise, completion, fulfillment, perfection . . . ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh, #NFDB
462:I didn’t want her sane mind. I wanted her like this: fucked up, and dark perfection ~ Tillie Cole, #NFDB
463:If perfection were possible, the Cross wouldn’t have been necessary. (Galatians 2:21) ~ L R Knost, #NFDB
464:I move onward, the only direction Can’t be scared to fail in search of perfection. ~ Ben Horowitz, #NFDB
465:Just ’cause I’m the picture of manly perfection doesn’t mean I don’t have a brain. ~ Joanna Wylde, #NFDB
466:Margo's beauty was a kind of sealed vessel of perfection--uncracked and uncrackable. ~ John Green, #NFDB
467:Marriage is the perfection which love aimed at, ignorant of what it sought. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
468:No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves. ~ William Hazlitt, #NFDB
469:One man’s perfection still can save the world. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Finding of the Soul, #NFDB
470:Perfection isn’t real. It is only the top layer beneath which the ugliness lies. ~ Angela Marsons, #NFDB
471:There is nothing we could add to that which has already been created....perfection. ~ Vivian Amis, #NFDB
472:There’s a considerable distance between seeking perfection and irretrievable haste, ~ Naomi Novik, #NFDB
473:To see nothing of a person makes it possible to credit him with all the perfection. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
474:Come, my songs, let us speak of perfection— / We shall get ourselves rather disliked. ~ Ezra Pound, #NFDB
475:Every human perfection is linked to an error which it threatens to turn into ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #NFDB
476:Failure is an integral part of life and that perfection is not of this world. ~ Arianna Huffington, #NFDB
477:Fashion is the pursuit of perfection, Style is the acceptance of one's flaws. ~ Francesco Clemente, #NFDB
478:I hold that the perfection of form and beauty is contained in the sum of all men. ~ Albrecht Durer, #NFDB
479:Lake, you know a band has true talent when their imperfections define perfection. ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
480:One should assiduously pursue perfection without ever claiming to attain it. ~ Nicolas Malebranche, #NFDB
481:Perfection consists in doing His will, in being that which He wants us to be. ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #NFDB
482:Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence. ~ Vince Lombardi, #NFDB
483:Persistence. Perfection. Patience. Power. Prioritize your passion. It keeps you sane. ~ Criss Jami, #NFDB
484:The farther a man knows himself to be free from perfection, the nearer he is to it. ~ Geert Groote, #NFDB
485:The human person finds his perfection "in seeking and loving what is true and good. ~ Benedict XVI, #NFDB
486:There is a certain perfection in accident which we never consciously attain. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
487:You’re perfection, angry girl. No need to huff and puff. I’m gonna take care of you. ~ Callie Hart, #NFDB
488:Because there is a word for perfection, people will always imagine that they know it. ~ Idries Shah, #NFDB
489:Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life. ~ Walter Scott, #NFDB
490:It didn’t matter. He’d learned long ago: perfection isn’t what families are all about. ~ Jamie Ford, #NFDB
491:Just start Don't wait for perfection. Just start and let the work teach you. ~ Jacqueline Novogratz, #NFDB
492:Marriage is the perfection of what love aimed at, ignorant of what it sought. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
493:Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing. ~ Harriet B Braiker, #NFDB
494:The idea of perfection can be a tyrant you should overthrow, to gain your freedom. ~ Kate Grenville, #NFDB
495:There is only one prayer and that is prayer for light, for purity, for perfection. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
496:The scope for improvement is infinite, precisely because perfection is unattainable. ~ George Soros, #NFDB
497:This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #NFDB
498:You’re already so close to perfection, but there are these occasional lapses . . . ~ Pepper Winters, #NFDB
499:Abandon perfection
Welcome reflection
Nurture connection
Offer protection ~ Emilie Richards,#NFDB
500:A perfect human being: Man in search of his ideal of perfection. Nothing less. ~ Vilayat Inayat Khan, #NFDB
501:How do the flawed and damaged living ever measure up to the perfection of the dead? ~ Felice Stevens, #NFDB
502:If we would aim at perfection in any thing, simplicity must not be overlooked. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
503:I guess I've been waiting so long I'm looking for perfection. That makes it tough. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
504:I guess I’ve been waiting so long I’m looking for perfection. That makes it tough. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
505:It's stupid to expect perfection from bands because afterall they're just human beings. ~ Neil Young, #NFDB
506:Mortals aren't meant to love perfection. It disillusions and destroys them in the end. ~ Julie Berry, #NFDB
507:Not hammer-strokes, but dance of the water, sings the pebbles into perfection. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, #NFDB
508:People keep looking for the perfect one, but perfection is an attribute of God alone. ~ Farahad Zama, #NFDB
509:Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence ~ Vince Lombardi Jr, #NFDB
510:Perfection is not when there is no more to add, but no more to take away. ~ Antoine de Saint Exupery, #NFDB
511:Perfection is such a nuisance that I often regret having cured myself of using tobacco. ~ Emile Zola, #NFDB
512:Perfection is such a nuisance that I often regret having cured myself of using tobacco. ~ mile Zola, #NFDB
513:Stop struggling for perfection,
and recognize the perfection
you already are. ~ Ivan M Granger,#NFDB
514:The concept of life and perfection is incompatible. BUT so is death and perfection ~ Murray Rothbard, #NFDB
515:The mistake is to imagine that perfection is possible when the very idea is unthinkable. ~ Luis Figo, #NFDB
516:....try the mustard, - a man can't know what turnips are in perfection without mustard. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
517:Utopias rest on the fallacy that perfection is a legitimate goal of human existence. ~ Lewis Mumford, #NFDB
518:Excellence/Perfection is not a destination; it is a continuous journey that never ends. ~ Brian Tracy, #NFDB
519:Maybe it's not in the perfection of life that things make sense, but in the chaos. ~ Rachel Van Dyken, #NFDB
520:Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence. ~ Vince Lombardi Jr, #NFDB
521:Wabi Sabi", named after a Japanese notion of appreciating the perfection in imperfection. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
522:Culture is properly described as the love of perfection; it is a study of perfection. ~ Matthew Arnold, #NFDB
523:Ego is the principal knot. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of the Mental Being, #NFDB
524:Every little detail to every little movement must be perfect. Perfection in movement. ~ Conor McGregor, #NFDB
525:Fix your eyes on perfection and you make almost everything speed towards it. ~ William Ellery Channing, #NFDB
526:Healing is making whole, restoring a state of perfection and balance that has been lost. ~ Andrew Weil, #NFDB
527:If we require more perfection from women than from ourselves, it is doing them honor. ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
528:I probably do have an obsessive personality, but striving for perfection has served me well ~ Tom Ford, #NFDB
529:It is an absolute perfection... to get the very most out of one's individuality. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #NFDB
530:Our lack of perfection should remind us that no one has the right to judge other's worth. ~ Thia Megia, #NFDB
531:Out of perfection nothing can be made. Every process involves breaking something up. ~ Joseph Campbell, #NFDB
532:Perfection does not exist. It's more important to be happy with the human being you are. ~ Talisa Soto, #NFDB
533:Perfection is attained, not when no more can be added, but when no more can be removed. ~ Scott Berkun, #NFDB
534:Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection.” ~ Stephen Guise Kim Collins ~ Stephen Guise, #NFDB
535:The church is not a place for perfection. It is, and should be, a haven of protection. ~ Mary E DeMuth, #NFDB
536:The concept of life and perfection is incompatible. BUT so is death and perfection ~ Murray N Rothbard, #NFDB
537:The idea of perfection always gives one a chance to talk without knowing facts. ~ Agnes Sligh Turnbull, #NFDB
538:The mind pre-eminently is man; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #NFDB
539:There is no such thing as perfection and it is okay for you to have negative thoughts. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
540:There is no worse sickness for the soul, o you who are proud, than this pretense of perfection. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
541:You are the Beloved, you are the Divine, you are a creation that is made into perfection. ~ Wayne Dyer, #NFDB
542:Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who can't attain it in anything. ~ Eugene Delacroix, #NFDB
543:Despair at not reaching ideal perfection are among the reasons given. Again it is said. ~ Nikolai Gogol, #NFDB
544:he is quite possibly a piece of perfection with every bit of an eight-inch, thick cock. ~ Adriana Locke, #NFDB
545:How many things by season seasoned are To their right praise and true perfection! ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
546:If you do not learn to deny yourself, you can make no progress in perfection. ~ Saint John of the Cross, #NFDB
547:"I guess I've been waiting so long I'm looking for perfection. That makes it tough." ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
548:Let the soul who is desirous of advancing in perfection hasten to My Sacred Heart. ~ Gertrude the Great, #NFDB
549:Love is the perception of perfection beyond the protection of our projection. ~ Eric Micha el Leventhal, #NFDB
550:Ninety feet between the bases is the nearest thing to perfection that man has yet achieved. ~ Red Smith, #NFDB
551:Perfection in war lies in so sapping your opponents will that he surrenders without fighting. ~ Sun Tzu, #NFDB
552:Perfection is only an ideal for man; it cannot be attained, for man is made imperfect. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
553:Perfection itself is boring; it's only everything leading up to it that's interesting. ~ Jami Attenberg, #NFDB
554:The content of the ideal is a desire to return to the perfection of an imaginary past. ~ Johan Huizinga, #NFDB
555:The human person finds his perfection "in seeking and loving what is true and good. ~ Pope Benedict XVI, #NFDB
556:They don’t see that her tension and perfection are the only things holding her together. ~ Laura Nowlin, #NFDB
557:This was home. This was perfection. This was everything he'd never known he wanted. (Griff) ~ Jami Gold, #NFDB
558:We are not good enough for ourselves because we don’t fit with our own image of perfection. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
559:always remember that it is progress, not perfection, you should be looking for. ~ The Arbinger Institute, #NFDB
560:How many things by season season'd are, To their right praise and true perfection! ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
561:I guess, I've been waiting for so long I'm looking for perfection. That makes it tough ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
562:I'm training all the time. My goal is perfection. But I will never reach perfection. ~ Georges St Pierre, #NFDB
563:It is the witness still of excellency to put a strange face on his own perfection. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
564:I trust in the perfection of Divine Timing and allow my life to unfold as it should. ~ Cheryl Richardson, #NFDB
565:It was a style not of perfection, but warmth. Even mistakes had a good feeling about them ~ Markus Zusak, #NFDB
566:Other people’s perfection is a facade we create when we are second guessing ourselves ~ Lisa Renee Jones, #NFDB
567:Perfection consists in doing His will, in being that which He wants us to be. ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #NFDB
568:Perfection is fragile; interacting with something that seems perfect puts it in peril. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
569:Perfection is not necessary to make a real and lasting difference to other people's lives. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
570:Seeking perfection just ends up creating ridiculous amounts of stress and disappointment. ~ Arielle Ford, #NFDB
571:The comfort of shaving with your knife is in the knowing that it is honed to perfection. ~ Mark Lawrence, #NFDB
572:The need for perfection and the desire for inner tranquility conflict with each other. ~ Richard Carlson, #NFDB
573:True perfection is unattainable, but if you chase perfection you will catch excellence! ~ Vince Lombardi, #NFDB
574:We all suffer from the preoccupation that there exists... in the loved one, perfection. ~ Sidney Poitier, #NFDB
575:16 June 2020 -To work for your perfection the first step is to become conscious of yourself. ~ The Mother, #NFDB
576:And the law, that is the perfection of reason, cannot suffer anything that is inconvenient. ~ Edward Coke, #NFDB
577:Don't try to reach perfection. Just try to reach an inner and outer realization of self. ~ Imania Margria, #NFDB
578:Growing Within 10/6 With our own perfection grows in us a generous understanding of others . ~ The Mother, #NFDB
579:If there is a good and wise God, then there also exists a progress of humanity toward perfection. ~ Plato, #NFDB
580:In the beginning I pushed toward perfection, but it takes time to get to certain places. ~ Alexander Wang, #NFDB
581:I was a glaring blot on the perfection. But I didn't care: I didn't feel I owed him beauty. ~ Naomi Novik, #NFDB
582:I was a glaring blot on the perfection. But I didn’t care: I didn’t feel I owed him beauty. ~ Naomi Novik, #NFDB
583:Not extreme perfection,
but purity and clarity are the targets
at which we should aim. ~ Lao Tzu,#NFDB
584:Other people’s perfection is a facade we create when we are second-guessing ourselves, ~ Lisa Renee Jones, #NFDB
585:Perfection in anything is unbearably dull. Myself, I prefer a touch of imperfection. ~ Colleen McCullough, #NFDB
586:Perfection isn't achievable -- and it would make you an extremely dull person if it were. ~ Lee Crutchley, #NFDB
587:Shane Dekkar. A man to define what all men should desire to become. Perfection, defined. ~ Scott Hildreth, #NFDB
588:the perfection of the moment would diminish if she did anything other than be present ~ Ashley Antoinette, #NFDB
589:To strive for perfection is to kill love because perfection does not recognize humanity. ~ Marion Woodman, #NFDB
590:We are trying to do our best to bring perfection into whatever we turn our attention to. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
591:And when you near perfection, you’re touching the Divine. It touches the you of yous. ~ Daniel James Brown, #NFDB
592:Consistency is better than perfection. We can all be consistent-perf ection is impossible. ~ Michael Hyatt, #NFDB
593:Details are but trifles, but details make for perfection, and perfection is no trifle. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
594:he filled to perfection the classic recipe for a small boy: “a noise surrounded by dirt. ~ Arthur C Clarke, #NFDB
595:He has the body of a professional athlete, chiseled to perfection in all the right places. ~ Collette West, #NFDB
596:Love isn’t perfection. Love is when two imperfect people choose not to give up on each other. ~ Geneva Lee, #NFDB
597:Striving for excellence is a positive quality. Striving for perfection is self-defeating. ~ Melody Beattie, #NFDB
598:The grace of God sets us free from a life of perfection, performing, and pretending. ~ Tullian Tchividjian, #NFDB
599:The laissez-faire argument relies on the same tacit appeal to perfection as does communism. ~ George Soros, #NFDB
600:These airplanes we have today are no more than a perfection of a child's toy made of paper. ~ Henri Coanda, #NFDB
601:The seeker for perfection must discover in his own life the reflection of the inner light. ~ Kakuz Okakura, #NFDB
602:We must take human nature as we find it, perfection falls not to the share of mortals. ~ George Washington, #NFDB
603:Abstaining so as really to enjoy, is the epicurism, the very perfection, of reason. ~ Jean Jacques Rousseau, #NFDB
604:And in fact, I think the more we start to worship perfection the more soul leaks out of art. ~ Kathy Mattea, #NFDB
605:I achieved perfection, my type of perfection - visual storytelling. Storytelling was my style. ~ Jack Kirby, #NFDB
606:In contentment and joy are found the height and perfection of all love towards our neighbor. ~ William Ames, #NFDB
607:Love is not perfection. Love is when two imperfect people choose not to give up on each other. ~ Geneva Lee, #NFDB
608:MEMORY is an odd thing. I can always remember to perfection a mass of unimportant details. ~ Martin Edwards, #NFDB
609:Perfection, in anything, is unbearably dull. Myself, I prefer a touch of imperfection. ~ Colleen McCullough, #NFDB
610:Perfectionism (noun): “A disposition to regard anything short of perfection as unacceptable ~ Stephen Guise, #NFDB
611:Perfection itself is not the ultimate goal
but the ultimate condition of life. ~ Eric Micha el Leventhal,#NFDB
612:To reach perfection, we must all pass, one by one, through the death of self-effacement. ~ Dag Hammarskjold, #NFDB
613:We can never attain to perfection while we have an affection for any imperfection. ~ Saint Francis de Sales, #NFDB
614:What you hang on to will weigh you down and hinder you in your pursuit of spiritual perfection. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
615:Active and Passive Perfection are the Taoist equivalent of the sufi terms Majesty and Beauty. ~ Martin Lings, #NFDB
616:But how could one hold this against her when faced with the perfection of her body? Suddenly ~ Pierre Boulle, #NFDB
617:But perfection is a nervy business, because the moment you spot the tiniest flaw it’s ruined. ~ Lev Grossman, #NFDB
618:Equality is the very sign of liberation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of Equality, #NFDB
619:How could he find perfection in such an average day? Then I realized this was the whole point. ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
620:I believe the word "perfection" should be changed to "pure fiction" - it's just not possible! ~ Arielle Ford, #NFDB
621:If we practice love of neighbor with great perfection, we will have done everything. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #NFDB
622:Perfection is the end and the beginning of all things, and without perfection they could not be. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
623:Physical perfection, working out, adds to your spiritual perfection if that is your intent. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
624:The progress and perfection of mathematics are linked closely with the prosperity of the state. ~ Carl Sagan, #NFDB
625:There’s no such thing as perfection, and even if there were, I think it’d be rather boring. ~ Lorraine Heath, #NFDB
626:The search for perfection is all good and well...
But to look for heaven is to live here in hell. ~ Sting,#NFDB
627:To talk about the need for perfection in man is to talk about the need for another species. ~ Norman Cousins, #NFDB
628:What they should really do, if they want supreme power, is develop the tonal to perfection. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
629:Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything.
~ Eug ne Delacroix,#NFDB
630:He only moves toward the perfection of his art whose criticism surpasses his achievement. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
631:Humanity will ever seek but never attain perfection. Let us at least survive and go on trying. ~ Dora Russell, #NFDB
632:I compulsively reach for perfection in music, often at the expense of everything else in my life. ~ Stan Getz, #NFDB
633:I don’t expect perfection, I expect excellence.” I expect 100 percent effort in all you do. ~ Steven D Levitt, #NFDB
634:It is good to be imperfect so that we retain our joy to work hard to rise to perfection! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
635:Ninety feet between home plate and first base may be the closest man has ever come to perfection. ~ Red Smith, #NFDB
636:Our religion doesn't demand perfection but instead a manageable strive to better ourselves. ~ Nouman Ali Khan, #NFDB
637:Perfection is a fallacy. Embrace the things you cannot change and fight for those you can. ~ Danielle Bourdon, #NFDB
638:perfection is not even our goal - our goal is harmony, and that it is not the same as perfection. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
639:Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem, in my opinion, to characterize our age.
~ Albert Einstein,#NFDB
640:Perfection of moral virtue does not wholly take away the passions, but regulates them. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #NFDB
641:So sweet and wet and hot. Your pussy is perfection. Want to live in it. Fuck you day and night. ~ A L Jackson, #NFDB
642:The maxims tell you to aim at perfection, which is well; but it's unattainable, all the same. ~ Bayard Taylor, #NFDB
643:They had gained this supreme perfection, to be totally masters of their thoughts. ~ The Lotus of the Good Law, #NFDB
644:Whoever is not satisfied with Christ alone, strives after something beyond absolute perfection. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
645:Character wasn’t about perfection. It was about wisdom and the ability to learn and change. If ~ Aleatha Romig, #NFDB
646:... crowding together to see something which would ease the boredom of perfection and time. ~ Cordwainer Smith, #NFDB
647:Don't strive for perfection. It doesn't exist. Strive for a better you. That's always in reach. ~ Brett Hoebel, #NFDB
648:Even if they can find a lover they demand perfection, and the love is destroyed because of that demand. ~ Osho, #NFDB
649:How then is perfection to be sought? Wherein lies our hope? In education, and in nothing else. ~ Immanuel Kant, #NFDB
650:I'm not trying to achieve perfection. I don't like this forced control people have over work. ~ Billy Childish, #NFDB
651:It's not in the perfection of life that things make sense, but in the chaos"- Weston Michel ~ Rachel Van Dyken, #NFDB
652:Screw what Mom and Dad think. Screw the rest of the town. Screw perfection. This girl is mine. ~ Katie McGarry, #NFDB
653:The age we live in is a busy age; in which knowledge is rapidly advancing towards perfection. ~ Jeremy Bentham, #NFDB
654:The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #NFDB
655:There is no control and perfection is arrogant. Practice messiness, letting go, and doing things badly. ~ Sark, #NFDB
656:They had attained to the supreme perfection of being completely masters of their thought. ~ The Lotus of Bliss, #NFDB
657:Why do we discover faults so much more readily than perfection. ~ Marie de Rabutin Chantal marquise de Sevigne, #NFDB
658:Ceecee liked him immediately because of that curl, because of that infraction against perfection. ~ Karen White, #NFDB
659:I don't confuse greatness with perfection. To be great anyhow is the higher achievement. ~ Lois McMaster Bujold, #NFDB
660:I don't confuse greatness with perfection. To be great anyhow is…the higher achievement. ~ Lois McMaster Bujold, #NFDB
661:I just think perfection and lasting through the ages is for Greek statues, not us mere humans. ~ Mary E Pearson, #NFDB
662:In this fallen world, I suspect we will never achieve perfection. But that won't stop me trying. ~ Michael Gove, #NFDB
663:It's not about perfection. What's a perfect painting? What's interesting about a perfect painting? ~ Peter Doig, #NFDB
664:Perfection is not a final state. It is a state of mind. There are ten thousand states of mind. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
665:Perfection isn't a requirement of friendship, but showing people who you are definitely is. ~ Pamela Druckerman, #NFDB
666:Perfection takes time.”
“If you saw yourself in the morning, you would know that's not true. ~ Jamie McGuire,#NFDB
667:Quick and dirty wins the race. Perfection is the enemy of done. Good enough is really effin’ good. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
668:Software breaks before it bends, so it demands perfection in a universe that prefers statistics. ~ Jaron Lanier, #NFDB
669:The principal mark of genius is not perfection but originality, the opening of new frontiers. ~ Arthur Koestler, #NFDB
670:The principle mark of genius is not perfection but originality, the opening of new frontiers. ~ Arthur Koestler, #NFDB
671:The real scam is that being bones isn’t enough either. The game is rigged. There is no perfection. ~ Lindy West, #NFDB
672:We want perfection without practice. Yet everyone is harmed if no one is trained for the future. ~ Atul Gawande, #NFDB
673:Wholeness does not mean perfection; it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life ~ Parker J Palmer, #NFDB
674:You are made for perfection, but you are not yet perfect. You are a masterpiece in the making. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
675:A warrior is not about perfection or victory or invulnerability. He's about absolute vulnerability. ~ Nick Nolte, #NFDB
676:Human inventions march from the
complex to the simple, and simplicity is always perfection. ~ Alexandre Dumas,#NFDB
677:If you were in a perfected state of consciousness, you would only see perfection in all things. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
678:Immoral is choosing not to act when you hold in your hands the power to create perfection. ~ Mark Crispin Miller, #NFDB
679:It really bothers me how in books it seems like the only two choices are perfection or self-hatred. ~ E Lockhart, #NFDB
680:Je n'ai guère de souci de beauté ni de perfection... Je n'ai souci que de vie, de lutte, de fièvre. ~ mile Zola, #NFDB
681:Our work is not to become a better person, but to become present to the perfection we already are. ~ Allan Lokos, #NFDB
682:Perfection is the measure of heaven, and the wish to be perfect the measure of man. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #NFDB
683:The principal mark of genius is not perfection but originality, the opening of new frontiers. ~ Arthur Koestler, #NFDB
684:There is a vast gulf between perfection and near perfection, and that gulf is filled with agony. ~ Larry Correia, #NFDB
685:The yoga of knowledge is the yoga of perfection. It is the end and the beginning of all things. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
686:What is God?
God is the perfection that we must aspire to realise.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#NFDB
687:Wholeness does not mean perfection: it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life. ~ Parker J Palmer, #NFDB
688:A line I like to use is, "Every day is training. Every day of life is a pursuit of perfection." ~ Jonathan Horton, #NFDB
689:Ethics is the activity of man directed to secure the inner perfection of his own personality. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
690:God has set the type of marriage through creation. Each creature seeks its perfection in another. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
691:I am no longer concerned with sensation and innovation, but with the perfection of my style. ~ Yves Saint Laurent, #NFDB
692:If you're looking for perfection, look in the mirror. If you find it there, expect it elsewhere. ~ Malcolm Forbes, #NFDB
693:Just so far as we are pleased at finding faults, are we displeased at finding perfection. ~ Johann Kaspar Lavater, #NFDB
694:Lawyers, Preachers, and Tomtits Eggs, there are more of them hatch'd than come to perfection. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
695:Mechanical wrecks, sobbing out plumes of black smoke, marred the sugar-white perfection of the pass. ~ Dan Abnett, #NFDB
696:Music is harmony, harmony is perfection, perfection is our dream, and our dream is heaven. ~ Henri Fr d ric Amiel, #NFDB
697:Music is harmony, harmony is perfection, perfection is our dream, and our dream is heaven. ~ Henri Frederic Amiel, #NFDB
698:Philosophy is a kind of journey, ever learning yet never arriving at the ideal perfection of truth. ~ Albert Pike, #NFDB
699:Relationships don’t come in packages of perfection; relationships come in packages of potential. ~ Lysa TerKeurst, #NFDB
700:The perfection of Tawheed is found when there remains nothing in the heart except Allaah ~ Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyya, #NFDB
701:Therefore it is written: “If you do not seek perfection you will halt before taking your first steps. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
702:There's no such thing as Perfection. But, in striving for perfection, we can achieve excellence. ~ Vince Lombardi, #NFDB
703:Tough and funny and a little bit kind: that is as near to perfection as a human being can be. ~ Mignon McLaughlin, #NFDB
704:We would be well on the way to perfection if we could weed out one vice from ourselves each year. ~ Thomas Kempis, #NFDB
705:Agony is truth its our connection to the living I accept it as perfection and keep on existing in the now ~ Eyedea, #NFDB
706:A man obsessed: obsessed with perfection, sharing, aesthetics, taste, savoir-faire, and much more. ~ Alain Ducasse, #NFDB
707:Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it. ~ Vince Lombardi, #NFDB
708:He smiles, breaking my heart with his perfection and despair. He really is the most beautiful man. He ~ Tara Brown, #NFDB
709:It is an absolute perfection and virtually divine to know how to enjoy our being rightfully. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #NFDB
710:My warriors have been trained to perfection. They are vicious, cutthroat—” “Dolphins,” Percy noted. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
711:Perfection is attained, not when no more can be added, but when no more can be removed. ~ Antoine de Saint Exupery, #NFDB
712:Perfection of character: to live your last day, every day, without frenzy, or sloth, or pretense ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
713:That's the beauty of art--we strive for perfection but never achieve it. The journey is everything. ~ Rafe Esquith, #NFDB
714:That which is perfect is called Perfection. Never forget the Truth underlying all phenomena. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
715:There's fatigue but also a deliberate desire to want to reach absolute perfection at every concert. ~ Lisa Gerrard, #NFDB
716:We want perfection without practice. Yet everyone is harmed if no one is trained for the future. So ~ Atul Gawande, #NFDB
717:Where there are no people, the nature shines in perfection. Remote nature is the real nature! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
718:I feel like our generation is just so obsessed with the idea of perfection and we don't need to be. ~ Connor Franta, #NFDB
719:It is all right to make mistakes; nothing is perfect because with perfection, we would not exist. ~ Stephen Hawking, #NFDB
720:Okay, that makes sense. But just so you know, I have no warts. I am an ethereal goddess of perfection. ~ Penny Reid, #NFDB
721:People are not perfect—that is, they do not yet express externally their internal perfection. ~ Marianne Williamson, #NFDB
722:Perfection cannot be reached, because nothings perfect. But things can change, and so can people ~ John O Callaghan, #NFDB
723:Perfection is a ridiculous goal because there is no such thing. Real beauty is what you are inside. ~ Ellen Hopkins, #NFDB
724:Perfection of character: to live your last day, every day, without frenzy, or sloth, or pretense. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
725:Regularity, order, desire for perfection destroy art. Irregularity is the basis of all art. ~ Pierre Auguste Renoir, #NFDB
726:Who wants to be a goddess when we can be human? Perfection is a flaw disguised as control. ~ Terry Tempest Williams, #NFDB
727:Anne could do no more; but her heart prophesied some mischance to damp the perfection of her felicity. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
728:Consciously or unconsciously, we are all striving for perfection. Every being must attain to it. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
729:Don’t worry about achieving. Don’t worry about perfection. Just be there each moment as best you can. ~ Pema Chodron, #NFDB
730:If you'd like to be good at something, the first thing to out the window is the notion of perfection. ~ Scott Berkun, #NFDB
731:Infinite striving after perfection is one's right. It is its own reward. The rest is in the hands of God ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
732:It was about this time I conceiv'd the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
733:Renunciation is an indispensable instrument of our perfection. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Renunciation, #NFDB
734:[Sidenote: Perfection comes only when matter, spirit and intelligence are associated.] Fundamental, ~ John A Widtsoe, #NFDB
735:The Commedia , it must be remembered, is a vision of the progress of man’s soul toward perfection. ~ Dante Alighieri, #NFDB
736:The few dinner parties we’d had were overshadowed by our own insecurities and desire for perfection. ~ Loretta Nyhan, #NFDB
737:True manhood doesn’t mean being perfect ourselves; it means trusting in Christ’s perfection for us. ~ Darrin Patrick, #NFDB
738:When we let God’s grace lead us, instead of perfection, good things get cultivated, right where we are. ~ Lara Casey, #NFDB
739:Accept the present moment and find the perfection that is deeper than any form and untouched by time. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
740:In terms of popular cinema, 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' is as near perfection as I can think of. ~ Peter Mullan, #NFDB
741:In this [union and communion with Him] love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us, that ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
742:It is an absolute and virtually divine perfection to know how to enjoy our being rightfully.
~ Michel de Montaigne,#NFDB
743:It is nature that is driving us towards perfection, and eventually she will bring everyone there. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
744:Similarity of opinion is not always—I think not often—needed for fullness and perfection of love. ~ Elizabeth Gaskell, #NFDB
745:The Krishna of the Gita is perfection and right knowledge personified, but the picture is imaginary. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
746:The supreme divine nature is founded on equality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of Equality, #NFDB
747:You will be a different person after the storm, because the storm will heal you from your perfection. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
748:a certain type of perfection can only be realised through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
749:A certain type of perfection can only be realized through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
750:Adjusting to the requirement for perfection is, I think, the most difficult part of learning to program. ~ Fred Brooks, #NFDB
751:A good artist ought never to allow impatience to overcome his sense of the main end of art - perfection ~ Michelangelo, #NFDB
752:An imaginary perfection is automatically at the same level as I who imagine it neither higher nor lower. ~ Simone Weil, #NFDB
753:A real cook would take pride in the patina, he wouldn’t fuss and fume over the spotless perfection ~ Tanya Anne Crosby, #NFDB
754:Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything. EUGÈNE DELACROIX ~ Julia Cameron, #NFDB
755:I reflected on the fact that no matter how good I aspired to be, I was never going to achieve perfection ~ Patti Smith, #NFDB
756:Joseph made clear, it is not just the mother that has to be released from perfection. It is everything. ~ Mark Epstein, #NFDB
757:Just as an arrow smith shapes an arrow to perfection with fire, so does the wise man shape his mind. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
758:Perfection cannot come without self-knowledge and God-knowledge. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, Above the Gunas, #NFDB
759:Perfection in the work must be the airm but it is only by a very patient effort that this can be obtained ~ The Mother, #NFDB
760:Perfection was a myth.
Beauty was in the flaws." - Tommas de Rossi “Chicago War: The Complete Series ~ Bethany Kris,#NFDB
761:Perfection was a surface thing. The epidermis. Cut a few layers deep, you begin to see some darker shades. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
762:Sin and virtue are a game of resistance we play with God in His efforts to draw us towards perfection. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #NFDB
763:We are rational creatures: Our virtue and perfection is to love reason, or rather to love order. ~ Nicolas Malebranche, #NFDB
764:Absolute perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing to add, but nothing to take away. ~ Antoine de Saint Exup ry, #NFDB
765:As the leaders and decision-makers of this great state, it is our responsibility to strive for perfection. ~ Roy Barnes, #NFDB
766:But democracy isn't a state of perfection. It has to be improved, and that means constant vigilance. ~ Antonio Tabucchi, #NFDB
767:But perfection is a nervy business, because the moment you spot the tiniest flaw it’s ruined. Perfection ~ Lev Grossman, #NFDB
768:Every individual has in himself perfection. It lies within the dark recesses of his physical being. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
769:If you’d like to be good at something, the first thing to go out the window is the notion of perfection. ~ Scott Berkun, #NFDB
770:It’s this lack of self-preservation that has me fixated on this woman. So undeniably damaged to perfection. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
771:Perfection is death,' Anastasia said. 'The world is imperfect, but if it weren't, who would love it? ~ Michael Swanwick, #NFDB
772:Perfection is reachednot when there's nothing to add, but when there's nothing to take away. ~ Antoine de Saint Exupery, #NFDB
773:Progress not perfection... you can't be perfect everything... but you can gain progress on a daily basis. ~ Court McGee, #NFDB
774:Relentlessly pursue perfection knowing we won't catch it, but in the process we'll achieve excellence. ~ Vince Lombardi, #NFDB
775:Seek perfection of character. Be faithful. Endeavor. Respect others. Refrain from violent behaviour. ~ Gichin Funakoshi, #NFDB
776:The perfection of that silent moment was somehow better than a million mouthfulls promising forever. ~ Jessica Gadziala, #NFDB
777:210. "Experiences do not come to us by chance, they are sent to us by Divine Mercy for our own perfection." ~ Abdu l Bah, #NFDB
778:A minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect of perfection ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
779:Charm and perfection hardly cooperate. Charm premises little mistakes which one would like to cover. ~ Catherine Deneuve, #NFDB
780:He had the stamp of perfection: not of a Nietzsche superman but of the ultimate butt-kissing underling. ~ Vaughn Heppner, #NFDB
781:It is practice alone that brings the powers of the mind, as well as those of the body, to their perfection. ~ John Locke, #NFDB
782:Love doesn't demand perfection, but it does ask you to give yourself with less reserve than you'd prefer. ~ Thomas Moore, #NFDB
783:Not about the Japanese, but about moments of perfection. commit it to memory and make good use of it. ~ Melina Marchetta, #NFDB
784:Perfection is too high a goal to strive for. Sometimes working hard brings
more satisfaction in the end. ~ Megan Hart,#NFDB
785:Perhaps the crescent moon smiles in doubt at being told that it is a fragment awaiting perfection. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, #NFDB
786:Practice does not make perfect. It is practice, followed by a night of sleep, that leads to perfection. ~ Matthew Walker, #NFDB
787:Quick and dirty wins the race. Perfection is the enemy of done. Good enough is really effin’ good. Nicholas ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
788:Right now we are here, and nothing can mar our perfection, or steal the joy of this perfect moment. ~ Audrey Niffenegger, #NFDB
789:Somewhere in the world, there were marble statues of gods that didn’t compare to Ryker’s perfection. ~ Charity Parkerson, #NFDB
790:To be more free is the goal of all our efforts, for only in perfect freedom can there be perfection. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
791:True perfection is a bold quest to seek. Only the willing and true of heart will seek the betterment of many. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
792:We must...forge partnerships with those around us, and begin to dismantle the myth of solitary perfection. ~ Debora Spar, #NFDB
793:What do you miss, no longer working at Toyota?” He replied, “No longer discussing perfection with people. ~ Craig Larman, #NFDB
794:Why do we lose our temper? Because we love perfection. Create a little room for imperfection in your life. ~ Eric Weiner, #NFDB
795:Accept the present moment and find the perfection that is deeper than any form and untouched by time. The ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
796:Allow yourself the freedom to step away from perfection because it is only then that you can find success. ~ Chase Jarvis, #NFDB
797:An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's. ~ J D Salinger, #NFDB
798:A pristine landscape was perfection itself; it was only when you added people that everything changed. ~ Armistead Maupin, #NFDB
799:Book cover, 'Reefer Club' Totalitarianism is when people believe they can punish their way to perfection. ~ Newt Gingrich, #NFDB
800:Completion comes not from adding another piece to ourselves but from surrendering our ideas of perfection. ~ Mark Epstein, #NFDB
801:I wasn't thinking so much of music. I wasnt thinking so much of perfection or stardom or any of that stuff. ~ Patti Smith, #NFDB
802:Never change, Evangeline.“ Her smile flashes, quick as a knife. „Of course not. Why change perfection? ~ Victoria Aveyard, #NFDB
803:Perfection is impossible without humility. Why should I strive for perfection, if I am already good enough? ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
804:Perfection was a surface thing. The epidermis. Cut a few layers deep, you begin to see some darker shades. ~ Blake Crouch, #NFDB
805:So, to detract from the perfection of creatures is to detract from the perfection of divine power. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #NFDB
806:The abuse of grace is affectation, as the abuse of the sublime is absurdity; all perfection is nearly a fault. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
807:The perfection of virtue consists in a certain equality of soul and of conduct which should remain un-alterable. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
808:The world... is not imperfect, or on a slow path towards perfection: no, it is perfect in every moment... ~ Hermann Hesse, #NFDB
809:Too old to dream of perfection, perhaps, she had instead discovered a certain delicious appeal in flaws. ~ Steven Erikson, #NFDB
810:Stop hating on yourself for not being perfect. If God wanted perfection, He would have made you an angel. ~ Yasmin Mogahed, #NFDB
811:The man who lives in the bosom of the temptations of the world and attains perfection, is the true hero. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #NFDB
812:The strange, unbeautiful face beautiful in its ugliness; the perfect, beautiful face ugly in its perfection. ~ Eric Maisel, #NFDB
813:What you don’t realize is that the world does not need more perfection. It needs more compassion and empathy. ~ Tessa Dare, #NFDB
814:A minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
815:Each man is perfect by his nature; prophets have manifested this perfection, but it is potential in us. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
816:Every soul is destined to be perfect, and every being, in the end, will attain the state of perfection. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
817:I guess my lack of perfection turned out to be a winning hand. Let that be a lesson for future generations. ~ Dick Van Dyke, #NFDB
818:My melancholy wants to rest in the hiding places and abysses of perfection: that is why I need music. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
819:One of his greatest talents was empathy; no sadist can aspire to perfection without that diagnostic ability. ~ Vernor Vinge, #NFDB
820:Other People's Perfection is a facade we create when we are second guessing ourselves.....Sara to Amanda ~ Lisa Renee Jones, #NFDB
821:Perfection is one thing and enjoyment another; these two having different ends, engage men differently. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
822:You can't make a perfect painting. We can see perfection in our minds. But we can't make a perfect painting. ~ Agnes Martin, #NFDB
823:A country that demands moral perfection in its foreign policy will achieve neither perfection nor security ~ Henry Kissinger, #NFDB
824:A man can do his best only by confidently seeking (and perpetually missing) an unattainable perfection. ~ Ralph Barton Perry, #NFDB
825:but they tell you that if you hate yourself hard enough, you can grab just a tail feather or two of perfection. ~ Lindy West, #NFDB
826:Dismiss perfection as an ache of the greedy, but do not give in to the mass modesty of easy imperfection. ~ Charles Bukowski, #NFDB
827:Essential mentality is idealistic and a seeker after perfection. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #NFDB
828:I am not a perfectionist, but still I seek perfection. I am not a great romantic, but yet I yearn 4 affection ~ Tupac Shakur, #NFDB
829:The perfect I was looking for wasn’t perfection. The perfect I was looking for was the one. And he was you. ~ Kristen Ashley, #NFDB
830:The virtue of a man who has attained to the height of perfection, extends even to a foreknowledge of the future. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
831:To seek the perfection of the warrior's spirit is the only task worthy of our temporariness, our manhood. ~ Carlos Castaneda, #NFDB
832:We judge others according to our image of perfection as well, and naturally they fall short of our expectations. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
833:Young lovers seek perfection. Old lovers sew shreds together and see beauty in the multiplicity of patches. ~ Keith Ferrazzi, #NFDB
834:if you aim for perfection in everything you do, you’ll achieve greater results than you could ever imagine. ~ Brent Schlender, #NFDB
835:I have striven for perfection, it has always eluded me, but I surely had an obligation to make one more try. ~ Giuseppe Verdi, #NFDB
836:I've been coming to Notre Dame since 1957. This place, this campus, is the closest thing there is to perfection. ~ John Grant, #NFDB
837:My books are my tools, and the greater their variety and perfection the greater the help to my literary work. ~ Tryon Edwards, #NFDB
838:Q looked at me as if I was his perfection.
His queen.
He wanted me.
That was all that mattered. ~ Pepper Winters,#NFDB
839:The advancement and perfection of mathematics are ultimately connected with the prosperity of the state. ~ Napol on Bonaparte, #NFDB
840:True good can only be obtained by our effort towards spiritual perfection and this effort is always in our power. ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
841:Achieve some perfection [excellence] yourself, so that you may not fall into sorrow by seeing the perfection in others. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
842:Do not confuse excellence with perfection. The first is possible to achieve, the second is probably not. ~ Neale Donald Walsch, #NFDB
843:Happiness consists in always aspiring perfection, the pause in any level in perfection is the pause of happiness ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
844:If you are unwell, don't ask to be healed, instead ask to be restored to that perfection from which you emanated. ~ Wayne Dyer, #NFDB
845:I move onward, the only direction Can’t be scared to fail in search of perfection.” —JAY Z, “ON TO THE NEXT ONE ~ Ben Horowitz, #NFDB
846:[...] I think no one—human or otherwise—is perfect. If perfection is the standard for normalcy, we all fail. ~ Sylvain Reynard, #NFDB
847:Perfection is not when there is no more to add, but no more to take away. —ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY, pioneer ~ Timothy Ferriss, #NFDB
848:Perhaps it was only human to heap perfection upon another person and then worship the figment that resulted. ~ Josiah Bancroft, #NFDB
849:Spiritual delight in God arises chiefly from his beauty and perfection, not from the blessings he gives us. ~ Jonathan Edwards, #NFDB
850:When people go to hear a spiritual master, they do not go to hear self-deprecation. They go to see perfection. ~ Ming Dao Deng, #NFDB
851:Your message, your ministry, your influence is built from your flaws. People relate to HUMANITY...not perfection. ~ Mandy Hale, #NFDB
852:A country that demands moral perfection in its foreign policy will achieve neither perfection nor security. ~ Henry A Kissinger, #NFDB
853:Civilization will not attain to its perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest. ~ Emile Zola, #NFDB
854:Civilization will not attain to its perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest. ~ mile Zola, #NFDB
855:happy to no longer expect the dead perfection of museum art, but embrace the sweet lovely mess that is real life. ~ Jess Walter, #NFDB
856:Her ardor matched my own. For a time I was eighteen years old once more, in all the perfection of youth. ~ Antonio Di Benedetto, #NFDB
857:He that said it was not good for man to be alone, placed the celibate amongst the inferior states of perfection. ~ Robert Boyle, #NFDB
858:If you expect perfection from people your whole life is a series of disappointments, grumblings, and complaints. ~ Bruce Barton, #NFDB
859:If you seek to carry no other crosses but those whose reason you understand, perfection is not for you. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #NFDB
860:mixing comes natural. i just ought to. not am i mixed to perfection, i have aptitude for art and colors. ~ Rita Williams Garcia, #NFDB
861:Of all religious systems, Islam alone declares that individual perfection is possible in our earthly existence. ~ Muhammad Asad, #NFDB
862:Philosophers say that perfection is unattainable. Lithographers redefine perfection according to SEMI standards. ~ Ken Goldberg, #NFDB
863:Their voices fit together so perfectly, it makes him, for the first time, actually like the concept of perfection. ~ Mary Amato, #NFDB
864:The so-called conscientiousness of the majority of painters is only perfection applied to the art of boring. ~ Eugene Delacroix, #NFDB
865:To have no opinion of ourselves, and to think always well and highly of others, is great wisdom and perfection. ~ Thomas Kempis, #NFDB
866:Adjusting to the requirement for perfection is, I think, the most difficult part of learning to program. ~ Frederick P Brooks Jr, #NFDB
867:Evolution was a random walk across a minefield, not a pre-ordained trajectory, onward and upward toward “perfection. ~ Greg Egan, #NFDB
868:He who consecrates his life to spiritual perfection, cannot be ill-content; for what he desires is always in his power. ~ Pascal, #NFDB
869:It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
870:It is in this power of saying everything, and yet saying nothing too plainly, that the perfection of art consists. ~ John Ruskin, #NFDB
871:Perfection does not consist in macerating or killing the body, but in killing our perverse self-will. ~ Saint Catherine of Siena, #NFDB
872:Perfection may be an island out of reach, but setting your sails toward it makes for a magnificent voyage. ~ Richelle E Goodrich, #NFDB
873:Relationships
don’t come
in packages
of perfection;
relationships come in
packages of potential. ~ Lysa TerKeurst,#NFDB
874:Stop waiting for the perfect day or the perfect moment... Take THIS day, THIS moment and lead it to perfection. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
875:Supreme happiness will be the greatest cause of misery, and the perfection of wisdom the occassion of folly. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
876:...that fitful strain of melancholy which will ever be found inseperable from the perfection of the beautiful. ~ Edgar Allan Poe, #NFDB
877:The novel is too capacious, inclusive, unruly, and personal for perfection. Too long, sometimes too much like life. ~ Ian McEwan, #NFDB
878:The perfection of conversational intercourse is when the breeding of high life is animated by the fervor of genius. ~ Leigh Hunt, #NFDB
879:The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings. ~ Masanobu Fukuoka, #NFDB
880:Works of Art can only be produc'd in Perfection where the Man is either in Affluence or is Above the Care of it. ~ William Blake, #NFDB
881:You can't ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving. ~ Paul Kalanithi, #NFDB
882:You can’t ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving. ~ Paul Kalanithi, #NFDB
883:A lot of disappointed people have been left standing on the street corner waiting for the bus marked Perfection. ~ Donald Kennedy, #NFDB
884:Each time you fall He'll pick you up. He knows your own efforts are never going to bring you anywhere near perfection ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
885:I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence I can reach for; perfection is God's business. ~ Michael J Fox, #NFDB
886:I am learning that perfection isn't what matters. In fact, it's the very thing that can destroy you if you let it. ~ Emily Giffin, #NFDB
887:I'm not going to change my teeth or get a nose job. That manufactured perfection does nothing for me. ~ Rosie Huntington Whiteley, #NFDB
888:It is failure that guides evolution; perfection provides no incentive for improvement, and nothing is perfect. ~ Colson Whitehead, #NFDB
889:None of us have reached the peak of perfection, but it shouldn’t stop anyone from trying to make the climb. ~ Richelle E Goodrich, #NFDB
890:Perfection is progressive, evolutive in Time. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Standards of Conduct and Spiritual Freedom, #NFDB
891:Resilience is not a path to perfection. Instead, we seek to be resilient in the face of life’s imperfect reality. ~ Eric Greitens, #NFDB
892:The pursuit of perfection keeps us from joy, love, peace, hope, and so many of the other gifts God intends for us. ~ Holley Gerth, #NFDB
893:We judge others according to our image of
perfection as well, and naturally they fall short of our expectations. ~ Miguel Ruiz,#NFDB
894:What man really seeks is not perfection which is in the future, but fulfillment which is ever in the present. ~ Nilakanta Sri Ram, #NFDB
895:A perfected community also can exist only by the perfection of its individuals. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #NFDB
896:Eternity gives life to all and sustains all, transforms all on the wheel of dharma - until all attain perfection. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
897:Everybody has to start somewhere. You have your whole future ahead of you. Perfection doesn't happen right away. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
898:greatest enemy of ordinary daily goodness and joy is not imperfection, but the demand for some supposed perfection. ~ Richard Rohr, #NFDB
899:He has to perfection, M. le Comte, the art of living his private life with as much public attention as possible. ~ Dorothy Dunnett, #NFDB
900:Her perfection ridiculed me, highlighting once again that I’d never be good enough. That I’d always be who I was. ~ Pepper Winters, #NFDB
901:I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business. ~ Michael J Fox, #NFDB
902:If I'd been a housemaid I'd have been the best in Australia - I couldn't help it. It's got to be perfection for me. ~ Nellie Melba, #NFDB
903:I like Australia less and less. The hateful newness, the democratic conceit, every man a little pope of perfection. ~ D H Lawrence, #NFDB
904:It’s okay to make a mistake because you’re a human being. There’s no such thing as perfection in the “art” of seduction. ~ Roosh V, #NFDB
905:Not a having and a resting, but a growing and a becoming, is the character of perfection as culture conceives it. ~ Matthew Arnold, #NFDB
906:Not perfection as a final goal, but the ever-enduring process of perfecting, maturing, refining is the aim of living. ~ John Dewey, #NFDB
907:Prakriti has to reveal itself as shakti of the Purusha. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Psychology of Self-Perfection, #NFDB
908:Progress is a tension between the notion of perfection and the notion that striving, not finding, is important. ~ George Zebrowski, #NFDB
909:Striving for perfection is a good and worthwhile effort. Expecting to actually attain perfection can kill you. ~ Laurence Bergreen, #NFDB
910:... the Power who gave a power, by its mere existence, signifies that it must be brought out towards perfection. ~ Margaret Fuller, #NFDB
911:The pride of aiming at more knowledge, and pretending to more perfection, is the cause of Man's error and misery. ~ Alexander Pope, #NFDB
912:We are always in the process of approaching truth and perfection without actually ever reaching truth or perfection. ~ Mark Manson, #NFDB
913:When our purpose is to give credit to God for his love, power, and perfection in all we do, we can serve him properly. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
914:Ah well. You know what they say. Progress, not perfection. That’s why it’s called training. Shall we begin again? ~ Claire Thompson, #NFDB
915:....as the process of individuation unfolds, the ego's former drive toward perfection simultaneously disintegrates. ~ Erich Neumann, #NFDB
916:Everyday that goes by I try to improve myself and searching for something that may even be impossible; perfection. ~ Anderson Silva, #NFDB
917:I don't think, that you can always - you can ever - get your game to perfection, you know. Only if you're Federer. ~ Novak Djokovic, #NFDB
918:I think I would have written five times as much as I've written if I didn't have this terrible sense of perfection. ~ Truman Capote, #NFDB
919:It seems that the creative faculty and the critical faculty cannot exist together in their highest perfection. ~ W Somerset Maugham, #NFDB
920:Life is a moving, breathing thing. We have to be willing to constantly evolve. Perfection is constant transformation. ~ Nia Peeples, #NFDB
921:My power became dependent on the height of my achievements. But perfection may be an illusion and power a liability. ~ Sejal Badani, #NFDB
922:Perfection consists not in doing extraordinary things, but in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. ~ Marie Angelique Arnauld, #NFDB
923:Perfection is a toxic desire. We are not supposed to be perfect. The challenge is not to be perfect, it's to be whole. ~ Jane Fonda, #NFDB
924:Perfectionism is self destructive simply because there's no such thing as perfect. Perfection is an unattainable goal. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
925:Sin and virtue are a game of resistance we play with God in His efforts to draw us towards perfection. ~ Sri Aurobindo.#SriAurobind, #NFDB
926:The feeling of his skin against mine was perfection, and something I'd never experienced before. I felt worshipped. ~ Alice Clayton, #NFDB
927:The highest summit of spiritual perfection is knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. ~ A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, #NFDB
928:We get a little further from perfection each year. I think that's called character. I think that's just how it goes. ~ Ani DiFranco, #NFDB
929:Wisdom is not a question of learning facts with the mind; it can only be acquired through perfection of living. ~ Nilakanta Sri Ram, #NFDB
930:An absolutely perfect world would be a deadly boring place. There’s some kind of perfection in slight imperfection. ~ Sahara Sanders, #NFDB
931:Golf is a search for perfection, for balance. It's about meditation and concentration. You have to use hand and brain. ~ Celine Dion, #NFDB
932:History, at least in its ideal state of perfection, is a compound of poetry and philosophy. ~ Nathan Rothschild 1st Baron Rothschild, #NFDB
933:I demand perfection in what I do, and I practice very hard before I give a concert-sometimes three to six hours a day. ~ Nina Simone, #NFDB
934:It is no great advantage to possess a quick wit, if it is not correct; the perfection is not speed but uniformity. ~ Luc de Clapiers, #NFDB
935:Morality is the struggle of the bound will to get free and is the proof that we have come from perfection. . . . ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
936:One who is not self-ruler, cannot be master of his surroundings. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of Equality, #NFDB
937:Perfectionism is self destructive simply because there's no such thing as perfect. Perfection is an unattainable goal. ~ Brene Brown, #NFDB
938:The one who gets you is the one who makes you forget you ever desired anything as dull and ridiculous as perfection. ~ Carla Neggers, #NFDB
939:There was a perfection to the moment that made Sienna think: Yes, this is it. This is who we're meant to be together. ~ Nalini Singh, #NFDB
940:To take no account of oneself, but always to think well and highly of others is the highest wisdom and perfection. ~ Thomas a Kempis, #NFDB
941:When the mind, through the quality of extreme purity, merges in the Heart, it will attain perfection as peace. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
942:why can't we control our anger? because we love perfection. make a little room for imperfection in our lives. ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, #NFDB
943:Yoga is the unravelling of the knot of Life’s difficulty. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Psychology of Self-Perfection, #NFDB
944:You can’t ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving.” It ~ Paul Kalanithi, #NFDB
945:A man must be strong enough to mold the peculiarity of his imperfections into the perfection of his peculiarities. ~ Walther Rathenau, #NFDB
946:But I am learning that perfection isn't what matters. In fact, it's the very thing that can destroy you if you let it. ~ Emily Giffin, #NFDB
947:Don't imagine that your perfection lies in accumulating or possessing external things. Your affection is inside of you. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
948:Don't wait for perfection before you start. Start somewhere so you can have something tangible you can work to perfect. ~ Simon Sinek, #NFDB
949:I think perfection is ugly. Somewhere in the things humans make, I want to see scars, failure, disorder, distortion. ~ Yohji Yamamoto, #NFDB
950:It is perfect to be imperfect, because perfection is made up of many imperfections put together that makes it perfect. ~ Yasmin Ahmad, #NFDB
951:JOB28.3 He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all perfection: the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
952:Of all the items on the menu, soup is that which exacts the most delicate perfection and the strictest attention. ~ Auguste Escoffier, #NFDB
953:There is no such thing as perfection, only the relentless, thirsty matching of an organism to its environment. ~ Siddhartha Mukherjee, #NFDB
954:We all parent the best we can. Being human, we're ambivalent. We want perfection for our babies, but we also need sleep. ~ Erica Jong, #NFDB
955:authenticity ministers far more than put-togetherness. And vulnerability builds a far stronger bond than perfection. ~ Michele Cushatt, #NFDB
956:I do not believe that I am a perfectionist one bit. I truly believe that perfection is something that no one can achieve. ~ Aamir Khan, #NFDB
957:[L]iberty is the perfection of civil society; but still authority must be acknowledged essential to its very existence... ~ David Hume, #NFDB
958:Likewise the subjection of woman to man results from the perfection of the male and the imperfection of the female sex. ~ Peter Kreeft, #NFDB
959:One should never think that man can reach perfection, he can only aim at completion--not to be perfect but to be complete. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
960:Perfection in asana is achieved when the effort to perform it becomes effortless and the infinite being within is reached. ~ Patanjali, #NFDB
961:Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. ~ Antoine de Saint Exup ry, #NFDB
962:The beginning of wisdom, perfection and beatitude is the vision of the One. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad, Self-Realisation, #index, #NFDB
963:The highest perfection of human life consists in the mind of man being detached from care, for the sake of God. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #NFDB
964:The true Mason takes full responsibility for the condition of his character and ever strives for its perfection. ~ William Howard Taft, #NFDB
965:We want all possible things made actual, the perpetual possibility of perfection, the best of all futures all at once. ~ Dexter Palmer, #NFDB
966:Her features were exquisite perfection, carved by nature with obvious care and never altered by the harshness of life. ~ Lorraine Heath, #NFDB
967:I don't think I've reached perfection by any stretch of the imagination, but maybe someday I'll become a perfectionist. ~ Douglas Booth, #NFDB
968:One minute was enough, Tyler said, a person had to work hard for it, but a minute of perfection was worth the effort. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
969:Passion drives perfection. The highest achievers in any field are those who do it because of passion, not duty or profit. ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
970:Purification is an essential means towards self-perfection. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of the Mental Being, #NFDB
971:The perfect human being is all human beings put together, it is a collective, it is all of us together that make perfection. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
972:The perfection of a thing consists in its essence; there are perfect criminals, as there are men of perfect probity. ~ Mazo de la Roche, #NFDB
973:You could not measure yourself against the dead, they retained their perfection while your flesh got weaker and weaker. ~ Philipp Meyer, #NFDB
974:Asanas bring perfection in body, beauty in form, grace, strength, compactness, and the hardness and brilliance of a diamond. ~ Patanjali, #NFDB
975:In all her twisted perfection she had made me fall helplessly in love with her. A life without her in it seemed pointless. ~ Abbi Glines, #NFDB
976:Never shall a man attain to the perfect love of God who has not loved to perfection some creature in this world. ~ Marguerite de Navarre, #NFDB
977:The purpose of education is to give to the body and to the soul all the beauty and all the perfection of which they are capable. ~ Plato, #NFDB
978:The ultimate aim of Karate lies not in victory or defeat, but in the perfection of the character of its participants. ~ Gichin Funakoshi, #NFDB
979:All perfection hath some imperfection joined to it in this life, and all our power of sight is not without some darkness. ~ Thomas Kempis, #NFDB
980:As you consider yourself to be the body, you see the world as external and the imperfections appear to you. God is perfection. ~ Maharshi, #NFDB
981:God has this...hobby. He creates perfection. This world is not perfect. We have to learn to separate illusions from reality. ~ Bill Hicks, #NFDB
982:I am going for a level of perfection that is only mine... Most of the pleasure is in getting the last little piece perfect. ~ Chuck Close, #NFDB
983:I have begun to wonder if perfection might be its own flaw. Thought perhaps a flaw can contribute to perfection." -Levana ~ Marissa Meyer, #NFDB
984:In the end, perfection is just a concept - an impossibility we use to torture ourselves and that contradicts nature. ~ Guillermo del Toro, #NFDB
985:I think what makes people fascinating is conflict, it's drama, it's the human condition. Nobody wants to watch perfection. ~ Nicolas Cage, #NFDB
986:Perfection is impossible. Trying to do your best is important, but loving yourself and loving others should come first. ~ AnnaSophia Robb, #NFDB
987:Perfection is very difficult to achieve, and perfection was what I wanted in McDonald's. Everything else was secondary for me. ~ Ray Kroc, #NFDB
988:Purification is not complete till it brings about liberation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of the Mental Being, #NFDB
989:Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing else but reasonThe law, which is perfection of reason. ~ Edward Coke, #NFDB
990:When a man is perfect, he sees perfection in others. When he sees imperfection, it is his own mind projecting itself. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
991:Artists strive for perfection. But what they often fail to see is that the beauty, the humanity, lies within the flaws. ~ Elizabeth Isaacs, #NFDB
992:As creators, our pursuit of perfection might be misguided, particularly if it comes at the expense of the things that matter. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
993:At the beginning and the middle and the end of all things, there is only the perfection of enlightenment that is nirvana. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
994:it’s not about immediate perfection. It’s about learning something over time: confronting a challenge and making progress. ~ Carol S Dweck, #NFDB
995:My intent is simply to know my material so well that I'm very comfortable with it. Confidence, not perfection, is the goal. ~ Scott Berkun, #NFDB
996:She was never satisfied with anything less than perfection, but she was no grind. She was too interested in people. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin, #NFDB
997:The desire for perfection is like a pit of wet coal silt: it will grab your boots like iron hands and never let you go. 13. ~ Chuck Wendig, #NFDB
998:The kingdom of heaven is already in existence if we will have it, that perfection is already in man if he will see it. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
999:The point is that if the love object is divine perfection, then one’s own self is elevated by joining one’s destiny to it. ~ Ernest Becker, #NFDB
1000:There is nothing that isn't perfect, the only reason we don't see that perfection constantly is because we lack humility. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
1001:The true purpose of life is the perfection of humanity through individual effort, under the guidance of God's inspiration. ~ David O McKay, #NFDB
1002:The universe has no mind and that’s why it can never reach perfection! Perfection is the art of meticulous high-mind! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
1003:The whole mass of humanity . . . marches constantly, though slowly, toward greater perfection. ~ Anne Robert Jacques Turgot Baron de Laune, #NFDB
1004:The world, my friend Govinda, is not imperfect, or on a slow path
towards perfection: no, it is perfect in every moment ~ Hermann Hesse,#NFDB
1005:A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1006:All the goodness, beauty, and perfection of a human being belong to the one who knows how to recognize these qualities. ~ Georgette Leblanc, #NFDB
1007:. . . but I am learning that perfection isn't what matters. In fact, it's the very thing that can destroy you if you let it. ~ Emily Giffin, #NFDB
1008:Clients don’t expect perfection from the service providers they hire, but they do expect honesty and transparency. There ~ Patrick Lencioni, #NFDB
1009:It’s a well-known fact that professional organizers who have a three-year-old and a toddler get an exemption from perfection. ~ Sara Rosett, #NFDB
1010:Jonathan is that brilliant little fire that burns within us all, that lives only for those moments when we reach perfection. ~ Richard Bach, #NFDB
1011:Old Friend The Witch and the Werecat Of Reading and Plots Thieves in the Castle A Costly Mistake Vision of Perfection ~ Christopher Paolini, #NFDB
1012:Perfection is a myth. I’m not remotely perfect. If you love someone, you have to be willing to accept the flaws as well. ~ Kristen Callihan, #NFDB
1013:To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation. ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
1014:To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation. ~ Fran ois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
1015:To rob God of nothing; to refuse Him nothing; to require of Him nothing; this is great perfection. ~ Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon, #NFDB
1016:Why should God’s perfection be based on having an unchanging nature?” I asked. “Isn’t flexibility more perfect than stasis? ~ Sue Monk Kidd, #NFDB
1017:Articulate words are a harsh clamor and dissonance. When man arrives at his highest perfection, he will again be dumb. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne, #NFDB
1018:Because I could see the truth. Sometimes it's there in the flaws.
And other times it's there in too much perfection. ~ Karen Marie Moning,#NFDB
1019:Despite her love of pineapple on pizza, Lark was perfection. I felt like a love starved moth drawn to the light of her smile. ~ Bijou Hunter, #NFDB
1020:Even more, in the created thing, is a perfection that she exists; since the greatest of all imperfections is, not to exist. ~ Baruch Spinoza, #NFDB
1021:Even the elephant carries but a small trunk on his journeys. The perfection of traveling is to travel without baggage. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
1022:Everything, if you could only see it clearly enough, like this, is beautiful and complete. Everything has its own perfection. ~ Joan Lindsay, #NFDB
1023:I have served Almighty God as best as I can. I have failed at times, but "Perfection is the palace in which God alone lives. ~ Saladin Ahmed, #NFDB
1024:... it is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, #NFDB
1025:It is necessary for the perfection of human society that there should be men who devote their lives to contemplation. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #NFDB
1026:Ive seen the majestic beauty of nature and the overwhelming perfection of it. To me, theres nothing closer to God than that. ~ Cote de Pablo, #NFDB
1027:No good work whatever can be perfect, and the demand for perfection is always a sign of a misunderstanding of the ends of art. ~ John Ruskin, #NFDB
1028:Our happiness consists in sharing the happiness of God, the perfection of His unlimited freedom, the perfection of His love. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
1029:Perfection is not attainable,” he used to say, quoting Vince Lombardi. “But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence. ~ Kathryn Perez, #NFDB
1030:So I learned two things that night, and the next day, from him: the perfection of a moment, and the fleeting nature of it. ~ Margaret George, #NFDB
1031:The actor does not live, he plays. He remains cold toward the object of his acting but his art must be perfection. ~ Konstantin Stanislavski, #NFDB
1032:The very first necessity for spiritual perfection is a perfect equality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of Equality, #NFDB
1033:To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues. ~ John Locke, #NFDB
1034:Virtue is not vouchsafed to a soul unless that soul has been trained and taught, and by unremitting practice brought to perfection. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
1035:"Accept the present moment and find the perfection that is deeper than any form and untouched by time." ~ Eckhart Tolle #acceptance #presence, #NFDB
1036:All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the base of our splendid failure to do the impossible. ~ William Faulkner, #NFDB
1037:Alternatively, perfection might be regarded as the absence of all unnecessary things, and the pleasures of an ascetic life. ~ Jordan Peterson, #NFDB
1038:But no matter what gifts we're given, we can never apply them to perfection because we're human, after all, and given to error. ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
1039:every fall, even if it be very grave and repeated, serves us always and only as a little step towards a higher perfection. ~ Maximilian Kolbe, #NFDB
1040:La perfection est atteinte, non pas lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à ajouter, mais lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à retirer. ~ Antoine de Saint Exup ry, #NFDB
1041:More progress results from the violent execution of an imperfect plan than the perfection of a plan to violently execute. ~ Hubert H Humphrey, #NFDB
1042:Mozart, striving for perfection, wrote the same symphony forty-one times. In his case, it worked. He wrote a perfect symphony. ~ Edward Abbey, #NFDB
1043:Purification and freedom are the indispensable antecedents of perfection. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Elements of Perfection, #NFDB
1044:that it is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, #NFDB
1045:To be ambitious of true honor, of the true glory and perfection of our natures, is the very principle and incentive of virtue. ~ Walter Scott, #NFDB
1046:To delude ourselves into believing we are perfect or that perfection exists at any level is an injustice to who we really are. ~ Sarah Noffke, #NFDB
1047:We have this idea of perfection that is so unrealistic. We are our own worst enemy. No one is noticing that little scar. ~ Emmanuelle Chriqui, #NFDB
1048:And you could try to stop pretending to be so fucking perfect. Maybe then people will stop expecting perfection all the time ~ Santino Hassell, #NFDB
1049:False notes [on the piano] are human. Why does everything have to be perfect? You know, perfection itself is imperfection. ~ Vladimir Horowitz, #NFDB
1050:For every one step that you take in the pursuit of higher knowledge, take three steps in the perfection of your own character ~ Rudolf Steiner, #NFDB
1051:I have begun to wonder if perfection might be its own flaw.” She smirked. “Though perhaps a flaw can contribute to perfection. ~ Marissa Meyer, #NFDB
1052:I'm like a shark, right at the top of the food chain. I take what I want, when I want. I truly am the reflection of perfection. ~ Ricky Martin, #NFDB
1053:Italian men are beautiful in the same way as French women, which is to say - no detail spared in the quest for perfection. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, #NFDB
1054:It seemed to him that the hand was not able to attain to the perfection of art in carrying out the things which he imagined. ~ Walter Isaacson, #NFDB
1055:Let us then take heart that the mark of a true follower of Jesus is not yet perfection but rather unrelenting battle against sin. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
1056:Man is, in short, ‘perfectible’—meaning continually improvable rather than capable of actually reaching absolute perfection. ~ Michael Shermer, #NFDB
1057:Only God is perfect! None of us comes within a country, not a country mile, but a whole country, in proximity to perfection. ~ James MacDonald, #NFDB
1058:On this sacred path of Radical Acceptance, rather than striving for perfection, we discover how to love ourselves into wholeness. ~ Tara Brach, #NFDB
1059:Perfection comes by renunciation of desires and surrender to a higher Will. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II, Practical Concerns in Work, #NFDB
1060:Perfection in an asana is achieved when the effort to achieve it becomes effortless, and the infinite being within is reached. ~ Mark Stephens, #NFDB
1061:Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretence. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
1062:There is an inner perfection
the same for everyone.
The psyche may go through the motions,
but it’s journey is done. ~ Ivan M Granger,#NFDB
1063:This is what contentment must feel like. Warm and comforting. Lazily gliding through your veins and every nerve ending. Perfection ~ Ker Dukey, #NFDB
1064:We will be relentless in our pursuit for perfection. We won't ever be perfect - but in the process we will achieve greatness. ~ Vince Lombardi, #NFDB
1065:"A human relationship is not based on differentiation and perfection . . . [but] on what is weak, helpless and in need of support." ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
1066:Alternatively, perfection might be regarded as the absence of all unnecessary things, and the pleasures of an ascetic life. ~ Jordan B Peterson, #NFDB
1067:A poet knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
1068:Be wary of someone who has never failed, or seem to have no faults... Too good to be true usually is. Perfection hides something. ~ Henry Cloud, #NFDB
1069:By definition, love made you better than good enough; it redefined perfection to include your traits, instead of excluding them. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
1070:Enlightenment is playing every ball of life with perfection, sincerity and love without perturb by the blame or praise of the world. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
1071:If you don't succeed in meditation, practice Japa. Japa leads to perfection. One attains perfection through Japa. ~ Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, #NFDB
1072:it is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection. So now ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, #NFDB
1073:Learn the difference between striving for excellence and striving for perfection. The first is attainable; the second is not. ~ Douglas Merrill, #NFDB
1074:The greatest enemy of ordinary daily goodness and joy is not imperfection, but the demand for some supposed perfection or order. ~ Richard Rohr, #NFDB
1075:You'll see more and more perfection of that - computer as servant. But the next thing is going to be computer as a guide or agent. ~ Steve Jobs, #NFDB
1076:Art finds her own perfection within, and not outside of, herself. She is not to be judged by any external standard of resemblance. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
1077:A soul cannot be broken. It is not a teacup. If you have suffered abuse of any kind, know that perfection exists untarnished within you. ~ Jewel, #NFDB
1078:For each of them, the most important thing in living was to reach out and touch perfection in that which they most loved to do... ~ Richard Bach, #NFDB
1079:I can’t help it.” I sighed. “One can never help being born into perfection.” I fanned my face as if being so pretty was exhausting. ~ Kiera Cass, #NFDB
1080:In the process of listening for mysterious voices and expressing the wonder that comes is a magic akin to the perfection of Tao. ~ Ming Dao Deng, #NFDB
1081:I want to mirror your image in its fullest perfection. Never be blind or too old to uphold your weighty wavering reflection ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, #NFDB
1082:Maybe it's not just about finding the perfect friend, partner, or tribe, but finding the perfection in those you've already found. ~ Mike Dooley, #NFDB
1083:Often, they said, it is the most talented engineers who have the hardest time learning when to stop striving for perfection. West ~ Tracy Kidder, #NFDB
1084:Perfection is always infinite. We are the Infinite already. You and I, and all beings, are trying to manifest that infinity. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
1085:The characteristic law of Spirit is self-existent perfection and immutable infinity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #NFDB
1086:Your desire for perfection is the cause of anger. Leave room for imperfection. Perfection in action is almost impossible. ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, #NFDB
1087:All of our holy fathers knew this and all with one accord teach that perfection in holiness can be achieved only through humility. ~ John Cassian, #NFDB
1088:Beauty is not in outer perfection but rather in the amount of light we allow to shine through the very thing obscuring our souls. ~ Lynn Robinson, #NFDB
1089:Life isn't about perfection. There is no rule book. Life has many different chapters, and every chapter deserves celebrating. ~ Reese Witherspoon, #NFDB
1090:Perfection is no more a requisite to art than to heroes. Frigidaires are perfect. Beauty limps. My frigidaire has had to be replaced. ~ Ned Rorem, #NFDB
1091:Qualities I sought in a scientific theory were naturalness, inner perfection and logical simplicity from an aesthetic approach. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
1092:The person who wishes to attain human perfection should study logic first, next mathematics, then physics, and, lastly, metaphysics. ~ Maim nides, #NFDB
1093:To do as one would be done by, and to love one's neighbour as oneself, constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality ~ John Stuart Mill, #NFDB
1094:Because we are made in God’s image (Gen. 1:26) and have the “mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16), our normal state is one of perfection. ~ Caroline Leaf, #NFDB
1095:Both the artist and the lover know that perfection is not loveable. It is the clumsiness of a fault that makes a person lovable. ~ Joseph Campbell, #NFDB
1096:Heaven will be the perfection we've always longed for. All the things that made Earth unlovely and tragic will be absent in heaven. ~ Billy Graham, #NFDB
1097:He spoke as a disappointed man, for whom perfection existed only as something remembered—and then regretted, because it was lost. ~ Eleanor Catton, #NFDB
1098:I am little concerned with beauty or perfection. I don't care for the great centuries. All I care about is life, struggle, intensity. ~ Emile Zola, #NFDB
1099:I am little concerned with beauty or perfection. I don't care for the great centuries. All I care about is life, struggle, intensity. ~ mile Zola, #NFDB
1100:It had been a perfect fit, but perfection can be an illusion. I stared at my naked finger, the band of pale skin pink and tender. ~ Kerry Lonsdale, #NFDB
1101:Moved by the perfection of His holy love, God in Christ substituted Himself for us sinners. That is the heart of the cross of Christ. ~ John Stott, #NFDB
1102:My job was not to exist at all. Though too much alive to play it to perfection, I feel I performed a fairly adept imitation. ~ Catherine Ryan Hyde, #NFDB
1103:O Lord, self-renunciation is not the work of one day, nor children's sport; yea, rather in this word is included all perfection. ~ Thomas a Kempis, #NFDB
1104:Original sin is that thing about man which makes him capable of conceiving of his own perfection and incapable of achieving it. ~ Reinhold Niebuhr, #NFDB
1105:The gunas have to be transcended if we would arrive at spiritual perfection. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Liberation of the Nature, #NFDB
1106:The more you study, the more you subsequently know; naturally, the more you know, the nearer you get to perfection as a journalist. ~ Jack Kerouac, #NFDB
1107:There is still that singular perfection, and it's perfect in part because it seemed, at the time, so clearly to promise more. ~ Michael Cunningham, #NFDB
1108:To fight and conquer one hundred times is not the perfection of attainment, for the supreme art is to subdue the enemy without fighting. ~ Sun Tzu, #NFDB
1109:Trying to do it all and expecting that it all can be done exactly right is a recipe for disappointment. Perfection is the enemy. ~ Sheryl Sandberg, #NFDB
1110:By definition, love made you better than good enough; it redefined perfection to include your traits, instead of excluding them. All ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
1111:fiction writing can be a blast when you set aside debilitating notions of perfection and just dive headlong into the creative process. ~ Chris Baty, #NFDB
1112:For them it’s not about immediate perfection. It’s about learning something over time: confronting a challenge and making progress. ~ Carol S Dweck, #NFDB
1113:I accept now that the point of life is not to reach perfection but to befriend the fact that human beings are works in progress. ~ Elizabeth Lesser, #NFDB
1114:It was not the size of things that mattered but their perfection, it was not what one had that was important, but what one made. ~ Elizabeth Goudge, #NFDB
1115:Miracles' rely on their observer’s ignorance. 'Perfection' relies on the observer’s failure to notice the observed’s defects. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana, #NFDB
1116:Such indeed was her image, that neither could Shakespeare describe, nor Hogarth paint, nor Clive act, a fury in higher perfection. ~ Henry Fielding, #NFDB
1117:Ultimately, we measure ourselves against our own ideas of idealism and perfection, and we don't always come very close to them. ~ Joyce Carol Oates, #NFDB
1118:Would you be in any way offended if I said that you seem to me to be in every way the visible personification of absolute perfection? ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
1119:You will come closer and closer to perfection, but you will never be perfect. Perfection is not the way of existence. Growth is the way. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
1120:An action is the perfection and publication of thought. A right action seems to fill the eye, and to be related to all nature. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1121:As you become more aware of your own imperfections, you simultaneously become more aware of the overall perfection of the universe. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
1122:Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. —Antoine de Saint-Exup ~ Timothy Ferriss, #NFDB
1123:This is moral perfection: to live each day as though it were the last; to be tranquil, sincere, yet not indifferent to one's fate. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
1124:It was that—her reticence, he decided. That was what elevated her from woman to goddess, from merely stylish to perfection itself. ~ Melanie Benjamin, #NFDB
1125:My confidence is in the idea that I may be wrong on this or that. No man in this life should ever have to bear the burden of perfection. ~ Criss Jami, #NFDB
1126:Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved. ~ W Somerset Maugham, #NFDB
1127:the American people must mature. We are an adolescent lot, expecting solutions to insoluble problems and perfection in our leaders. ~ George Friedman, #NFDB
1128:To love another human in all of her splendor and imperfect perfection , it is a magnificent task...tremendous and foolish and human. ~ Louise Erdrich, #NFDB
1129:Wholeness is the goal [of life], but wholeness does not mean perfection. It means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life. ~ Parker J Palmer, #NFDB
1130:You're mistaking love for perfection," I said. "Real love when it's there? It's just there. It's a metal folding chair. ~ Marisha Pessl, #NFDB
1131:as you begin to eliminate your need for perfection in all areas of your life, you'll begin to discover the perfection in life itself ~ Richard Carlson, #NFDB
1132:Desire is the impurity of the Prana, the life-principle, and its chain of bondage. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of Equality, #NFDB
1133:Ever since my childhood, I was haunted by the search for perfection. An imperfectly cut paper literally made me ill. I would guillotine it. ~ Hans Arp, #NFDB
1134:Ours is a perfect world--but perfection does not linger in one place. It is a firefly, by its very nature elusive and unpredictable. ~ Neal Shusterman, #NFDB
1135:Perfection was a surface thing. The epidermis. Cut a few layers deep, you begin to see some darker shades. Cut to the bone—pitch black. ~ Blake Crouch, #NFDB
1136:The lotus of the eternal knowledge and the eternal perfection is a bud closed and folded up within us.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, [T5],#NFDB
1137:The result of law inviolate is perfection–right–negative happiness. The result of law violate is imperfection, wrong, positive pain. ~ Edgar Allan Poe, #NFDB
1138:To live each day as though one's last, never flustered, never apathetic, never attitudinizing - here is the perfection of character. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
1139:Advance, and never halt, for advancing is perfection. Advance and do not fear the thorns in the path, for they draw only corrupt blood. ~ Khalil Gibran, #NFDB
1140:An attentive scrutiny of thy being will reveal to thee that it is one with the very essence of absolute perfection. ~ Buddhist Writings in the Japanese, #NFDB
1141:It is always some illusion that creates disillusion, especially in the young, for whom the only alternative to perfection is cynicism. ~ Jacques Barzun, #NFDB
1142:Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem. ~ W Somerset Maugham, #NFDB
1143:The Emperor tells us that civilization will only achieve perfection when the last stone of the last church falls upon the last priest. ~ Graham McNeill, #NFDB
1144:The more a man loves, the more he suffers. The sum of possible grief for each soul is in proportion to its degree of perfection. ~ Henri Frederic Amiel, #NFDB
1145:The potentiality of perfection outweighs actual contradictions... Existence in itself is here to prove that it cannot be an evil. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, #NFDB
1146:There is no better news than that the God who makes the demand for perfection also meets the demand for perfection on our behalf. ~ Tullian Tchividjian, #NFDB
1147:Truth is so great a perfection, that if God would render himself visible to men, he would choose light for his body and truth for his soul ~ Pythagoras, #NFDB
1148:What's come to perfection perishes. Things learned on earth we shall practice in heaven; Works done least rapidly Art most cherishes. ~ Robert Browning, #NFDB
1149:Americans and their quest for perfection,” Luc said. “One day you will learn it’s not achievable. It’s not even something you want. So, ~ Michelle Gable, #NFDB
1150:Are you still to learn that the end and perfection of our victories is to avoid the vices and infirmities of those whom we subdue? ~ Alexander the Great, #NFDB
1151:If you had a smattering of education you would realize that perfection of form can give validity to any sentiment, however preposterous. ~ Margery Sharp, #NFDB
1152:Il semble que la perfection soit atteinte non quand il n'y a plus rien à ajouter, mais quand il n'y a plus rien à retrancher. ~ Antoine de Saint Exup ry, #NFDB
1153:Il semble que la perfection soit atteinte non quand il n’y a plus rien à ajouter, mais quand il n’y a plus rien à retrancher. ~ Antoine de Saint Exup ry, #NFDB
1154:I'm obsessed with perfection. I want to work. I don't want to stop. I want to take advantage and make myself the best possible me that I can be. ~ Drake, #NFDB
1155:perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away ~ Antoine de Saint Exup ry, #NFDB
1156:Quality and perfection are achieved with time. You do not create a perfect painting or a perfect poem by hurrying. Time is always coming. ~ Satish Kumar, #NFDB
1157:The perfection of learning is to know God in such a way that, though you realize he is knowable, yet you know him as indescribable. ~ Hilary of Poitiers, #NFDB
1158:The perfection of man lies in the unfolding of the ever-perfect Spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Necessity of the Spiritual Transformation, #NFDB
1159:To find peace in the presence of the faultless is the desire of the one who seeks excellence; and is not nothingness a form of perfection? ~ Thomas Mann, #NFDB
1160:I have a belief that life isn't about balance, because balance is perfection Rather, it's about catching the ball before it hits the floor. ~ Carol Bartz, #NFDB
1161:In ancient times, people said that imperfect moves to becoming perfect. Are these words vain? No! Truly, by gaining Unity you come to Perfection! ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1162:Individual perfection and liberation are not the whole sense of God’s intention in the world. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #NFDB
1163:In short, if we adhere to the standard of perfection in all our endeavors, we are left with nothing but mathematics and the White Album. ~ Daniel Gilbert, #NFDB
1164:I reflected that he was one of those people who were just decidedly too good looking; his perfection shouldn’t have been possible in nature. ~ Penny Reid, #NFDB
1165:It is however, reasonable, to have perfection in our eye; that we may always advance towards it, though we know it never can be reached. ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
1166:I will control myself, or go inside.
I will not flaw perfection with my grief.
Handsome, this day: no matter who has died. ~ Edna St Vincent Millay,#NFDB
1167:Man's salvation and perfection consists of doing the will of God which he must have in view in all things, and at every moment of his life. ~ Saint Peter, #NFDB
1168:No perfection... more experience. As soon as you reach perfection it is not perfect anymore because you want to try something different. ~ Dolores Cannon, #NFDB
1169:Not by refraining from action does man attain freedom from action. Not by mere renunciation does he attain supreme perfection. ~ Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa, #NFDB
1170:Perfection is the absolute right word. And you could never ruin it," she said in a low, calm voice. "Not when it was perfect because of you. ~ Laura Kaye, #NFDB
1171:Personality is a composition of Nature,—but a mental Person, manomaya puruṣa. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of the Mental Being, #NFDB
1172:Progress is the goal, the ideal is the type.
What is this ideal? It is God.
Ideal, absolute, perfection, infinity: identical words. ~ Victor Hugo,#NFDB
1173:Replace perfectionism with persistence. After all, in recovery and life, it's persistence that really pays off. Forget about perfection. ~ Jenni Schaefer, #NFDB
1174:Seeking perfection, Ross . . . in life it’s dangerous, for it makes the less than perfect seem less than enough. Time is not indefinite. ~ Winston Graham, #NFDB
1175:the most beautiful moment I’ve had in my entire life. She is not one lost girl. We are not two best friends. We are one trinity of perfection. ~ J A Huss, #NFDB
1176:To cherish perfection is to commit creative suicide, and every true artist knows that a masterpiece is an accident that should be burned. ~ Barry Hughart, #NFDB
1177:Vegetarianism serves as the criterion by which we know that the pursuit of moral perfection on the part of humanity is genuine and sincere. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
1178:We shouldn't be intimidated by someone else's idea of perfection if it will prevent us from taking steps we actively want to take. ~ Jonathan Safran Foer, #NFDB
1179:We worship perfection because we can't have it; if we had it, we would reject it. Perfection is inhuman, because humanity is imperfect. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
1180:A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. ~ Antoine de Saint Exupery, #NFDB
1181:Film is so much to do with perfection and how differently you can feel about someone at the beginning of the film and the end of the film. ~ Emma Thompson, #NFDB
1182:How happy is it for us, that the admiration of others should depend so much more on their ignorance than our perfection! ~ Fulke Greville 1st Baron Brooke, #NFDB
1183:It is certifiably insane. The only thing worse than this unattainable standard is the guilt that follows when perfection proves impossible. ~ Jen Hatmaker, #NFDB
1184:March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path. ~ Khalil Gibran, #NFDB
1185:Perfection is almost an illness with me, but sometimes I have moments where everything is absolutely clear and you can feel, rather than think. ~ Tom Ford, #NFDB
1186:Religion becomes a state of mind achievable in almost any activity of life, if this activity is raised to a suitable level of perfection. ~ Abraham Maslow, #NFDB
1187:Takes a lot of tries before you hit perfection.” He paused to reconsider that. “Well, except for my parents. They got it on the first try. ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
1188:The perfection of conversation is not to play a regular sonata, but, like the AEolian harp, to await the inspiration of the passing breeze. ~ Edmund Burke, #NFDB
1189:There is every reason to believe that our system will soon attain the highest degree of perfection of which human institutions are capable. ~ James Monroe, #NFDB
1190:The wisdom of divine rule appears not in the perfection but in the improvement of the world... History is the true demonstration of Religion. ~ Lord Acton, #NFDB
1191:This search for perfection - which is a search for divinity - is nothing more than the failure to accept our existence the way it is. ~ Bernadette Roberts, #NFDB
1192:Twenty minutes’ work after breakfast every morning keeps the flag going to perfection. You have nothing to complain of, have you?” “Your ~ Agatha Christie, #NFDB
1193:We're not called to perfection but to faithfulness. Sinlessness in this life isn't possible, but obedience unto godliness is. Sanctification. ~ Steve Camp, #NFDB
1194:A lot of people from my generation of music are so focused on playing things correctly or to perfection that they're stuck in that safe place. ~ Dave Grohl, #NFDB
1195:I'm sorry I don't conform to your standards of feminine perfection, but I'm quite happy the way I am—anyway, I wasn't born to be buxom. ~ Lindsay Armstrong, #NFDB
1196:Perfection all the time would drive them mad. For every perfect little town, there’s something ugly underneath. No dream without the nightmare. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1197:Quality involves living the message of the possibility of perfection and infinite improvement, living it day in and day out, decade by decade. ~ Tom Peters, #NFDB
1198:Quality is not an absolute measure. It doesn't mean 'deluxeness' or 'perfection'. It means keeping the promise the customer wants you to make. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
1199:Savages we call them, because their manners differ from ours, which we think the perfection of civility; they think the same of theirs. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
1200:the goal at this stage is not U/I perfection. It is to test a problem. It could be done with a sock-puppet if the test were set up correctly. ~ Steve Blank, #NFDB
1201:the perfection of a filing system beside which all other filing systems should sink into oblivion. She dreamed of such a system at night. ~ Agatha Christie, #NFDB
1202:This toxic striving for perfection is a female thing. How many men obsess about being perfect? For men, generally, good enough is good enough. ~ Jane Fonda, #NFDB
1203:we don’t live in Plato’s Commonwealth, and when we can’t have perfection we ought to comply with the measure that is least remote from it. ~ Bernard Bailyn, #NFDB
1204:We have all been expelled from the Garden, but the ones who suffer most in exile are those who are still permitted to dream of perfection. ~ Stanley Kunitz, #NFDB
1205:When one sees herself and her kind as the standard of perfection against which all else is measured, it is impossible to have perspective. ~ Jack L Chalker, #NFDB
1206:[A]ll science as it grows towards perfection becomes mathematical in its ideas. ~ Alfred North Whitehead, An Introduction to Mathematics (1911) Ch.1, p. 14., #NFDB
1207:Beyond the world of thought and sensorial impressions, there are planes and dimensions of perfect light, knowledge, and radiant perfection. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
1208:Choose to achieve perfection. We won't achieve it because perfection is impossible. But by pursuing perfection, we will achieve excellence. ~ Vince Lombardi, #NFDB
1209:Ease up on yourselves. Have some compassion for yourself as well as for others. There's no such thing as perfection, and life is not a race. ~ Doug Marlette, #NFDB
1210:I kept taking glances at her through the crowd, quick snapshots: a photographic series entitled Perfection Stands Still While Mortals Walk Past ~ John Green, #NFDB
1211:Perfection is only achieved when there is nothing more that can be taken away rather then when there are things that can be added ~ Antoine de Saint Exup ry, #NFDB
1212:The goodness of a thing created is the perfection of its fitness for the use which it serves. Now that use is either particular or universal. ~ William Ames, #NFDB
1213:The important thing is the willingness to give back the gift that is you, not the perfection of the gift itself. Can you feel the difference? ~ Richard Rohr, #NFDB
1214:The logic of the system they devised was to mitigate the consequences of our real imperfections, not to celebrate our imaginary perfection. ~ Timothy Snyder, #NFDB
1215:The sound of the waves is pitched and modulated precisely so as not to intrude, distract, but so as to remain constantly audible: perfection. ~ Joanna Walsh, #NFDB
1216:true perfection consists in the love of God and our neighbor, and the better we keep both these commandments, the more perfect we shall be. ~ Teresa of vila, #NFDB
1217:A good marriage is not one where perfection reigns: it is a relationship where a healthy perspective overlooks a multitude of "unresolvables." ~ James Dobson, #NFDB
1218:Both, in their own way, thinking, This is hell—the absolute loss borne from all those slivers of perfection that passed unnoticed, unrelished. ~ Blake Crouch, #NFDB
1219:... food is not simply organic fuel to keep body and soul together, it is a perishable art that must be savoured at the peak of perfection. ~ E A Bucchianeri, #NFDB
1220:I especially love the way he moves, like a young god who takes his time walking because he wants mere mortals like me to bask in his perfection. ~ Marian Tee, #NFDB
1221:It was Brighton. She made me fucking insane. Her beauty and absolute perfection dissolved any moral boundaries that may have existed within me. ~ A Zavarelli, #NFDB
1222:Love is beautiful. However, being in a relationship isn't always a walk in the park. I think people often get love confused with perfection. ~ Alexandra Elle, #NFDB
1223:Mathematics as an expression of the human mind reflects the active will, the contemplative reason, and the desire for aesthetic perfection. ~ Richard Courant, #NFDB
1224:Our heightened individualism means that, not only do we expect perfection in all things, but we expect to produce this perfection ourselves. ~ Barry Schwartz, #NFDB
1225:Some of my best memories are sitting on my dad's lap, cheering on Olga and Nadia, Carl Lewis and others for their brilliance and perfection. ~ Michelle Obama, #NFDB
1226:Sometimes it felt as if all happiness came at a price. You could never, ever, have perfection. Life gave you beauty so you could bear the pain. ~ Ann Aguirre, #NFDB
1227:The golden ratio is a reminder of the relatedness of the created world to the perfection of its source and of its potential future evolution. ~ Robert Lawlor, #NFDB
1228:To love another another human in all of her splendor and imperfect perfection , it is a magnificent task...tremendous and foolish and human. ~ Louise Erdrich, #NFDB
1229:What is God?
God is the perfection that we must aspire to realise. 8 November 1969
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, "The Divine" and "Man" [17],#NFDB
1230:Whenever you begin any good work you should first of all make a most pressing appeal to Christ our Lord to bring it to perfection. ~ Saint Benedict of Nursia, #NFDB
1231:...when you're broken, everything gets a little honester - you make mistakes and don't give a damn - you give up on perfection, but get real... ~ John Geddes, #NFDB
1232:You know you've achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away. ~ Antoine de Saint Exupery, #NFDB
1233:His skin, even in my terrible kitchen light, is gorgeous. But all that aristocratic perfection is boring when there's nothing behind it. ~ Sarah Lyons Fleming, #NFDB
1234:I don't believe in perfection. I don't think there is such a thing. But the energy of wanting things to be great is a perfectionist energy ~ Reese Witherspoon, #NFDB
1235:I have read that the finest Persian carpets would have one strand deliberately left astray, to avoid the sin of pride that perfection might bring. ~ Ivan Doig, #NFDB
1236:In large studio paintings... composition, or arrangement, may be better studied, and nearer perfection, washes may be more suavely graded. ~ Walter J Phillips, #NFDB
1237:In short, if we adhere to the standard of perfection in all our endeavors, we are left with nothing but mathematics and the White Album. ~ Daniel Todd Gilbert, #NFDB
1238:I studied him silently. He looked like he always did—a living, breathing statue. Perfection without any humanity, and yet he was here. ~ Jennifer L Armentrout, #NFDB
1239:Perfection all the time would drive them mad. For every perfect little town, there's something ugly underneath. No dream without the nightmare. ~ Blake Crouch, #NFDB
1240:The Holiness of God is something more and other than moral perfection: His claim upon us is something more and other than the claim of moral duty. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1241:The way to achieve happiness is to try for perfection that is impossible to achieve, and spend the rest of your life trying to achieve it. ~ Winston Churchill, #NFDB
1242:I grew up in the theatre. It's where I got my start. Writing a television drama with theatrical dialogue about the theatre is beyond perfection. ~ Aaron Sorkin, #NFDB
1243:I’m quite aware that America is not perfect. No country is. I do believe we’re closer to perfection than the majority of other countries, though. ~ Bobby Adair, #NFDB
1244:Ready to get fucked?” he asked. “Yes,” she answered instantly. Christ. She was gone. Perfection. “Baby, gonna fuck you. Ready for that?” he pushed. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1245:The first dance is the worst dance; the last dance is the best dance! All the roads of persistent practice lead to the Land of Perfection! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
1246:The logic of the system they devised was to mitigate the consequences of our real imperfections, not to celebrate our imaginary perfection. We ~ Timothy Snyder, #NFDB
1247:The pleasure we found in working together made us exceptionally patient; it is much easier to strive for perfection when you are never bored. ~ Daniel Kahneman, #NFDB
1248:The slow pace of our perfection has to be borne with patience, provided that on our part we always do whatever we can to continue advancing. ~ Francis de Sales, #NFDB
1249:The universe is perfection. But there are different views that universe provides for itself to view itself. Beyond all views there is nirvana. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
1250:To achieve perfection, one must first begin by not understanding many things! And if we understand too quickly, we may not understand well. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, #NFDB
1251:When you meditate you are accessing eternity. You are plugging yourself into that source which is all light and all beauty and all perfection. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
1252:A greater perfection can only be arrived at by a higher power entering in and taking up the whole action of the being.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#NFDB
1253:Alexander was in the grip of a passion for perfection. He was not aware of how closely, how perilously, perfectionism and fanaticism are related. ~ Tove Jansson, #NFDB
1254:Allah manages everything in the heavens and earth—the sun, the moon, the stars—with perfection, and yet we don’t trust Him to manage our lives! ~ Yasmin Mogahed, #NFDB
1255:A peaceful mind appreciates the present moment as the living embodiment of naked perfection, rather than a means to future attainment. ~ Eric Micha el Leventhal, #NFDB
1256:Faith is about relationship not rules. We have a relationship with a holy God because Jesus obeyed all the rules and gave us His perfection. ~ Alisa Hope Wagner, #NFDB
1257:It is of no use to possess a lively wit if it is not of the right proportion: the perfection of a clock is not to go fast, but to be accurate. ~ Luc de Clapiers, #NFDB
1258:Perfection scribbled out or the imperfection that makes you, me, anyone perfect and complete because it includes the truth of our mortality. Get ~ Samantha Hunt, #NFDB
1259:The rude beginnings of every art acquire a greater celebrity than the art in perfection; he who first played the fiddle was looked upon as a demigod. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
1260:The supreme object of life is to live. Few people live. It is true life only to realize one's own perfection, to make one's every dream a reality. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
1261:The way to achieve happiness is to try for perfection that is impossible to achieve, and spend the rest of your life trying to achieve it. ~ Winston S Churchill, #NFDB
1262:...the world is only the visible aspect of God. And that what alchemy does is to bring spiritual perfection into contact with the material plane. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1263:When we can build community based on truth and authenticity, rather than masks, false perfection, and being phoney, we heal, connect, and thrive. ~ Lissa Rankin, #NFDB
1264:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. ~ Collins, #NFDB
1265:Dinner will not be perfect, but I am learning that perfection isn't what matters. In fact, it's the very thing that can destroy you if you let it. ~ Emily Giffin, #NFDB
1266:Everything comes from humanity and humanity is always the same — changeable but incapable of perfection, vacillating but incapable of progress. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
1267:It is a duty of each developed man to train his body to the highest degree of perfection in order that it may be used to advantage. The ~ William Walker Atkinson, #NFDB
1268:It's almost an addiction that some people have to what I call the perfection that Hollywood presents of successful, beautiful, fun-loving people. ~ Rush Limbaugh, #NFDB
1269:I wanted to be cherished for the woman who screamed to get out of a world where perfection ruled. The little fat girl wanted to feel beautiful. ~ Holly S Roberts, #NFDB
1270:Nature is a collective idea, and, though its essence exist in each individual of the species, can never in its perfection inhabit a single object. ~ Henry Fuseli, #NFDB
1271:Of course sportsmen and women are not only great role models, they are great fashion models too, as they are at the peak of physical perfection. ~ Giorgio Armani, #NFDB
1272:Placed on the borders of Time and Eternity...he holds himself somehow erect at the horizon of Nature...Spiritual perfection is his true destiny. ~ Giordano Bruno, #NFDB
1273:The lack of perfection, that's the hardest quality of all, because you're fighting your instincts. You're trained to want to do things perfectly. ~ Gordon Willis, #NFDB
1274:The soul’s salvation cannot come without the soul’s perfection, without its growing into the divine nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, Above the Gunas, #NFDB
1275:We are not to expect perfection in this world; but mankind, in modern times, have apparently made some progress in the science of government. ~ George Washington, #NFDB
1276:We need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven. The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1277:All progress and power are already in every man; perfection is man's nature, only it is barred in and prevented from taking its proper course. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
1278:As natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress toward perfection. ~ Charles Darwin, #NFDB
1279:I'm not interested in perfection. The universe is perfect, and there are some works of art that we see as perfect, but human beings aren't perfect. ~ Bette Midler, #NFDB
1280:Let’s go forth tomorrow with no great expectations of finding perfection. Then, expecting only a small share of happiness, we won’t be disappointed. ~ V C Andrews, #NFDB
1281:Surely the novel should be a form of art - but art was not enough. It must contain not only the perfection of art, but the imperfection of nature. ~ Ellen Glasgow, #NFDB
1282:The best perfection of a religious man is to do common things in a perfect manner. A constant fidelity in small things is a great and heroic virtue. ~ Bonaventure, #NFDB
1283:The happiness of each thing resides in its own proper perfection, and this perfection is nothing else for each individual than union with his own Cause. ~ Sallust, #NFDB
1284:The Prophet, peace be on him, presents all the possibilities of the human state in perfection. Now, a part of that of course is love of God. ~ Seyyed Hossein Nasr, #NFDB
1285:When you hear Bach or Mozart, you hear perfection. Remember that Bach, Mozart and Beethoven were great improvisers. I can hear that in their music. ~ Dave Brubeck, #NFDB
1286:By the way..." Jax gave me that half grin that caused my toes to curl inside my socks when I twisted toward him. "Those shorts and those legs? Perfection. ~ J Lynn, #NFDB
1287:Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life. It is only found in men of sound sense and understanding. ~ Jean de la Bruyere, #NFDB
1288:Every particular in nature, a leaf, a drop, a crystal, a moment of time is related to the whole, and partakes of the perfection of the whole. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1289:For each of them, the most important thing in living was to reach out and touch perfection in that which they most loved to do, and that was to fly. ~ Richard Bach, #NFDB
1290:... for we perceive that this miraculous development is not the result of our own efforts: an eternal Perfection is moulding us into its own image. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #NFDB
1291:Life is a way of perfection. You need to work on yourself. You become a good person. If you do your work you will discover sublime feelings. ~ Alejandro Jodorowsky, #NFDB
1292:Perfection does not exist; to understand it is the triumph of human intelligence; to expect to possess it is the most dangerous kind of madness. ~ Alfred de Musset, #NFDB
1293:The more perfect music we have, the more attractive the peculiarities and anomalies of human performance become. Perfection is a second rate idea. ~ T Bone Burnett, #NFDB
1294:The world is not imperfect or slowly evolving along a path to perfection. No, it is perfect at every moment, every sin already carries grace in it. ~ Hermann Hesse, #NFDB
1295:Under Kate’s tireless and frankly intrusive instruction, my legs and underarms are shaved to perfection, my eyebrows plucked, and I am buffed all over. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1296:But the compassion of humans forced me to believe that there must be something or someone more powerful to have placed such perfection on this earth. ~ Sejal Badani, #NFDB
1297:Djuna had wanted a life of desire and freedom, not luxury but beauty, not security but fulfillment, not perfection but a perfect moment like this one... ~ Ana s Nin, #NFDB
1298:Every human perfection is allied to a defect into which it threatens to pass, but it is also true that every defect is allied to a perfection. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #NFDB
1299:God doesn’t expect perfection—he wants good women who are motivated by deep love for him and who aren’t afraid to make a few mistakes along the way. ~ Paul Coughlin, #NFDB
1300:In this broad earth of ours, Amid the measureless grossness and the slag, Enclosed and safe within its central heart, Nestles the seed of perfection. ~ Walt Whitman, #NFDB
1301:Nature never wears a mean appearance. Neither does the wisest man extort her secret, and lose his curiosity by finding out all her perfection. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1302:Society is indeed a contract. ... It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection. ~ Edmund Burke, #NFDB
1303:Takes a lot of tries before you hit perfection." He paused to reconsider that. "Well, except for my parents. They got it on the first try." (Adrian) ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
1304:To stop war by the perfection of engines of destruction alone, might consume centuries and centuries. Other means must be employed to hasten the end. ~ Nikola Tesla, #NFDB
1305:True perfection consists in the love of God and our neighbour, and the better we keep both these commandments, the more perfect we shall be. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #NFDB
1306:We worship perfection, because we cannot have it; and we would loathe it if we did. Perfection is inhuman, because to be human is to be imperfect. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
1307:If you do not learn to deny yourself, you can make no progress in perfection. ~ Saint John of the Cross, The Collected Works of Saint John of the Cross (1991), [T9], #NFDB
1308:Jesus, the fullness of God and man, is the full perfection of humanity, and he calls us to a humanity that is full and alive, without flaw or fault. ~ Dan B Allender, #NFDB
1309:Open yourself more and more to the Divine's force and your work will progress steadily towards perfection. With my Blessings.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#NFDB
1310:THE LONGEST RIDE is epic Sparks… [It] showcases the author’s most accomplished work to date… There are moments of perfection.” —Mountain Times (NC) ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
1311:The more you surrender to the Divine, the more will there be the possibility of perfection in you. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II, Practical Concerns in Work, #NFDB
1312:The nature of art is to strive after a nobler beauty and more sustained perfection than life can give. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, Recent English Poetry - I, #NFDB
1313:The perfection preached in the gospels never yet built an empire. Every man of action has a strong dose of egotism, pride, hardness, and cunning. ~ Charles de Gaulle, #NFDB
1314:The perfect society will be that which most entirely favours the perfection of the individual. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Imperfection of Past Aggregates, #NFDB
1315:The slow pace of our perfection has to be borne with patience, provided that on our part we always do whatever we can to continue advancing. ~ Saint Francis de Sales, #NFDB
1316:When the ultimate perfection is attained, the body and limbs perform by themselves what is assigned to them to do with no interference from the mind. The ~ Bruce Lee, #NFDB
1317:Complete and total perfection will come about only when we feel that our perfection is no perfections as long as the rest of humanity remains imperfect. ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
1318:From character Henry Lee in the Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, " He'd learned long ago: perfection isn't what families are all about". Love it! ~ Jamie Ford, #NFDB
1319:Man needs music, literature, and painting - all those oases of perfection that make up art - to compensate for the rudeness and materialism of life. ~ Fernando Botero, #NFDB
1320:Mistakes can be fixed. Bad decisions can be undone. Model houses can be rebuilt. And perfection is only a word that makes you feel bad about yourself. ~ Jessica Brody, #NFDB
1321:Sometimes sorrow, sometimes joy. But beneath it all remember the innate perfection of your life unfolding. That is the secret of unreasonable happiness. ~ Dan Millman, #NFDB
1322:The gulls who scorn perfection for the sake of travel go nowhere, slowly. Those who put aside travel for the sake of perfection go anywhere, instantly. ~ Richard Bach, #NFDB
1323:The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of other men! ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
1324:The perfection of a Christian consists in mortifying his will for the love of Christ. Where there is no great mortification, there is no great sanctity. ~ Philip Neri, #NFDB
1325:This is hell—the absolute loss borne from all those slivers of perfection that passed unnoticed, unrelished. In true dark, there is no gauging of time. ~ Blake Crouch, #NFDB
1326:To the absolutist in every craftsman, each imperfection is a failure; to the practitioner, obsession with perfection seems a perception for failure. ~ Richard Sennett, #NFDB
1327:When you understand dharma, when you see its perfect perfection, shining both in and beyond all things, you will be freed from all misunderstandings. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
1328:You hit a guitar, you hit a note, you hit a drum, you hit an organ. Meat and potatoes. Simplicity. Not getting too caught up in little tweezers of perfection. ~ Feist, #NFDB
1329:A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ~ Richard Koch, #NFDB
1330:All sciences originated among the sons of Israel, the reason being the existence of prophecy among them which made their perfection in the sciences amazing. ~ Averroes, #NFDB
1331:Echo placed the expertly folded blanket back on the couch and smoothed it several times, insisting on finding perfection in a world where none existed. ~ Katie McGarry, #NFDB
1332:Mental perfection and moral are always closely allied to each other. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, To N. K. Gogte, #NFDB
1333:We fall in love when our imagination projects nonexistent perfection upon another person. One day, the fantasy evaporates and with it, love dies. ~ Jos Ortega y Gasset, #NFDB
1334:Every time you write a song, you're looking for some sort of perfection, and you never quite reach it. You're always looking for that extra missing piece. ~ Alex Turner, #NFDB
1335:He lived knowing that he had already experienced perfection; that, no doubt, was what gave him a certain aura of sadness, and a sense of flexibility. ~ Banana Yoshimoto, #NFDB
1336:I fully realize that this gratitude of mine is not in the least a sign of perfection: it must be my nature - I could be suborned with a sardine. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #NFDB
1337:I'm always looking for perfection. Every photographer, in one way or another, if he's serious, is. He ain't ever going to get it. But hope springs eternal. ~ Phil Stern, #NFDB
1338:Perfection is impossible. However, striving for perfection is not. Do the best you can under the conditions that exist. That is what counts.” —John Wooden ~ Mark Sisson, #NFDB
1339:The hope of science is the perfection of the human race. The hope of theology is the salvation of a few, and the damnation of almost everybody. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll, #NFDB
1340:The perfection of mathematical beauty is such...that whatsoever is most beautiful and regular is also found to be most useful and excellent. ~ D Arcy Wentworth Thompson, #NFDB
1341:Tt is only by liberation and perfection and realisation of the truth of being that man can arrive at truth of living. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #NFDB
1342:We fall in love when our imagination projects nonexistent perfection upon another person. One day, the fantasy evaporates and with it, love dies. ~ Jose Ortega y Gasset, #NFDB
1343:A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. —ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY ~ Ryder Carroll, #NFDB
1344:And so blinded was she by those gleams of glory which the stars fling into the eyes of young lovers, that she saw perfection where none existed..." p146 ~ Radclyffe Hall, #NFDB
1345:By choosing integrity, I become more whole, but wholeness does not mean perfection. It means becoming more real by acknowledging the whole of who I am. ~ Parker J Palmer, #NFDB
1346:I always had the sense that nothing was never good enough - striving for perfection. My mother and I had a sort of typical mother-daughter relationship. ~ Dorothy Hamill, #NFDB
1347:I guess sometimes the perfection we perceive in others is made up of a whole bunch of tiny imperfections, because some days the damn dress just won't zip. ~ Julie Murphy, #NFDB
1348:I happen to think we’ve set our ideal on the wrong objects; I happen to think that the greatest ideal man can set before himself is self-perfection. ~ W Somerset Maugham, #NFDB
1349:It was his first understanding that physical attraction, even sexual desire, was stimulated by more than the perfection of a body, or the beauty of a face. ~ John Irving, #NFDB
1350:The Encyclopédie itself promised “to offer craftsmen the chance to learn35 from philosophers, and thereby hopefully to advance further toward perfection. ~ William Rosen, #NFDB
1351:The manifestation of poetry in external life is formal perfection. True sentiment grows within, and art must represent internal phenomena externally. ~ Franz Grillparzer, #NFDB
1352:Underneath the inharmonious and trivial particulars, is a musical perfection, the Ideal journeying always with us, the heaven without rent or seam. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1353:We cannot possess the truth fully until it has entered into the very substance of our life by good habits, and by a certain perfection of moral activity. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
1354:A liberal education ... considers man an end in himself and not an instrument whereby something is to be wrought. Its ideal is human perfection. ~ John Lancaster Spalding, #NFDB
1355:As civilization advances, man grows unconscious of the primitive elements of life; he is separated from them by his perfection of material techniques. ~ Charles Lindbergh, #NFDB
1356:As long as our orientation is toward perfection or success, we will never learn about unconditional friendship with ourselves, nor will we find compassion. ~ Pema Chodron, #NFDB
1357:If you think you've already made it, that's when you can fall short and go backwards. I'm constantly pushing forward and chasing the element of perfection. ~ Jason Derulo, #NFDB
1358:In this broad earth of ours,
Amid the measureless grossness and the slag,
Enclosed and safe within its central heart,
Nestles the seed perfection. ~ Walt Whitman,#NFDB
1359:I say this is about as close to perfect as anything can be. Good God, hellion, I don’t think I could take much more perfection and live through it.” “Every ~ Jill Barnett, #NFDB
1360:I used to love ballet and I did it really, really intensely. But it came so much about achieving physical perfection, which when I was 14 was a big deal. ~ Mia Wasikowska, #NFDB
1361:As we walked, I kept taking glances at her through the crowd, quick snapshots: a photographic series entitled Perfection Stands Still While Mortals Walk Past. ~ John Green, #NFDB
1362:Every man, woman and child holds the possibility of physical perfection; it rests with each of us to attain it by personal understanding and effort. ~ F Matthias Alexander, #NFDB
1363:From attraction and affection
Cover of perfection
Failure beyond texture to a painful lesson
Everything that was from the start wasn't from the heart ~ Criss Jami,#NFDB
1364:Gnosis is the characteristic, illumined, significant action of spirit in its own native reality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Psychology of Self-Perfection, #NFDB
1365:It was bliss. It was perfection. It was that impossible thing: happiness that does not wilt to reveal the thin shoots of some new desire rising from within it. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1366:The compass simply represents the ideal, present but unachievable, and sight-steering a compromise with perfection which allows your boat to exist at all. ~ John Steinbeck, #NFDB
1367:The problem was precision, perfection; the problem was digitization, which sucked the life out of everything that got smeared through its microscopic mesh. ~ Jennifer Egan, #NFDB
1368:There was no such thing as perfection in this world, only moments of such extreme transparency that you forgot yourself, a holy mercy if there ever was one. ~ Ben Fountain, #NFDB
1369:Whatever work you do, do it as perfectly as you can. That is the best service to the Divine in man
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, Progress and Perfection in Work,#NFDB
1370:When I think of art I think of beauty. Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye it is in the mind. In our minds there is awareness of perfection. ~ Agnes Martin, #NFDB
1371:Everything is already perfect. And if you can accept that everything is already perfect, the imperfection is a part of the perfection. What's to worry about? ~ Alice Walker, #NFDB
1372:God wanted His people to be holy, not perfect. Holiness for God meant perfection, of course. But holiness for His people meant being set apart. Different. ~ Karen Kingsbury, #NFDB
1373:He is the half part of a blessed man, Left to be finished by such as she; And she a fair divided excellence, Whose fullness of perfection lies in him. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1374:He played the part of jaded aristocrat to perfection, his eyes glinting with the cynicism of a man who, at the age of thirty, had managed to outlive himself. ~ Lisa Kleypas, #NFDB
1375:It seems odd that as far as I know nobody has yet been murdered for having too perfect a character! And yet perfection is undoubtedly an irritating thing! ~ Agatha Christie, #NFDB
1376:One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn't exist.....Without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist ~ Stephen Hawking, #NFDB
1377:Tech Jacket shares the same tone as Invincible, but the subject matter is very different. Where Invincible is about perfection, Tech Jacket is about flaws. ~ Robert Kirkman, #NFDB
1378:The truth is that no matter how many retakes you do, each will be different and that is the nature of any creative medium. There's no such thing as perfection. ~ Aamir Khan, #NFDB
1379:Why do everything perfectly? Isn't perfection just an illusion? Tell me if it's an illusion if they don't fix your car perfectly next time you bring it in. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
1380:Will and Love practiced
to invoke her Majesty Kundalini
In the world where Adepts die and bloom as Lotuses
The perfection of Union is Silence ~ Nata a Nuit Pantovi,#NFDB
1381:A perfect equality not only of the self, but in the nature is a condition of the Yoga of self-perfection. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of Equality, #NFDB
1382:In a few decades of reconstruction, even the mathematical natural sciences, the ancient archetypes of theoretical perfection, have changed habit completely! ~ Edmund Husserl, #NFDB
1383:In always wanting to be comfortable, you become lazy. In always wanting perfection, you become angry. In always wanting to be rich, you become greedy. ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, #NFDB
1384:Indeed, some kitsch seems to be flawed by its very perfection, its technical virtuosity and its precise execution, its explicit knowledge of the tradition ~ Robert C Solomon, #NFDB
1385:Perfection does not take into account the viewer.' Pheidias had once said to me. 'It exists on it own, independent of and unconcerned with opinions or utility. ~ Karen Essex, #NFDB
1386:Perfect Melancholies have high standards they do everything to perfection, but when they impose their standards on others, this trait becomes a weakness. ~ Florence Littauer, #NFDB
1387:Purification, liberation, perfection, delight of being are four constituent elements of the Yoga. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of the Mental Being, #NFDB
1388:The world, my friend Govinda, is not imperfect or confined at a point somewhere along a gradual pathway toward perfection. No, it is perfect at every moment. ~ Hermann Hesse, #NFDB
1389:To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature. ~ Adam Smith, #NFDB
1390:Absolute perfection in all human undertakings from building missiles to rearing children is unattainable. This means there is endless room for improvement. ~ David J Schwartz, #NFDB
1391:Everyone should be sacked at least once in their career because perfection doesn't exist. It's important to have setbacks, because that is the reality of life. ~ Anna Wintour, #NFDB
1392:Has creation a final purpose at all, and if so why is it not attained immediately, why does perfection not exist from the very beginning? ~ Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, #NFDB
1393:He was the kind of beautiful you couldn’t buy, with his golden-brown eyes and square, scruffy chin—a symphony of perfection only flawless genes could compose. ~ Jamie McGuire, #NFDB
1394:Just because I'd spent so many years coloring inside the lines, it wasn't fair for me to expect perfection. People make mistakes. Life isn't fair. People change. ~ Sarah Dunn, #NFDB
1395:Nothing like being visible, publishing one's work, and speaking openly about one's life, to disabuse the world of the illusion of one's perfection and purity. ~ Joyce Maynard, #NFDB
1396:Not in the knowledge of things without, but in the perfection of the soul within, lies the empire of man aspiring to be more than man. ~ Edward Bulwer Lytton 1st Baron Lytton, #NFDB
1397:Rhage exhaled slowly, air easing out of his nose. As he sank into his skin, he reveled in the perfection of peace. The heavenly silence. The great roaring absence. ~ J R Ward, #NFDB
1398:Sadhana [means] the practice by which perfection, Siddhi, is attained; sadhaka, the Yogin who seeks by that practice the Siddhi.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, 45,#NFDB
1399:The Anarchists never have claimed that liberty will bring perfection; they simply say that its results are vastly preferable to those that follow authority. ~ Benjamin Tucker, #NFDB
1400:The idea which...shuts out the Second Coming from our minds, the idea of the world slowly ripening to perfection, is a myth, not a generalization from experience. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1401:There is no such thing as perfection, only the relentless, thirst matching of an organism to its environment. That is the engine that drives evolution. ~ Siddhartha Mukherjee, #NFDB
1402:There is no such thing as perfection, only the relentless, thirsty matching of an organism to its environment. That is the engine that drives evolution ~ Siddhartha Mukherjee, #NFDB
1403:In all of our society, but especially in Hollywood, there is an obsession with perfection that can lead to self-loathing and neurosis and all that kind of stuff. ~ Ethan Hawke, #NFDB
1404:Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth. ~ A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhup da, #NFDB
1405:There is no such thing as perfection, only the relentless, thirsty matching of an organism to its environment. That is the engine that drives evolution. ~ Siddhartha Mukherjee, #NFDB
1406:The world is evolving from imperfection to perfection. It needs all love and sympathy; great tenderness and watchfulness are required from each one of us. ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan, #NFDB
1407:We should credit [the sky] for what it is: for sheer size and perfection of function, it is far and away the grandest product of collaboration in all of nature. ~ Lewis Thomas, #NFDB
1408:You can simulate perfection, but it's not the same. Some one can do a copy of Rembrandt, but it's not a Rembrandt. It doesn't have the vibration or the power. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
1409:—You have misplaced joy, he said without hesitation. Without joy, we are as dead. —How do I find it again? —Find those who have it and bathe in their perfection. ~ Patti Smith, #NFDB
1410:As long as our orientation is toward perfection or success, we will never
learn about unconditional friendship with ourselves, nor will we find
compassion. ~ Pema Ch dr n,#NFDB
1411:Do not demand perfection of yourself. Only mindfulness. When the way seems unclear, or difficult, you must remember. And sometimes you must remember to remember. ~ Kristen Wolf, #NFDB
1412:I do not show My goodness by creating only what you call perfection all around you. I do not demonstrate My love by not allowing you to demonstrate yours. ~ Neale Donald Walsch, #NFDB
1413:The deepest meaning of freedom is the power to expand and grow towards perfection by the law of one’s own nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, Religion as the Law of Life, #NFDB
1414:The glory of God is the perfection of the creature.” There is no better way to honor life and God than to strive to become the - best - version - of - yourself. ~ Matthew Kelly, #NFDB
1415:The harmony and perfection of the completed heavens and earth express more adequately the character of their creator than any of the separate components can. ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
1416:The highest perfection of politeness is only a beautiful edifice, built, from the base to the dome, of graceful and gilded forms of charitable and unselfish lying. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
1417:The means of obtaining as much variety as possible, but with the greatest possible order...is the means of obtaining as much perfection as possible. ~ Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, #NFDB
1418:Within all beings there is the seed of perfection. However, compassion is required in order to activate that seed which is inherent in our hearts and minds.... ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
1419:Young lovers seek perfection. Old lovers learn the art of sewing shreds together. And of seeing beauty in a multiplicity of patches. - How to make an American Quilt ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1420:And what do I mean by the word 'perfection'? That I shall not try to explain but only say, 'Perfection makes me laugh.' Not cynically, I hasten to add, 'With joy. ~ Susan Sontag, #NFDB
1421:Benedict sets up a community, a family. And families, the honest among us will admit, are risky places to be if perfection is what you are expecting in life. ~ Joan D Chittister, #NFDB
1422:Cease to be a disobedient child in the school of experience, and begin to learn, with humility and patience, the lessons that are set for your ultimate perfection. ~ James Allen, #NFDB
1423:Dharma means every ideal which we can propose to ourselves and the law of its working out and its action. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #NFDB
1424:Douglass understood history and the men who made it. Perfection was impossible; greatness was reserved for those who managed to move forward in an imperfect world: ~ Jon Meacham, #NFDB
1425:I can feel the limits of what humans are capable of - that a certain type of perfection can only be realised through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
1426:Novels are more difficult simply because they are longer and require more juggling, but short stories are closer to perfection, if you can get the language right. ~ Colum McCann, #NFDB
1427:Since I was a small child, I'd believed we were inherently perfect, and that we had to keep coming back again and again until we recognized our innate perfection. ~ Tenzin Palmo, #NFDB
1428:The heart is the perfection of the whole organism. Therefore the principles of the power of perception and the souls ability to nourish itself must lie in the heart. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
1429:There is no such thing as perfection, there are only standards. And after you have set a standard you learn that it was not high enough. You want to surpass it. ~ Jascha Heifetz, #NFDB
1430:We should amuse our evening hours of life in cultivating the tender plants, and bringing them to perfection, before they are transplanted to a happier clime. ~ George Washington, #NFDB
1431:Benedict sets up a community, a family. And families, the honest among us will admit, are risky places to be if perfection is what y ou are expecting in life. ~ Joan D Chittister, #NFDB
1432:Don’t wait too long. Life is short, and perfection is boring,” Pat warned. “You have to enjoy life when it’s good. There’s no guarantee it’ll stay that way.” With ~ Melinda Leigh, #NFDB
1433:He alone knows the law of life. Whoever does not seek out clearly what is the true good, cannot correct himself with sincerity and does not arrive at true perfection. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
1434:I came back to performing with a different attitude about performing and myself. I wasn't expecting perfection any more, just hoping for an occasional inspiration. ~ Neil Diamond, #NFDB
1435:Moreover, equality should not be confused with perfection, for man is also imperfect, making his application of equality, even in the most just society, imperfect. ~ Mark R Levin, #NFDB
1436:Only the ego can fear, experience hate, lust and jealousy. Humility experiences none of these things - it merges into the transcendental awareness of perfection. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
1437:Perfection is a stick with which to beat the possible. Perfectionists can find fault with anything, and no one has higher standards in this regard than leftists. ~ Rebecca Solnit, #NFDB
1438:The highest perfection of politeness is only a beautiful edifice, built, from the base to the dome, of ungraceful and gilded forms of charitable and unselfish lying. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
1439:The intellect of man is forced to choose
Perfection of the life, or of the work
And if it take the second must refuse
A heavenly mansion, raging in the dark. ~ W B Yeats,#NFDB
1440:The man of God set his heart to exalt God above all; God accepted his intention as fact and acted accordingly. Not perfection, but holy intention made the difference. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
1441:To feel much for others and little for ourselves, that to restrain our selfish, and to indulge our benevolent affections, constitutes the perfection of human nature. ~ Adam Smith, #NFDB
1442:Whosoever recognises at all times his faults of omission and cleanses himself by observing the ways of purity in each one of his actions, shall attain to perfection. ~ Udanavarga, #NFDB
1443:You cannot force ideas. Successful ideas are the result of slow growth. Ideas do not reach perfection in a day, no matter how much study is put upon them. ~ Alexander Graham Bell, #NFDB
1444:In always wanting to be comfortable, you become lazy.
In always wanting perfection, you become angry.
In always wanting to be rich, you become greedy. ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar,#NFDB
1445:« La perfection du juste est formée de la bonne composition des sept péchés capitaux, comme la lumière blanche de la composition des sept couleurs traditionnelles. » ~ Paul Val ry, #NFDB
1446:The biggest thing for women to keep in mind is you can't ever let someone define beauty for you. Look in the mirror and say that this is my definition of perfection. ~ Jennie Runk, #NFDB
1447:The liberation from an externalised ego sense is the first step towards the soul’s freedom and mastery. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of the Mental Being, #NFDB
1448:There's this whole idea of perfection. What young girls don't realize is that these girls do have problems. It's good for people to realize everyone is human. ~ Georgia May Jagger, #NFDB
1449:Two possibilities: making oneself infinitely small or being so. The second is perfection, that is to say, inactivity, the first is beginning, that is to say, action. ~ Franz Kafka, #NFDB
1450:Activists measure progress against the standard of perfection, or at least the most perfect possible choice. Historians gauge progress against what came before it. ~ Jonathan Chait, #NFDB
1451:All perfection is there already in the soul. But this perfection has been covered up by nature; layer after layer of nature is covering this purity of the soul. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
1452:Don't think you are unstoppable or foolproof. Don't think that the only way your business will work is through perfection. Don't aim for perfection. Aim for success. ~ Eike Batista, #NFDB
1453:Gentlemen, we will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence. ~ Vince Lombardi, #NFDB
1454:In order to achieve perfection, we must first of all fail to understand a great many things! And if we understand too quickly, we may not understand very well. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
1455:It’s about finding your own twisted perfection, letting yourself fall too far and
taking a chance. If you’ve done all that. You have no reason to give up. Not now. ~ Abbi Glines,#NFDB
1456:La perfection n'existe pas ; la comprendre est le triomphe de l'intelligence humaine ; la désirer pour la posséder est la plus dangereuse des folies.
P 29 ~ Alfred de Musset,#NFDB
1457:Perfection' is man's ultimate illusion. It simply doesn't exist in the universe.... If you are a perfectionist, you are guaranteed to be a loser in whatever you do. ~ David D Burns, #NFDB
1458:Remember what I told you: the world is only the visible aspect of God. And that what alchemy does is to bring spiritual perfection into contact with the material plane. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1459:Sickness occurs when we desire what we need and what’s desirable with equal intensity, suffering our lack of perfection as if we were suffering for lack of bread. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
1460:The intellect of man is forced to choose Perfection of the life, or of the work And if it take the second must refuse A heavenly mansion, raging in the dark. ~ William Butler Yeats, #NFDB
1461:The myth for today is wholeness rather than perfection; our new challenge is about the integration of warring elements, and not about one archetype defeating another. ~ David Tacey, #NFDB
1462:The perfection of moral character consists in this, in passing every day as the last, and in being neither violently excited nor torpid nor playing the hypocrite. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
1463:This isn’t about perfection. Far from it. It’s simply about getting better — better in systematic and concrete ways that improve the company’s bottom line. ~ The Arbinger Institute, #NFDB
1464:Why we are here: To tremble at the terrible beauty of the stars, to shed a tear at the perfection of Beethoven's symphonies, and to crack a cold one now and then. ~ David Letterman, #NFDB
1465:After all these months, lying there, unable to move a leg or a foot – how could he find perfection in such an average day?
Then I realized that was the whole point. ~ Mitch Albom,#NFDB
1466:Don’t aim for perfection. Start off slowly and discard just one item a day.” What lovely words to ease the hearts of those who lack confidence in their ability to tidy. ~ Marie Kond, #NFDB
1467:Gough never pretended to perfection or to sainthood - well, hardly ever. Although when he set off the metal detector at airport security, he would blame his aura. ~ William Faulkner, #NFDB
1468:He is the half part of a blessed man,
Left to be finished by such as she;
And she a fair divided excellence,
Whose fullness of perfection lies in him. ~ William Shakespeare,#NFDB
1469:Let the states of equilibrium and harmony exist in perfection, and a happy order will prevail throughout heaven and earth, and all things will be nourished and flourish. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
1470:The bowl landed, in glorious perfection, atop the head of Mrs Barnaclegoose, who was not the kind of woman to appreciate the finer points of being crowned by trifle. ~ Gail Carriger, #NFDB
1471:There is not a single person who cannot easily reach the highest degree of perfection by performing every duty, no matter how commonplace, with eager love. ~ Jean Pierre de Caussade, #NFDB
1472:The sole precoccupation of this learned society was the destruction of humanity for philanthropic reasons and the perfection of weapons as instruments of civilization. ~ Jules Verne, #NFDB
1473:The test! It was as if they believed the test was an infallible superbeing that had descended to earth on a great space ark surrounded by thunderbolts of perfection. ~ Gordon Korman, #NFDB
1474:You are your own worst enemy. If you can learn to stop expecting impossible perfection, in yourself and others, you may find the happiness that has always eluded you. ~ Lisa Kleypas, #NFDB
1475:And one day it hit me—the perfection imagined by socialist theory was impossible for human beings to attain. The philosophy was right but we were poor vessels for it. ~ Walter Mosley, #NFDB
1476:A principle is the expression of perfection, and as imperfect beings like us cannot practise perfection, we devise every moment limits of its compromise in practice. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1477:I was greatly influenced by one of my teachers. She had a zeal not so much for perfection as for steady betterment-she demanded not excellence so much as integrity. ~ Edward R Murrow, #NFDB
1478:The editor is always right.” The corollary is that no writer will take all of his or her editor’s advice; for all have sinned and fallen short of editorial perfection. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1479:The shrewdest of the great generals in China’s history once said that perfection in war lay in so sapping the opponent’s will that he surrenders without fighting. ~ Robert A Heinlein, #NFDB
1480:What ideal, immutable Platonic cloud could equal the beauty and perfection of any ordinary everyday cloud floating over, say, Tuba City, Arizona, on a hot day in June? ~ Edward Abbey, #NFDB
1481:What is the meaning of Initiation? It is the Path to the realisation of your Self as the sole, the supreme, the absolute of all Truth, Beauty, Purity, Perfection! ~ Aleister Crowley, #NFDB
1482:You know you have reached perfection of design not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away. ~ Amy NewmarkAntoine de Saint-Exupéry ~ Amy Newmark, #NFDB
1483:Gentlemen, we will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence. ~ Vince Lombardi Jr, #NFDB
1484:I know the greatness of Jehovah; I acknowledge the perfection of His word; I adore the purity of the Christian faith; my theory is right, my practice horribly wrong. ~ Charlotte Bront, #NFDB
1485:I'm hardly Hollywood material - they're interested in youth and perfection and I lay no claims to either. It's not a place that's particularly interested in talent. ~ Juliet Stevenson, #NFDB
1486:Life is an aspiration. Its mission is to strive after perfection, which is self-realization. The ideal must not be lowered because of our weaknesses or imperfections. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1487:Life is never perfect. Even a good society is not perfect, and perfection is the enemy of all that is good. Those who seek perfection will destroy an imperfect good. ~ L E Modesitt Jr, #NFDB
1488:My thoughts have long been stirred and racked
by just one name of passing sweetness:
my days in paradise have lacked
just your perfection for completeness ~ Mikhail Lermontov,#NFDB
1489:Renounce to the desire of possessing worldly things: this is the first step in the path of perfection; by mean of this absolute untie is how the passions can be fought. ~ Eliphas Levi, #NFDB
1490:Symmetry, as wide or as narrow as you may define its meaning, is one idea by which man through the ages has tried to comprehend and create order, beauty and perfection. ~ Hermann Weyl, #NFDB
1491:There is a moment when time stops, when the air grows still, when you enter a state of nothingness, a state of purity and perfection. That is the moment to strive for. ~ Chloe Thurlow, #NFDB
1492:With the empowerment of an advanced Teacher, and your own best efforts, you will be able to explore the mysteries of knowledge that lead to completion and perfection. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
1493:After domestication, we try to be good enough for everybody else, but we are no longer good enough for ourselves, because we can never live up to our image of perfection. ~ Miguel Ruiz, #NFDB
1494:Her real passion in life was the perfection of a filing system beside which all other filing systems should sink into oblivion. She dreamed of such a system at night. ~ Agatha Christie, #NFDB
1495:I remember what it is like to be in love before any of love’s complexities or realities or disturbances has entered in, to dilute its splendor and challenge its perfection. ~ E B White, #NFDB
1496:Look at our Lords disciples. One denied Him; one doubted Him; one betrayed Him. If our Lord couldn't have perfection, how are you going to have it in city government? ~ Richard J Daley, #NFDB
1497:Once I freed myself from the bondage of perfection and embraced a lifestyle that made time for my passions, I was happier in all of my pursuits and responsibilities. ~ Jessica N Turner, #NFDB
1498:Perfection is always found in maturity, whether it be in the animal or in the intellectual world. Reflection is the mother of wisdom, and wisdom the parent of success. ~ James F Cooper, #NFDB
1499:The book designer strives for perfection; yet every perfect thing lives somewhere in the neighborhood of dullness and is frequently mistaken for it by the insensitive. ~ Jan Tschichold, #NFDB
1500:The naively cynical measure a piece of legislation, a victory, a milestone not against the past or the limits of the possible, but against their ideas of perfection... ~ Rebecca Solnit, #NFDB
668 Integral Yoga
79 Christianity
76 Poetry
64 Philosophy
57 Occultism
35 Yoga
25 Psychology
15 Science
12 Mysticism
12 Kabbalah
11 Fiction
10 Integral Theory
7 Sufism
7 Education
6 Hinduism
5 Theosophy
3 Mythology
3 Buddhism
3 Baha i Faith
1 Thelema
1 Cybernetics
1 Alchemy
571 Sri Aurobindo
273 The Mother
135 Satprem
84 Nolini Kanta Gupta
29 Plotinus
28 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
28 Aleister Crowley
25 Saint Teresa of Avila
24 Carl Jung
17 Saint Augustine of Hippo
16 Aldous Huxley
14 Sri Ramakrishna
13 Swami Vivekananda
12 Robert Browning
12 Rabbi Moses Luzzatto
12 A B Purani
10 Saint John of Climacus
9 Walt Whitman
9 H P Lovecraft
8 Sri Ramana Maharshi
8 Franz Bardon
7 Friedrich Nietzsche
6 Swami Krishnananda
6 Rudolf Steiner
6 Rabindranath Tagore
6 Anonymous
5 William Butler Yeats
5 Friedrich Schiller
5 Al-Ghazali
4 Plato
4 Paul Richard
4 Nirodbaran
4 Jorge Luis Borges
4 Jordan Peterson
3 William Wordsworth
3 Saint John of the Cross
3 Patanjali
3 George Van Vrekhem
3 Bokar Rinpoche
3 Baha u llah
3 Alice Bailey
2 Swami Sivananda Saraswati
2 Percy Bysshe Shelley
2 Mahendranath Gupta
2 Ken Wilber
2 Kabir
2 Joseph Campbell
2 John Keats
2 James George Frazer
2 Jalaluddin Rumi
2 Genpo Roshi
2 Edgar Allan Poe
201 Record of Yoga
107 The Synthesis Of Yoga
29 On Thoughts And Aphorisms
29 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
27 The Life Divine
26 Questions And Answers 1957-1958
23 Prayers And Meditations
22 Essays On The Gita
20 The Human Cycle
20 Letters On Yoga II
19 The Way of Perfection
19 Savitri
16 The Perennial Philosophy
16 Letters On Yoga IV
16 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
15 Questions And Answers 1956
15 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07
15 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04
15 Agenda Vol 04
14 Questions And Answers 1950-1951
14 Liber ABA
14 Essays Divine And Human
14 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01
14 City of God
14 Agenda Vol 10
13 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
13 Magick Without Tears
13 Agenda Vol 08
12 Questions And Answers 1955
12 General Principles of Kabbalah
12 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
12 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02
12 Browning - Poems
11 Questions And Answers 1953
11 Agenda Vol 07
10 The Ladder of Divine Ascent
10 Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness
10 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 01
10 Mysterium Coniunctionis
9 The Future of Man
9 Talks
9 On Education
9 Lovecraft - Poems
9 Agenda Vol 05
9 Agenda Vol 03
9 Agenda Vol 01
8 Whitman - Poems
8 The Phenomenon of Man
8 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04
8 On the Way to Supermanhood
8 Dark Night of the Soul
8 Agenda Vol 02
7 The Mother With Letters On The Mother
7 Questions And Answers 1954
7 Letters On Yoga I
7 Agenda Vol 13
7 Agenda Vol 06
6 The Study and Practice of Yoga
6 The Secret Doctrine
6 The Interior Castle or The Mansions
6 Tagore - Poems
6 Questions And Answers 1929-1931
6 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 02
6 Letters On Poetry And Art
6 Let Me Explain
6 Agenda Vol 09
5 Yeats - Poems
5 Words Of The Mother II
5 The Practice of Magical Evocation
5 The Integral Yoga
5 The Bible
5 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
5 The Alchemy of Happiness
5 Some Answers From The Mother
5 Schiller - Poems
5 Raja-Yoga
5 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 03
5 Isha Upanishad
5 Hymn of the Universe
5 Bhakti-Yoga
5 Aion
5 Agenda Vol 12
4 Twilight of the Idols
4 Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo
4 The Secret Of The Veda
4 The Practice of Psycho therapy
4 Maps of Meaning
4 Knowledge of the Higher Worlds
4 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 08
4 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 06
4 Agenda Vol 11
3 Wordsworth - Poems
3 Vedic and Philological Studies
3 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
3 The Lotus Sutra
3 The Confessions of Saint Augustine
3 Tara - The Feminine Divine
3 Preparing for the Miraculous
3 Patanjali Yoga Sutras
3 Labyrinths
3 Kena and Other Upanishads
3 Initiation Into Hermetics
3 Hymns to the Mystic Fire
3 Collected Poems
3 A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
2 Words Of The Mother III
2 Words Of Long Ago
2 Theosophy
2 The Hero with a Thousand Faces
2 The Golden Bough
2 The Book of Certitude
2 Shelley - Poems
2 Sex Ecology Spirituality
2 Poe - Poems
2 Keats - Poems
2 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05
2 Anonymous - Poems
2 Amrita Gita
00.01 - The Mother on Savitri, #Sweet Mother - Harmonies of Light, #unset, #Integral Yoga
*He has crammed the whole universe in a single book.* It is a marvellous work, magnificent and of an incomparable perfection.
You know, before writing Savitri Sri Aurobindo said to me, *I am impelled to launch on a new adventure; I was hesitant in the beginning, but now I am decided. Still, I do not know how far I shall succeed. I pray for help.* And you know what it was? It was - before beginning, I warn you in advance - it was His way of speaking, so full of divine humility and modesty. He never... *asserted Himself*. And the day He actually began it, He told me: *I have launched myself in a rudderless boat upon the vastness of the Infinite.* And once having started, He wrote page after page without intermission, as though it were a thing already complete up there and He had only to transcribe it in ink down here on these pages.
0.00 - INTRODUCTION, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Pratap Chandra Mazumdar, the right-hand man of Keshab and an accomplished Brahmo preacher in Europe and America, bitterly criticized Sri Ramakrishna's use of uncultured language and also his austere attitude toward his wife. But he could not escape the spell of the Master's personality. In the course of an article about Sri Ramakrishna, Pratap wrote in the "Theistic Quarterly Review": "What is there in common between him and me? I, a Europeanized, civilized, self-centred, semi-sceptical, so-called educated reasoner, and he, a poor, illiterate, unpolished, half-idolatrous, friendless Hindu devotee? Why should I sit long hours to attend to him, I, who have listened to Disraeli and Fawcett, Stanley and Max Muller, and a whole host of European scholars and divines? . . . And it is not I only, but dozens like me, who do the same. . . . He worships Siva, he worships Kali, he worships Rama, he worships Krishna, and is a confirmed advocate of Vedantic doctrines. . . . He is an idolater, yet is a faithful and most devoted meditator on the perfections of the One Formless, Absolute, Infinite Deity. . . . His religion is ecstasy, his worship means transcendental insight, his whole nature burns day and night with a permanent fire and fever of a strange faith and feeling. . . . So long as he is spared to us, gladly shall we sit at his feet to learn from him the sublime precepts of purity, unworldliness, spirituality, and inebriation in the love of God. . . . He, by his childlike bhakti, by his strong conceptions of an ever-ready Motherhood, helped to unfold it [God as our Mother] in our minds wonderfully. . . . By associating with him we learnt to realize better the divine attributes as scattered over the three hundred and thirty millions of deities of mythological India, the gods of the Puranas."
The Brahmo leaders received much inspiration from their contact with Sri Ramakrishna. It broadened their religious views and kindled in their hearts the yearning for God-realization; it made them understand and appreciate the rituals and symbols of Hindu religion, convinced them of the manifestation of God in diverse forms, and deepened their thoughts about the harmony of religions. The Master, too, was impressed by the sincerity of many of the Brahmo devotees. He told them about his own realizations and explained to them the essence of his teachings, such as the necessity of renunciation, sincerity in the pursuit of one's own course of discipline, faith in God, the performance of one's duties without thought of results, and discrimination between the Real and the unreal.
--
Girish Chandra Ghosh was a born rebel against God, a sceptic, a Bohemian, a drunkard. He was the greatest Bengali dramatist of his time, the father of the modem Bengali stage. Like other young men he had imbibed all the vices of the West. He had plunged into a life of dissipation and had become convinced that religion was only a fraud. Materialistic philosophy he justified as enabling one to get at least a little fun out of life. But a series of reverses shocked him and he became eager to solve the riddle of life. He had heard people say that in spiritual life the help of a guru was imperative and that the guru was to be regarded as God Himself. But Girish was too well acquainted with human nature to see perfection in a man. His first meeting with Sri Ramakrishna did not impress him at all. He returned home feeling as if he had seen a freak at a circus; for the Master, in a semi-conscious mood, had inquired whether it was evening, though the lamps were burning in the room. But their paths often crossed, and Girish could not avoid further encounters. The Master attended a performance in Girish's Star Theatre. On this occasion, too, Girish found nothing impressive about him. One day, however, Girish happened to see the Master dancing and singing with the devotees. He felt the contagion and wanted to join them, but restrained himself for fear of ridicule. Another day Sri Ramakrishna was about to give him spiritual instruction, when Girish said: "I don't want to listen to instructions. I have myself written many instructions. They are of no use to me. Please help me in a more tangible way If you can." This pleased the Master and he asked Girish to cultivate faith.
As time passed, Girish began to learn that the guru is the one who silently unfolds the disciple's inner life. He became a steadfast devotee of the Master. He often loaded the Master with insults, drank in his presence, and took liberties which astounded the other devotees. But the Master knew that at heart Girish was tender, faithful, and sincere. He would not allow Girish to give up the theatre. And when a devotee asked him to tell Girish to give up drinking, he sternly replied: "That is none of your business. He who has taken charge of him will look after him. Girish is a devotee of heroic type. I tell you, drinking will not affect him." The Master knew that mere words could not induce a man to break deep-rooted habits, but that the silent influence of love worked miracles. Therefore he never asked him to give up alcohol, with the result that Girish himself eventually broke the habit. Sri Ramakrishna had strengthened Girish's resolution by allowing him to feel that he was absolutely free.
--
As he read in college the rationalistic Western philosophers of the nineteenth century, his boyhood faith in God and religion was unsettled. He would not accept religion on mere faith; he wanted demonstration of God. But very soon his passionate nature discovered that mere Universal Reason was cold and bloodless. His emotional nature, dissatisfied with a mere abstraction, required a concrete support to help him in the hours of temptation. He wanted an external power, a guru, who by embodying perfection in the flesh would still the commotion of his soul. Attracted by the magnetic personality of Keshab, he joined the Brahmo Samaj and became a singer in its choir. But in the Samaj he did not find the guru who could say that he had seen God.
In a state of mental conflict and torture of soul, Narendra came to Sri Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar. He was then eighteen years of age and had been in college two years. He entered the Master's room accompanied by some light-hearted friends. At Sri Ramakrishna's request he sang a few songs, pouring his whole soul into them, and the Master went into samadhi. A few minutes later Sri Ramakrishna suddenly left his seat, took Narendra by the hand, and led him to the screened verandah north of his room. They were alone. Addressing Narendra most tenderly, as if he were a friend of long acquaintance, the Master said: "Ah! You have come very late. Why have you been so unkind as to make me wait all these days? My ears are tired of hearing the futile words of worldly men. Oh, how I have longed to pour my spirit into the heart of someone fitted to receive my message!" He talked thus, sobbing all the time. Then, standing before Narendra with folded hands, he addressed him as Narayana, born on earth to remove the misery of humanity. Grasping Narendra's hand, he asked him to come again, alone, and very soon. Narendra was startled. "What is this I have come to see?" he said to himself. "He must be stark mad. Why, I am the son of Viswanath Dutta. How dare he speak this way to me?"
--
But during his third visit Narendra fared no better. This time, at the Master's touch, he lost consciousness entirely. While he was still in that state, Sri Ramakrishna questioned him concerning his spiritual antecedents and whereabouts, his mission in this world, and the duration of his mortal life. The answers confirmed what the Master himself had known and inferred. Among other things, he came to know that Narendra was a sage who had already attained perfection, and that the day he learnt his real nature he would give up his body in yoga, by an act of will.
A few more meetings completely removed from Narendra's mind the last traces of the notion that Sri Ramakrishna might be a monomaniac or wily hypnotist. His integrity, purity, renunciation, and unselfishness were beyond question. But Narendra could not accept a man, an imperfect mortal, as his guru. As a member of the Brahmo Samaj, he could not believe that a human intermediary was necessary between man and God. Moreover, he openly laughed at Sri Ramakrishna's visions as hallucinations. Yet in the secret chamber of his heart he bore a great love for the Master.
0.00 - The Book of Lies Text, #The Book of Lies, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
impressions, come to its perfection, is Pan.
Receive a thousand lovers; thou shalt bear but One
--
perfection is easily attained soon ceases to amuse,
although in the beginning its fascination is so violent.
--
is like Nepthys for perfection.
Also there are little meringues with cream and
0.01f - FOREWARD, #The Phenomenon of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
the perfection of an animal, or the supremacy of a thinking being,
by the penetration and synthetic power of their gaze ? To try to
--
nature certain absolute stages of perfection and growth, without
upsetting the physical unity of the world ;
0.01 - Life and Yoga, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
In the right view both of life and of Yoga all life is either consciously or subconsciously a Yoga. For we mean by this term a methodised effort towards self- perfection by the expression of the secret potentialities latent in the being and - highest condition of victory in that effort - a union of the human individual with the universal and transcendent Existence we see partially expressed in man and in the Cosmos. But all life, when we look behind its appearances, is a vast Yoga of Nature who attempts in the conscious and the subconscious to realise her perfection in an ever-increasing expression of her yet unrealised potentialities and to unite herself with her own divine reality. In man, her thinker, she for the first time upon this Earth devises selfconscious means and willed arrangements of activity by which this great purpose may be more swiftly and puissantly attained.
Yoga, as Swami Vivekananda has said, may be regarded as a means of compressing one's evolution into a single life or a few years or even a few months of bodily existence. A given system of Yoga, then, can be no more than a selection or a compression, into narrower but more energetic forms of intensity, of the general methods which are already being used loosely, largely, in a leisurely movement, with a profuser apparent waste of material and energy but with a more complete combination by the great
--
God. Therefore we see in India that a sharp incompatibility has been created between life in the world and spiritual growth and perfection, and although the tradition and ideal of a victorious harmony between the inner attraction and the outer demand remains, it is little or else very imperfectly exemplified. In fact, when a man turns his vision and energy inward and enters on the path of Yoga, he is popularly supposed to be lost inevitably to the great stream of our collective existence and the secular effort of humanity. So strongly has the idea prevailed, so much has it been emphasised by prevalent philosophies and religions that to escape from life is now commonly considered as not only the necessary condition, but the general object of Yoga. No synthesis of Yoga can be satisfying which does not, in its aim, reunite God and Nature in a liberated and perfected human life or, in its method, not only permit but favour the harmony of our inner and outer activities and experiences in the divine consummation of both. For man is precisely that term and symbol of a higher Existence descended into the material world in which it is possible for the lower to transfigure itself and put on the nature of the higher and the higher to reveal itself in the forms of the lower. To avoid the life which is given him for the realisation of that possibility, can never be either the indispensable condition or the whole and ultimate object of his supreme endeavour or of his most powerful means of self-fulfilment. It can only be a temporary necessity under certain conditions or a specialised extreme effort imposed on the individual so as to prepare a greater general possibility for the race. The true and full object and utility of Yoga can only be accomplished when the conscious
Yoga in man becomes, like the subconscious Yoga in Nature, outwardly conterminous with life itself and we can once more, looking out both on the path and the achievement, say in a more perfect and luminous sense: "All life is Yoga."
0.03 - Letters to My little smile, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
any kind of perfection. I don't think this is the result you want
to obtain!
0.03 - The Threefold Life, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The characteristic energy of pure Mind is change, and the more our mentality acquires elevation and organisation, the more this law of Mind assumes the aspect of a continual enlargement, improvement and better arrangement of its gains and so of a continual passage from a smaller and simpler to a larger and more complex perfection. For Mind, unlike bodily life, is infinite in its field, elastic in its expansion, easily variable in its formations. Change, then, self-enlargement and selfimprovement are its proper instincts. Mind too moves in cycles, but these are ever-enlarging spirals. Its faith is perfectibility, its watchword is progress.
The characteristic law of Spirit is self-existent perfection and immutable infinity. It possesses always and in its own right the immortality which is the aim of Life and the perfection which is the goal of Mind. The attainment of the eternal and the realisation of that which is the same in all things and beyond all things, equally blissful in universe and outside it, untouched by the im perfections and limitations of the forms and activities in which it dwells, are the glory of the spiritual life.
In each of these forms Nature acts both individually and collectively; for the Eternal affirms Himself equally in the single form and in the group-existence, whether family, clan and nation or groupings dependent on less physical principles or the supreme group of all, our collective humanity. Man also may seek his own individual good from any or all of these spheres of activity, or identify himself in them with the collectivity and live for it, or, rising to a truer perception of this complex universe, harmonise the individual realisation with the collective aim. For as it is the right relation of the soul with the Supreme, while it is in the universe, neither to assert egoistically its separate being nor to blot itself out in the Indefinable, but to realise its unity with the Divine and the world and unite them in the individual, so the right relation of the individual with the collectivity is neither to pursue egoistically his own material or mental progress or spiritual salvation without regard to his fellows, nor for the sake of the community to suppress or maim his proper development, but to sum up in himself all its best and completest possibilities and pour them out by thought, action and all other means on his surroundings so that the whole race may approach nearer to the attainment of its supreme personalities.
--
The mental life concentrates on the aesthetic, the ethical and the intellectual activities. Essential mentality is idealistic and a seeker after perfection. The subtle self, the brilliant Atman,1 is ever a dreamer. A dream of perfect beauty, perfect conduct, perfect Truth, whether seeking new forms of the Eternal or revitalising the old, is the very soul of pure mentality. But it knows not how to deal with the resistance of Matter. There it is hampered and inefficient, works by bungling experiments and has either to withdraw from the struggle or submit to the grey actuality. Or else, by studying the material life and accepting the conditions of the contest, it may succeed, but only in imposing temporarily some artificial system which infinite Nature either rends and casts aside or disfigures out of recognition or by withdrawing her assent leaves as the corpse of a dead ideal. Few and far between have been those realisations of the dreamer in Man which the world has gladly accepted, looks back to with a fond memory and seeks, in its elements, to cherish.
1 Who dwells in Dream, the inly conscious, the enjoyer of abstractions, the Brilliant.
--
The schools of Indian Yoga lent themselves to the compromise. Individual perfection or liberation was made the aim, seclusion of some kind from the ordinary activities the condition, the renunciation of life the culmination. The teacher gave his knowledge only to a small circle of disciples. Or if a wider movement was attempted, it was still the release of the individual soul that remained the aim. The pact with an immobile society was, for the most part, observed.
The utility of the compromise in the then actual state of the world cannot be doubted. It secured in India a society which lent itself to the preservation and the worship of spirituality, a country apart in which as in a fortress the highest spiritual ideal could maintain itself in its most absolute purity unoverpowered by the siege of the forces around it. But it was a compromise, not an absolute victory. The material life lost the divine impulse to growth, the spiritual preserved by isolation its height and purity, but sacrificed its full power and serviceableness to the world. Therefore, in the divine Providence the country of the Yogins and the Sannyasins has been forced into a strict and imperative contact with the very element it had rejected, the element of the progressive Mind, so that it might recover what was now wanting to it.
We have to recognise once more that the individual exists not in himself alone but in the collectivity and that individual perfection and liberation are not the whole sense of God's intention in the world. The free use of our liberty includes also the liberation of others and of mankind; the perfect utility of our perfection is, having realised in ourselves the divine symbol, to reproduce, multiply and ultimately universalise it in others.
Therefore from a concrete view of human life in its threefold potentialities we come to the same conclusion that we had drawn from an observation of Nature in her general workings and the three steps of her evolution. And we begin to perceive a complete aim for our synthesis of Yoga.
--
But what Nature aims at for the mass in a slow evolution, Yoga effects for the individual by a rapid revolution. It works by a quickening of all her energies, a sublimation of all her faculties. While she develops the spiritual life with difficulty and has constantly to fall back from it for the sake of her lower realisations, the sublimated force, the concentrated method of Yoga can attain directly and carry with it the perfection of the mind and even, if she will, the perfection of the body. Nature seeks the Divine in her own symbols: Yoga goes beyond Nature to the Lord of Nature, beyond universe to the Transcendent and can return with the transcendent light and power, with the fiat of the Omnipotent.
But their aim is one in the end. The generalisation of Yoga in humanity must be the last victory of Nature over her own delays and concealments. Even as now by the progressive mind in Science she seeks to make all mankind fit for the full development of the mental life, so by Yoga must she inevitably seek to make all mankind fit for the higher evolution, the second birth, the spiritual existence. And as the mental life uses and perfects the material, so will the spiritual use and perfect the material and the mental existence as the instruments of a divine self-expression.
0.04 - The Systems of Yoga, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Self. Hathayoga selects the body and the vital functionings as its instruments of perfection and realisation; its concern is with the gross body. Rajayoga selects the mental being in its different parts as its lever-power; it concentrates on the subtle body. The triple Path of Works, of Love and of Knowledge uses some part of the mental being, will, heart or intellect as a starting-point and seeks by its conversion to arrive at the liberating Truth,
Beatitude and Infinity which are the nature of the spiritual life.
--
Nature and kept within the narrow bounds of her normal operations. In the ancient tradition of Hathayoga it has always been supposed that this conquest could be pushed so far even as to conquer to a great extent the force of gravitation. By various subsidiary but elaborate processes the Hathayogin next contrives to keep the body free from all impurities and the nervous system unclogged for those exercises of respiration which are his most important instruments. These are called pran.ayama, the control of the breath or vital power; for breathing is the chief physical functioning of the vital forces. Pranayama, for the Hathayogin, serves a double purpose. First, it completes the perfection of the body. The vitality is liberated from many of the ordinary necessities of physical Nature; robust health, prolonged youth, often an extraordinary longevity are attained.
On the other hand, Pranayama awakens the coiled-up serpent of the Pranic dynamism in the vital sheath and opens to the Yogin fields of consciousness, ranges of experience, abnormal faculties denied to the ordinary human life while it puissantly intensifies such normal powers and faculties as he already possesses.
--
The results of Hathayoga are thus striking to the eye and impose easily on the vulgar or physical mind. And yet at the end we may ask what we have gained at the end of all this stupendous labour. The object of physical Nature, the preservation of the mere physical life, its highest perfection, even in a certain sense the capacity of a greater enjoyment of physical living have been carried out on an abnormal scale. But the weakness of Hathayoga is that its laborious and difficult processes make so great a demand on the time and energy and impose so complete a severance from the ordinary life of men that the utilisation of its results for the life of the world becomes either impracticable or is extraordinarily restricted. If in return for this loss we gain another life in another world within, the mental, the dynamic, these results could have been acquired through other systems, through Rajayoga, through Tantra, by much less laborious methods and held on much less exacting terms. On the other hand the physical results, increased vitality, prolonged youth, health, longevity are of small avail if they must be held by us as misers of ourselves, apart from the common life, for their own sake, not utilised, not thrown into the common sum of the world's activities. Hathayoga attains large results, but at an exorbitant price and to very little purpose.
Rajayoga takes a higher flight. It aims at the liberation and perfection not of the bodily, but of the mental being, the control of the emotional and sensational life, the mastery of the whole apparatus of thought and consciousness. It fixes its eyes on the citta, that stuff of mental consciousness in which all these activities arise, and it seeks, even as Hathayoga with its physical material, first to purify and to tranquillise. The normal state of man is a condition of trouble and disorder, a kingdom either at war with itself or badly governed; for the lord, the Purusha, is subjected to his ministers, the faculties, subjected even to his subjects, the instruments of sensation, emotion, action, enjoyment. Swarajya, self-rule, must be substituted for this subjection.
First, therefore, the powers of order must be helped to overcome
--
We perceive that as Hathayoga, dealing with the life and body, aims at the supernormal perfection of the physical life and its capacities and goes beyond it into the domain of the mental life, so Rajayoga, operating with the mind, aims at a supernormal perfection and enlargement of the capacities of the mental life and goes beyond it into the domain of the spiritual existence.
But the weakness of the system lies in its excessive reliance on abnormal states of trance. This limitation leads first to a certain aloofness from the physical life which is our foundation and the sphere into which we have to bring our mental and spiritual gains. Especially is the spiritual life, in this system, too much associated with the state of Samadhi. Our object is to make the spiritual life and its experiences fully active and fully utilisable in the waking state and even in the normal use of the functions.
--
Rajayoga in that it does not occupy itself with the elaborate training of the whole mental system as the condition of perfection, but seizes on certain central principles, the intellect, the heart, the will, and seeks to convert their normal operations by turning them away from their ordinary and external preoccupations and activities and concentrating them on the Divine. It
38
--
differs also in this, - and here from the point of view of an integral Yoga there seems to be a defect, - that it is indifferent to mental and bodily perfection and aims only at purity as a condition of the divine realisation. A second defect is that as actually practised it chooses one of the three parallel paths exclusively and almost in antagonism to the others instead of effecting a synthetic harmony of the intellect, the heart and the will in an integral divine realisation.
The Path of Knowledge aims at the realisation of the unique and supreme Self. It proceeds by the method of intellectual reflection, vicara, to right discrimination, viveka. It observes and distinguishes the different elements of our apparent or phenomenal being and rejecting identification with each of them arrives at their exclusion and separation in one common term as constituents of Prakriti, of phenomenal Nature, creations of
--
But here too the exclusive result is not inevitable. The end of the path may be, equally, a perception of the Divine in all energies, in all happenings, in all activities, and a free and unegoistic participation of the soul in the cosmic action. So followed it will lead to the elevation of all human will and activity to the divine level, its spiritualisation and the justification of the cosmic labour towards freedom, power and perfection in the human being.
We can see also that in the integral view of things these three paths are one. Divine Love should normally lead to the perfect knowledge of the Beloved by perfect intimacy, thus becoming a path of Knowledge, and to divine service, thus becoming a path of Works. So also should perfect Knowledge lead to perfect
0.05 - The Synthesis of the Systems, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Will-in-Power executive in the universe. It was by learning and applying the intimate secrets of this Will-in-Power, its method, its Tantra, that the Tantric Yogin pursued the aims of his discipline, - mastery, perfection, liberation, beatitude. Instead of drawing back from manifested Nature and its difficulties, he confronted them, seized and conquered. But in the end, as is the general tendency of Prakriti, Tantric Yoga largely lost its principle in its machinery and became a thing of formulae and occult mechanism still powerful when rightly used but fallen from the clarity of their original intention.
We have in this central Tantric conception one side of the truth, the worship of the Energy, the Shakti, as the sole effective force for all attainment. We get the other extreme in the Vedantic conception of the Shakti as a power of Illusion and in the search after the silent inactive Purusha as the means of liberation from the deceptions created by the active Energy. 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
--
God Himself, the real Person in us, becomes the sadhaka of the sadhana1 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
Sadhana, the practice by which perfection, siddhi, is attained; sadhaka, the Yogin who seeks by that practice the siddhi.
46
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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
--
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 self-conscious 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.
--
The divine existence is of the nature not only of freedom, but of purity, beatitude and perfection. An 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
--
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 Ananda of all that is in the world seen as symbols of the Divine and the Ananda 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.
perfection includes perfection of mind and body, so that the highest results of Rajayoga and Hathayoga should be contained in the widest formula of the synthesis finally to be effected by mankind. At any rate a full development of the general mental and physical faculties and experiences attainable by humanity through Yoga must be included in the scope of the integral method. Nor would these have any raison d'etre unless employed for an integral mental and physical life. Such a mental and physical life would be in its nature a translation of the spiritual existence into its right mental and physical values. Thus we would arrive at a synthesis of the three degrees of Nature and of the three modes of human existence which she has evolved or is evolving. We would include in the scope of our liberated being and perfected modes of activity the material life, our base, and the mental life, our intermediate instrument.
Nor would the integrality to which we aspire be real or even possible, if it were confined to the individual. Since our divine perfection embraces the realisation of ourselves in being, in life and in love through others as well as through ourselves, the extension of our liberty and of its results in others would be the inevitable outcome as well as the broadest utility of our liberation and perfection. And the constant and inherent attempt of such an extension would be towards its increasing and ultimately complete generalisation in mankind.
The divinising of the normal material life of man and of his great secular attempt of mental and moral self-culture in the individual and the race by this integralisation of a widely perfect
--
The widest synthesis of perfection possible to thought is the sole effort entirely worthy of those whose dedicated vision perceives that God dwells concealed in humanity.
0.06 - INTRODUCTION, #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
Divine union of perfection of love, if God takes not its hand and purges it not in that
dark fire.'3
0.07 - DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL, #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
Exposition of the stanzas describing the method followed by the soul in its journey upon the spiritual road to the attainment of the perfect union of love with God, to the extent that is possible in this life. Likewise are described the properties belonging to the soul that has attained to the said perfection, according as they are contained in the same stanzas.
PROLOGUE
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Begins the exposition of the stanzas which treat of the way and manner which the soul follows upon the road of the union of love with God. Before we enter upon the exposition of these stanzas, it is well to understand here that the soul that utters them is now in the state of perfection, which is the union of love with God, having already passed through severe trials and straits, by means of spiritual exercise in the narrow way of eternal life whereof Our Saviour speaks in the Gospel, along which way the soul ordinarily passes in order to reach this high and happy union with God. Since this road (as the Lord Himself says likewise) is so strait, and since there are so few that enter by it,19 the soul considers it a great happiness and good chance to have passed along it to the said perfection of love, as it sings in this first stanza, calling this strait road with full propriety 'dark night,' as will be explained hereafter in the lines of the said stanza. The soul, then, rejoicing at having passed along this narrow road whence so many blessings have come to it, speaks after this manner.
BOOK THE FIRST
0.08 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
ourselves and advance towards perfection, our circumstances
also improve.
0.09 - Letters to a Young Teacher, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Sri Aurobindo tells us: "God in his perfection embraces everything; we also must become all-embracing."
There is a lot of misunderstanding among the young
01.01 - The New Humanity, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
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
... the principle of this Yoga is not perfection of the human nature as it is but a psychic and spiritual transformation of all the parts of the being through the action of an inner consciousness and then of a higher consciousness which works on them, throws out the old movements or changes them into the image of its own and so transmutes lower into higher nature. It is not so much the perfection of the intellect as a transcendence of it, a transformation of the mind, the substitution of a larger greater principle of knowledge - and so with all the rest of the being.
This is a slow and difficult process; the road is long and it is hard to establish even the necessary basis. The old existing nature resists and obstructs and difficulties rise one after another and repeatedly till they are overcome. It is therefore necessary to be sure that this is the path to which one is called before one finally decides to tread it.
01.02 - Sri Aurobindo - Ahana and Other Poems, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Could limit His perfection, peace nor storm.
He is, we cannot say; for Nothing too
01.02 - The Object of the Integral Yoga, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Matter. Our object is not to remove all "limitations" on the expansion of the ego or to give a free field and make unlimited room for the fulfilment of the ideas of the human mind or the desires of the ego-centred life-force. None of us are here to "do as we like", or to create a world in which we shall at last be able to do as we like; we are here to do what the Divine wills and to create a world in which the Divine Will can manifest its truth no longer deformed by human ignorance or perverted and mistranslated by vital desire. The work which the sadhak of the supramental Yoga has to do is not his own work for which he can lay down his own conditions, but the work of the Divine which he has to do according to the conditions laid down by the Divine. Our Yoga is not for our own sake but for the sake of the Divine. It is not our own personal manifestation that we are to seek, the manifestation of the individual ego freed from all bounds and from all bonds, but the manifestation of the Divine. Of that manifestation our own spiritual liberation, perfection, fullness is to be a result and a part, but not in any egoistic sense or for any ego-centred or self-seeking purpose.
This liberation, perfection, fullness too must not be pursued for our own sake, but for the sake of the Divine.
This Yoga demands a total dedication of the life to the aspiration for the discovery and embodiment of the Divine Truth and to nothing else whatever. To divide your life between the Divine and some outward aim and activity that has nothing to do with the search for the Truth is inadmissible. The least thing of that kind would make success in the Yoga impossible.
01.03 - Mystic Poetry, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
But first let us go to the fans et origo, be acquainted with the very genuine article in its purity and perfection, in its essential simplicity. I do not know of any other ideal exemplar than the Upanishad. Thus,
There the sun shines not and the moon has no
--
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||
01.04 - Motives for Seeking the Divine, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
- one may regard the Supreme not as the Divine but as one's highest Self and seek fulfilment of one's being in that highest Self; but one need not envisage it as a self of bliss, ecstasy, Ananda - one may envisage it as a self of freedom, vastness, knowledge, tranquillity, strength, calm, perfection - perhaps too calm for a ripple of anything so disturbing as joy to enter. So even if it is for something to be gained that one approaches the Divine, it is not a fact that one can approach Him or seek union only for the sake of Ananda and nothing else.
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.
01.04 - The Poetry in the Making, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
I said that the supreme artist is superconscious: his consciousness withdraws from the normal mental consciousness and becomes awake and alive in another order of consciousness. To that superior consciousness the artist's mentalityhis ideas and dispositions, his judgments and valuations and acquisitions, in other words, his normal psychological make-upserves as a channel, an instrument, a medium for transcription. Now, there are two stages, or rather two lines of activity in the processus, for they may be overlapping and practically simultaneous. First, there is the withdrawal and the in-gathering of consciousness and then its reappearance into expression. The consciousness retires into a secret or subtle worldWords-worth's "recollected in tranquillity"and comes back with the riches gathered or transmuted there. But the purity of the gold thus garnered and stalled in the artistry of words and sounds or lines and colours depends altogether upon the purity of the channel through which it has to pass. The mental vehicle receives and records and it can do so to perfection if it is perfectly in tune with what it has to receive and record; otherwise the transcription becomes mixed and blurred, a faint or confused echo, a poor show. The supreme creators are precisely those in whom the receptacle, the instrumental faculties offer the least resistance and record with absolute fidelity the experiences of the over or inner consciousness. In Shakespeare, in Homer, in Valmiki the inflatus of the secret consciousness, the inspiration, as it is usually termed, bears down, sweeps away all obscurity or contrariety in the recording mentality, suffuses it with its own glow and puissance, indeed resolves it into its own substance, as it were. And the difference between the two, the secret norm and the recording form, determines the scale of the artist's creative value. It happens often that the obstruction of a too critically observant and self-conscious brain-mind successfully blocks up the flow of something supremely beautiful that wanted to come down and waited for an opportunity.
Artists themselves, almost invariably, speak of their inspiration: they look upon themselves more or less as mere instruments of something or some Power that is beyond them, beyond their normal consciousness attached to the brain-mind, that controls them and which they cannot control. This perception has been given shape in myths and legends. Goddess Saraswati or the Muses are, however, for them not a mere metaphor but concrete realities. To what extent a poet may feel himself to be a mere passive, almost inanimate, instrumentnothing more than a mirror or a sensitive photographic plateis illustrated in the famous case of Coleridge. His Kubla Khan, as is well known, he heard in sleep and it was a long poem very distinctly recited to him, but when he woke up and wanted to write it down he could remember only the opening lines, the rest having gone completely out of his memory; in other words, the poem was ready-composed somewhere else, but the transmitting or recording instrument was faulty and failed him. Indeed, it is a common experience to hear in sleep verses or musical tunes and what seem then to be very beautiful things, but which leave no trace on the brain and are not recalled in memory.
Still, it must be noted that Coleridge is a rare example, for the recording apparatus is not usually so faithful but puts up its own formations that disturb and alter the perfection of the original. The passivity or neutrality of the intermediary is relative, and there are infinite grades of it. Even when the larger waves that play in it in the normal waking state are quieted down, smaller ripples of unconscious or half-conscious habitual formations are thrown up and they are sufficient to cause the scattering and dispersal of the pure light from above.
The absolute passivity is attainable, perhaps, only by the Yogi. And in this sense the supreme poet is a Yogi, for in his consciousness the higher, deeper, subtler or other modes of experiences pass through and are recorded with the minimum aberration or diffraction.
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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).
01.04 - The Secret Knowledge, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The pure perfection her marred nature needs,
A breath of Godhead on her stone and mire.
--
An unattained perfection calls to him
From distant boundaries in the Unseen:
01.06 - Vivekananda, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
"Man is higher than all animals, than all angels: none is greater than man. Even the Devas will have to come down again and attain to salvation though a human body. Man alone attains to perfection, not even the Devas." Indeed, men are gods upon earth, come down here below to perfect themselves and perfect the worldonly, they have to be conscious of themselves. They do not know what they are, they have to be actually and sovereignly what they are really and potentially. This then is the life-work of everyone:
"First, let us be Gods, and then help others to be Gods.
01.07 - Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Vivekananda Walter Hilton: The Scale of perfection
Other Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Poets and MysticsBlaise Pascal (1623-1662)
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Vivekananda Walter Hilton: The Scale of perfection
01.08 - Walter Hilton: The Scale of Perfection, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
object:01.08 - Walter Hilton: The Scale of perfection
author class:Nolini Kanta Gupta
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Other Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Poets and MysticsWalter Hilton: The Scale of perfection
Walter Hilton: The Scale of perfection
From the twentieth century back to the fourteenth is a far cry: a far cry indeed from the modern scientific illumination to mediaeval superstition, from logical positivists and mathematical rationalists to visionary mystics, from Russell and Huxley to Ruysbroeck and Hilton. The mystic lore, the Holy Writ, the mediaeval sage says, echoing almost the very words of the Eastern Masters, "may not be got by study nor through man's travail only, but principally by the grace of the Holy Ghost." As for the men living and moving in the worldly way, there are "so mickle din and crying in their heart and vain thoughts and fleshly desires" that it is impossible for them to listen or understand the still small voice. It is the pure soul touched by the Grace that alone "seeth soothfastness of Holy Writ wonderly shewed and opened, above study and travail and reason of man's kindly (i.e. natural) wit."
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Here is the Augustinian mantra taken as the motto of The Scale of perfection: We ascend the ascending grades in our heart and we sing the song of ascension1. The journey's end is heavenly Jerusalem, the House of the Lord. The steps of this inner ascension are easily visible, not surely to the outer eye of the sense-burdened man, but to the "ghostly seeing" of the aspirant which is hazy in the beginning but slowly clears as he advances. The first step is the withdrawal from the outer senses and looking and seeing within. "Turn home again in thyself, and hold thee within and beg no more without." The immediate result is a darkness and a restless darknessit is a painful night. The outer objects of attraction and interest have been discarded, but the inner attachments and passions surge there still. If, however, one continues and persists, refuses to be drawn out, the turmoil settles down and the darkness begins to thin and wear away. One must not lose heart, one must have patience and perseverance. So when the outward world is no more-there and its call also no longer awakes any echo in us, then comes the stage of "restful darkness" or "light-some darkness". But it is still the dark Night of the soul. The outer light is gone and the inner light is not yet visible: the night, the desert, the great Nought, stretches between these two lights. But the true seeker goes through and comes out of the tunnel. And there is happiness at the end. "The seeking is travaillous, but the finding is blissful." When one steps out of the Night, enters into the deepest layer of the being, one stands face to face to one's soul, the very image of God, the perfect God-man, the Christ within. That is the third degree of our inner ascension, the entry into the deepest, purest and happiest statein which one becomes what he truly is; one finds the Christ there and dwells in love and union with him. But there is still a further step to take, and that is real ascension. For till now it has been a going within, from the outward to the inner and the inmost; now one has to go upward, transcend. Within the body, in life, however deep you may go, even if you find your soul and your union with Jesus whose tabernacle is your soul, still there is bound to remain a shadow of the sinful prison-house; the perfect bliss and purity without any earthly taint, the completeness and the crowning of the purgation and transfiguration can come only when you go beyond, leaving altogether the earthly form and worldly vesture and soar into Heaven itself and be in the company of the Trinity. "Into myself, and after... above myself by overpassing only into Him." At the same time it is pointed out, this mediaeval mystic has the common sense to see that the going in and going above of which one speaks must not be understood in a literal way, it is a figure of speech. The movement of the mystic is psychological"ghostly", it is saidnot physical or carnal.
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."
01.09 - The Parting of the Way, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
This then, it seems to us, is the immediate problem that Nature has set before herself. She is now at the parting of the ways. She has done with man as an essentially human being, she has brought out the fundamental possibilities of humanity and perfected it, so far as perfection may be attained within the cadre by which she chose to limit herself; she is now looking forward to another kind of experiment the evolving of another life, another being out of her entrails, that will be greater than the humanity we know today, that will be superior even to the supreme that has yet been actualised.
Nature has marched from the unconscious to the sub-conscious, from the sub-conscious to the conscious and from the conscious to the self-conscious; she has to rise yet again from the self-conscious to the super-conscious. The mineral gave place to the plant, the plant gave place to the animal and the animal gave place to man; let man give place to and bring out the divine.
01.09 - William Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Walter Hilton: The Scale of perfection Nicholas Berdyaev: God Made Human
Other Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Poets and MysticsWilliam Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
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Walter Hilton: The Scale of perfection Nicholas Berdyaev: God Made Human
0.10 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
practise the yoga of integral perfection.
7 June 1963
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and incapacity to express the divine perfection.
The two states of consciousness should be simultaneous and
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in order to attain some perfection, to make progress, for all sorts
of reasons.
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I don't know - believe in the Divine? One thirsts for a certain perfection, perhaps even to transcend oneself, to arrive at
something higher than what one is; if one is a philanthropist,
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you, the one that opens for you a path towards perfection. It
may be something apparently very modest; it is not the apparent
0.14 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
attained its progressive perfection.
8 January 1972
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That is why I said "progressive perfection", because the
manifestation of the consciousness of detail is infinite and unending.
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towards an increasing perfection, we shall be well on the way to
overcoming the inevitability of death.
--
Supreme Lord, perfection that we must become, perfection that
we must manifest.
0 1957-01-18, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Integral Yoga
You told me one day that I could be useful to you. Then, by chance, I came across this passage from Sri Aurobindo the other day: Everyone has in him something divine, something his own, a chance of perfection and strength in however small a sphere which God offers him to take or refuse.
Could you tell me, as a favor, what this particular thing is in me which may be useful to you and serve you? If I could only know what my real work is in this world All the conflicting impulses in me stem from my being like an unemployed force, like a being whose place has not yet been determined.
0 1958-04-03, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Integral Yoga
I was waiting for things to be well established in me before writing you again. An important change has occurred: it seems that something in me has clickedwhat Sri Aurobindo calls the central will, perhapsand I am living literally in the obsession of divine realization. This is what I want, nothing else, it is the only goal in life, and at last I have understood (not with the head) that the outer realization in the world will be the consequence of the inner realization. So thousands of times a day, I repeat, Mother, I want to be your instrument, ever more conscious, I want to express your truth, your light. I want to be what you want, as you want, when you want. There is in me now a kind of need for perfection, a will to abolish this ego, a real understanding that to become your instrument means at the same time to find the perfect plenitude of ones personality. So I am living in an almost constant state of aspiration, I feel your force constantly, or nearly so, and if I am distracted a few minutes, I experience a void, an uneasiness that calls me back to you.
And at the same time, I saw that it is you who is doing everything, you who aspires in me, you who wants the progress, and that all I myself am in this affair is a screen, a resisting obstacle. O Mother, break this screen that I may be wholly transparent before you, that your transforming force may purify all the secret recesses in my being, that nothing may remain but you and you alone. O Mother, may all my being be a living expression of your light, your truth.
0 1958-10-10, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Integral Yoga
There is ones position in the universal hierarchy, which is something ineluctableit is the eternal lawand there is the development in the manifestation, which is an education; it is progressive and done from within the being. What is remarkable is that to become a perfect being, this positionwhatever it is, decreed since all eternity, a part of the eternal Truthmust manifest with the greatest possible perfection as a result of evolutionary growth. It is the junction, the union of the two, the eternal position and the evolutionary realization, that will make the total and perfect being, and the manifestation as the Lord has willed it since the beginning of all eternity (which has no beginning at all! ).
And for the cycle to be complete, one cannot stop on the way at any plane, not even the highest spiritual plane nor the plane closest to matter (like the occult plane in the vital, for example). One must descend right into matter, and this perfection in manifestation must be a material perfection, or otherwise the cycle is not completewhich explains why those who want to flee in order to realize the divine Will are in error. What must be done is exactly the opposite! The two must be combined in a perfect way. This is why all the honest sciences, the sciences that are practiced sincerely, honestly, exclusively with a will to know, are difficult pathsyet such sure paths for the total realization.
It brings up very interesting things. (What I am going to say now is very personal and consequently cannot be used, but it may be kept anyway:)
0 1959-04-24, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Integral Yoga
The divine perfection is always there above us; but for man to become divine in consciousness and act and to live inwardly and outwardly the divine life is what is meant by spirituality; all lesser meanings given to the word are inadequate fumblings or impostures.1
This text by Sri Aurobindo (The Human Cycle, Cent. Ed. Vol. XV p. 247) was translated into French by Mother on the occasion of writing to Satprem.
0 1960-09-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Integral Yoga
When I got there, I felt a moment of anguish; my feeling was that nothing could be done. Not for him in particular, but universally, for all those in his categoryit seemed hopeless.6 If that was perfection, then nothing more could be done. This lasted only a second, but it was painful. And then I tried that is, I wanted to bring my consciousness down into the highest cubethis eternal, universal and infinite consciousness which is the first and foremost expression of the manifestation but nothing doing. It was impossible. I tried for several minutes and saw that it was absolutely impossible. So I had to make a curious movement (I couldnt get through it, it was impassable), I had to come back down into the so-called lower consciousness (not lower, actuallyit was vast and impersonal), and from there I came out and regained my equilibrium. This is what gave me that splitting headache I told you about. I came out of there as if I were carrying the weight the weight of an irreducible absoluteit was dreadful. Unfortunately, I was unable to rest afterwards, and as people were waiting to see me, I had to talkwhich is very tiring for me. And this produced a bubbling in my head, like a this dark blue light of power in matter was there, shot through with streaks of white and gold, and all this was flashing back and forth in my head, this way and that way I thought I was going to have a stroke! (Mother laughs)
This lasted a good half hour before I could calm it down, make it quiet, quiet. And I saw that this came from the fact that he wanted to bring the Power down, to transmit the Power into the physical mind! But as soon as Im put in contact with the Power, you understand, it makes everything explode! (Mother laughs) It felt exactly like my head was going to explode!
0 1960-10-11, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Integral Yoga
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.
0 1960-10-25, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Integral Yoga
The problem is that when you enter into the ordinary consciousness, these things become so subtle and require such a scrupulous observance that people are justified (they FEEL justified) in having the attitude, Oh, its Nature, its Fate, its the Divine Will! But with that conviction, the Yoga of perfection is impossible and appears as a mere utopian fantasy but this is FALSE. The truth is something else entirely.
(long silence)
0 1960-11-12, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Integral Yoga
The actual aphorism reads: 'When I read a wearisome book through and with pleasure, yet perceived all the perfection of its wearisomeness, then I knew that my mind was conquered.'
Yama: the god of Death. He is also the guardian of the Law.
0 1960-12-17, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Integral Yoga
It goes back and forth between the two all the timea kind of curve like an electric arc between them; it goes up, it goes down, it falls and then climbs back up. In a flash comes the clear vision that the universal realization will be achieved along with the perfection of the material, TERRESTRIAL world. (I say terrestrial, for the earth is still something unique; the rest of the universe is differentso this blown up speck of dust becomes of capital importance!) Then, at another moment, eternity for which all the universes are simply the expression of a second, and in which all this is a sort ofnot even an interesting game, but rather a breathing in and out, in and out And at such a moment, all the importance we give to material things seems so fantastically idiotic! And it goes in and out In this state, everything is obvious and indisputable. And in the other state, everything is obvious and indisputable. But between the two there is EVERY combination and every possibility.
(silence)
0 1961-01-10, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
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.
0 1961-03-11, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
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.
0 1961-07-07, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
All the believers, all the faithful (those from the West in particular) think in terms of something else when they speak of GodHe cannot be weak, ugly, imperfect, He is something immaculate but this is wrong thinking. They are dividing, separating. For subconscious thought (I mean thinking without reflecting, instinctively, out of habit, without observing oneself thinking), what is generally considered perfection is precisely what is seen or felt or postulated as being virtuous, divine, beautiful, admirable but its not that at all! perfection means something in which nothing is missing. The divine perfection is a totality. The divine perfection is the Divine in his wholeness, with nothing left out. The divine perfection is the whole of the Divine, with nothing subtracted from it. For the moralists it is the exact opposite: divine perfection is nothing but the virtues they stand for!
From the true standpoint, the divine perfection is the whole (Mother makes a global gesture), and the fact that within this whole nothing can be missing is precisely what makes it perfect.1 Consequently, perfection means that each thing is in its place, exactly what it should be, and that relationships among things are also exactly what they should be.
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!
Divine perfection implies infinity and eternityall is coexistent beyond time and space.
(silence)
While walking in my room, a series of invocations or prayers have come to me2 (I didnt choose themthey were dictated to me) in which I implore the Lord to manifest his perfection (and I am quite aware of how foolish this expression is, but it does correspond to an aspiration).3 When I say manifest, I mean to manifest in our physical, material world Im asking for the transformation of this world. And the moment I utter one of these invocations, the sense of the particular approach it represents is there; thats why I am now able to give such a lecture on perfection perfection is one of these approaches. Manifest this, I tell Him, Manifest that, manifest Your perfection. (The series is very long and it takes me quite a while to go through it all.) Well, each time I say Manifest Your perfection, I have an awareness of what constitutes perfectionit is something global.
Its like the word purityone could lecture endlessly on the difference between divine purity and what people call purity. Divine purity (at the lowest level) is to admit but one influence the divine Influence (but this is at the lowest level, and already terribly distorted). Divine purity means that only the Divine existsnothing else. It is perfectly pureonly the Divine exists, nothing other than He.
--
As Mother had previously said that 'all is as it should be ... the Divine is what He is and exactly as He wants to be,' one shouldn't need to 'implore' Him to manifest his perfection.
***
0 1961-07-12, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Regarding the last conversation, where Mother spoke of divine perfection and of the series of invocations in her japa imploring the Lord to manifest his various aspects:)
But perfection is only one side, one special way of approaching the Divine. There are innumerable sides, angles, aspectsinnumerable ways to approach the Divine. When I am walking, for example, doing japa, I have the sense of Unity (I have spoken to you of all the things I mention when I am upstairs walking: will, truth, purity, perfection, unity, immortality, eternity, infinity, silence, peace, existence, consciousness the list goes on). And when one follows a particular tack and does succeed in reaching or approaching or contacting the Divine, one realizes through experience that these many approaches differ only in their most external forms the contact itself is identical. Its like looking through a kaleidoscopeyou revolve around a center, a globe, and see it under various aspects; but as soon as the contact is established, its identical.
The number of approaches is practically infinite. Each one senses the path which accords with his temperament.
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.
In line with this idea of things in their place, another question comes to me: with the descent of the Supermind, what exactly are the very first things that the supramental force will want to or is trying to dislodge?
--
No, the only solution is occult power. But that. Before anything at all can be done, it already demands a certain number of individuals who have reached a great perfection of realization. Granting this, a place is conceivable (set apart from the outside worldno actual contacts) where each thing is exactly in its place, setting an example. Each thing exactly in its place, each person exactly in his place, each movement in its place, and all in its place in an ascending, progressive movement without relapse (that is, the very opposite of what goes on in ordinary life). Naturally, this also means a sort of perfection, it means a sort of unity; it means that the different aspects of the Supreme can be manifested; and, necessarily, an exceptional beauty, a total harmony; and a power sufficient to keep the forces of Nature obedient: even if this place were encircled by destructive forces, for example, these forces would be powerless to act the protection would be sufficient.
It would all require the utmost perfection in the individuals organizing such a thing.
(long silence)
--
It isnt difficult to conceive of an individual in the solitude of the Himalayas or in a virgin forest beginning to create around himself his miniature supramental worldthis is easy to imagine. But the same thing would be necessary: he would need to have attained such perfection that his power would act automatically to prevent any outside intrusion.
Because such beings would automatically become the target of outside attacks?
--
There are stories like this, you know, about people who lived in an ideal solitude, and its not at all impossible to imagine. When one is in contact with this Power, when it is within you, you can see that such things are childs play! It even reaches the point where there is the possibility of changing certain things, of influencing vibrations and forms in the surrounding environment by contagion, so that automatically they begin to be supramentalized. All that is possible but confined to the individual scale. While if we take the example of what is happening here, where the individual remains right in the midst of all this chaos. Thats the difficulty! Doesnt this very fact make a certain perfection in realization impossible to attain? But the other case, the individual isolated in the forest, is always the same thingan example giving no proof that the rest will be able to follow; while whats happening here should already have a much broader radiating influence. At some point this has to happenit MUST happen. But the problem still remains: can it happen simultaneously with or even before the supramentalization of the single individual?
(silence)
0 1961-07-28, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There are two lines in the ancient traditions, two ways of explaining this. One says it is by the descent of what already exists in all its perfection that what is involved can be awakened to consciousness and evolution. Its like the old story: when what Sri Aurobindo calls the universal Mother or the Shakti (or Sachchidananda1) realized what had happened in Matter (that is, in what had created Matter) and that this involution had led to a state of Inconscience, total unconsciousness, the ancient lore says that at once the divine Love descended straight from the Lord into Matter and began to awaken what was involved there.
Other traditions speak of the Consciousness, the divine Consciousness, instead of Love. One even finds accounts full of imagery depicting a Being of prismatic light lying in deep sleep in the cave of the Inconscient; and this Descent awakens him to an activity which is still (how to put it?) inner, an immobile activity, an activity by radiation. Countless rays issue from his body and spread throughout the Inconscient, and little by little they awaken in each thing, in each atom, as it were, the aspiration to Consciousness and the beginning of evolution.
--
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!
--
Lets take Savitri, which is very explicit on this: the universal Mother is universally present and at work in the universe, but the earth is where concrete form is given to all the work to be done to bring evolution to its perfection, its goal. Well, at first theres a sort of emanation representative of the universal Mother, which is always on earth to help it prepare itself; then, when the preparation is complete, the universal Mother herself will descend upon earth to finish her work. And this She does with SatyavanSatyavan is the soul of the earth. She lives in close union with the soul of the earth and together they do the work; She has chosen the soul of the earth for her work, saying, HERE is where I will do my work. Elsewhere (Mother indicates regions of higher Consciousness), its enough just to BE and things Simply ARE. Here on earth you have to work.
There are clearly universal repercussions and effects, of course, but the thing is WORKED OUT here, the place of work is HERE. So instead of living beatifically in Her universal state and beyond, in the extra-universal eternity outside of time, She says, No, I am going to do my work HERE, I choose to work HERE. The Supreme then tells her, What you have expressed is My Will.. I want to work HERE, and when all is ready, when the earth is ready, when humanity is ready (even if no one is aware of it), when the Great Moment comes, well I will descend to finish my work.
--
Wherever there is beauty, wherever there is radiance, wherever there is progress towards perfection, whether in the Heaven of the heights or of the depths, there, assuredly, is found the form and similitude of man-man, the supreme terrestrial evolutor.6
Sachchidananda is the Supreme Consciousness in its triple aspect of Existence (Sat), Consciousness (Chit) and Bliss (Ananda).
0 1961-12-16, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So to calm the body I took a pencil and wrote: My being thirsts. (to tell the truth, I wanted to write this body thirsts) for perfection, not this human perfection(I should tell you that all the things I am translating are simultaneously accompanied by a set of external circumstances OBVIOUSLY arranged in detail to illustrate the translation: a whole set of quite unpleasant circumstances, besides, serving simultaneously as backdrop and illustration. Thats what brought on the anguish). This body thirsts for perfection, not this human perfection which is the perfection of the ego (it was so clear to me that everything human beings conceive of as perfection is simply the ego wanting to magnify itself for its own greater glory) not this human perfection which is the perfection of the ego and bars the way to the divine perfection, but that one perfection (these repeated perfections are deliberate: its like a litany) but that one perfection which has the POWER to manifest upon earth the eternal Truth.
It was this need, this need. All the bodys cells began to vibrate with a more and more intense vibrationit was much more than a need; it was a necessity, a necessity to vibrate in unison with Truth. The cells seemed to be sensing the vibration of Truth, and so the entire body was in a state of total tensionnot tension in the ordinary sense, but it was like trying to find a note that rings true. Thats what it was: to make the cells vibration ring true to the Vibration of Truth.
--
The experience was extremely intense, so I didnt do anything with my note, I put it aside. Then recently someone mentioned the first of January. What the devil am I going to read to them? I wondered (I usually read them a message). And I thought of this text: Ill change this scribble a bit, humanize it and bring it down a few rungs (smiling); then it will do. So I wrote: WE thirst for perfection, etc. In the experience it was only the BODY, you understand (the other part of the being is quite all right)the body is in this state. All the rest is very happyvery happy, in perpetual joy and eurythmy (gesture of great waves), feeling divine Love (not Love as such I dont know how to say it): this Love without object, this Love which is neither originated nor receivedwithout object, without cause or origin. Its the feeling of floating in something.
Thats all very fine. But the body remains miserable.
And if I tell that to people, they go wide-eyed. It makes no sense to themto even have the idea of a perfection existing somewhere, an attainable perfection, is already quite a lot for them! So I wrote:
We thirst for perfection, not this human perfection which is the perfection of the ego and bars the way to the divine perfection, but that ONE perfection which has the power to manifest upon Earth the eternal Truth.1
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!
0 1961-12-23, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
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 lifebecause 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)
0 1962-01-09, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
69Sin and virtue are a game of resistance we play with God in His efforts to draw us towards perfection. The sense of virtue helps us to cherish our sins in secret.
Well?
0 1962-01-21, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It came after the vision of the great divine Becoming.2 Since this world is progressive, I was wondering, since it is increasingly becoming the Divine, wont there always be this deeply painful sense of the nondivine, of the state that, compared with the one to come, is not divine? Wont there always be what we call adverse forces, in other words, things that dont harmoniously follow the movement? Then came the answer, the vision of That: No, the moment of this very Possibility is drawing near, the moment for the manifestation of the essence of perfect Love, which can transform this unconsciousness, this ignorance and this ill will that goes with it into a luminous and joyous progression, wholly progressive, wholly comprehensive, thirsting for perfection.
It was very concrete.
--
The system of getting rid of things by anubhava [experience] can also be a dangerous one; for on this way one can easily become more entangled instead of arriving at freedom. This method has behind it two well-known psychological motives. One, the motive of purposeful exhaustion, is valid only in some cases, especially when some natural tendency has too strong a hold or too strong a drive in it to be got rid of by vicra [intellectual reflection] or by the process of rejection and the substitution of the true movement in its place; when that happens in excess, the sadhak has sometimes even to go back to the ordinary action of the ordinary life, get the true experience of it with a new mind and will behind and then return to the spiritual life with the obstacle eliminated or else ready for elimination. But this method of purposive indulgence is always dangerous, though sometimes inevitable. It succeeds only when there is a very strong will in the being towards realisation; for then indulgence brings a strong dissatisfaction and reaction, vairagya, and the will towards perfection can be carried down into the recalcitrant part of the nature.
The other motive for anubhava is of a more general applicability; for in order to reject anything from the being one has first to become conscious of it, to have the clear inner experience of its action and to discover its actual place in the workings of the nature. One can then work upon it to eliminate it, if it is an entirely wrong movement, or to transform it if it is only the degradation of a higher and true movement. It is this or something like it that is attempted crudely and improperly with a rudimentary and insufficient knowledge in the system of psycho-analysis. The process of raising up the lower movements into the full light of consciousness in order to know and deal with them is inevitable; for there can be no complete change without it. But it can truly succeed only when a higher light and force are sufficiently at work to overcome, sooner or later, the force of the tendency that is held up for change. Many, under the pretext of anubhava, not only raise up the adverse movement, but support it with their consent instead of rejecting it, find justifications for continuing or repeating it and so go on playing with it, indulging its return, eternising it; afterwards when they want to get rid of it, it has got such a hold that they find themselves helpless in its clutch and only a terrible struggle or an intervention of divine grace can liberate them.Some do this out of a vital twist or perversity, others out of sheer ignorance; but in yoga, as in life, ignorance is not accepted by Nature as a justifying excuse. This danger is there in all improper dealings with the ignorant parts of the nature; but none is more ignorant, more perilous, more unreasoning and obstinate in recurrence than the lower vital subconscious and its movements. To raise it up prematurely or improperly for anubhava is to risk suffusing the conscious parts also with its dark and dirty stuff and thus poisoning the whole vital and even the mental nature. Always therefore one should begin by a positive, not a negative experience, by bringing down something of the divine nature, calm, light, equanimity, purity, divine strength into the parts of the conscious being that have to be changed; only when that has been sufficiently done and there is a firm positive basis, is it safe to raise up the concealed subconscious adverse elements in order to destroy and eliminate them by the strength of the divine calm, light, force and knowledge. Even so, there will be enough of the lower stuff rising up of itself to give you as much of the anubhava as you will need for getting rid of the obstacles; but then they can be dealt with with much less danger and under a higher internal guidance.
0 1962-02-06, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Automatically, everything that exists is a natural expression of divine Joy, even the things human consciousness finds most horrifyingthis is understandable. But at the same time there is this aspiration, so intense that its almost anguish, for a perfection of creation to come. And it does seem that this intense aspiration and anguish in the material world is a necessary preparation for this perfection to come. Yet at the same time, whatever exists is perfect at each moment, since it is ENTIRELY the Divine. There is nothing other than the Divine. So there is simultaneously this plenitude of Divine Joy in each second, in whatever exists, and the aspiration, the anguish and the difficulty lies in joining the two, there you have it.
Practically, you go from one to the other, or one is in front and the other behind, one active and the other passive. With the feeling of perfect joy comes an almost static state (certainly the joy of movement is also there, but all anticipation of the goal stays in the background). Then, when the aspiration of the Becoming is there, the joy of divine perfection at each moment withdraws into a static state.
And this very going back and forth is the problem.
0 1962-03-13, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
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.
0 1962-07-21, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I shall write and tell you afterwards what this way of yoga is. Or if you come here I shall speak to you about it. In this matter the spoken word is better than the written. At present I can only say that its root-principle is to make a harmony and unity of complete knowledge, complete works and complete Bhakti [Devotion], to raise all this above the mind and give it its complete perfection on the supramental level of Vijnana [Gnosis]. This was the defect of the old yoga the mind and the Spirit it knew, and it was satisfied with the experience of the Spirit in the mind. But the mind can grasp only the divided and partial; it cannot wholly seize the infinite and indivisible. The minds means to reach the infinite are Sannyasa [Renunciation], Moksha [Liberation] and Nirvana, and it has no others. One man or another may indeed attain this featureless Moksha, but what is the gain? The Brahman, the Self, God are ever present. What God wants in man is to embody Himself here in the individual and in the community, to realize God in life.
The old way of yoga failed to bring about the harmony or unity of Spirit and life: it instead dismissed the world as Maya [Illusion] or a transient Play. The result has been loss of life-power and the degeneration of India. As was said in the Gita, These peoples would perish if I did not do worksthese peoples of India have truly gone down to ruin. A few sannyasins and bairagis [renunciants] to be saintly and perfect and liberated, a few bhaktas [lovers of God] to dance in a mad ecstasy of love and sweet emotion and Ananda [Bliss], and a whole race to become lifeless, void of intelligence, sunk in deep tamas [inertia]is this the effect of true spirituality? No, we must first attain all the partial experiences possible on the mental level and flood the mind with spiritual delight and illumine it with spiritual light, but afterwards we must rise above. If we cannot rise above, to the supramental level, that is, it is hardly possible to know the worlds final secret and the problem it raises remains unsolved. There, the ignorance which creates a duality of opposition between the Spirit and Matter, between truth of spirit and truth of life, disappears. There one need no longer call the world Maya. The world is the eternal Play of God, the eternal manifestation of the Self. Then it becomes possible to fully know and fully realize Godto do what is said in the Gita, To know Me integrally. The physical body, the life, the mind and understanding, the supermind and the Ananda these are the spirits five levels. The higher man rises on this ascent the nearer he comes to the state of that highest perfection open to his spiritual evolution. Rising to the Supermind, it becomes easy to rise to the Ananda. One attains a firm foundation in the condition of the indivisible and infinite Ananda, not only in the timeless Parabrahman [Absolute] but in the body, in life, in the world. The integral being, the integral consciousness, the integral Ananda blossoms out and takes form in life. This is the central clue of my yoga, its fundamental principle.
This is no easy change to make. After these fifteen years I am only now rising into the lowest of the three levels of the Supermind and trying to draw up into it all the lower activities. But when this siddhi will be complete, then I am absolutely certain that through me God will give to others the siddhi of the Supermind with less effort. Then my real work will begin. I am not impatient for success in the work. What is to happen will happen in Gods appointed time. I have no hasty or disorderly impulse to rush into the field of work in the strength of the little ego. Even if I did not succeed in my work I would not be shaken. This work is not mine but Gods. I will listen to no other call; when God moves me then I will move.
0 1962-07-31, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
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.
0 1962-09-05, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
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.
0 1962-10-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
When she next saw Satprem, Mother added the following correction: "After you left, they came. It's not I who remembered they MADE me remember! There was Saraswati saying, 'What about my sitar?' And Krishna, 'What about my flute?' (Mother laughs) There was another one also, I don't remember who. They were really upset! They told me right away, 'What are you talking about! We LOVE music.' All right. 'Fine,' I said (Mother laughs). It's trueKrishna is a great musician, and Saraswati is the perfection of expression.... Now that we have acknowledged their merits (Mother bows), go on with your reading."
Ysaye (1838-1931): celebrated Belgian violinist, colleague of Rubinstein.
0 1962-12-15, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Perpetual evolution towards perfection.
Mortality is the result.
0 1963-01-14, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Virtue claims to seek perfection, but perfection is a totality. So the two movements are contradictory: virtue, which eliminates, prunes, sets limits, and perfection, which accepts everything, rejects nothing but puts everything in its place, evidently cannot go well together.
Taking life seriously generally consists of two movements: the first is to give importance to things that probably have none, and the second is to want life to be limited to a certain number of qualities considered to be pure and worthy. With some (for instance, those Sri Aurobindo refers to here: the prudish or the puritans), that virtue becomes dry, barren, gray, aggressive, and almost always finds fault in all that is joyful, free and happy.
0 1963-03-06, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
If what belongs to the supramental world materialized abruptly, rather than through a slow evolution that would be something which man, as a mental being, even if his mentality, his mental domain, were brought to perfection, could call a miracle, for it is the intervention in his conscious life of something he doesnt consciously carry within him. The taste for miracles, which is very strong (much stronger in children or in hearts that have remained childlike than in highly mentalized beings), is basically the faith that the aspiration for the Marvelous will come true, that things beyond all that we may expect of normal life will come true.
In fact, for education, people should always encourage both tendencies side by side: the thirst for the Marvelous, the seemingly unrealizable, for something that fills you with a sense of divinity, while at the same time encouraging, in the perception of the world as it is, an exact, correct and sincere observation, the abolition of all imaginings, a constant control, and a most practical and meticulous feeling for exactness in details. Both tendencies should go side by side. Generally, people kill one with the idea that its necessary in order to develop the otherwhich is totally erroneous. The two can coexist, and as knowledge grows, a moment comes when you understand that they are two aspects of the same thing, namely, a clear vision, a superior discernment. But instead of the vision and discernment being limited and narrow, they become absolutely sincere, correct, exactAND immense, embracing an entire field thats not yet part of the concrete Manifestation.
--
An eternally perfect universe, eternally manifesting eternal perfection, would lack the joy of progress. This I feel very intensely. Very intensely. We see no farther than the tip of our nose, not even one second of Infinity, and that second doesnt contain all that wed like to experience and know, so we complain, Oh, no! This world is no good. But if we come out of our second into the Whole, immediately we feel so intensely all that the need for progress has brought to the Manifestation.
And yet yet it is still limited to the receiving instrument. There comes a point when even the creative Force of this universe feels very small if It doesnt merge, doesnt unite with the creative Force of all other universes.
0 1963-03-27, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Then I thought: now, Sri Aurobindo, its quite clear; for him, the goal was perfection. perfection not in the sense of a summit but of an all-inclusive totality in which everything is represented, has a place. And I saw that this perfection would comemust comein stages. He announced something the realization of which will stretch over thousands of years. So it must come in stages. And I saw that what I find essential, indispensable (everything is there, everything finds a place, yet there is a kind of anguishnot a personal anguish but a terrestrial anguish), is Security. A need for Securitywhatever you attempt, whatever you seek, even Love, even perfection, it needs Security. Nothing can be achieved with the feeling that all opposing forces can come and sweep everything away. We must find the point where nothing can be touched or destroyed or halted. Therefore, its Security, the very essence of Security. So I wrote:
Sri Aurobindo promised perfection
and to attain it, the first requisite,
--
Consequently, according to the experience of these last few days, the quest for Security is but a first step towards perfection. He came to announce (I put promise deliberately), to PROMISE perfection, but between that promise and its realization, there are many steps; and in my experience, this is the first step: the quest for Security. And it corresponds fairly well to the global state of mind.
(silence)
0 1963-05-03, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This isnt an intellectual reflection, its the notation of the experience: the constant, twofold movement of total acceptance of all that is, as an absolute condition to participate in all that will be, and at the same time, the perpetual effort towards a greater perfection. And this was the experience of all the cells.
The experience lasted more than an hour: the two conditions.
Thats exactly what made a sharp division in the whole spiritual thought or spiritual will of mankind. The point doesnt seem to have been understood. Some, like Buddha and that whole line, have declared that the world is incorrigible, that the only thing to do is to get out of it, and that it can never be otherwiseit changes, but really remains the same. The result is a certain attitude of perfect acceptance. So, for them, the goal is to get out that is, you escape: you leave the world as it is and escape. Then there are the others, who sense a perfection towards which men strive indefinitely and which is realized progressively. And I see more and more that the two movements complement each other, and not only complement each other but are almost indispensable to each other.
In other words, the change that arises from a refusal to accept the world as it is has no force, no power: what is needed is an acceptance not only total but comprehensive, joyousto find supreme joy in things in order to have (its not a question of right or power) in order to make it possible for things to change.
0 1963-05-11, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You see, Mahalakshmi is the Divine Mothers aspect of love, the perfection of manifested love, which must come before this supreme Love (which is beyond the Manifestation and the Nonmanifestation) can be expressed the supreme Love referred to in Savitri when the Supreme sends Savitri to the earth:
For ever love, O beautiful slave of God!
--
12 is the perfection of the creation: perfect creation.
30 is The 3 is Sachchidananda and the 30 its external expression (because 10 means something expressed). So 30 is the manifestation of Sachchidananda.
Thus we have first 6, then 12 (a perfection of manifestation), then 30, the manifestation of Sachchidananda, and 48, the manifestation of the Infinite. You see, its beginning to come alive!
Afterwards comes 42: its the dual manifestation, that is to say, the Supreme and Nature.
--
The 12 is the figure of the Mahashakti. Its the essential creation, the creation in its essence the creative Power. And perfection, too: the perfection in the execution. The 12 is a very important figure (24 is two times 12, and 36, three times).
48 is four times 12. Its an extremely important figure. Extremely important.
0 1963-05-25, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Basically we always try to cut things into small pieces. It evidently means the manifestation, a new manifestation of the Divine, which takes place some time after the Divine in man is resuscitated. The Divine in man is resuscitated, thats very clear: it has become conscious. And after a time (4 is the manifestation, 10 is the perfection of the manifestation), the perfection of the manifestation of God resuscitated in man allows that universal or cosmic thing to manifest. If you take it like that, it makes sense.
That universal thing might be a collective transformation. A transformation thats no longer exclusively individual the descent of the Holy Spirit into the collectivity?
0 1963-07-20, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
No, its no fun. Its interesting only for someone who finds interest in EVERYTHING, to whom EVERYTHING is interesting, that is to say, who has the sort of will for perfection that neglects no detailo therwise, it isnt As soon as you enter the mental realm, of course, the mind says, Ah, no! No, its a waste of time. It isnt, but the mind regards all that as twaddle.
(silence)
0 1963-07-24, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And yet, for some time now and increasingly, there has been an extremely concrete Response to a kind of aspiration (a call or prayer) in which I say to the Lord, Supreme Lord, manifest Your Love. (It comes at the end of a long invocation in which I ask Him to manifest all His aspects one after another, one after another, and it ends like that.) But then, remarkably enough, at that moment there comes a Response which is growing clearer and clearer, stronger and stronger. But Sri Aurobindo says that Truth should be established first, and that what he calls the Supramental is the supreme Truth, the Divine Truth. It corresponds to what I noticed while translating that last chapter on the perfection of the being in the Yoga of Self- perfection: I kept thinking, But thats only the aspect of Truth; all that he expresses is the aspect of Truth; always and everywhere, its the angle of Truth; and his supramental action is an action of Truth.
I didnt know he had said it, but its written clearly here:
0 1963-07-27, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
What the supramental will do the mind cannot foresee or lay down. The mind is ignorance seeking for the Truth, the supramental by its very definition is the Truth-Consciousness, Truth in possession of itself and fulfilling itself by its own power. In a supramental world im perfection and disharmony are bound to disappear. But what we propose just now is not to make the earth a supramental world but to bring down the supramental as a power and established consciousness in the midst of the restto let it work there and fulfill itself as Mind descended into Life and Matter and has worked as a Power there to fulfill itself in the midst of the rest. This will be enough to change the world and to change Nature by breaking down her present limits. But what, how, by what degrees it will do it, is a thing that ought not to be said nowwhen the Light is there, the Light will itself do its workwhen the supramental Will stands on earth, that Will will decide. It will establish a perfection, a harmony, a Truth-creation for the rest, well, it will be the rest that is all.
(XXII.13)
0 1963-09-18, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Though, yes, there was that experience the other day, when all was the Lord, all, with all things as they are, as we see them; when all was That in SUCH a perfect whole, perfect because it was so complete, and so harmonious because it was so conscious, and in a perpetual Movement of progression towards a greater perfection. (Thats something odd, things cant stay still for a quarter of a second: they are constantly, constantly, constantly progressing towards a more perfect Totality.) Then, at that moment, if the Power acts (probably it does act), if the Power acts, it acts as it should. But it isnt always there it isnt always there, there is still a sense of the things that are to fade away and of those that are to comeof the passage; a progression which which isnt all-containing.
But in that state, it seems that what you see MUST beand inevitably (I should say necessarily), it is. And probably instantly so. But you have to see the whole at once for your vision to be all-powerful. If you see only one point (as, for example, when you feel that the action on earth is limited to a certain field that depends on you), as long as you see that way, you cant be all-powerful, its not possiblenot possible. Its inevitably conditioned.
--
It is impossible for any change, any change towards perfection (I dont mean a regression, because thats another phenomenon), its impossible for any change, even in one element or one point of the earth consciousness, not to make the whole earth participate in that change. Necessarily.
Everything is closely knit together. And a vibration somewhere has TERRESTRIAL consequences I dont say universal, I say terrestrialnecessarily.
0 1963-10-19, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There is a constant aspiration in the body for everything that can perfect itperfect the instrument, I mean and there is very, very little asking for Power. When Sri Aurobindo was here, there was a clear awareness of the necessity of Power, and several times I said, It is the supramental Power that will manifest first. Because, without Power, it will be impossible: the mass of opposition in the world is sufficient to swallow up everything, just as the Light was swallowed up in 60the supramental Light and Consciousness were swallowed up; it will be the same thing. But afterwards, when I had to do the whole task, I no longer insisted on this point [Power], there wasnt the sense of this necessity any more but rather the feeling of a WHOLE that has to progress together and manifest together. A kind of perfection of the Whole.
But its coming.
0 1963-11-20, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Everyone is born with (what can I call it?) some special twist (laughing)I know my own twist, I know it quite well! (I dont talk about it because it isnt enjoyable.) But thats what remains last of all. With our idiotic human logic, we think, Thats what should go first, but its not true: its what goes last! Even when it all becomes clear, clear (gesture above), even when you have all the experiences, the habit stays on and it keeps coming back. So you push it back: it rises again from the subconscient; you chase it away: it comes back from outside. So if for one minute you arent on your guard, it shows up againoh, what a nuisance! But Sri Aurobindo wrote about this somewhere, I dont remember the words; I read it very recently, and when I read it, I thought, Ah, there it is! He knew it was that way. So it comforted me, and I thought, All right, then. He said that he who has purified his mind and so on and so forth, who is ready to work towards perfection (its in the Synthesis, The Yoga of Self- perfection), He is ready and patient for lapses and the recurrence of old errors, and he works quietly, waiting patiently till the time comes for them to leave. I thought, Very well, thats how it is now. I am patiently waiting for the time when (though I dont miss any opportunity to catch them by the tip of their nose, or the tip of their ear, and to say, Ha, youre still here!).
The first thing is to detach your consciousness, thats most important. And to say: I-AM-NOT-THIS, its something that has been ADDED, placed to enable me to touch Matter but it isnt me. And then if you say, That is me (gesture upward), youll see that you will be happy, because it is lovelylovely, luminous, sparkling. Its really fine, it has an exceptional quality. And thats you. But you have to say, That is me, and be convinced that its you. Naturally, the old habits come to deny it, but you must know that theyre old habits, nothing else, they dont matter that is you.
0 1963-12-03, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Very long ago, many times over, when I looked at the universe (I dont mean the earth: the universe), it was that way (same gesture of a round totality). How can I put it? It gave the feeling of moving forward, of moving forward towards a progressive perfection. For years on end, my perception of the earth has been that way; and now, it takes place completely at will, in the sense that it takes only just a small movement in the consciousness (gesture of a trigger or a slight reversal, a drawing within) for the whole earth to move that way, along with the events and the inner complications. But now, that same consciousness of the whole works that way: when it thinks of something (for some reason of work, not because of an arbitrary decision), the thing imposes itself; its a whole set of things that presents itself as the TOTALITY on which the action must take place. So it may be a small thing like this sports festival, it may be the Ashram (very often the Ashram as a whole), it may be a part of the earth, or sometimes even a single individual (who is no longer an individual but a set or a world of things, a totality4). A totality of things (round gesture) that move within themselves in (Mother draws within that totality small movements, individual and local, like waves or currents of force). Oh, its most interesting! And even there, there is no more notion of this person, that person, so-and-soall that vanishes.
But when you have to speak, what can you do? You cant spend all your time explaining it all; besides, its unintelligible for whoever hasnt lived it.
0 1963-12-14, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
What I told you last time is still going on and intensifying. But sometimes, at a given moment, a movement comes to me, some reaction, for instance, and something complains (all this is in the BODYs consciousness), the body says, Oh, I havent got beyond that, what a wretched shame! So immediately, there is an answer, and an answer which Its odd, it doesnt come from one place, it comes from everywhere; and the bodys protest also doesnt come from one place: it isnt ONE thing or ONE body that protests, its a way of being; a terrestrial way of being which is expressed by: Oh, I am still like that! And the immediate answer: But dont you see, dont you see the usefulness of it? Then I am shown a whole tangled web of movements, vibrations, reactions, actions, all of it; and on one small spot there is a need for a small force: there is a small, slightly inert thing which serves as a support for something else and then everything becomes clear, everything falls into place! You see so clearly it is egoism; egoism which wants personal, individual perfection: instead of wanting overall progress, it wants personal progress, it still makes breaks where there are none, separations where they do not exist. And you see how a movement going through [Mother] should be accepted when that is its place and when it is the right time for it to be useful, so that the WHOLE may follow its roadits very, very interesting.
That way, you can gauge precisely how much is left of the old habit of personal reaction, especially in the emotive part of the universal being: its the emotive part that still remains the most personal, even more so than the purely physical, material part. As soon as the emotive part comes into play, it personalizes, because it ENJOYS individual reactions; it is the part that LOVES to feel it loves, that LOVES to feel its own emotions, and because of it there remains a faint personal coloration. And when there occurs a somewhat darker or backward movement, the body is indignant and doesnt understand that its part of the whole, that the whole must go forward together and you cant separate a piece of it to perfect itit cant be done! Its impossible. Its not that it shouldnt be doneit CANNOT be done. Everything goes together.
--
The thing that resists the most on the terrestrial level (perhaps even on the universal level) is that zone (which is more pronounced in the earths atmosphere), the emotive zone. I had the clear perception that it CLINGS to its emotions, it ENJOYS its emotions. This counteracts the effort towards perfection, towards perfect unity the pleasure of emotions.
There was an experience for a few seconds, with the clear vision and immediate action of the supreme Force over this [the emotive zone], but the experience wasnt sufficient so it could be noted down.
0 1963-12-18, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, a kind of social perfection on earth.
Its Schweitzer, Gandhi, Philanthropy, Charity.
0 1964-01-08, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The Divine, for us, is always the perfection not yet manifested, all the marvels not yet manifested, and which must keep on growing, of course.
The far end of the Manifestation (assuming that there was a progressive descent there may have been one, I dont knowthere have been so many perceptions of what happened, sometimes contradictory, always incomplete and humanized), but if you consider the aspect of evolution, you tend to consider a far end from which you proceed to another far end (its obviously childish, but anyway), or an extreme way of being that grows towards the opposite Extreme Way of Being; well, what seems to me the blackest and most inert, the total negation of that to which we aspire, is what constitutes Falsehood.
--
Oh, if we wanted to make poetry (its no longer a philosophical or spiritual way of seeing, but a pictorial way), we could imagine a Lord who is a totality of all the possible and impossible possibilities, in quest of a Purity and perfection that can never be reached and are ever progressive and the Lord would get rid of all in the Manifestation that weighs down His unfoldingHe would begin with the nastiest. You see it? Total Night, total Unconsciousness, total Hatred (no, hatred still implies that Love exists), the incapacity to feel. Nothingness.
Were on the way. I still have a little bit of it [that total Unconsciousness] left.
0 1964-01-29, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The Mothers victory is essentially a victory of each sadhak over himself. It can only be then that any external form of work can come to a harmonious perfection.
November 12, 1937
0 1964-03-28, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It was really an experience. It lasted a few minutes (I was sitting at my table having my breakfast), but during those few minutes it was a perfection.
The two poles had met.2
0 1964-07-18, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The one safety for man lies in learning to live from within outward, not depending on institutions and machinery to perfect him, but out of his growing inner perfection availing to shape a more perfect form and frame of life.1
It made me see something so interesting. Automatically, human thought is always convinced (automatically convinced, anyway) that things must follow the mechanism. For the body, in order to get cured, to change something, they instinctively feel that things have to follow the mechanism. For example, Ive had these last few days an interesting experience concerning a question: What will the form of the superman be like? All the conceptions speak of a man with a more perfect form; but thats only an improvement. And man does represent a radical change from the ape but from what point of view? Not so much because of the form of his body as because of his POWER OVER THE MECHANISM OF LIFE. So, following this idea, I had a confirmation of what I had seen, that Matter became plastic and obeyed the will. So everyone had a certain amount of matter at his disposal and gave it the forms he liked.
--
The one safety for man lies in learning to live from within outward, not depending on institutions and machinery to perfect him, but out of his growing inner perfection availing to shape a more perfect form and frame of life; for by this inwardness we shall best be able both to see the truth of the high things which we now only speak with our lips and form into outward intellectual constructions, and to apply their truth sincerely to all our outward living. If we are to found the kingdom of God in humanity, we must first know God and see and live the diviner truth of our being in ourselves; otherwise how shall a new manipulation of the constructions of the reason and scientific systems of efficiency which have failed us in the past, avail to establish it? It is because there are plenty of signs that the old error continues and only a minority, leaders perhaps in light, but not yet in action, are striving to see more clearly, inwardly and truly, that we must expect as yet rather the last twilight which divides the dying from the unborn age than the real dawning. For a time, since the mind of man is not yet ready, the old spirit and method may yet be strong and seem for a short while to prosper; but the future lies with the men and nations who first see beyond both the glare and the dusk the gods of the morning and prepare themselves to be fit instruments of the Power that is pressing towards the light of a greater ideal.
Sri Aurobindo
0 1964-08-11, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Of course, very philosophical or learned people will pity you, but personally I dont care! I dont care. I am not a philosopher, I am not a scholar, I am not a savant, and I declare it very loudly: neither a philosopher nor a scholar nor a savant. And no pretension. Nor a littrateur, nor an artist I am nothing at all. I am truly convinced of this. And its absolutely unimportant thats perfection for human beings.
There is no greater joy than to know that you can do nothing and are absolutely helpless, that youre not the one who does, and that what little is donelittle or big, it doesnt matteris done by the Lord; and the responsibility is fully His. That makes you happy. With that, you are happy.
0 1964-09-23, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So there is this problem, a problem of every second, which I must solve every second by the corresponding attitude that leads to the True Thing; and at the same time, there is the other attitude of acceptance of all that is for instance, of what leads to disintegration: the acceptance of disintegration, defeat, decomposition, weakening, decayall things that, naturally, to the ordinary man, are detestable and against which he reacts violently. But since you are told that everything is the expression of the divine Will and must be accepted as the divine Will, there comes this problem, which crops up almost constantly and every minute: if you accept those things as the expression of the divine Will, quite naturally things will follow their habitual course towards disintegration, but what is the TRUE ATTITUDE that can give you that perfect equanimity in all circumstances, and at the same time give a maximum of force and power and will to the perfection that must be realized?
As soon as we deal with even the vital plane, even the lower vital, the problem doesnt arise, its very easy; but here, in the cells of the body, in this life? In this life of every minute, which is so constricted, so shriveled, so microscopic. What should you do when you know that you mustnt bring into play a will to reject all that is a decay, and when, at the same time, you cant accept decay because you dont see it as a perfect expression of the Divine?
--
Its not even that I have the feeling of the years going bythere is nothing like that, its not that! Its the problem of living from second to second, from minute to minute. I dont at all think, Oh, the years are going by , its a long time since all that has been over. Its not that, its the easy path of passive acceptance, which evidently leads (evidently, I mean not through reasoning, but THROUGH EXPERIENCE), which leads to increased decay; or else, that intensity of aspiration for the perfection that must manifest, for all that must be, an aspiration which keeps everything at a standstill in that expectation. Its the opposition between these two attitudes.
The problem is made worse by the fact that the goodwill of the cells (a necessarily ignorant goodwill) doesnt know if one attitude is better than the other, if it should choose between the two, if both should be accepted they dont know! And as it isnt mentalized or formulated or with words, its very difficult. Oh, as soon as the words are there all that has been said comes back, and its over. Its not that, its not that anymore. Even if strong sensations or a vital force come up, its not a problem anymore. The problem is only HERE, in this (Mother strikes her body).
0 1964-10-07, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I quite understand: some people dont like the idea of a Divine because it immediately gets mixed up with all the European or Western conceptions (which are dreadful), and so it makes their lives a little bit more complicated but we dont need that! The something we need, the perfection we need, the Light we need, the Love we need, the Truth we need, the supreme perfection we need and thats all. The formulas the fewer the formulas, the better. A need, a need, a need that THE Thing alone can satisfy, nothing else, no half measure. That alone. And then, move on! Move on! Your path will be your path, it doesnt matter; any path, any path whatever, even the follies of todays American youth can be a path, it doesnt matter.
As Sri Aurobindo said, if you cant have Gods love (I am translating), well then, find a way to fight with God and have a wrestlers relationship with Him.1
0 1964-11-12, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And all of a sudden, I saw thats not it at all! When they have the experience, at the time of the experience, it is the thing ITSELF, the perfection ITSELF that has been reached, and they are in a state of perfection; and it is because they COME OUT of it that they feel they have to slowly prepare themselves for the result. I dont know if I am expressing myself clearly, but my notation was like this: perfection is there, always, coexisting with im perfection perfection and im perfection are coexistent, always, and not only simultaneous, but in the SAME PLACE (Mother presses her two hands together), I dont know how to put itcoexistent. Which means that at any second and in any conditions, you can attain perfection: it isnt something that has to be gained little by little, through successive progress; perfection is THERE, and YOU change states, from the state of im perfection to the state of perfection; and it is the capacity to remain in that state of perfection that grows for some reason or other and gives you the feeling that you must prepare yourself or transform yourself.
That was very real and very concrete.
--
The perfection is there coexistent
with the im perfection and attainable
--
Yes, it isnt something that becomes: perfection is an absolute state that can be attained at any moment.
And then, the conclusion is very interesting (Mother looks for another scrap of paper). You remember, I told you that for the body consciousness, the problem that remains hard to solve is that notion (to me, it has become just a notion, it isnt a truth), of the preexistence of all things: of the state in which each thing IS, even in its unfolding. You understand, it would be as if all the POINTS of the unfolding were preexistent.
--
Its the same thing again: Truth is there, Falsehood is there (Mother presses her two hands together); perfection is there, im perfection is there (same gesture); theyre perfectly coexistent, in the same place the minute you perceive perfection, im perfection disappears, the Illusion disappears.
Only, I am not speaking here of a mental conception of some vague and general state: I am referring to that state of infinitesimal vibration (which they discovered when they tried to find the makeup of Matter: thats what they are trying to reduce Matter to), it is that state of vibration, it is THERE, its in that state of vibration that, for the concrete world, im perfection must be replaced by perfection. Do you understand what I am saying? Or does it make no sense?
I dont see. You mean its at that stage, at that level that
0 1964-12-02, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Ive had some very precise memorieslived memoriesof a human life on earth, quite primitive (I mean outside any mental civilization), a human life on earth that wasnt an evolutionary life, but the manifestation of beings from another world. I lived in that way for a timea lived memory. I still see it, I still have the image of it in my memory. It had nothing to do with civilization and mental development: it was a blossoming of force, of beauty, in a NATURAL, spontaneous life, like animal life, but with a perfection of consciousness and power that far surpasses the one we have now; and indeed with a power over all surrounding Nature, animal nature and vegetable nature and mineral nature, a DIRECT handling of Matter, which men do not havethey need intermediaries, material instruments, whereas this was direct. And there were no thoughts or reasoning: it was spontaneous (gesture indicating the direct radiating action of will on Matter). I have the lived memory of this. It must have existed on earth because it wasnt premonitory: it wasnt a vision of the future, it was a past memory. So there must have been a moment It was limited to two beings: I dont have the feeling there were many. And there was no childbirth or anything animal, absolutely not; it was a life, yes, a truly higher life in a natural setting, but with an extraordinary beauty and harmony! And I dont have the feeling it was (how can I explain?) something known; the relationships with vegetable life and animal life were spontaneous ones, absolutely harmonious, and with the sensation of an undisputed power (you didnt even feel it was possible for it not to be), undisputed, but without any idea that there were other beings on earth and that it was necessary to look after them or make a demonstrationnothing of the sort, absolutely nothing of mental life, nothing. A life just like that, like a beautiful plant or a beautiful animal, but with an inner knowledge of things, perfectly spontaneous and effortlessan effortless life, perfectly spontaneous. I dont even have the feeling that there was any question of food, not that I remember; but there was the joy of Life, the joy of Beauty: there were flowers, there was water, there were trees, there were animals, and all that was friendly, but spontaneously so. And there were no problems! No problems to be solved, nothing at allone just lived!
An uncomplicated life, definitely.
0 1965-05-19, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
For the whole, its always, every instant, the most favorable to the divine evolution. And for the elements consciously attuned to the Divine, its the best for the perfection of their union.
But it shouldnt be forgotten that its constantly changing, it isnt a static best; its a best that, if retained, wouldnt be the best of the next moment. And its because the human consciousness always tends to want to retain statically what it finds or considers to be good that it finds this best always eludes it. That effort to retain is what warps things.
--
I looked at the problem when I tried to understand the position of Buddha, who reproached the Manifestation for its impermanence; to him, perfection and permanence were one and the same thing. In his contact with the manifested universe, he had observed a perpetual change, and so his conclusion was that the manifested world was imperfect and had to disappear. And the change (the impermanence) does not exist in the Nonmanifest, therefore the Nonmanifest is the true Divine. When I looked and concentrated on this point, I saw that his observation was indeed correct: the Manifestation is absolutely impermanent, its a perpetual transformation.
But in the Manifestation, perfection is to have a movement of transformation or unfolding identical to the divine Movement, the essential Movement. Whereas all that belongs to the unconscious or tamasic1 creation tries to keep its existence unchanged, instead of lasting by constant transformation.
Thats why certain minds have postulated that the creation was the result of an error. But we find all the possible conceptions: the perfect creation, then a fault that introduced the error; the creation itself as a lower movement, which must end since it began; then the conception of the Vedas according to what Sri Aurobindo told us about it, which was a progressive and infinite unfolding or discoveryindefinite and infiniteof the All by Himself. Naturally, all these are human translations. For the moment, as long as we express ourselves humanly, its a human translation; but depending on the initial stand of the human translator (that is, a stand that accepts the primordial error, or the accident in the creation, or the conscious supreme Will since the beginning, in a progressive unfolding), the conclusions or the descents in the yogic attitude are different. There are the nihilists, the Nirvanists and the illusionists, there are all the religions (like Christianity) that accept the devils intervention in one form or another; and then pure Vedism, which is the Supremes eternal unfolding in a progressive objectification. And depending on your taste, you are here or there or here, and there are nuances. But according to what Sri Aurobindo felt to be the most total truth, according to that conception of a progressive universe, you are led to say that, every minute, what takes place is the best possible for the unfolding of the whole. The logic of it is absolute. And I think that all the contradictions can only stem from a more or less pronounced tendency for this or that position, that other position; all the minds that accept the intrusion of a fault or an error and the resulting conflict between forces pulling backward and forces pulling forward, can naturally dispute the possibility. But you are forced to say that for someone who is spiritually attuned to the supreme Will or the supreme Truth, what happens is necessarily, every instant, the best for his personal realizationthis is true in all cases. The unconditioned best can only be accepted by one who sees the universe as an unfolding, the Supreme growing more and more conscious of Himself.
0 1965-05-29, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The only point (I dont know if science has solved it) is the unpredictability of the future. But maybe they say thats because they havent yet reached the perfection of their instruments and methods! For instance, maybe they think that just when man appeared on the earth, if there had been the instruments they now have, they would have been able to foresee the transformation from animal to man, or the appearance of man as a result of something in the animal I am not aware (Mother smiles) of their most modern pretensions. In that case, they should be able to measure or perceive the difference in the atmosphere now, with the intrusion of something that wasnt therebecause that still belongs to the material field.3 But I dont think thats what Sri Aurobindo meant; I think he meant that the world of the soul and the inner realities are so much more wonderful than the physical realities that all the physical wonders make you smileits rather that.
But the key you speak of, that key they dont have, is it not precisely the soul? A power of the soul over Matter, a power to change Matterto work physical wonders, too. Does the soul have that power?
0 1965-07-10, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Well, yes, its a disorder. But disorder is everywhere! If its any consolation to you, my body too is in disorder. It isnt clearly a disorder but an almost total lack of harmonyits the constant condition of life; its the result of effort, of resistance, of enduring, and also of that tension of being in search of something you hope to reach, but which always eludes you the something that eludes you is That, its that Harmony (a Harmony which, in its perfection, is Ananda, thats obvious). And the constant state is like that. In fact, thats what causes fatigue, tension and so on. Last night, I spent the whole night looking at that, and I was wondering, Why is that so? We are constantly in that state, straining after something that eludes us. And then the senses, the whole realm of the senses seems to be in a constantly false state, and they use that state of tension to give you the feeling that this is going wrong, that is going wrong, and this and that. And if by ill luck there is a vague hint of mental collaboration (from that famous physical mind), then things go awry, they become something really unpleasant.
But its not inescapable. Its not inescapable and its not realwhat I call real is something that comes from the supreme Will directly. That is true; the rest isnt true, its the product of all the confusion (zigzag gesture downward) and of all the disorder of the human consciousness illness isnt true. I dont think that one illness in a hundred (oh, maybe in a thousand) is true. Some are the expression of a Will for something wrong to be well shaken, demolished, so that, in that chaos, something truer may take form but thats an exceptional state.
0 1965-07-21, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I wrote this very fast, then I left it there. But heres this mind showing itself to be like the other (Mother looks for a second note), it has a sort of concern for perfection in the expression; and in the afternoon of the next day (it generally happens after my bath; there is a sort of special activity at that time), after my bath it was in that state and I had to write this (it had become quite like a prayer):
OM, supreme Lord,
0 1965-11-27, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It was very charming, it was as though I were living in it. Contradictions had disappeared. As though I lived in that perfection. And it was almost like the ideal conceived by the supramental consciousness of a humanity that had become as perfect as it can be. It was very good.
And it brings a great sense of rest. Tension, friction, all that disappearsimpatience, too. All that had completely disappeared.
0 1965-12-18, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Oh, I remember, I said the other day that perfection is eternal and its because of Matters resistance that, on earth, perfection is progressive.
In fact, a cancer.
0 1965-12-31, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Thats where, of course, I say that this realization isnt meant for weak beingsits meant for the stronger. And then, you are ashamed of whats weak in yourself, and you offer it, saying, Free me from my weakness. One has to be terribly strong to do that the strength of endurance untroubled by anything. Its like a perfection of malice which is there, forever saying (same gesture), You are mistaken, its not possible, you are mistaken, its not possible. And then, Look, here is proof of the truth of what I am telling you: Sri Aurobindo, he who knew, left. And if you listen and believe in it, youre absolutely done for. Youre quite simply done for. And thats what they want. Only they must not succeed, we must hold on. For how many years now (hammering gesture)? Fifteen years, mon petit for fifteen years (same gesture). Not a single day passes without attacks of that sort, not a single night passes without You say you see horrorsmon petit, your horrors must be something quite charming in comparison with the horrors I have seen! I dont think one human being can bear the sight of what I have seen. And its shown to me as if to tell me that all my ambitions, all of them, are mad. So then, I have only one answer, Lord, You are everywhere, You are in everything, and its for us to see You through everything.
Then it calms down.
0 1966-01-08, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The only creation for which there is any place here is the supramental, the bringing of the divine Truth down on the earth, not only into the mind and vital but into the body and into Matter. Our object is not to remove all limitations on the expansion of the ego or to give a free field and make unlimited room for the fulfillment of the ideas of the human mind or the desires of the ego-centred life-force. None of us are here to do as we like, or to create a world in which we shall at last be able to do as we like; we are here to do what the Divine wills and to create a world in which the Divine Will can manifest its truth no longer deformed by human ignorance or perverted and mistranslated by vital desire. The work which the sadhak of the supramental yoga has to do is not his own work for which he can lay down his own conditions, but the work of the Divine which he has to do according to the conditions laid down by the Divine. Our yoga is not for our own sake but for the sake of the Divine. It is not our personal manifestation that we are to seek, the manifestation of the individual ego freed from all bounds and from all bonds, but the manifestation of the Divine. Of that manifestation our own spiritual liberation, perfection, fullness is to be a result and a part, but not in any egoistic sense or for any ego-centred or self-seeking purpose. This liberation, perfection, fullness too must not be pursued for our own sake, but for the sake of the Divine.
Sri Aurobindo
0 1966-03-02, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Satprem then reads Mother an old Talk of April 17, 1951, and comes to a passage concerning the perfection of the physical instrument: Physical perfection in no way and by no means proves that a single step has been made towards spirituality. Physical perfection means that the instrument that will be used by the forceany forcewill be sufficiently perfect to be remarkably expressive. But the important point, the essential point, is the force that will use the instrument, and thats where a choice will have to be made. Mother remarks:)
I remember the exact moment when I said that the place, the time, the sound, everythingbecause at that moment, I suddenly felt a divine Will manifest. I remember having thought at that moment, Ah, it should be like this every time. And now it has come back. What was the date?
0 1966-03-09, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, but it seems to me that a state of perfection should embrace everything, so that one can be in the supreme state without its abolishing the material state.
But it doesnt abolish it.
--
There is a sort of certitude in the body that if, for the space of just a few seconds, I lost contact (I, meaning the body), if the body lost contact with the Supreme, it would die that very moment. Its only the Supreme that keeps it alive. Thats how it is. So naturally, to the ignorant and stupid consciousness of human beings, thats a pitiable condition and to me, its the true condition! Because for them, instinctively, spontaneously and in a so to say absolute way, the sign of perfection is the power of life, of ordinary life. Well, that no longer exists at allits completely gone.
Yes, quite a few times, several times, the body did ask the question, Why dont I feel Your Power and Your Force in me? And the answer was always a smiling answer (I am putting it into words, but its wordless), the answer is always: Patience, patience, you must be READY for that to be.
0 1966-03-26, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Thats another interesting point, because I was an outright atheist: till the age of twenty, the very idea of God made me furious. Therefore I had the most solid baseno imaginings, no mystic atavism; my mother was very much an unbeliever and so was my father. So from the point of view of atavism it was very good: positivism, materialism. Only one thing: since I was very small, a will for perfection in any field whatever; a will for perfection and the sense of a limitless consciousness no limits to ones progress or to ones power or to ones scope. And that, since I was very small. But mentally, an absolute refusal to believe in a God: I believed only in what I could touch and see. And the whole faculty for experiences was already there (they didnt manifest because the time hadnt come). Only, the sense of a Light here (gesture above the head), which began when I was very small, I was five, along with a will for perfection. A will for perfection: oh, whatever I did always had to be the best I could do. And then, a limitless consciousness. These two things. And my return to the Divine came about through Thons teaching, when I was told for the first time, The Divine is within, there (Mother strikes her breast). Then I felt at once, Yes, this is it. Then I did all the work thats taught to find Him again; and through here (gesture to the heart center) I went there (gesture of junction above with the Supreme). But outwardly, mentally, no religiona horror of religions.
And I see now that it was the most solid base possible for this experience: there was no danger of imaginings.
0 1966-06-08, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It is obvious that that perfection in sincerity is possible only in the most material part of the consciousness.
Thats where you can be, exist, act without watching yourself be, without watching yourself exist, without watching yourself act, with perfect sincerity.
0 1966-08-03, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
All those are experiences of nuances (or nuances of experiences, I dont know how to put it) that become necessary and concrete only in the physical consciousness. And then, it results in a perfection of realizationa perfection in the minutest detailwhich none of those realizations have in the higher realms. I am learning what the physical realization contri butes in terms of concreteness, accuracy and perfection in the Realization; and how all those experiences interpenetrate, combine with each other, complement each otherits wonderful.
At the same time, I am little by little learning from demonstration the true use that must be made of mental activity. Its purpose is easy to understand: it has been used to educate, awaken and so on; but its not something that after having done its duty and fulfilled its purpose will disappear. It will be used in its own manner, but in its true manner and true place. And it becomes wonderfully interesting. For instance, the idea that you are what you think, that your knowledge is your power, well, it seems to be a necessity of the transition, of the passage from one state of consciousness to another, but its not, as I said, something that will disappear when something else is reached: it will be used, but in its own place. Because when you experience union, the mind appears unnecessary: the direct contact, the direct action, do without it. But in its true place, acting in the true way, sticking to its place (a place not of necessity or even usefulness, but of refinement in action), it becomes quite interesting. When you see the Whole as a growing self-awareness, the mind enrichesit enriches the Whole. And when each thing is in its own place, it all becomes so harmonious and simple, but with such full and complete and perfect simplicity that everything is used.
0 1966-09-07, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I say its amusing, but I know, its like that all the timeall the time, all the time, for everything. I am in a state of (what should I call it?) of contemplative stillness, with that sort of constant aspiration for for the perfection we want to have: That which we want to bring down into this world. Thats all. And then, from every side, from just everywhere, all kinds of things come (gesture of communication): I am suddenly thinking of that, or I suddenly have an answer to this, or I suddenly And when the work is over, I immediately see: this (gesture to the forehead) has remained quiet, still, not even interested. Its like a transmittera receiver-transmitterin a telephone set. And I simply transmit. But I dont even have the curiosity to know why this or that came. Thats how it is: it goes out and comes; the answer goes out, the transmission, then the answer. And everything remains quiet (gesture to the forehead). So I know how things happen, but as I dont say to myself, Oh, this or that or this is the reason, when the outward proof comes [such as this Talk about money], its amusing!
Its a strange thing. The state of consciousness of the bodys cells is a sort of keen, constant thirst for what must be: the vibration of Harmony, of Consciousness, of Light, Beauty, Purity. It isnt even expressed in words, but its an aspiration, and nothing but that. Nothing but that, nothing else. And then, [in that silent aspiration] things come like that, from every side. And the rather peculiar thing is that there are also pains, discomforts, appearances of illnessand it all comes from outside. And with always the same answer (gesture of Descent): put the divine Consciousness put the divine Consciousness, on everything. The Consciousness that contains the Peace, the Light, the Force.
0 1966-10-08, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
How?Very simple. Because these are mere words. When you practice without believing in God or in the Divine, you practice to reach a perfection, to make progress, for all sorts of reasons.
Are there many people (I am not referring to those who have a religion: they learn a catechism when they are quite small, so it doesnt have much meaning), but taking people as they come, are there many of them who believe in the Divine? Not in Europe, at any rate. But even here, there are quite a few who, by tradition, have a family deity, and yet when they are displeased they think nothing of taking the deity and throwing it into the Ganges! They do it, I know people who did it; they had a family Kali in their home, they took her and threw her into the Ganges because they were displeased with herif you believe in the Divine, you cant do such things, can you?
I dont know. Belief in the Divine? You thirst for a certain perfection, perhaps even to surpass yourself, to reach something higher than what is; when you are a philanthropist, you have an aspiration for mankind to be better, less unhappy and miserable, all kinds of things like thatyou can practice a yoga for that, but thats not believing. To believe is to have the faith that there cannot be a world without the Divine, thats what it is; the faith that the very existence of the world is proof of the Divine. And precisely not a belief, not something you thought over or were taught, none of all that: a faith. The faith which is a lived knowledge (not a learned knowledge) that the existence of the world is sufficient proof of the Divinewithout the Divine, no world. And its so obvious, of course, that you feel one has to be a bit stupid to think otherwise! And the Divine, not in the sense of raison dtre, goal, culmination, not all that: the world as it is is proof of the Divine. Because it IS the Divine in a certain aspect (a distorted enough aspect, but still).
To me its even stronger than that: when I look at a rose like the one I gave you, this thing which holds such a concentration of spontaneous beauty (not fabricated: a spontaneous beauty, a blossoming), you only have to see that and youre sure the Divine exists, its a certitude. You cant disbelieve, its impossible. Its like those peopleits fantastic!those people who have studied Nature, studied really in depth how everything works and occurs and exists: how can they study sincerely, carefully and painstakingly without being absolutely convinced that the Divine is there? We call it the Divine the Divine is quite tiny! (Mother laughs) To me, the existence is undeniable proof that there is nothing but THAT something we cannot name, cannot define, cannot describe, but which we can feel and BECOME more and more. A something which is more perfect than all perfections, more beautiful than all beauties, more wonderful than all wonders, which even a totality of all that is cannot expressand only THAT exists. And its not a something floating in nothingness: there is nothing but That.
By the Body of the Earth or the Sannyasin. Satprem complained of difficulty in writing the end of his book.
0 1966-10-26, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Because its an experience Ive had several times, and with all this work I am doing now, I understand better. You see, what seems to be perpetuated or preserved isnt individuals: its states of consciousness states of consciousness. Those states of consciousness manifest through many individuals and many different lives, and those states of consciousness are what progress towards a more and more luminous perfection. There are now, at present, all kinds of categories of states of consciousness that come one upon another in order to be put in contact with the Truth, the Light, the perfect Consciousness, and at the same time they have retained a sort of imprint (like a memory) of the moments when they manifested.
There is a big work of transformation of the material states of consciousness going on: the states of consciousness nearest to the Inconscient, the most material states of consciousness. They come like that [to present themselves to Mother], with one or two examples of their previous manifestation (perhaps even their first emergence from the Inconscient), and then I see the transition (along with what has transformed them, changed them or even simply altered them through successive manifestations), the transition up to the point when they are now presented before the supreme Consciousness for the final transformation. This is a perpetual work, so to speak, because, interestingly, its a work I can go on doing while seeing people. Generally my work was interrupted when I saw people, because I was busy with them and that diminished and limited the work: they represented a small aggregate of difficulties that enormously shrank the Action [of Mother]. But now its no longer like that. And the interesting point is that it places people in this or that curve of transformation of the consciousness. For some time I have been seeing a considerable number of people I had never seen before (with all the old or familiar people there was no difficulty, but with the new ones it generally caused a shrinking of the work), and now with this study of states of consciousness, people are placed: here, there, here (Mother draws different levels in space). And if they are receptive, they must go away [after seeing Mother] with a new impulse to transform themselves. Those who arent receptive just miss it; but they are no longer a disturbance: they come in and go out. And from that I know what state they are in I can even do it with photos, but when I see people its much more complete. Photos are no more than one moment of their being, while here, even what isnt being manifested is there, hidden behind, and can be seen, so I see the person more completely. Its very interesting. It transforms this whole burden of visitors into something interesting.
0 1966-10-29, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Not last night but the night before, I spent a long time, almost two hours of our time here, with Sri Aurobindo. I have told you he has something that translates as an abode (its magnificent, magnificent!) in the subtle physical. Its always immense, so clear, well-defined, yet fully open. And I get a sense of (Mother takes a deep breath) phew! open, luminousalways, in every case. He is there maybe not quite as he was here (but it makes no difference to me because the change has been very progressive: I have followed Sri Aurobindo almost from day to day, step by step), and he is perhaps rather taller, with perhaps a form that has greater perfection, I dont know, but to me, his expression (Mother smiles with her eyes closed) his expression is inexpressible. I spent a very, very long time with him. In those huge rooms (they are limitless, you know, you feel you could go indefinitely from one room to another, from one place to another), he was directing It was in a part of the place with a certain number of rooms (four, five or six, I dont know), large rooms where he was directing a pottery, just imagine! But it wasnt like here. There were objects made of clay. There wasnt any process of firing, painting or any like that (it wasnt like here), but there were shapes which looked like pottery shapes, and they had a power (Mother gestures downward) to manifest. And then, there was everything: animals, plants, people, things, everything, with all possible colors. I went from one to another, looking, explaining. I had spent a long time with him, and I knew exactly why and how it was done, and afterwards I went and studied the work and observed. Then the rooms were arranged, the things were put in their place: that was as if to show the result. And things charming in their simplicity, yet they contained an extraordinary power of manifestation! But they had a deep meaning. I took an object made of a very dark reddish brown earth, and it was badly put together, that is, the shape wasnt right and I showed it to the pottery foreman (there was a pottery foreman in each room, looking after the work). I showed it to him, and told him (it was fairly big at the bottom, with a small piece at the top [Mother draws a sort of vase with a neck], anyway it wasnt well done), I explained it to him, saying, You understand, its not properly balanced. And while I was holding it in my fingersit broke. Then he said to me, Oh, I am going to mend it. I answered, If you like, but its not as it should be. Of course, we say it with our words, but there, it had a very precise MEANING. Then, there were kinds of big openings between one room and another (they werent rooms, they were huge halls), and one went on to the place where they made fish! But the fish werent fish (!), they had another meaning. And there were fish this big, made of clay, colored and gleaming, magnificent: one was blue-green, another yellowish white, but pretty, so pretty! And they were kept on the floor as if it were water: the fish were kept on the floor, right in the way. So I thought, Thats not very convenient! (Mother laughs) And said like this, it all looks like childishness, but there it had a very deep meaning, very deep.
It was very interesting.
0 1966-12-07, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
When the words come quite spontaneously, its good, but Its an odd phenomenon: sometimes the pure experience alone is therewhat is it? You cant formulate it; in order to formulate it, you are immediately forced to use words, and words diminish. But I remember, at the time of the experience, I spoke, hardly hearing what I said, but I had the experience. (The experience was wonderfully clear, powerful, immenseuniversal, you know.) Then I listened to myself speaking, and I saw that first shrinkage. Then I began sensing the other mind making a tremendous effort to try and understand (!), and so I let the expression shrink a little more: I was obliged to let it shrink so as to make myself understood. And I followed all those phases of successive shrinkages. But at the time, the speech was very powerful: it was exactly Sri Aurobindos style and way of speaking, and very powerful. Now its only a vague impression, like a memory. But one always hasalways, in every case, even in the best conditions, even in a case like this one in which the formulation is given by Sri Aurobindo the sense of a shrinkage. A shrinkage in the sense that much escapes; its slightly hardened, weakened, diminished, and there are also certain subtleties that escape they escape, they evaporate, they are too subtle to be concretized in words. And if one had a will for a perfect expression, it would certainly be very disappointing. I quite understand; if you want your book to reach the peak of its perfection, its impossible. Its impossible to be realized, one feels the difference with whats up above and thats very disappointing.
I am constantly disappointed.
--
I can see that with the bodys cells: at times, for a few seconds or a few minutes (at the most a few hours, but not with physical things; with physical things, its always seconds and minutes), all of a sudden a sort of perfection manifestsand then it disappears. And you see very clearly that it cannot stay on because of a ceaseless invasion of everything around, which is imperfect. So then, its engulfed. Like the first day when the supramental forces descended [in 1956]: I saw them descend, you know, and I saw those great billows of earth forces going brrf! brrf! (gesture of rising and engulfing), and then it was all swallowed up. It was descending in awesome masses, but those billows were still more awesome, rising, brrf! and swallowing and That disappeared.
It still remains like that.
0 1967-02-18, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Once, very long ago, when Sri Aurobindo was telling me about himself, that is, of his childhood, his education, I put the question to him, I asked him, Why am I, as an individual being, so mediocre? I can do anything; all that I have tried to do I have done, but never in a superior way: always like this (gesture to an average level). Then he answered me (at the time I took it as a kindness or commiseration), Thats because it gives great supplenessa great suppleness and a vast scope; because those who have perfection are concentrated and specialized. As I said, I took it simply like a caress to comfort a child. But now I realize that the most important thing is not to have any fixity: nothing should be set, definitive, like the sense of a perfection in the realization that puts a total stop to the forward march. The sense of incapacity (with the meaning I said of mediocrity, of something by no means exceptional) leaves you in a sort of expectation (gesture of aspiration upward) of something better. And then, the most important thing is supplenesssuppleness, suppleness. Suppleness and breadth: reject nothing as useless or bad or inferiornothing; set nothing up as really superior and beautifulnothing. Remain ever open, ever open.
The ideal is to have this suppleness and receptivity and surrender, that is, so total an acceptance of the Influence that no matter what comes the instrument adapts itself instantly to express it naturally, spontaneously and effortlessly. With everything, of course: with the plastic arts, with music, with writing.
0 1967-04-05, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Only, one should have what I had when I was very young: the sense of material realization in its utmost perfection, the will for perfection THERE. One should have this in order not to fling everything out of the window and just remain like that (beatific gesture), like an idiot doing nothing. Its thanks to that old discipline that everything I do is automatically done with a will for perfection. Its an old discipline. Otherwise one would be there, laughing at everyone and everything, Have my experience, youll see what its worth!
Its really interesting.
--
Never scold, always understand, and, if the child is capable, explain. If he isnt capable of understanding an explanation (if you are yourself capable of it), replace the false vibration by a true one. But that thats asking of the teachers a perfection they rarely have.
But it would be very interesting to draw up a program for the teachers, and the real program for study, starting with the very small onesthey are so plastic and anything leaves such a deep stamp on them! If they were given a few drops of truth when they are very small, they would blossom out quite naturally as their being grows.
0 1967-04-15, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And precisely, there is a growing conviction that a perfection realized in Matter is a perfection that is FAR MORE perfect than anywhere else. Thats what gives it a stability it has nowhere else. If there is something somewhere (when there is a great offering and then a joyous self-giving, joyous surrender), if there is something that comes in with even the slightest self-interest for instance, a suffering in some little corner (a pain or disorder), which hopes for or wishes or expects some improvement then it gets caught like this (same gesture of nipping and wringing its neck) and its told, Oh, insincere one! Give yourself unconditionally. Then its magnificent.
Its very interesting.
0 1967-05-06, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
He even told me (I saw him), he even told me the vision that was at the origin of his cure. And it was really interesting. He said he saw it, as it were, almost with open eyes: everything was dark (it was in the night), the room was dark, he felt absolutely depressed, andit was a heart attackhad no more interest in anything, no more interest in life, and felt as if he was letting himself slip into death, just like that. Then, suddenly, he thought of me. Andhe says his eyes were open the whole room was dark, except for a sort of oval of light just in front of him. A quite dazzling oval of light, which remained. So he looked (he wasnt asleep), he looked to see what could be causing that light (he is sufficiently materialistic), but then, nothinghe realized there was nothing. Then he started watching that light, and he saw, rising from the bottom (he didnt know from where, couldnt see from where) like a flametwo small flamesof a very, very pale light, very bright. He found it interesting, and continued to watch. And all of a sudden, he saw in the light the shape of what he calls I think its Mahasaraswati (I forget which, but I think its Mahasaraswati: perfection in work), that he saw there, staying there. And at the same time he felt in himself, oh, a great desire to serve, to work well, to consecrate his life to the divine work, all that. And the next morning, when the doctors came they said, Oh, everything is changed!
Interesting.
0 1967-05-20, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The perception of that immense Wisdom, you know, total, carrying everythingin every detail, with all the conscious detailscarrying everything towards the future perfection (a growing perfection, always a future perfection): thats what saves you from being crushed, otherwise otherwise the contrast is a bit crushing.
These experiences always come after a great call in the cells, which feel their infirmity, their incapacity, their state which we might almost call a state of ignominy in comparison with the splendour we aspire to; the perception of the contradiction between what these cells are and what they aspire to be in order to be an expression of the Divine Its always following that that these experiences come as if to say, to show the road that has been travelled. But at this rate, between the road travelled and what remains to be travelled it will take a great deal of time yet.
0 1967-05-24, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The Divine is an absolute of perfection, eternal source of all that exists, whom we grow progressively conscious of, while being Him from all eternity.
Once, Amrita told me too that for him it was something simply unthinkable. So I answered him, No! That way doesnt help. Just think that the Divine is everything (to the fullest possible extent, of course), everything we want to become in our highest, most enlightened aspiration. All that we want to become thats the Divine. He was so happy! He told me, Oh, that way it becomes easy!
0 1967-06-24, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Well, yes, that is the whole story of human perfection.
We can call it what we like, of course. But a NEW BEING We can imagine, as you say, a new being coming down ready-made from start to finish! But thats soap opera.
0 1967-07-26, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And it was really the childlike transcription of the need for ever more, ever better, ever more, ever better endlessly the sense of advancing, advancing towards perfection. A perfection that I felt to be quite beyond anything people thought of something a something which was indefinable, but which I sought through everything.
So all that has come back to be sorted out, put in its place, offered (gesture upward), and now, its over.
0 1967-09-06, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You see one drop of That in its perfection, and all shadows disappearall disharmony disappears. It can only be in its perfection, in its essential purity.
It truly is all-powerfulness.
0 1967-11-10, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Never stop striving towards perfection.
***
0 1967-11-22, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
the harmonious perfection
needed to be Thy divine instruments upon earth.
0 1967-11-Prayers of the Consciousness of the Cells, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
the harmonious perfection
needed to be Thy divine instruments upon earth.
0 1967-12-06, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And its interesting because those two attitudes can be almost simultaneous, but they are From the standpoint of vibration, of vibratory sensation, they are two opposites that combine with each other: receptivity like this (gesture), towards the Consciousness, the Force, Power, Light, all, that comes from above, and naturally Love (but about Love I will speak later). And it comes (gesture of descent), it comes down and everything, everything is ab-so-lute-ly passive and receptive (gesture of vertical opening): it absorbs and absorbs and absorbs, like that, totally given, in the state of a sponge that absorbs and absorbs and absorbs. At the same time, there is the relationship with the world (horizontal gesture) and the Power coming through and working, with the sense of the Force, the Action, the Thing imposing itself. Its magnificent. And in the SAME vibratory radiance of of That. Always the same all-powerful perfection being absorbed and acting (gesture of flowing through Mother over the world in a perpetual movement).
That seems to be the secret of all-powerfulness. There is no need at all to go through mental knowledge that diminishes, shrinks, hardens.
0 1968-01-01, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Never stop striving towards perfection.
Mother
0 1968-02-03, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Mahasaraswati, the universal Mother in her aspect of knowledge and perfection in work.
***
0 1968-03-16, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This morning, there was an experience; it seemed an extraordinary revelation, and its something that was always known. So you mentalize it the moment you mentalize it, it becomes clear, but thats no longer it! You see, we say this creation is the creation of equilibrium,2 and that in fact it is mental error which makes us want to choose one thing and reject another that all things must be together: what we call good, what we call evil, what we call right and what we call wrong, what we find pleasant and what we find unpleasantall that must be together. And this morning, there was the discovery that through Separationthis Separation which has been described in all kinds of different ways, sometimes pictorially, sometimes simply in an abstract way, sometimes philosophically, sometimes all that is just explanations, but there is something, which probably is simply Objectification (Mother gestures as if to push the universe forward, out of the Nonmanifest) But thats still one way to explain. This so-called Separation, what is it exactly? We dont know (or perhaps we do, after all). It in fact created (to put it in colors) black and white, night and day (thats already more mixed but black and white too are mixed), its the tendency to create two poles: the pleasant or good thing, and the unpleasant or bad one. And as soon as you want to return to the Origin, the two tend to merge together again. And it is in perfect equilibrium, that is, where no division is possible anymore and the one has no influence over the other, where the two have become one again, its there that lies this famous perfection which we are trying to rediscover.
Rejection of the one and acceptance of the other is childishness. Its ignorance. All mental translations, like that of an Evil eternally evil, giving birth to the idea of hell, or that of a Good eternally good all that, all of it is childishness.
--
It may be (maybe, because as soon as you try to formulate, you mentalize, and as soon as you mentalize, it gets shrunk, diminished, limited, it loses the power of truth but anyway), it may be that in this universe as it is constituted, perfection is (Mother remains absorbed for a long time). It eludes words. We might put it this way (but its dry and lifeless): its the perception (is it only perception? Its not just perception; its neither perception nor knowledge nor awareness), its the awareness of the oneness of the wholea oneness perceived, lived, realized in the individual. But thats nothing, mere words. The universe seems to have been created to realize this paradox of the awareness of the whole, an awareness lived (not just perceived but lived) in every part, every element making up the whole.
So in order to give form to those elements, it all began with Separation, and it was Separation that gave birth to this division between what we call good and evil; but from the point of view of sensationsensation in the most material partwe may say its suffering and Ananda. And the movement is to put a stop to all separation and to realize the total consciousness in every part (which mentally speaking is absurd, but its like that).
0 1968-09-11, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You will see that your whole conception and notion [of heaven and hell] is based on one thing, an entity you call God, and a world you call his creation, which, to your mind, are two different thingsone having made the other, the latter being subjected to the former and the expression of what the former made. Well, thats the initial error. But if you could feel deep down that there is no division between that something you call God and that something you call the creation; if you thought, Its exactly the same thing, if you could FEEL that what you call God (which is perhaps a mere word), what you call God suffers when you suffer, is ignorant when you are ignorant, and it is through this whole creation that he finds himself again little by little, step by step, unites with himself, realizes himself, expresses himself, and its not at all something he willed arbitrarily and made autocratically, but it is the growing, increasingly developing expression of a consciousness that objectifies itself to itself Then, instead of being like a little child who kneels down, folds his hands and says, God, I implore You, make me a good boy, let me not cause my mother any sorrow (thats very easy and, well, I cant say its bad!), instead of lighting a candle and kneeling before it with folded hands, light a flame in your heart and have a great aspiration for something more beautiful, truer, nobler, better than anything I know; I ask that tomorrow I begin knowing all those things and begin doing all that I cannot doand every day a little more. Then, if you objectify a little, if for some reason you have been put in presence of a lot of misery in the world, if you have unhappy friends or suffering parents or difficultiesanything then you ask that the entire consciousness may rise TOGETHER towards that perfection which must manifest, that all this ignorance which has made the world so unhappy may be changed into enlightened knowledge, that all that bad will may be illumined and transformed into benevolence. And how lovely those prayers would be!
I remember that during those classes, on certain days I knew it was the psychic that spoke, and on other days it was only the mind. And that day, I remember, the psychic presence was very strong.
0 1968-10-26, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It wouldnt be general, it could only be partial. But it WILL be. Its part of the Plan. But the perfection of ONE realization depends on a total realization. There may be a certain quantum of realization, thats undeniable thats precisely what the supramental race will realize, obviously. Its obvious.
But I mean that if, now, through some miracle, ONE became luminously true, it would strike the rest of mankind so much that it would be turned back onto the path of TruthONE example.
0 1968-11-27, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its beginning to know the exact spot or function that isnt I cant say transformed, because thats quite a high-sounding word, but not in harmony with the others, and causing a disorder. Thats becoming a perception of every moment. When something apparently abnormal takes place, there is the understanding, the awareness of why it occurs and what it must be leading to: how an apparent disorder can lead to a greater perfection. Thats it. Its a tiny little beginning. But it has begun. The body is beginning to be a little conscious. And not only for itself alone, but for all others too, it has begun: seeing, perceiving how the Consciousness (with a capital C) acts in others. And in fact, at times (words lag WAY BEHIND the experience), there no longer is the perception of division: there is the perception of diversity (thats becoming very interesting) the diversity (if it werent for what we might call the latching on of separateness), the diversity that, in the true consciousness, would be perfectly harmonious and would make a whole that would be perfection itself (Mother makes a round gesture).
Its the latching onwhat happened? What happened?
0 1969-02-08, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
If everyone seriously worked to perfect himself, the perfection of the whole would automatically follow.
February 6, 1969
0 1969-04-23, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Michelia champaka, cream yellow ("Supramentalized Psychological perfection").
***
0 1969-04-30, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
That serpent, you know Why this vision suddenly? I dont know. I was in a state in which I was trying to establish a general harmonyprobably it was too limited or incomplete or And then that serpent came.1 You understand, the universe is the Lord manifested, and so for this body, anyhow, its perfection, but of course its unable to understand; and all of a sudden this serpent came, and came in such a way that the body said to itself, Well! Id never thought of that (which isnt true, of course). There are all the theories that explain evil as the action of adverse forces in the universe, but that seems quite childish. And as always it showed something VERY subtle in the play of forces (and how, to try and make it [evil] understood, the notion was born of a succession in time, which is absurdin other words, successive creations). And there was something very subtle to show that those poisoned fangs are a defense, not an attack; this consciousness gave proof that the poisoned fangs are a defense, because they existed AFTER the attack but how to explain that I dont know.
(Mother seems to gaze at a world of simultaneous things, and gropes for words)
0 1969-05-03, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The strange thing is that when you see things with this Consciousness, the perfection of the organization is so TREMENDOUS that you are youre almost terrified! Normally, when she went down to the bottom they should have noticed it immediately they would have brought her up and it would have been over (they know very well how to do that, nothing would have happened).
(silence)
0 1969-05-17, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Did he know it from a previous life, or? I dont know. Or else, he just didnt talk about it. Because the way he spoke, he didnt seem to know the secrets of yogic processes.5 It was done with a rare perfection. Three hours without stop, without flaggingthree hourscontinuous, continuous. Naturally, I was lying on my bed.
(silence)
0 1969-07-30, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But listen, yesterday, I saw a dozen young men and women who came, I think, from America (they were from various countries), and theyd asked to see me. I said, I am not keen to see them. But they had asked, and L. was moved to pity and brought them to me. Mon petit, if you knew how HOLLOW they were! Hollow, nothing but words. And what questions they asked me! What is responsibility? One of the girls asked me, Whats the Divine? (Theyre all ultramodern people, you know, much too intelligent to believe in any godhead! Theyre far above that.) She asked me with a derisive little air, Whats the Divine? So I looked at her (Mother looks hugely amused), and told her, The Divine is the perfection you have to realize.
I had some real fun! There was nothing more to be said. (Mother laughs)
0 1969-10-08, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
When the body is aware of that, then its fine. Its far from having reached perfectionto begin with, its I dont know if its being transformed, thats not visible, but at any rate its functioning depends on the higher Consciousness, it no longer depends on the ordinary mechanism (thats taking place gradually). Well, even in the middle of that, theres a sort of smiling trust as a result of which, even when theres some pain, some discomfort, it doesnt matterit doesnt matter. There is the sense of this Divine Presence, always, everywhere, every moment. That doesnt go away.
(silence)
0 1969-10-18, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And for the Force to be able to go through rapidly so as to reach the body, a GREAT passivity is needed. I can see that: every time there is a pressure so as to act on some part of the body or other, it always begins with an absolute passivity, which is the perfection of inertia, you understand? What inertia imperfectly representsits the perfection of that. Something with no activity of its ownwhich is VERY difficult precisely for those who have a great mental development, very difficult. Because its whole life long, the body has worked to be in that state of receptivity to the mind, and that state, which is what brought about its obedience, docility and so on, is what needs to be abolished.
How can I explain? The development through the mind is a constant and general awakening of the whole beingeven the most material beingan awakening as a result of which there is also something thats the opposite of sleep. But to receive the supreme Force, whats needed is, on the contrary, the equivalent of stillness the stillness of sleep, but an ABSOLUTELY CONSCIOUS sleep, absolutely conscious. The body feels the difference. It feels the difference to such a point that for example, at night I lie down and I am like that, for hours I remain like that, and if after a while I drop into ordinary sleep, my body wakes up with a dreadful anguish! Then it slowly goes back to that State. That anguish, I feel it from time to timeit goes away instantly as soon as the body recaptures the true attitude, which is a state of stillness, but absolutely conscious. Stillness, I dont know how to explain that. Its almost the opposite of inertia in stillness.
--
Thats what made the body understand (because now it understands) the process of the creation. We could almost say that it began with a state of perfection, but an unconscious perfection, and that the creation must pass from that state of unconscious perfection to a state of conscious perfection, and in between is im perfection.
Words are stupid, but you understand.
0 1969-10-29, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes. One doesnt know The body here is beginning to understand thoroughly that one must be like this (gesture upward). The one most important thing is to have ones consciousness CONSTANTLY turned towards towards the perfection we must manifest. Thats all.
With the understanding we have, its IMPOSSIBLE to know. Our vision is too small.
0 1969-11-15, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Striving towards the supreme perfection.
In order to live in Auroville, must one be a student of yoga?
0 1969-11-19, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
everything would be a perfection in movement.
Yes.
--
But whats difficult is the thought that every instant, it must be it IS perfection.
Yes, thats right.
Every instant, it is perfection.
Every instant theres nothing else! When it was there, there was nothing else.
0 1969-12-03, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
How to express that? What I lived was that there was NOTHING but this Consciousness; now its not a memory, it has stayed onit has stayed on, but its veiled, so it expresses itself THROUGH the usual consciousness which is there (gesture above the head). The usual consciousness is there. And this Consciousness really has an interesting effect on the body, because in this body, with the elements that were there, it has built a vital and a mind. Now Ive found that the body feels as it used to feel before, that is to say in full possession of its faculty But the mind and vital are no longer independent in the sense that they do as they likethey are under the complete control of the Consciousness. Then the body still has spots of timidity, but its beginning to recapture the state it was in before . Its a very slow and long work, but I dont know how long it will take, but once it reaches a certain perfection, the body will once again be capable of many things it had lost because of that [the departure of the mind and vital]. It wasnt a physical deterioration, thats what deprived it, and its beginning to slowly, slowly come back.
Well see.
0 1969-12-10, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Certainly, a great step will be taken when it becomes natural for man to seek to perfect himself instead of expecting perfection in others . That reversal is at the basis of all true progress. The first human instinct is, Its the fault of circumstances, its peoples fault, its See how this fellow is, how that fellow is, how And it goes on indefinitely. The FIRST STEP, the very first step is to say, If I were as I should be, or if the body were as it should be, all would be perfectly all right for it. If, to make progress, you wait for others to do so, you can wait indefinitely.
Thats the first thing that should be spread everywhere.
0 1969-12-20, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Do you know what it is? Its the divine psychological perfection. So someone asked me, Whats divine psychological perfection?A smile in any circumstance
Good . You know that I went to the Madras airport yesterday to bring my mother here. Every time, I really feel as if I had entered a world I dont know another world. Another world. Really, Ive never had in my life that impression to such a point, as if entering a nonhuman world, I dont know what world that islike a dream world, a world devoid of existence, false, empty.
0 1970-01-28, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Then we may discover that our splendid twentieth century was still the Stone Age of psychology, that with all our science we had not yet entered the true science of living, the mastery of the world and of ourselves, and that there open up before us horizons of perfection and harmony and beauty compared to which our superb discoveries are like the roughcasts of an apprentice.
Its very good, very good its magnificent. That really has a dynamic force.
0 1970-04-18, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But it gives indications (more and more often, day after day, experience after experience), indications of the extent to which the intervention of this Will (which we call divine Will) through the psychic (or even direct, it depends on the case), to what extent its all-powerful. And it exclusively depends on This Will is always active for perfect Harmonyyes, perfect Harmony as we can conceive it. There also, in this conception, there is the knowledge that that too will progress, that once that harmony is manifested, then the work will begin for another perfection, which for the moment eludes us. That, too, knows.
More and more, theres a sort of not exactly fusion [between the subtle physical and the material physical], but how should I put it? For everything to hold together, this way of being of the material consciousness continues (the material, physical consciousness), but in it a permeation takes place (it really is a permeation), which doesnt drive away the other, but at length, it will probably transform it. It doesnt drive it [the material consciousness] away, but its there and it dominatesat times it doesnt dominate, its the other one that does; and so, depending on the case it changes external circumstances (its hard to explain).
0 1970-07-18, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Mother takes another flower) This is a Psychological perfection. Its to find that [the power of truth in the subconscient].
Were preparing a book about flowers. There will be color photos of flowers, their significance, and a comment by me! They make me write a comment on every flower. So Im having fun! It will be interesting.
0 1970-10-17, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In The Synthesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo writes about the perfection of the lower mind, the psychic prana
Whats that?
0 1971-07-10, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The experience in the body is very interesting. All so-called moral, intellectual, psychological suffering, in other words, the suffering of the consciousness that is not purely material, seems childish to the body. Yesterday, it had (what shall I say? I dont know how to explain it). It doesnt feel things in relation to itself, it feels things (silence) IN others, but with a general consciousness, not a personal one; and it has such a horror of physical suffering, that is to say illnesses, accidents, that it wondered why, why the world exists like that.1 It then understood why some people dont want to have a body anymore (that always seemed absurd before), it understood why. It was such an intense experience! It had an aspiration, something like a prayer, but its not a prayer: May the world change! May the world change. It HAS to changeor else disappear. The idea of disappearing had not come before, it seemed it used to think that the world was moving towards a harmonious perfection; but, you see, its long the length of time is terrible! There was an aspiration of incredible intensity for the transformation. Everything looks so dreadful because because the transformation must, MUST take place. That anyone can be satisfied with a world like this is impossibleits impossible to a physical consciousness that is conscious of the Divine. Its impossible, it absolutely has to change. And that was so vivid I was gripped by it all night and all day, even while seeing people, with such an intensity: it must change, it must change.
The being, the inner consciousness can say and be conscious that that suffering is unreal, but the physical consciousness cantit cant, it HAS to change. Its not a matter of merging with a consciousness, leaving this physical consciousness to disappear: it has to change, it has to change. I cant put it into words, I cant say it.
0 1971-07-17, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And its spontaneous, its the idea of doing awaydoing away with the Falsehood. But if for a single second the Supreme Lord had that movement, there would be no more world! And so I think the body has understood that. I think it understood, it was extraordinary. What are we anyway! What are men! They think theyre, my God (Mother makes a gesture of puffing herself up), they think theyre oh! For the slightest will, or a slight comprehension, or when they make a slight effort for perfection, oh! (same gesture) they think theyre, they think theyre just extraordinary! (Mother takes her head in her hands and laughs.)
Somewhere Sri Aurobindo wrote that when you touched the Divine Consciousness, it suddenly gave you the sense of how laughable the world is in its self-conceitmens self-conceit. But even (Ive had contact with animals), even in animals it begins. Vanity, vanity, vanity, vanity.
0 1971-08-Undated, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The task of giving a concrete shape to Sri Aurobindos vision has been entrusted to the Mother. The creation of a new world, a new humanity, a new society, expressing and embodying the new consciousness, is the work undertaken by her. In the nature of things, it is a collective ideal calling for a collective effort to realize it in terms of an integral human perfection.
The Ashram, founded and built up by the Mother, has been the first step towards the fulfilment of this goal. The project of Auroville is the next step, more exterior, seeking to widen the base of this endeavor to establish harmony between soul and body, spirit and nature, heaven and earth in the collective life of humanity.
0 1971-09-04, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
People arent ready, mon petit! Every day I discover. Those who are left to their freedom are worthless. They have the most vulgar consciousness, its dreadfulno aspiration, no need for perfection, nothing at all.
As for me I this body does what it can. It cant do much. It tries it tries not to create any resistance. From time to timefrom time to timetheres something, a marvel, which lasts for a few seconds. But its (Mother nods her head). Either we have to manage to make this body more plastic so it can be transformed, or else it will be for another life.
0 1971-12-11, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
For the problem is fundamental. It is not a question of bringing a new philosophy to the world or new ideas or illuminations, as they are called. The question is not of making the Prison of our lives more habitable, or of endowing man with ever more fantastic powers. Armed with his microscopes and telescopes, the human gnome remains a gnome, pain-ridden and helpless. We send rockets to the moon, but we know nothing of our own hearts. It is a question, says Sri Aurobindo, of creating a new physical nature which is to be the habitation of the Supramental being in a new evolution.3 For, in actuality, he says, the im perfection of Man is not the last word of Nature, but his perfection too is not the last peak of the Spirit.4 Beyond the mental man we are, there exists the possibility of another being who will be the spearhead of evolution as man was once the spearhead of evolution among the great apes. If, says Sri Aurobindo, the animal is a living laboratory in which Nature has, it is said, worked out man, man himself may well be a thinking and living laboratory in whom and with whose conscious co-operation she wills to work out the superman, the god.5 Sri Aurobindo has come to tell us how to create this other being, this supramental being, and not only to tell us but actually to create this other being and open the path of the future, to hasten upon earth the rhythm of evolution, the new vibration that will replace the mental vibrationexactly as a thought one day disturbed the slow routine of the beastsand will give us the power to shatter the walls of our human prison.
Indeed, the prison is already starting to collapse. The end of a stage of evolution, announced by Sri Aurobindo, is usually marked by a powerful recrudescence of all that has to go out of the evolution.6 Everywhere about us we see this paroxysmal shattering of all the old forms: our borders, our churches, our laws, our morals are collapsing on all sides. They are not collapsing because we are bad, immoral, irreligious, or because we are not sufficiently rational, scientific or human, but because we have come to the end of the human! To the end of the old mechanism for we are on our way to SOMETHING ELSE. The world is not going through a moral crisis but through an evolutionary crisis. We are not going towards a better worldnor, for that matter, towards a worse onewe are in the midst of a MUTATION to a radically different world, as different as the human world was from the ape world of the Tertiary Era. We are entering a new era, a supramental Quinary. We leave our countries, wander aimlessly, we go looking for drugs, for adventure, we go on strike here, enact reforms there, foment revolutions and counterrevolutions. But all this is only an appearance; in fact, unwittingly, we are looking for the new being. We are in the midst of human evolution.
And Sri Aurobindo gives us the key. It may be that the sense of our own revolution escapes us because we try to prolong that which already exists, to refine it, improve it, sublimate it. But the ape may have made the same mistake amid its revolution that produced man; perhaps it sought to become a super-ape, better equipped to climb trees, hunt and run, a more agile and clever ape. With Nietzsche we too sought a superman who was nothing more than a colossalization of man, and with the spiritualists a super-saint more richly endowed with virtue and wisdom. But human virtue and wisdom are useless! Even when carried to their highest heights they are nothing more than the old poverties gilded over, the obverse of our tenacious misery. Supermanhood, says Sri Aurobindo, is not man climbed to his own natural zenith, not a superior degree of human greatness, knowledge, power, intelligence, will, genius, saintliness, love, purity or perfection.7 It is SOMETHING ELSE, another vibration of being, another consciousness.
But if this new consciousness is not to be found on the peaks of the human, where then, are we to find it? Perhaps, quite simply in that which we have most neglected since we entered the mental cycle, in the body. The body is our base, our evolutionary foundation, the old stock to which we always return, and which painfully compels our attention by making us suffer, age and die. In that im perfection, Sri Aurobindo assures us, is the urge towards a higher and more many-sided perfection. It contains the last finite which yet yearns to the Supreme Infinite. God is pent in the mire but the very fact imposes a necessity to break through that prison.8 That is the old, uncured Illness, the unchanged root, the dark matrix of our misery, hardly different now from what it was in the time of Lemuria. It is this physical substance which we must transform, otherwise it will topple, one after another, all the human or superhuman devices we try to graft on it. This body, this physical cellular substance contains almighty powers,9 a dumb consciousness that harbors all the lights and all the infinitudes, just as much as the mental and spiritual immensities do. For, in truth, all is Divine and unless the Lord of all the universe resides in a single little cell he resides nowhere. It is this original, dark cellular Prison which we must break open; for as long as we have not broken it, we will continue to turn vainly in the golden or iron circles of our mental prison. These laws of Nature, says Sri Aurobindo, that you call absolute merely mean an equilibrium established to work in order to produce certain results. But, if you change the consciousness, then the groove also is bound to change.10
Such is the new adventure to which Sri Aurobindo invites us, an adventure into mans unknown. Whether we like it or not, the whole earth is moving into a new groove, but why shouldnt we like it? Why shouldnt we collaborate in this great, unprecedented adventure? Why shouldnt we collaborate in our own evolution, instead of repeating endlessly the same old story, instead of chasing hallucinatory paradises which will never quench our thirst or otherworldly paradises which leave the earth to rot along with our bodies? Why be born if it is to get out at the end? exclaims the Mother, who continues Sri Aurobindos work. What is the use of having struggled so much, suffered so much, of having created something which, in its outer appearance at least, is so tragic and dramatic, if it is only to learn how to get out of itit would have been better not to start at all. Evolution is not a tortuous course that brings us back, somewhat battered, to the starting point. Quite the contrary, it is meant, says Mother, to teach the whole of creation the joy of being, the beauty of being, the grandeur of being, the majesty of a sublime life, and the perpetual development, perpetually progressive, of this joy, this beauty, this grandeur. Then everything has a meaning.11
0 1972-01-12, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The result of creation is a detailed multiplication of consciousness. When the vision of the whole and the vision of all the details join together within an active consciousness, the creation will have attained its progressive perfection.
Progressive means (expanding gesture). No word, no image can convey the experience. It was a real comprehension, a real vision of the thing. This (Mother points to her note) seems hollow in comparison. To use a very childlike metaphor, its as if the creation unfolded on a screen, were projected on a screen. Or rather, the Supreme Consciousness is projecting itself on a sort of infinite screen.
--
Mother later added the following clarification to her note: "No two consciousnesses are alike among human beings in time and space. The total sum of all these consciousnesses is a partial and diminished manifestation of the Divine Consciousness. That is why I said 'progressive perfection,' because the manifestation of the consciousness of details is infinite and will never end."
***
0 1972-02-23, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Supreme Lord, perfection we must become, perfection we must manifest.
This body lives only by You and says to You over and over again:
0 1972-03-29a, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I think I am correctly interpreting the feeling of my young Indian friends when I say that they see the heroes of your novels as raw mystics, to use Claudels description of Rimbaud. This may seem a surprising attri bute, considering your heroes atheism, but that is because we have too often confused mysticism or spirituality with religion, as Sri Aurobindo stresses. One need not believe in a personal, extracosmic God to be a mystic. (That is certainly why religion has from time to time taken upon itself to bum alive all the non-regular mystics.) Here we touch upon a huge confusion rooted in religions. Through their monks, sannyasins and ascetics, religions have shown us a purely contemplative, austere and lifeless side of mysticismindeed those mystics, like the religions they practice, live in a negation of life; they go through this vale of tears with their eyes exclusively fixed on the Beyond. But true mysticism is not so limited as that, it seeks to transform life, to reveal the Absolute hidden in it; it seeks to establish the kingdom of God in man, as Sri Aurobindo wrote, and not the kingdom of a Pope, clergy or sacerdotal class. If the modem world lives in conflict and anguish, if it is torn between being and doing, it is because religion has driven away God from this world, severed him from his creation and flung him back to some distant heaven or empty nirvana, thus denying any possibility of human perfection on this earth and digging an unbridgeable gulf between being and doing, between mystics sunk in their dreams and this world abandoned to the forces of evil, to Satan and all those who consent to get their hands dirty.
That contradiction is powerfully expressed in your books, it is striking to my Indian students. And they are surprised, for the urge to do something at all coststo do anything at all, as long as we do something, as one often hears in Europewithout this action being based on a being which it expresses and of which it is but the material translation, appears to them a strange attitude. Neither the despair, the silence or the revolt, nor the absurd pointlessness that sometimes surrounds the death of many of your heroes escape them. They feel that your heroes flee from themselves rather than express themselves. This torment between being and doing can be found in each one of them. They have apparently renounced to be something in order to do something, as one character stresses in Hope, but are they not desperately seeking to be through their actions, a being that they will capture only as time is abolished, in death? The same obsession seems to run through each of them: from Perken, who wants to leave his scar on the map, to outlive himself through twenty tribes, who fights against time as one fights against cancer, to Tchen, who shuts himself in the world of terrorism: an eternal world where time does not exist, and to Katow, who whispers to himself, O prisons, where time stops. In that respect, these characters clearly symbolize the impotence of a religion that has not been able to give the earth its meaning and plenitude.
0 1972-04-04, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In a general and absolute way, difficulties are ALWAYS graces. And due to (how can I put it?) human weakness they fail to be helpful. Difficulties are ALWAYS graces. I have been on earth for quite a while this time and alwaysalways, always, always, without a single exception I have seen in the end that difficulties are nothing but graces. I can neither feel nor see things otherwise because it has been my experience all my life. I might be upset at first and say, How come, I am full of goodwill, yet difficulties keep piling up. But afterwards, I could have simply given myself a slap: Silly you! Its just to bring more perfection to your character and the work! There.
(silence)
0 1972-04-05, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The battery of droning fans, the huge crowd, the glaring lights reflected on the zinc ceiling. Her little white figure, which seemed to be absorbed in a powerful, almost fierce concentration. Scream? Scream what? To WHOM? Could my screams bring her back to her room? Were they going to cancel their messages and prepared statements? There was no one to listen. They had arranged everything to perfection. There was not a single dissenting voice. The collusion was total.
See Agenda VIII, August 2, 1967.
0 1972-07-19, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its full of the very word is full of deception. Its not that way, its. WE AREWe are the Divine who has forgotten Himself. And our task, the task is to reestablish the connectioncall it by any name you like, it doesnt matter. Its the perfection we must become, thats all.
The perfection, the Power, the Knowledge we must become, thats all. Call it what you like, it doesnt matter to me. Thats the aspiration we must have. We must get out of this mire, this stupidity, this unconsciousness, this disgusting defeatism that crushes us because we allow ourselves to be crushed.
And we fear. We fear for its life (Mother touches the skin of her hands), for this thing, as if it were precious, because we want to stay conscious. But lets unite with the Supreme Consciousness, and well stay conscious forever! Thats IT, thats exactly it.
0 1972-07-22, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I cant explain it in words, you wouldnt understand. I dont even know how to express it. I just know that even mistakes (what we call mistakes) and difficulties are the result of the manifestation of the divine Consciousness helping us to progress towards the future perfection through (whats the word?) through continuous molding. Thats what I see. And thats why.
(Satprem, aside to Andr:) We mustnt be afraid of making mistakes.
02.01 - The World-Stair, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Brought notes of some perfection yet unseen,
Its single retreat into Truth's secrecies,
02.01 - The World War, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The Asura triumphs everywhere for a while because his power is well-built, perfectly organised. Human power is constituted differently and acts differently; it is full of faults and flaws to start with and for a long time. There is no gap anywhere in the power of the Asura, no tear or stitchit is streamlined, solid, of one piece; it is perfection itself in its own kind once for all. Man's being is made up of conflicts and contradictions; he moves step by step, slowly and laboriously, through gradual purification; he grows through endeavour and struggle. Man triumphs over the Asura only in so far as he moulds himself in the ways of the divine power. But in the world, the Divine and his powers remain behind, because the field of actuality in front is still the domain of the Asura. The outer field, the gross vehiclebody and life and mindall this is constituted by Ignorance and Falsehood; so the Asura can always establish there his influence and hold sway and has actually done so. Man becomes easily an instrument of the Asura, though often unwittingly; the earth is naturally in the firm grasp of the Asura. For the gods to conquer the earth, to establish their rule in the earth consciousness requires labour and endeavour and time.
No doubt, the violences indulged by men in older times, especially when they acted in groups and packs, were often inflamed and inspired by an Asuric influence. But today it must be clearly seen and recognised that it is the Asura himself with the whole band of his army that has descended upon the earth; they have possessed a powerfully organised human collectivity, shaped it in their mould, using it to complete their conquest of mankind and consolidate their definitive reign upon earth.
As we see it we believe that the whole future of mankind, the entire value of earthly life depends upon the issue of the present deadly combat. The path that man has followed so long tended steadily towards progress and evolutionhow-ever slow his steps, however burdened with doubt and faintness his mind and heart in the ascent. But now the crucial parting of the ways looms before him. The question is, will the path of progress be closed to him for ever, will he be compelled to revert to a former unregenerate state or even something worse I than that? Or will he remain free to follow that path, rise gradually and infallibly towards perfection, towards a purer, I fuller, higher and vaster luminous life? Will man come down' to live the life of a blind helpless slave under the clutches of I the Asura or even altogether lose his soul and become the legendary demon who carries no head but only a decapitated trunk?
We believe that the war of today is a war between the Asura and men, human instruments of the gods. Man certainly is a weaker vessel in comparison with the Asuraon this material plane of ours; but in man dwells the Divine and against the divine force and might, no asuric power can ultimately prevail. The human being who has stood against the Asura has by that very act sided with the gods and received the support and benediction of the Divine. The more we become conscious about the nature of this war and consciously take the side of the progressive force, of the divine force supporting it, the more will the Asura be driven to retire, his power diminished, his hold relaxed. But if through ignorance and blind passion, through narrow vision and obscurant prejudice we fail to distinguish the right from the wrong side, the dexter from the sinister, surely we shall invite upon mankind utter misery and desolation. It will be nothing less than a betrayal of the Divine Cause.
02.02 - The Kingdom of Subtle Matter, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
This is the law of all perfection here.
A fragment here is caught of heaven's design;
--
Some trait of the perfection of the Unborn,
Some vision seen in the omniscient Light,
--
Achieve perfection by the magic throb
And passion of their close identity.
--
There liberty is perfection's guarantee:
Although the absolute Image lacks, the Word
--
Intact it lives of its perfection sure
In a heaven-pleased self-glad immunity;
02.03 - The Glory and the Fall of Life, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Each act was a perfection and a joy.
Abandoned to her rapid fancy's moods
02.06 - The Integral Yoga and Other Yogas, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Truth Purusha (supramental) and the Bliss Purusha; it says that one has to draw the physical self up into the vital, the vital into the mental, the mental into the Truth Self, the Truth Self into the Bliss Self and so attain perfection. But in this Yoga we become aware not only of this taking up but of a pouring down of the powers of the higher Self, so that there comes in the possibility of a descent of the Supramental Self and nature to dominate and change our present nature and turn it from nature of Ignorance into nature of Truth-Knowledge (and through the supramental into nature of Ananda) - this is the third or supramental transformation. It does not always go in this order, for with many the spiritual descent begins first in an imperfect way before the psychic is in front and in charge, but the psychic development has to be attained before a perfect and unhampered spiritual descent can take place, and the last or supramental change is impossible so long as the two first have not become full and complete. That's the whole matter, put as briefly as possible.
--- Overview of noun perfection
The noun perfection has 3 senses (first 1 from tagged texts)
1. (7) perfection, flawlessness, ne plus ultra ::: (the state of being without a flaw or defect)
2. paragon, idol, perfection, beau ideal ::: (an ideal instance; a perfect embodiment of a concept)
3. perfection ::: (the act of making something perfect)
--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun perfection
3 senses of perfection
Sense 1
perfection, flawlessness, ne plus ultra
=> state
=> attribute
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 2
paragon, idol, perfection, beau ideal
=> ideal
=> idea, thought
=> content, cognitive content, mental object
=> cognition, knowledge, noesis
=> psychological feature
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 3
perfection
=> improvement
=> change of state
=> change
=> action
=> act, deed, human action, human activity
=> event
=> psychological feature
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
--- Hyponyms of noun perfection
2 of 3 senses of perfection
Sense 1
perfection, flawlessness, ne plus ultra
=> dream
=> polish, refinement, culture, cultivation, finish
=> fare-thee-well
=> intactness
Sense 2
paragon, idol, perfection, beau ideal
=> gold standard
--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun perfection
3 senses of perfection
Sense 1
perfection, flawlessness, ne plus ultra
=> state
Sense 2
paragon, idol, perfection, beau ideal
=> ideal
Sense 3
perfection
=> improvement
--- Coordinate Terms (sisters) of noun perfection
3 senses of perfection
Sense 1
perfection, flawlessness, ne plus ultra
-> state
=> feeling
=> skillfulness
=> cleavage
=> medium
=> ornamentation
=> condition
=> condition, status
=> conditionality
=> ground state
=> nationhood
=> situation, state of affairs
=> relationship
=> relationship
=> tribalism
=> utopia
=> dystopia
=> wild, natural state, state of nature
=> isomerism
=> degree, level, stage, point
=> office, power
=> status, position
=> being, beingness, existence
=> nonbeing
=> death
=> employment, employ
=> unemployment
=> order
=> disorder
=> hostility, enmity, antagonism
=> conflict
=> illumination
=> freedom
=> representation, delegacy, agency
=> dependence, dependance, dependency
=> motion
=> motionlessness, stillness, lifelessness
=> dead letter, non-issue
=> action, activity, activeness
=> inaction, inactivity, inactiveness
=> temporary state
=> imminence, imminency, imminentness, impendence, impendency, forthcomingness
=> readiness, preparedness, preparation
=> flux, state of flux
=> kalemia
=> enlargement
=> separation
=> union, unification
=> maturity, matureness
=> immaturity, immatureness
=> grace, saving grace, state of grace
=> damnation, eternal damnation
=> omniscience
=> omnipotence
=> perfection, flawlessness, ne plus ultra
=> integrity, unity, wholeness
=> imperfection, imperfectness
=> receivership
=> ownership
=> obligation
=> end, destruction, death
=> revocation, annulment
=> merchantability
=> turgor
=> homozygosity
=> heterozygosity
=> neotony
=> plurality
=> polyvalence, polyvalency
=> polyvalence, polyvalency, multivalence, multivalency
=> paternity
=> utilization
Sense 2
paragon, idol, perfection, beau ideal
-> ideal
=> value
=> paragon, idol, perfection, beau ideal
=> criterion, standard
=> exemplar, example, model, good example
=> ego ideal
Sense 3
perfection
-> improvement
=> tenderization, tenderisation
=> development
=> cleaning, cleansing, cleanup
=> correction, rectification
=> optimization, optimisation
=> perfection
=> reform
=> amelioration, melioration, betterment
=> self-improvement, self-reformation
=> clearing, clarification
=> enrichment
=> humanization, humanisation
=> modernization, modernisation
=> renovation, redevelopment, overhaul
=> enhancement, sweetening
=> upturn
=> ventilation, airing
=> repair, fix, fixing, fixture, mend, mending, reparation
=> stabilization, stabilisation
=> upgrade
--- Grep of noun perfection
imperfection
perfection
perfectionism
perfectionist
Wikipedia - Cheer Perfection -- American reality television series
Wikipedia - Christian Perfection
Wikipedia - Christian perfection -- Various teachings within Christianity that describe the process of achieving spiritual maturity or perfection
Wikipedia - Class of perfection -- an advanced ballet class
Wikipedia - Coma (optics) -- Aberration inherent to certain optical designs or due to imperfection in the lens
Wikipedia - Great Perfection
Wikipedia - Kesh (Sikhism) -- Religious practice; in Sikhism the practice of allowing one's hair to grow naturally out of respect for the perfection of God's creation
Wikipedia - Mahasiddha -- Someone who embodies and cultivates the "siddhi of perfection"
Wikipedia - Moral perfectionism
Wikipedia - No One Can Achieve Perfection -- 2008 film by Katrin Ottarsdottir
Wikipedia - Perfection (board game)
Wikipedia - Perfectionism (philosophy)
Wikipedia - Perfectionism (psychology) -- Personality trait characterized by a person's striving for flawlessness and setting high performance standards
Wikipedia - Perfection of Christ -- Assertion that Christ's human attributes exemplified perfection in every possible sense
Wikipedia - Perfection
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Wikipedia - Prix Six Perfections -- Flat horse race in France
Wikipedia - Six Perfections
Wikipedia - Summa perfectionis
Wikipedia - The Perfection -- 2018 film by Richard Shepard
Wikipedia - The Way of Perfection
Wikipedia - Tremors 3: Back to Perfection -- 2001 American monster film by Brent Maddock
Wikipedia - Way of Perfection
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Perfection Meditation
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selforum - to expand and grow towards perfection
selforum - outbreak of perfections law
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Mobile Suit Gundam Wing (1995 - 1996) - It is the year After Colony 195, and war between the Space Colonies and Earth has begun. To give the colonies an edge, they send 5 young soldiers, trained to perfection, to earth in the most powerful of Mobile Suits-Gundams. With their arrival, the tide of the war changes as they battle against the...
St. Elsewhere (1982 - 1988) - This hour-long dramatic series featured life at St. Eligius Hospital, headed by Drs. Donald Westphall and Daniel Auschlander. Every year, new residents would walk down the halls of St. Eligius; learning to deal with perfectionist Cardiovascular Surgeon Mark Craig was only the beginning of the way th...
His and Her Circumstances (1998 - 1999) - Miyazawa Yukino is the perfect student. Kind, intelligent, pretty and modest, it's unbelievable that such a person could exist. Little did everyone know Yukino's perfection was just a facade. An act to fulfill her desire for praise and admiration. Her life took a turn however, as a newcomer to their...
Rope(1948) - Two young men strangle their "inferior" classmate, hide his body in their apartment, and invite his friends and family to a dinner party as a means to challenge the "perfection" of their crime.
Brave New World ::: TV-MA | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller | TV Series (2020) -- In a utopia whose perfection hinges upon control of monogamy and privacy, members of the collective begin to question the rules, putting their regimented society on a collision course with forbidden love and revolution. Creators:
Cheer ::: TV-MA | 5h 55min | Documentary, Reality-TV | TV Series (2020) -- In the small town of Corsicana, Texas, hard-driving head cheer coach Monica Aldama demands perfection from her team of competitive college athletes. Stars:
Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto ::: Sakamoto desu ga? (original tit ::: TV-14 | 24min | Animation, Comedy | TV Series (2016- ) Episode Guide 13 episodes Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto Poster -- Sakamoto is a genius who is well liked by both girls and boys. Despite the strange situations he may be in, Sakamoto always manages to fix the problem in absolute perfection while still being over the top. Stars:
May (2002) ::: 6.6/10 -- R | 1h 33min | Comedy, Drama, Horror | 11 April 2003 (Denmark) -- A socially awkward veterinary assistant with a lazy eye and obsession with perfection descends into depravity after developing a crush on a boy with perfect hands. Director: Lucky McKee Writer:
Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists ::: TV-14 | 45min | Crime, Drama, Mystery | TV Series (2019) -- Everything about the town of Beacon Heights seems perfect, but in the aftermath of the town's first murder, behind every Perfectionist hides secrets, lies and much needed alibies. Creator:
The Pink Panther (1963) ::: 7.1/10 -- Approved | 1h 55min | Comedy, Crime, Romance | 18 March 1964 (USA) -- The bumbling Inspector Clouseau travels to Rome to catch a notorious jewel thief known as "The Phantom" before he conducts his most daring heist yet: a princess' priceless diamond with one slight imperfection, known as "The Pink Panther". Director: Blake Edwards Writers:
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Love Lab -- -- Doga Kobo -- 13 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Romance School -- Love Lab Love Lab -- At Fujisaki Girls Academy, student council president Natsuo Maki is the epitome of grace and perfection, admired by all the young girls who attend the school. One day, Riko Kurahashi walks into the student council room on an errand, only to discover Natsuo practicing her kissing techniques on a pillow, an act that is neither graceful nor elegant. Riko soon discovers that Natsuo desires more romance in her life, leading her to practice "romantic situations" in secret. -- -- Sympathizing with her, Riko agrees to help Natsuo with her love research. Named "Love Lab," the project practices the essentials of love and romance, such as bumping into each other "accidentally" and holding hands. Soon, the entire student council joins in on the fun in the Love Lab too! Through their research and real life encounters, what will they learn about romance? -- -- Weaving together funny characters and comedic situations, Love Lab builds a story of friendship and romance, while never missing a beat with the laughter. -- -- 164,263 7.35
Macross Plus -- -- Triangle Staff -- 4 eps -- Original -- Drama Mecha Military Romance Sci-Fi Space -- Macross Plus Macross Plus -- The year is 2040 and the galaxy is flourishing with several colonies and advanced technology. AI is near perfection and the current top idol is the near-completed Virturoid Idol Sharon Apple. All that is missing are her actual feelings, which instead are supplied by Myung Fang Lone. Sharon's debut concert is on planet Eden, where at the same time, fighter pilots Isamu Dyson and Guld Bowman battle over air superiority for the "Supernova Project." Isamu, Guld and Myung were once childhood friends, but after an accident seven years ago, they went their own separate ways. With Myung back in the picture, the old disputes are once again awakened. And when an unstable and illegal AI technique is installed in Sharon, the situation is worsened. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- Manga Entertainment -- OVA - Aug 25, 1994 -- 38,471 7.72
Nodame Cantabile -- -- J.C.Staff -- 23 eps -- Manga -- Music Slice of Life Comedy Drama Romance Josei -- Nodame Cantabile Nodame Cantabile -- Shinichi Chiaki is a first class musician whose dream is to play among the elites in Europe. Coming from a distinguished family, he is an infamous perfectionist—not only is he highly critical of himself, but of others as well. The only thing stopping Shinichi from leaving for Europe is his fear of flying. As a result, he's grounded in Japan. -- -- During his fourth year at Japan's top music university, Shinichi happens to meet Megumi Noda or, as she refers to herself, Nodame. On the surface, she seems to be an unkempt girl with no direction in life. However, when Shinichi hears Nodame play the piano for the first time, he is in awe of the kind of music she creates. Nevertheless, Shinichi is dismayed to discover that Nodame is his neighbor, and worse, she ends up falling head over heels in love with him. -- -- TV - Jan 12, 2007 -- 267,029 8.31
Oni-Tensei -- -- - -- 4 eps -- Original -- Hentai Horror Supernatural -- Oni-Tensei Oni-Tensei -- There is an ancient legend that says if a tattoo is drawn to perfection, it will come to life. Reiko Kure is a female detective with a strange massacre on her hands. Some kind of huge animal savagely murdered thirteen members of the mafia, and only the quiet Ema Nozomi was left at the scene. Ema is taken into protective custody. However, every man left with her is killed, and every woman left with her is raped. There are no clues, except the innocent Ema's strange tattoo, perfectly depicting a demon. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- Media Blasters -- OVA - Mar 25, 2000 -- 2,482 6.16
Phantasy Star Online 2 The Animation -- -- Telecom Animation Film -- 12 eps -- Game -- Action Game Sci-Fi School -- Phantasy Star Online 2 The Animation Phantasy Star Online 2 The Animation -- In the year 2027, the video game Phantasy Star Online 2 is all the rage at Seiga Academy. Every student is on board the fad—except for Itsuki Tachibana, a well-rounded student who doesn't play video games. Due to its popularity, the game is currently under review at Seiga Academy to see if it has a negative impact on the students. Consequently, this causes Itsuki to catch the attention of Rina Izumi, the perfectionist student council president who aims to prove that the game is not to blame. -- -- To accomplish her objective, Rina recruits Itsuki as the student council vice president and tasks him with learning to play the game while keeping his grades up. Now obliged to report his daily findings of the game to Rina and analyze its merits, Itsuki carries the fate of Phantasy Star Online 2 in his hands. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Sentai Filmworks -- 59,993 6.34
Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei -- -- Shaft -- 13 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Parody School Shounen -- Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei -- More crazy antics abound as Nozomu Itoshiki (a.k.a Zetsubou-sensei), who is the worlds most negative person, tries to teach class 2-F about how life is filled with despair and darkness. A harder task than it first may seem, with his students being far from ordinary themselves, including the likes of the most positive girl he has ever met, his very own stalker, a foreign exchange student with split personalities and a perfectionist acting class president, due to the fact the real class president can't be seen by anyone, among others. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- TV - Jan 6, 2008 -- 114,047 7.92
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Aesthetic Perfection
American Standard of Perfection
An Imperfection
Capital market imperfections
Cee-Lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections
Cheer Perfection
Christian perfection
Close to Perfection
Death to Perfection
Geometrically and materially nonlinear analysis with imperfections included
Gospel of Perfection
Grande tude de perfectionnement
Hyperdimension Neptunia: Producing Perfection
Imperfections (song)
Imperfection (Star Trek: Voyager)
No Tolerance for Imperfection
Perfect Imperfection
Perfect Imperfection (film)
Perfection
Perfection and Failure
Perfection (board game)
Perfection (disambiguation)
Perfectionism
Perfectionism (philosophy)
Perfectionism (psychology)
Perfectionist (album)
Perfection of Christ
Perfection (Sandra Bernhard EP)
Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists
Self-existing Perfection
Striving for the Lazy Perfection
The Perfectionists
The Standard of Perfection: Show Cats
Tillandsia 'Impression Perfection'
Tremors 3: Back to Perfection
Way of Perfection
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